Homecoming (Fire Cursed Book 2), page 15
I slung the straps over my shoulder, and she stepped forward, clipping it together.
“If it’s clipped, it can’t be easily torn off.” She glanced at Levi. “You need to walk with us and not bound forward all willy-nilly.”
I swear Levi rolled his eyes, but he didn’t argue, even when she pointed to the spot between where we were standing. He grumbled and stepped in line with us.
A chill ran down my back as we stepped into the woods. A few steps in and they swallowed us up. Kylee was right. This wasn’t the kind of woods I was used to. The trees were black as melted tar and looked just as appealing. The bushes looked like blood with sharp prickers. She steered us clear from those, but every now and then, my jeans would catch on a thistle.
At least the ground looked like normal, hard packed dirt. I kept my eyes on the narrow path looking for any gnarled roots that might trip us up. Eventually the path opened up so we could walk together instead of single file.
“It looks like someone poured hot tar all over the trees,” I said.
Kylee glared at me. Zip it. Eyes forward and walk like you know where you are going. Her thoughts echoed in my head.
I stared forward again, focusing on the path ahead of us, wondering just how long this would take us. I didn’t have the luxury of time. Not with Alex missing. I tried to think of how many miles it was from New Zealand to Ireland. I knew the world was roughly twenty-five thousand miles around, and we were a tad less than half a world away from Ireland. My brain stalled. If I were calculating correctly, it would take us something like six months to walk half way around the world if we walked night and day.
Kylee gave me a sideways look. “Chill,” she whispered.
I didn’t realize my breath was wheezing. But I couldn’t imagine what would be left of Alex if Lucifer possessed him for a month, never mind a year.
Levi whined softly and nudged my knee. It was his way of comforting me. I dropped my hand to his head and gave him a pat, but my nerves were as frayed as they had ever been.
I forced myself to breathe normally, but that didn’t stop my heart from galloping away. Especially when the woods thinned and offered me my first view of hell proper. A barren red desert as far as the eye could see.
“Shit,” Kylee muttered and stopped in her tracks. She looked at her watch again before glancing at me. “This isn’t good.” She sighed and scanned the sand. “We aren’t even at the right level.” She wiped her face. “I am such an idiot.”
Numbness set into my limbs as I got the gist of her thoughts. This wasn’t hell proper. This was the monster realm of hell. She should have connected the dots when all that attacked us at the mountain were ogres. We were much farther from home than she’d initially thought. And demons don’t go into the monster realm.
Only Lucifer dared to walk the monster realm.
My eyes widened.
“Um, Levi.” Kylee cleared her throat. “I think we could use your true form to get across that.” She pointed at the red sand. “And you have permission to eat whatever tries to stop us.” She looked at me. “Feel free to use your fire, too,” she added with a nervous smile.
Levi leaped into the air and turned into his natural form. His tail nearly plowed us over, it wagged so hard. He lowered his shoulder for us to climb up, and I took the forward seat.
Kylee unzipped the backpack and pulled the rope out. She threaded it through Levi’s collar and then tied it around both our waists and back again. She wrapped her arms around the bag securely hooked around me.
“This time, neither of us is going anywhere, and you have some leeway to use one of your hands if needed,” she said. “So, hold on tight. This is apt to be a hellish ride. No pun intended.”
“What’s in the sand?” I asked.
Before she could articulate an answer, Levi took off, yanking us both backwards. If Kylee hadn’t tied us in place, we would have tumbled off. He bounded like an overexuberant dog on a clear stretch of beach.
I held on to his collar with both hands as we bounced on his iron-like skin.
Movement to my left drew my attention. I gasped at a scorpion that was scrambling across the sand. It was as big as a car, but then again, Levi in his natural form was as big as a cargo plane, dwarfing the creature. Before I could blink, another half dozen of the things were racing towards us.
Levi let out a joyous laugh and picked up speed.
