Taken (8 page)

The Master folded his hands in front of him, narrowed his red eyes at Athen and waited for a response.

”
Answer me this. How many souls have you destroyed to create this opening?” Athen questioned.

I
could tell he was readying
for a fight, stalling to allow us to ready ourselves as well.

“Hundreds
,” he drawled. “But that doesn’t count what we took to create the
belly of the building
.”
The Master’s lips turned into a wicked smile, followed by
an
equally evil laughter.

Athen shook his head
,
and I
felt
his anger releasing into the air.

“We won’t be taking you
up
on your offer,” Athen replied
coolly
.

The dark demons began
stepping toward us, encircling both Athen and me. Cyril was still on the outside of the circle. Arie remained hidden.

“Pity. Let the darkness begin.” The Master started laughing hysterically as all of the lanterns were extinguished, leaving only the light from the
fire in the middle of the room as the demons began chanting once more.

“At your command, Asmodeus
,” a demon replied
,
who was standing behind Athen.

Asmodeus?
I glanced at his hands and sure enough, one was a claw. How did I miss this?
He could easily tap into the realms of the underworld anywhere he went. He wouldn’t need to do something this extraordinary to
provide
an opening to hell. He
was
an opening to hell.
There was no killing him — not here
anyway
.
My mind flashed to
the
image I
had been missing from the first few premonitions surrounding this place
. It was me who the dark demons were targeting, not Arie. Thi
s was a trap to get me in here, but w
hy?

I felt a finger slide along my shoulders a
nd turned around to see Bethany
grinning at me.
So she was one of them.

“Don’t
even bother,” I hissed, grabbing her arm.
She kicked me in the thigh with a
force greater than I expected, and
I crashed to the floor.
Even though she was only a few years old, I shouldn’t have underestimated her strength.

Athen immediately
dove toward me, landing on Bethany and wrestling her to the ground. Ignoring the throbbing in my leg, I hopped up and
jumped onto
the two dark demons
who
attempted
to
stop
Athen
from attacking
Bethany.
I slid over to the largest demon and
kicked at the smaller one while I
wr
app
ed
my arm
around
the large one’s
neck, squeezing
with all of the strength I had as
his
body went limp.
Athen crushed Bethany’s
skull, releasing the familiar black mist into the air. At least now I knew what was
mysteriously
pulling her to work at the hospital.
Being turned a demon would do that.
The smaller demon came toward me again, but not before Athen grabbed the demon and broke its back over his knee.

“Nice work,” I whispered.

Asmodeus stood where we left him, clapping.
He had no intention of fighting. He had something more planned, and I was pretty certain I was part of it.

Athen jumped over the pile of bodies we left and perched himself against the dirt wall,
inviting demons to follow him.

Cyril
plunged into the crowd of dark demons closest to him
,
and the cries of pain began echoing through the air.
He was ripping them to shreds.
There may not be any stopping Asmodeus
before he retreats back to the nine hells, but we still have a shot at toppling this place and everything it stands for.

A rumbling began shaking the makeshift walls and ceiling. I glanced at Asmodeus who had begun kneeling. He was leaving.
Going back to the underworld. Dirt began falling from the ceiling as the vibrations became stronger. Tiny pieces of rock fell from the walls.
Our time to finish what we came for was
diminishing
.

Arie came soaring into the room, landing next to Cyril helping to take out demon after demon.
I had my sights set on the back room.
Scanning my surroundings,
I saw only about twelve remaining demons that needed to be taken out.
Athen and
everyone
could handle it.

I needed to get to that back room
before the place crumbled away.

Asmodeus’ laughter began rolling through the air
, as I ran toward the back of the room.

Flinging the door
open, I was awestruck at what
lay before me.
The most
intense
blues and greens
were boiling out of a hole in the center of the room. The
steam
,
mixed with the conti
nuous bubbling and gurgling
,
was
e
nough to attest to the extreme temperature of the opening. Anyone who was forced into it would immediately
melt
, leaving only the soul to be absorbed.
If it wasn’t so frightening, it might actually be
beautiful
.

“Pretty amazing isn’t it?” Asmodeus’ voice crawled over me. “See the two tables?”

I pulled my gaze away from the mixture and saw the concrete tables, with
brown, leather
straps.
I heard the door close behind me. He had me trapped.

