Your Lycan or Mine? (Broken Heart Book 14) (6 page)

W
HEN THEY ENTERED
the sanctum
, Claire looked at them, her eyes wide and glazed. She huddled in the corner hugging her purse, her thin body quaking as tears tracked her cheeks. Pure fear lit her gaze.

Jarod, Patrick, and Lorcan headed toward the demon. Ash bee-lined to Claire. She bent down. “Claire? It’s Natasha. I’m here to help you.” She gestured to the altar that housed the lion’s body. “Do you have the owl?”

Claire nodded. Her fingers were embedded in the purse, and Ash wasn’t sure if she could pry it out of the woman’s hands.

“He tricked me,” she whispered.

“I know.” Ash sheathed her knives then slipped her hands under the purse and tugged it. “C’mon, honey. Let go.”

Claire’s fingers unclenched. Ash took the freed bag, unzipped it, and pawed through the contents. She found the owl head and pulled it out. Claire moaned in terror, covering her eyes with her hands. Ash put the purse next to Claire and patted her hand. The woman was in no condition to escape on her own. In fact, her breathing was too shallow and she was overly pale. “Hang on,” said Ash. “Just hang on.”

Ash dropped the bright red owl head on the marble floor. It instantly shattered. She grabbed the lion from the alcove and threw it hard, relishing the sound of its destruction. She withdrew the snake from her pocket and dropped it, stepping on it with her boot heel. Obliterating Lilith’s vessel wasn’t enough. Not for all the pain the demon had caused. Ash stomped the bits into dust.

Triumphantly, she turned toward Lilith’s demon flunky. It had fallen to its knees. Patrick and Lorcan held on to the monster’s arms, but it appeared to take some effort to keep him immobile. Jarod stood over him, silver balls of magic pulsed above his palms. The demon bared its teeth and growl. “I am the doorway for Lilith!”

“Sorry, buddy,” said Ash. “The door’s closed.”

The demon’s laughter echoed into the room. “My queen is more clever than you.” His red-eyed gaze dropped to the destroyed statue, and his toothy grin widened.

“What’s he talkin’ about?” asked Patrick.

Ash didn’t like that the demon was so unconcerned about the destruction of the statue. What else was there left to do?

“Natasha!” The alarm in Jarod’s voice had her looking at the ground.

The snake had not been destroyed.

It had come alive.

It wiggled up Ash’s body with supernatural speed. She grabbed at it, but it was like trying to capture smoke.

Jarod released his magic and rushed to his mate. He, too, tried to capture the little beast. “Fuck!”

The snake wrapped around her wrist. It pulsed hotly, glowing like a burning ember and started sinking into her skin.

“It’s you!” the demon shouted with glee. “It was you all along.”

Ash cried out as she attempted to break the snake’s hold on her wrist. Even with Jarod helping, the totem would not budge.

Jarod whirled toward the demon. “What have you done to her?”

“
She
is the vessel, fool,” cackled the demon. “Lilith will live in her and Ash the Destroyer will be no more.”

The snake embedded into Ash’s muscle. Spikes of pain caused her to cry out, and she regretted that small show of weakness.

“By your own hand the last sacrifice will be made, Ash the Destroyer, and in that act, you shall be destroyed. From your ashes, my queen shall be reborn.”

Hatred stabbed Ash with poisoned blades, but she couldn’t stop herself from raising the dagger clenched in her fist. She held it over the shaking body of her friend.

No!
Not Claire. Not anybody. She thought of Nor, his life in her hands. And Jarod. He was her mate. She’d finally found love, and now, with a demon controlling her will, she would lose everything.

Pain radiated down her arm and throbbed in her shoulder, up her neck, right into her jaw.

“Natasha,” Claire said, her voice heavy. Her eyes closed. She whispered,“Where’s Henry?”

The darkness slithered inside Ash, and she knew it was only a fraction of the horror Lilith would unleash.

Ash used every ounce of her will to keep from plunging the blade into her friend’s heart. A difficult feat when everything inside her screamed to
kill the sacrifice
.

Ash struggled to regain control. She focused completely on her hand and arm, forcing her straining muscles away from Claire. It took a herculean effort to place the poisoned dagger against her own throat.

Time to end Lilith once and for all.

“
N
O
!” JAROD GRABBED
her wrist, but not even his animal strength could wrest the blade from her grip. “I won’t lose you.”

“It’s the only way,” Ash huffed. “If she completely possesses me, it’ll be over. For everyone.”

“Then fight, damn it.” He held on tightly. “Use my energy, my strength. You can defeat her.”

Ash took shuddering breaths. She accepted the power Jarod gave her, flowing silver light that fortified her, calmed her.

Inhaling a deep breath,
Ash closed her eyes and delved into her psychic core. The hundreds of souls she’d consumed over the years appeared as long strands of pulsating color that twirled around, an endless rainbow of essences. Lilith’s slimy evil darkness swirled among those colors, a tattered black ribbon that oozed poison.

Ash wasn’t sure what to do. How was she supposed to fight a demon? True demons had no souls. Lilith could eat the ones here like Skittles to gain power and strength.

