Gates of Paradise
Page 3

"Admit it, you enjoyed that. You like being evil again," Mimi teased.
Jack did not reply, but the sly smile on his face said it all. "Come on. Let's find this thing and end it once and for all."
Chapter Three
Bliss
merging from the Passages of Time was always a disconcerting experience, as if your entire being had been taken apart and then re-formed, the molecules and the memories haphazardly patched together. Bliss Llewellyn felt the familiar dizziness and disorientation, but it was worse now, since they were not just traveling through time but back to the underworld, back to her father's domain, back to Hell, where the wolves were turned into Hellhounds, where Lawson and the pack had been kept in chains.
She had come upon the boys by chance - had been shown a vision of a wolf in the glom, and had tracked it to a butcher shop in a small town in Ohio. There, she had befriended Lawson and his brothers, and together they had traveled to the dawn of Rome, to the beginning of the empire, to solve a mystery of the wolves' ancestry. Lawson was revealed to be the wolf Fenrir, the greatest wolf of the underworld, and he had bested Romulus, the Beast of Hell, the Hound of Hounds; had killed him with Michael's sword, an archangel's blade. With the help of his pack, he had stopped the Sabine massacre, and in doing so had saved the wolves from extinction. Now they had returned to Hell to fulfill his promise to free his people from the Silver Blood demons.
Lawson turned around, his dark eyes sparkling, and he smiled. The sigil on his cheek, the one that matched Bliss's and marked them as part of the same pack, the blue crescent moon, shone in the dim light. "You okay back there?" he asked.
Bliss nodded, keeping pace with his long step. She was scared but determined to see it through. This was what her mother had tasked her to do - to bring the wolves back into the fold, to help the vampires in their war against their enemies - but she had her own reasons for pursuing this quest. Bliss had a dark history behind her: for centuries upon centuries she had been an unknowing party to evil. As the vehicle for the Dark Prince, she had kept his spirit alive on earth, and in doing so had brought death and grief to the vampires. Bliss wanted not only redemption, but revenge.
She had pinned her hopes on the pack - Lawson, impulsive, reckless, and powerfully strong, and his brothers - Edon, Rafe, and Malcolm - loyal soldiers all - along with Ahramin, the dark one - the wolf who had been turned into a hound and reclaimed her soul. They surrounded her now, and Bliss found solace in their number and strength. They were ready to fight.
Lawson stumbled out of the passage, and everyone else followed after. Bliss looked around - steeling herself for the worst - expecting to breathe the smoke of the underworld - to see gray skies and barren lands - or to be met by a thousand demons with crimson eyes and burning tongues, wielding swords of dark flame.
But what was this? There was grass beneath her feet. Trees forming a canopy over her head. The sweet smell of morning dew. This wasn't the underworld....This looked strangely familiar....This was...Ohio?
"Where are we?" she asked Lawson, who was standing next to her. She looked to the rest of the pack. Malcolm wiped his eyeglasses on his sleeve. Rafe appeared confused, and Ahramin and Edon were whispering to each other.
"Guys?" she asked. "Um...are we where I think we are?"
Lawson nodded grimly. "Yeah. We're back in Hunting Valley." He kicked a tree stump. "We must have made a wrong turn somewhere."
They'd landed in the middle of rural suburbia, not far from where Bliss had found them in the beginning. This was the clearing in the woods, a few miles away from the center of town, where the boys lived above a butcher shop.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go back in." She removed the chronolog from her jeans pocket. The timekeeper was rotating, its hands spinning out of control. "Wait - there's something wrong with it. Mac, can you look at it?"
"Sure," Malcolm said. He took it from her hand and studied it. "It looks like it's trying to make a reading, but something's preventing it from doing so."
Bliss looked back from where they came from. The passage had closed behind them. "Maybe because we're out of the passage? Lawson, can you open it back up?"
Lawson nodded; his face took on a look of deep concentration.
They waited, but nothing happened.
"Come on, Lawson, get on with it," Ahramin said, a trace of annoyance in her voice.
"I'm trying," Lawson said. "Something's wrong. I can't open the portal."
"Are you doing something different?" Malcolm asked. "Can we help?"
Of course he'd offer to help, Bliss thought. Malcolm was the youngest in the pack, and by far the sweetest. Bliss had come to adore him in the time they'd spent together. Edon and Rafe had been tougher nuts to crack, though she felt close to them as well. As for Ahramin, the former Hellhound was one of them now, her past transgressions forgiven when she'd proved herself worthy of the pack by fighting against Romulus's will and breaking her collar. They were a team, a unit, and if Bliss had any lingering suspicions concerning Ahramin, she chided herself for them. For if she felt that way about Ahramin, how could she expect anyone to forgive her for her own dark past? Ahramin was merely a former Hellhound, but Bliss was Lucifer's daughter. The Dark Prince had cursed the wolves, had turned them into slaves. In the underworld, the Silver Bloods had been the wolves' masters.
"Tell us what you need us to do," she urged Lawson.
"This has never happened before," he grumbled. "But sure, why not? Guys, everyone focus. We just need to clear our minds, imagine the passage opening. Maybe if we all work together we can do it."
The pack huddled together. Bliss pushed away her fear, pushed away her doubt, and pictured the Passages of Time opening before her. Her head ached, and she put her hands to her temples, feeling them throb and pulse, and for a moment she was convinced it was working. She could feel the passage opening behind her, felt the wind through the tunnels.
Then it stopped.
The feeling went away.
She opened her eyes and looked around. Nothing had changed.
They were still standing in the clearing.
"What's going on?" Rafe asked, frustrated.
"Did you do something?" Ahramin asked Lawson. "Like accidentally seal the passage behind us when we went through?"
