“Lay back, Ivy.”
He seemed to be staring right at me as he said it, although that black swath of fabric was still covering his eyes. I repeated to myself that this was a bad idea even as I did what he said. Adrian went around to the back of the tub, kneeling so that he had better access. Then his hands settled on my shoulders and he began to rub in firm, duplicate patterns that found my tenseness and relentlessly coaxed it into lessening.
Oh, the feel of those strong, smooth strokes on my skin! They were blissful, soothing and enticing all at the same time. A soft sound escaped me, not a sigh, not a moan. Something else.
After several more minutes of that pleasurable attention, his thumbs slid up, kneading my neck while his fingers and palms continued to do truly wonderful things to my shoulders. Unbidden, I squirmed to give him better access, and that slight movement shifted the water around me, causing the hidden waves to stroke me in much more intimate places.
“Your skin is so soft,” Adrian breathed, brushing my neck with his lips for the briefest moment before leaning back. “I can’t get enough of touching you.”
Then his hands went lower, massaging the length of my back with strong, supple movements. They skillfully manipulated my tendons and muscles, played along my rib cage like piano keys, and teased my spine with short, hard little pinches that had me arching in bliss. Water rippled over me with every shift of his hands, and sometimes, his mouth skipped across my flesh, vanishing before I could savor the feel of it, and replaced by more deep, soothing circles.
Whether it was the wine or the drug-like effects of his touch, my upper body began to feel as if had been replaced with melted caramel. Even my arms were limp after he’d rubbed them from fingers to shoulders. Each breath filled my lungs with warm, humid air and my eyelids felt heavy, but I kept them open. Water had spilled over him from his movements, highlighting his muscles more clearly than oil, and watching his hands move over me was as mesmerizing as it was arousing.
“Do you know how much I love touching you this way?”
His thick, growled voice made gooseflesh race over me even though I was submerged in hot water. In reply, I parted my lips and tilted my head up. He leaned forward until his mouth grazed mine, and a low laugh teased my lips.
“Did you want something else, Ivy?”
“Yes,” I breathed. “You.”
And I reached up, grabbing his hair and pulling his head down until his mouth slanted over mine.
For a few mind-shattering moments, there was nothing except the fierce sensuality of his kiss and the scald of excitement I felt when he hauled me out of the tub. Water sloshed everywhere, soaking him and the floor as he picked me up and carried me over to the bed. He didn’t stop kissing me, and when he laid me against the silk-covered bedding, I was gasping for breath against his mouth. Then his body covered mine and his hands moved over me in ways that erased my prior relaxation, replacing it with tingling, pulse-pounding need.
That’s why a noise of sheer protest left me when he suddenly sat up, holding me down when I moved to follow him.
“Shh. Something’s wrong.”
His words and the harsh urgency in his tone turned my desire to fear. I let go of him, looking all around but not seeing anything. What was it?
Then a loud, very familiar snarling sound came from outside, followed by a hard thump above us that shook the entire ceiling from its impact.
“Brutus,” Adrian said darkly. “He feels it, too.”
“What is it?” I said, pulling the sheet around me.
Adrian leaped off the bed, grabbing my clothes and throwing them at me. “Something big is coming.”
I began pulling on my clothes without checking to see if they were inside out. “Another demon realm?”
Adrian looked at the wall as if he could see beyond it, and his body was so tense, it seemed as though one hard blow could shatter him where he stood.
“No, but if I’m right, it’s just as bad.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE WORDS WERE barely out of his mouth when the whole chapel began to shake. Brutus’s snarl turned into a roar, and I was suddenly hit with the same invisible force I’d felt when I thought I’d located the staff. In the next moment, a crashing sound reverberated throughout the chapel.
“Brutus, larastra!” Adrian shouted, grabbing me and pulling me toward the opposite wall with his body covering mine.
Before I could ask anything, wood exploded from the ceiling. Then another tremendous bash showered the loft with shattered stone tiles. A third bash caved in a section of the ceiling and revealed Brutus, who was using his great bulk like a battering ram. The tub overturned, spilling water everywhere, when Brutus’s fourth and final bash created a hole large enough for the gargoyle to fit through. Adrian shoved me at Brutus, yelling “Tarate!” at the gargoyle, before spinning around and running toward the entrance to the loft.
My right arm flamed with pain at the same moment that I saw something impossible: the eye-covered demon bursting up through the floor with all the power of his three sets of batlike wings. Brutus beat his own powerful wings and I was propelled backward through the chapel’s ceiling, gripped in the gargoyle’s mighty arms. Another rush of wings had me looking down at the chapel and campus from several stories up, and what I saw was equally awful and unbelievable.
Black funnel clouds were snaking their way horizontally through the buildings. The campus lights went out, plunging the area into darkness. Only soundless lightning flashing across the sky provided brief illumination, and it showed people spilling out from those thin, pitch-colored clouds. Wherever they went, screams followed, and ice and blood was left in their wake.
“Brutus, go back!” I ordered, realizing what was happening.
