Chapter Sixteen

“Who followed you?” Beletseri seemed to be playing nice. She was one intimidating goddess, but clearly she wanted Dani to be at ease, to pick her brains about everything that went on in the compound. She’d also told Dani she wouldn’t hurt her as long as she agreed to use her skills to aid those in her enclave.

“I’ve come to rely on both Matthew and Nedu,” she’d said. “I can’t afford to have anything happen to either one of them. Also, Matthew has recruited a handful of humans to join us, and Nedu is on the cusp of enlisting the help of some minor gods. You will tend to them all as well as my handful of ready demons.”

Dani hadn’t liked the sound of that, but she’d agreed. Anything so that Beletseri would relax her guard and put her in with the queen.

The present question haunted her. How did she explain Candy? “My friend, Candy.” Dani told the dark-haired goddess from where she sat in a straight-backed chair in the middle of an otherwise empty room. No one restrained her, but the chances of her escaping with the psycho Matthew and the goddess Beletseri leaning over her seemed remote.

“Yeah, right,” Matthew scoffed. “That chick had ‘cop’ written all over her.”

“Yes, she’s a cop.” Dani leaned back to distance herself from his leering face, and told the partial mistruth as she’d been coached. “Is there a rule that says I can’t be friends with a law enforcement officer?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Why did she wire you up if she’s just a friend?” Matthew would not let this go. “Most girl-buddies settle for painting each other’s nails.”

“I told you in the car. She didn’t trust the guys I lived with, and she didn’t like Huxley. When I called and told her I’d left that whole scene, she came to the hospital prepared to spring me from the whole mess. On my break, she put that listening stuff on me. She wanted to make sure I would be okay and that she would be able to follow me if they tried to grab me again. Candy clearly figured that you guys were part of the Blue Hills group attempting an abduction.”

Matthew backed down at a not-so-subtle indication he received from Beletseri. It clearly said that none of that mattered now. They had her, and that would be enough.

Nedu chose that moment to ghost in. “She’s been neutralized,” he said to the room in general.

“What?” Dani sat stunned. “Who’s been neutralized?” She shot to her feet. “Did you do something to Candy?” Hadn’t Huxley managed to keep the agent safe?

“Yeah.” Nedu strode forward and shoved her back into the chair. “And the same thing will happen to you if you don’t behave and do what we want.” The god crossed his arms over a massive chest. His dark eyes glowered.

“Nedu, my sweet. Don’t be so harsh with our guest.” Beletseri subtly told him to shut up. She turned to Dani. “What Nedu means is that we can make you quite comfortable if you cooperate with us. I’ll even compensate you for your time.” The goddess named a figure easily ten times more than she earned annually.

Dani set her mouth in a tight line, not in the least bit tempted. “I’ve just come from a place where I was used, thank you, and I didn’t particularly enjoy it.” Another lie, but Dani still worked with the script.

“I’ll tell you what,” her female captor continued. “I’ll double my offer.” She shushed Dani when the doctor started to speak.

“I have an idea. Why don’t you visit with Ereshkigal for the rest of the night, and you can give me your answer in the morning. I’m sure that, given her need for some TLC, you’ll come to the right decision.” Her eyes shone cold even though her smile showed all her perfect, white teeth.

Dani could only nod before being led from the room by Nedu. This was what she’d come for, after all. To see the queen and help her in any way possible.

They travelled down a short corridor, and then in through a door on the opposite side of the hall. Once inside, he flicked on the lights to reveal a clearly depleted Ereshkigal, reclining on a bed. She struggled upright as Dani was led in.

“What—wh—” she stuttered.

“You have company, Queen,” Nedu sneered.

Before either of the women could speak, Matthew entered with a fold-out cot, which he dropped just inside the room along with a pile of bedding. “Make yourself comfortable,” he said, as Nedu left the room. “You’ll be here for a while.” He looked narrowly at Dani-Lee as he turned to go. “If I were you, I’d take Beletseri up on her offer.” He laughed. “It’s a lot of money, and it’s better than being dead.” The door closed and locked behind him.

