Overworld Chronicles Books 1-2: Sweet Blood of Mine & Dark Light of Mine (70 page)

I looked at Elyssa about the same time she looked at me. "Were we really about to do…uh, you know in Underborn's secret lair?"

Her lips tightened. "I'm going to be majorly ticked if we die before
it
happens."

"That's putting it mildly."

We stared at the tea then back at each other. At the tea again. Back at each other. Then we burst out laughing at the absurdity of the situation—at least I was.

"Just when I think life can't get any stranger—"

"He will see you now," Phissilinth said from the doorway.

Elyssa and I stood.

"I'm sorry, but Justin is the only person he will see right now."

"She can hear whatever he has to say to me," I said, not wanting to separate from her. If we were going to die, it would be together, not apart and alone.

"He was very specific—"

I sat back down. "She and I are in this together. You go tell him we're both coming." My nerves knotted so tight my hands tried to shake. I clenched my fists and jammed them under my legs. What was I doing? Underborn might be the only person who could stop my dad from dying but I couldn't bear the thought of leaving Elyssa alone out here. Things had been just peachy so far—tea and crumpets, and the polite Mr. Phissilinth, but it could all be a front and her life was the most precious thing to me in the world.

Phissilinth raised an eyebrow. "Then sir, you must leave. I will show you the way."

I shook my head. "I'm not leaving until he sees both of us. Tell him that." I jabbed my finger down toward the couch. "We're not leaving this spot."

"Justin, it's fine. Go see him," Elyssa said. "I'll be all right."

I shook my head. "No." I tightened my jaw and forced as much seriousness and determination into my expression as possible, hoping it didn't make me look mentally unstable. "Tell Underborn."

"I am not your servant to order around," Phissilinth said, his voice remaining calm and proper as ever. "You, sir, must either leave or get past me and tell him yourself."

Elyssa gripped my arm tight. "Don't do it," she hissed in my ear. "For god's sake, Justin, leave me and go by yourself."

I shook my head. "No, it might be a trick. They might do something to you after I leave you here alone."

"We're in his headquarters, for crying out loud. Do you think there's anything they
couldn't
do to us right now?"

"As long as we're together, we're strong."

I stood up and advanced on Phissilinth, knowing even if I had my full strength, this guy could probably whip my tail. But I had to see Underborn and I wouldn't leave Elyssa.

"Justin, no!" she said and put herself between me and the small man. Her hands pressed against me and shoved me back until she immobilized me against a wall. "I'm not letting you fight him. We'll either leave or you'll go in alone. I will be fine."

"She will come to no harm. You have my word," Phissilinth said.

"Fine, fine," I said holding my hands up in surrender. "I'll go in alone."

Elyssa directed a penetrating gaze into my own and released me. I walked across the room and over to Phissilinth. As he turned I grabbed him. Air exploded from my lungs as my back slammed into the floor. The small man's face filled my view. He was smiling.

"You're rather persistent, aren't you?"

"Uh huh," I said, gasping for lost air.

"He said you would do this. That it was your nature."

"Underborn?"

"Indeed." He held out a hand. I gripped it. "Up you go," he said, jerking me to my feet despite his small stature.

Good lord, the little man was strong. I bent over and took some deep breaths to fill my lungs. When I straightened, Elyssa gave me a concerned look.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded and she slapped me hard enough to make stars flash before my eyes. "Ow!"

"Never, never lie to me, Justin." Her voice was low and angry, but more than anything full of hurt. "How dare you lie to my face? You say you love me and then you serve me up a bald-faced lie and attack someone who could kill you in a heartbeat."

Shame constricted my throat and I looked away. I hadn't even thought about it like that. "I'm sorry."

"I made my choice, Justin. Respect me enough to abide by it."

I breathed hard to choke down the guilt and looked at her. "I'm sorry, Elyssa. Please forgive me for being an idiot."

She touched me tenderly on the cheek she'd slapped. "I forgive you for that all the time, my love. Don't ever lie to me again. Okay?"

