I’d been around demons long enough to recognize the word attack. The hounds howled as they bounded across the dead and raced toward the horsemen. Raphael took to the sky as Caim transformed from his raven form and streaked after him. A wave of golden light erupted from Raphael’s hand and hit two of the angels. They shrieked as their bodies exploded.
One of the drakóns turned and flew straight at the other one. A hush descended as for a second, every eye latched onto the two powerful beasts and the angels swarming like gnats around them. I was sure they were going to crash into each other, but then the drakón released a wave of fire and torched some of the angels harassing its mate.
When the flame receded, only the ashes of the angels remained as they spiraled to the earth. The remaining angels tried to scatter, but the drakón swallowed them while the other, free of its gnats, dove at the angels trying to flee the first drakón.
The hounds broke free of the bodies littering the field and rushed toward the horsemen. Lust turned her horse and raced back toward the woods. One of the hounds seized the leg of an extremely thin horseman and ripped him off his underweight mount. The horseman wailed, and his hands flailed as the hounds pounced.
Apparently, the hounds weren’t affected by the power of the horsemen as black blood sprayed and they tore the man to pieces. The horseman’s horse burst into ashes when the hounds succeeded in destroying its rider.
Another horseman screamed as the hounds snapped at his heels. When he tried to turn his overweight horse to flee, the hounds latched onto its thick legs and brought the animal down. I didn’t see what happened after as more lower-level demons reached us.
I cut off the head of one before taking out the next. Beside me, Aisling moved with elegant grace as she battled our enemies. I saw her exhaustion in the circles under her eyes and the paleness of her face, but she still fought like the battle was just beginning.
On the other side, Vargas swung a battle ax into the head of another demon. I had no idea why Erin was with the women and children; she was one of our best fighters, but I was glad she wasn’t here. Even with as good a soldier as she was, if she’d been here, she might not have survived.
I lunged forward and sank my sword into another demon before pulling the blade free. I lifted my sword to deliver the killing blow when Aisling screamed, “Hawk, watch out!”
I was so focused on the demon that I didn’t see the streak of black coming at me until the angel was only feet in front of me. I swung the sword down to deter the bastard, but all I succeeded in doing was driving the hilt into his spine as he smashed into my chest.
Lifted off my feet, I flew ten feet through the air before landing on a mound of bodies. The impact bruised my chest bone, and my lungs protested when I tried to breathe. Bracing my hands on the dead, I pushed myself up but didn’t get far before the angel hit me again.
Black eyes filled my vision as fingers hooked into my shirt and yanked me up. His arm was pulled back in a blow that would knock my head off my shoulders. Before he hit me, I swung my head forward and rammed my forehead into his nose. Blood burst over me when the angel’s nose shattered, and he released a gurgled shout as the hand meant to hit me grasped his nose instead.
Rage filled the bastard’s eyes as his face contorted. I swung a fist into his chin, but the bastard barely flinched before gripping my head. I clawed at his hands as I thrashed to break free of his grasp before he tore my head off. My efforts were useless against him as his eyes shone with bloodthirsty glee.
A sword swung out and buried itself in the side of the angel’s neck before getting stuck. Aisling planted her foot against the angel’s ribs and worked to free the sword as his hands grasped at the blade.
Blood spilled free, but he didn’t release the sword as he pulled it free of his body and shoved it at her. The movement caused Aisling to stumble back a few steps; she regained her balance and lifted the sword. The angel’s head bobbed as he turned toward her, but I gripped his bat-like wing and jerked him back when he lunged at her.
With a fury-filled scream, Aisling swung the sword down again. The angel’s head rolled away before stopping with his black eyes turned toward us and his mouth parted. Aisling lowered her sword and wiped at the blood and dirt streaking her face as she gazed at the angel’s wings. They pointed into the air before they released their rigid position and slumped to the ground.
“Are you okay?” Aisling asked me.
“Yes.”
I pushed myself to my feet in time to see the remaining horsemen retreating into the small section of woods that still wasn’t on fire. As the last horseman vanished into the trees, the flames rolled over to consume what remained of the woods. Even if we got a group together to follow them right now, we wouldn’t be able to get through the fire. But I would hunt them down if it was the last thing I did.
It was time to end this.
Unable to stop myself from touching her, I rested my hand on Aisling’s arm. She stiffened for a second before relaxing into my touch. Her exhaustion beat against me, but she stood proudly amid the rubble as she lifted her sword again.
Some of the craetons tried to follow the horsemen as they raced toward the woods, but the hounds took many of them down, and the fire pushed back the others. They ran parallel to the flames until they found an opening and vanished into the smoldering forest.
In the sky, the drakón still battled the angels, but only a dozen of the black-winged bastards remained as Raphael, Caim, and the drakón worked their way through what remained of them. An angel I recognized as Astaroth, thanks to his bloodred hair, rose into the sky as another version of him flew low over the land. Caim once said the angel who had risen to take Lucifer’s place could astral project, and I realized he’d split himself in two to avoid death.
The drakón closed its jaws over one of the angels while the other streaked toward the billowing smoke. Before it could vanish into the smoke, the other drakón plunged out of the sky and crashed into an angel, knocking him aside.
Two more versions of him materialized. One of them flew toward the woods while the other raced toward the angel the drakón hit. Before the two angels could get close to each other, Caim swooped down and grabbed the shoulders of one. He lifted it high into the air as Raphael unleashed a bolt of power straight into Astaroth’s chest.
