'Tween Heaven and Hell (33 page)

I didn’t get far. Suddenly Dialle was standing in front of
me, blocking my escape. I scowled up at him. “Get thee to Hades and bathe in
fire.” When I’m upset I revert to Tweenspeak, which isn’t the most gentle of
languages.

Dialle’s face was a calm, golden mask. He simply stared at
me until I screamed in frustration and gave in. “What do you want from me?”

“Our work is not done. Nille lives.”

“I thought you wanted him alive. What was that you said
while I was in the cavern—Prince Nille must not be sacrificed?”

He inclined his head, spreading glossy black strands of
dusty silk across broad shoulders. “That is true. If Nerul had completed the
ceremony Nille’s power would have been increased tenfold. That would have been
bad.”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “No shit. Talk about your
average galactic-sized understatement.”

The calm mask didn’t alter. “As you have seen, he is already
too powerful.”

I felt the hair on my entire body stand up on end. “Too
powerful? Are you telling me he can’t be stopped?”

Dialle grinned at last. I tried not to notice the effect it
had on my stomach. “There is one way.”

I threw my hands up between us, palms outward and shook my
head. “No. Don’t tell me. Really, I want to guess. Let’s see…I’m sure that I’ll
have to have sex with a man-sized worm or something.” As Dialle’s grin widened
I felt a cold sweat break out on my face. “I was just kidding. Don’t smile at
me like that. Oh shit, you dark world types suck. I’m not dating some slimy
worm, I don’t care if it does save the world!”

He grabbed one of my hands and turned away, bringing me with
him. “Come. There isn’t much time.”

I let him drag me away, what else could I do? “Ok, but we
have to get Emo on the way.”

Dialle simply nodded. “He’s already been taken care of.”

My heart kicked up about a thousand beats. Horrified, I
couldn’t help asking, “What the hell do you mean…” But I wasn’t to be allowed
to finish the question. The air changed around me and the world shifted into
fast forward. And then the universe went completely mute and numb.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

Into the Beast’s Lair

Alas our lady did go hence, into the devil’s lair,

And found the future in its depths, let’s hope she
prospers there!

We landed in a familiar room, surrounded by a familiar
crowd. Déjà vu hit me right between the eyes and my instincts told me to run
like hell. But Dialle kept a firm grip on my hand and, as he pulled me toward
the curved table at the front of the huge room, the crowd of lesser devils and
demons split away from us and, incredibly, they bowed us through.

As one after another of the dark creatures dropped to one
knee and folded into a deep bow that brought their foreheads to the floor, I
gaped around me with wide eyes and flapping mouth. I felt like a country mouse
visiting the city for the first time. After I’d stumbled over the rug a few
times, I decided I’d better pay attention to where I was going and pulled my
gaze from the bowing dark worlders around us to refocus on our path.

It seemed we were to address the court, which was even now
seated in their assigned places behind the long, semicircle of a table. My eyes
ran the gamut of their beautiful, golden faces and took note of several empty
chairs, including two in the center of the table. Unbidden, my mind jerked back
to the evil Rayanne and I wondered if the creatures in that room knew I’d
killed her. And if they did, would they want to eat me? They were giving away
nothing with their blank, even bored-looking expressions. That bothered me more
than hostility. I always like to know where I stand with the enemy. Suddenly I
was glad Dialle was there with me.

Speaking of Dialle, he had started to climb the wide,
shallow stairs at the front of the room, pulling me with him. I realized with a
jolt that he was moving toward those two empty chairs and I knew I was
not
going to put my butt into one of them. I tried to jerk my hand away but he
tightened his grip and continued to pull me forward.

I wanted to fight him, but at the same time I didn’t want to
allow the evil inhabitants of that room to witness even the tiniest crack in
our alliance, so I initiated a field trip into his mental drawers.

Dialle, I am not going to sit at that table!

Yes you are.

Look asshole…

Astra, we have many battles ahead of us. Let us not fight
with each other too. We will only survive if we are united in our goals.