“My gods. You’re actually here.” Ereshkigal did a pretty good job of tamping down a whimper. “But where’s Huxley?” the queen whispered, recalling the plan her husband said he’d put into place.

“Things got messed up,” Dani assured the queen. “But we’ll be out of here soon. Are you all right?” Dani didn’t want to alarm the immortal, but she looked like hell.

“Other than being chained with osmium.” Ereshkigal held up an angry wrist, red and chafed, then also indicated her raw neck. “I’m okay.”

Dani quickly tripped to the pile of linens that Matthew had dropped, picked up a sheet and used her teeth to rip off a strip. She flew back to the bed, where she sat next to the queen, and wrapped the material around each of the metal cuffs.

“Is it safe to talk in here?” Dani looked around to locate any monitoring devices. None were apparent, but surveillance wasn’t something she knew very much about, so she couldn’t be sure.

The queen actually snorted. “Oh please. It took Beletseri two years to figure out how to operate a new computer system. Bugging is way beyond her capabilities. Now tell me what happened?”

Dani told the story as she understood it, and repeated Nedu’s ominous words of a “neutralization.” Ereshkigal had not met Candy, but together they lamented the woman’s probable fate. Nedu, even when pretending to be a loyal subject, had always been cruel. That part of him most likely appealed to Beletseri.

“So where does that leave us?” the queen asked.

“It leaves me to agree that I’ll be that horrible woman’s physician to buy us time for a rescue.” At the queen’s skeptical look, Dani patted her arm. “Believe me, your husband and the gods will not give up. It’s only a matter of time.”

It all remained conjecture at this point, but keeping themselves valuable to Beletseri certainly proved their best strategy. “Your husband wants you to make things up about your life to misdirect Beletseri as she mines you for information.”

The queen actually laughed. “Nergal and I have been together for a long time. We think alike. I’ve already been doing a lot of that. It actually helps put me to sleep at night, letting my mind wander to come up with new and twisted things to tell her. She thinks I had a pet komodo dragon as a teenager, and that I often let the green-mouthed demons in Hell go down on me. It’s been my way of having fun, seeing if I can shock her.”

Dani had a great deal of respect for Ereshkigal, but found herself liking the queen even more. She finished with the torn sheets.

“That should do it.” Dani patted Ereshkigal’s hand. She’d wrapped the queen’s restraints to keep them from chafing. Dani leaned back. She couldn’t stifle a yawn. “I know I shouldn’t want to sleep, but I’ve had a really long day in surgery.” She got to her feet and approached the other cot, unfolding it to have a look. It wasn’t the worst thing she’d ever slept on.

Dani excused herself to use the bathroom, then came back and talked as she made up her bed.

“Huxley may have an idea of our general vicinity. He followed right behind Candy when she got…stopped.” Dani refused to think that anything bad had happened to her new friend. “And Matthew didn’t drive much farther after that. I wish I’d gotten a look, but he pushed my head down on the seat, and then covered it with a jacket before letting me out of the car.”

Dani pondered kicking off her sneakers, but thought better of it in case there arose a quick opportunity to flee. She padded over to the light switch. “You don’t mind if I turn this off, do you?”

“Nope. Fine with me,” the queen agreed. Dani made it dark then felt her way back to the cot and laid down.

“We have a pretty smart bunch looking for us,” Dani said, staring up at the pitch black ceiling. She wondered whether she tried to comfort herself or Ereshkigal. “Gods and goddesses, witches, a king, and a prince.”

“A prince?” She could hear the question in the queen’s voice.

Dani had completely forgotten that Ereshkigal hadn’t been there for Huxley’s elevation in status. She started to fill her in, but the queen’s chuckling interrupted her mid-explanation.

