Demon Kissed: Book 2 of the Venandi Chronicles (An Urban Paranormal Romance Series)

by Sara Snow

  We watched in horror as the funnel took the form of a hideous demon with the leering horned head of a cow’s skull.

  “By all the seraphim of Heaven, I banish you to Hell, Bebal!” Jacob shouted.

  Bebal must have gotten stronger, because he didn’t even flinch this time. The invocation only made the demon laugh in that horrible, mocking howl that I’d heard back in the empty house.

  Georgia kicked and thrashed, her hair whipping around her face as she screamed in terror, but she couldn’t break free from Bebal’s grasp. The demon kings were back. Not dead, as Jacob had hoped, but stronger than ever, amped up on rage and hungry for revenge.

  29

  Georgia

  With every fiber of my being, I fought to break free. But the demon’s arms were wrapped around me like iron bands, and my strength was useless in that vortex of wind. As the funnel pulled us into the sky, I saw Carter, Jacob, and Olympia running down the street below. Carter stared up at me, his face a white mask of anger. He was shouting something that I couldn’t hear in the swirling chaos of the wind.

  I screamed back at him, begging him to help me, but the wind drowned my cries. Bebal’s heavy body bobbed on the currents of air. He wouldn’t be able to carry me very far. I looked wildly at the streets below us, trying to find a place where I could land safely if he dropped me.

  Somewhere I won’t crack my head open. Somewhere at least a little soft.

  We were closer to the ground now, skimming the tops of low buildings. I bucked and kicked, hoping I could set the demon off course and send us both tumbling onto a rooftop. There was still too much power in his grasp for me to break away, but Bebal had weakened enough for me to slip down in his arms. I bit into his bony wrist like a rabid dog.

  The demon howled. The pain made him loosen his grip. Just a little more, and I would be free to fall—maybe to safety, maybe to my death. At this point, I didn’t give a shit. I sank my teeth in deeper.

  Suddenly, I was torn out of Bebal’s arms and coasting toward the street. I turned to see what new monster from Hell had taken me.

  Kingston.

  Nothing had ever seemed so beautiful to me as that familiar face. As he held me in his arms, I could have wept with joy. His wings unfurled behind him like glorious, feathered sails. We floated down to the ground, close enough for my feet to skid over the asphalt.

  “Georgia! Kingston! Let’s go!” Carter and Jacob ran toward us. We had landed near the cemetery. Carter motioned for us to follow them through the gates. Jacob had his crossbow strapped on his back, and Carter held the flamethrower.

  Kingston released me, and I ran to Carter. He grabbed me and held me so tightly that I couldn’t breathe.

  “I saw that fucker carry you up into the sky, ” he said, his cheek pressed against mine, “and I thought I’d lost you for good. My heart stopped, and I have never been more scared in my life. I love you, Georgia. I think I always have, and I know I always will. ”

  “If you love me, let me have some air.” I laughed as I gasped for breath.

  Carter smiled down at me, but his dark eyes were serious. “No matter what happens tonight, promise me that you won’t forget what I told you in the church.”

  I shook my head and swallowed, finding it hard to speak. “I won’t. We’re together now.”

  “You’d better believe it.” Carter grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the cemetery gates. “I don’t know if a cemetery counts as a sacred place.”

  “It’s the closest thing we’re going to get,” Olympia panted, catching up to us. “Come on!”

  She took hold of my other hand, and the two of them pulled me into the cemetery. The wind lashed the evergreen shrubs and sent clouds of dust and debris flying across the landscape. The cemetery was huge, with rows of statues and tombstones for us to hide behind.

  And plenty of space to fight. Because that’s what Bebal and Abalam want—to demolish us.

  Inside the gates, Jacob and his father were laughing and embracing as if they hadn’t seen each other in months. I wondered how Kingston had known where to find us, how he had swooped in to pull me away from Bebal at exactly the right moment. His wings had disappeared, and he was the same fatherly man I remembered from the warehouse.

  “About time you showed up!” Carter yelled at his old friend. “Where were you and Eli? I must have called a thousand times.”

  “We weren’t getting calls. I assumed it was Paimon and his crew interfering, but we couldn’t do anything about it,” Kingston shouted back, his voice almost drowned by the wind. “Finally, I just left to find you. Jose helped me track you down.”

  “Come on, guys, we need to get out of the open,” Jacob urged.

  We ran with him to a more secluded area of the cemetery where older tombstones offered shelter. By now, I had no illusions about the graveyard being a demon-free zone. The whole “sanctified space” thing hadn’t worked with the church, and it wasn’t going to work now.

  As we crouched down behind a long shrub, I could already hear heavy footsteps thundering across the grass and the angry grunts of our pursuers. My skin prickled, and my heartbeat accelerated. Wedged between Carter and Kingston, I would have felt safe if I hadn’t known what was coming. Olympia and Jacob huddled next to us.

