Immortal Fire - Book One

Walking down the corridor we had arrived in; the only light came from candelabras that seemed to be made from bone. I did not want to look too closely as it was giving me the fucking creeps. Cassie had not said anything since we had arrived and was looking at everything with disgust and a slight sense of awe.

Damien had helped us up once we had all checked that we were fine from traveling through the door. We led the way down the corridor with Cassie close behind. The smell of sulfur was strong in the air, and I had to stop myself from gagging from it as we went. The smell was a hundred times stronger than when I had been here in my spirit walks. Muttering to myself about needed nose plugs and air freshener, I heard Damien and Cassie laugh quietly at me.

“Well, it’s true…” I remarked mockingly, with a smile pulling at my lips. We reached a dead end, and I had the instinctive feeling that we needed to go left.

“We go left,” I said and started to go when Damien caught me and pulled me back as a demon sprung from behind the corner at me.

I had not even bothered to check if the area was fine before going, and I was mentally kicking myself for being so irresponsible and forgetting all my training with Hayden in Lunzos.

The demon circled us, and it had the same unnerving orange eyes as the creature in the lake from the other night. I almost lost my nerve, but adrenaline kicked in and I almost did not even have to think of what to do as instinct and muscle memory took me over as I stood and took in my surroundings and the current situation.

Hayden’s blessed daggers were in my weapons belt and hung over each hip. My fingers instinctively hung over the blades and when the demon made his advance, I did a swing kick that Hayden had taught me and knocked it back as well as pulled a dagger from my hip in one fluid movement and threw it straight at the demon’s head, where it met its target, and the screaming creature went up in flames. My dagger fell with a clang to the floor as the demon disappeared in a cloud of rotting odorous smoke. I was breathing heavily and could feel my heart pounding in my chest.

Looking over at Damien and Cassie, they were looking at me in utter shock; as if I had just grown a second head. Cassie’s eyes looked like they would pop out of her head and her mouth hung open. Damien did not look much different except his mouth was closed.

“Shit…” he said looking at me. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

“Yeah…” Cassie added shakily, still looking pale.

Ignoring them, I went to pick up my dagger. As I bent down, my back started burning again where my tracking mark was placed over my infinity symbol.

“Ow fuck!” I yelled as I tried awkwardly to grab the spot. Damien was there in a flash and had pulled my training gear off my shoulder so that my shoulder blade, as well as my bra, was exposed.

“We need to get moving. The tracking spell is working again. They probably know we are here already.” he said before stepping away. Pulling my clothes back in place, I turned to Cassie.

“Is it supposed to be working so soon?” I asked.

“No! I don’t understand…” she said tugging at her brown hair.

“Time works differently here… I should have known,” said Damien as he surveyed the area around the corner.

“I can’t see anything down here. There’s no light,” he said aggravated. Cassie looked disappointed with herself, and I gave her a quick hug.

“It’s not your fault. You did great Cass.” I whispered before pulling away from her and walking over to where Damien stood.

Calling on Angel Fire, I lit a flame in my palm and held it up to light up the dark corridor before us. The sapphire and turquoise flames licked and caressed my entire hand, down to my wrist.

“That better?” I asked Damien and he nodded, still looking down the way.

“Come on,” he said, and Cassie and I followed. We walked for what felt like an hour before the sounds of growling stopped us in our tracks.

“Hell Hound…” Damien and I said together.

Cassie had never encountered one before, but she saw what Cerberus had done to me the other night. I could tell she was frightened as she stood frozen in place behind us. I was not much better off. My confidence faltered as I remembered the pain of Cerberus sinking his teeth into my flesh and crushing bones as he attacked me.

The sound of shuffling stones on the hot ground sounded through the darkness, closer than where the growls had come from. My fears became real as out of the darkness and into the little bit of light surrounding us, stalked Cerberus. He had one orange eye and one red. He was also far larger than the other hellhounds that I had encountered. I could not help but freeze from the fear. I even held my breath as Damien had his sword out and was in a defensive position.

“Aria, you can do this!” he exclaimed as I just stood there; stiff from fear.

“You can do this. Think of why we are here and all that has happened and why you must do this. If anyone can do it, you can!” he shouted as Cerberus snarled and tried to corner us for an easy and quick attack.

Thoughts of Hayden and all that had happened flooded my mind. Cerberus leaping in to attack Damien and him throwing his sword forward pulled me out of my frozen state. Cassie’s scream filled the air and the world seemed to fade in and out of focus. I could hear Damien screaming for me to help but it sounded a mile away. Shit! Shit! Shiiit!

Finally, my mind cleared, and I took in what was happening.

Lunging at Cerberus from the back, I drove the daggers into his side. Cerberus yelped and sprung away from Damien. He was now advancing on me, and my adrenaline was pumping again, and my head was clear. Smiling at him, I called the hound forward menacingly.

“Come here Cerberus… that’s it you ugly fucking mutt…” I was drawing him away from the other two and I was going to end this.

Cerberus was snarling and his fangs were borne. The saliva that dripped from his drawn-back snout bubbled as it contacted the ground at our feet. Damien was stalking the hound from the back when he ceased snarling and his ears covered in scabs and boil perked up at the sound of something we could not hear. Damien and I did not move from our positions and were just about to attack when Cerberus disappeared, leaving his poisoned saliva bubbling on the ground after him.

Damien and I almost ran straight into each other when the hell hound vanished. Grabbing onto one another to gain our balance, I pulled away and looked around the corridor but could not see anything.

“Thanks for finally jumping in there, princess…” Damien said sarcastically. Yeah, yeah asshole…

I did not look at him. Instead, I was peering around. Something was not right.

“Yeah, well it won’t happen again.” I must have said that rather cruelly because when the words left my mouth, I heard Damien’s intake of breath. Realizing how that must have sounded, I regretted it immediately and corrected my statement.

“I won’t freeze up again…” I said still slightly annoyed. I stalked past Cassie, who stood holding herself as she shook silently from fear. I could not see anything that way either.

“Something isn’t right here…” I said as I jogged back to where he stood, busy sheathing his sword.

“Yeah, I know; something or someone called Cerberus away,” he said peering down the corridor in the direction we were heading before Cerberus showed up.

“Why would anyone do that?” Cassie asked.

Damien and I looked at her shocked. We both seemed to have guiltily forgotten for a moment that she was even there. She had not said much but when she did it caught us off guard. Cassie did not know how to deal with all of this yet as well as had no training whatsoever and I was finding myself growing accustomed to all the drama.

“I guess that Hades doesn’t want you dead,” Damien said whilst clicking his neck.

He tended to do that when he was anxious and was in ‘warrior’ mode, as I liked to call it. A sound of shuffling in the darkness from back the way we came caught our attention and we all swerved to peer into the deathly shadows. Damien placed himself in front of Cassie as he and I stalked toward the direction the noise came from.

I still held the angel fire as its azure flames licked at my hand, not burning me at all. I did not have to think about holding it there anymore. It was common to nature to me and the light radiating from it cast a divine glow on the three of us… Someone was in the shadows watching us. I could feel my skin crawl from it.

A sound from behind us caught our attention and that was when all hell broke loose.