I thought about this for a minute.
Maybe I could be
united if I knew what our goals were.

I will tell you as soon as I can. For now you’ll need to
trust me
.

Oh, crashin’, a member of the royal Devil Court is asking me
to trust him. I must be losing my frunkin’ mind.

He turned to grin at me as we reached the empty chairs and
then stood to one side, ordering me into the evil Rayanne’s chair with only the
smallest of nods and a flashing of eyes that were…shit…black as night again. When
had that happened?

I hesitated only the barest fraction of time and then,
realizing that trusting him was my only choice at the moment, I reluctantly
lowered my butt onto the impossibly soft seat. As I landed, a murmur started
around the room and grew in intensity until Dialle turned to glare at the crowd
on the other side of the table. The room fell instantly silent.

Then Dialle lowered himself into his own chair and the room
erupted in thunderous cheering and applause. The explosion of sound was too
much for my jangled nerves. I started to jump up and my hand went to where my
knife usually rested in its sheath before I even knew what I was doing. Dialle’s
hand shot out and clamped itself over my arm, dragging me back into the chair
before I killed somebody. Too bad.

He let them cheer for a while and then turned his midnight
gaze on them and, without a word, they fell silent. The silence throbbed around
us for a full minute before he spoke. He kept his hand on my arm as if he
feared that I would make a run for it. I wasn’t entirely sure the precaution
was unnecessary. Never had I felt so sure I didn’t want to be somewhere. Never
had I been so sure I shouldn’t be.

Dialle’s voice was pitched low, but somehow it reverberated
around the room, filling the space effortlessly. It was drenched with power and
the force of it kept everyone in the room rooted to the spot. I watched their
faces as his words began to insinuate themselves into the varying depths of
their brains. It was the first time I realized how powerful he was. It was a
power that he projected effortlessly and seemingly without thought. It was the
scariest type of power, because it didn’t feel scary.

I was so engrossed in the sound of his voice that it took a
minute for me to realize that he was telling a story. A very important story.

“That, although the battle left hundreds of soldiers and
members of both courts dead…including our queen…” The room erupted in hostile
murmurings. Dialle waited it out and then silenced them by raising one hand. The
room fell silent immediately. “Nille and Nerul have survived and have left to
rebuild. They’ve taken several of the court guard, a few dozen females and
their children. I expect they will situate what’s left of the court somewhere
safe and will be back to deal with us. I intend to be ready.”

As the room rumbled with murmurs and many heads bobbed in
approval and agreement, I thought about what Dialle had said and the fact that
he hadn’t even mentioned the angels. I was pretty sure this crowd wouldn’t
support angelic intervention in this fight and I was equally sure that the angels’
part in the fight wasn’t something Dialle was willing to mention. As Dialle
continued, my gaze moved around the room, taking in the rapt expressions of one
and all. I was beginning to realize that members of this Devil Court at least,
were much like every Royal Court from the beginning of time. They all looked
for entertainment in all its forms. They all loved a good tale, tall or not. This
tale was a good one—I just wasn’t sure how much of it was tall.

“Princess Astra killed Rayanne.” My ears and heart picked up
this little bombshell just about the same time and I jumped in my chair. I felt
Dialle’s fingers dig painfully into my arm as the room erupted in anger. He let
them rumble for a few minutes before raising one hand to silence the room.

The room full of creatures dropped into silence but hundreds
of pairs of cold, dark eyes rested on me, causing me to tighten my grip on the
knife in my thigh sheath. I checked out the members of the court who sat at the
table with us and some of their previously bored faces now held a trace of
something that looked like surprised awe. A few of them gave me the slightest
of nods and smiled as my eyes met theirs. I suddenly felt as if I’d passed the
initiation to join a club that I didn’t want to be a member of. I also felt
like I needed a shower. A really long one. In very hot, very holy water.