The wind nearly blew us over. If I didn’t have my feet hooked under Levi’s collar, we probably would have been bouncing at the end of the rope like two insignificant rag dolls. I was sure by the time we got off this wild ride, I would have a bruised tailbone for the next decade.
“Duck,” Kylee yelled in my ear.
I folded forward with her pushing me down. Thankfully, it was just enough as a creature sailed towards us.
Levi snatched it out of the air. His jaws crunched its exoskeleton to a pulp before he tossed it aside. Without breaking stride, he went through the pod of scorpions like a wrecking ball, laughing as he dismembered and discarded them.
“I’m glad he’s on our side,” I said to Kylee.
She chuckled. “It is scary as all get out to be chased by him. Been there, done that, and somehow lived to tell about it because of Michael Andreas.”
I glanced over my shoulder and she smiled.
The scorpions stopped attacking. They kept a sufficient distance, but they paced us, flanking either side like they were waiting for Levi to tire. These things had intelligence.
A shiver caught me unprepared.
They were biding their time. Studying us. Waiting for the right moment to attack us en masse. It was eerie to the point I couldn’t not shudder.
“Light them up,” Levi said as he kept up his brutal pace.
Kylee and I sat up, and I opened my arms wide, pointing my fists at the clans in the distance. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, calling on the fire within me. A hum filled my ears as I collected strength until it pooled in my belly, coiled and waiting.
My eyes and hands snapped open. Jets of fire shot out of my palms with the precision of a marksman. The screeches of the scorpions filled the air. By the time I got to the front of each pack, a few of them bugged out, but for the most part, I left a black scar of giant, and very dead, scorpions.
I closed my palms, pulling the fire back into the box in my mind. Shutting it until I needed it again.
“You’re getting better with that,” Kylee said in my ear as we continued to gallop across the barren wasteland that reminded me of the pictures from the Mars rover.
“Every time I use it, the power seems to grow.” Each time I used the powers at my disposal correctly, it flared like a battery renewing tenfold. Same with the mental stuff. Each time seemed easier than the last. I knew from experience that tapping myself would incapacitate me for longer than we had time for, so using these quick bursts that built strength was helpful.
“Ten degrees to the north,” Kylee called out. She pulled her sleeve down over the watch and buried it in the space between my back and the pack she clung to.
Levi adjusted his trajectory.
“Watch for sand serpents!” Kylee called.
Levi nodded, continuing to lumber at a speed which belied his size. Sand spit behind us with each thrust of his hind legs. I wished I could see him running at a distance. I could envision him running like a cheetah, but with a much more feral, reptilian face and a tail that could crack boulders with its power.
In his natural form, Levi reminded me of a dragon from a JRR Tolkien movie. Except he didn’t have wings, and he didn’t breathe fire. Basically, he was this deadly prehistoric lizard the size of Godzilla, but he was deceptively agile and much smarter than most people I had come in contact with, the Ryans included.
Levi’s chuckle rumbled across the sand.
And then there were times like this when he was more like a little kid with his choice of toys. Here he was in his element. I didn’t know nearly enough about Levi, other than he was Death’s sidekick.
“I was chained in purgatory for thousands of years until Nick set me free,” Levi said. “That is why I am loyal to the boy.”
I patted the side of his neck. Leviathan was honorable. Who would have thought?
He glanced over his shoulder at me and cocked an eyebrow.
“Look out!” Kylee pointed in front of us.
A giant worm shot up from the sand. Its mouth had a thousand razor-sharp teeth in row after row, and it was heading straight for us.
Adrenaline shot through my veins in a hot pulse. My hands were up in front of me before my brain caught up. The blast exploded the thing outward into a million tiny bits. A bloody mist hung in the air, and when Leviathan ran through it, the mist coated my skin, making me gag.
Kylee coughed from behind me, but I didn’t dare look back, not when Leviathan’s grey coat now was a gross mixture of red and green. I would have preferred to ride through raining ash than whatever that had been.
