Portals are like airports; they're how the demons and forsaken without the ability to walk through the void travel. It’s also how the ones that live in the underworld get to come up to the human realm. As a domini, controlling and maintaining portals is my primary job.
Looking at the way this portal is wavering tells me something is wrong. A few level one demons are freaking out as they stand in line.
“Dominus Raziel,” one demon calls out. “What’s going on? I need to get back today. I have a meeting to get to.” The demon looks panicked.
“Did you not see I just fucking got here? Give me time to figure the shit out,” I snarl. I turn to Unina. “Get Khiva here. Now!” I bark, asking for the druid I used to maintain the maintenance of my portals.
“On it,” she steps away as she makes the call.
Walking over to the portal, I take it in. When a portal works perfectly, you can’t see it. All my portals are in the basements of my clubs and casinos. The room is set up like an actual gate at an airport. You have several gate workers in the room at all times. One person works the oncoming traffic and one works the exiting traffic.
The portals themselves are anchored to the back wall and are camouflaged with graffiti. Right now, the graffiti on this wall looks as if someone tossed paint solvent on it and the words are melting.
Placing a hand against the melting colors, the heat from the portal singe my fingers. Although I can feel the power of the portal, the wall is solid brick.
“What the fuck?” I ask out loud.
“What are you thinking?” Conah asks beside me.
“I’ve never had one of my portals go down. I’ve been running this territory for centuries, and this has never happened.”
“You think someone is fucking with you?”
I turn to Conah. His dark brown eyes narrow as he scans the basement.
I follow his lead, taking in all the faces. My workers look confused and terrified. The passengers in the lines look more annoyed than anything.
“Right now, my concern is getting this portal up and working again. As of right now, I’m going to chalk this up to a faulty portal until I know otherwise.”
Conah nods. “I’ll go ask the workers what happened.”
I dip my chin, giving him the go ahead.
Unina comes back over to me just as the void opens in front of me. I can sense Khiva before she steps out.
Her gaze rakes over the wall behind me.
“Can you fix it?” I ask immediately.
“Yeah, give me about twenty minutes.”
I give her permission to get to work. Going over to the crowd of passengers, I give them my full attention.
“My apologies for the inconvenience. My druid will have the portal up and running soon. For those of you who have the time to wait, go upstairs and partake in some of the entertainment and nourishment from the club. Drinks are on me.”
A few passengers cheer as they step out of line and head up the stairs to the main part of the club.
“For all others, Hamon will escort you through the void to one of the other portals.”
I turn to Hamon. “Let the workers know that these people have priority.” He nods his head. Waving my hand through the air, I cut a line into the human realm, giving access to the void. Hamon directs those who need to get to the underworld through the openings. As soon as the last passenger steps through the void, Hamon follows. I close the opening.
“I’ve already sent out a message to the gate workers to let them know to allow these passengers to the front of the line,” Unina says.
Dipping my chin at her, I put my focus on Khiva.
“How’s it looking?”
Already, some of the graffiti has been restored.
