Rhyn's Redemption (Book III, Rhyn Trilogy)

Chapter Five

Toby huddled against the black stone wall of his cell in Hell. He wished he’d thought to bring his backpack with his 3DS and magazines until he remembered why it was better he left it: Rhyn needed the other dosage of Immunity blood if the half-demon wanted to make it to the seventh day after Katie’s death.

“Are you ok?” Ully called from the cell across the narrow hallway.

“I don’t like it here,” Toby said. “It’s really boring.”

“Yeah, I wish I had my portable lab set with me,” Ully agreed. “Or maybe, just my anti-demon skunk spray.”

“It didn’t work very well.”

“It was a work in progress. But I’d like to piss off someone like Darkyn right now.”

“He’d kill you, Ully.”

“He’ll kill me anyway.”

Toby frowned, worried as much about his human charge as his Immortal friends. Even if he wasn’t with Katie, he could sense her. She was in some kind of danger, which meant he was the worst guardian angel in the history of guardian angels.

“I’m such a failure,” he said with a sigh.

“You’re just a baby,” Ully said with a chuckle.

“No, I’m not just a baby! I’m almost full grown. I should’ve done a better job.”

“It’s not your fault, Toby.”

Toby was silent, knowing a normal Immortal could never understand.  He didn’t yet have the full power of a real guardian angel, but he should’ve been able to do more than … nothing.  Angels were placed with human mothers so they could understand the creatures they were meant to take care of.  Human mothers raised them as their own, yet none of his human mothers had gone to the extent Katie did to try to protect him. Her circumstances were unique among all the humans he’d met, even if she wasn’t the greatest mother he’d had. She still tried.

“Maybe I can go work for Death,” he said glumly. “Isn’t that where angels who fail go?”

“That’s what I hear,” Ully said. “You’d rather kill humans than protect them?”

“Not really.”

“I brought you a friend,” a third voice said.

Toby looked up as the familiar demon named Jared passed his cell, trailed by two demons carrying a body with another familiar face.

“Gabriel!” he exclaimed, bounding to his cell door. “Gabriel!”

His long time friend, the assassin, was bloodied and unconscious.  The demons tossed Gabriel’s body into a dark cell two down from Ully’s before they left.

“Hello, my Immortal Twinkies,” Jared said, his slender form pausing in the hallway between them. A slow smile slid across his face, revealing pointed teeth.

“I remember you,” Toby said. “You’re Rhyn’s friend.”

“Friend, no. Formerly indebted to him for my life, yes.”

“What’re you doing here in Hell?”

“There’s a saying, better to serve in Hell than get your head split open somewhere else.”

“That doesn’t sound right,” Toby said.

“He’s messing with you,” Ully said.

“Maybe you can help us leave!” Toby said, his excitement growing.

“I’ll get right on that,” Jared said and rolled his eyes. “Or I could stay right here and watch Darkyn pull you limb from limb.  That’s my idea of a good time.”