I pressed her hand to my face. "Okay."

"If you'll both accompany me, he will see you now," Phissilinth said, the barest hint of an amused grin on his face, and walked through an open set of double doors and down the hall.

My forehead almost cramped from the confused look sprouting on my face. "But you just said—"

"Yes, of course. All in due time. All in due time."

Had it been a test?

Elyssa took my arm and guided me down the hall without another word. We passed through a long hallway lined by closed doors. Sounds emanated from behind the doors, all too muffled to make out, and I wondered what atrocities were hiding behind them. Portraits lined the hall, unfamiliar faces looking out from each one. Tiny brass labels had a name and a date beneath the portraits and I wondered if these were former members or victims of the Guild.

The hallway dead-ended at a single door. Phissilinth stopped.

"I will leave you here," he said. "Simply enter and close the door behind you." He turned and walked back down the hallway.

I took a deep breath to calm my frayed nerves, braced myself, and opened the door. Bookshelves lined the room beyond, and a large stone fireplace held a crackling fire. Elyssa closed the door behind us and we walked further inside what looked to be a library stretching on for several hundred feet.

"Greetings," said a voice containing no hint of an accent.

Elyssa and I spun to the right. A figure stood there, wreathed in the shadow of a support column blocking the light from the large chandeliers overhead. The figure reached out a hand and pulled the chain on a lamp mounted on the column. The light flickered on.

And I looked into the face of a man I knew.

Chapter 28

Mr. Turpin, my English teacher, smiled warmly back at me. "I see you're staying on task, Justin."

My legs turned to goo and I almost butt-planted on the floor. Elyssa had a similarly shocked expression on her face, her mouth hanging open, eyes wide.

"But you're a nom. A high school teacher," I said.

"Yes, I am."

"And you're Underborn?"

"The one and only, Justin."

"Are you going to kill us?"

He laughed. "Why should I bother when there are so many others willing to do it?"

Cold fear wrapped itself around my midsection. I clenched my teeth and forced the fear away best I could, replacing it with anger. "You're the almighty Underborn? The one who put a bounty on my dad? I want you to leave my father alone and tell me who put the hit on him."

"Oh, is that all?" He walked to a small round table in the reading area of the library. "You two have a seat and we'll discuss matters."

I gave Elyssa an uneasy glance before pulling out a chair for her and then me.

"Good manners, Mr. Case," Underborn said. "You always were a smart student. Not like Nathan Spelman and the bullies he associates with."

Approximately one point three billion questions burst into my mind, each one begging to be answered by this guy, but I buried them all beneath the most pressing items. I folded my arms on the table. "What will it take to make you call off the hit on my dad?"

"I assume you know of my fees?"

"A little. Something like whatever is most precious to the buyer."

"Yes. That which they treasure the most. A rather simple arrangement."

"How do you even know what they value the most?"

"My associates are excellent at profiling and discovering such things." He steepled his fingers and smiled. It looked really creepy knowing he was a school teacher, for god's sake.

"And I assume you know what I value most."

He turned his gaze to Elyssa. I wanted to jump across the table and throttle him.

"In your dreams," I said, barring her with my arm as if it might stop him from looking at her.

"In this case, Mr. Case," he said with another oily grin, "Or should I say, Mr. Slade, the payment has already been met."

I jumped up from my chair sending it toppling over backwards and pressed my clenched fists against the table. "What did you do? What have you taken from me?" Fear and anger used my heart as a punching bag. I was two seconds from charging him.

"Calm down, Justin." He motioned me to sit. "I have taken nothing from you except your time."

I wondered if he had some magical way to suck years from me even though I was supposed to be immortal. "Time?"

"I placed the original bounty on your father. I also placed the tracker on your father and gave the information to certain parties of interest."

"You what?" My shout echoed in the room. A feeling of helplessness overcame the anger and I had no idea what I could do against someone like this. Against someone so underhanded and evil.

Elyssa gripped my wrist, probably thinking I was about to attack Underborn. "Justin, please sit down." She looked at me with pleading eyes. "Please."

