Death is uncovered, p.12
Death is Uncovered, page 12
“For whom?” she asked.
He shrugged. “My master, of course.”
Of course. What a fool she’d been trusting in a demon. “Since we’re here and can’t use the same door to return home, I’m ordering you to help me find Jimi. Where is he?”
The demon sighed and then aimed his thumb over his shoulder. Abbie glanced that way. Between two houses, at the other end of an alley, a house looked familiar. Hard to tell from this rear perspective, but had she seen those bushes in the back garden earlier today? She’d noted how uniformly they were trimmed. Could that be a replica of the garden behind the Gupta house?
Had that house come here when it disappeared from her world? Could someone in this realm then have magically manufactured a duplicate of the house during that moment of transportation? If so, Jimi and that budgie could both be there, along with Klaus and Levi! And Talin and Yousef.
Heart now hammering with excitement, Abbie gestured for the demon to lead the way.
“Arthur, strengthen your shield.”
Her ring buzzed her finger to acknowledge it was complying with her request. Hafgufa vibrated within her arm to say the cord was ready to act when called upon, too.
“Wait,” Abbie whispered to Rakta.
The demon glanced back with an annoyed inquiry.
“Let’s stay out of sight,” she said, ordering him to keep to the side of a nearby building. “I don’t want anyone inside that house to know we’re here yet.”
As they approached a large oak in the backyard, something shimmered in sparks of yellow beside it. Abbie squinted, sensing an energy presence there. She shot Hafgufa out of her finger to investigate.
“Talin,” Hafgufa reported after a moment. “He cannot reform into his human shape.”
“You’re hooped then, mate,” Rakta said with an evil chuckle, confirming Hafgufa had shared that comment with him. Coming closer to Abbie, he glanced at the shimmering space beside her.
She gave the demon a warning glance to shut up if he couldn’t be of help. “Talin?” Abbie whispered, using her cord to reach him. “Can you hear me?”
She received an image of her face rather than a spoken word.
Thrilled she’d found him, she asked, “Anything I can do to help you reform?”
As soon as she asked, an idea occurred. Kenny! He could show her magic at play. Could he show her Talin in his current form? She settled the specs over her nose.
Now the shimmering looked like a glob of orange lights. “Talin.” Abbie reached for one spot of orange light and gently drew it toward her, placing it on her shoulder. Talin was clever with energy. “Can you feel how I’m made? See if you can transform into something like my form.”
“Clever,” Rakta said, sounding impressed.
Talin’s lights shimmered in place, and then they swarmed all over her, sweeping from the top of her head to the bottom of her boots and back up. It was ticklish. Then the lights moved back and created such a buzz, she was sure anyone in the house could hear.
“Rakta,” Abbie said, “go out front and distract anyone inside the house while Talin finishes his transformation.” She hoped that was what was happening with his energy shifts.
“How do I do that?” Rakta asked.
She frowned at him. “If your master is inside, he would want you to report in, wouldn’t he?”
He nodded, looking surprised by her suggestion.
She reached for his hot hand. “Don’t tell him I came here with you.”
Rakta winked, and she released him, uncertain she could trust him to keep her safe. “And if you find Jimi,” she said, “come fetch me.”
He gave a thumbs-up before being enveloped in flames. By the time the fires died down, he was gone.
Abbie swung back and found a replica of herself, watching her. She shook her head at Talin’s transformation. “You’re not staying in that form. All I can handle is one of me.” But she couldn’t help smiling proudly at his accomplishment. He’d mastered energy manifestation.
He shimmered again and this time he reformed as himself, clothed in his uniform. “This must be how Yousef does it,” he said and gave a whoop.
“Shhh,” Abbie said, slapping a hand across his mouth. “We’re in enemy territory.”
Before she could remove her hand, Talin dropped to the ground on his back. “Blimey,” he muttered. “What’s the matter with me? It feels as if I’ve lost all my bones, but I was sure I did it right.”
