Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) (28 page)

“This place will get into your mind.”

“How come you weren’t affected?”

“I woke up seeing Miranda. It wasn’t difficult to
determine that one was a fake. Henry is on this level.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s my familiar.”

“Great, then you can lead us to him.”

“Maybe.” He made a slow circle around the room before
stopping at the door opposite of me. “I think he’s this way.” He opened the
door and I saw yellow light.

Right before he stepped inside, the sensation of
danger hit me hard. “Wait!” I yelled. He did, confused. “We’re in basically a
nightmare of our own making, right?” He nodded. “Then I know why we’re in this
room. The person I want to save most, at least at this very moment, is Henry.
You want to save Miranda. That’s why they appeared to us; in this room, we can
have them, but never save them. There’s no telling what is in the other rooms.”

“So you think we should just stay in this room
forever?”

“Hell no. I’m just saying that we need to be very
careful.”

“Why? You’ve done a thousand things that are
ridiculously dangerous.”

“Exactly. I don’t want to relive all of that, do you?”

He sighed and stared doubtfully into the yellow room.
“I wasn’t lying when I told you I was the most powerful wizard you have ever
met. I have more magic than anyone on Earth or Dothra. The thing is, I’ve
always been able to rely on my magic. This is a very strange and unsettling
place for me.”

“Don’t worry; I’ve survived without magic before, so
I know how it works,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. The wizard could be
ridiculously goofy or downright evil, but I had never seen him solemn like
this.

I stepped into the yellow room. It was cold, which
made me shiver since I was still covered in water and sweat from the first
level. Just like in the previous room, there were four doors. Two of the doors,
including the one I came through, were open. When I turned back to tell Langril
it was clear, I saw movement in the corner. A vampire was huddled in the corner
with a yellow blanket. Langril entered and studied the vampire as well. “Do you
see him?” I asked.

“Yes. He’s probably one of the victims.”

“He needs help.”

“Don’t touch him,” Langril said.

“I know.” I approached the vampire cautiously, ready
to jump back if he attacked. “Hey, do you need help?” The vampire didn’t
respond. He probably doesn’t speak English.”

“I doubt that matters here.”

The vampire looked up at that moment and I gaped. His
face was covered in blood. “What happened to you?” Instead of answering, he
pointed to the open door. As I approached the door, I sensed danger. The room
lighting was orange. “Which way, Professor?”

“That way.”

“There’s something in there.”

“There’s something in here,” he said. When I looked
at him, he pointed to the ceiling. With dread, I looked up, but there wasn’t
anything.

“I don’t see it.”

“Of course you don’t.” Startled at the unexpected
voice, I turned. Langril and the vampire were gone. Instead, there was Astrid.

“You can’t trick me. I know this is a hallucination.”

She was wearing the same outfit she had when I saw
her in Dothra; a red leather top that showed more skin than it covered. Her
pants were black leather, as were her spike-heeled boots. Her hair was in one
long braid and her eyes were almost glowing green. It was both disturbing and
attractive.

She smirked. “Of course you know… for now. The
vampire thrall is less effective on wizards who regularly control minds, but
you’re not immune. Soon, you won’t even remember why you’re here, let alone
where you are. You might as well enjoy it before you descend into insanity.”

“It’s a prison where the inmates are encouraged to
enjoy it?”

“A little pleasure makes the bite sting harder.”

I laughed. “I hear it a bit different in my world.”

“So? Do you want to descend all mauled and bleeding
out, or do you want to go in the arms of the woman you love?”

I scoffed. “What’s the angle?”

“Afterwards, when you’re all warm and happy, I’ll
take your blood until you are near death so that you’ll be too weak to defend
yourself in the next level.”

“Why not just kill me?”

“This prison doesn’t allow death, only sleep.”

While I was considering this, she took the opportunity
to approach me. I pushed her away. “That’s not happening.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Then your descent will be
agonizing.”

