To Hell and Back (11 page)

“Thanks for everything,” I replied with a counterfeit smile. “But I’m not going to take my chances where Alaire and an infraction are concerned.”

“Lass,” he started, but I was quick to interrupt him.

“Everything will be fine, Tallis,” I said, trying to convince myself as well. “As soon as my dinner with Alaire is over, I’ll return to Edinburgh and wait for my next mission from Jason.”

Pretty soon this whole conversation will be no more than a thing of the past, just like my dinner with Alaire
, I told myself, hoping and praying my words would prove to be correct.

“If ye insist oan goin’ tae meet Alaire,” Tallis persisted, clearly not interested in anymore debate, “then Ah am goin’ wif ye.”

I imagined Tallis showing up at my dinner with Alaire for a split second before deciding it would be a very, very bad idea. “You can’t do that,” I answered in a hushed tone. “You know how that well that would go over.”

“Ah dinnae care.”

I opened my mouth to argue why Tallis crashing my dinner with Alaire would be a terrible idea when I noticed his gaze moving to something behind me. I turned around and saw a whitish haze materializing in the trees just behind and to the right of me. I glanced back at Tallis in question, but he didn’t spare a glimpse at me. Instead, his attention remained riveted on the mist. I turned around again and watched the white fog morphing into the shape of a woman—at least, I could make out the details of her angular face and long, plaited hair. As to the rest of her body, it never quite revealed itself.

“She must be the shade,” I said in a quiet, albeit awestruck voice.

As soon as I uttered the words, I realized my mistake. Tallis would have absolutely known why this shade had appeared.

“Nae, lass!” I heard him yell. I immediately looked back at him only to find him lurching for me, his hands outstretched and fully intent on grabbing me. But the shade behind me must have rushed me at the same time because I was suddenly engulfed in freezing cold air. I felt a blast of wind on my face and instinctively closed my eyes.

When I opened them, I was no longer standing in front of Tallis’s cabin.

***

It wasn’t so much that the shade led me to a shortcut as it was that she was the shortcut, herself. By enveloping me in her cold mist, we both managed to travel ghost-fast, which was exactly that—fast. Every fifteen minutes or so, the shade released me from her vaporous embrace and allowed me to catch my breath. After a good five minutes, my respiration and heart rate returned to normal; and then, without a word, she again enclosed me in her ectoplasm and we’d be off again, traveling as quickly as the wind.

The shade never uttered one word, making it a quiet journey. But I was so enveloped in my own thoughts, which were mainly centered on Tallis, that I welcomed the silence. Unlike most of the creatures from the Underground City, the shade was not at all frightening. She looked like a reflection from a pool of water—constantly undulating. She was also the color of the sky—a light blue, almost appearing clear at times. The lines of her face and body weren’t precise, but well enough defined for me to imagine she was probably in her late twenties when she’d died. That is, if she’d died. I didn’t really know much about shades, so I wasn’t sure if she was actually alive at some point or not. She seemed nice enough—never becoming impatient despite the customary five minutes I needed to prevent our high-speed traveling from doing permanent damage to my heart.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this brand of traveling must have been pretty tough on my body in general. The shade probably knew that too, because she was the one who always made sure we rested between bursts of incredible speed.

While we traveled, I could still see the scenery around us, although it disappeared into a blur of color. It was like looking out a car window when you’re driving ridiculously fast. And speaking of fast, it took us mere seconds to get out of Tallis’s section of the Dark Wood which boasted of sunshine and verdant foliage. Then we were ensconced in the dead section of the Dark Wood, which consisted only of darkness. Whenever we rested in that part of the Dark Wood, the shade placed herself as close to me as possible while swirling around me like a ghostly tornado. I figured that was because she worried the creatures in the haunted forest might decide to make a meal of me. Not to say that subject didn’t worry me too …

After what felt like our twentieth rest stop, the shade snaked around me for the umpteenth time. I caught my breath before she dissolved into me again, surrounding me with icy coldness. I closed my eyes, shutting out the darkness of the woods. I preferred the privacy of my own thoughts because they were much less dark and foreboding than the forest, itself.

A few seconds later, I felt cold air rushing past my face, which meant we were airborne again. I could never tell if we were actually flying. The darkness obscured any chance to see exactly what our, er,
my
feet were doing. But it felt like flying so I was happy to go with it.

As soon as I closed my eyes, my thoughts again returned to Tallis. I recalled the memory of him standing in his home with his arms crossed over his chest, looking, for all intents and purposes, like a terribly upset Zeus. It was a good comparison, since everything about Tallis evoked the King of the Gods, including his temper. And I was more than sure that if Tallis had gotten the chance, he would have gladly snatched a thunderbolt from the nearest cloud and driven it right through Alaire’s heart.

The wind on my face began to abate, which meant the shade was about to give me another rest break. Since we hadn’t been traveling for very long, I opened my eyes, but only found darkness all around me again. Then the shade turned us both to the right, and I found myself facing the gates of the Underground City.

“Wow, that was fast,” I said, shock evident in my tone.

The shade, as usual, didn’t respond. Instead, she extended her hand toward me. It looked like she was wearing some sort of long-sleeved dress or robe. I could clearly see the outlines of the cuffs, which hung all the way down to her fingers. One hand was clutched around some sort of a vial. The vial appeared to be real rather than part of her ectoplasm because I couldn’t see through it. I could clearly make out that it was constructed from some sort of black material, maybe plastic. There was a red band around the middle. I didn’t take the vial right away, so the shade nudged me with her hand.

