Dweller on the Threshold (25 page)

The demon stepped away from the sizzling pile and crouched. Intelligence sparked the watery yellow eyes as a grin slowly stretched its black lips wide. This one moved better, snake-like—something that could easily blend into shadows or slip under a child’s bed. As if it could read my thoughts, its grin widened until the mouth opened and I caught a glimpse of the depth of evil swelling its body—like it had no organs inside, only a yawning black emptiness.

Every hair on my body stood on end. I’d faced scary creatures often over the years, but nothing that sent out such a thick, cloying evil. It was on my skin. The urge to run was strong but the urge to keep it from crawling under that child’s bed was stronger.

The thing chuckled.

It might be smaller than the last two we’d fought, but it was smarter. Much smarter. I glanced at Nikolos. His eyes met mine and a silent communication passed between us. I knew what he was about to do and had the feeling he knew the same about me.

When the demon jumped the gate, we were ready.

I rushed around one side, gripping both knives tight in my fists. Eyes, ears or throat—I could remember Nikolos’s instructions. I slashed its arm in a sweeping curve. It howled as that gelatinous blood sprayed the trees around us. The demon swung in my direction. I jumped back and darted around a bush as its claws hacked my way, missing by maybe an inch. Heavy chunks of bark flew past my head and I ducked and ran around another tree as Nikolos jumped it.

It turned at just the right moment and his knife glanced off that hard bony skull. I could see the vibration of Nikolos’s arm. Nikolos followed my lead and darted around a tree.

All of a sudden, everything around us went quiet. Birds, insects—even the traffic seemed to fade away. The demon stopped, cocked his head and I noticed it wasn’t looking at either Nikolos or me but in Blythe’s direction. I turned to find her standing with Phro and Fred on either side. Frida positioned himself in front with his massive arms crossed, no signs of his battle visible on his body now. Blythe’s mouth moved as she mumbled something I couldn’t hear despite the silence of the forest around us.

I glanced at the demon to find it now watching me. A new knowledge flared through its expression and grinning, it rushed the little witch. I ran after it. “Phro, you guys do something. Anything!”

They were already trying, both spirits fading to near-invisible as they pulled every bit of energy they could to throw up some sort of force field. It wouldn’t hold.

Terrified for Blythe, I did something then I hadn’t done on purpose in a while.

I called the bees. All I had to do was hum softly to pull in a few extra, but this time I hummed loudly.

Within a second, hundreds swarmed around our heads, their collective buzz so loud it drowned out thought. I didn’t even try to focus them on the demon specifically and in fact, hoped with everything in me that they knew the reason I called.

They did. They swirled about its head, handfuls swooping in to sting then drop to its feet. Scrambling noises sounded over the buzzing as Nikolos lunged at the demon. It spun at the last minute and his knife slashed a huge line down its back. It screamed and whirled so fast it blurred. All I had time to see was the blood flying from Nikolos’s chest as the thing raked claws down it. I didn’t stop to question the strength of the fear that ripped into my own gut. Fear for him. Since it had worked in the hospital, I went for the demon’s Achilles tendon again.

Only this time when I dove, rocks dug into my body as I slid on dry leaves and dirt. I gripped the dagger, trying to swipe above the demon’s heel. I missed and the thing turned and kicked my hand. The dagger flew as two of my fingers went numb. The buzzing grew louder as some of the bees came to my level briefly before flying back at the demon.

I tried to get to my feet. The demon swiped its claws again, hitting me in the arm. The same wounded fucking arm.

A new slice opened the old one and instant wooziness filled my head. I lurched to my feet and stumbled back a few steps. Blythe was yelling the nonsense language again but it felt as if her words came at me through a long, windy and buzzing tunnel. The pain had my blood and adrenaline flowing so hard I couldn’t hear.

I shook my head, hair flying into my line of vision. I shoved it aside with the good hand—the one that still gripped the other knife,
thank Goddess!
 

