Wild Night Road(33)

It was ridiculous.
No one came up here except the odd hunter or hiker, and even if they did manage to defeat the deadly and invisible wards, all Gaebryl would have to do would be to appear in his Original form—twelve foot wingspan spread wide and otherworldly power glowing—and the poor human would probably drop to his knees.
Or faint.
Or start a new religion or both, not necessarily in that order.
When she reached the arch of rock that marked the opening, she touched a finger to the rune at the base of her throat and stepped into the forcefield. Shivery fingers of pure energy rippled over her skin, stinging at times, but mostly non-painful. The absence of pain held for about ninety seconds; after that, it would target the most sensitive nerve centers in her body until she collapsed or died.
Because, what the hell, even seraphim couldn’t be too careful these days with DOD drones filling the airways.
“Crispin!” she shouted. “If you don’t turn this damn thing off right now I’m going to rip your David Beckham posters into tiny shreds and burn them.”
The needles of energy intensified for three seconds, and then disappeared. Lilith took a breath and entered the cave. Small feet tapped on the dusty stone floor. A moment later, a tiny man appeared. He belonged to a race of earth spirits known as the Kyrst. He stood as tall as three human fists stacked on top of each other, but his height was accentuated by a peaked hat with a floppy green brim that gave the impression he topped twelve whole inches.
Removing the hat in a grand sweeping gesture, he bowed deeply, his spiky, ice-white hair nearly touching the ground. “As you wish, milady.”
“Where is he?” Lilith demanded.
Crispin replaced his hat and folded his tiny hands over his round belly. “Not until you take back what you said.”
“What?”
He tapped a slippered foot. “About my David.”
“He’s not yours,” Lilith said angrily. “David Beckham is a human being with a wife and kids and a life that does not include annoying little Kyrst.” The diminutive gatekeeper had carried a torch for the famous soccer player for years, but his devotion had grown fanatical lately, and made Lilith wish she’d never given him the posters in the first place.
Crispin sighed. “His life would be ever so much more complete if I were part of it. He just doesn’t know.”
“And doesn’t want to know.” Lilith bent and scooped the little man into her hand and lifted him to eye level. “Gaebryl. Now. Where is he?” Most often when she’d been summoned, the seraphim met her on the slopes some distance from the cave. Gaebryl guarded his domain with paranoid precision.
Swinging his legs back and forth from the edge of her palm, Crispin said, “He’s not here right now.”
Lilith frowned. “He has to be. He sent for me.”
It was Crispin’s turn to frown and his swinging feet stilled. “Really. Left you a feather and all?”
Lilith held up two fingers.
Crispin rubbed his chin. “Hmm, he said he’d be back by now, but…”
“What?”
The Kyrst ducked his head and then looked back up at her from under the brim of his hat. “If you promise you will never, ever touch my David—”
“Crispin,” Lilith warned.
“Promise.”
“All right. I promise.”
“Well,” Crispin said, his voice dropping into a conspiratorial tone, “he went to Kitai.”
Lilith knew enough to venture that Kitai was the home place of the seraphim, but that was all. Whether it was in another realm or another planet or over the rainbow was anyone’s guess. The only reason Lilith knew of the place was due to Crispin’s penchant for conversation. Preferring the great human cities over the countryside, the little Kyrst had been lonely since they’d decamped from Europe nearly a hundred years ago.
She shook her head. “What’s the deal with Kitai? What is that supposed to tell me?”
Crispin glanced over his shoulder as if he feared being overhead.
“There’s no one there,” Lilith said impatiently.
“He went to Kitai,” Crispin said, “but he left the gate open. In fact, he told me to leave it open.”
Lilith’s heart beat a little faster. “You know how to open and close it?”
“Of course,” the Kyrst said with a note of pride in his voice.
“Show it to me.”
“I don’t think I’m supposed to do that.”
Lilith lifted two fingers again for the number of feathers Gaebryl had left for her. “And I’m late, so that means he’s expecting me. You don’t want to make him angry.” When Crispin didn’t say anything, she added, “I’ll buy you another poster.”