Wicked And Wilde: Immortal Vegas, Book 4 (6 page)

Kreios shrugged. “The salient point is, Armaeus entered the portal two days ago. However, he’s reached out to Eshe but once since then, despite their intention to remain in frequent contact. That…is concerning.”

“Eshe.” I tried to keep my voice neutral, but my irritation over the Magician choosing to commune with the insufferable High Priestess of the Arcana Council instead of me trumped any concern I had for the guy at the moment. “Why her?”

“She was here, she was unoccupied, and she’s the former Oracle of Delphi. You might say her mind is uniquely suited to the task of receiving garbled messages from the underworld.”

“Oh, so now it’s the underworld?” I rolled my eyes. “I thought Hell was simply some sort of alternate dimension, like Atlantis.”

“It is an alternate dimension,” Kreios said. “It’s nothing like Atlantis, however. Its rules are quite different, as are its challenges.”

Challenges
?
“Details, please. What makes it different from Atlantis?”

“Ease of access, for one. Armaeus is presently able to enter Hell bodily, as are you. Any properly equipped mortal may enter a portal at will. Once you’re inside, however, getting out is trickier.”

I frowned. “So it’s like an IKEA store?”

“In a manner of speaking. There are many entry points into the domain, but its planes and valleys, walls and doors do not remain static. To get out, you must remain true to your original purpose in entering, and not stray.”

“Um, you’re really making a case for this being the biblical Hell, just so you know.”

He shrugged. “The bits and pieces recorded about the dimension in music, art, and literature are all culled from a single place, yes. But Hell is a location of many faces. It can be quite beautiful or quite hideous. It is a place where all your greatest dreams and most dreaded nightmares can find form and substance.”

“Yet people keep going there. On purpose.”

“You have agreed to do so for Annika Soo, have you not?”

My lips settled into a tight line. “That’s for a job.”

“And you’re the first person to ever be assigned a job in Hell? I suspect not.” Kreios waved lazily at the crowd outside our car. “Who among these people wouldn’t be tempted to retrieve a loved one or a needed soul, or to interview a lost friend for the location of some earth-bound treasure? Who among them wouldn’t give much for a moment of power unlike anything they had ever experienced before? The temptation is great, and people are weak. You among most know that well.”

“Okay, so tell me this. Why did the Hierophant go in and never come out?”

Kreios paused, and it was all I could do not to break my arm patting myself on the back. The Devil had a very handy hang-up about always speaking the truth, and the truth had been in short supply on this particular topic up to now. Armaeus certainly had not been forthcoming. All he’d say on the matter was that the Hierophant would balance out the Emperor, the newest Council member come home to roost. The Emperor, Viktor Dal, was as dark as they came. That meant the Hierophant would express an equal and opposite energy. Made sense, I supposed, since the Hierophant was the Archangel Michael.

“I mean, come on,” I prompted when Kreios stayed uncharacteristically silent. “He’s an archangel, the right hand of God, right? Why is he hanging out in Hell, biblical overtones aside?”

“How do you know he’s there by choice?”

“No, no, no.” I shook my head. “No answering a question with another question. Straight up, I want to know. What’s he doing there?”

Kreios’s grin belied his amusement at my interrogation. “Revelations holds a key to that mystery. ‘And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’”

By now I was staring. “You memorized the Bible?”

“You might say I have a passing acquaintance with it.” He squinted into the sunlight. “And, too, I have had ample time for study.”

I ran through his words again as Kreios pulled in front of the Flamingo and we exited the limo. “So, Michael fought…he fought Llyr, is what you’re telling me. The same Llyr that caused Atlantis to fall, who the Council banished from earth. That’s the dragon you’re talking about.” I scowled. “I thought Revelations was supposed to reveal the future.”

“It was meant to record a story.” Kreios said. “A story that needed to be preserved throughout time. Arguably, it has been preserved, has it not?”

“Okay, well… So Michael fought Llyr and kicked him out of heaven down to earth, and all his angels with him. That means, what… Michael is as old as Atlantis? He’s been knocking around that long?”

“Once the Council was formed to counteract Llyr, Michael agreed to take a role as the Hierophant, from a distance. He said humanity required further study.”

I stared at him. “From a sunny vacation home in Hell?”