“It’s a shame. The being
s
you and your friends are killing were meant for
this ritual in
here. Now, I’m going to
have to
go find more
to turn. See, you’re actually destroying more lives by trying to help,
” he replied
,
stepping into the room. “Would you like to know wh
at the grand finale i
s going to be?”

I shook my head, wiping the sweat from my forehead that the
heat from the
opening to hell
created
.
It
was almost suffocating.

“Hmm. Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.” He grinned
, rubbing his hands together in delight
. “You and your white demon friends
—
or I guess you call them family—
can always find one another as long
as one of you remain
s
in your current form
.
Isn’t that correct?”

I didn’t answer.

“
My idea is quite marvelou
s.
I’m going to destroy you all at once so you can’t find one another.
Granted your soul won’t be acc
epted into hell like the others,
but at least
your souls
will be unleashed onto earth
,
left to wander vacantly once more.
Doesn’t that sound fun?
”

He started la
ughing so hard
tears began flooding
down
his cheeks.

“
Your precious soul
mate
, Athen
? Gone. Left to
walk
the world without you. Possibly even finding another to partner
with
.
But does it matter to you? No
,
because y
ou wouldn’t remember him anyway.
Isn’t that how it works
for you white demons
?
You can
restart
,
but only if one of your family members is left to Awaken you?
The Awakening process or some such nonsense?
So a
ll of you will be wandering aiml
essly, thinking you
’
r
e
humans and having no place to go
.
It will be fun to watch.”

I stared at Asmodeus and tipped my head to one
side. Was there a way
to escape
?

“Athen, get the others and get out of here. It’s a trap for us all,” I channeled.

“I’m not leaving you,”
Athen’s words came back softly.

“Athen, do it. It’s the only chance of keeping us together. If I’m Taken you can perform
the
Awakening on me. You’ll get me back
,
eventually.
”

Asmodeus took a step toward me, but I couldn’t
manage a step
back from him
, not with the gaping hole
.
I needed to make sure I got my family out of here first.
I shut my mind off from Athen. I couldn’t afford to have him tap into what I was seeing in here, especially since he wasn’t
listening
to me.

“You are the most wretched creatu
re I’ve encountered,” I snarled to Asmodeus.

“Thank you.” He dropped his head in a grateful gesture.

“Arie, get Cyril and your brother out of here.
Athen’s
not listening to me
. I
f you don’t
get everyone out of here,
we’ll all be
Taken
. And you know what that entails,” I
channeled to her, not taking my eyes off Asmodeus.

“Oh, Ana,” she responded. “I’ll do my best. I love you.
We all love you.
We’ll be waiting
for the moment to bring you back
.”

I could always count on Arie to act rationally.

I held back the tears and stared directly into Asmodeus’ hate filled eyes.

“Tell Athen I love him more than anything and I’ll be waiting. Tell him to never give up,” I channeled to her as a lump
formed in the back of my throat that I forced down.

“Cyril’s attempting to get him down the tunnel. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll manage,” she replied.

“Thank you,” I channeled back and then closed my mind off to my family. I would
n’t allow them to see how it ended. How I was
Taken
.

“What did I ever do to you?” I whispered.

“It’s not to me. I’m doing this for a friend,” he replied.

“Who?”

“A
true
friend never divulges that information.” He shook his head and folded his arms in front of him.
“It
feels
like
your family
took out my stockpile of demons out there.
Guess it’s time to invite them all
in.”

I had to stall.

“What if I came to your side? Would that change your plan at all?” I asked. I knew it wouldn’t, regardless of what he said
,
but every second counted.

“Ana, t
hat’s quite a fascinating
thought. I never even
entertained that you might consider that as an option. It might change the game a bit, indeed.
”

I nodded at him. “I’d be interested in exploring that option.”

“
You look distressed, my dear,” he
uttered,
beckoning
me to come toward him. “How about we let your family witness it? How does that sound?”

Please let them be gone.

I nodded and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders, his claw digging into my flesh as he opened the door to
expose
an empty room. Somehow Arie and Cyril got
Athen out
.

“You fool,” he exclaimed, crushing my shoulders. “This is quite disagreeable.
”

His eyes were blazing with hatred, confirming he had no intention of letting my family go.
But at least now he would only be taking me.
My
final
hope was to close up the ope
ning to Hell before I was
Taken
. And the only way to do that was
to
drag
Asmodeus in there with me.
Easier said than done.