[The Watchers 19.0] Dominion - Reckoning Read online

  “It’s in the desert where your first fight with the hellspawn took place,” Slade tells me. “If we all hold hands, I can phase us to it.”

  We all sheath our weapons and gather into a large circle, holding hands so he can phase us directly to the spot.

  Once we’re there, I look around, but all I see is a multitude of sand dunes.

  “Where is it?” I ask sharply, failing to hide the contempt I feel toward him, knowing he’s the only one of us who can actually see the opening between the veils.

  Slade looks over his shoulder to the dune right behind him. “It’s there,” he says before looking back at us all. “I can’t promise that we’ll find Anna and Lucas once we’re inside. You all need to be prepared for the possibility that we won’t.”

  “We will find them,” I say, unable to prevent the growl in my voice. “And if you’re going to have that kind of attitude about this mission, maybe you shouldn’t stay with us after we go inside.”

  “I’m just trying to be realistic about the situation, Malcolm. That doesn’t mean I won’t do everything I can to help,” Slade tells me. “If you thought outer space was infinite, Hell is even more so. If Helena doesn’t want us to find your family, we won’t. Anna may be the only one who can convince Helena to let her go.”

  “I don’t intend to give her a choice in the matter,” I tell him, fully determined to do whatever it takes to get Anna and Lucas back.

  “Why don’t we get going?” Jess suggests, putting an end to my argument with Slade. “I assume since you’re the only one who can see the fissure, you’ll need to lead us into it.”

  “Yes,” Slade says, diverting his gaze away from me to look at her. “Once we’re inside, I’ll be able to see the other fissures available to us in case we need to make a quick escape.”

  “We’re not all cowards like you,” I tell him, placing an emphasis on the last word. “We won’t need an escape route.”

  Slade narrows his eyes on me. “You don’t know what we’ll need until we’re in there.”

  “I know I won’t be running away.”

  “Okay, boys,” Jess says, looking between the two of us with her hands on her hips, “let’s stay focused and remember why we’re here. If the two of you want to have a pissing match later on, be my guest, but right now, I’m more interested in finding Anna and Lucas than worrying about either of your egos.”

  “Have I mentioned how much I’ve missed you?” Jered tells Jess, a wry grin on his face.

  “Of course you missed me,” Jess replies with a small, unassuming shrug of her shoulders. “No one else can put Malcolm in his place as effectively as me and not get pummeled while doing it.”

  “Humph!” I narrow my eyes at Jess to warn her that she’s treading on thin ice with my patience. She winks at me with that little mischievous smile of hers, and I instantly realize she’s right. However, I’m not about to own up to that small weakness where she’s concerned.

  “Let’s get going before Slade loses his nerve,” I say gruffly, getting the last jab in while I can.

  Slade wisely chooses to ignore me. He leads us all inside, and I end up being the last one who enters Hell.

  We walk into what looks like a narrow tunnel drilled through the center of a mountain. It’s just tall enough for me to not hit my head on the ceiling and barely wide enough for us to stand two abreast. I realize the space is partially real and partially illusion. Hell is similar to Heaven in that regard. Almost anything you can dream up is possible here, if you’re the one in control. All Helena has to do is imagine something into being.

  There’s an almost overwhelming sulfuric stench emanating from somewhere ahead of us.

  “Where exactly will this tunnel take us?” I ask Slade. “I assume that smell is coming from wherever it is you escaped from the last time you were here.”

  “Yes, it is,” he answers, looking uncomfortable in our surroundings. “I was hoping the location of things might have shifted around by now, but apparently they haven’t. I suppose that could work in our favor, though. I won’t have to guess where we’re going as much.”

  “Where does this lead?” I ask again, promptly losing what little patience I have where Slade is concerned.

  The dread that suddenly appears on his face tells me I won’t like the answer.

  “The leviathan pits,” he informs me. “If we’re lucky, they’ll still be asleep. Helena keeps them all in hibernation mode to make sure they remain calm. Otherwise, they get agitated and try to escape.”

  “Escape to where?” Ethan asks.

  “Other levels of Hell,” Slade answers. “As long as everyone keeps quiet while we’re in there, we should be able to walk through their chamber without waking them.”

  “And what’s waiting for us on the other side of the leviathan pits?” Jess asks.

  “I don’t know for sure,” he admits. “But if things haven’t changed since the last time I was here, I think I can take us to an empty chamber. It’s used as a staging area for the souls Helena feeds to the leviathans. She only does that every once in a while, though. Hopefully today isn’t a feeding day. Make sure all of you watch your step as we walk through. The pathways between the leviathan pits are extremely narrow, and if you fall into one of them, there’s no way we can get you back out, since none of us can phase while we’re in here.”

