He nods. “In a way, yes, but you won’t be able to open it.”
“Why the hell not?”
“It’s best if you don’t know.”
“Tell me!” I yell.
He sighs. “She is in that room, but she isn’t.”
“He took her to the Otherworld, didn’t he? I’m going to get her back. I did it before.
Chase helped me then. We can do it again.”
I start to walk out. “HUNTER, STOP! She’s not in the Otherworld. That room is a
portal to a place far worse than that.”
I tighten my grip around Kayla’s dagger… the only thing I have of hers. “WHERE DID
HE TAKE HER?”
“Hunter…” he hesitates.
I lower my voice, “Please, just tell me,” I beg.
Xavier looks me in the eyes and I know the answer before he says it.
“She’s in Hell.”
I swallow the lump in my throat.
“We need that door down,” I say.
“It won’t matter. The door is warded and the portal won’t open for just anyone.”
“Fine, we’ll get a demon to open it.”
“It won’t work, Hunter. I’m sorry. This house belongs to him… only he and his offspring
can open that portal.”
“Benjamin—” I say.
“Even if Irene finds him, it’s unlikely that he’ll help,” says Xavier.
“I’ll make sure he does.” I turn around and punch the wall, knowing that in reality,
I don’t stand a chance against him. “Is there any other way?”
“Not that I know of,” Xavier says, “but she is nephilim and if Samael is with her,
they may be able to find their way back. There are no measurements of what kind of
power nephilim have. Anything is possible.”
“Yeah, right.” I say, shaking my head, “you seem to forget that Samael was the one
who took her there!”
KAYLA
I feel tired and I don’t understand why. Samael did say that our Nephilim instinct
kicked in, but I really have no clue what it all means. Right now, I just sit alone
in the room and try not to fall asleep.
We didn’t exactly agree on the sleeping situation. We went back and forth and eventually,
when we could feel Ezra was gone, Samael said he was going to take a look around.
He has been gone for a while now and I decide that I have to do something. I sit
on the mattress, which is practically the only clean thing in the room. I close my
eyes and try to get into Hunter’s head. I hope and pray that maybe I can communicate
with him that way. I get nothing. I think about him, his hair, his eyes, the feel
of his hands on mine, still nothing. I try and try and I’m now even more exhausted,
but I don’t stop until I feel Samael’s hand on my shoulders.
“Take a break before you pass out,” he says.
I open my eyes and sigh.
“I have bad news,” he says.
I roll my eyes at him. “You mean, worse than being in Hell?”
“Haha. I’m glad I still manage to amuse you, even in Hell. But… the bad news is
that the wards seem impossible to get through,” he pauses. “I’m assuming you didn’t
get through to Hunter either.”
I shake my head.
“You should rest.”
“I thought you said there were human things we didn’t need because of our Nephilim
instincts taking over while we are here.”
“You still need rest. The fallen need rest and so do we. Now that you are aware,
we can take turns staying awake in case Ezra comes back. It would be good for at
least one of us to be alert.”
I nod.
“Go ahead. I’ll get some sleep when you wake up.”
“Well, I can’t sleep with you in the same room, watching me.”
He rolls his eyes. “Not that I would be watching you, but whatever, I’ll stay right
outside the door.”
“Good.”
He walks out and I lay down, looking around. I hate this place and the fact that
it’s so dirty makes me wonder if there are bugs in Hell. I haven’t seen any yet so
hopefully that is a good sign. Well, as good as it gets anyway.
For the first time since I woke up, I look down at me. I look clean, but I feel filthy.
I just wish I could take a long shower and go to my own bed, in my own world. I
look at my arms and see bruises. I almost get up to ask Samael how they got there,
but I’m too tired to move. I decide to ask him as soon as I’m up again.
I close my eyes and fall asleep right away.
I can see Hunter. He’s in my room, but he can’t get to me. Next to my body is the
demon. He’s in human form, but I can sense that disgusting essence that demons have.
Close to him, there is someone whose face I can’t see. That someone picks me up but
I still can’t see his face. I scream and I hear the demon laugh. I look at Hunter
and the look on his face is of pure terror. I try to get away from the one who’s
carrying me, but I can’t move. I can’t feel anything from my neck down.
“Wait!” orders the demon. “I want her to watch this.”
The one carrying me stops and the demon smiles at me before he starts to walk toward
Hunter. I want to scream, but the sound doesn’t come out. Like me, Hunter can’t
move. He stands there with his eyes locked on mine as the demon transforms into this
six-foot tall creature, with black hardened skin. His eyes are bright yellow, and
even though his nails are long enough to stab someone, he grabs my dagger from the
dresser and launches toward Hunter, piercing his heart with it. Hunter is immortal,
but just like my dagger is the one thing that can kill demons, it can also destroy
Hunter and I know this because I can feel that he is
gone. At that moment, I can move again, but I don’t want to. All I can do is scream
and scream…
“KAYLA!”
I wake up from that nightmare with tears running down my face. I can feel his arms
go around me, but it’s not Hunter, it’s Samael, and I push him away.
“Don’t!” I warn him.
He stands up and steps away.