No. Ash had to conquer Lilith from within. She hadn’t sacrificed Claire, so Lilith’s hold wasn’t finite. She psychically reached for the black ribbon, shuddering as liquid hate soaked her.

Lilith’s essence clung to her like thick grease, and Ash found it difficult to get purchase. While she slipped and faltered, Lilith clung more tightly, digging spiky tendrils into Ash’s very heart.
Kill Claire. Kill Claire. Kill Claire.
The impulse felt insurmountable.

“Get her out of here,” Ash screamed, hoping someone, anyone would take Claire from her sight. She couldn’t fight Lilith while she fought the urge to murder her friend.

You can do this, Natasha,
a different voice said. Jarod’s voice.
Fight, babe. Fight.

She’d heard of mate bonds giving couple the ability to communicate through telepathy, and Jarod’s voice loving voice helped her drown out the homicidal one. Emboldened by Jarod’s courage, she grabbed onto Lilith’s ugly presence.

For a moment, Ash felt the demon’s rage, the sociopathic urges to destroy everything within reach returned. She was heartless. Soulless. Chaotic energy with only one purpose: Annihilate. Ash might be the destroyer of souls, but Lilith was the destroyer of worlds.

Jarod’s magic bolstered her again. She focused on escaping the demon queen’s hold on her will. Silver joined her white and blue magic, and like pythons they surrounded Lilith’s essence and squeezed.

The blade fell from Ash’s fierce grip as the demon raged and struggled. She held on tightly, Jarod working as one with her, until they’d completely smote the evil that had been named Lilith.

The inky blackness inside her exploded.

Searing pain slashed through Ash, ripping a scream from throat.

Ash fell to her knees, and Jarod was there, to hold her up.

Two beams of silvery-blue light shot out from Ash’s eyes, and encompassed Lilith’s demon henchman. Patrick and Lorcan wisely let go and stepped away, backing as far into the shadows as they could.

The demon screamed like a feral animal, unable to break free of Ash and Jarod’s combined magic.

The creature glared at her, his red eyes dimming as his life was drained. His body twitched. Black blood dribbled from his nose and mouth.

His eyes went glassy, and his body convulsed one last time.

Ash collapsed and Jarod caught her.

“Natasha?”

She inhaled a shaky breath. “I feel like Nor tap-danced on me in spiked heels.”

Jarod laughed, and kissed her. Ash had never felt so drained or exhausted.

Or loved.

“What happened to Lilith?” asked Lorcan.

“She’s gone.”

“Back t’ hell then?” Patrick’s silver gaze pinned hers.

“No,” said Ash. “She is no more.”

“That’s impossible,” Lorcan said. “Demons can’t be killed.”

“They can now.” When Jarod’s power had intertwined with her own, much as their fingers had, she’d been able to do what had, in the past, been an impossibility.

At that moment, as if to add emphasis to her new ability, the creature’s corpse dissolved into sulfuric black powder.

“How’s Claire?” she asked in a hoarse voice. She knew she’d pass out any minute, and probably sleep for a week.

Patrick and Lorcan checked on the human woman. “I’m sorry, Ash,” said Patrick softly. “She’s dead.”

“How?” Ash hadn’t killed her friend like Lilith wanted, so how had Claire died?

Lorcan placed his hand on the woman’s chest. “The demon weakened her too much. I think her heart just gave out.”

“She wanted to see Henry,” said Ash. She said a silent good-bye to her old friend. “I hope he’s waiting for her.

Ash leaned on Jarod, allowing him to take her weight. Her burden. “Please take care of her,” she whispered. She looked at Jarod, at the love and compassion shining in his eyes. “I’m gonna pass out now.”

And she did.

S
omewhere on the other side
…

CLAIRE AWOKE IN
a daze. The first thing she noticed was that she could see color. The glory of the green-leafed trees pitched against the cloudless blue sky dazzled her. Somehow, she’d gone from that dismal crypt to sitting on a wooden bench wearing her favorite yellow sundress and strappy sandals.

“Claire?”

She turned and saw Henry walking toward her. Behind him, she saw a well-worn path that led to the gleaming city in the distance.

With a cry of happiness, she leapt from the bench and threw herself into his arms. He hugged her tightly, and she wept, so thrilled to feel his embrace.

“Am I dreaming?” she asked.

“You died, Claire. You’re in the next world. I’ve been waiting for you.”

She took a moment to consider his words, and realized he spoke the truth. Relief was so palpable she could almost taste it. “How is this possible?”

“I had a little help from some friends.”

“Natasha?”

“Yes, and some other nice folks from a town called Broken Heart.”

She stared at the love of her life, memorizing every feature of his face from his chiseled jaw, the slight bump in his nose, the little scar that marked the left side of his chin, as if at any moment he’d suddenly be taken away again. “I missed you,” she said.

“I’m not going anywhere. This is our final destination, babe,” he said. “This is forever.”

“I couldn’t take it if I lost you again.”

“I have never left you, and I never will.”

Relief and unabashed happiness lightened Claire’s heart. “I love you, Henry.”

“And I you,” said Henry, his blue eyes twinkling and his familiar grin reassuring. He took her hand, and together they walked into eternity.