Blue-Blooded Vamp (34 page)

W
hile I was raiding the fridge in the villa and filling Giguhl in on what had happened in the graveyard, Tristan had been busy. We found him in the meeting room with maps and old books spread out on the tabletop—all perfectly aligned, of course.

When we walked in, Tristan didn’t look up to acknowledge our arrival. Nyx and Valva stood next to him, discussing a map Nyx was holding.

“Hey, guys,” I said.

Nyx looked up and smiled. “You look better.”

I felt better, too. After I’d finished with the Revenants, I felt like I hadn’t slept in days. The food had helped, but I’d be needing some of Adam’s blood soon to recover completely. “Thanks.” I looked around. “Where’s everyone else?”

“They’re getting supplies ready,” Tristan said in a clipped tone.

I watched him spread a large piece of paper across his desk and wondered if he ever laughed. Then I immediately frowned. What did I care if he was ever happy?

“Sabina?”

Jolted out of my thoughts, I jumped to go around the desk to stand beside him. The paper he’d spread was a large map, which had been hand-drawn on thick vellum. Judging by the yellowed color and rough edges, it was quite old.

“What’s this?”

“This is Irkalla.” He waved a hand over the map.

I leaned down to get a better look. Unlike maps for most countries that showed the land from a bird’s-eye view, this one looked more like a cross section with several levels. At the top, someone had written in elaborate curling script,
Irkalla, the Infernal Lands
.

“Where did you get this?” Rhea asked, leaning in closer.

Nyx spoke up. “We found this in a collection owned by an eccentric billionaire mage in the Netherlands. He claimed a demon he’d summoned gave it to him in the eighteenth century.”

I looked up at Giguhl. “What do you think, Giguhl? Is it accurate?”

The demon leaned over the large vellum map. “For the most part.” He pointed a claw to a rendering of the Adamantine Gate near the top of the map. A snarling three-headed dog lay next to the black archway. “Except that bitch, Cerberus, is way uglier in person than this picture shows.”

“Irkalla is divided into regions for each of the dark races,” Nyx said. “Valva, do you want to explain?”

“After I show you the secret shortcut to Irkalla through the Liminal, the real tests will begin.” The golden demon sounded surprisingly businesslike.

“Hold on,” Adam interrupted. “Is there a reason why Sabina can’t just have Giguhl, or you, for that matter, flash her in and skip all the tests?”

“There are impenetrable wards set into the borders of the Infernal Lands. They’re there to keep the living out.”

“And the dead in?” I asked.

She nodded. “Anyway, pretty much the only way in—in the case of the living—or out—in the case of the dead—is through guarded access points. If I tried to take Sabina through with me, she’d hit the barriers and be locked out.”

“So why can demons move between realms?” I asked. “You guys are alive.”

“Because Irkalla is our home,” she said simply. “Plus most demons—except for the Lilitu, like me—can’t leave Irkalla without magical intervention.”

She was telling the truth. Only mages could summon demons from the underworld, and once they reached the mortal realm, they could only stay if they were under the control of that mage or if he or she transferred control to another mage. I guess it was some sort of preternatural checks and balances to ensure demons didn’t flood out of Irkalla and take over Earth.

“But Giguhl took Clovis to Irkalla,” Adam pointed out.

Giguhl spoke up. “Clovis is half demon, so he can pass through the wards, and Sabina—a mage—sent him there magically using me.”

“So the gates are something any alive being would have to go through to get to the palace, right?” Adam asked.

Nyx stepped up. “Yes and no. Because Sabina will be trying to prove that she’s the Chosen, the tests were specially devised by Lilith to help weed out pretenders. Only someone who could actually be the Chosen will pass through all the gates.”

“So, for example, if Tristan had managed to find the secret entrance all those years ago, he wouldn’t have faced the same tests to get through the gates?”

Valva nodded. “Right. He would have just had to pay special tolls in the forms of magical items, but that’s why we make the secret entrances so hard to find. Mom and Dad don’t want to be bothered by every yokel with a hard-on to prove himself with a quest to Irkalla.”

Tristan grimaced. “Thanks, V.”

“No offense, Tristy.” She cringed. “The truth is that if Mom hadn’t sent me to stop you, you would have eventually found your way in.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

She nodded. “But if you had, it would have set off a chain reaction that would have led to Lavinia Kane wiping out the entire mage and faery races. If that had happened, Mom would have had to destroy all her earthbound kids.”