This area wasn’t being swallowed by a demon realm. Instead, it was being flooded by one. I didn’t know if the walls of the nearby realm had crumbled, allowing that malevolent, freezing world to spill out onto this one the same way water spilled out into nearby towns after a large dam had burst, or if a powerful demon had orchestrated the realm breach. Either way, Blinky had taken advantage and had used one of those leaked realm swaths like a series of supernatural stepping stones to walk right over the hallowed ground of his prison, and as I was well aware, Blinky was not in a good mood.
“Go back,” I repeated to Brutus when he kept flying me farther away. “Tarate, tarate!”
He only flew faster. I struggled uselessly, all the while cursing myself for not learning more Demonish, and cursing Adrian for ordering the gargoyle to fly me away. Why would he do that when I was the only one who had a weapon that could kill demons? It’s not like Adrian could’ve forgotten that!
Brutus didn’t slow down until I saw the tour bus below us. We’d parked it well away from the campus because we’d taken the smaller, less conspicuous new Mustang to the chapel. That meant the bus wasn’t near those dangerous realm swaths, and when I saw the Mustang parked next to it, I realized that neither were Jasmine and Costa.
Relief mixed with my seething impatience. They were safe, but Adrian wasn’t. As soon as Brutus landed and let me go, I began shouting orders to the gargoyle.
“Brutus, tarate! Get Adrian, now!”
Brutus chuffed and beat his wings, soaring up into the night. Hopefully, Adrian’s name and the Demonish word for go were enough for Brutus to understand what to do, but I wasn’t about to leave that to chance. I ran into the bus, so frenzied that I barely noticed Jasmine and Costa’s guilty expressions as they both leaped up from the couch.
“Give me the Mustang’s keys,” I demanded.
Costa pulled them out of his pockets far too slowly. “What’s going on?”
“Realm wall’s crumbling,” I said as I strode over and snatched them from him. “I gotta get Adrian.”
Jasmine grabbed my arm. ?
??Wait, we’ll come with you. You can’t go alone, it’s too dangerous!”
“That’s why you can’t come with me,” I snapped. “Blinky is out, and with the realm bleeding all over the campus, there’s more where that demon came from.”
I shook Jaz off, ignoring her insistence to come with me and Costa’s urgings for me to wait. Then I ran outside, slamming the door on the Mustang and locking it. I’d just thrown the car into gear and hit the gas when a dark figure appeared right in front of me.
I slammed on the brakes when his face was revealed in the headlights, but still, I banged into him. Zach didn’t react in anger at nearly being run over. Instead, the Archon’s mouth quirked, as if I’d amused him by hitting him.
“Get out of the car,” he said in a pleasant voice.
I revved the engine instead. “Move away, Zach! You’re not stopping me from going after Adrian.”
“No, I’m not,” he agreed mildly. “But if you get out, I can get you there much faster and safer.”
I hesitated only a second before killing the engine and getting out of the car. Archons claimed that they never lied, and so far, that hadn’t been disproven. If Zach really could get me to Adrian faster, I wouldn’t waste any more time arguing.
And if he was about to prove that Archons could lie, then I’d find a way to make him pay.
“Let’s go,” I said. “Are we going to fly or something?”
I’d never seen him do that, but if a gargoyle could fly, an Archon should be able to. With another faint smile, Zach shook his head. Then he grasped my hand and pulled.
I fell forward into blinding light. For a moment, I felt like I was the one flying because my body was suddenly weightless, soaring and free. Then the light crystallized into colors and shapes. Warmth poured over me, soft grass teased my feet and, when I inhaled, the air was scented so heavily with flowers and flora that breathing it in felt like the world’s most extravagant aromatherapy treatment. I looked at Zach, and for a split second, I saw something bright and formless shimmering inside him.
Then it faded into his normal appearance of a young, attractive African-American man with close-cropped hair and deep, walnut-colored eyes. Another glance showed that we were in the middle of a vast, flowering field, with lush trees offering shade from the warm, radiant sunshine. Blue-tinged mountains cradled the horizon, and sparkling creeks wound through the valleys below. Everything was so beautiful, it looked like Zach had pulled me inside a Monet painting, but instead of being charmed, I was panicked.
“What is this? You promised to take me to Adrian!”
“And I will,” Zach replied, his faint eye roll adding, O ye of little faith. “He’s right through that door.”
I looked around, seeing nothing but the same exquisite landscape. “What door?”
“The invisible one,” Zach replied, maddening me. “It can’t be seen, Ivy. Only felt, so stretch out your hands and feel it.”
I clenched my fists instead. “We don’t have time for this. Adrian could be dying right now.”
“He’s not,” Zach said, his tone turning sharp. “And it’s past time you learned what you already should have figured out. Everything the demons have is a duplicate of something else.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I snapped.
Zach shot me a warning look for my choice of words. “Adrian isn’t hurt at the moment, but that could change, if you choose to keep arguing with me instead of doing what I say.”
I wanted to slap him, but I didn’t because he might smite me on the spot. Plus, he was right; the longer I argued, the longer it would take for me to get to Adrian.
