“He could change his mind,” Haley said hopefully.
“He won’t.” Natesa stood up, as if ready to leave. “He has one horse on Anartia already. Once the other is there, we’ll leave. And I know the demoness wants to claim him as her mate. If you were to join us as his mate, perhaps she would choose another.”
Haley didn’t respond but her eyes filled with tears. She would ask him to stay.
“Forget it,” Natesa said. “I can read your thoughts, or some thoughts. He won’t stay. He fears death more than he loves you. I don’t have to read minds to see you’re in love with him or know he’s in love with you. I also know why you left Texas.”
Haley turned away and started to walk back to the ranch. A moment later the wolf was blocking her path. “What do you want from me?” Haley asked.
She shifted back. “I’m trying to help,” Natesa said.
“And why would you help me?” Her intuition told her this woman didn’t do anything unless she got something out of it.
“We need someone with your mystical powers on Prygos.”
Haley made a face and started walking. “Please, I’m not stupid.”
Natesa caught up with her and grabbed her arm. “No, it’s true. The demoness’s husband had all the mystics and shamans murdered. He said there should be only one ruler. The demoness was trying to have him killed and she was found out. She and her followers were exiled on Anartia as a prison.”
Haley stared at her, wondering if this person could be telling the truth. “And what do you want me for?”
“As our High Sorceress. Once you become immortal your powers would increase.”
Haley couldn’t stop from smiling a little. The idea was intriguing. “I should talk this over with Dante.”
“No, he’d never allow it because, although the risk is small, there’s danger in the transformation. But you’d also be able to be with him. I know this is a lot to ask but you have to give me your decision now.”
Haley sighed. “I don’t know. I need time to think it over.”
Natesa groaned. “Very well. I’ll give you a little time.”
When Haley got back to the ranch, the sun had set and a few stars had already appeared on the indigo sky. The air cooled and smelled of fresh pine and sage. She noticed Dante’s truck hadn’t returned. It would be a cold and lonely night if he didn’t return. A fire in the fireplace, a pot of coffee and a good book would be her company tonight. After caring for Siren for the evening, she walked into the house with an armful of wood and considered what she’d make herself for dinner. Her cell phone rang. Her heart leapt in her chest, hoping it would be Dante. She answered it. “Hello?”
“Hey, baby girl,” the man’s voice sent a chill through her so strong, she started shaking and almost dropped the phone. Her father. How did he get her number? She walked to the front door and locked it. A silly move considering her father was in jail. But how did he find her phone number from jail?
She didn’t answer. Her mouth opened but she couldn’t speak. It wasn’t a joke, she recognized the voice and her father always called her baby girl.
“Haley, I hear you breathing.” He laughed a little. She detected his Texas accent. After living in Arizona for several months, she could detect the accent. “Surprised to hear from your old man. I’m out.”
“You’re out of jail?” Haley’s words were stiff, robotic. “How?”
“I’m fine, how are you?” he asked with a sarcastic tone.
“How did you get out?” Haley insisted.
“Retrial. Out under psychiatric supervision.”
“Terrific,” she said with an equally sarcastic edge. “So you’re in a hospital?” She hoped one with thick bars.
“Don’t be a smart—” He raised his voice, took a breath and cut himself off. When he spoke again, his tone was calm and falsely friendly. “Thought I’d come up for a visit, a long visit.”
She walked to the front door and peered out. “You can’t cross state lines, can you?”
“Well…”
“That’s what I thought,” Haley said, breathing a little easier.
“You didn’t think that would stop me?”
Haley stopped breathing. He would find her, she knew it. Just like he did when she was younger and tried running away from home. He’d find her in Sedona, hurt her or kill her like he did her mother.
“I hear you’re staying at a nice ranch in Sedona.” How did he know? A wave of nausea rushed over her. She was going to throw up. Aunt Lena. The only relative she kept in contact with. Why did Aunt Lena have to tell him where she was? “Should be plenty of room for me,” he said with that tone he expected no one to argue with.
No!
“Don’t come up here,” she warned but her voice trembled. Looking out the window, she searched as far up the street as she could see. There wasn’t a car, thank God. “I…I…won’t…” She searched for the words to say how she wouldn’t allow him to abuse her anymore, but images of his violence kept replaying in her mind, and she couldn’t utter another syllable.
He laughed. “I miss you too, baby girl. See you soon.” He hung up.
