Lost in Time (24 page)

“Please.”

He wrapped himself in a sheet and whistled as he made his way to the kitchen. Mimi changed into a silk robe, feeling a bit cold in the room now that he was gone.

Kingsley returned with two crystal glasses filled with water and handed her one. He jumped back into bed.

“You know, the first moment I got here, I tried to get out.

I got all the way to the gate. But I couldn’t walk through,” he told her. “Croatan blood will do that.”

She snuggled next to him, and he gently stroked her hair as he told her his story. “I tried everything. I bargained with Helda. That’s why I took this post. I thought if I could prove myself useful, I could win some favors. But the years passed—you know time is different down here—and nothing happened. I pretty much gave up. Then I saw you. I thought I was dreaming at first.”

“Typical.” She smiled. “You never believe what’s right in front of you.”

“I’m used to disappointment,” he said, draining his glass and putting it on the side table.

“Do you even want to come back with me?” Mimi asked, fearing his answer and thinking of the flower blooming in the wasteland. “What about all the stuff you’re doing down here—and the way you feel up there… with the voices. The Corruption will be part of you again.”

“I know,” he said. “I thought about it.”

“Really, when?” she teased. “When did you have the time?”

“Right now,” he said. “And it’s okay. I can deal with the Corruption. I’ve dealt with it my entire life.”

“Are you sure?”

“I have never been more certain.” He kissed her bare shoulder. “I want to go home. I want to be with you. The underworld can survive without me.”

She nuzzled his cheek, the happiness returning again.

“So we just walk out of here, that’s it?” Kingsley asked.

“That’s the plan,” she said, pinching his nose. He was truly so handsome. She sighed. Her own handsome devil.

“Seems too easy,” he mulled. “Helda really said I could leave? She’s not going to stop us?”

“Hey, I’ve got some pull around here,” she said. As the Angel of Death, Mimi reminded him that the darkness was part of her birthright.

“I can see that.” He smiled again. “All right, then. If you’re sure this is going to work—”

“Shush!” Mimi said, pouting. “Let’s not be negative. Get dressed and let’s go. We’ve got a train to Limbo to catch.”

Oliver did not seem surprised to see them together at breakfast. He tactfully did not mention anything when they appeared at the table, glowing with satisfaction and bubbling with energy. “So we just take some train? That’s it?” he asked.

Kingsley frowned. “It’s a little more complicated than that, but we’ll figure it out when we get there. I don’t know what the demon told you,” he said to Mimi. Then he looked at the trolls who were standing at attention around the room, their hands at their backs. “Leave us,” he ordered.

He regarded Mimi and Oliver seriously. “There’s something you guys need to know. I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I wanted to wait until I was sure.”

“What is it?”

“There’s been… unusual activity down in the ninth.”

“Lucifer?” Mimi asked.

Oliver forced his bread down his throat. The thought of the Dark Prince was still frightening. He had seen what happened at the bonding, when the Croatan had revealed themselves and captured Schuyler, pulling her into the glom.

Kingsley nodded. “It’s got to be… I think he’s trying to break out again.”

“Fine. We’ll just kick him back here when he does.” Mimi shrugged and ripped her croissant in half, as if imagining it was their enemy.

Kingsley shook his head. “No. I’ve heard that Lucifer has grander ambitions.”

“Like what?” Oliver wanted to know.

The Duke of Hell frowned. “I’ve heard rumors that they’ve created new weapons that can be used against the divine—even more powerful than the White Fire of Heaven—and that he is gathering his demons for battle.”

“So if it’s war he wants, he’ll have it. This is it, then. Apocalypse. We’ll ready the horses,” Mimi said.

“No. Lucifer has no more interest in the mid-world,”

Kingsley said, looking around nervously, as if spies were all around.

“No? Why not?” asked Oliver. “Humans have ruined it too much?” He smiled at his joke.

Kingsley did not find it amusing and did not respond to the crack. “I fear it’s something much more precious.” He paused to let it sink in. “The Dark Prince is preparing to conquer Paradise.”

“But how?” Mimi asked. She tossed her half-eaten croissant back on her plate, having lost her appetite at the news.

