“I’d just seen him too, you know? I saw him at the festival with his friends. Now he’s gone and we all know it’s because of that demon. God I’m so scared for him.”
Not knowing what else to do, Willow hugged her.
“Do you smell that?” said Willow, pulling away with a frown.
Rachel’s brows shot up. “What?”
The bitter, almost sulfuric smell dissipated and Willow shrugged. “Guess it was nothing. So how’s the baby?”
Willow knew she had the perfect opportunity to escape now with Rachel and she wasn’t going to let it go to waste. But first, she’d woo her into the craziness with pleasantries. After all, it wasn’t polite to ask someone to assist you in escaping and betraying their Alpha without asking about the kids first.
They chatted for a while. Ever since she met Rachel, the woman had the ability to make her feel like she was back with her sisters again. She was happy for her visit. If Rachel hadn’t come then she might not have had the chance to escape, ever. Lyonis had placed even more guards at all hours of the day along the cabin and the perimeter of the pack.
According to Rachel, the pack was even more tense than normal. It could be cut with a chainsaw. What with Danny gone and the Atal Warriors everywhere, and to Willow’s surprise, her being locked up here were all signs of bad times. Willow snorted at that. True dat.
“Oh damn, I didn’t even think about it. Can I get you something to drink? Sorry I don’t eat anymore, I didn’t even think about it.”
Rachel nodded. “Got any tea?”
Willow laughed because honestly she had no idea what was in the kitchen. “I’ll go check, one sec.”
Willow rifled through the cabinets and cupboards before finding a small box of black tea.
“Got some!”
She was bending down and making a ruckus of noise to find a pot to boil water in, so she never heard the floor creek behind her. If she had, she might have whirled around in surprise. Instead, she cursed as she grabbed hold of a small pot and came to a stand, the blood rushing out of her head made her rock on her feet as she straightened.
She’d just set the pot on the stove when a hard pressure burst inside her skin. The sharp stabbing sensation felt as though someone was trying to tear her skin from the inside out. She opened her mouth in agony to scream but no sound came. Suddenly she was immobilized. Tears rolled down her unblinking face as the hot pressure along her skin reached an excruciating point, then it burst inside her like a balloon popping.
Fiery knives stabbed inside her. She would have fallen to the floor, screaming, tearing at her own stomach to get it out, to get it to stop, but she could only stand there, frozen in place.
The pain grew like her limbs were being filled with hot air and needed a place to burst. Once it was inside her it was unstoppable. It spread to her brain and all the way down to her toes. Her baby jerked at the intrusion and more tears fell down her face.
Lyonis, where are you!?
Her thundering heart slammed against her ribs as if working hard to keep up with the pain, and then everything went black in an instant. Consciousness vanished in a single heartbeat, and she was no more.
Chapter 38
The air was thick with a nasty, pungent odor that left Willow gagging.
Rolling onto her stomach in the cramped space, she crawled along the ground. The ground looked soft like dirt but was actually hard like sharp rocks. Biting her lip to keep from crying out, she kept crawling as the shards stabbed her knees and hands, piercing the skin. She didn’t even think to stand. Something had happened to her leg; whether it was broken or badly sprained, she didn’t know. All she knew was that she couldn’t put pressure on it.
Darkness surrounded her. She couldn’t find any source of light yet something casted the room in a dim, gray glow. Shaking, more scared than she’d been in her whole life, she pushed aside the worries of her baby, of where she was. None of that could help her now. She had to find a way out. Had to get away. Besides she had a feeling she knew where she was.
A particularly sharp rock on the ground stabbed her palm and Willow cried out. She inspected her hand and found a small rock sticking like a large splinter from her hand. Biting her lip, she pulled it out and immediately blood pooled. There was no time for this.
She crawled and crawled. Eventually her body grew tired, limbs heavy with exhaustion and still she had not even touched a wall. How long had she been moving, hours...minutes? Panic kept her going, fear kept her eyes darting about her. She tried to use her senses but what she was seeing and hearing and smelling were so foreign to her that her senses were useless.
The air was so thick, it reminded her of fog yet there was no smokiness around her. Suffocating darkness. She could only see a foot in front of her at a time and with each inch she crawled, she waited for something to jump out at her. The air smelled lightly sulfurous as if a candle had been snuffed several minutes before. Yet the scent never changed, never grew worse or lessened. Everything was constant.
The most unusual thing was the sound. A constant, deep baritone like a motor but not mechanical. As if she was deep in the earth and it spoke down here, one long, unending note.
With that thought, she knew with certainty where she was. Deep inside the rift. Below where the shahoulin reigned, below the violent idummi demons, deep where even the lowliest of creatures dared not tread—where the jaheera terrorized.
The light around her grew brighter, lighting her way. Instead of making her feel better, her stomach tightened with unease. The air, dense and suffocating, lessened with the light. Willow came to sitting position and finally looked around.
She was in a massive, unending room with stone walls that looked so far away. They were the color of sand and clay. Before she could take in anymore the ground shook. Willow held onto the sharp ground as her teeth chattered with the quake. A sharp cry left her as the shaking jarred her wounded leg.
Suddenly her worst nightmare came into the room with her. Dura, the jaheera demon stepped through the stonewall as if it was invisible.
The massive demon, which had towered over those tall trees in the German forest now stood imposing and deadly. Willow looked up and up, craning her neck and that was when she realized there was no ceiling. A dark void rested where a roof or wall or something should be. It looked like an unending, starless, night sky. A black void. Willow had a feeling this was what hell was like.
The demon was the size of a mythical giant with skin, though she was hesitant to call it that, black as tar, thick like scales. It came towards her, each massive, slow step shaking the ground like an earthquake. Willow crab walked backwards, not even noticing she was making the scratches on her palms open more and bleed. The pain in her leg seemed to understand that her escape was more important than hurting, because now she hardly felt it.
It moved slowly yet she couldn’t get away from it fast enough. Stark terror made sweat run down her temples and neck, heart pound, breathing race.
“WIIILLLLOOOOOW!”
The sound pierced her ears, shaking her eardrums. Shaking in utter fear, Willow came to a wobbly stand and screamed.
Suddenly arms banded around her. Faces, human, grabbed her and pulled her towards the demon. She recognized them in an instant. Stephanie, Rachel, and the boy Danny.
“Don’t do this!” she screamed.
She dug her good leg hard into the rocks but they were so strong, stronger than they should be and they wrenched her arms fiercely until she tripped. Her stomach hit the ground hard and she cried again, this time in fear of something else.
Frantically, her hands scraped at the ground as she tried to get away, but they latched onto her arms with tight hands and started dragging her across the rocky surface.