devil 02 - tween a devil and his hard place (38 page)

My father smiled at Raoul and placed a hand on his shoulder. I watched as Raoul’s face softened into a peaceful expression. Then my father turned to me. “Where are they holding King Dialle?”

“Castle Gregg, the dungeon.”

He nodded and offered me his other hand. I held up a finger for him to wait and shuffled my mental drawers.

Dialle?

I waited for a second and finally got a crackly response, as if he were trying to talk on satellite and had a weak signal.

Astra.

I have backup. It’s time to free your father. Meet us there.

Are you sure we cannot leave him just a bit longer, my love? I find my butt fits rather nicely in his throne.

I wanted to chuckle but figured it wasn’t the time.
Har. I need you to meet us there as soon as possible.

A sigh drifted through my mind, followed by a very sexy thought that caused parts of my body which were located in the restricted territories to tingle.

Hold that thought,
I told him.

I found myself smiling as I took my father’s still outstretched hand.

Raoul looked a little pale when we returned to the physical plane. I clapped him on the back. “Welcome to my world, pal.”

He surprised me with a wide grin that transformed his face. “That was frunkin’ cool, Astra.”

I chuckled and took his arm.

King Dialle was looking a little squashed. Apparently his lessons in anger management hadn’t been particularly successful.

“It’s about time you came back you little bitch. Let me out of here so I can melt you.”

My father frowned at him. “King Dialle, you touch one hair on this girl’s head and you will be sent back to the fiery pits so fast you won’t have time to take a breath first. Do we understand each other?” He gave the king his best superior being look and Dialle the First, though hardly looking mollified, finally gave a slight nod of acknowledgement.

“You have my sincerest apologies Seraphim James. I’m sure you can understand that my temper has been strained by my current circumstances.”

My father turned and winked at me. “I think you have it backward, King Dialle. It looks to me like your temper has done much to strain your current circumstances.”

King Dialle’s face darkened in anger again but he forced himself to give a tight nod in agreement.

My father looked to Myra, who had been busy assessing the king’s magical prison.

She met his gaze with her usual poker face. But I could see the concern in her clear blue gaze. “It is a unique structure, James. I’ve not seen its like.”

My father nodded and glanced at me.

“It’s made up of exactly the same amounts of dark and light magic, Father. Forged under two powers of exactly the same strength. I’ll admit I don’t know how we’ll break it.”

Raoul stepped forward and placed his hands on the cage tentatively. King Dialle, being a devil, took advantage of Raoul’s obvious fear and jumped toward him, as much as he could in the womblike prison, growling menacingly. Raoul jumped back with a less than manly yelp and then scowled.

“Childish antics will not get you out of this cage, King Dialle,” Raoul said with as much dignity as he could pull back around himself. “But I can if you’ll stop being difficult.”

Dialle the First chuckled meanly. “You? A mere witch? And a human one at that? I think not.”

Ignoring the cranky twitterfly in the cage my father turned to Raoul. “Do you know how to break it, young man?”

Raoul shook his head. “Not break it no. But I know how to open it.” He glanced at me before returning his earnest gaze to my father. “It has a seam.”

“I couldn’t find one,” I piped in.

Myra shook her blonde head. “There is no seam, human. I’ve searched carefully.”

Raoul turned to Myra, ignoring me. “You wouldn’t see it because you are of the light, Archangel Myra. It’s visible only through dark magic. And only then if you have some idea of the magical components in it.”

“But I have dark magic, Raoul and I can’t see it,” I argued.

He nodded without looking at me. He’d begun to run his hands over the entire surface of the cage, murmuring something that sounded like an incantation. “Your mother placed a special protection on the lock so you couldn’t see it, Astra. She knows of your relationship with Dialle the Second.”

As if on cue my Dialle popped into the room.

He strode toward us a bit arrogantly. Looking at his father he chuckled. “I see you’ve managed to make your life even more of a living hell.”

Dialle the father scowled at him. “Stop jabbering boy and get this thing open.”