Kreios ignored that. “The first Magician granted his request and honored the Hierophant’s wishes to remain in the underworld. Every Magician since has petitioned for the Hierophant to return to the Council, when events seemed to demand it. Each time, they have returned empty-handed, never to make the request again.”

“And this is the first time Armaeus has gone in?” At Kreios’s nod, I blew out a long breath. “Things are that bad.”

“Or, that good.” Kreios stood aside as a doorman appeared at the main entry to the Flamingo. When the man opened the door, however, the lobby that greeted us wasn’t the retro-fab interior of the 1940s era casino, but a lush wonderland of marble floors, thick white carpets, and a forest of tropical plants. Enormous ferns spilled over large vases and draped down from wide bowls suspended from the high ceilings, rustling in the breeze from huge woven ceiling fans. As I gaped, Kreios continued. “The Magicians recorded the request, the results, and no other comments regarding the matter. It’s been a point of speculation for Armaeus for centuries, but he’s had no good reason to impose on the Hierophant’s seclusion. Now,” he waggled his hand, “he arguably does.”

I scowled. “He’s using Viktor’s arrival as an excuse to find out what Michael’s been up to in Hell all these years? The Council doesn’t really need the Hierophant to return?”

“Oh, we definitely need him. We need him and the Magician, and we need them both to be immortal.”

Uh-oh
. “And you’re telling me this…”

“How did you render the Magician mortal?” Kreios asked companionably, as if we were discussing the weather.

“I helped him drink from—”

“No, no.” He waved me quiet. “In a general sense. What did you do?”

Not being a stupid rabbit, I saw where this was going. My lips tightened into a mulish line. “I killed him.”

He nodded. “You killed him, and he accepted that death. When it comes to turning him back immortal, the answer is as simple. You must attempt a death that he does not accept. He’ll call upon his magic to stop you, and the force of that magic will return him to his immortal state.”

I stared. “Why me, though? Why does it always have to be me?”

“I speak in generalities, I told you,” Kreios said, ignoring my scowl. “Merely a point of information.” He shrugged off the topic. “On another note, you are correct. Armaeus’s entry into Hell was noticed throughout the Connected community. To a greater extent than we at first realized.”

“The dark practitioners tracked it, yeah,” I said. “Soo said they’re all upset about it.”

“Upset, perhaps. Intrigued, certainly. Hell hasn’t been entered since the Dark Ages. There has been some speculation as to whether or not it has changed, and great anticipation about what might be found there. Despite a decided lack of sorcerers able to enter the dimension and then return, Hell has remained a popular dumping ground for unwanted artifacts and souls, as well as a way station of sorts for those not quite willing to leave this life on their assigned schedule.”

“You mean like purgatory?” This was getting weirder and weirder. No wonder Armaeus had kept mum on the details of the place. He couldn’t have known I would be heading in myself.

Could he have?

The Devil strode over to a gleaming elevator bay. “As I mentioned, Hell is easy to get into, relatively speaking. Not so simple to exit. And there may be those on the other side who wish you to remain with them, versus letting you return. Or who might prefer you don’t succeed at your stated task.”

I hadn’t thought about that, but he had a point. “Especially if I’m going in there after Soo’s family heirloom. That was supposed to stay hidden.”

“The twin to the jade amulet around your neck.” Kreios nodded. “In addition, there is Armaeus to consider. He will not be expecting you.”

“Ummm.” I glared at him. “And you’re
not
sending me down there to kill him, right?”

“That isn’t necessary.” Kreios shook his head. “We merely need him to return.”

“Well, okay, then.” I nodded. “I go in, I find him after I complete my own job, we get out. Easy-peasy.”

“Ideally, yes.”

I frowned at him as he punched the button for the elevator. “Meaning?”

“Armaeus has not reported in after making initial contact with Eshe, yet he knew precisely where to find Michael. The records were explicit. There is no reason for his silence or his delay. Accordingly, we do not know what he is doing, or why, or what condition he’s truly in.”

“Well, maybe…” I faltered. “You think he’s in trouble?”

“It’s impossible to say.” The elevator shooshed open, and we stepped inside the chamber. “But it’s a potential concern. To ensure your own safety, you will need someone to ground you in this plane, no matter how deep into Hell you travel. Much as Armaeus has Eshe, though he’s choosing to ignore her at the moment.”