Somehow, I found my chair, righted it, and took a seat. I ran my hands through my hair and gazed forlornly at the wooden table.

"I did this for good reason, Justin. I had to know what kind of man you are. How you would respond to certain stimuli. In effect, I tested you."

"Didn't I already pass your lousy English exams?"

He laughed. "Your dark sense of humor is one of the things I like about you, not to mention your ideas of justice and desire to do the right thing not just by you, but your friends."

"You've been psychoanalyzing me?"

"Consider this your trial for the troubled times which lay ahead, young man." He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "While I find you a rather admirable subject, you're also lacking in important areas, namely strategizing. You tend to ram headlong into things without thinking first. This is why you and Miss Borathen are quite the package deal."

I glanced at Elyssa, confused. Her expression, however, changed to one of understanding.

"You see," he continued, "she shores up your weaknesses and plays off your strengths. Where you are the doer, she is the thinker, the planner. You two must stay together."

I gripped her hand. "I don't plan on letting her go anywhere."

"You must understand I'm not the only one who's aware of this. There will be others who want to separate you. They know how much you value each other and to what lengths you'll go to protect one another. They can make you do things you'd never do otherwise."

"You're an assassin. A killer. Why should you care about any of this?"

"For the very same reasons others care. Something ominous lingers on the horizon and all my information so far points to you as being pivotal in preventing the annihilation of life as we know it."

I laughed. Laughed until I wanted to cry. "Are you kidding me? More of this foreseeance mumbo-jumbo? Maybe you and Vallaena Slade should hook up."

"She can be one of your most powerful allies," he said, nodding. "But do not let her smother you. And whatever you do, don't accept her protection—at least not in the way she now imagines it. You need to cultivate her and others, use them for the fight to come."

I wanted to get up and leave. This was ridiculous. "All I care about is you removing the death mark from my father. I don't need that threat hanging over me."

"I will, but first you must convince him to marry Kassallandra."

"What?" I shouted. It was becoming a habit with this guy. "In case the almighty Underborn didn't know, he's already married to my mom, thank you very much."

He waved his hand as though swatting an inconvenient fly from the air. "Spawn do not recognize unions with humans. Your father's first task must be returning to his true family and raising his status from lowly Castratae back to Anae, gaining the power he should rightfully hold and uniting two major families through marriage."

"He would never in a million years betray my mom. He's obsessed with finding her and my sister, something I'm sure you know with all the fancy dossiers you probably have on us."

"He must. If the great families are split, there's little hope for the future."

"How about uniting the Slades to the Conroys?" Elyssa asked. "If that hurdle could be overcome, it might form an even better alliance."

I gave her a surprised look. She really was the thinker. "Yeah, what she said. We can find another way to unite my dear demonic family."

Underborn gave an adamant shake of his head. "Impossible. The politics of that unfortunate situation would never allow it to work." He stood up. "Let me show you something. Wait here." He walked to a nearby filing cabinet, shuffled through it, and pulled out a red folder. Walked back to the table and set it before him as he sat down. "This contains the little I know of Foreseeance 4311."

"You have a copy?" Elyssa asked, leaning forward to get a better look.

"I have fragments, lifted from the lifeless fingers of a courier who worked for the ones who wish to keep all knowledge of it out of the hands of the Conclave."

"Great, more of this garbage," I said.

"You know about your dark light, don't you Justin?" he asked.

A sliver of uncertainty crept into me. "How do you know about that?"

"Has it come to you in dreams or visions?"

"I had a stupid dream."

"We both did," Elyssa said. "I am his light in the dark."

Underborn nodded. "You are indeed, my dear. You will be with him when the end comes."

She gasped, falling back into her chair as if all the weight in the world had just been dropped into her lap. "Please tell me it doesn't mean—"

He shrugged. "As with anything related to foreseeances, there are many shifting variables and even more uncertainties. 'The end' could refer to a new beginning, death, or any number of other circumstances. I wish I could say for certain, but I do know that you must be with him at a critical moment or all may be lost."