“Which means if I’d found that doorway, we’d all be dead right now,” Tristan said, connecting the dots.

The room fell silent as we all absorbed that information. Her reminder that fate had plans for us that we couldn’t begin to understand was sobering.

“Okay,” Adam said, finally changing the subject. “To summarize: Getting through the gates is really just the first part of Lilith’s overall test. If Sabina fails at any of them, it will prove she isn’t the Chosen.”

“Right,” Nyx said.

“As I was saying,” the demoness continued, “in order to get to my mother, you’ve got to get through gates located in the dark races realms.” She pointed a metallic fingernail at the second level of the map. “After you get through the Adamantine Gate—the main entrance—the next one is here in the Hekatian Fields.”

“That’s where mages are punished?” I asked.

Tristan shook his head. “Unlike the mortal hell, Irkalla isn’t concerned with punishing the sinful. Instead, it’s an
afterlife residence for all the dark races. There’s certain areas devoted to punishment, but they mainly exist in the demon realms.”

Nyx picked up the explanation. “The mage realm is first because it’s sacred to Hekate and it’s closest to the Adamantine Gate and Cerberus, both of which she also rules.”

I nodded. “I guess that makes sense. She’s the goddess of Liminal spaces and dogs.”

“Right. Moving on,” Valva said. “After the mage area is the Fae Realm. It’s home to the Unseelie Court.” At my questioning look, she explained. “They’re the exiled dark faeries who tried to wrest control of the fae from Queen Maeve in the early days of the race. But don’t worry about them. They’re all terrified of Queen Maeve.”

I’d met Queen Maeve on several occasions, and while she could be a first-class ballbuster, I found it hard to believe the Unseelie Court would be scared of her. “Why is that?”

Nyx looked up and shrugged. “She’s a demigod. None of the Unseelies can compete with her powers.”

My jaw dropped. “Maeve is a goddess?”

“Demigoddess,” she corrected. “But yeah, a deity.”

That certainly explained how she escaped being poisoned by my sister when she took out Orpheus and Tanith at the treaty signing. It also explained how she went through four stages of woman each year—child, maiden, mother, crone. I tucked that in my back pocket for examination later.

“What’s this here?” Within the region marked for the fae, there was a small section labeled
Lupercalium
.

Nyx took that one. “The werewolves aren’t numerous or powerful enough to get their own level, so the fae allow the were dead to live in a small area in their lands.” Nyx moved her finger lower. “Vamps are next. They live in the Bloodlands.”

Of course they did. While the other races all had somewhat poetic names for their final resting places, the vampires had picked a forbidding name. Typical. “Is there a reason for the order of the realms?” I asked.

Nyx looked at me with a speculative glance. “Very astute of you. Much like on the earthly plain, the fae and weres act as a buffer between the mages and vamps.”

Considering the mage and vampire races had been mortal—or immortal in the case of the vampires—enemies since Hekate created the mages, it made sense to keep them separate.

“The Bloodlands are relatively small compared to the others since vampires don’t die so easily,” Valva explained. “Which, of course, you know all about.”

While it was true vamps weren’t easy to kill, I’d personally offed three hundred twenty-seven vampires in my time as an assassin for the Dominae. But I didn’t think it was smart to remind Tristan about my checkered past as an assassin. “I’m sure I have lots of fans there.”

“I wouldn’t be so flippant about it if I were you,” Tristan said. “Chances are good you’ll be running into old enemies as part of the tests.”

That shut me up. In my head, a list of potential enemies appeared. In addition to the ones I’d killed for the Dominae, there were countless others of every race.

Tristan cleared his throat. “Past the Bloodlands are the demon areas. The lower-level temptation demons such as Nasties, Greedies, Lusts, Vanities, and Mischiefs”—he nodded at Giguhl—“live here in the Gizal region.”

“What’s it like there, Giguhl?” Rhea asked the demon.

“A total shit hole.”

“It’s true. Low-level demons get the worst real estate.” Valva nodded. “The more serious demons—Anarchies,
Blasphemies, Vengeances—live here in the Zigal region. Much nicer digs, but technically it’s more like one large realm divided into two neighborhoods.”

“Yeah,” Giguhl said. “Gizal is what mortals would call the wrong side of the tracks. The snobby Lilitu demons got the prime real estate of Zigal.”