“You’re probably exhausted from working so much energy,” Abbie said, squatting beside him. “See if you can sit up.” Once he did, she nodded in satisfaction and added, “Will you be alright if I leave you here alone? I have a rescue operation to take care of in there.” She pointed to the house on the other side of the garden. “Rakta is keeping the house’s occupants busy, so this is my best chance to get Jimi out.”
“Who’s Rakta?” Talin asked, leaning against the trunk. He seemed pale even through her pink-shaded eyeglasses. “And when did you take up wearing specs?”
“One of my artifacts,” Abbie said. “Helps me see magical trails. His name is Kenny. He’s how I located you.”
“Thank you, Kenny,” Talin said.
“Welcome,” Kenny replied, with Hafgufa transmitting the message to both of them.
“Be back as soon as I can,” Abbie said.
“I’m coming, too.” Talin went to rise and fell back.
Abbie shook her head in sympathy. “We have a big problem. I need you to work on that while you rest. These specs brought me here, but they can’t take me home using the same doorway. Since you made your way here by yourself, I’d like you to work on how you can get all of us home again safely and in our current forms.”
He stared at her as if wondering if she were merely being kind by giving him something to do or truly needing his help. Then he nodded. “I have a couple of ideas.”
“I thought you might,” she said. “Also, Yousef is likely inside that house and can act as my backup if I need help.”
He sighed in relief at that reminder. “Good.” He clutched her hand. “Be super careful.”
She squeezed his fingers. “I will.” Especially since Vulcan might be in there, too. He would be in his element, having created that house, and she was now down two supporters, Talin and Rakta.
Make that three. She placed Kenny over Talin’s nose. “These specs might help you spot a way home from here. Kenny, work with Talin. Be right back.”
Using a hedge to shield her movements, she sprinted toward the house.
Abbie paused before approaching the back door. She wished she’d brought Ruth to hide her appearance. Considering Talin’s recent adventure gave her another way to do that.
“Arthur,” she said, mentally tapping her Grimm ring.
The ring buzzed her left forefinger in response.
“When you link to objects like Jimi’s sword and Nica’s bracelet, they turn invisible. Can you do it with me? Shift the energy shield you have over me to make me appear invisible?”
The ring’s energy vibration hummed a different tune. “Done,” Arthur said, sounding a little surprised.
Abbie checked through a back window to see if anyone was inside–the kitchen was empty–but even better, she couldn’t see her reflection. With more confidence, she strode toward the back door.
She tested the doorknob. It opened, and she entered.
The kitchen looked exactly like the one in the house she’d visited earlier today, in her world, down to the plate on the kitchen table with half-eaten toast. No one had bothered to clean up here either.
Abbie took a moment to reorient herself. No one was in the corridor or by the front door. She passed by the living room and spotted the blue-green budgie in there, perched on his swing, sweetly singing inside his cage. Abbie’s lips tilted up in pleasure, for that proved she was indeed in another realm, for this bird had vanished from hers. This meant that somewhere inside this house, she would find Jimi.
Before heading off on her search for her boy upstairs, Abbie cautiously approached a window that overlooked the front. She gently lifted the curtain and glanced outside.
Rakta spoke to a hefty fellow in a gray suit by the front drive. Her demon waved his arms, displaying a nervousness she wasn’t used to seeing.
She squinted at the stranger, whose back was to her. Bringing her Grimm vision to the forefront, she viewed the slightly altered scene. Two sharp horns on the stranger’s forehead curved back over the top of its head. This was a full demon.
Rakta’s cowering demeanor suggested he faced someone he feared–Vulcan? Goosebumps shot up over Abbie’s arms. She had little time to waste. Who knew how long it would be before Rakta spilled that he’d brought her here? He held no loyalty to her.
Time to find Jimi, Yousef, and her artifacts. And Comet. That broom, too, was missing. Could it be here?
Abbie sprinted out of the living room and raced upstairs to the bedroom where Yousef said Jimi was nearby. She flung open the door and found two demons inside, lounging on a bed, playing cards with her boy.