"Why do you always assume it was me who did something wrong?" Lawson protested.
"Because you've screwed up before," she snapped. "Remember how I got left behind the last time?"
They sounded like an old married couple, Bliss thought. Which implied a certain kind of intimacy that she didn't want to think about too much. Besides, it was ridiculous to even consider. Ahramin and Lawson? If they hadn't been in the same pack, it was clear they would have despised each other. Besides, Ahramin had been pledged to Edon from the beginning. No, they weren't like a married couple - more like bickering siblings, which made more sense.
"Don't be so hard on him, Ahri; he's doing his best," Edon said.
"It wasn't Lawson," Malcolm said. "It's like the passages have closed up on their own. Can't you feel it?"
Rafe nodded. "It did feel different, like something was blocking them."
"Or someone," Bliss said.
Chapter Four
Tomasia (Florence, 1452)
he castle came into view at the edge of a black and winding river, its tall gray walls rising forty feet above the dark waters. Steep cliffs backed the fortress, which meant the stone bridge was the only way in or out. The keep was well fortified, designed to repel a siege. But its defenses would soon prove useless.
"We'll stop here, lest we give away our location," Tomasia Fosari decided, and the team drifted into the shadows of the forest. The air was damp and smelled of the rotting river, its murky waters rippling with the current.
"Are you certain you can do this?" Giovanni Rustici asked. In the moonlight his hair was like a halo around his handsome face. Gio was not only the best Venator among them, he was also a fellow sculptor at Donatello's studio, and Tomasia's closest friend. He knew how hard this was for her. They had spent days on the road tracking the Dark Prince to his hiding place in Verona.
"Yes," Tomasia told him, her face set. She had believed that Andreas del Pollaiuolo was the love of her life. Michael to her Gabrielle. But she had been deceived. Dre carried the spirit of Lucifer within him. Simonetta de Vespucci had named him as the father of her baby. "The Mistress," Simonetta was called, consort to the Dark Prince, his human bride, the mother of Nephilim.
The dark-haired beauty had cowered from Gio's blade.
"We shall not suffer the demon child to live," Gio growled.
But Tomi had stayed his hand. "No. She will be kept under guard, protected and watched by our finest Venators. We would be no better than our Silver Blood brethren if we kill her. We shall not shed devil blood, not in the name of all that is Divine."
Simonetta had revealed Andreas's location, had begged them to show her lover mercy. They had left the weeping, pregnant woman in the care of the Petruvian priests tasked with her safety.
Tomi shivered at the thought of what might have been if they had not discovered the deception. She would have bonded with Dre, with Lucifer. She would have pledged her troth to his. How could she not have known? How was it that she had been able to see her mate in his soul? It did not make sense.
She looked at the castle looming in the distance. Andreas was hiding inside with a Coven of Silver Bloods, and she was going to burn it down with the Black Fire.
"I know you loved him once," Gio said softly. "I know how hard this is."
Gio - dear, lovely Gio. Tomi put a hand on his. "I cannot love one who has been false." She scanned the castle once more for any sign of life. Torchlight flickered in a distant window. She heard horses neigh, and a shadow of a hawk passed over her head. Otherwise, the night was quiet and nothing moved. The castle towers' red terra-cotta roofs glowed in the dark. Truly, no terrestrial fire could harm this place, but the Black Fire of Hell was another matter.
She pulled a tinderbox from her cloak and motioned the others to gather around. There were five of them in all. Five Venators, five sides of a pentagram.
The small container glowed with an unearthly light, and the air around it hummed with energy. Tomi ran a finger along the box top, and the lid slid open to reveal a small glowing spark, red flames with a black heart. The air smelled of sulfur and smoke.
"The Black Fire is held in check by a containment spell for now. The spell will not abate until I release the enchantment," she said as, one by one, the Venators lit their wooden torches with the dark flame.
"Each of us will take a corner of the castle. Wait for my word. Once released, the flame cannot be extinguished. It can destroy stone as well as flesh, and immortal souls as swiftly as mortal. Toss the torches onto the castle, then run away as fast as you are able." Her voice trembled a little. "Remember, the Black Fire of Hell is treacherous; it will burn you as easily as it will burn our enemies."
The team disbanded, carrying their torches high in the air. The three other Venators disappeared along the river's edge, while Tomi and Gio sprinted across the bridge, toward the keep. Tomi watched as the dark flames flickered on both sides of the wall, the Black Fire sucking all light from the murky night.
They crossed to the far side of the bridge.
When she was certain the team was in position, she gave the signal.
Now, she sent to each Venator as she released her torch, sending the flame to the sky.
Gio sent his flying to the air, toward an open window. "RUN!" he yelled, as they fled the black flames.
Tomi knew the danger, but couldn't stop from looking backward. The sight was magnificent in its horror. The Black Fire erupted over the castle wall, melting the gray stone as if it were made of wax. The two towers and the mighty gate collapsed backward into a black hole of swirling flames. The far side of the bridge toppled behind them, pulling one of the bridge's broad pillars with it into the dark waters in a thunderous crash.
The black flames began to consume the river, making the water steam as the fire raced across its length. The smell was hideous, sick and rotten; it consumed everything in its path: air, water, and rock.
When they reached the far bank and the edge of the forest, they heard the first screams from inside the castle. They ran along the riverbank, the fire receding behind them. A mile from the castle, they reached high ground and looked down at the valley below. The river rode in a broad circle around the promontory and back to the castle, and the Black Fire would not spread beyond it once it had consumed the soul of the Dark Prince. Two of the three Venators appeared out of the smoke.
"Where's Dantos?" Tomi asked.