A Life Earthbound (37 page)

“Some demon, I don’t know.” She looked away, unable to meet his eyes any longer. “I…I made a huge mistake.”

Because part of him had expected this, he reached out swiftly and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her until she would look at him. “You helped him kidnap her, didn’t you?
Didn’t you?
”

“Yes!” she cried, tears flowing down her face now. “Yes, I did, but I thought she was guilty, Rohan, and Burke was hurting so badly, and we both knew she deserved to be punished. So I helped him get into the castle last night and showed him to her room, and he left with her. I don’t know where he planned on taking her.”

“Damn you,” Rohan hissed, pushing her away from him bitterly. “Damn you to Hell.”

With that, he whistled at the wolf to follow him and left to find Thea. He had to tell her what his wife had done so they could begin the search.

What he didn’t know was that Liam was already on his way upstairs to retrieve the gun Blythe had stashed in her nightstand, a scribbled down note of Burke’s address from the Furies’ files already tucked into his pocket from that morning.

He just had to pray he wasn’t too late.

It amazed her to see the gun, clutched shakily in Burke’s hands as he pointed it at Dante. She stared at it, mystified, wondering what it would look like if he fired it.

For a split second, she thought she might get to find out when Burke suddenly pulled the trigger. But the answering empty click and his dumbfounded look told her something had gone terribly wrong.

Dante just laughed, releasing Rhiannon and pushing her back onto the chair as he rounded on Burke, knocking the empty gun from his hand and punching him hard in the face. Burke, still dazed, crumbled back to the floor, clutching his head and groaning.

“Fool, you think I’d leave you with a loaded weapon?” Dante chuckled, kicking Burke in the gut for good measure. “I thought you were supposed to be a big, bad Enforcer?”

He kicked him again, pleased with Burke’s answering painful grunt.

“Who are you? Are you a demon? What are you doing here?” Burke asked, clutching his stomach in pain as he glared up at Dante.

“You could say that…and I came here to find out which of the Council you’d kidnapped for killing your son,” Dante informed him jauntily, smiling back at Rhiannon. “But she tells me she didn’t do it. So I’d say you’re not a very good Enforcer if you’re arresting the wrong people.”

Burke looked at Rhiannon then, the violent anger back in his eyes. “She’s lying.”

Rhiannon stayed where she was, silent, hoping they would keep talking with each other and ignore her. Already her hands had snaked behind her chair, and she was ready to finish growing her small tree.

“You know, I heard a little rumor…it’s probably nothing, but perhaps I should share it with you,” Dante began, eyeing Burke with sick glee in his eyes.

When Burke didn’t respond, he continued. “I heard that it was a demon who killed your boy, not one of the Council. Isn’t that just delightful?” Dante clapped his hands together, grinning broadly as he saw the shock flash over Burke’s face. “So, you see, Mr. Callahan, when I kill the girl here, I may just leave you alive so that Thea can punish you for making this one grave, deadly mistake.”

“A demon did that to Michael?” Burke spluttered, staring up at Dante in stunned disbelief.

“That’s the rumor,” Dante replied lushly, grinning again. “Now, here’s what we’re going to do. I need to send a message to Thea, letting her know that I’m, shall we say, back in town and ready to rumble. I think it would be fun if I give you the honor of strangling our lovely Earth Dryad here…” He paused, eyebrows arched as he crouched down beside Burke. “That is your handiwork, is it not?”

He pointed up at the bruises on Rhiannon’s neck, and she stayed still as a statue, hoping they wouldn’t notice what she was doing. Just a little bit more…the tree was almost large enough. She just needed it to have a few branches and a couple of leaves, then it should be large enough for her to grab and transport back home.

Dante turned back to Burke, who scowled miserably. “Maybe it is.”

“Ha!” Dante beamed, immensely pleased with how the whole situation was playing out thus far. “Well then, you should have no problem doing it again. Then, you’ll carry her body back to Euphora, and tell Thea who made you do it. Tell her that I’m coming for her, for all of them, and that these last few months I’ve been preparing.” His eyes glinted with sheer evil and wicked madness as his gaze held Burke’s. Burke’s eyes widened in terror at the swift change of mood, the rapid darkening in the air that fell over them, dismal and sinfully insane. “Tell her that I have an army, the likes of which she’s never seen…tell her that all of the evil she’s banished and locked up over the last several centuries has been released, and is now under my command. This time, she won’t win.”

Rhiannon’s breath caught in her throat and she momentarily forgot all about her tree. An army? Good God…

Suddenly, there was a loud knocking noise from up above. They all stared at the ceiling toward the sound.

