Katon surprised me when he cut back in. “Frank?”
I nodded, and then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah?”
“I couldn’t find anything about your alien buddy…”
Seeing how he was trapped in my uncle’s basement for a millennium, I pretty much expected that.
“…I did, however, come across a report of a couple of dimensional anomalies that happened during the fight for Heaven,” he continued. “The first one was just a tiny blip, several dimensions away. It happened at the height of the storms. The contact was blurred and unsteady, and only lasted for a few moments before disappearing or being shielded. It originated from somewhere outside of our connected dimensions so there was no way to trace its origin. The second one was a far more powerful disturbance. It came from within Hell and reached out into the unknown, right around the time we were gathered outside Eden. Rachelle wasn’t able to track that one either, but upon reflection, she said it probably lasted for several hours before it went away. She couldn’t even be sure where in Hell it came from, given how little attention she’d paid it.”
I sighed, thanking Katon for the information. He signed off to find Scarlett, promising to let me know as soon as he did. Once he was gone, I made my way to a portal to Hell, all the ones at DRAC shut down. It gave me some time to think about what Katon had told me.
The first blip was most likely Hasstor. He’d said his arrival would most be noticed, and it seemed he was right. While Rachelle had been with us then, she was still unconsciously scanning the integrity of the dimensional walls to be sure nothing came through and surprised us. A powerful mystic, she was in tune with the ether and would have reported the disturbances had she not been so distracted.
The second incident was Baalth’s little science project. He’d always underestimated Rachelle and her ability to pierce the gloom of protective wards and spells. She was far more powerful than anyone gave her credit for, her flighty and distracted nature the perfect cover for her astounding abilities. She, no doubt, picked up on Baalth’s gate as he tried to block it from view. I smiled at that, the information giving me something to dig at Baalth with. He hated being one-upped.
As I headed off to the portal, laughing, a cold realization popped into my head. My laughter died.
Baalth was already gone by the time we reached Iran. He was with Lucifer then.
All of sudden it made sense. It couldn’t have been Baalth’s portal that Rachelle sensed. It had to be another one; one that had been used to summon Mihheer to our universe.
Gorath was in Hell.
Panic fueled my rush to find a portal. If Mihheer could track me using just the tiny bit of my essence found in the vial I’d buried at my mother’s grave, would he have a problem finding Lucifer were Baalth’s portal to be opened? In the midst of a war, it was a good bet they’d be calling on the power fairly regularly, opening up a glowing beacon that led straight to my uncle.
Another thought came to me, smashing into the insides of my skull like a bullet train. Mihheer finding Lucifer wasn’t the worst that could happen.
Chapter Twenty
Back in Hell, my heart was drumming a blast beat in my chest. I ran through the corridors of Lucifer’s chambers and down into the fiend room. Barely able to breathe, I pointed at the wall where Poe had magicked his way into the hidden chambers and set the dread fiends loose on it. I didn’t have time to figure out how to open the door, but I sure as shit could tear it down. In a whirlwind of claws, hundreds of the sub-demons attacking it without hesitation, the wall gave way and revealed the corridor beyond. I waved the fiends aside and ran through the ravaged opening, sucking in deep breaths of gray dust, which had yet to settle.
After another minute or so, I was at the door to Baalth’s portal. The cadre of fiends still outside was a good sign. I shooed them aside and burst into the room, slamming the door shut behind me. The flux of energy nearly knocked me on my ass as I charged for the tub that held McConnell.
Poe met me halfway and blocked my path, but I ignored him and looked over his shoulder to see Baalth. He stood before the tub, his hands aglow with power. Sweat streamed across his forehead as he unleashed burst after burst of magical energy to be absorbed by McConnell and the system they’d devised. The wizard’s shadow flopped about inside as Baalth fed more and more of his power into the tub. At last, the barrage stopped and Baalth crumpled to his knees.
Poe gave me a dirty look and ran to help his boss. I followed after. He gently eased Baalth to his feet. There was nothing resembling the demon lieutenant I remembered. He was exhausted, drained of nearly every drop of his energy. His essence felt like a trickle in the ocean against my senses.
Baalth hung nearly lifeless in Poe’s arm as the mentalist growled at me. “What the hell are you doing here?” He’d left out Mister Trigg, so I knew he was pissed.
“Has the portal been opened?” I asked him, in a rush. “Has it?”
Poe must have caught on to my panic and looked to Baalth. The demon nodded.
I felt my ball sack retract. “We’re in deep shit.”
Poe stared at me without understanding. “What are you-“ He didn’t get any further.
The door to the room exploded off the hinges and flew inward in pieces. Chunks of dread fiend came with it, coating the floor in stinky yellow bile and demon guts. I spun to meet Mihheer as he leapt inside. Poe twisted away to defend Baalth, the two hobbling off in the other direction.
Mihheer didn’t seem surprised to see me. He laughed as he charged straight ahead. There was a book in his hand, and it was glowing blue. I drew my power to me just as a swarm of mutant spiders exploded from the pages in an arachnid volcano.
Mihheer tossed the book in my direction. My first instinct was to throw up a shield. Thousands of creepy little twelve-legged spiders slammed into it as though it were a windshield on the highway to Hell. The book hit a second later and I spied the author’s name as it bounced off. I cringed when I noticed it was the Stephen King story, The Mist. Great read, but I sure didn’t want to be part of the story.
I batted away the mass of creatures, but they were everywhere. They crawled across the shield and around the edges, pushing their way underneath and dropping down from the roof above. A couple of them bit me as I was shaking them off, but it wasn’t too bad. I’ve had worse hickies.
Right then, I heard Poe scream.
I spun around and realized the spiders had been nothing more than a distraction. Mihheer stood before Poe and Baalth, both lying flat on their backs. Poe was holding his face. Blood bubbled up between his fingers, thick and dark. Baalth didn’t seem able to move.
I tossed a bolt of energy at Mihheer, but he sidestepped it and cast a counter spell. It wasn’t aimed at me. A glowing shimmer of red-orange magic sunk into the orb that hung above McConnell’s tub. There was muffled rumbled to thunder, sounding way off, and the room trembled beneath my feet. The color of the orb fluctuated and changed from emerald green to that of an orangey-sun.
Baalth reached up and let out a weak, “No!”
Another bolt of energy in my hand and ready, something grabbed my leg and pulled me off my feet. Sharp spikes of pain speared my ankle. I hit the ground and spun about, dragged toward the squirming sea of spiders. A grayish-green tentacle was wrapped around my leg, up to my shin. The bite of magic chewed at my skin through my jeans. A dozen more tentacles gyrated around the first, emerging from the book behind it. The spiders swarmed me as I was pulled into their midst. I wasn’t too worried about them, but I kept my mouth shut and my ass puckered, just in case.
Magic bolt still in hand, I threw it at the congregation of tentacles instead of the tendril holding me. I didn’t think it would do me much good to blast that one when there was a bunch more ready to take its place. The bolt hit the book and exploded, incinerating The Mist. A whiff of black smoke curled from the floor where the book had been, and I was suddenly free of spiders and tentacles alike. They’d all poofed.
Pissed I hadn’t thought of that when I’d fought the ice dragon, I jumped to my feet to go after Mihheer. The alien held Baalth before him, like a shield, and was moving up the steps toward the tub. I froze.
Mihheer laughed at me. “Isn’t it a shame we’re so bound to our masters that we hesitate when they’re threatened?”