I eventually accepted the vial and glanced down at it quizzically because I’d never seen it before. With no idea as to why she gave the vial to me in the first place, much less what its contents were, I looked up at her and shrugged. The shade pointed to the Gates of the Underground City, her fingers the color of crystal and nearly transparent. Then she pointed to the vial in my hand and made the motion of drinking it. The purpose of the vial only dawned on me then.

“Do I need to drink it in order to walk into the Underground City?” I continued, guessing the answer as she nodded at me, to let me know I was right on the money. “And Alaire told you to give me this?” I double-checked as she nodded again. “Okay,” I finished as I eyed the vial again. The Underground City was basically constructed of pure evil, so if I so much as touched anything in it, I’d start to wither and die since nothing innocent could exist there for long. I knew as much from past experience. “Well, guess there’s no time like the present,” I finished as I sighed and then uncorked the top of the vial.

The shade nodded in response, her translucent hair fanning out around her as if she were floating in a pool. I said a silent prayer that Alaire hadn’t gotten his potions mixed up, and then downed the contents. It tasted strangely like sweet cough syrup—like Dimetapp or something. When I turned around to thank the shade for transporting me, she was gone. Her vanishing act startled me temporarily, considering she’d been standing there only moments earlier, but I steeled my courage and headed for the Gates of the Underground, figuring there was no point in putting off the inevitable.

Then I remembered I didn’t have my key to the gates. Bill was the last one who’d carried them. A sinking feeling registered in my gut and just as I was about to whip out Bill’s phone to text Alaire, I watched one of the gates open by itself, making a horrible creaking sound as it did so. I glanced up at the sky, and saw the black clouds overhead moving on fast-forward, flitting across the red light, which came from what looked like the moon. The swift black clouds were one of the factors in the Underground City that I found incredibly off-putting, although I wasn’t sure why. I mean, most people would have agreed that the demons inhabiting the city were significantly more alarming than the clouds, not to mention Alaire ...

“Oh, fuck!” I whispered with frustration as a terrible thought suddenly dawned on me: I’d left my sword in Tallis’s house! The shade was so quick in absconding with me that I’d completely forgotten to grab my sword. That meant I had absolutely no protection in the Underground City …

Then there’s no way you can enter!
I yelled to myself as I started to panic.

It felt like the weight of the world had just descended on my shoulders as I stood there, immobilized. I didn’t know what to do—whether to cancel on Alaire and run the risk of earning my first infraction or … No, there was no alternative. I couldn’t enter the gates without my sword.

Even though I’d made my decision to retreat, I couldn’t turn around. It was as if my feet were rooted in place, subject to my indecision. I found my attention settling on the sculptures that crowned the gates to the city. I’d seen these gates numerous times but that didn’t ease the feelings of dread that always settled in my stomach whenever I found myself facing them again. Carved in relief was a woman’s expressionless face, some huge spider webs, a few snails thrown in for good measure and two lion heads, flanking both sides of the gates. Each lion head appeared to be swallowing a man’s face.

How could you have forgotten your sword?
I scolded myself.
There’s no way you can enter the Underground now if you can’t protect yourself and that means you’re going to miss your dinner with Alaire. He’s not going to be happy! In fact, he’s going to be so unhappy, that infraction is basically yours.

Before I could decide what to do next, I watched a black sports car pulling up just beyond the gates. From what I could tell, it looked like a Tesla. All of the windows were as dark as the black paint. The rear door on the driver’s side opened, but revealed no one inside. That wasn’t a surprise though—the last time Alaire summoned me, a driver-less Porsche showed up.

To enter the Underground City without my sword, or not … that was now the question.

The Tesla honked its horn as if suggesting I was taking too much time in my deliberations, and it had an agenda to keep. I took a deep breath, hoping I would be safe with Alaire. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I realized how completely inane it was. Still, the threat of an infraction was most definitely still on the table.

I only hoped I wasn’t about to make the biggest mistake of my life …

I stepped foot into the Underground City and was happy to discover that it didn’t feel like my insides were in the process of being ripped out. Maybe the little vial was doing its job. Approaching the Tesla, I took a deep breath and prayed for the best before taking a seat on the super soft black leather. The car door closed of its own accord and seconds later, we were driving down the streets of the Underground City, the nondescript city buildings dwarfing us on every side.

I could make out a few Watchers patrolling the streets, but they seemed to be the only creatures out and about. Watchers were like a nightmarish version of businessmen because they always dressed in suits. But that’s where the similarity ended. Their faces were creased with lines so deep, they resembled mummies. They also didn’t have any hair on top of their grayish heads, just mounds of lumpy striations which looked like spaghetti.

Luckily for me, the Watchers weren’t a threat—not physically, anyway. They avoided confrontations because their sole purpose lay in reporting any goings-on in the Underground to Alaire. That meant he was already well aware of my arrival.

We drove through the city quickly, each street looking just like the preceding one. After a few minutes, the Tesla parked in front of the tallest office building that existed in the Underground City—Alaire’s. The rear door opposite me opened, indicating that I should use it to exit the car, rather than my door. Trying to calm my heart, which began racing as soon as I recognized Alaire’s building, I still couldn’t believe I’d actually willingly entered the Underground City without my sword. I was completely defenseless …

Sliding across the leather seat, I hoisted myself out of the car. I looked first to my left and then my right before deciding the coast was clear. Then I beelined it for the double doors of Alaire’s Headquarters. As soon as I entered the building, I felt sick to my stomach. Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on the scenery around me in order to stave off the panic attack that was seconds away from manifesting.

The interior of the building was circular with the floors painted to emulate a checkerboard. There were six concrete columns that formed a circle around the lobby desk, but just like the last time I was here, no one attended the desk, or anywhere else, for that matter. The whole place was eerily quiet. I assumed that was because it was probably difficult to find secretarial help in hell.