Prince of Demons 3: The Order of the Black Swan Read Free

thinking.”
    “I’m sure her boyfriend won’t mind.”
    Deliverance looked at Lana. “You have a boyfriend?”
    “Well, yes, I guess. I hadn’t really named…”
    “It doesn’t matter,” Litha interjected. “The fact is that we need to give her a ride.”
    “I don’t know, Sweetness. The Callii aren’t always hospitable.”
    “There’s worse and you know it,” replied Litha.
    When Deliverance saw that his daughter had made up her mind, he said, “This is on you. If anything happens, I’m not taking the blame. Again.”
    “All on me, Pop.”
    Litha withdrew the purple fur-lined handcuffs.
    “What are those for?” For the first time Lana was questioning the wisdom of the “experiment”. She took a step back.
    “Insurance,” Litha said. “Passengers can get lost in the passes if we don’t have a firm grip on them.”
    Litha was careful to not look at Deliverance, who crossed his arms over his chest and looked away. “If that’s all you need from me.”
    “All for now.” When Litha smiled at Deliverance his features softened and he returned her smile. “Dinner Thursday.”
    “You know I…”
    “Just be there.”
    “Okay.”
    And he was gone.
     
     
    Litha handed the syringe with her blood to the nurse. “Dispose of this, will you?”
    The nurse took the syringe, nodded, and left the room with the sound of stocking-covered legs rubbing together.
    “Okay. You ready? This time we’ve got the real deal.” Lana looked at the syringe, looked at the handcuffs, swallowed hard, and nodded. “I’m going to inject you then put the handcuff on.” Litha paused. “Do you suffer from motion sickness?”
    Lana thought back on her experiences with being taken from one dimension to another. “Not usually, but the…” she waved her hand.
    “Traveling the passes.”
    “Yes. That. Does seem to make me nauseous.”
    “Wait here.” Litha wasn’t gone for more than a couple of minutes before she returned with a motion sickness drug and a bottle of water. “Take two of these.” She handed Lana two round white pills about the size of common aspirin and screwed the top off the bottle of water for her.
    She continued while Lana took the pills. “I’d like to give your system a few minutes to respond to the injection anyway.” She looked at her watch. “Maybe fifteen minutes. We could hang out here or I could take you anywhere in this world if you’d like a quick trip. Some place you’d like to go?”
    Lana’s eyes met Litha’s. “There’s a restaurant in Dallas…”
     
     
     
    Litha sat down at the bar with Lana and said, “No alcohol. We have no idea what that might do.”
    They ordered drinks.
    Lana had been secretly hoping for a glimpse of her father, but knew it was unlikely. Ten minutes later Litha said, “Time to go.” She snapped the handcuff on Lana’s wrist and they were gone.
    When they emerged from the passes, Lana was saying, “Hey! You just did an eat-and-cheat on my dad. Or a version of my dad. Same thing.”
    She looked around and saw that they were outside a dungeon cell with Brave not only inside, but manacled to the wall. “What the…? Brave!” She rushed forward and began pulling on the cell door as if she actually believed she had the brute strength necessary to wrench it from the hinges.
    Brave raised his head. Looking through blurred vision, he wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating or if he actually saw Lana standing outside the cell with a curly-headed brunette.
    “Lana? You came back?”
    Litha looked at Brave and said, “Yes, she did,” in a matter-of-fact tone. To Lana she said, “The good news is it worked. You’re here in one piece and that’s a breakthrough with far reaching ramifications that I haven’t begun to consider. The bad news is that I’m guessing you weren’t expecting to find your prince in chains.”
    Because Brave was Lana’s first concern, it hadn’t yet dawned on her that there was cause to be afraid. She looked at