Utter sweet relief swept over Abbie at seeing Jimi alive and well. He glanced over at her with stunned disbelief, followed by triumphant glee. He could see her? Of course. He could see the life force in objects, too. He’d probably sensed her arrival.
The two demons, perhaps startled by the door opening on its own, blindly glanced past her. They then jumped off the bed to race toward the opening, arms outstretched.
She shot out her cord, snagged the closest demon by its throat, and squeezed, cutting off a startled scream mid-cry. When it went limp, she dropped it, retracting her cord. The other demon leapt and skidded across the bed toward Jimi, sending cards flying.
Jimi wisely slid off the bed and crawled under it. The wardrobe door beside her flung open then. She stiffened, expecting another demon to jump out from in there.
A Bengal tiger sprang out instead, crashing into the demon on the bed that had been leaning down in search of her boy. That fiend let out a short-strangled screech of terror and raced off the bed. The tiger flattened it to the floor before it reached Abbie.
Yousef!
The two rolled until the fight abruptly ended with a swipe of the tiger’s deadly paw. By the bloody slash across the demon’s throat, it would be silent forever.
Jimi crawled out from under the bed and ran over to give her a tight hug. “I wasn’t scared, Abbie. I knew you’d come for us.”
She embraced him, thoroughly relieved to have him in her arms. “I missed you, too.”
A slam of a book cover drew their attention to a thick volume resting on the nightstand alongside an intricate old compass. Klaus and Levi! Her joy overflowed at the sight of those two treasured items.
Abbie held out her free arm, the one not holding Jimi. “Come,” she said to the two items, and they flew across the room into her embrace.
“I couldn’t even use Caleb after they put that cloak over us, Abbie,” the boy said, fingering the hilt over his shoulder. “He doesn’t answer me anymore.”
“That might have been a magic deadening cloak they used,” Abbie explained. “It must have rendered the sword unusable. I’ll free Caleb of the spell once we’re home. Where’s Comet?”
“Not here,” Jimi said. “Isn’t she back home?”
That was concerning. When Judith said neither Jimi nor Comet was at Deepa’s home, she’d assumed the broom had somehow found its way to Jimi. Another wrong assumption.
“Never mind,” Abbie said. “Time to go.”
“Not so fast,” a smooth voice murmured behind her.
Abbie swung around, shielding Jimi behind her, and clutching her artifacts.
The suited demon she’d spotted outside now barred the open doorway. He stood a head taller than her, forcing her to look up. And she received her first clear glimpse of him. Meeting his steely gaze, she swallowed past a throat so swollen that a slip of air couldn’t escape.
She’d expected to encounter the features of a Roman soldier, like the one Figg once showed her. He wasn’t anything like that villain. But he reminded her of someone.
Kiros, the Earth companion, was a black human. His fae sibling, Tuuli, had been a creature of energy and magic, though when she took on a physical form, she closely resembled her brother. Now this demon showed her those same features. These companions’ creator had made them from the same cloth, but suitable for their different realm requirements.
She no longer wondered if this could be Vulcan, the dreaded underworld companion. This was Kiros and Tuuli’s sibling.
This immortal companion’s horns swiveled in her direction, distracting her. The horn’s curved tips glinted. Readying to gore her? He then held out his arms, and her two artifacts vanished and appeared within his hold.
Yousef growled.
Clutching his stolen loot, Vulcan’s gaze speared the tiger with malevolence and Abbie used her cord to transmit to Yousef, “Stand down!”
The tiger growled again, his tail lashing across the back of her legs in protest.
“Wise,” Vulcan murmured.
Had he heard her? How? Hafgufa often broadcast to those nearby, but she wouldn’t share with a dangerous stranger.
“I didn’t,” the goddess whispered in a worried tone.
Rakta hurried into the room and slid to a halt behind his master. One look at the fallen demons and the furious tiger, and Rakta’s terrified gaze searched for someone else. Her?
Arthur’s shield must still be working if it hid her from his sight. Good! If he couldn’t see her, neither could Vulcan.