Haley paced the cabin. What should she do? She could call the police but they wouldn’t do anything. They’d tell her to call them if he showed up. What could they do now? Nothing. She got a fire going and prayed that Dante would return soon.
After trying to reread the same page in a book a dozen times, she gave up and went to fix some coffee. She wouldn’t be sleeping anyway. Then she heard a creak on the front porch. She stopped in the middle of the living room and held her breath. The creak sound happened again. Footsteps? Not quite footsteps.
She should’ve left the moment she’d gotten the call and went back to her apartment. At least there were people around in town. Here, she was in the middle of nowhere. Neighbors weren’t close enough to hear her cry out.
A scrape swiped across the front door, like long claws. A dog? The scraping continued. No dog sounds like that. She put her phone down and picked up the poker from the fireplace and held it like a baseball bat. “Who’s there?”
Silence.
“I have a gun,” Haley shouted.
Someone knocked. Haley screamed.
“Haley? It’s me, Natesa.”
Still holding the poker, Haley switched on the porch light and looked out the window. Natesa waved. “Sorry if I scared you. I ran across the desert in wolf form and forgot to change back.”
Haley swung open the door. “What are you doing here? Where’s Valdon? Where’s Dante?”
Natesa breathed hard and sweat beaded her forehead. “They’re on Anartia. We’ll be leaving sooner than expected. Very soon. Will you come with us?”
Chapter Nine
Dante bolted through the portal, riding D.A. and landed on the edge of Anartia’s cliffs. The horse staggered, bucked, and tried to gain his footing after the disorienting journey between dimensions. Then he took several steps backward toward the precipice. “No, D.A.!” Dante shouted over the roar of wind and crashing waves. He kicked the horse’s sides, urging him forward. If he didn’t gain his footing now, they’d tumble over the cliff. Dante reached for his nebula. At least they wouldn’t plummet to the jagged rocks. They’d descend through the portal—a trip he didn’t want to take twice in one day with D.A.
“Get on!” He leaned forward and tugged on the reins, signaling the animal to move.
Finally D.A. charged up the grassy slope, away from the dangerous ledge. He eased the panicked horse to a slow trot. “Atta boy.” He stroked his head. “Rough trip, I know.”
Hopping off the saddle, Dante led the horse up the steps to the temple. He’d get a few Drones to help him bring in the supplies he left in his truck after he got D.A. settled. Inside the temple, Zorian stopped him at the entrance, whip in hand. The Disciplinarian swung the flogger in a circle at his side. At first Dante thought he meant to use it on him or D.A., but then saw one of his lovers or trainees bound to a pillar. Hard to tell the difference with Zorian. “What do we call that?” Zorian asked, using his whip to point to D.A.
“D.A. He’s coming to Prygos.” Dante stroked the horse’s neck, trying to keep him calm. He forgot Zorian had never been to Earth and wasn’t familiar with the living creatures there.
“Valdon mentioned something about new arrivals coming from Earth.” Zorian raised his brows. “Does it bite?”
“If you annoy him.”
“Then I won’t annoy him. Keep it away from the Drones and the slaves.” D.A. snorted and Zorian took a step back. “Strange beast. You couldn’t bring something smaller?”
Dante stared at him with a straight face. “Smaller? Be grateful I didn’t chose something larger.”
Zorian angled his head toward the main hall. “You can’t bring the creature through there. The demoness is engaged with her Drones. Tarik is taking offerings three at a time or more in the control chamber.”
“Offerings or reassimilating?”
Had Gwyllain given the order to begin destroying nonessential Drones? Images of Haley, Brad and another mortal Austin, trapped within an invisible force field while Tarik attempted to drain their lifeforce, flashed in his mind. Hard to believe Haley’s abduction was several months ago when the horror of that day was still fresh.
A cavern opened in his chest. What could he do to stop the heartless destruction of Drones? The Drones knew the risk they were taking by staying on at this stage when they could at least have a mortal life by escaping.
“We’ll need all the lifeforce energy possible to break out of this dimension.” Zorian avoided directly answering his question. Lifeforce energy could be obtained either way. But reassimilation was a death sentence.
What if he wasn’t one of the ones chosen? Gwyllain said he was. And she was allowing him to bring his horses. What if she had secretly promised all the Drones? Taking them into her private chamber over these last several months, and telling them they were her favorite and would be one of the few making the journey to Prygos. No Drone would have a reason to leave, because they all would be confident he or she was among the chosen ones. The demoness could have tricked him too.