My Dialle looked at me and his gaze grew heated. I cleared my throat and swung my eyes meaningfully toward my father. He grinned mischievously so I shuffled his mental drawers and said,
Redeep
.

He frowned.
How long will you hold that over my head, Astra?

I grinned back.
Until I find something better, Dialle.

He stared hard at me for a beat but then his lips twitched.
Remind me to kiss your ass later, Astra.

My grin widened.
Don’t you mean kick my ass?

He winked at me.
No
.
I said exactly what I mean, Tweener.

I forced the grin off my face and gave my Dialle the highlights of the situation. He nodded and looked at Raoul. “Can you release my father, human?”

Raoul’s gaze when it slid to Prince Dialle was not friendly. I couldn’t help remembering the animosity he’d shown toward my Dialle when we’d been discussing the demon’s first victim that day in the church. When he’d seemed determined to blame the royals for the murders. I wondered what was going on between them and made a mental note to find out later.

“I can.” Then he turned back to the cage and resumed his searching and quiet chanting. Finally he stopped and placed his hands over a specific area. His chanting grew louder and I could feel the distinct tang of black magic rising in the air.

Gooseflesh pebbled my arms and I rubbed at it.

I noticed the angels stepped back from the rising black tide. When confronted with black magic it was an angel’s duty and inclination to remove it. They were no doubt fighting that inclination mightily.

I watched Raoul’s hands carefully. Very slowly something started to appear beneath them. After about a half hour of solid chanting, the lock to the cage was finally visible.

Raoul stepped away, clearly drained.

I walked to the lock and reached for it.

Raoul grabbed my hand. “No!”

I looked at him in surprise.

“You must
not
touch it. It needs to be deactivated first.”

My father stepped forward. “How?”

Raoul looked at him. “That’s why I need you and Archangel Myra. We need really powerful light magic to counter the dark magic Prince Dialle and I will be adding to the mix.”

I frowned. “What about me?”

Raoul and my Dialle both said, “You stand back.”

I almost stamped my foot. “Excuse me?”

Raoul expelled a breath and took my hands, though I almost snatched them away because I was seriously pissed off at the idea that they were trying to exclude me.

“Look, Astra. Every time I use dark magic it leaves a stain on my soul. It’s why I’m such a mess right now. I’ve had to use a lot of dark magic over the last few weeks and I’m feeling the effects. I don’t want that to happen to you.”

Myra, damn her soul, chimed in, “He’s right, child. Your soul doesn’t need to get any blacker.”

My Dialle snorted and I glared at him. “I don’t care. I’m doing this.”

Prince Dialle’s eyes met my father’s and I knew what they were going to do but I couldn’t move fast enough to stop it.

My father waved a hand toward me and I was suddenly encased in a hard bubble of air, clear across the room. I commenced to pounding on the clear bubble and sharing my vast knowledge of unacceptable language with everyone in the room.

My father glared at me like a father and shook his head at my language. But then he turned his back and ignored me. I wound down after a few minutes of being ignored and stamped my foot. It didn’t help but I did it again anyway.

Damned fools.

My mental drawers suddenly shuffled and Emo’s voice greeted me.
Hey, boss. Where are you? I’ve been looking all over for you.

I’m at Castle Gregg. We’re trying to release the king.

That’s good because all Hades is breakin’ out here.

I frowned, momentarily distracted from the fact that I was being excluded from the goings on across the room
. What’s up?

I’ll tell you when I get there. You on the main floor?

Dungeon.

A heartbeat later Emo popped into the room. He stood looking at the gathering around King Dialle for a moment and then, looking confused, cast his eyes around the room. He didn’t even try to hide his start of surprise when he saw little ole me, encased in a power bubble across the room.

All by myself.

To his credit he did quickly squash the smirk that tried to climb onto his face.

Almost before I saw it.

I bristled as he sauntered over to me.

“Don’t say it!” I glared at him.

He drew a zipper across his lips and then grinned at me. “Always on the outside looking in aren’t you, Astra?”