  I can’t fuck up this time. I can’t let them down.

  “Kingston, do you think you can banish them?” Carter asked in a low voice.

  “I’ll do my best, but my powers have been failing with the Tenebris,” Kingston whispered back.

  Jacob leaned forward. “I haven’t been able to banish them either, Dad.”

  “Well, if neither of us can banish them, then they must be getting too strong,” Kingston muttered. “I knew that would happen when they had enough of their legions here on Earth. It’s not enough to banish them—we have to destroy them.”

  Jacob reached over to clasp his father’s shoulder. “We’ll fight with everything we’ve got.”

  Carter turned to me and squeezed my sweaty hand. “When Bebal and Abalam come at us, I want you to set them on fire. We won’t use the weapons unless we have to. Olympia, I want you to use every chant you can think of to protect us.”

  “It’s not just Bebal and Abalam this time,” Olympia warned. “They’ve brought friends.”

  She was right. Lumbering legions of demons rushed toward us from all sides. I closed my eyes, focused on the flame inside my mind, and blasted them. Streams of fire caught the front runners, turning them into screeching fireballs. But there were too many of them for my fire to reach, and soon we were surrounded by monsters on the land and sky.

  Bebal and Abalam were nowhere in sight. We were going to have to fight the hordes first.

  “Let’s go,” Carter urged. He handed me his knife. “Stay back if you can. Focus on using your fire.”

  “I’ve never had to blast a whole freaking army,” I protested. “I don’t know if I can.”

  “Right now, you don’t have a choice,” Carter said.

  Then, they were on us. The battle was a blur of wings and limbs and claws, with flying streams of fire from Carter’s flamethrower and the sound of Jacob’s arrows whizzing through the air. The night filled with fire and the screams of demons.

  I torched as many of the monsters as I could, shooting flames at any demon in the air or on land within my range. Their scorched bodies writhed among the tombstones and filled the air with the stench of burning flesh. The thundering footsteps and rolling fireballs must have woken all the dead in their graves. I half-expected to see their corpses rising from the ground, clawing their way out of the earth to see what the fuck was going on.

  Armed with his flamethrower, Carter had set another wave of demons ablaze. They staggered toward us in a wall of fire before falling in a burning heap. Jacob was wrestling with Abalam, holding him back from Bebal, who was fighting Kingston.

  Kingston and Bebal were both armed with swords. Bebal was gaining the upper hand. Kingston was fast with his weapon, but Bebal
was stronger and bigger, and Kingston’s ragged breaths mingled with the sounds of clashing blades. As the hordes of minions fell, the battle focused on Kingston and Bebal, Jacob and Abalam.

  Carter threw down his flamethrower and ran to help Jacob. He jumped on Abalam’s back, stabbing the demon with his knife. Abalam wheeled around to attack Carter, and Jacob ran to his father. Before Jacob could reach them, I aimed my fire at Bebal. Watching the flames engulf his horned skull, I felt a rush of vengeful joy.

  Burn, fucker. First Paimon, now you—then I’ll torch Abalam, and you’ll all be dead.

  But I was too late. Streaming fire, Bebal thrust his sword into Kingston’s gut. The blade made a sickening sound as Bebal pulled the sword from Kingston’s body. Bebal fell back on the grass, rolling around to try to extinguish the flames. Kingston collapsed, clutching his abdomen. Jacob tore off his jacket and pressed it against the wound, but it wasn’t enough to staunch the bleeding.

  Abalam had shoved Carter into a gravestone, and I heard Carter’s skull hit the marble with a thud. Carter clutched his head as Abalam lumbered towards him with a stake held in his taloned hand. Carter clambered to his feet and wielded his knife at Abalam.

  I was torn. Carter needed my help, but Kingston was severely wounded.

  I focused my power on Abalam. Flame streamed toward him, setting his ugly head and broad shoulders on fire. Carter steadied himself as Abalam, engulfed in flames, writhed on the grass. Carter was still holding his head, but I didn’t see any bleeding.

  “Carter! Kington’s hurt—bad!” I shouted.

  Carter turned at the sound of my voice. I motioned for him to follow me, then I ran to Kingston. His face had gone white, and his eyes rolled back in his head, eyelids fluttering. Jacob’s hands were dark with the blood that poured from his father’s wound, soaking the jacket.

  Jacob held his father in his arms.

  “Hold on, Dad! Hold on!” he sobbed.

  Kingston took one last agonized breath, and then he was gone.

  30

  Georgia

  I sank down next to Jacob and took Kingston’s hand. It was limp; his skin already going cool. A pool of blood had formed around his body. I squeezed Kingston’s hand as hard as I could, but I knew he wouldn’t respond. Tears blurred my view of his face. I cried along with Jacob—there was nothing else we could do.

