Darkness Taunts (37 page)

Between the sage and the circle still being closed, it occurred to me the demon couldn’t get out yet. At the other end of it, Zoe stood in a billowing-white dress with a reverent look on her face. Her strawberry-blond hair flowed behind her. She was tall and beautiful with porcelain skin that had a golden undertone. When she started to move forward I stood up.

“Lucas, we have to stop her from breaking the circle. If we can keep it in place, Stolas can’t get out.”

“Micah, watch Melena,” Lucas ordered.

He disappeared. I saw him resurface in front of Zoe and slash at her with his sword. She moved, but not fast enough to avoid getting grazed by the blade. She flashed a short distance away and pulled her own sword out of a sheath attached to her belt. She’d come prepared too. It was impossible to follow the battle between the nephilim after that. They flashed all over the place. Well, Zoe did and Lucas followed her. I didn’t think she had much fighting experience, which gave the younger of the two the advantage.

Up to this point, the group of sensors had been at the edge of the field. There were only four of them now since Lucas had killed the one who’d transported me to the ferry. They moved together toward the circle. They’d be the next to try and break it.

I grabbed Micah. “We have to stop them, but we need to keep at least one alive. It will take sacrificing a sensor to send Stolas back.”

He grabbed me and moved at warp speed over to the sensors. They saw us and took off running in different directions. Crap. Micah dropped me off close to Ian and moved for the others. At least he trusted me to do this much on my own. I pulled my gun and aimed. Ian tried running the other way, but I managed to shoot him in the side. He stumbled, gripped the wound, and kept going. I ran until I closed the distance enough for another shot. That one nailed him in the shoulder.

It didn’t occur to me until too late what he was doing. Just as I took the third shot and hit him square in the back, he fell into the circle. His blood soaked in and the thrum of power that had kept it going went down. Shit. The sage had died down to embers. It wasn’t enough to hold a demon that strong.

Stolas grinned at Aeson and went straight for him. No. This could not be happening. I didn’t know what could kill a cambion, but I figured if it worked the same as with the nephilim, then Aeson would be a dead hybrid in no time.

Lucas and Zoe had disappeared, though I sensed them somewhere in the woods. Micah had killed one of the sensors. He appeared to be going after Elden next, but he was too far away for me to call out to him. Fallon and Sayer, the next most powerful sups we had were busy holding the hosts together. I considered the witches, but didn’t know what they could do since they were already trying to keep any stray humans away.

Ian’s body lay a short distance from me. He was still alive but his uneven breaths said he didn’t have much longer. I wasn’t even sure how to sacrifice a sensor to send a demon back. Did you feed the guy to them? Would he willingly eat him? Sometimes Charlie’s useful tips weren’t so useful.

Then it occurred to me. What if there needed to be another circle of blood? Except in this case it would be sensor blood. If I could somehow drag Ian’s body around the demon, maybe that could contain him. I looked over at Stolas and Aeson and changed my mind. The cambion was being torn apart limb by limb—literally. He’d lost both arms and the demon was going for his legs next. I couldn’t stand by and watch without doing something.

All my bullets were coated in my blood. Maybe that would help weaken the demon some. I ran up as close as I needed to get a good shot. I aimed my gun at the big guy’s head and pulled the trigger. It tore into his temple, but it didn’t do the damage my bullets usually did. I kept shooting, watching small chunks of him fly off. He jerked with each hit, which gave Aeson a chance to move away.

Then the demon turned toward me and my heart skipped a beat. His eyes had turned a fiery red. He laughed at me and without bothering to look, threw his sword straight at Aeson. It hit him directly in the middle of his back. I had no idea what that sword was made of, but it killed the cambion on contact. A flash of guilt came over me for inadvertently breaking the circle that put him in danger. The giant demon coming at me didn’t allow me much time for further thought.

I still had a few bullets. They went through his eyes and I felt a thread of satisfaction that they blinded him. He stopped and bellowed while cupping them with his monstrous hands. I took that opportunity to run. It only bought me a few seconds before he followed close behind. When Lucas flashed within feet of me I knew he had to have gotten that internal warning I was about to die. Knowing that made it a lot scarier than when you just thought you might die.