I scowled in a very unattractive way. “Bite me. Get over there and find out what they’re doing and then come back and tell me.”

He saluted cockily and sauntered back across the room.

I tried not to notice the way his jeans molded over a very round and muscular backside as he went.

I really did.

I mean…it’s not like I had anything else to do in that damned bubble.

He joined the circle and received a pat on the back from my father. Then he bent his dark head as they continued planning. Whatever it was they were going to do seemed complex because there was much discussion and head shaking going on.

The only bright spot to the whole damnable situation was the way it was truly and thoroughly pissing off the king to have to stand there in his cage and wait patiently.

Finally there was sustained and uniform head bobbing and they broke up to circle the cage.

Emo started to turn away and walk back toward me but Myra grabbed his hand and yanked him around to the back of the cage. He cast a glance at me over his shoulder and shrugged.

“Son of a flaming gargoyle bitch!” I screamed into the room at large.

“What about his soul? Doesn’t anybody care about that?”

Other than a brief, guilty glance from Emo, nobody paid any attention to the pissed off little Tweener with the long auburn hair which was currently, I was fairly certain, standing straight up in the air like the needles on an agitated porcupine.

I could only watch helplessly as the group extended their respective arms so that their fingers just touched in a circle around the cage. Raoul began to chant and, even through my bubble, I could feel the air beginning to change.

Black magic pulsed and throbbed around me, bringing my devil out in a big way even from across the room.

I watched as the air inside the flesh and blood circle started to thicken and grow substance and light. Pinpricks of color and flashes of light pulsed in time to Raoul’s chanting and wrapped the clear cage in a pulsing layer of power.

Inside the cage King Dialle was visibly affected. His eyes were closed and his head thrown back to rest against the clear wall of the cage behind him. He’d placed his hands flat against the cage and I could see the fingers twitching as if they wanted to caress and fondle something.

My gaze ran around the circle and saw that Dialle and Emo were having the same reaction. But my father and Myra looked as if they’d lost ten years of their lives. Their faces were gray and pinched, as if they were in severe pain.

I figured they probably were.

I suddenly realized that they were seriously outnumbered. Yes, Emo had light magic in him but he also had dark. Raoul was using pure black magic to close and ignite the circle of power and Dialle was pure black.

I sent my sensing power out and was surprised to find it could move beyond the power bubble. I concentrated on assessing the circle of power and saw that it was a dark, pewter-like gray.

It needed to be much lighter if they were going to achieve the perfect mix that would open the lock. Not to mention that it was killing the angels in the circle.

When Myra’s knees started to buckle I cried out and my hands flew to the power bubble in frustration. I had to get out of there somehow. Something wasn’t right.

Drawing all of my reserves of power I concentrated it into a pinpoint area and drilled it into the bubble, I focused on that pinpoint spot for several minutes.

Nothing happened. The bubble didn’t weaken even the tiniest little bit.

I gave up and leaned back against the bubble panting. My mind worked frantically for a solution. Finally, in desperation I shuffled my mental drawers and called Dialle.

Dialle, the black magic is too strong, pull back your power. Now!

In response I got the telepathic equivalent of static and forced myself not to make snide comparisons to dead air space and Dialle’s mind. But after a few beats he said in a fairly strained voice in my head,
I’ll try.

He pulled his power back and the effect was nearly instantaneous. Raoul dropped to his knees and Emo doubled over at the waist. My sensing power showed me a power circle that was way too light, nearly white.

Dialle, rejoin the circle, hurry!

Make up your damn mind, Astra!

Why was everybody always saying that to me?

He threw his power back into the circle and the Angels looked like they’d taken a jolt. Myra wavered on her feet.

Plan B,
I screamed to Dialle in my mind.
I’m going to try to add some light magic to the circle through you.
I briefly considered the effect it might have on him to be a conduit for my light magic but I didn’t have any choice. Myra had dropped to her knees and my father looked decidedly wobbly.