Hells gate box set, p.24
Hell's Gate Box Set, page 24
part #1 of Hell's Gate Series
“Okay.” Pressing a kiss to my forehead, he turned back to the counter, righting the items he’d knocked over, while I went back to kicking myself for being so insensitive. I’d gotten carried away and hadn’t stopped to think that maybe Levi would miss his human life. Hell, I’d marked him, turned him into a fire demon without any consideration for what he wanted or how he’d feel about it. It had all been about me. A wave of shame swept over me, followed by self-doubt. What sort of person was I to do this to the man I loved?
“Whatever you’re thinking, knock it off,” Levi growled. He was now pulling items from the lower shelves and stacking them higher.
“What?”
“I can feel it. Your distress. It makes me itch. Can you stop beating yourself up about whatever it is you’re beating yourself up over and just help me with the shop? Can you do that?”
“I can do that,” I whispered, trying to stem the sting of hurt his cold words delivered. He was hurt and angry, and I was full of doubt and shame. What a pair.
“Lucy!” he snapped, and I immediately cast a magic bubble around myself, stopping any and all emotion from reaching him. The truth was, I couldn’t turn it off. The way I felt, my emotions, weren’t a tap. But I could stop them from affecting him, at least for a little while.
I thought I heard him whisper, “Thank fuck,” but I couldn’t be certain, so I let it go, instead concentrating on helping him get his shop ready for the flood.
When we were finished, he said, without looking at me, “Remove the magic keeping the water out.”
“What? Why?”
“Because my shop flooding will make a plausible excuse as to why it’s not open anymore. Why I decide to close up…for good.”
“Are you sure?” I whispered, too scared to touch him for fear he’d lash out at me again.
“You were right. This life is over. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but I do know I’m not going back to reading tarot cards for a living.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Will you stop saying you’re sorry and just do it? I’m pissed off and angry right now, but it’s not with you, okay? So stop saying sorry. Every time you look at me with those sad eyes, you make me feel like I’ve kicked a puppy, and it hurts me that I’m hurting you. The two of us are just going around and around in a stupid loop hurting each other.”
He took a deep breath. “The last three days here have been perfect. But we both know they were just a break from reality—our new reality—and this?” He waved his arm to indicate the shop. “This isn’t part of it. There’s only one thing I’m not negotiating on, and that’s you. You complete me. Without you, I’m nothing, and I will not be apart from you. Ever.”
I threw myself into his arms, tucking my face into his neck and squeezing. He returned my embrace, then pulled back a little. “Actually, there’s two things.”
“Oh?”
“Mr. Meow. He’s family. We have to find a way to make this work for him, too. It may be selfish of me, but I don’t want to give him up.”
“Agreed.” My heart practically exploded with affection for this man who would not abandon his cat, even for love.
We made our way back upstairs to find Sophie and Carl asleep. Sophie had passed out curled up in an armchair. Levi carefully draped a blanket over her. Carl was spread-eagled on the couch, snoring. Mr. Meow sat on the back of the sofa, watching him, apparently confused by the noise he was making.
“Dacian!” I said in a hushed voice when he appeared in the living room. “What are you doing here?” I beckoned him to follow me into the kitchen.
“It’s about the storm,” he replied, nodding a hello to Levi, who was pouring us both a coffee.
The power had held out, but we were prepared with dozens of candles from the shop. I’d done as Levi had requested and removed the magic seal. We’d stood on the staircase at the back of the store and watched as the water squeezed through the gaps, trickling into the shop.
“It’s bad,” Levi said, handing me a coffee. I wrapped my fingers around it, enjoying the warmth. I’d decided I didn’t like being on Earth during storms. It was too cold and wet.
“Yeah, well, it’s going to get worse,” Dacian said.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s no ordinary storm. Well, we don’t think it is.”
“Explain!” I demanded.
“Ashliel has been keeping an eye on things, you know, since y’all were worried about unleashing the white horseman.”