The demon didn’t attack. I blinked and brought the world back into focus to see Nikolos slashing at the thing over and over. It was still too agile. Still dancing around to keep the knife from its vulnerable spots.

I was too dizzy for one wound. Looking down, I saw that most of my arm lay open. I could see the bone. Nausea hit me hard and fast and I leaned against a tree as the world spun again. In fact, it turned so hard and fast I realized this was more than dizziness—this was something else entirely.

It was as if all I’d had to do was acknowledge the whirling world because I just blacked out only to find myself in the air looking at my body as it slumped to the ground.

“Shit!” I frantically yanked on that stupid silver cord. “Not now. Not now!”

My body lying there helpless scared me so badly—I twisted toward Fred. He stared up at me with his mouth open, a few bees flying around his head.
He wasn’t ghosty.
He looked as solid as my body lying there. Fury ripped into my metaphysical self and without knowing how, I flew through the air toward the demon. Only the thing I came across was a little different in this dimensional realm.

I could see its spirit. Whatever gave it life, whatever animated its body wasn’t even inside it. Mostly. It hovered above with its lower half stuck inside the demon. The spirit looked a lot more human than its host, but grotesque with twisted features and a pointed, bald head.

But it saw me and its eyes went wide as I snarled and flew toward it. I didn’t know what I could do here—in this place—but I was damned well going to try something. I still gripped my cord in one hand and since it was the only thing of substance I could feel, I used it.

I wrapped it around the hovering spirit’s neck and pulled.

The demon’s spirit claws worked in this world and it slashed at my arms. I was so surprised I could feel it I let the cord loosen a bit. Recovering quickly, I tightened my grip as the demon slashed my arm again. I gritted my teeth and looked down to see what its body was doing and nearly screamed when I saw Nikolos.

He’d moved around until he was standing in front of my prone form. He was trying to protect me while fighting the thing one-on-one in a dance that would have looked graceful and beautiful if not for the horrifying amount of blood pouring from his chest wound.

He’d lived through other wounds, through wars, lived longer than any creature outside of vampires, yet he had not once said he was immortal. He suddenly staggered.

I had to kill the demon. I looked back into the bulging eyes of the spirit-thing I was trying to strangle and marveled that it could fight me while its body fought another.

So not fair. Why couldn’t both of my bodies fight? Metaphysical and physical?

Fire erupted near my prone body and I knew I was out of time. Blythe had obviously given up on trying to confuse the thing and was using her magic.

“I don’t have time for this bullshit,” I snarled into its face as I used every last bit of my strength to yank my cord taut. The demon body below me stopped fighting Nikolos and began clawing at the air over its head. It screamed so loudly I winced but didn’t let up on the pressure.

I looked down and met Nikolos’s gaze right before he jumped and sent his dagger through the thing’s eye. Its metaphysical self just poofed away, disappearing so quickly I dropped toward Nikolos. He reached up as if to catch me and I went right through him. For the time it takes to pull in a deep breath and let it out, I was inside his body and in that moment, I felt the stunning weight of all those souls—felt not only the way they sucked at him and stole his energy… but I felt something else as well.

The souls were what kept him alive.

He shoved me out so fast I had to keep a death grip on my cord as I once again found myself propelled across the air.

I saw stars even before I smacked into a tree.

I came awake to the sound of Blythe bawling. Her tears hit my face, pooled on my closed eyelids. Wrinkling my nose, I reached up blindly to move her away and accidentally smacked her.

“Ack!”
 

I heard a thump and sat up too quickly. Dizziness had me slumping before I even opened my eyes. “Oh Goddess, Blythe, I’m so sorry,” I was saying as I finally pried my eyes open to see that I’d knocked her into a tree. She only looked winded, thank goodness.

I breathed a sigh of relief, closed my eyes, then opened them again quickly to look for Nikolos.

