Shattered Dawn (Fallen Guardians Book 5)

by Georgia Lyn Hunter

  “So many demons guard this place, and I feel the wards, so where the heck is the entryway?” Ely muttered, lowering her hands from the rough surface and flexing her fingers.

  The hellhound butted its enormous head against Shadow’s shoulder. She gave the beast a rub on its huge muzzle and seamlessly dematerialized, searching the rest of the underground for another way into the lair.

  Hours later, she coasted back to the three intersecting tunnels and reformed. The hellhound chuffed and gently batted her arm once more. Pithius. Go.

  Then she understood. Pithius. Its name.

  Her throat still too raw, she simply touched the lupine face.

  Its fiery eyes remained fixed on her for a moment, then it dissipated into black smog and vanished.

  “That creature does seem to like you,” Ely said, coming closer now. “Tearing that demon apart.”

  Shadow didn’t respond as she bypassed the familiar stinky tunnels. The odor of sewer so strong, it made her eyes water, and bile rushed up her throat. As she approached The Refuge, all appeared quiet, the homeless asleep.

  In the basement she’d once called home, Shadow stepped into her place through the broken entrance, the door hanging by one hinge. Nothing had remained of her things or Eddi’s. She didn’t care. She lowered to the dirty floor and leaned against the grimy wall, staring at the other side of the room. Memories of Nik sitting there, watching her, and of her taunting him after she’d brought him down, and then him kissing her filled her thoughts.

  Now he was gone.

  She’d never see him again.

  Never feel his arms around her.

  Never see that wicked light in his eyes or hear his tormenting teasing. Or taste his heated kisses.

  Cracks splintered her numbed heart, pain sweeping through her in a tidal wave. Tears fell. She drew her knees up, lowered her head, and sobbed for her dead love.

  “Shadow?” Ely said softly, her fingers gently sweeping her short damp hair away from her face. “I know nothing I say will bring him back. But I’m so sorry, and I’m here for you, for anything you need.”

  She looked up at the blurry image of Ely kneeling in front of her, her dark eyes wet with tears. “H-he left me behind,” she hiccupped. “We were one, and h-he left me behind. What’s the point in soul joining, when he left me behind with all this grief?”

  “I don’t know why he did that. Maybe he didn’t want you leaving your brother alone?”

  When her heart was shattering, anguish embedding every inch of her, she wasn’t thinking of the living. She simply shook her head.

  “C’mon, let’s go home,” Ely coaxed.

  “Nik was my home.”

  “It’s dangerous out here, Shadow.”

  “I’m not leaving until I find the bastard.” Her fingers tightened on her obsidian dagger, her glowing skin back to its pale coloring. She reached for her cell in her jeans pocket, but it wasn’t there. “Can I borrow your phone,” she asked Ely, then shook her head. If she spoke to her brother now, he would demand to join her. She didn’t want him in the hellscum’s sight. “Tell Liam, I’m…I’m…I’ll see him when I’m done.” Killing the bastard.

  After a second, Ely nodded. “All right.”

  Shadow rubbed her burning eyes. “You should leave. That demon has a weapon that can kill immortals.”

  “No—”

  “He won’t kill me.” Her expression hardened. “He wants me for my powers. The puny human he thinks he can control.”

  “Shadow, that’s not what I saw. You half-morphed. You have wings.”

  Shadow blinked in bewilderment. Then she remembered the weights on her back. “Oh…” She shrugged. “Some demons have them. It must be because of their blood in me.”

  Ely’s eyebrows pulled down in puzzlement. “I admit I haven’t seen many kinds of demons, and none with wings, but yours are beautiful. The way they shimmer. And I’m not leaving you alone.”

  Shadow inhaled a shuddering breath, cast Ely a dull look, then lowered her gaze back to her bloodied hands and squeezed her eyes shut. Her head hurt. Her heart had fractured into so many pieces, she doubted it would ever heal.

  How do I go on without you, Nik?

  I’m broken.

  Chapter 31

  The days passed with no sign of the bastard scum, Mammon. Everything remained in a haze for Shadow. Only vengeance drove her as she and Ely tramped through the underground tunnels, looking for something, anything that signaled a gateway to his lair.