Leviathan’s tongue swathed his face. “Yum.” He grinned and kept running.
“That was gross,” I said, looking for a clean piece of clothing to wipe my face, but there was none.
A zipper sounded, and then Kylee handed me a washcloth. “I grabbed a couple clean cloths just in case we needed them on the mountain.”
I didn’t question her preparation reasons. I was just thankful she had the forethought to think of these things. I wiped my face and neck then tried to get what I could off my hands, but the cloth was already dripping. The thought of squeezing it out just made my skin crawl.
“What do I do with this?” I held the cloth out to my side like it was diseased.
“Toss it.”
I glanced back at her. I didn’t want to litter, even if this was hell.
“Something will eat it.”
“But...”
“It’s cloth. It won’t hurt a monster.”
“That’s like saying eating a sock won’t hurt a dog.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” She grabbed the cloth from me and flung it out into the sand. “I can’t put it back in the bag and contaminate everything in there with worm guts. These creatures don’t have the same digestive issues that we have on earth. Their stomach acid will disintegrate that thing.”
“Oh.” I faced forward again, feeling a little small and stupid, more from her tone than her words.
Levi slowed his pace at the first signs of something other than red sand in the distance. And it wasn’t another mountain range.
A spewing volcano reached into the mass of black clouds that looked even more daunting than the ones over Mount Cook. But that wasn’t what made us pause.
It was the sea of monsters and demons fighting at the base.
“Double fuck,” Kylee whispered.
“That is how we get to the demon realm?” Levi asked.
“Yup.” Kylee said.
“We should have kept the cleats,” I said, looking at the volcano instead of the fighting.
She huffed behind me.
The sand around us started to rumble. Levi bolted towards the ruckus. He ran straight for it, thundering down on the monsters and demons alike with claws and teeth bared.
Scorpions and sand worms barreled down on us from behind. A few of the fighters on the outskirts turned towards us, their eyes widening at the sight of Leviathan.
There were too many blocking our path. The fiends following us were just as menacing. Levi’s ferocious roar sent some of the group running, but those with weapons turned from fighting each other and focused their blades in our direction.
Leviathan was a behemoth even here. I guess from a distance Levi didn’t look all that formidable, but the closer we got, the more the masses scattered. It was like seeing King Kong take New York, but even King Kong could be taken down with a well-placed strike.
The minute his feet hit solid ground, the earth shook with each of his bounds. The scorpions stood in a line at the edge of the sand snapping their claws and raising their stingers in the air.
Levi trampled a path from the edge of the sand to the side of the volcano, leaving a trail of broken limbs and decapitated bodies. He leaped into the air, and I grabbed his collar, straining to hold on. His nails dug into the side of the volcano, cutting trenches as he hauled us towards the heat above.
Kylee hissed loud enough to catch my attention, and I turned to see her pulling an arrow out of her arm. Another one flew by my head. I reached around her and opened my palm, aiming directly for the demon with the bow. Before he could let the next arrow fly, he turned to dust under my white firebolt.
All the other demons froze in wide-eyed terror.
Their only task was to not let the monsters escape.
That was their only job in hell, and with the breaches in both realms, the demons were losing the battle to keep the status quo.
I almost felt sorry for them, especially with the renewed determination of the monster clans now that Levi plowed a way through.
I scanned the monsters, and my chest tightened as I realized just what kind of mistake we had made in approaching this way. My gaze moved to the scorpions lining the sand, and I knew there was no other way across that desert than bounding across on Levi.
If we didn’t get the last breach closed, our world...
The thought hung in my mind, and I turned forward in time to be swallowed by the black clouds.
Chapter 20
Levi pushed on, his head hanging low against the pressure of the cloud. Kylee and I clung to Levi, both leaning forward to make out anything but the cloud surrounding us. Even letting the fire burn on my fingertips provided no penetration. There was no visibility, and all I could think of was stepping off the ledge and falling into the hot lava rumbling in the belly of this beast.