“This is the horseman?”
“Not unless it’s a seahorse!” Dacian shook his head, chuckling. “But no, this is something else. And it’s not Mother Nature, either, before you ask.”
“If it’s not the horseman or Mother Nature, what the hell is it?” Levi was back to growling.
“We think it might be…a dragon.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Dragons are real?” Levi’s voice rose so high I could have sworn someone had kicked him in the nuts.
“Most things are real.” I shrugged, turning my attention back to Dacian. “A dragon. You’re sure?”
“About eighty percent.”
“What makes Ash think it’s a dragon?”
“For starters, this storm?” Dacian pointed at the window. “It’s not showing as a storm. It’s not happening.”
“I beg to differ,” I snorted.
“Exactly,” Dacian nodded.
“What?” Levi shook his head in confusion.
“The storm is a disruption in the atmosphere that occurs when a sleeping dragon wakes,” Dacian told us. “At first, we weren’t entirely sure, but just before I left, Ash noticed something else.”
“What?”
“Movement. Just a twitch, but beneath the earth—way, way, way, beneath the earth—there was a slight movement.”
“Fuck!”
If what Dacian had said was true, we were in serious trouble. The dragons had been sleeping for hundreds of years, and as they awoke, Earth would experience earthquakes. Big, bad, devastating earthquakes. Because the truth was, earthquakes were not the tectonic plates moving, as scientists believed. They were dragons moving—rolling over, maybe yawning—before going back to sleep. But if they were to truly wake up? They’d find their way to the surface, and in the process, destroy whatever was above them.
“Do we know how many dragons?”
“Ashliel is trying to find out. She’s also trying to figure out where they are and where they’re likely to break through.”
“Stop! Just fucking stop for one second!” Levi’s voice was no longer high. Now it was low, dangerously low. “Someone explain to me what the fuck is going on! Dragons? We’re talking about fire-breathing motherfucking dragons now?”
“It’s okay.” I tried to soothe him, but he jerked away from me.
“Are you fucking serious? It’s not okay! Dragons!” He shook his head. “Un-fucking-believable.” Judging by all the cursing, I figured Levi was reaching his limit, and I couldn’t blame him. It had been one thing after another since we first met.
“Dragons are real,” I told him. “And they were here, along with the dinosaurs, when this dimension was created. The dragons are different from any other creature in that they stay awake for hundreds of years, and then they sleep for hundreds of years, in caves deep beneath the surface, where they won’t be discovered or disturbed.”
“And now they’re waking up?”
“It seems so.”
“And you don’t see the coincidence in this?”
“What do you mean, coincidence?” Dacian interrupted.
“The seal on the hidden door to the chamber where her father was trapped? That seal was the shape of a dragon.”
He was right. It had been a dragon within a circle. Did we do this? By breaking the seal, we hadn’t released the white horseman. We’d woken the dragons.
“Lucy?” Levi turned to me, waiting for my answer, most likely expecting a plan of action for dealing with this. For once, I didn’t have one. How were we supposed to put a dragon back to sleep?
“We’re going to have to go back to Hell,” I said, pacing the kitchen floor, thinking, trying to come up with a plan. I didn’t remember much about the dragons. I’d have to research them.
“No can do,” Dacian said. “Ashliel warned me that I might not be able to get through due to the static in the dimension the dragons are inciting. She said it will settle when they’re either fully awake or sleeping again, but while they’re in flux, we can’t cross dimensions. Not safely.”
“Fan-bloody-tastic.” Levi downed his coffee, slamming his cup a little too hard onto the kitchen bench. I opened my mouth, but before I could get a word out, he rounded on me, finger in my face. “Do not say you’re sorry! This isn’t your fault, so stop apologizing for someone else’s wrong-doing!”