  It was all she could focus on. The hunt.

  Or else she would disappear in a puddle of tears, drowning in her grief for her dead mate.

  The Guardians showed up every day, checking on her, even at night. But no one tried to force her to return to the castle, either. Only Ely stayed with her twenty-four seven.

  Shadow rubbed her damp palms down her threadbare jeans hanging low on her hips. She’d found her old clothes and scuffed boots stashed where she’d left them for emergencies—in a plastic bag in the ceiling of the dingy washroom.

  She hunched her shoulders, the damp getting to her, and her symbionts were throbbing again.

  “You haven’t eaten anything since yesterday,” Ely said from her side. “I’ll go get food. I won’t be long.”

  She remained silent. Ely had brought her food she had no interest in, not when revenge was in every breath she took.

  With a soft sigh, Ely dematerialized.

  Shadow reached for her obsidian blade in her boots, palming the dagger, seeking its solidness and the retribution it would deliver. She continued trudging the putrid smelling tunnels.

  Moments later, she slowed, the plinking of dripping water echoing in the stillness. An icy sensation crawled down her spine. Shadow narrowed her eyes. At the utter malevolence and dark power enclosing her—the stench of sulfur so strong—she coughed to clear her throat. She stumbled back, the air in front agitating, and an enormous smoky shape took corporeal form, the demon’s head almost touching the underground ceiling.

  The familiar smell of moldy spice and bile-churning sulfur warned her who it was even in his demonic form. Sporting leathery skin darker than night with horns curled back from his bald head and ears excavated into the side of his skull, the terrifying demon trotted closer on cloven hooves.

  Was that meant to terrify her into submission?

  Shadow didn’t move.

  Anemic yellow eyes fixed on her with avarice. In a blink, the demon she hunted resumed his pale skin and red-head humanoid form, the deadly black-edged silver sword in hand. An enormous hellhound prowled at his side.

  She cut Pithius a cold look. The creature growled, baring its fangs.

  “You’ve met my newest pet?” Mammon stroked the beast’s flank. “I can’t have a creature like him tied to you. Strange, considering these mindless things never form attachments. Come, my beauty, let us leave this infernal place.”

  When Shadow said nothing, he drawled, “Don’t worry, you’ll forget him once you’re gone from here.”

  “You stabbed him in the back!”

  He shrugged. “When I found out the worse threat wasn’t the slippery, half-breed sitecore I hunted for the last five years who stole my symbionts, but a Guardian of this realm who’d actually mated you? Well, I couldn’t have that. He had to die.” He lifted the deadly sword as if to remind her exactly what that weapon was. “Now let’s go.”

  Rage buzzing in her skull, Shadow slowly crossed to the murdering bastard. He reached for her. Snarling like a wild animal, she leaped up and plunged her dagger into his chest.

  With an ear-splitting roar, Mammon reared back, eyes gone completely black. “You need to be taught a lesson for stabbing me in the first fight, which still hasn’t healed, and now this.” Red flames flared in his eyes as he muttered several strange words in an eerie, chilling tone, like some dark chant.

  The hellhound leaped forward.

  Shadow stumbled back.

  “Pithius, veni!” she yelled, hoping Pith
ius would come to her, instead of attacking.

  Its huge body sailed through the air, slamming into her, knocking the breath out of her, and taking her down. Ribs cracked, punching her in the lungs. The hellhound’s mouthful of razor-sharp fangs clamped down on her shoulder. Impossible agony streaked through her like fire.

  Mammon thin lips curled, pallid eyes blazing. “Never fight me, human. You won’t succeed.”

  No, dammit! Teeth gritted, her chest screaming with pain, Shadow flung out her other hand, hitting the hellhound on the side of its massive chest, struggling to push the creature off her. Her symbionts latched on.

  A jolt of sheer malevolence swept through her like she’d been tasered in the soul. She cried out as the beast’s fangs sank deeper, anguish stealing her voice. Her fingers clenched the hound’s pelt. Her breath rattled in her throat, a coppery taste flooding her mouth. Another snarl ricocheted as oblivion hovered.