Dialle kept his gaze on the hostile crowd but I could feel
his power, like waves of heat off a summer highway, rippling away from him and
coating the room. It made the air so thick that I could hardly breathe through
it. But it had the desired effect. After a few tense moments the members of the
court removed their skewering gazes from poor little ol’ me and fixed their
attention on Dialle. He continued his story.

“Rayanne had become our enemy. She betrayed me and joined
forces with Nerul to plot my death. By killing her, this Tweener has earned
more than our gratitude, she has earned the title Princess of the Court of
Dialle the First. With this rank comes my guarantee of her safety. Let it be
known throughout this court, that, from this day forward, Princess Astra is
under my protection and shall be awarded every consideration that comes with
her rank and position. Any who attempt to harm her will face my wrath. I would
see her honored with the good wishes of this court, nothing less.”

He allowed that to sink in for a moment before turning to
scan the length of the table, measuring the gaze of each of those seated there
before he raised a hand toward the gathered court dwellers. “Leave us now.” The
crowd bowed low and started filing out of the room until only those who still
had places at the table remained.

Dialle turned to a well-decorated guard standing just to the
right of the long table, “Gerch, you will join the Princess and me in my
quarters. We have much to discuss.” Then he stood, grabbed my hand and pulled
me up with him and turned away from the table.

The tall, exceedingly lean royal who had been seated next to
me at the table stopped Dialle by placing a long, golden hand on his arm. Dialle
simply turned the midnight black of his gaze to the taller man with barely
concealed hostility. “Dialle, you cannot confer in private over matters that
concern us all.”

“You will be informed in due course, Fallen.”

The taller devil held Dialle’s gaze for a moment longer and
then dropped his eyes and stepped away. I could feel anger rolling off of him
but apparently he didn’t feel secure enough to confront Dialle in front of the
gathered court. My eyes raked the beautiful golden faces that had gathered
around us and saw varying degrees of anger there, not much else. With that
quick assessment I realized Dialle was holding the court together through sheer
force of will. No loyalty would be given him. I wondered why.

Dialle turned away and pulled me with him through the door
in the wall behind the table. I hurried to keep up with his longer, energized
strides and tried to gape around me as we flew down a brightly lit hallway that
reminded me a little bit of a well-appointed hotel. I wondered what lay behind
each of the dozens of doors that segmented the long walls. Dialle slowed,
finally, as he approached the single door at the very end of the hallway. The
door flew open before him and we entered without losing even a tiny fraction of
a stride. As Gerch and two of his men followed us into the room, the door swung
shut behind them and I heard it lock. Apparently we weren’t expecting visitors.
Or maybe we were…

Dialle moved to stand in front of the wall of windows,
located directly opposite the door. He paced back and forth before the windows
for several minutes without speaking.

I sank into a hard, white upholstered chair close to the
door just in case I needed to make an escape. For the moment my curiosity was
keeping me there together with some other things, which I wasn’t going to
explore too closely.

Taking my cue from the guards, I waited patiently for Dialle
to speak. He finally stopped pacing and dropped into a long, white divan that
appeared to be covered in incredibly soft mohair. He glanced sharply at me
before turning to his captain of the guards. “Where are the angels?”

Gerch cast a quick glance at me as if to question whether I
should be privy to the conversation which was about to occur. Dialle simply
continued to stare expectantly at the lesser devil. Finally Gerch gave a slight
bow of his thick, red body and spoke.

“They have been taken to a safe place where they can be
picked up. Even now their armies gather. The Council of Light has spread its
spies across the Earth in a hunting expedition. Nille and Nerul will have gone
into the shadows. It is unlikely the light ones will find them there.”

Dialle nodded thoughtfully. “I agree. That is why Princess
Astra and I must find them. The shadows are no place for the angels.”

I frowned. I didn’t like the direction this was going.

Gerch looked concerned. “My Lord, you cannot face them
alone.”

Dialle grinned but it was decidedly lacking in mirth. “I
will not be alone, I will have Princess Astra with me. Together we shall,” he
turned to me and the grin gained a little as his dark eyes sparked, “kick ass,
as the lady is fond of saying.”