Thunder rumbled around us. If we were at ground level and not riding Leviathan, I didn’t think we could have broken through into the cloud at all. Every step of his seemed impossible, and every motion was punctuated with a growl, like it hurt him to maneuver through the nearly impenetrable mist.
We broke through the cloud layer into clean air that filled my lungs and made me question whether we were still in hell or not. Then the wind shifted, and a whiff of brimstone flowed down the volcano. I could almost see over top of the thing.
“Levi, you need to shrink, now.” Kylee sliced the ropes holding us together.
I blinked and then landed on my ass, almost tumbling back into the cloud layer, but Levi grabbed my pantleg with his teeth.
Kylee was face-first on the mountainside, and she pushed up on her elbows. “You could have let us down first.” She glared at him.
“You said now,” he said.
I got to my feet and dusted myself off. “You did.”
She climbed to her feet and glanced at her watch. Her eyebrows rose, and she showed me the dial. We were halfway between the black dot and the red one now.
“Now, follow my lead,” she said and sauntered up to the crest with one of her knives in her hand, grumbling.
I followed with Levi on my heels, walking with a similar strut as Kylee. Levi walked close enough to rub against my leg. I placed my hand on his head as we crested the top of the volcano.
When I looked up, I had to check the sudden lurch in my chest and keep my face neutral. A sprawling city lay on the other side of the volcanic opening, and a narrow path crossed over the top more like an old, crafted bridge than a death trap over a volcano. Halfway across, I made the mistake of looking down at the fiery pit below. I grabbed Levi tighter than I meant to as I stared at the bubbling arcs of flaming earth.
“Ow,” he muttered, and I eased up, forcing the fear out of my grip.
A demon sentry on the other side gave us a cursory glance before looking back at the book in his hand and muttering, “Tough shift?”
I guessed being covered in worm blood and guts was a normal occurrence for the demons keeping the monster realm in check.
“Very,” Kylee said and kept walking until we passed onto the street.
The streets were crowded with people. Demons, I guessed, and their similarities to us gave us the perfect camouflage, especially with our bloodied appearance. We blended in.
Now I understood why they didn’t want to let the monsters loose in their realm. Their realm mimicked earth in many ways, and the monsters below would happily tear down their steel towers. The cold buildings seemed as appropriate as the black asphalt. No trees dotted the corners. It was all so sterile and without personality. The demons hustling from place to place either had blackened auras or no auras at all.
We weaved our way through the crowds, and each demon that crossed our path hurried away from us, giving us a wide berth and an almost respectful nod as we passed. As we neared the far side of the city, the buildings thinned, and beyond lay a black sea with the kind of ferries I had seen as a kid that took folks up to Nova Scotia for the day. They were lined up in neat little rows, sometimes three deep on a single dock.
Kylee headed for the dock that had only one ferry, and thankfully it was sparsely populated with only a few passengers on board. We stepped onto the ferry, and she pointed to a row of seats that had the wall of windows as a backing. We sat, keeping an eye on the demons on board.
That was when another truth hit me. We were the only ones with any color. Everyone else was a variation of grey or white or black, and their clothes matched. We were covered in blood which made us stand out on this boat.
It also explained why demons moved out of our way in the streets, but they didn’t stare. It was as if being a guard to the monster realm had some weight. The boat lurched forward, and my stomach turned. I swallowed and tried to hide my grimace.
The ferry captain tipped his hat as he passed by us, and then he stopped and retraced his steps. He stared at Levi and pointed at him. “I thought dogs went to heaven?”
Kylee glared at him. “He’s a new breed of hellhound. One that we designed to someday terrorize the human realm. Levi, do you want to show our captain your teeth?”
Levi’s lips pulled back to normal canine teeth, and then he opened his mouth revealing the razor-sharp layer of his own natural teeth, ballooning his mouth out almost like a cartoon dog. When he closed his snout, he seemed normal again.