  “Maybe you’ll think twice before your next move, human,” Mammon snapped. “Bring her.”

  Shadow shut her eyes. She might as well die at the hellhound’s jaw instead of becoming a toy for the bastard demon to use. At least death would come fast. But despair took hold that she couldn’t avenge her dead mate.

  I’m so sorry, my love. I tried to avenge you…

  The hound’s jaw slackened.

  Pithius thanksss, a guttural voice seeped through the darkness crowding her mind. Spell broke… It gently batted her cheek with its furry face and sulfuric breath. A hot, wet tongue licked her wound. More pain burrowed through her. Shadow forced her eyelids open, connecting with fiery coal eyes.

  Help me, Pithius…kill him…

  Through her dimming sight, the hellhound turned and seemed to grow even larger. Taller. The row of spikes around its neck rising. With a menacing snarl, it leaped in a black blur, snatching Mammon’s arm in its deadly maw. It tossed back its enormous head in a dizzying shake. The demon’s snarl reverberated in the empty tunnels as his body fell in a thud to the asphalt. His arm in the hound’s mouth.

  The dank air agitated as familiar figures—the Guardians—took form. Power rushed through the place, and it hurt her like knives flaying her skin.

  “We have you…” a familiar male voice said. Aethan. Then warmth coasted through her injured shoulder.

  “Urias! I’m so sorry—” Ely clutched her hand. “I was only gone for a few minutes—I shouldn’t have left—”

  “Dammit,” Aethan snapped. “My abilities aren’t gonna heal this. Someone get the Oracle, I’m taking her to the castle!”

  “No…” she whispered, lifting a limp hand to stop him, but it fell halfway. “Have to…see him…destroyed.”

  Aethan cursed.

  Her blurred sight remained fixed on the hound and demon. Mammon’s form morphed between his humanoid and demonic one, the latter barrel-shaped, scaly skin, and horned. His arm restored.

  The warriors spread out, watching the demon and hellhound fight, their weapons braced.

  With a menacing snarl, Mammon somehow broke free of the hellhound’s fangs and flashed up, hovering above the battleground. A wave of black power flew out of him toward her. The Guardians dashed in front of her, shielding her just as a terrifying growl erupted. Pithius leaped up in a dizzying flash, taking the hit. A snarl ricocheted like thunder crashing, and the hound collided into the granite wall, letting out a whimper.

  Mammon laughed, bracing the killing sword, watching the Guardians who circled him.

  Nooo! The cry jammed in her throat.

  Adrenaline bursting free, Shadow shot up from her earthly body in a wraithlike slingshot, her otherworldly form slamming straight into Mammon’s hovering humanoid body and coming out the other side with his bloody, flesh-pumping organ in her ghostly hand.

  Shocked curses rang out.

  Pithius leaped at the screeching demon, taking him down. Its giant maw snapped over Mammon’s head, deadly fangs sinking deep into flesh. Blood spurted like a burst geyser. Shadow squeezed the beating heart, the thing turning to ash and spilling free from her fingers. Dust scattered. The hound shook the Mammon’s body at breakneck speed, and his head separated from his neck. A dark swirling energy slid out of the slain body.

  The head fell from the hound’s mouth. Pithius leaped forward, caught, and devoured the demon’s vile soul.

  One of the warriors flashed over and picked up the deadly sword from the ground.

  Shadow let the tug on her psyche pull her back, and her ethereal self settled back into her broken body on the ground, agony swamping her once more.

  I’ve avenged you, my love. Now, I’ll find you.

  With a rasping breath, she shut her eyes and finally let oblivion claim her…

  Chapter 32

  Agony rushed through Shadow, ensnaring her in its claws, trapping her in darkness…

  Blood, so much blood covered her hands, her clothes—

  Nik! she screamed, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t get to where he lay bleeding from his mortal wound.

  Something held her body down like thick, invisible ropes.

  “I love you, i kardiá mou,” his voice seeped into her mind, and she tried to hold on to him.

  A white light flashed, blinding her, and Nik vanished.

