Red Blooded
Page 72

In the end, Tyler had insisted on accompanying Rourke, and the Princess had taken them somewhere. When they’d all returned they seemed satisfied. I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to know how they’d disposed of me, and I trusted them completely, so the details weren’t necessary.
Now it was time for us to exit the Underworld.
None of us knew how to deal with the Hags, or the fallout, so all we could do now was head home and wait for their move. It wasn’t ideal, but we weren’t going to wait around in Hell any longer to figure it out.
“How can no one be manning the circle on our plane?” Danny complained. “The witches literally just sent us down here.”
“Time works much differently here,” the Princess responded, her voice sounding harsh as her Demonish accent mixed with the English words, making them sound clipped at the ends. “While you are here, time on your plane goes both forward and backward with no regularity. It has to do with our plane being in constant motion. But time is not the issue here. The witches are not sending power down to fuel the circle, so we must find you another way back.”
We had voted to bring Selene back by a four-to-two margin. She was going to have to serve jail time for her misdeeds, which she had neither agreed to nor protested. Ray hovered near her, accepting his role as her guard without dissent. I addressed Selene directly, as she’d been a witch. “What does this mean?” I asked her. “Why aren’t they manning the circle?”
“I’d assume it means something catastrophic has happened.” Her voice was callous. “If what you said is true, they should be on a twenty-four-hour watch. They would be powering it at all times. So”—she smiled slyly, enjoying this—“it means they’re gone. And if they can’t keep the circle manned, it likely means trouble.”
“Or perhaps they are temporarily without a leader and have completely fallen apart,” the Vampire Queen interjected. “When Ardat Lili died we all felt something. Lili was the witch portion of the Five, and a very powerful one at that. She will have to be replaced by the next most powerful witch in line. Is there any witch in the world more powerful than Tallulah Talbot?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “If Tally is the most powerful, that means she’s the next female witch in line for the Coalition. Possibly the shift in Fate triggered something and Tally had to leave quickly—or was forced to leave.” I didn’t know of another witch as powerful as Tally, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one. The world was a big place.
“It doesn’t really matter,” Eudoxia said flatly. “The witches are otherwise occupied, so it looks as though there is no one to get us off this godforsaken plane.”
“There is another way. I can escort you to a portal,” the Princess said. “But the location on your plane will vary each time one of you goes through. You will not be gathered in the same place upon your return, and you will likely be far from home.”
“How many can travel together at one time through a portal?” Rourke asked. I knew there was no way he would go without me. His grip on my hand tightened as he awaited her response.
“Technically there is only supposed to be one traveler at a time, but we have learned that if two seem as one it will work,” the Princess replied.
“What does that mean?” Ray asked. “Two seem as one?”
“It means you must be thoroughly connected while traveling,” she answered.
“Connected how?” Danny interrupted. “And please don’t tell me that means what I think it means.”
“Your brain is dangerous territory, Danny.” I chuckled. “I’m sure it’s not what you’re thinking, and it means something like we have to be tied together in some way.”
“Yes, you must be bound together.” The Princess nodded. “We have something called torep lahy, which means ‘spelled rope,’ and it’s used for just this purpose. Only imps can use the portals. A full demon will be ripped apart upon entry. But with this rope the imps can go by twos.”
“That doesn’t exactly seem safe,” Tyler said. “And being ripped apart doesn’t sound appealing. How do you know we can go through without danger?”
She smiled. “These few portals were created by witches on your plane long ago. They made them for themselves with the intent to travel here. They were meant for your species, not ours. It has taken us many centuries to figure out ways for the imps to travel through them, but they are still unpredictable and dangerous for demons, and therefore banned in She’ol. Many from this era do not even know of their locations.”
“Okay,” I said, making the necessary decision. “Heading to a portal sounds like the only viable plan we have. If they were made by witches, they have to be okay for us. We’ll pair up. Ray and Selene, Tyler and Danny, Rourke and me…” I paused when my gaze landed on the Vamp Queen.
“If you think I’m going anywhere tethered to one of you, you’re sadly mistaken,” Eudoxia said with a fair amount of malice. “I will go on my own.” Since the intake of my blood, her ears had become a bit pointed, forcing her to change her hairstyle to cover them. It was strange to see her pale locks hanging down around her shoulders.
“Fine,” I said. “You can go alone, but once we all make it back, we meet up and strategize.”
“That’s not happening,” she retorted. “I agree we will come together… eventually, as the necessity of our position dictates, but I have pertinent business of my own to attend to once I get home. I am Queen of a Sect, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“The witches will be our first order of business,” I said pointedly, my head arched at her. “We have to figure out what happened to Tally. They did us a favor by sending us here and we owe them our help.”
“I owe no one. Tallulah Talbot was simply doing her job. The witches are not my first order of anything.” The Vamp Queen challenged me, her arms crossing. “My flock has been without my guidance for far too long. I will go to them first and oversee building a new rule. Then, when that is finished… I will have other business to attend to. There is no way you can mandate my participation in your games. If the Hags descend, you have my permission to call upon me, but otherwise I will be dealing with things in my own world and will not be forced to deal in yours.”