  We sat in silence as the last traces of life left Kingston’s body.

  “He was the closest thing I ever had to a father,” I told Jacob. “I loved him.”

  Jacob nodded. He tried to speak, but he struggled to form words. “He was counting on us. He thought he could be a real angel again if we saved the world.”

  “We tried,” I said. “We did all we could.”

  But it wasn’t enough.

  Who would lead the team now? Carter was the next in line, but Jacob was Kingston’s son. Now, with Kingston dead, he might decide he wanted to take over, leaving Carter as second in command.

  Carter wouldn’t buy that—he’d never be second to Jacob.

  Where was Carter? I looked around, realizing that he hadn’t followed me. Now the demon and Carter were nowhere in sight.

  Bebal’s scorched body had vanished, too.

  Where the hell did they all go? Bebal should be charred meat by now.

  Panic clutched me by the throat. I stood up, but I couldn’t see anything in the darkened cemetery but the forms of tombstones and shrubbery.

  “Carter!” I shouted. “Carter?”

  No response.

  In the distance, I heard a woman’s screams. “Georgia! Where are you?”

  It was Olympia. The witch’s face was streaked with smoke, and her hair flew wildly behind her as she ran to meet me. Her eyes glittered, wide with terror.

  “Carter’s gone!” she cried. “They took him!” She was hysterical—her words garbled.

  I held her by the shoulders and shook her, trying to bring her back to reality.

  “Who took him? Where?”

  “Puh . . . Puh . . . They said it was Paimon.”

  My blood went cold. “Paimon?”

  She moaned and nodded.

  “Take a deep breath, Olympia.” I was trying to sound calm, but inside, I felt as hysterical as she was. “I set Paimon on fire, remember?”

  Olympia drew in a deep breath, then let it go.

  “I know you set him on fire, but you didn’t kill him. After you went to Kingston, I ran over to check on Carter. He was dizzy from hitting his head on the tombstone. I tried to help him with a healing spell, but another demon showed up, shoved me to the ground, and dragged him away. I ran after them, but I couldn’t catch up. When they got to the street, I saw the demon throw a hood over Carter’s head. Then he tied up his wrists and shoved him inside.”

  “But how did that happen? Carter’s strong. Didn’t he even try to fight?”

  Olympia hung her head and began to sob.

  “He struggled, Georgia, but he didn’t have the strength to escape. He was woozy from hitting his head.”

  Guilt flooded my mind. I should never have left Carter after he hit his head. If I hadn’t run to Kingston, I would have been with Carter when the demon attacked, and I could have set the bastard on fire. Then, Carter would be with us now, telling us both to calm down.

  “I ran to the car as they were taking him away,” she continued. “I screamed at them to let him go, to tell me where they were taking him. The demon behind the wheel laughed at me. He said that Paimon would tell us everything when he was ready.”

  Bebal and Abalam had disappeared. Carter was nowhere to be found. But Paimon—he had gone up in flames. I had seen him burning. How could he have survived?

  “They kidnapped him, Georgia. Carter’s been kidnapped!”

  My heart plunged to the pit of my stomach. If Paimon was still alive and Carter had been kidnapped, what would the Tenebris demand as a ransom?

  There was only one of us they wanted—me.

  The Venandi Chronicles Continue…

  Demon Huntress (Book 3 The Venandi Chronicles) (A Paranormal New Adult Romance Series)

  Demon Huntress (Book 3)

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  Just when Carter and I finally get back together, he gets kidnapped by demons.

  Just my luck.

  Oh yeah, did I mention they’re holding him for ransom—and I’m the ransom.

  Yep, the head honcho demon is my father, Paimon, and Daddy Dearest will stop at nothing to get his hands on me and my powers.

  If I surrender to his demands and join the demon side, I give Paimon EVERYTHING he needs to carry out his evil master plan for demons to rule the human world.

  If I refuse…

  I sentence the man I am falling for to torture and death.

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  Also By Sara Snow

  The Venandi Chronicles

  Demon Marked (Book 1)

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  Demon Kiss (Book 2)

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  Demon Huntress (Book 3)

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  Demon Desire (Book 4)

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  The Destine Universe

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  Axel

  I’m next in line to be ALPHA

  …and I’m ready for the challenge.

  Focused and determined to make my father proud, I won’t let anything get in my way.

  Until the day I met HER…

  She’s a drop-dead gorgeous blonde with eyes like an aquamarine gem...and she’s a witch.

  But I’m a werewolf.

  And some unions are FORBIDDEN…

  That little witch has turned my world upside down.

  All love comes at a cost.

  But this love may cost me everything…