  Without saying another word, Slade turns around and starts walking down the tunnel. As we follow him into the leviathans’ chamber, I can’t help but think that we’re making a colossal mistake trusting him to lead us around Hell. Who knows what being tortured down here for over a thousand years did to him mentally? He healed from his physical wounds quickly enough, but there are some things that can’t be mended with just the passage of time. Yet even if he is thoroughly off his rocker, I know Slade will never betray Anna. I may have lost my ability to tell a truth from a lie the first time I drank human blood, but I know without that angelic power that he will protect Anna with his life, if it comes down to that. Perhaps he feels guilt over betraying Caylin and he wants to make reparations for it with the descendent he was originally meant to protect. He did glow to Caylin’s eyes at one time. His desire to help her was real, even if we all assumed it was only so he could follow through with Lucifer’s orders for him. Whatever his actual motivation is, it’s only known to him. As long as he helps me find my family, I really don’t care why he’s helping us.

  As I approach the end of the tunnel we’re in, the putrid smell inside the leviathans’ chamber is practically suffocating. I have to keep myself from gagging on the foul air entering my lungs. The area itself is massive in scale, but so are the leviathans. The room is circular with a circumference of at least a mile. The pits where the leviathans are sleeping are hexagonal in shape, making the floor of the chamber resemble the honeycomb structure of a beehive. I had hoped I would never have to see these particular creatures of Hell again after witnessing them in action on alternate Earth. Talk about bringing Hell to Earth. I try not to think about that time in my life too much. It has forever left a scar inside me.

  The path between each of the leviathan cells is barely wide enough to fit both of my feet side by side. Zane is directly in front of me. I watch as he misjudges a step. His foot slides into one of the cells, grazing the top of the sleeping leviathan we’re passing. The creature stirs slightly and groans in its sleep, but his trespass barely disturbs its slumber. Zane slowly lifts his foot out of the cell and looks back at me, shaking his head at his own clumsiness.

  When we’re close to the center of the chamber, I hear the low snarl of an animal come from directly behind me. I quickly look over my shoulder and see a hellhound standing at the entrance to the tunnel we just came through. Its pristine white fur is ablaze with the illusion of fire that reflects against its black eyes, causing them to be lit with a preternatural glow. As the hound continues to stare at me, it bares its teeth, growling even louder. Before long, its snarl is joined by a multitude of them. I look
around the chamber and see at least twenty hellhounds standing around the perimeter of the room. Each of them is guarding a tunnel leading out of the area, including the one we were originally headed for. As if by some predetermined cue, all of them begin to run toward us.

  Being left with no other choice, we all begin to run down the only pathway that leads to a tunnel not being guarded by a hound. After living with the pain of a hellhound bite for a thousand years, I sure as hell don’t want to have to go through that experience again. In the back of my mind, I know this new development can only mean one thing.

  Helena knows we’re here, and she’s using the hellhounds to herd us exactly where she wants us to go.

  That’s fine by me. We knew we couldn’t hide from her forever. This is her domain, after all, and she has full control over what happens in Hell.

  Slade is the first one to exit the leviathan chamber and make it to the area Helena is forcing us to enter. I take a deep breath as I run through the entryway. As soon as I see what’s waiting for us, I know Helena is presenting us with her first challenge.

  Game on …

  Chapter 2

  (Anna’s Point of View)

  I feel betrayed by my own children. As I hold Lucas close to my side and stare at Helena’s mocking smile, I can’t help but wonder why Liam and Liana continue to go against my will, phasing us to her. She seems to believe it’s because they feel safer in her presence. I guess I can understand that to a degree, but something about that explanation just doesn’t sit well with me. I sense they’re trying to accomplish a particular task involving Helena, and then I remind myself that they’re just babies. How can they be thinking anything, much less strategizing a secret agenda? I refuse to believe our children think Malcolm and I are incapable of keeping them safe. If the babies are, in fact, cognizant of what’s going on around them and thinking well beyond their age, they must know their father and I will do whatever it takes to keep them protected.

  Even though the most probable explanation sounds impossible, I believe the babies have brought us here for a specific purpose. I simply don’t know what it is yet.

  “Do you like the décor I chose?” Helena asks me with a tilt of her head as she considers the furnishings in the room.

  “A little too Goth for my taste, if this is supposed to be a nursery,” I tell her truthfully as I consider the black-painted wood bed, cribs, and black and silver damask wallpaper. “It looks like you’re going to have a funeral in here. Or is that the point of all the black? Are you planning to kill my children yourself, Helena?”

  She giggles, making my skin crawl from the unnatural sound. “Oh, Anna, you are too much sometimes; so dramatic. You continuously think the worst of me. How are we ever going to develop a sisterly bond if you refuse to trust me? I only want to keep your little cherubs safe, nothing else. Haven’t I done enough to prove that to you yet?”

  “You’ve lost your mind if you think I’ll ever trust you, Helena, and I don’t believe for a second that your plans for them are anything but selfish.”

  Her smile slowly fades, as if I’ve made her angry by my statements. It’s the truth, as I see it. I’m not about to lie to her just to stroke her ego.

  “Oh,” she says, lifting her chin up a notch in righteous indignation. “I see how you are. You can forgive our father for the most depraved transgressions against humanity, but me you automatically place into the category of the unredeemable.”

  “Are you seeking redemption?” I ask, not even sure that would work in Helena’s case, considering who and what she is.