She vanished and something suddenly crashed into me
from behind. I tried to roll over onto my back, but jaws sunk deep into my
shoulder and jerked, breaking bones and causing shocks of pain up my neck and
into my head. “Henry! Get off me!” The invisible jaguar ignored me and bit down
harder. With my free hand, I managed to draw my gun, twist around, and bash it
into his face. Henry let go.

Langril made a motion with his hand, but nothing
happened. He grimaced. “Well, that is unfortunate.” Then he reached into his
robe and pulled out a sword. Just like the shadow walkers’ swords, it was
curved like a katana and emitted a glow. Whereas all the other swords I’d seen
glowed red, his was blue.

“Don’t hurt him!” I demanded.

“Of course I’m not going to hurt him; he’s my
familiar. I’m going to force him to accept the bond.”

“Absolutely not!” I would have said something else,
but I could feel Henry circling me. I pulled the dagger out of my boot.

“He has gone feral. He’s been in here too long.”

“He’s only been in here a couple hours.” He made a
lunge at me and I slashed, hoping to miss all vital organs. I felt the dagger
sink all the way in until I felt fur at the hilt. The jaguar roared in pain and
bit into my left shoulder again, very nearly tearing open my throat. I tried
again to use my magic, to try to force him to shift, but I didn’t feel
anything. “How do we know it’s even him?” Fortunately, he let me go for a
second time.

“I know.”

“Then do it, but if you ever endanger his life,
Darwin and I will make your life Hell. He has a five-year-old waiting for him
at home. His loyalties will always be with his child first.”

“I didn’t choose this. I’m doing it to help him.”
Langril raised his sword, and I blacked out.

*          *          *

I woke lying on what felt like slime. At first, there
were a few minutes of confusion, because I had no idea why or how I fell
asleep. I was in what looked like a massive cave. The “floor” I was on was
soft, flexible, and smooth, like rubber, and covered in black slime. I stood,
carefully, and managed not to slip. The lighting was odd; I couldn’t see a
light source, but it was reflected on the stone ceiling. It looked like fire.

“Langril…” I coughed, half choking on the thick air.
It was at least a hundred and fifteen degrees and humid. The stench of sulfur
was suffocating. I took a few steps before the ground beneath me started
trembling. I think I expected what was coming. My parents weren’t religious,
but fire was a pretty universal staple of Hell.

Around me, the floor broke apart and fell until I was
standing on a small, stone platform. Of course, beneath me was a river of lava.
“Fucking perfect.”

“It should be. Is this not what you expected when you
accepted the key?”

Although the voice was familiar, I resisted the urge
to turn. I was great at my job, I was pretty quick in picking up magic, and I
could take a punch, but I was not agile. As if the slime weren’t bad enough, my
shoulder was bleeding so much I was a little concerned about blood loss.
Indestructible
my ass, Hunt
.

Slowly, taking at least five minutes, I managed to
turn and face Janus. The god looked exactly the same as when he gave me the
key— creepy in a non-human way. Janus, the god of the crossroads, was known for
his most distinguishing feature, which was having two faces. One of the faces
was youthful with blond hair and a clean face, while the other was elderly with
white hair on the head and face.

“I thought I paid when Astrid was left for six months
in Dothra. She’s practically sacrificing herself because of the healing
potion.”

“Are you not satisfied with the healing potion?” the
younger face asked.

“You made is so that she can never die. She plans to
trap herself in Dothra to save Earth because she is the only one who can
survive destroying the tower from her side.”

The older face frowned with disappointment. “She
plans to destroy the tower to protect herself and her power.”

“Not Astrid. You may be a god… or a figment of my
imagination, but I believe in her more than I would believe in a god. Astrid is
strong, protective, and loving. We both had some emotional damage when we were
kids and we were exactly what each other needed.”

“Yet she still believes you hate her.”

“And when I save her, I’ll tell her otherwise.”

“Unfortunately, you forgot about the sacrifice for
the key, and I think you just told us what is most precious to you.”

“I have to let her suffer in Dothra for six months.
That’s sacrifice enough.”

“We will decide what your sacrifice is,” the older
face said.