He rested next to my feet. Blood dripped from various points on his body and his normally tanned skin looked pasty. His hair had come out of the braid during the fight and fell around his face, nearly covering it. One glittering eye stared at me. I didn’t have to say a word. I’m sure my emotions were pretty damned plain on my face anyway. I hurt too badly to have control over my features.

The depth of pain inside that man was something I couldn’t have fathomed before. I’d seen the paintings of his life on his wall. I’d realized he’d outlived a wife—possibly more than one—as well as children. In a part of my mind, I’d understood that was why he kept himself so very alone. I’d understood yet I hadn’t—not really.

I’d glimpsed the depth of his grief. It was like a constant living and breathing mass of pain that fed those souls. And they cried like an endless drone of bees in his head, cried for him to let them go and he didn’t know how. He wanted to, though. Wanted to follow his families to wherever they’d gone. Or, he
had
.

I was changing his feelings and that scared him to death. Those souls kept him in this sad, heavy existence and they needed to be free. When they were, he would die. I didn’t want to care for him either because I’d known the minute I’d felt his hands on me that he was the one man who could be mine and I had no other choice than to release the people trapped around him. I didn’t know how they got there or why, but they lived in a perpetual state of torment that no one should ever experience. Their pain had seared into my own soul while I’d been there.

I kept my eyes closed as the force of this knowledge sent cold numbness through my chest. I was going to be the one to kill him.

I knew it.

Nikolos knew it too. This fight with the Dweller on the Threshold would have a much different outcome than the one on his home world, Crete or Aegenia or whatever the hell he wanted to call it.

I could die in this as well. If I lost Elsa, I would want to. Scared the shit out of me that Nikolos’s death could possibly make me feel that way too.

“Beri!”
 

Blythe crouched over me again. One of her cold tears plopped onto my chin.

“If you’re going to blubber, could you move so I don’t drown here?”
 

She gave me a watery smile as she patted my shoulder. She used a finger instead of her hand which I thought was strange until I felt the pain. “Agh!” My eyes rolled back in my head as all the wounds from the battle came to life at the same time.

“We need to get you both to the hospital.”

“No hospital,” Nikolos said, his words clipped.

“But we have to go. I’m guessing you’ll live through this because you’ve lived so long, but she might not. She’s my friend and I don’t have so many that I can just sit by and watch one die.”

I saw the truth in her suddenly fierce expression. Seemed I had a new member of the family. I had known it already. Had known it when Phro decided to take the witch under her wing.

Thinking of Phro made me look around for her. And Fred. Both were actually sitting on the grass. I tried to remember the last time I’d seen them on the ground and couldn’t. In truth, Fred only sat in vehicles and even then he could hover instead of sit. He probably didn’t so I wouldn’t get distracted while driving. Phro sat all the time—just not on the ground. She smiled at me and I knew then that I looked bad. Thankfully, the buzzing had stopped. Most of the bees had left once the threat was removed. A few still hung around.

Fred wouldn’t look at me. “Hey,” I called softly to get his attention.

His hair flopped over his forehead as he lifted his face. His smile was rueful. “We couldn’t see what you fought.”

“What do you mean?”

“We could see you in your metaphysical form but not what you were fighting. The demon was below you.”

I didn’t know what that meant and right then, I didn’t care. All of the wounds on my body screamed for attention, so I gingerly rolled onto my hands and knees to stand. Before I could, Nikolos helped pull me to my feet. I shook my head again. From the blood, he looked worse off. Much worse.

“Blythe, Nikolos is right. We can’t go to the hospital. They’ll ask too many questions and we really need to continue this search. We need to have Nikolos look over the book—we have to find the host. Besides, with the ley line here, I think your healing spells will work even better than they did last time.” I winced and did my best not to lean on Nikolos.

 
He still took hold of my arm. I would have moved away but I made the tiniest, guilty internal admission—his touch made me feel good, so I let him help me. I slid my arm around his waist.