Dante stared at the mass of bodies writhing on the floor around the demoness. Like a queen bee being attended to by her drone bees except these “bees” were fucking their queen, one right after another and then each other after their encounter. Dante had never seen the valuable chi transferred in such a crazed manner. A last desperate attempt to collect the vital energy Anartia needed to escape its exile.
The demoness stared across the room with unseeing eyes. Her skin looked gray as if she was being fucked to death. “God, this is insane,” Dante said to Zorian.
“The moon’s gravity is severely altering our dimension. We have to leave sooner than expected.”
“How much sooner?” Dante looked up at the ceiling. Several slaves were embedding the colorful stone crystals that Valdon and Natesa had brought.
“As soon as they finish installing the stones and Tarik says the energy levels are sufficient.”
“I have to get my supplies and my other horse.”
Zorian scrunched his face in a look of disgust. The idea of another such animal arriving, especially with D.A. coated in sweat and his mouth dripping lather, probably wasn’t appealing. “Take your creature to its chamber. I’ll find someone to help you.”
The long, winding passageway to the lower chambers made D.A. increasingly more agitated. Dante patted the horse’s shoulder and held tight on the reins as he led him up to the door to Tarik’s laboratory. Electrical humming sounds pulsated behind the door. He hated to think Tarik might be reassimilating Drones at that moment.
The mass murder of immortals with a thousand-year-old device made Dante think of the Spanish Inquisition and torture chambers. He might be immortal but had he lost his sense of humanity? He could reason with Tarik to let the Drones find sanctuary on Earth. Dante sensed the demon master wasn’t inherently evil like his consort. “Tarik! Open the door, or I’ll knock it down.” When there was no response, Dante pulled back on the reins and urged D.A. forward.
The horse stomped and kicked, uncomfortable in the closed-in space. His snorts and whinnying echoed within the cold, stone walls. Dante managed to get him close enough to the door so he could use the heel of his boot to kick it. But they’d need a tractor trailer to knock this door down. He pounded on the door until his fists felt bruised. “Tarik!”
The door swung open. “What the hell is going on?” Tarik’s face was creased and set in anger. He wore his usual tunic. Dante thought that odd. If Tarik had been collecting offerings, he should be naked and collecting as much chi as possible before the final reassimilation.
Shoving past him on his horse, Dante strode around the laboratory. Tarik was alone. “Where are they? Have you killed them all?”
The three massive crystals hanging from the ceiling still pulsed with light and hummed. Tarik calmly walked over to his instrument panel and flipped a few switches, turned a couple dials and the lights and sounds faded. “You don’t need to be concerned, Dante.”
“Yeah, I do. These Drones have served you faithfully, some for centuries, and now you’re wiping them out of existence when you could give them the chance for life as a mortal on Earth. The demoness cares for no one. I know you have some level of compassion within you. You may have your favorite Drones but you’re in love with Natesa, aren’t you?” Dante got off his horse. He wanted to face this demon on level ground.
For a moment Tarik didn’t speak, but the muscles at his jawline were working up a storm. Had Dante misread this demon over these decades? Was he as evil and heartless as Gwyllain? “It’s true. And if you mentioned that to Gwyllain, she’d destroy Natesa. Then she’d destroy you for bringing her bad news. Do you understand?”
Dante nodded. It wasn’t a bluff. He’d seen Gwyllain do just that in similar instances. Tarik punched keys on his instrument panel then quickly checked to make sure he hadn’t damaged anything.
“I hate her too,” Tarik said. “I’m sure it’s no surprise. She’s very dangerous. And as much as she hates her prison of Anartia, this is her safe haven. She can’t exist without it. She’ll protect it and the Drones who help her keep it alive. But when she returns to Prygos, it will be different. The Drones know this. Her days will be numbered.”
“You plan to kill her?”
Tarik shook his head. “I don’t have to. She has many enemies, on both Anartia and Prygos.”
Dante wouldn’t be sorry to see her annihilated on Prygos. An eternity of solitude on a foreign planet pressed down on him. He’d have his horses but he’d leave Haley behind. The ache twisted in his gut. “If you knew she was evil, how did you become lovers?”
“Her husband Cragen, the ruler of Prygos, is a tyrant. At the time, she seemed the victim. Powerful, yes. And very beautiful and seductive. She promised to grant me power, wealth and a privileged position. I agreed to construct a secret place for her, Anartia. A place to hide from her tyrannical husband, where she could meet her lovers. I became her lover. No one denies Gwyllain.”