“Sorry, I—I was just trying to help.”
This is the first time I see Samael with a lost look on his face. I take a deep breath,
dry the tears with my hands, and look at the ring that Hunter gave me. I only look
at it for a split second but it’s enough to take me right back to that moment and
remember the look in his eyes as he promised me to be my protector and to find a way
for us to be together. That instantly calms me down.
When I look back at Samael, he turns around and starts to walk out of the room with
a hurt look on his face and I stop him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I just—I have a lot of nightmares, well,
I hadn’t had them for a while, but,” I take a deep breath again. “Hunter always woke
me up from them.”
He nods in understanding but he still has that hurt look on his face and for some
reason, I can’t stand to look into his eyes.
“Look, I’m wide awake now. You should get some sleep.”
He nods. “Stay in the room though. You won’t want to accidently run into Ezra out
there if he returns. I don’t want you alone with him.”
“I can handle myself.”
He sounds irritated now. “Look, I’m sure you can, but please, don’t. We have a better
chance to get out of here if there are still two of us around.”
“Fine!”
I get up, walk toward the door, and stand against it.
“You can sit on the mattress. I don’t mind and I don’t bite.”
“I’m okay,” I say.
He shrugs and lies down on the mattress, facing the wall, away from me. Seconds later,
I can hear him snoring and I roll my eyes at him.
I stand there and even standing I start to doze off, and then I hear a loud noise
that sounds like a door slamming.
I check to make sure Samael is still sleeping. When I hear him snore again, I crack
the door open and sneak toward the end of the hallway where the noise came from. I
stand near a closed door and I can hear two voices, a male and a female.
“I assume if you’re summoning me that you have everything ready,” she says.
“Of course I have. Just as we agreed.”
“Very well, Ezra. I must say I’m impressed. I never thought a plan of creating him
would work, not until you got both Nephilim.”
There is silence in the room and I think of rushing back, wondering if they are maybe
ready to go, but then, she speaks again.
“Do you have a plan in place to teach him all that he needs to know to help us?”
“Of course. That is why the Nephilim are still here. What we got from them will
only take us so far. Once their knowledge is passed on, they will be able to return
to their useless lives.”
“Ah, Ezra, and you believe they will teach him everything?”
“They have to. The girl has attachments to the human world and the boy and I already
made a deal. They have to help or they will never get what they want. Trust me,
there’s a reason I’m allowing them to live after this is all said and done.”
“Very well,” she says. “I will be seeing you again soon.”
Knowing she is about to leave, I rush back to the room.
I close the door with more strength than I should have. Samael jumps awake and stares
at me.
“Where were you?”
“Pssst. He is here.”
“Again, where were you?”
“Down the hall,” I whisper as I walk closer to him.
I stand near the mattress where he sits.
“Do you ever listen?” he asks in a frustrated tone.
“Not to you. Anyway, he was talking to a woman.”
“And?”
“He was talking about us.”
He gives me a concerned look and I feel a pressure in my head. I automatically block
him out.
“We are not doing this. Stay out of my head and I’ll stay out of yours. If you want
to know something, you ask me.”
“Fine. What were they saying?” he whispers.
“He was talking about us teaching someone what we know about being a Nephilim.”
He gives me a puzzled look then laughs. “Someone who? We can teach them all day.
They won’t be able to do anything unless this person is Nephilim.”
“I don’t know. He mentioned someone he created. Do you know what that means?”
He shrugs. “Demons are freaking insane. Someone he created… he probably means one
of his sons. For all we know he’ll be bringing Benjamin around to be taught how to
be a Nephilim. Yeah, this should get interesting.” He laughs.
I shiver just at the thought of seeing Benjamin again.
“There was something else he said…”
“What?” he asks.
“He mentioned that he made some kind of deal with you. What was all that about?”
He shrugs. “I have no idea. He probably knew you were listening and wanted to mess
with you.”
I study him and I know there is something off about the way he sounds.
“You’re lying.”
He shakes his head. “You’re being paranoid. Look, I don’t know what he is talking
about, okay? Just let it go.”
He lays back down, turns around and goes back to sleep right away.
At this point, I don’t trust him at all, but he is my way out of here, so I have no
choice but to let it go.
I walk over to the window and sit on the windowsill. Outside, there is nothing but
mud, grass, and fires. I stare at the destruction outside, the angry fires at random
spots that light up the way to the vast darkness of the Otherworld far ahead. I remember
how awful that place was and how I didn’t think there could be a place worse than
that. How wrong was I? At least if I was stuck there, I knew there was hope of Hunter
and Chase finding me and taking me back. I hate changes, I hate the unknown, and
I’m getting this gut feeling that this is probably where I will be stuck forever.
I wonder how everyone is back at home. I wonder if the academies are safe and even
if time there passes like it does here. I can’t bear the thought of getting back
one day, if I even get back, and finding out that years have passed and that everyone
I know is older—that I’m older—and that the only years I could ever get to spend with
Hunter were wasted with me being stuck here. I know I should think that would be
preferable than not being able to go back at all, but I can’t. I just have to hope
I can go back soon and that things will be the same.