Caged by Damnation (11 page)
Read Caged by Damnation Online
Authors: J. D. Stroube
Tags: #Children's Books, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy & Magic, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Children's eBooks, #Science Fiction; Fantasy & Scary Stories
I had to laugh. I couldn't help but think of naming my new pet after something I saw in Ivy's room. If I named her
painting, venom, or even maroon, I would definitely regret it. I could see it now, walking into my own domain and calling out for ‘Flytrap,’ my Slow Loris. The idea was ludicrous.
"How about Sly, Stoic, or Coil?" For some reason, names that began with the letter S were standing out in my mind, but I knew too many people with S names. Still, nothing else was coming to mind.
Ivy cocked her head to the side, looking away into a place that couldn't be seen with true eyes. "Stoic is interesting, but she doesn't look like a Stoic. Coil doesn't seem right for an animal. How about Nyx?"
Nyx had a ring to it that seemed right. "I like that." I smiled. "Hello, Nyx." I whispered against the rounded ears of my new friend and felt her petite tail twitch as she dreamt. "I love her. Thank you."
Ivy cleared her throat, her voice suddenly hoarse, and I wondered if she had grown attached to Nyx. "You still need my name. It's Poison."
I woke Nyx up with my uncontrollable fit of laughter. It was so perfect that Ivy would have a Hellhound name like Poison. Honestly, if someone had asked me to guess Ivy's true name, I probably would have said something like Venom or Poison. It was completely ironic, but fitting.
Poison Ivy's voice was dry of emotion as she murmured, "I'm glad you find my name so amusing."
"It's-just-too-perfect!" I had to pause for breath between each word, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the sentence out. When my laughter quieted, Poison Ivy showed me out of her room, reminded me that I still needed to visit Kali, and steered me in the direction of the redhead’s domain.
Before heading to my next appointment, I brought Nyx to the atrium. She was reluctant to leave my arms, grabbing my wrist in her attempt to stay with me. Truthfully, I wanted to stay with her, but I didn't know what else the day held for me and I didn't want to bring her somewhere that might frighten her.
CHAPTER 8
My life was a filter for disgusting filth of the worst sort. It was inevitable that each bit would be contained to my world, because apparently, I had also been born with a magnet on the other side of my filter. Horrible events were drawn to me, yet I survived them.
It would be easy to give in; to let the corruption seep through until I was an empty shell, capable of only evil. It happened to others, but I had always been too prideful to give up. It was in my nature to fight, ignore the strife, and continue plundering through until I could find a single safe haven. I was beginning to think I would never know the intimacy of safety and it terrified me.
SAVANNAH
When I woke up, the clock hanging from the wall beside the entrance of my room said it was 2 a.m. Maye was snoring, giving the occasional impression of
Tourette's
as her body twitched in her sleep. Slipping my feet over the side of the bed, I gently eased myself to the floor and tiptoed over to the coat rack to grab a robe to cover the hospital gown.
I couldn't bear the thought of Izzy being trapped in a room. She would have no control, she’d be at another's mercy. The situation hit too close to home, which was why I couldn't continue to sleep off my injuries as Maye had suggested. I needed to find her and make sure she was all right. They said that she had tried to keep them from me, which, in a sense, was her protecting me, right? If she were protecting me, then she must have trusted me on some level.
The hallway outside my room was unusually quiet. I was surprised that the lights were dimmed. I couldn't find a single trace of another person. My room was situated in the exact middle of the hall, intersecting the beginning of another. I chose to walk straight down the new hallway.
My head throbbed and I wondered if they had done as good of healing as I’d initially thought. A wave of dizziness shadowed my vision and I fell against the wall, barely catching myself against the cold plaster. I remained close to the wall, bracing myself until the episode passed.
The corridor was lined with the occasional door, a few open, but most were closed. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of unique quality to the building. It did not seem to live up to its name.
Then the lights began blinking out, one by one, vaguely like a scene one of a horror film. The hallway ended with a paneled mirror and the lights evaporated entirely. My heartbeat sped up, my breathing became labored. Suddenly, my head no longer throbbed, but exploded into lightning shards of pain that ceased the moment the lights brightened once more. I opened my eyes, afraid of what I would see next, but nothing happened until I looked in the mirror.