“But if we hadn’t broken the seal…”
“Whoever trapped your dad set the seal. This plan has been a long time in the making. Eventually someone would have set the wheels in motion, whether you or another person. It doesn’t mean you’re to blame. The fault is with whoever set the seals up in the first place. Don’t accept blame that isn’t due to you.”
“He has a point,” Dacian agreed. “It can’t be coincidence that you broke a seal with a dragon symbol, and then the dragons started to wake up. We don’t know how to put them back to sleep, or if it’s even possible, so our next best option is to find out who set the trap for your dad and rigged the seal. Did they put the dragons to sleep in the first place? Or did they wait until the dragons slept of their own volition, then lay the trap for your dad?”
My head was spinning with possibilities, and a spark of anger flared to life. How I missed my quiet days in Hell, where my most pressing problems were sinners who wouldn’t break, or sinners who constantly broke and begged me to ease up on their punishment, with no real remorse in their hearts. It was easy. Simple. But this? The dragons who’d been slumbering beneath the earth for eons were starting to stir. How the fuck was I supposed to deal with that? And now, cut off from Hell, I couldn’t research them, couldn’t find the information I needed to determine my next steps.
“Don’t lose your shit, Lucy.” Dacian watched me with narrowed eyes, recognizing the signs of my anger. “We’ve got enough going on.”
“And you.” Dacian rounded on Levi. “Calm down. You getting worked up is only working her up, and when Lucifer gets pissed off, especially in this dimension, fire storms tend to roll across the land.”
“It might dry up the water?” Levi shrugged, apparently unconcerned.
“It might. But it would definitely toast the humans, and do you think she’s going to be happy about that once she’s calmed down? Her temper doesn’t come out very often, and for good reason. Let’s not prod the beast, okay?”
“The beast?” Another rumble of thunder, but this time it wasn’t the storm outside. It was my own.
“Just a figure of speech,” Dacian assured me. I kept my gaze on him and sucked in a deep breath. He was right. Now was not the time for a tantrum, no matter how much I needed it. I wanted to wail and scream and punch something. Hard.
“Why not use some of that energy and go searching for the dragon?” Dacian suggested. “Or dragons. Since Shadow Falls is experiencing this weather event, I think it’s safe to assume that more than one dragon is under us.”
“You could be right. There are caverns and tunnels beneath Shadow Falls, and I wondered why the first time I discovered them.”
“You think it’s for the dragon?”
“Dragon worshippers, at the very least. They exist.” The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Shadow Falls was a magnet for the paranormal. The veil here was thin between this dimension and the rest. Why wouldn’t a dragon choose to slumber beneath its surface?
“I’ll come with you.”
I shook my head. “No. Levi, you stay here and keep Sophie and Carl safe. Dacian, can you go searching for anyone who’s stuck and needs help? This flood came on so quickly, I bet a lot of people have been caught out. You can get to them. Bring them here if you have to.”
“Are you sure?” Levi grabbed my wrist and tugged me to him. “I don’t like the idea of you out there alone.”
“I’m Lucifer, Queen of Hell, remember? My strength has returned and a dragon isn’t going to phase me. As long as I know the people of Shadow Falls are okay, then I can focus on the task on hand.”
“I’m not happy about you going alone.”
“You don’t have to be,” I told him, determination in the set of my jaw. I’d been all over the place emotionally since finding my father, but this gave me something concrete to focus on. Another problem that needed solving. As much as I was pissed off about the circumstances, it also had my adrenaline spiking, and I was keen to bust my way through the earth in search of a dragon.
“Be safe.” Levi relented, pressing a kiss against my mouth. He pulled away before it could deepen into anything further. “I’ll get some food going. Can’t believe the power has held out this long. Might as well make the most of it.”
“I’ll be back soon,” I promised.
Leaving his apartment, Dacian behind me, I made my way to the roof, where the wind viciously whipped at us and the rain was blinding. Turning to Dacian, I shouted, “Fly them back here. Don’t worry about them seeing your true form. I’ll wipe their memories later.”
