Born of Silence (Immortal Guardians) (40 page)

More demons were on her. They closed in from all directions, reminding her of her time spent in the Underworld. She let them come though. As her brother had just proved, she herself had enough oomph to toss a couple of these suckers away with only the flick of her hand. She had more power than any of them could imagine.

They drew closer and Nitro shifted so her feet were shoulder width apart. She clasped her hands together, willing the tiniest of fireballs to light and grow between her palms. Ash was in the middle of it all, the demons thinking that he was the bigger threat.

Looking around her, they were nearly close enough for her to deal out the maximum punishment.

And three
…
two
…
one.
She separated her hands, the small ball of flames she’d willed into existence growing the size of
a
beach ball in less than a second. The demons reacted, stepping back, but Nitro was too quick for them. She threw the fireball at the ones closest to her, kicking out at the demon to her right so she could get away from the imminent carnage.

The yellow, scaly demon fell to the ground from her kick, and Nitro forged pas
t
it, taking two others out as well. The fireball exploded instantly, shaking the walls surrounding them. The demons close enough to its power singed, their skin burning from the blast. She rushed toward them, determined to finish them off before any of them regained their strength.

First one down. She sliced her dagger through its neck, severing its head. The second one tried to fight her, but she was
faster
. Her knife pierced its heart, the demon’s last breath bubbling out of it as she pulled her blade free. She stood straight again, running toward three others who were trying to get up and flee. A quick slice through each of their throats, followed by an elbow to the nose, separated their heads with a sickening
crack
.

The others were quickly disposed of as well, and she turned just as more demons fell on her. Ash fought his way through to her, having offed his attackers only seconds before.
Together, the twins fought side
by side, kicking,
throwing punches and fireballs.
Nitro struck out with her whip to bring the demons in for a powerful strike from Ash’s pounding fists.
They had no
time to kill off their opponents though, since more replaced the ones they fended off.

A quick glance between them and they both knew what needed to be done. They threw out their hands, manifesting fire that grew both in size and heat as their power meshed together. Demons screamed; some shrank away from the heat; others were enveloped in fiery torment.

“Nitro!”

She looked up at the familiar bellow of her vampire. Raider barreled into the room, blades and fangs drawn as he collided into a demon.

Nitro cracked her whip at an
other one who rushed toward her,
the thin leather wrapping neatly around its frail throat
. Still focused on her male,
she
lurched the whip backward, cleanly breaking the demon’s neck. Raider was on his second adversary when she caught sight of Draven, Ethan, and Garrick hauling ass into the room, spreading out so they could battle the enemy. The redhead
ed woman
that followed behind Garrick was immediately struck, falling to the ground when a demon sideswiped her.

Nitro was brought back to her own fight and lost track of what was happening to the other warriors. She fought and fought until she heard an agonizing scream that echoed off the rocky walls. She looked up in time to see wings spring from the redhead’s back, her body rising up from the ground as they flapped. The
screeches
coming from her were no longer the screams of a woman. Her skin was no longer the healthy glow of a woman. Nitro gaped at the demon, anger filling her veins.

She’d fought that bitch before.
Had meant to kill her earlier tonight.
And right now, she was behind Raider.

Nitro bolted toward them and hurled a fireball at her.

****

Dani screeched as she twisted the head of her attacker. After the loud
crack
of his neck, she dropped him like a sack of potatoes and he thudded to the ground.

“Look out!”

She
glanced
up at the sound of Garrick’s voice, noticing a burst of fire hurtling toward her. With just a thought, her body responded, and her wings flapped wildly as she dodged out of the way. The ball of flames collided with the black rock wall behind her, exploding until it turned into nothing but smoke.
She had a sense of déjà vu, even as her wing throbbed in pain at the memory. This very same thing had happened earlier.
She turned toward its pitcher, hissing as she saw who it was.

An entirely new sound escaped her throat as she saw the evil gothic bitch running toward her. It took Dani less than a second to assess her enemy. Tall and thin, wearing tight black leather pants and matching bustier; she held a long whip wrapped around her arm—that was only one of her weapons, yet one t
hat she could easily dispose
of. Her pitch
-
black hair waved behind her as she barreled toward them. And there was something else
…
a shadow within her. One that should probably scare her—probably would if she was still in human form—and yet it made her smile right now.

But as soon as the demon
ess
was close enough that Dani could clearly see her eyes, the entire room sizzled around her. The eyes changed as she honed in on them, turning from
brown
to a swirl of black and red. She had seen these eyes before
.
S
he knew it. The woman’s lips peeled back from a set of long, sharp fangs as she hissed and growled. Oh yes, she knew this merciless wench. They’d been evenly matched in their challenges, having ripped each other limb from limb. She had forgotten about their confrontations until this very second.

“
Stay away
,” Dani hissed, the sound of her voice echoing through the room as if there weren’t countless demons battling. She neared Garrick’s friends, ready to keep them safe from
the enemy
.

“You get away,” the demon
ess
growled.

“Whoa,” Garrick yelled, tugging at her legs. “Dani, no, no
,
no. Raider, get her under control!” She ignored him, just as she’d ignored his demand
that she stay out of the battle
,
to stay where he would know she was safe.