“That’s impossible. Paradise is closed to the Fallen. If the angels cannot be redeemed, how can the demons and the Corrupted even get close to Eden? There’s no way. They won’t be able to find it. No one can.”

“I don’t know. They don’t trust me enough to tell me their plans,” Kingsley said, frustrated. “But they are confident of victory.”

A Phone Call

When Allegra returned home to Riverside Drive, Ben was waiting for her. He was sitting on the stoop and he had his hands folded in his lap. “I know where you were last night,” he said. “I know you went to him….”

“It’s not like that….”

“It’s all right. Please. It’s killing me. I don’t even know what to make of it. I don’t
want
to know what to make of it,”

Ben said. “But it’s sick, whatever is between you guys. It’s not… right.”

“Ben, please.”

“But hear me out—” Ben coughed into his handkerchief.

Allegra saw that the cloth was red with blood. He’d started coughing last week and was supposed to go to a doctor, but had been too busy to take care of it. Allegra would have to remind him. It was beginning to worry her so much that she didn’t even want to think about it.

She led him inside the town house, and they sat together in Cordelia’s formal living room.

“Allegra,” Ben said. It hurt her to hear her full name from his lips. He’d never called her that before. “I will love you no matter what. I don’t care that you were with Charles last night.

I don’t. I just want you,” he said.

Allegra swallowed her tears. She couldn’t do it, she thought. She couldn’t. She’d been so sure when she’d left Charles that she would renew her bond with him again, that she had chosen the right path, but now, seeing Ben, her resolve wavered. She couldn’t leave Ben. She loved him too much. Just then, the upstairs phone rang. It was the Conclave line, that only the Venators and Wardens used.

“Ben, I’m so sorry. I have to take this. I think it’s important.”

Ben waved his hand. “Go ahead,” he said, coughing again.

She ran upstairs and picked up the receiver. “Yes?”

“Martin here. Sorry to bother you, but I thought you might find this interesting,” Kingsley said. “I wanted to tell you before I left for my next assignment and forgot about it.”

“This isn’t a good time,” she said. “Can it wait?”

“When is?” The Venator sighed. “Sorry—I promise this won’t take long, what I have to say.”

“Get on with it, then.”

He cleared his throat. “So I looked into that thing you told me about—the diseased Red Bloods?”

“And?”

“I couldn’t find anything on it, not in any of the official files.”

Allegra bit her fingernails. “No?”

“Forsyth laughed. He said he’d never heard of such a thing. Said I was letting the voices in my head drive me crazy,”

Kingsley said, not sounding terribly insulted. Over the centuries, Allegra knew, he must have gotten used to the barbs and comments from the Blue Bloods. “I didn’t tell him I heard it from you. I didn’t want you to get in trouble.”

“He’s lying. There was a body in that van. I saw it.”

“Yes,” Kingsley said. “I found the ambulance records, the one for the clinic that the Conduits use. Here’s the thing: the records show there was a dead body in that van, but I checked San Francisco; there aren’t any familiars who have been reported missing or recently deceased.”

Allegra could not believe what she was hearing. Charles had told her to her face that it was a human familiar in the body bag. She had seen it herself—she tried to remember—the body had certainly looked human. “So what, then?”

“I don’t know. I can’t get any answers. But I asked around a little more and… I don’t know what to make of it, but apparently there’ve been a few vampires missing.” Kingsley exhaled.

“Missing?” No. It couldn’t be. Allegra thought of her fear that had led her to check the body. The fear that those who hunted the vampires were loose in the world again; an enemy they had eradicated centuries ago. It couldn’t be happening again. She thought of Roanoke and the missing colony. And there’d been others over the years—one or two here and there—vampires who’d gone off-Coven, maybe, or did not report to the Wardens. It was nothing, Charles had assured her.

There was nothing to fear. She’d had her doubts—she’d had so many doubts over the years, she realized, but she’d done nothing about them. All those doubts about what had truly happened in Florence; the secret Charles had been keeping from her.

“Yes. A few of the new Committee members who’d just been inducted can’t be accounted for.”

“What did the Elders say?”

“They won’t speak to me,” Kingsley said. “Anyway, I don’t know what to make of it. I’m sure it’s nothing. maybe a couple of kids playing hooky. But I thought I should tell you. You’ll tell Charles, right? I mean, he should know that someone’s not telling the truth.”