I looked closer at the map and saw that on the border between Gizal and Zigal there was a dark pit drawn between the two sections of the demon region. The area around the hole looked just like a Hieronymus Bosch painting with lots demons stabbing various sharp instruments into the orifices of sinners. “Let me guess—the Pit of Despair?”

Tristan nodded. “Stay away from there.”

“No problem.”

Valva waved a hand. “Oh, it’s not so bad. I’ve spent a few epochs partying by the Pit. The weenie roasts were totally fun.”

All the men grimaced at the demon. She shot them a clueless look. “What?”

Tristan cleared his throat. “And of course all this leads us to the lowest level and Asmodeus and Lilith’s palace.”

I squinted at the large black fortress drawn on the very bottom of the map. I read the wording out loud for everyone. “The Bone Palace.”

“Cheerful.”

“Sounds like the name of a strip club, if you ask me,” Giguhl said. “I don’t know why Asmodeus hasn’t changed it. It’s kind of a joke among the Shedim demons.”

Valva looked at him in shock. “Really? I’ll have to tell Mom.”

Giguhl grimaced. “Please don’t.”

Tristan cleared his throat, so I switched back into student mode. “Okay, so there are what? Six regions?”

“Yes. But five gates. The entrance to Irkalla. And these.” He pointed to the Adamantine Gate, one in Hekatian Fields, another in the Fae Realm, and a final one in the Bloodlands. “Once you make it through the gates, you’ll still face Lilith’s final exam.”

“So how does one get through the gates?”

We all looked at Valva. She shrugged. “Some will demand a toll of some sort; others might force you to answer a riddle or perform a task before they’ll open the portal to the next realm.”

Adam glared at the demoness. “So basically you don’t know?”

“Hey,” Tristan said in a warning tone.

“I’m with Adam,” I said, crossing my arms. “Her answer isn’t exactly inspiring confidence here.”

“Valva already told you these aren’t the normal tests because Lilith herself created them to test the Chosen,” Tristan said, his tone heavy with censure. “While the information we have may be incomplete, we’re lucky to have Valva’s assistance. You’ll remember that when you speak to her from now on.”

“Sorry, Valva,” I said with a saccharine smile. “I didn’t mean to be a controlling bitch again.”

The demon crossed her arms.

Tristan shot me an annoyed look. “Sabina, your humor is brave but misguided. This isn’t a game.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I raised my chin.

Finally, he sighed and said, “So your first task is to come up with a list of enemies. Chances are good some if not all of the gatekeepers will have it out for you.”

I chewed my lip. “Okay. I’m going to need a pen or three… and lots and lots of paper.”

Tristan sighed. “Sabina—”

Giguhl spoke up. “She’s totally not joking about that part. She’s got a shit ton of enemies.”

Tristan looked at Adam and Rhea for confirmation. They both shrugged and nodded.

“When are we going in?” Calyx asked.

Tristan glanced at Nyx. She took over. “There’s a new moon in three nights. I think that’s the best time to go in. What do you think, Rhea?”

Rhea stroked her chin, looking from the map to me. “I agree.”

As much as I’d love three nights to prep for this mission, I didn’t have the luxury of that kind of time. I glanced guiltily at Adam. He grimaced and nodded.

Looked like the time had arrived to come clean about Asclepius’s deadline. “Actually, we might have a slight… wrinkle.”

Several pairs of eyes swiveled toward me. The weight of their stares bore down on me. Not until that moment did I realize how stupid I’d been to wait so long to tell them about Asclepius. No doubt they’d be suspicious about my reasons for holding back. And they’d be right.

“Oh?” Tristan asked, crossing his arms. “And what might that be?”

I chewed on my bottom lip. Crap, this was hard. I glanced at Nyx, who looked more curious than alarmed. I hated that in a few seconds that expression was going to harden with either fear or, the more likely option, hatred.

Unfortunately, my hesitation gave Valva time to butt in. “She’s talking about how Asclepius wants you dead.”

My stomach dropped with dread. Nyx gasped and went pale. “How in the hell…,” I began. But then I realized how Valva knew about all that. I swung around and pinned Giguhl with a glare. “Really, Giguhl?”

My minion blushed and stuttered for a moment. “I… I couldn’t help it. She forced it out of me.”