“Got it. What if there are too many and they don’t fit in the apartment?”
“Take them somewhere else, to high ground. The highest building in town. I’ll find you.”
Nodding, he spread his wings and took off into the night. A second later, I followed suit, heading toward the town center, where the yellow police tape still surrounded the crater that led to the caverns below. With a grim smile, I plunged down into the abyss. Time to go dragon hunting.
Chapter Seventeen
I searched the existing tunnels, caverns, and caves and found nothing. But of course, this wasn’t deep enough. A dragon would have been discovered this close to the surface. Blasting through the rock, I kept going down, further and further, until I broke into a cave. Using magic to light my way, I slowly made my way further into the massive cave. If there was a dragon in here, the last thing I wanted to do was startle it.
The cave broke off into tunnels, not dissimilar to the ones above, and I wondered if they’d been built to mimic these ones. Did the dragon worshippers know about this? Reaching a dead end, I turned on my heel to backtrack when a breeze hit the back of my neck. Spinning back around, I peered at the rock wall before me. And waited. Eventually I found what I was looking for. An opening appeared, and another gust of wind stirred my hair before it closed again.
“Okay,” I said, “I see you. Very clever, I truly thought you were a rock.”
An eyelid slowly opened, revealing a golden eyeball. The nostril flared and the mouth opened in a grin. What I’d thought was a rock wall was actually the hide of a dragon, and he’d been playing with me.
“Why are you here?” he asked, his voice deep and slow.
“I think I may have awakened you. I came to find out if it truly is time for you to wake, or…?”
The dragon sighed, and the wet, steamy gust blew my hair blew back from my face. I stepped sideways to avoid his breaths.
“How would you awaken me?” he asked, turning his massive head toward me.
I quickly moved further back, toward the main cave. “Shall we talk out here, where it’s not so…cozy?”
“Are you scared I’ll burn you, human?”
“Not at all. For one, I’m not human. I’m Lucifer, an Arch Angel. And two, I run Hell. Fire is my game. You can’t burn me.”
“What is Hell?” he asked, lumbering toward me. He was so big that my head only reached his knee, and I couldn’t help it. I felt just a little intimidated. A first for me.
“It’s another dimension. Kind of like Heaven, only it’s for the bad guys. You haven’t heard of it?”
He shook his head, his tail striking the tunnel wall. Rocks fell. I hurried along the tunnel before he caved it in on us both. When I set foot in the cave, I flew into the middle and waited, watching as the dragon emerged, stretching his wings and neck once he cleared the confines of the tunnel.
“Why haven’t you heard of Hell?” I asked once he’d reached me. “There were dragons on Earth when man arrived. God made Hell not long after he created man. You should know about it.”
The dragon dropped his head, his breath blowing out onto the ground and sending up clouds of dust.
“I’m…lost.” His voice was incredibly sad, as were his beautiful golden eyes. Now that we were out in the cave, I could see his scales were a deep emerald and gold color. He was stunning.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m cut off from my family, from the other dragons. Someone tricked me, placed a spell on me.”
“Tell me,” I encouraged. This could be it, the link I was looking for.
“I’d laid my first egg and was guarding it in my nest when she came. She said she needed my help. She told me I didn’t have to do much, and that in return, she would ensure my egg—my baby—would always be watched over, and live a long and healthy life.” I filed away the fact that what I’d thought was a male dragon was actually a female, and made a mental note to not insult her by accidentally referring to her as a male. That wouldn’t go down well at all.
“What was her name? What did she look like?”
“She looks a lot like you. Her name is Lilith. And she took my baby.” The last words were said with a roar, and flames flew from the dragon’s mouth.
“I’m so sorry.” I was doing what Levi hated—apologizing for someone else’s actions—but someone had stolen this dragon’s baby. How could my mother be so cruel?
“You look like her. You know her.” The dragon rounded on me, fury in her eyes, and I raised my hands, spread my wings, and rose until we were eye level.
