"Hello?" It was Mary's number.
"I got him. He said we can come, but we should hurry."
A grin spread across my face. We finally had a lead. I texted Michael and Gabe and told them to meet us at Mary's, then grabbed Luc's hand and took off.
Mary waited for us at her front door. My brothers appeared behind me and we walked in together. "Come on, come on. Is this all?" Mary put her hand on her hip and glared at us. "Working with you people is like being in the circus."
I smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry. You know how grateful we are?"
She chuffed. "Now listen. He's a strange duck. Very secretive. The only reason he's agreed to help is because he can see all the demons roaming around the astral plane. Otherwise, he wouldn't help demons or angels for all the money in the world. So, you do as I say, you hear me?"
We all nodded vigorously like errant children being given a reprieve by their mommy. In this case, we were at her mercy.
"Okay, you're going to have to let me guide us. Can you give up enough control to let me? I can't move us through space the way you can." She raised her eyebrows at me.
Sucking in a deep breath, I nodded. "I can do it."
"I have my doubts," she muttered, but she took my hand.
I had to hold back a chuckle. She was incredibly powerful for a human, and she had vast knowledge and resources that we just didn't have here on Earth, but my power still blew hers out of the water. Giving her the ability to guide me as I moved us was a simple act that involved giving up very little control.
Mary brushed up against my consciousness, and I got another taste of her pure, warm aura. She was one of the most unadulterated auras I'd ever encountered. I let her focus on our whereabouts, and seconds later we appeared in a lush jungle. Moist heat pounded against me the moment I opened my eyes. "Ugh," I muttered. Sweat popped up on my skin within seconds.
Mary chuckled. "Feels like summer in New Orleans."
Hot and sticky. "Where are we?"
"The Lacandon Jungle." She slapped a mosquito and looked around. "But I expected to arrive at his home, not out here."
She took my hand and her presence tickled against mine again. I let her direct us, but we didn't move. "Let me try," I said.
Focusing on a spot several hundred yards ahead, through the trees, I tried to move Mary and myself, but it didn't work. We stayed put.
Lucifer walked forward. "Keep going," I called. "See if you can get to the place I tried to port to."
He nodded and moved forward, stepping carefully through the jungle. When he'd gone about as far as I'd tried to, I yelled for him to stop. "I guess we're walking in," I told everyone else.
We set off, and I felt the moment we passed through the ward. "I wonder if we can move forward now that we're under the ward," I mused. I tried, to no success. "Well, do you know where we're going?" I asked Mary.
She shook her head. "Only the general direction."
Luc nodded "Lead the way, then."
Mary walked ahead of us, but after a few feet, she stopped. "Something feels strange," she whispered.
Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, a large, angry Hellhound came out of nowhere, his large, slathering jaw open and aiming for her throat.
Michael was the closest. He blasted the hound with a beam of pure light, and it evaporated.
"No!" Mary yelled. "What was that?"
I stared in shock at the lingering dust in the air. "I've never seen a hound attack us like that."
"He attacked me, not you."
"I know, but they generally are very docile, despite how scary they look. They only attack if commanded to," I said. "And only by a Fallen."
"No Fallen would attack us," Luc said with conviction. "They're loyal, every last one of them."