Asmodeus stood behind me, his wings spread the entire width of the hallway, his veins lying in contrast to his sallow skin. Tears of blood slid down his cheeks to pool in the corners of his mouth and drip down from his chin. His eyes were unblinking as they held mine in the mirror. I debated turning to face him. The longer I remained immobile, the more confident he seemed to become. His lips quirked at the corners and his eyes darkened.
The lights blinked out once more, erasing the blood from his face and revealing an alternate version of him, one I had never seen. He was as I pictured him before his fall from grace. His wings were less black, more ebony, with hints of a vibrant blue, the shade of a lagoon before a storm. His eyes glistened like electric currents trapped within blue sapphires. They were no longer hidden behind locks of hair, as his hair had been cropped short on the
sides and back. His crown was covered in unruly waves, a soft temptation my fingers begged to touch. An inner light lent a bronze gleam to his complexion.
The lights flashed once more before stabilizing, and I was once again alone.
I was beginning to worry that I may have begun my descent into insanity. Everything that had happened to me recently seemed surreal. I couldn't help but wonder if I was locked away inside my mind and everything I was seeing was all a part of some endless nightmare. For all I knew, I could be a drooling mess in an institution with an inability to tell reality from fantasy.
I rounded the corner to find myself in an entirely new environment. I stood in a hall teeming with people. The floor was made of white marble inlaid with shades of gray and black. Large pillars dissected the interior into empty caverns. A desk the size of a large mansion lay in the center, workers buzzing around the desk, speaking with those who were on the other side. Everything was illuminated by a ceiling made of a unified glowing light.
I couldn't believe that this room existed in the same building as the eerie hallways I just left. At first I wondered why I hadn’t heard the hundreds of people before entering the room. However, I then realized that sound was muted inside the room. Ordinarily, in a room so open, the sound would bounce off the walls, floor, and ceiling to create continuous echoes, but there were none.
Forcing myself to focus on my task, I approached, waiting for someone to notice me.
An elderly woman placed a bookmark into the novel she had been reading,
A Night in the Duke's Bed.
Then she
leaned forward with a smile. "Can I help you, young one?"
I shifted my feet, embarrassed that I was standing in my robe, and pulled myself together. "Um, I was in the medical center, but was told my friend was locked away
somewhere. Is there someone I can talk to who can help me find her?
"Ah ... you must be talking about the fierce winged one. She made quite the spectacle and harmed a few of our own before they could tranquilize her."
Her stare was disapproving, but I refused to feel guilty. "That's probably her. I just need to find her. I'm sure I can keep her from hurting anyone else and I won't be able to sleep until I know she's safe."
She sighed. "Very well. I heard that some of the warriors managed to contain her in the high security wing." She shifted some papers around; the thin, gray strands of her hair fell forward, getting caught behind the lens of her glasses. "Ah, here you go." She placed a miniature map between us and pointed to the empty space in the center. "We're here. This is the directive. You turn around and take the passage against the far wall until you reach the dead end. There, you’ll will find an elevator. Take it to the top floor. You'll find some guards there who will tell you which cell she's in."
I grabbed the map, smiled, and forced myself to speak in a sincere tone. "Thank you. I appreciate this."
"Just keep that winged one under control and I will consider us even."
I followed her directions down a dark hall until I stood in front of the elevator. Aside from the bright light surrounding the edges of it, it looked like an ordinary elevator. The doors opened and I pushed the button. The trip up was longer than I expected. My eardrums popped from the pressure change.
The elevator stopped, but the doors remained closed. A few minutes later, when they still hadn't opened, I began to panic. The
doors open
button did nothing and there wasn't a button to set off an alarm or call for help.
My memories flashed back to my childhood cage. I could feel the steel bars containing me, pressing against my
skin, incinerating cohesive thought. Tears fell. I screamed and banged my fists against the walls, wailing, begging for my escape. Part of me knew I was having a panic attack, but the primitive part of me screamed at my loss of freedom. Giving up on the walls, I tried to pull the doors open with my fingernails.
I couldn't breathe; my throat was closing. I was cloaked in a familiar darkness. It had a grainy texture that seemed more substantial than it had been before. Suddenly, light blazed in a blinding flash that shocked me enough to take several moments before I realized I was out of the elevator.
My body was shaking from anxiety and I held my eyelids closed, as if blocking the light out would release me from the mortification of my
episode.
When I finally peeked, I found Ash staring down at me. He held me in his arms, whispering soothing words, furrowing his brow the way he did when he was worried.