So, I thrust out my arms and began to walk. I looked ridiculous, as if I was trying out for a spot in an old-style zombie movie, and worse, I didn’t feel anything. Right as I was about to demand that Zach at least play hot or cold to give me a hint on which direction, something sizzled across my hands.
I stopped, reaching out again after I’d instinctively yanked them back. Another sizzle, this time up to my forearms, and right before my eyes, my hands disappeared.
I swung around, staring at Zach with awed comprehension. “Adrian just showed me that hallowed objects have evil counterparts, and if everything demons have is a duplicate of something else, then there aren’t just demon realms and demon gateways. There are also Archon realms and gateways, so this—” my wave indicated the bright, stunningly beautiful landscape around us “—is an Archon realm.”
Zach smiled; a pure, genuine smile without any of his usual irony, sarcasm or challenge. The difference was night and day, and for a moment, I again glimpsed that incredible, ethereal form that pulsed against the edges of his skin, reminding me that his body was only meant to cover up what he really was.
“Close,” he replied. “Archons do come and go from places like this, but we dwell in the higher realms. This realm and others like it were originally made for humans. After the fall of man, all of them were sealed off, yet they still have gateways.”
Stories I’d long ago dismissed as myths filled in what he didn’t say, and I looked around with a fresh sense of awe.
“Eden,” I breathed. “This realm is Eden, or at least, one of the Edens.” And if it was a realm... “Time moves differently here, doesn’t it? That’s why you’re not concerned about getting me to Adrian.”
Another smile, though this one had his usual, ironic edge. “Haven’t you noticed that if you merely stop worrying for a few minutes, you are able to think far more clearly?
“Have you seen my life?” I countered. “It’s been a nonstop roller coaster of stress, danger and impossible expectations, so worry-free contemplation time? Not in large supply.”
Zach sighed. “Your mind should rule your circumstances, not the other way around.”
My fingers began to drum against my leg. “Easy for an all-powerful Archon to say.”
His eyes blazed with light for a brief moment. “I am not all-powerful. I can be hurt and killed, as can those I love. Our differences are fewer than you allow yourself to believe.”
Hardly. If I had his abilities, people wouldn’t be dying on the streets of Marquette University right now. Zach knew what was going on, yet instead of helping them, he was lecturing me about worrying and willpower. He might not be in a hurry to save anyone, but I was.
“Is that so?” Zach said, raising a brow. “What if I told you that Adrian will survive tonight, but many people won’t, unless you do something to help them? Would you still be in a hurry to return, if you knew that only strangers’ lives were in danger instead of Adrian’s?”
He really thought Adrian’s was the only life I cared about? “Can I cross through the gateway without you?”
Zach’s lips curled; definitely not a real smile this time. “Yes. When you get to the other side, mark the spot where you came out. Then, return the same way. No one can follow unless you pull them through, so on this side, you’re safe.”
My irritation with him vanished with this news. “I can pull anyone over here with me?”
“Anyone,” Zach repeated, challenge edging his tone. “Except demons, of course. Archons can’t cross into their worlds and demons can’t cross into ours. So, what will you do?”
I gave Zach a hard look as I stretched out my hands, feeling for the energy surge that marked the gateway. He might be content with letting people die when he could do something about it, but I wasn’t.
“Just you watch.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I LANDED ON the other side with my usual grace, which meant face-first into the pavement. Oh well, so I’d never be a ballerina, big deal. I jumped up, shook my head to clear it and looked around, my eyes taking a second to adjust after the brightness of the Eden realms.
The campus looked like a war zone. Black, snakelike clouds were sti
ll strafed through several buildings, but either the view was different from the ground or there weren’t as many as I’d first thought. Despite that, I couldn’t count all the people that were running around in a panic, and more than a few fires had started. Surprisingly—or not surprisingly, considering how infiltrated minions tended to be in places near demon realms—I didn’t see any police or firefighters.
My brave words to Zach now landed on me with the force of a thousand bricks. These people had no one to help them. I wasn’t a superhero and I wasn’t nearly up to the task of being a savior, but I was all they had, so I had to make this count.
First, I had to mark the gateway. A glance around showed that I’d spilled out onto West Wisconsin Avenue, in front of Zilber Hall. I didn’t have anything to write with—hell, I didn’t even have a bra, underwear or shoes!—so I used the only thing I had to mark the site. My blood.
I ran over to the no-parking sign and ripped it off. Then I used one of the sharp metal edges to gouge my arm, smearing the blood over the spot where the energy pulses were the strongest. I left the sign there, too, but it would probably get blown off. An unnatural windstorm swirled around the campus, no doubt caused by the demon realm spilling out onto this place.
As soon as I’d marked the gateway, I ran to the nearest median. The narrow strip between the streets was lined with trees and shrubs, but I wasn’t there to admire the aesthetics. I was looking for rocks.
After digging madly through the dirt, I found some, and stuffed a couple handfuls of them into my pockets. My tattoo was starting to change from brown to gold, but it hadn’t uncurled into a weapon yet. I must not be close enough to the demons that were riding through the realm spillage as if it were their own personal monorail. Time to change that.