“Yes. Yes I will.” Allegra said. They said good-bye and hung up.

She returned downstairs, almost surprised to find Ben sitting on the living room couch. “I’m so sorry, but I have to go to Charles right now.”

“I understand,” Ben said bravely. Allegra wanted to comfort him, but she had no time to explain.

Bluebeard’s Castle

Sam laid out the map on the table and briefed the team on their rescue mission. They were in the necropolis, huddled in the small room inside the Venators’ quarters. It was almost a week since Deming had been kidnapped, and Mahrus had joined them as well, after returning from a short trip to Jerus-alem to check on the Coven there. Schuyler decided not to confront Mahrus with what Catherine had told her for now, as she did not know if she believed it.

“Catherine says the castle is located on the edge of Limbo, right at the mouth of the river Styx,” Sam said. “There are only two entrances to the castle. The drawbridge over the moat is the main one, but there’s a second, secret entrance from the Palace of the zaniyat Babel that leads directly to the dungeons.

The Harvest Bonding is set for Lammas, and as suggested, we’ll move the day before. Catherine will leave all the doors unlocked in the basement of the brothel so that we can get through. There won’t be a new batch of girls until next month, so the place will be pretty deserted, she said.”

He pointed to the next place on the map. “Once we’re in the dungeon, we make our way up to the castle. It’ll be heavily guarded on the outside, but inside there’ll be just the usual crew of domestics. Probably a few trolls, nothing we can’t take care of. Deming should be held here.” He pointed to the highest tower. “The Bluebeard room.”

“Bluebeard—you mean like the fairy tale?” Schuyler asked.

“Not every fairy tale is made up,” Jack explained. “It’s Baal’s… ‘nickname.’ He’s had numerous brides.”

“The brides—they’re all dead? Like in the story?”

“What do you think?” Sam said testily. “From what Catherine tells me, most human women can only bear one demon birth. many of them die in childbirth, and even when they do survive, they don’t live very long.”

“Especially if the Petruvians kill them,” Dehua said.

“Dehua and Ted will lead the attack and subdue the trolls.

Jack, you and Schuyler will keep watch while Mahrus and I go to the tower and get Deming.” He rolled up the map. “Clear?”

The team nodded and prepared to descend into the underworld.

* * *

It didn’t take long to realize that the map was wrong. They were deep in the castle dungeons when Jack heard Sam curse as he slung the roll under his arm.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, walking up to the Venator.

Jack was already on high alert since he could not dissuade Schuyler from joining the mission. Like Sam, he didn’t want any mistakes this time. The risks were too great.

Sam handed the map to Jack, who unrolled it and squinted at the drawing. It showed the dungeon as a series of broad rings that mimicked the walls of the castle above. Short hallways connected the rings, making it easy to move quickly through any part of it. But the dungeon in which they stood had little to do with that plan. massive stone walls blocked the rings, forcing the team to make a winding path through the stone-lined corridors.

“I don’t like this,” Sam said. “We should have been out of the dungeons by now. All of these little blockades are forcing us deeper into the circle, with no guarantee that we’ll be able to get out.”

“You think this is deliberate? That they planted the wrong map for Catherine to find?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know, but there’s something wrong. The dungeon is empty; no one is in any of these cells.” Suddenly there was a loud noise from somewhere deep underground.

“What was that?” Schuyler asked.

“Stay close,” Jack said. Everyone was nervous now. Sam tried to lead them out of the circle, but they found themselves in front of another massive stone wall.

“We need go back the way we came,” Jack said. “They’re steering us somewhere we don’t want to go.”

“No!” Sam protested. “We’ll find a way through. This is our only chance—” He stopped mid-sentence as he followed Jack’s gaze to the left, where the dark corridor was flooding with trolls.

Their silver eyes and dark skin glowed with unearthly light, their collars glinting. The trolls began to jabber excitedly.

With nowhere to run, the group formed a tight circle as they braced for the trolls’ assault. “They’re nothing but a bunch of dimwits,” Sam muttered. “Nothing to be scared of.”

“There’s only one way out, and it’s
through
,” Jack said.