I got far enough away that I felt safe to stop and look back. Worry over whether a nephilim could survive the same weapon that killed Aeson kept me from being able to go any farther. At least he was battle hardened enough not to panic like the cambion had done. Not that I could blame Aeson. He was never meant to be a fighter.

Lucas thrust his sword into the demon’s neck and thick reddish-black blood spurted out. The demon’s eyes were growing back by now, though. Once his sight returned, the nephilim wouldn’t be able to get strikes like that so easily. I dropped the empty clip from my gun and slammed in another one. Maybe if I could keep shooting his eyes, Lucas could keep sticking his sword in whatever places the demon’s armor didn’t cover.

I edged in a little closer until I reached the maximum effective range for my Sig. One good thing about the demon being almost two feet taller than Lucas was I didn’t have to worry as much about hitting the wrong guy. I started shooting the demon’s eyes again. He roared with rage and with one swing of his sword knocked Lucas fifty feet across the field. His body kept skidding for a while longer before I had to stop watching.

The demon was blindly running in my direction. I headed a different way from him, but he cocked his ears and listened for my crunches in the snow. Moving faster than I could compensate for, he crashed into me like a freight train. My body went flying and hit something hard. I slumped to the ground, unable to feel anything. My lungs couldn’t even take in a breath. Only the pain in my head remained. When the blackness took me under, I couldn’t fight it.

My chest hurt. It felt like someone had pulverized it. I sucked in a deep breath and began coughing. Remnants of blood in my mouth and throat had gone down the wrong way. It had a strange flavor I hadn’t tasted before. I wanted to test out the rich flavor, but the coughing kept me occupied. I eventually opened my eyes to find Micah hovering over me. Lucas sat at my side looking paler than I’d ever seen him.

“She’s back,” Micah said.

My hand moved up my chest to find it completely exposed. They’d ripped my jacket, shirt, and bra down the middle. Two sticky pads were still attached to my skin. The lines ran to what I recognized as a portable defibrillator. Damn, he really had prepared for worse case scenarios.

“What happened?” I asked. My memory was a little foggy on anything after the demon had come running at me.

Micah shook his head. “You died. I had to do a combination of feeding you blood, CPR to get it moving, and shocking your heart back into rhythm. My guess is most of your internal organs were damaged when you crashed into the tree.”

I gulped. I’d actually died. Most people got lights at the end of the tunnel. I didn’t get anything.

“How long was I out?”

“Approximately three minutes. I can move fast when the need arises.”

I looked at Lucas. He still had a pallor to his skin that was worse than the way he’d appeared after we fought the demons at the restaurant. “Are you okay?” I asked.

“I am now,” he said in a scratchy voice.

My senses slowly came back into focus. When they did I jerked to a sitting position and looked across the field. “Is that an angel fighting Stolas?”

Micah glanced over in the direction of the battle. “For once, they came when we actually need them.”

“Nearly too late,” Lucas said. “Those idiots up there must have known as soon as the demon arrived, but they let us fight it out first before stepping in.”

I listened to them with half an ear. It wasn’t every day you got to see an archangel fight it out with a prince from hell. I was in awe of the beauty of the fight. The angel had a sword every bit as deadly-looking as the demon and knew how to handle it. His more effective weapon was his smiting. Holy crap. The brilliant flashes of light shooting from his hand had the demon down on his knees.

Micah pulled the pads off my chest while I continued to watch. He closed the jacket over my breasts just as the angel plunged the sword into the demon and channeled the smite through the blade and into his heart. In a flash of brilliant red, the prince disappeared. I didn’t feel him die, but I guessed it was enough to send him back to where he came from. My senses picked up on the all the demons in the hosts’ bodies disappearing as well. They must have been tied to the prince somehow.

The archangel extended his wings and lifted into the air. He turned in our direction next. My eyes rounded. Would I actually get to meet an angel?

“Shit,” Micah said. “That’s Remiel, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” Lucas replied.