  Nooo! “Don’t leave me behind…”

  “Shh…” Warm fingers held hers. “Jaden’s gonna get you better, Shadow.”

  No, not them! She didn’t want them. Only Nik.

  With her burning eyes glued together like an envelope bearing a seal of wax, her mind remained adrift in grief.

  “Will she come out of it?” the same voice as before asked quietly.

  “The fight in her is gone,” another woman answered. “I’ll do what I can to aid her back to the living. Whether it will work, I don’t know. This was a soul-bond broken, one her mate severed. It is hard to ever come back from that…”

  A soft, melodious chant started, sweeping through Shadow’s anguished mind. The pull of the strange words was strong enough to bring her back from the pain in her soul, and into the beckoning darkness promising eternal relief from her grief. The song in that beautiful voice slowly lulled her into a deep sleep…

  An incessant rustling against the window finally dragged Shadow from the void that submerged her into nothingness. She opened her burning eyes to stare blankly at the dismal weather as rain continued to beat against the panes.

  “Hey…” Kira said softly, getting up from the chair opposite the bed. She set the book she’d been reading on the seat and hurried over.

  “Wh-what happened?” she rasped. Her throat hurt, and her voice felt as if she hadn’t used it in months. Vague memories of lapsing in and out of consciousness stirred.

  “You don’t remember?” Kira lowered to the side of the bed, hazel eyes dark with worry.

  Shadow frowned, trying to claw through the fog in her mind. Gingerly, she lifted her shoulders to shrug—

  And it all came crashing back. The demon swinging the sword at her mate. Nik’s last moments as his eyes shut forever—

  “Nik…” Her sob broke free, agony consuming her like the sharp edges of a blade slicing through her sternum. Tears fell.

  Her stomach churned. Bile hurtled up her throat. Shadow shoved the bedcovers aside and stumbled across the floor, through the dressing room, and into the bathroom. She fell to her knees at the toilet and vomited. Despite her violent retching, nothing came out.

  She moaned, shutting her swollen eyes. A damp towel wiped her clammy face. Then an arm slipped around her, a glass pressing to her mouth. “Drink this.”

  Shadow sipped some of the cool water, then pushed the tumbler away.

  “Liam visits you often, spends most of his time here actually,” Kira said as she helped her up and back to bed. “He’ll be relieved to know you’re up.”

  Even hearing about her beloved brother didn’t stir her to speak again. Shadow curled into herself, anguished tears slipping free, soaking her pillow.

  The mattres
s dipped. Kira lay down behind her and held her in a warm embrace. She didn’t say anything, just held her. For how long? Shadow had no idea as sleep finally claimed her…

  The soft flame of a candle flickered in the corner of the gloomy room as Shadow stirred awake from eternal blackness to mind-numbing anguish once more. Even breathing hurt at the harsh reality of another day to endure without him. Her heart continued to beat in her hollow chest, each thud an agonizing reverberation of pain fragmenting her entire being over and over.

  Shadow shut her swollen eyes and pressed her trembling lips together, yet her hand strayed to the other side of the bed, searching…

  The emptiness there corroded her heart at the harsh reality of having to endure a life without him.

  She lay huddled beneath the thick covers. But nothing could warm her. Not anymore. Even her retribution at finally killing Mammon didn’t ease her agony because it didn’t bring Nik back.

  He was her sun.

  Her light.

  He’d shown her the dawning of an amazing love, only to have destiny snatch it and shatter her apart.

  Chapter 33

  “What the hell is that creature doing?” a distant male voice tugged Shadow to the living yet again. “It’s destroying the damn gardens…”

  A faint whine coasted to her.

  Shadow shut her dry eyes, blocking out the dimly lit room, blocking out everything. Too weak to move, she lay there. But awake now, she paid the price of remembering again.

  She never realized that horrid day would be their last hug, their last kiss. Or, that she’d never hear his voice again, see his quiet smile. A smile she wanted a million more of before they both took their last breath.

  Her eyes burned. She pressed her fist to her hurting breastbone and curled into herself beneath the covers. Not even the piercing throb in her chest at her symbionts gnawing need for feeding made her get up. As their strength waned, so did hers. Weakness swamped her.