Vulcan’s calculating gaze met hers straight on, sending her fear scale shooting up. He tilted his head toward her as if to confirm he could indeed see her. How was that possible, with Arthur’s shield masking her presence?
The stranger’s eyes glowed as bloody as Rakta’s, but unlike that double-crossing demon, this one’s orbs had flames licking within. Was it those flames that helped him spot her past Arthur’s shield?
He was doing a good job of blocking the doorway. There was no way out of this room except past him. Could Rakta help her?
Rakta’s gaze was still flicking between his master and the room. He couldn’t see Abbie, but soon understanding dawned in his gaze, his scarlet eyes widening as he realized who must have wreaked this havoc in the room.
Beside her, the tiger snarled his frustration, tail whipping. Yousef, brave cat, had listened to her order to not attack, but crept forward enough to position himself between the stranger and Jimi. She could have kissed him.
Drawing confidence from his defiant stance, in a hard, uncompromising voice, Abbie said, “Those two items don’t belong to you. I want them back.”
Vulcan casually glanced at the artifacts he held. “Finders keepers, Miss Grimshaw.”
“That phrase doesn’t apply to thieves,” she replied, but her confidence slipped at his cavalier attitude. He was a powerful demon, while, without her artifacts, she was a mere human.
All she had currently was Arthur’s shield that stretched between her ring and Jimi. But Vulcan had seen right through the ring’s invisibility shield. Did he also possess the power to break Arthur’s link to Jimi?
She had Hafgufa. Though that goddess was forbidden from killing, she could constrict, as she had with the demon until it was unconscious. Abbie’s fingers twitched, warning the cord to be ready to strike.
“Do you realize where you are, Miss Grimshaw?” Vulcan asked casually.
“A playhouse you built?” Abbie replied.
His lips curved with derision. “You’re in my realm.”
Abbie swallowed. Well, if she was in the underworld, the one she needed help from was Kali, the demon-eater.
She mentally screamed, “Kali!”
Rakta instantly vanished. Had he heard her cry? Good. Then maybe Kali would, too. Vulcan also looked around, a bit nervously. Had he, too, heard her desperate plea? How?
Nothing changed. When no avenging six-armed goddess appeared, looking for her next meal, his derisive gaze returned to her.
That’s when she recalled Kali saying she had been forbidden from assisting Abbie on this mission. That she’d been called to order for helping her protégé too much. The slight hope in her heart for salvation shriveled.
Wait, was it her imagination, or was the air a little thicker in here, hotter even? The room suddenly felt oppressive.
Chapter Twelve
Nica’s journal entry #195: Know the truth vs. guessing. Wait. Wait. WAIT.
* * *
“I see you’ve noticed the change in your surroundings,” Vulcan said casually. “This ‘playhouse’ as you mockingly described it, will soon vanish. The air will become less breathable and heat will rise as my realm’s natural environment reasserts itself. Then demons will return here scrounging for invaders.”
Abbie gulped at the deadly vision he painted, her arm tightening around Jimi.
Vulcan’s gaze roamed over Abbie’s face. “I see you’ve lost the spectacles that brought you here. Pity. I would have enjoyed adding those to my collection. Good luck returning home without them.”
Was he suggesting he would allow her to leave if she could? Abbie shook off her shock at that concession and dropped her gaze to the items he still held.
“These stay with me,” he said in a hard, uncompromising tone, clutching the book and compass.
Abbie’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. She shifted, better shielding Jimi. “This boy will not. Nor the tiger.”
He gave a careless shrug. “I’ve no use for the opinionated child or the beast-man. But leave behind any artifacts you carry.” His gaze dropped to her ring.
Abbie moved that arm behind her back and felt Arthur sink back into her skin. As Vulcan’s mouth quirked with scorn, she cursed herself for confirming the ring’s importance.
Why hadn’t he taken it already, if he knew it was an artifact? He’d snatched her book and compass easily enough. She wouldn’t put it past him to chop off her fingers and arm to get to her artifacts. She shuddered at the thought.