“I’d tell you to run, but he’d find you.”

Lucas looked at his brother. “I’m no coward. I failed to protect her and knew the consequences if that happened.”

I pulled my jacket tighter, feeling embarrassed at the idea of being partly naked with an angel flying our way. For some reason, the cold snow I sat on didn’t bother me. I supposed after nearly dying my body was still in a state of shock.

Remiel landed about ten feet from us. He looked out over the field where the rest of our people stood. They still guarded the humans not knowing they weren’t possessed anymore. I assumed the demons had the self-preservation to heal their hosts. Otherwise they would have bled to death by now from slashing their wrists to activate the circle.

The archangel’s eyes glowed as he spoke. “All of you will leave now,” he ordered.

I was pretty sure they didn’t have a say in the matter, judging by the compulsion he’d laid in his voice.

Lucas drew my attention when he caressed my face. I turned to look at him and saw regret in his eyes. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my lips before I could ask what was wrong. The tingles flowed between us. I wanted it to last longer, but he pulled away.

When Remiel looked at him, his fingers squeezed my hand. He stood and walked toward the angel. I had to give him credit. In the face of a being much stronger than him, he still managed to look arrogant.

“Lucas of Pistiros,” the angel said, “you understand why I am here for you?”

Rage filled Lucas’ eyes, but he nodded. “I do.”

Remiel looked to the sky and I followed his gaze. Another angel, using some sort of invisibility magic, arrived with Zoe in his arms. He folded his brilliant wings when he landed. The female nephilim was in some sort of chains that bound her powers. The angel who held her dumped her on the ground. She pulled her arms up enough despite the chains to brush her hair from her face.

“Stand,” Remiel ordered her.

She rose to her feet.

“Do you understand why we’ve come for you today?” he asked.

Her lips trembled. “I do.”

“This is not the first time you’ve aided in the summoning of a demon to earth. For this crime, you will be sent to purgatory where the length of your sentence will be determined.”

Remiel nodded at the other angel. “You may take her to the nearest gate.”

Zoe was once again swept up into the angel’s arms. He took to the sky and flew away, cloaking them from human view. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about her for awhile. When Remiel’s gaze returned to Lucas my heart clenched.

“As we negotiated through the cambion known as Aeson, your punishment for the killing of more than a dozen sensors, including their leader, Henrik Neilson was to protect each sensor we assigned you for the period of their natural life. For more than three centuries you have not failed in this duty, until now—however temporary that might have been. In addition to this, you and your brother used forbidden means to save the sensor we assigned you. These are all punishable crimes.”

What did he mean forbidden means? I glanced at Micah, but he didn’t meet my eyes.

Remiel moved toward me and Lucas blocked him. “No, don’t touch her.”

The archangel flicked his wrist and froze the nephilim in place. “She will not be yours to protect any longer.”

Then he went around Lucas and kneeled down next to me.

“The punishment for ingesting nephilim blood is death,” he said. His eyes were fathomless and a little bit scary. “Under the circumstances, you could not have protested. I have also taken into consideration that one dose will have minimal affect on your body. You’ll be allowed to continue your existence, as well as Micah who participated, but neither of you will speak of the events that transpired here today. Do you understand?”  He looked at us both.

I nodded. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice if I wanted to live.

Micah nodded as well.

Remiel placed a palm on my chest. I gasped when what looked like sparks of light flew from me to him. It burned like fire. I tried to struggle, but he put his other hand down to hold me in place. When he finally moved his palm away I felt as if a hole had been torn in my chest. There was a big, gaping emptiness that hadn’t been there before.

“It will take some time to adjust. We usually don’t do this until just before the sensor’s natural death.”

“What did you do?” I asked in a whisper. The hollowness was causing a psychological pain I couldn’t begin to describe.

“I unbound your soul from the nephilim’s,” he stated. Like that was a normal thing to do. “It is the reason you’ve felt a connection to him since you came into your abilities. We did this so that if you died, he would as well. Lucas has always needed more incentive than most to cooperate.”