"I'm okay. You can let go now."
Ash pulled away sharply, placing our complicated past between us once more. Behind him stood two abnormally large men wearing black uniforms. The first was beginning to show the frost of age, his skin crinkled, his hair graying. He had the look of a seasoned warrior who had seen his fair share of death, but a soft kindness still lingered in his blue eyes. Strange symbols had been tattooed on various areas of his visible skin and I wondered if they were a cultural thing.
But then I noticed that both the guards’ necks held the identical tattoo, two daggers crisscrossed with the blades pointing down. In the center of the daggers was a spear with the sharp end pointing upwards. The black weapons were surrounded by a knotted circle that glowed a bright red, vaguely resembling the Celtic knot.
The second guard was much younger. I doubted he had seen a true battle, but he looked fit enough to handle himself. His hair had been shaved until barely half an inch of blond hair was left to warm his scalp. He smiled, showing his razor sharp teeth, and I twitched at the sight. I would have been tempted to back away, but his eyes were filled with rich emotion, as though a churning sea were held in their depths.
"No offense, child, but when someone has a fit like that, they are rarely
fine
." The elder of the two guards held out his hand to help me to my feet.
"I'm okay now, honest."
The guards exchanged glances and the younger one shrugged. "If you say so." His voice was deep, holding power in each syllable. It made me uneasy. "I'm Rafe and this ancient chew-toy is Maloc." Rafe flashed his incisors once more.
"Ancient chew toy, my ass. I may be older, but I can still take on a little scamp like you." They both laughed and turned back to me and Ash.
"You nearly scared your boy to death. I have no doubt he would have incinerated this entire wing to pry those doors open. You sounded as if the fates themselves were punishing you." Maloc had spoken in what seemed to be a teasing voice, but when I looked behind me I was shocked.
The doors to the elevator were charred and twisted, bent away from the inside of the elevator. It looked like a scene from a comic book, as if someone with incredible strength had pulled the doors apart, with the effort most people used to crush a mosquito.
"Wow ... I…." Turning back to Ask, I placed my hand on his shoulder. "You did that?" He shrugged and looked everywhere other than in my eyes. "Ash?"
"What did you expect? You were screaming like something was trying to kill you. After what happened at the house, I ..." He took a deep breath. "I thought you needed me." He shook his head, putting an end to the conversation.
Ash looked tense, his body slightly angled away, as if he couldn't bring himself to face me. "I did ... I
do
need you! I was terrified, and just because it was in my head doesn't mean that I needed you any less."
Ash's eyes were shadowed in vulnerability.
The silence stretched on, carrying a wave of yearning and regret, before Rafe cleared his throat. "Come on." His voice was short and clipped, and we walked down the corridor, away from the guards. I waved goodbye to them.
"Is Izzy down this way?"
"Yeah, we've all been taking turns watching over her door. I knew you wouldn't want her to be alone."
A wide staircase that led down into a murky darkness lay before us. Ash grabbed a torch from the wall to light the way, while I made my way down the cement steps. This section looked like it needed a renovation badly. I was more suited to a dungeon than a maximum security prison.
"I thought they put her in the ward with the best security?"
"I asked the same thing." He held the torch against one of the walls to show me ancient symbols written across it. They were everywhere. "This is the oldest part of the building. It was built on the site of the threshold to the Divine. It's called the in-between, because we are neither here nor there. Izzy is powerless as long as she is in this wing."
A small light bloomed ahead, but I wasn't anxious to reach it. I wanted to make sure Izzy was okay. However, my need to finish my conversation with Ash was overshadowing everything else. I knew the temptation was a bit selfish and I despised that piece of myself, but the sound of his voice was like a lullaby for my soul. It made me feel safe and warm, adrift in a sea of emotion.
I also remembered Liam and Ash telling me that Diamante and members of her coven would guard over Izzy. The light ahead served as a warning of that
confrontation. A part of me still resented Liam's mother ordering him to seduce me. However, given everything that had occurred since her interference, I could overlook the past to withstand the present.
"I didn't know places like this existed. I thought you could only cross the threshold, not stand within it."
Ash angled a sidelong glance my way and paused in his steps. "Neither did I. Apparently, the elders only share the location of this place under duress. You were poisoned by something our coven has never seen, so they brought you here. It's sort of a supernatural sanctuary."
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