“I harbored my suspicions,” the royal said in the dark. “Tess has a family resemblance, but when I met Huxley, I knew for certain I had nieces and a nephew.” She paused for a moment. “Tell me. What is the name of my half-sister, do you recall?”

“Lahar said her name is Anna Kensilton,” Dani supplied. “And the uh, human, your father had an affair with, Anna’s mother, was Maddy Kensilton.”

If that bothered the queen, she kept it to herself. “Tell me, Dani. I gave something into Holly’s safekeeping that eventually needed to belong to Hux. Do you know if she gave him anything?” There bloomed an expectant pause.

“Do you mean the empty amulet?” Dani curled her toes inside her sneakers.

“You know of it?” The queen sounded surprised. “Did Holly or Huxley show it to you?”

“Holly came to me a few weeks ago and, well…she gave it to me.” Dani felt like she needed to explain at Ereshkigal’s audible intake of breath. “You see, the witches declared that Huxley couldn’t go anywhere without me. Odd enough, but shortly after that, Holly said the amulet started bugging her. Calling to her all day, telling her it wanted to be with me.”

“With you. Not Huxley.” Ereshkigal sounded stunned.

Dani didn’t let that bother her. She’d also figured she had no right to the talisman. “Right. And only because weird things in that house are not to be ignored, she handed it over, and I took it.”

The queen seemed to think about this for a long time before clearing her throat. “Now I’ll tell you something that no one else knows.”

Dani became alert, intrigued.

“I think the amulet belongs to Huxley. Since he wasn’t born with an amulet of his own, I believe it’s the last piece of the puzzle he needs to make him into an immortal prince.”

“Why do you think that?” Dani had performed the mating operation several times, removing and implanting the talisman. She shook her head, wary at the direction of the conversation. She’d been told how dangerous it would be to put a talisman in the wrong person.

“That amulet belonged to my baby boy. My prince, taken from me so many thousands of years ago. Thereafter, a foretelling became legend. It predicted that one would come to save the Underworld from disaster. That it would be someone with human blood. I deemed it prudent to keep my son’s amulet in case it was ever needed by this human.” Her voice sounded amused. “Perhaps the amulet spoke to me like it spoke to Holly.”

Dani tended to agree.

“Anyway, I believe the human it is destined for is Huxley. Although what good it will do him now, I have not a clue. Can you tell me where you hid it?” the queen asked hesitantly.

Dani answered in a shaky voice, “Well, the only place I could think to put it.”

Ereshkigal chuckled. “I know. Your underwear drawer.”

Dani continued as if the queen hadn’t spoken, “Well, yeah, at first. But then I felt uncomfortable being anywhere without it.”

Ereshkigal drew in a sharp, audible breath.

“So, you know. I put it where I figured nobody would find it if I was frisked. On TV, you never see anybody check someone’s shoes. I stuck it in my sneaker. I did a double lace thing, and tied it in underneath the tongue of my high-tops.”

“You mean it’s…it’s on you now?” Ereshkigal drew out the words, then repeated them with excitement. “It’s on you now.”

“Well, yes. And now that you mention it, the darn thing seems to be getting warmer the more we talk about it. I swear it’s been doing that ever since I’ve had it. Running hot and cold.”

The queen ignored that. “But since you’ve had it, has Huxley paid more than usual attention to you?” The queen’s question sounded a little crazy, but Dani gave it some consideration.

“Well, perhaps.” Dani blushed in the dark, glad that Eresh couldn’t see.

“And this warmth you get from it. Is it more pronounced when Huxley is near?”

Huh. Something Dani hadn’t considered. She searched back in her mind. “You know, I think you might be right. I guess the answer to that would be yes—”

“Dani,” the queen interrupted. “If it’s getting warmer right now, maybe Huxley is close to us. Do you want to know what I think?”

Dani got excited just from the queen’s tone of voice. “Sure. Yeah. What?” she spluttered.

“I think the amulet calls to Huxley,” she exclaimed triumphantly. “I think you and the amulet are bringing him right to us.”