Garrick’s friend
gawked
at Dani, seeing her for the first time.
A horrified expression crossed his face as he looked over Dani’s face, then at her wings.
“Oh, fuck,” he breathed before he ran toward the female demon.

“
No
,” Dani yelled. “
Stay away from her
!” Jesus Christ, Garrick’s frie
nd was heading straight toward d
eath itself. He ignored her though, cutting her off and trapping her in his arms. “Nitro, no, don’t
,
calm down
,
baby, calm down.”

All
attempts at calming either of them failed. The snarling bitch lea
pt forward, breaking free of
Raider’s hold. Dani growled as more heat enveloped her every cell. She lowered to the ground in time to push Garrick out of the way just as the goth wench would have crashed into him. She floated upward again
,
peering
down at her rival.

There was chaos all around. Raider tried to keep the demoness back while trying to fend off more enemies. A
black-haired
man jumped in to help
Raider
, cursing as he
looked up at Dani with stupefied
awe. Nitro was as strung as Dani was, neither taking her eyes off the other.
S
omething passed between Raider and Nitro,
and her eyebrows lowered.
“We’ve fought before. She works for the Institute.”

Da
ni hissed, her own fangs making it all the more menacing, even to her own ears
. “
She
works for the Institute.”

“Dani.
Dani
,” Garrick said, breaking her concentration. She slowly took her eyes from that crazy bitch and
glanced
down at him. He had both hands rubbing her legs, trying to soothe her.

The friction from his hands on her skin worked. Slightly.

“What?” she asked, unable to keep the malice from her voice.

“Baby, calm down. Nitro doesn’t work for the Institute
:
she works with me.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she slowed her flapping and descended until her feet touched the ground. “She’s not good. I’ve fought her before.” Her gaze flicked over to Nitro again, noticing that
her brown
coloring
was once again making its way into her eyes. So,
Raider
was finally succeeding at calming her, just like Garrick was
calming Dani
.

“Okay,” he replied. “Well, I think we need to
calmly
figure this out. Okay?”

She
nodded, exhaling slowly so she could calm herself further.
The sounds of everything else came flooding back and she
watched
all the fights taking place.
From her periphery, she caught a glint of light
. She turned
as an over-sized ogre swung a sword at Garrick’s head.

“No!” she screamed, flinging herself around Garrick. Her wings arched backward, increasing her speed as she slammed the demon into the wall. He snarled viciously and swung out. She realized then that it wasn’t a sword he was wielding—or rather that it was, only it was a
part
of him. And at the moment, he was swinging it at her even though she held his body tight against the hard black wall of the cave. Dani whirled quickly, using her wings to spin her in the air. The ogre swung with her, and she ripped his body in two before throwing the pieces on the ground.

Garrick’s friends’ shocked faces stared at her for a fraction of a second before they were each forced back into battle. Nitro’s glare lingered longer than the others, but as with everyone else, she was forced to fight.

Dani lowered herself to the ground, but kept her wings spread out wide. She kicked and punched, scrapping with any demon that dared get close enough. Even others that hadn’t dared approach her were still sliced by the claws on the tips of her wings. On she fought, letting the Harpy take over. She was losing the human piece of her, but she didn’t care. The Harpy was better, stronger than she was, and if they had any hopes of making it out of the caves, she needed to fight alongside Garrick and his friends. Yes, the Harpy was better. Her true nature.

She was the Destroyer.

She held a demon in her grips, knowing without a doubt that he was one of the bad guys.
She
punched in forcefully and drew her claws from his
chest, revealing
his
heart in the palm of her hand. As
he
dropped to the ground in a dead heap,
another form appeared where the demon had just been
.

Nitro.

Dani hissed, readying for another battle—a battle that was sure to be taxing with as equally matched as they were. As they glared at each other, Nitro’s fist shot out to the side, and she cold-cocked a demon that had been hurling itself at her. Dani sensed another demon closing in, and she spun around just as it neared. Her sharp Harpy claws sliced through its neck, and she finished her spin as Nitro was tackled to the ground from behind. Just as she flipped to her back and shoved the demon back, Dani flew at him, flapping her wings as she carried him high above. She
released her hold and kicked
, her foot connect
ing
with its chest. The demon dropped quickly, landing on the ground in an unnatural pile of limbs. No, she hadn’t killed him, but by the looks of it Nitro was on her way to finish the job herself.

Dani
eyed
the fights that were taking place below her. Each of Garrick’s friends were fully engrossed in battle
,
all
of them beautiful in their own right
s
. She watched, fascinated as they annihilated their enemies in a deadly dance. Her eyes traveled over each of them, finally settling on Garrick, who fought diligently, taking out each of the demons that came at him.

But as she watched, she caught sight of anot
her demon sneaking up behind
Garrick. Dani dove, her wings arcing backward to increase her speed. A fierce screech echoed off the walls, a sound she was barely conscious of making as the demon raked its claws down Garrick’s back. He
yelled
, stumbling forward as she collided into his attacker. He’d been just about to pummel Garrick more, and would have had she not gotten there just in time. Dani fought the beast on the cold, hard ground. She finished him quickly enough and crawled over to where Garrick gingerly sat up. Bright blue blood seeped from his back.