“Yeah, no. I don’t need a study buddy.” The elevators opened onto a familiar sight. The Devil’s penthouse floor was full-on Arabian Nights, complete with sand-strewn walkways covered by thick Persian carpets, and a teak center deck beneath a billowing tent. Kreios’s earliest days had been spent in Constantinople, now Istanbul, and he’d never quite gotten over his penchant for all things Middle Eastern.

He turned, offering me a small shrug. “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice. She sees what you see now. And what she’s seen distresses her.”

“She who?”

My question was interrupted by a piercing whistle, the kind intended to divert packs of rabid dogs.

“Yo! ’Bout time you showed up,” Nikki Dawes yelled from the center of the room. “C’mon back, dollface. You’ve got to see this.”

Chapter Five

The Arcana Council’s part-time chauffeur and a full-time seer in her own right, Nikki wasn’t merely my best friend in Vegas, she was my only real friend in the world, outside of Father Jerome. And I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her until right this second.

Leaving Kreios’s side, I headed toward the cabana tent in the middle of the Devil’s oasis. “What are you doing back there?” I asked, pushing aside a fern.

Nikki’s cackle caused me to shift direction. “A hundred-year-old demigod in fine repair asks me to spend the afternoon getting my nails buffed while waiting for your delinquent ass, who am I to say no?”

I cleared the last of the foliage to find Nikki sitting in an enormous massage chair, her feet attended to by a shirtless, tattooed man whose muscles rippled in a veritable symphony of skin as he bent to his task. There were a lot of muscles and a lot of tattoos. Nikki grinned at me. “I have to say, the view is superb.”

“Jonas.” At Kreios’s word, the man at Nikki’s feet sat back. Her toes gleamed with melon-colored nail polish that matched her fingernails, evident as she waved her hands at me in a five-fingered salute. Her powerful calves glistened with oil all the way up to the hem of her knee-length terry-cloth robe.

Nikki changed direction, flapping her hands at Jonas. “I’ve got your number, sweetheart. I’ll call.” Jonas scooted back from the chair, then helped her up. He stood taller than Nikki’s impressive height of six foot four, and she patted his bare chest with appreciation, tossing her chestnut hair. “There’s also the small matter of my tip, which you’ve definitely earned. Give me a few days to catch my breath first.”

Jonas grinned, then turned on his heel under Kreios’s watchful regard, moving silently back into the fronds. A small battery of white-smocked attendants replaced him, trotting up to the teak platform to wheel off the massage chair. Nikki gazed after the monstrosity with clear animal lust.

“I could have one delivered to your home, but it would leave you unsatisfied,” Kreios said. “There is something to be said for luxuries you do not have at your disposal every day.”

“True enough.” Nikki clapped her hands together, flicking her finger pads along her nail tips to satisfy herself they were dry. She whipped off her pink robe to reveal tight black high-waisted shorts and a silky orange short-sleeved top. As I watched, she sat down on a long teak bench and strapped on a set of high-heeled gladiator sandals with straps that went all the way up to her knees.

The result: instant knockout. A knockout who was fairly bouncing out of her skin. “So, when do we get started?” Nikki asked, turning to Kreios. “Because now that my nails are done, I can leave any time.”

Kreios hesitated. “Unfortunately, entering Hell will require a bit more preparation than that. Since Sara is not the Magician, there is a small matter of a key,” he slid his glance my way. “Happily, a solution has already presented itself to that challenge.”

I scowled at him. “How did you know about Soo’s key?”

“Your mind is only partially blocked—” His smile deepened. “
Was
only partially blocked to me.”

“Uh-huh. So if you knew the key was sitting in evidence, why didn’t you steal it already?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Nikki interjected. “You need an honest-to-God key to get into Hell? And it’s in a Vegas lockup? This just keeps getting better.”

“A key is not always required.” Kreios shrugged, still regarding me with interest. “In his mortal state, Armaeus has the ability to enter Hell at will. He also has the incantations to do so. With a key, those are not needed.” His eyes lit with avaricious interest. “The key that Soo has identified amid the Rarity’s collection is very old. I didn’t know it possessed such properties though. I shall look forward to examining it.” He let his smile widen as he nodded to me. “I would hurry, however, if I were you. I’ve scheduled our flight to Prague for tomorrow morning.”