  “Not really,” she says with a carefree shrug of one shoulder. “I’ve done nothing to be sorry for. I am what I am because of the way Lucifer treated me. He made me the same way he made you, but I was never allowed to have the advantages you did.”

  “And what advantages do you believe he gave to me and not to you?”

  “His respect and love.”

  “Are those things you wanted from him?” My question is a leading one. I’m curious to know if love is an emotion Helena can actually feel. Considering the fact that Cade is her soul mate, it seems plausible that even the personification of Hell is capable of feeling such an emotion. Could that be the reason God allowed (what seems like a travesty against the whole concept of soul mates) such a pairing to occur? Maybe her connection to Cade wasn’t only meant to teach her a lesson but to also show the rest of us that she is capable of more than just hate.

  Helena carefully contemplates her answer before replying. “It’s a moot point. Lucifer never cared for me the way he did you. That’s just a fact.”

  “I did receive his love in the end, but you were able to spend more time with him than I was,” I counter.

  She looks at me like I’m the one who has lost her mind.

  “Are you serious?” she asks incredulously. “You spent more time with him than I could ever dream of spending.”

  It takes me a moment, but I finally understand what she’s referring to.

  “I don’t remember the time he and I spent together in Heaven when I was Seraphina.”

  “Seraphina?” Lucas asks, looking up at me in confusion. “What do you mean, Mommy? Who is she?”

  I hear Helena snap her fingers. Lucas instantly closes his eyes and falls asleep against my side.

  “Why did you do that?” I ask tersely, finding it difficult in my pregnant state to keep Lucas from sliding to the floor now that he’s unconscious.

  “I didn’t feel like having him interrupt us with a million and one questions about your angelic past life,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “I don’t have the patience for that sort of thing.”

  “He’s a child. Children are naturally inquisitive. That’s how they learn things.”

  “I don’t really care what the reason is behind it. I would rather he slept while the grown-ups talk.”

  “You could at least help me get him into bed if you’re going to be this way.”

  Helena huffs. “Very well.”

  She snaps her fingers a second time, and Lucas is instantly transported from my arms onto the top of the large, four-poster bed in the room.

  “Am I right in guessing that you haven’t told him who he really is yet either?”

  “He doesn’t need to know about that,” I say, turning my attention back to her. “And I would appreciate it if you never told him.”

  Helena tilts her head and smiles coquettishly at me. “Are you asking me for a favor, sweet sister?”

  “I’m asking you to do the decent thing for once in your life.”

  “And who says telling him the truth isn’t the right thing to do? Doesn’t he deserve to know about his own past? He should be proud of who he was and know how much he sacrificed to save the lives of the people he loved.”

  “Lucas has his own life to live,” I tell her. “Let him live it without the burden of knowing what happened before.”

  “Whatever,” she says with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I don’t really care about all of that anyway.” Helena captures my full attention as she gazes at me intently. “What I do care about is this missing time you seem to have from your life as Seraphina. Can you honestly not remember anything? Not a single moment?”

  “No. I don’t remember that life. All I know is what God showed me when He finally explained my true relationship to Lucifer.”

  Her eyelids lower, and a sly smile stretches her lips. “Would you like to see more of that life?”

  Her question catches me off guard.

  “See more of it?” I ask, feeling as though I’ve just stepped into a well-laid trap.

  “It’s a simple enough question, Anna. Please try to keep up. I’m asking if you want to see more about your life as Seraphina.”

  “And how exactly would you be able to show me that?”

  “Have you already forgotten that I have all of Lucifer’s memories in here?” she says, tapping her right temple with her index finger. “I have every little thing he did stor
ed inside my mind. I would be willing to share some of his memories with you, if you want.”

  “What does that do for you?” I ask, knowing Helena never does anything to help others unless she gets something in return. There has to be an angle to her seemingly generous offer that I’m missing.

  “Do I have to have an ulterior motive to do something nice for you?”

  “Yes,” I say without hesitation.

  “Ye of so little faith, Anna.” Helena shakes her head at me in disappointment.

  “Oh, I have plenty of faith that you don’t do things for other people if it doesn’t benefit you in some way. So, what is it? Is there something from my life as Seraphina that you think will hurt me?”

  “I just thought it would be a nice way for us to pass the time together. Who knows how long you’ll be …”

  Helena abruptly stops speaking and closes her eyes; she tilts her head to the right as if she’s trying very hard to listen to something in particular.

  “Those sneaky little devils,” she says with a smile, sounding impressed.

  “Who are you talking about?” I ask, curious to know what has her so intrigued.

  She opens her eyes and looks directly at me. “It seems as if your husband is trying to rescue you, Anna.”

  My heart leaps inside my chest with excitement and newfound hope. I pray the babies allow their father to take us home when he finds us. Maybe this will finally prove to them that we are more than capable of keeping them safe.

  “Why did you say they were sneaky?”

  “I’ve prevented anyone from phasing here, but they’ve found a way through one of the fissures I left open,” Helena tells me. “My, my, your husband has brought quite a formidable force with him to find you. He must love you a great deal.”