The Blood Bracelets #2: Demon Born

Chapter Ten

'When I asked you to fetch the Animas, Julius, I didn't give you permission to take a detour,' Bennett scolded, his shoulders rigid as he regarded Julius and Kael.

'You didn't, no,' Julius admitted, but the I don't care was implied. Even though Kael knew Julius and Taryn weren't really related, he could see where she got the attitude from regardless.

Bennett stood beside Zachariah who was seated at the large, redwood table in the centre of the library. Bennett had his arms folded tightly across his chest, his amber eyes dark and narrowed at Kael as if his gaze could burn right through him.

Taryn, meanwhile, was in one of the guest rooms being treated by a Seeress. Kael had wanted to stay by her side and he would have had Bennett not ordered him to the library – and had Julius not pointed out how distracting Kael's hovering was to the Seeress.

'Where's Asina?' Kael asked. 'Hasn't she bothered to show her face yet?'

Zachariah raised his hands to placate him. 'Be calm, Kael. We understand the magnitude of Asina's betrayal, and your anger, you do not need to voice it,' he said. 'What I need you to do is tell me where you found Taryn, and how. Was it the blood bracelets?'

Kael wanted to say yes, but the blood bracelets hadn't played a part in finding Taryn at all. Not like they had in the past. He had thought, at the very least, the blood bracelet around his wrist might have warmed even just by being near Taryn but it hadn't.

Instead, demonic energy had led him to Taryn. He didn't know what that meant – if it meant anything – and he wasn't sure whether he wanted to reveal that to Zachariah and Bennett.

'I paid a visit to a rogue Alchemist,' Kael answered instead. 'He didn't give me much, but he revealed that Asina wouldn't be anywhere near Melbourne if she was in hiding. I thought she might have been in another country entirely, but when Julius told me that an earthquake had hit Sydney which didn't correlate with the Hellgates I took a guess.'

Bennett wasn't convinced. 'That's a rather poor basis to make a guess upon, Animas.'

'I have a name,' Kael reminded him. It hadn't just been Tank's words that Kael had used; it had been Asmodeus' as well.

'The house had been mostly destroyed by the earthquake, but considering the amount of damage done it would have been safe to assume that majority of the neighbourhood was affected as well,' Julius told them, 'but it wasn't. The earthquake had been localised to the house alone. If I hadn't known an earthquake struck, I would have assumed the damage was man-made.'

'Perhaps it was regardless,' said Bennett. 'Every earthquake correlates with a Hellgate, except the one where Miss Nyte was located? I highly doubt it was a coincidence.'

'Have the Hellgates ever caused a disturbance like this?' Kael asked.

'Not in recent centuries,' answered Zachariah.

'And nor should they ever,' Bennett added lowly, and something passed between the three of them then, like a silent acknowledgement of something they didn't want to voice.

'All right, what aren't you telling me?' Kael asked, familiar with keeping secrets.

'It isn't just Infernum that the Hellgates are sealing,' said Zachariah. 'They're sealing Lucifer.'

Kael's eyes widened. 'Which gate?'

'Lucifer is under a separate seal, the location of which is kept secret even from myself,' Julius told him. 'If the Hellgates are weakened, however...'