“Hmm…” Dante’s eyes narrowed as he considered how to handle the situation. But before any of them could do more than acknowledge the sound, there was a loud crash, the front door more than likely kicked in, and the sound of feet racing throughout the first floor.

Rhiannon’s heart was thudding in her chest, praying it wasn’t Brogan or Rian, or any of them up above. And when she heard the steps come toward the door to the basement, she felt the panic and fear choke her worse than Burke’s hands ever could.

Dante stealthily slipped his own pistol from the holster at his hip, a large, .45 revolver. Burke started to move, but Dante swiftly struck him on the head with the butt of the pistol, knocking him unconscious.

He pulled the Enforcer up by his shirt and dragged him underneath the staircase, where they would both be hidden from view. Then he pointed the revolver at Rhiannon. “You say a word, shout a warning, and I will kill you.”

She nodded, and then braced for the worst. If only she’d known just how bad it would be.

The door was shoved open and Liam appeared at the top of the stairs, gripping Blythe’s pistol in his hands and pointing it down into the basement.

Rhiannon’s heart clenched hideously and she felt a single tear escape and fall down her cheek as she stared up at him in both horror and disbelief.

“No…” she whispered, her eyes immediately shooting to Dante, who was watching her from under the stairs, his eyes gleaming with manic discovery.

“Rhia.” Liam rushed down the stairs, thinking no one else in the room. He went straight to her, not recognizing the terror in her eyes. “Where’s Burke?”

She shut her mouth tightly, knowing Dante had the revolver pointed right at Liam’s back. If she said anything, he would surely shoot him…

Liam reached for her hands, thinking she was bound to the chair, only to find she was sitting there, unconstrained. “What the…Rhia, why are you just sitting here? What is that?”

She met his eyes, knowing he just saw the tree behind her. She tried with all her will to convey to him silently to keep quiet about the tree. He sensed that there was something wrong, and when he heard the cruel laughter coming from the stairs, he knew he’d walked straight into a trap.

Turning around, he pointed the gun in the direction of the laughter, where Dante was now emerging from the darkness. Burke’s body lay there, unmoving.

“I knew there was something that would make you cry…” He chuckled, his own revolver pointed directly at Liam as he sauntered forward, his eyes glittering madly. “Let me guess…this is the Water Dryad, come to save you from the big, bad, crooked Enforcer?”

“Who are you?” Liam asked, placing himself between the stranger and Rhiannon.

Dante only smiled wider. “I’m your worst nightmare, boy.”

Knowing it may kill them all, but seeing no other way out, Rhiannon shot her hands forward and pointed them at the ground, instantly jolting the plates deep below. The floor beneath them trembled and then shook violently, knocking both men to their knees as the ceiling above them started to cave in. Dante scrambled away from the falling debris toward the staircase as the ground swayed sickeningly beneath their feet. She held her hands in place, feeling the earthquake down to her very bones, her eyes open now and shining with strength and power. This was her way of fighting back, her way of hurting him. And oh, she hoped he’d suffer.

With something close to a battle cry, she sent one last, jolting tremor that rolled visibly beneath the carpet, heading straight for Dante. His eyes widened and he fired at her, but missed by a long shot due to the shaking ground. He reached up to cover his head as the ceiling above him started to crumble down, covering him in a mass of dust and debris.

Knowing they only had seconds before the entire house caved in, Rhiannon reached for Liam, grabbing his hand and then the tree behind her.

“Mother, I seek to return to you. Grant me entrance, and I will always be true,” she said as quickly as she could, shutting her eyes as the golden light flashed before them, and the house disappeared in a shroud of misty fog.

When the fog
cleared, she opened her eyes and saw her home. And, for reasons completely unknown to her, the sight of it broke free a need deep inside her chest, something that for so long lay hidden and secret. Perhaps it was a culmination of adrenaline and fear that freed it, combined with the knowledge that she and Liam could very easily have just lost their lives. But they were safe now…they were home.

She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, the urge to shatter into pieces coursing through her body. But she couldn’t fall apart...not now, not here…

“God, Rhia.” Liam pulled her against him, shuddering as he breathed her in, knowing she was safe. “You were so brave.”

“It was nothing,” Rhiannon insisted, pushing away from him, not sure she could even bear to look at him. She had to be alone, had to find someplace to give in to this urgent need to do something she had never before been able to do.

She started to walk and saw Blythe and Jax racing toward them through the meadow, fear and concern in their eyes.

“Jesus, Liam, what the hell happened? Rohan said that Burke had her, we were just about to go over there,” Blythe called out, running to him and hugging him tightly. He pulled away and handed her back her pistol, his eyes wide and uncertain.

“Yeah, he had her, but there was someone else there, some guy...” Liam managed, shaking his head, dumbfounded. “Ask her.”