My wife Hasana was furious when she first found out. She later approved because she knew the affair would benefit us both, and knew I didn’t love Gwyllain.”
“I don’t understand the dynamics of immortal relationships,” Dante said.
Tarik shrugged. “I don’t either at times. I completely misread this one.”
“How so?”
Tarik sat down on a square stone. His shoulders slumped and the pain and faraway look in his eyes made Dante wonder if the demon had gone mad. “I thought Gwyllain loved me, in her own way. She became obsessed with Anartia. She wanted it to be even more luxurious than her palace. Jealously led her to murder my wife.”
D.A. had moved toward the door and was shaking. He had to get him out of here. Something about the energy in this room was too much on him. “I’m sorry about your wife.”
“Natesa was there during that dark time. We fell in love, but the demoness couldn’t know or I’d lose her too.” Tarik sat at his instrument panel, his head hung. “Gwyllain wanted me to help in a plot against Cragen.”
“Assassination?”
Tarik nodded. “But she played me. Then Cragen’s spies discovered us and the plan. The ruler had his other engineers redesign Anartia so all involved would be trapped.”
Dante closed his eyes, thinking that he chose immortality and now he’d be entering this madhouse on Prygos. There’d be a fight or a war of some sort. “If you hate her so much, why are you destroying these Drones? Why not give them a chance?”
“I give them a choice. I am not a cruel master. Now leave before I’m forced to offer you that choice.”
Dante left the laboratory and walked D.A. down the corridor. He came to a halt outside the room for the horse’s stalls and pushed the door open. Where were his priorities? He was more concerned about horses than the Drones and whatever Tarik was doing to them. If they weren’t being reassimilated, then what? Tarik was up to something. Dante sensed it.
Pain radiated through his hand but faded the moment he focused attention there. A bruise would heal quickly. The benefits of an immortal. All these Drones feared mortality and death as much as he did. Even so, given that choice, would they all choose to be reassimilated? That didn’t make sense. Certainly, a brief mortal life was better than a certain, quick death.
He pushed open the door. The room was brightly lit. Gwyllain had provided two wooden stalls as he’d asked for with storage for food, water, tack and other supplies. The horses would be comfortable here and the adjustable lighting assured they never had to be in complete darkness. Dante got D.A. settled in one of the stalls and gave him water and some food. He turned for the door. He needed his other supplies from his truck. Valdon leaned on the doorframe. “Good, I could use some help hauling up my supplies,” Dante exclaimed.
“It’s being handled. Stay here with your horse,” Valdon said. “Zorian is taking care of it. Anything else you need?”
Dante was surprised by Valdon’s burst of generosity. “Why would you do me a favor?”
The large man shrugged. “I’m in a rush to get out of here, and I’ve gotten to like these creatures.”
“I appreciate it. Everything I need is in the back of the truck. I have to get back to the ranch. I have one more horse to bring here.”
“Right.” Valdon nodded, then left. Dante’s gut churned. When had that Drone ever done a kindness unless it would benefit himself?
* * * * *
“See that wasn’t so bad,” Natesa said to Haley as they landed above the cliffs of Anartia.
Haley looked behind her at the steep drop, a wave of dizziness swirled in her stomach. “What if we missed?”
Natesa smiled. “We’ve been here for a thousand years. No one has missed yet.” Natesa tapped the pendant around her neck. “As long as you’re wearing this.” Two men jogged down the hill and headed straight toward the cliff. They weren’t slowing down.
“What are they doing?” Haley asked, panic rising in her voice.
“Watch. This is how you return to Earth. The entrance to the portal is over the edge.”
Haley watched as the men grasped their necklaces and leapt off the edge. She let out a muffled shriek as she covered her mouth with both hands. “They’re gone!”
“No, they’re on Earth,” Natesa said. “Traveling between dimensions is a little strange at first.”
“A little?” She pulled out her camera and tried taking a picture. The camera wouldn’t work.
Haley tried another setting and held up the camera and tried again. Nothing. “Damn.” Stuffing the camera back into her pocket, she pulled out her cell phone and for the hell of it, turned it on. It appeared to be dead. She wasn’t surprised. Not even a low battery message. “I know I just charged this thing.” She slipped it back into her pocket.
“Tarik’s waiting.”
“I guess you get used to it.” Still wobbly on her feet, Haley meandered up the grassy slope with Natesa. The sight and sounds of the strange landscape and the white building that looked like an ancient Greek temple intrigued her, but didn’t help ease the cold, hard lump buried in her chest.