“We have decided,” the younger face added.

“You will stay here.”

“How is that my sacrifice? I’m not most important to
myself. I learned that when Rocky cured my heart.”

“No, but protecting your loved ones is. To prevent
you from protecting your loved ones, we can trap you here or kill you, and
killing you means the key would be available again.”

“I don’t accept. You can have the key back and get me
and my friends out of here.”

“That is not possible. You already possess the key.
Giving it up would kill you, which would defeat the purpose.”

“At least do something to help!”

“We are gods; we do not meddle with the affairs of
mortals.”

“Bullshit! You gods have been meddling throughout all
of history, in every damn culture! You’re just going to stand around while my
friends die because you want to be all high and mighty? What about Krechea?!
He’ll destroy Earth!”

“Krechea would try to save you, and in doing so, trap
himself. That solves another of our problems.”

“Why would he try to save me?”

“Because you have the key, and he needs it.”

“What about Langril’s key?”

“We will save Keigan Langril because we foresee a
sudden and unavoidable death otherwise and that will leave the key---”

“How does he die?” I interrupted.

Neither face looked amused. “We foresee you shooting
him.”

“You’ve got to help.”

“We have no interest in helping mortals.” He started
to fade.

“Wait! Give me a damn minute to come up with
something!” He ignored me, so a second later, I was alone on a small platform,
about ten feet above a river of lava. “I’m never going to fall asleep again.”

*          *          *

I spent so many hours standing on the platform,
trying to come up with a plan. I also tried connecting to anyone’s mind to no
avail. There had to be a way around this sacrifice crap, but after so many
consecutive visions, trouble sleeping for months, and being stranded on a
three-foot wide platform over a river of lava, I was having a little trouble
thinking. Furthermore, I had no idea what was going on between Henry and
Langril or if Vincent was okay.

I went after Henry without a plan, and I was paying
for it. Even when I rejected magic as a kid, I had my instincts to guide me.
This time, I was without magic and without instincts. I didn’t even have a bad
guy to shoot. I was an investigator, but since I got the key, I was pretty much
just fighting. Mysteries at the school always involved sinister plots and
monsters, so I had been looking forward to getting some non-paranormal cases.

Fat lot of good that did me. My one non-paranormal
case was going to go by unsolved.
I need to talk to the doctor at the
hospital who worked on Julia. The records are gone, but I bet one of her family
members know. Maybe her parents are still around
. I hated an unsolved case
almost as much as I hated standing on a platform over a river of lava.

“Devon!”

I turned too suddenly and had a hell of a time
regaining my balance. The slime had at least dried up, but I was drenched in
sweat. Henry and Langril were standing on the ledge about fifteen feet away,
which was odd because there hadn’t been a ledge ten minutes earlier.

“How did you get out there?” Henry asked. He was
dressed in Langril’s wizard robes.

“The ground collapsed.”

“Use magic!”

“I don’t know any flying magic!”

Henry turned to Langril. “Do something.”

“My magic doesn’t work here. The only way he’s going
to get out of that spot is to fall.”

“I’m not giving up.”

He rolled his eyes. “Not fall into the lava. Fall to
the next level. Descend.”

“Everyone keeps using that damned word. What if I die
before I get to the next level?”

“I’d be more worried about what’s on the next level,”
he said.

“Langril and I will meet you there,” Henry said.
Langril shot him a look, but he didn’t argue.

I would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so dire,
because Langril had no idea what he was in for. Henry was not going to change
in order to be Langril’s familiar, so Langril was going to have to do the
changing. I couldn’t wait to watch Addison and Langril arguing over Henry’s
loyalty while Henry lavished all his attention on his son.

I pulled out the bottle of sleeping potion. “Maybe
you two should stay here.”

“We’ll be there when you wake,” Henry said
stubbornly. Langril’s expression showed that he was realizing how it was going
to be with his new familiar.

I nodded and drank a sip before I could talk myself
out of it. There was a reason I lived in the northeast part of the country
instead of the southwest; I kept better in the cold. Everything went black.