Astaroth screamed as his body bowed and his wings unfurled behind him. His legs kicked in the air as if he were trying to run, but there was nowhere for him to go as the golden light illuminated him from the inside out before erupting from his mouth.
And then he exploded into ashes that poured over the land as the angel in Caim’s hands vanished. Silence descended over the battlefield as everyone watched the ashes float through the air to settle on the dead. Caim and Raphael were the only angels who remained in the sky.
“The fallen angels have fallen,” I murmured.
“Could some of them have gotten away or never come out of the woods?” Aisling asked.
“They could have,” I said. “But if any of them do remain, it’s not many.”
Gazing at the bodies littering the field, I tried to count the wings I saw amid them, but it was too difficult, and there was no way to know how many angels the drakón ate. Raphael and Caim landed on the field. They were so different from each other; one so fair and the other so dark, one a golden child and the other a fallen sinner, but they stood shoulder to shoulder as they gazed at the carnage surrounding them.
No matter how different they were, sorrow etched both their faces. Brothers and sisters, I recalled when Caim touched the wing of one of the angels. Raphael may deny they were his brothers and sisters, but he rested his hand against another fallen angel’s wing before pulling it away.
He said something, and Caim looked to him. Caim opened his mouth to respond before closing it, shaking his head, and looking toward the fallen angel again. Raphael reached for Caim before stopping so that his hand hovered between them. Then, he rested his hand on Caim’s shoulder,
squeezed it, and walked away.
Caim remained where he was before lowering his hand and turning to survey the dead. Then he followed Raphael across the field and toward the wall. He didn’t look at any of the other fallen angels, but I suspected he was aware of the location of each of them.
This time when I draped my arm around Aisling’s shoulders, she didn’t stiffen but leaned into me as we stood staring at the carnage surrounding us. It had been the longest and worst night of my life, but many of our enemies didn’t survive.
And soon we would hunt down what remained of the rest of them.
Chapter Eleven
Hawk
Kobal knelt to lift the edge of the green cloak draped around the shoulders of what remained of the horseman. “I’m guessing Envy.”
Rising from his crouched position, he strode over to the overweight horseman. Corson, Bale, Lix, Caim, Raphael, River, Vargas, Aisling, and I followed him. Kobal nudged one of the horseman’s thick legs with his boot.
“Gluttony,” he said. Moving on, he stopped beside the one who was so thin his cheekbones stood out against his pale skin. “Famine.”
The horsemen had once numbered eleven but were now down to six as we’d already taken out Greed and Sloth. Contrary to popular belief, there were eleven horsemen and not four, but years ago, humans separated the seven deadly sins and the four horsemen. However, they were all horsemen.
Lifting my head, I gazed at the dwindling fire and the burnt-out remnants of trees rising from the smoke. With little left to feed it, the fire was burning itself out, but a golden glow still burned deep in the woods and smoke coiled into the air.
“We have to track them,” Corson said. “Before they can recuperate and devise another plan of attack.”
“Yes,” Kobal said.
Kobal gazed at the carnage before studying the hundred or so survivors picking their way through the field. They pulled survivors from beneath the dead and gestured for the nearby medical personnel to bring over cots. Kobal had given orders to try to separate our dead the best they could, and when they finished, he planned to have the drakón torch whatever remained.
They’d removed two surviving enemies from the dead too. Kobal didn’t think the survivors would talk, but he planned to speak with them before destroying them. Most of the survivors were demons, but a few humans managed to make it out alive. More soldiers guarded the wall, but I guessed we’d lost nearly two-thirds of our fighters in the battle.
The hounds released a low, mournful howl. It took all I had not to wince as the melancholy sound carried across the field. “Were the dead hounds mated?” River asked.
“They both were,” Kobal said.
River glanced at the hounds before resting her hand on Kobal’s arm. He laced his fingers through hers and drew her closer. If both the hounds were mated, then that meant two more of them would die today. The hounds mated for life, and when one mate died, the other one did too. I didn’t know how that death would come, but I suspected they wouldn’t be here at sunset.
“With the fire, you can’t track the horsemen now. Get some rest and come to the hall in twelve hours,” Kobal said.
No one spoke as he lifted River and carried her across the field toward the hounds. The beasts parted as he set River down before kneeling beside the two hounds. The hounds sat on either side of him and rested their heads against his thighs while he rubbed their heads.
* * *
Aisling
I climbed out of the shower and stumbled out of the room before collapsing onto the bed ten feet away from the door. It had taken almost a half an hour of scrubbing my skin before the water stopped running red with blood. By then, there was no hot water left, but I’d grown accustomed to taking cold showers.
I should’ve left this place, but I didn’t have the energy to lift my head off the pillow, never mind trudge back up the hill to return to my tent. And there was a chance my tent wasn’t standing anymore. I had no idea whose house Hawk brought me to, and I didn’t care.
I didn’t care that I had no clothes to wear; I’d grown accustomed to being naked around others. In Virginia, when I first started living with the demons, I’d refused to shower naked in front of other demons like they did. Instead, I would return to my old house in town and visit with my friend Sandy before taking a shower in my old room.
After a couple of months, I realized, if I was going to embrace what I was now, then I had to accept everything about their culture. The first couple of times I showered naked in front of them, I spent the entire time with my cheeks burning and shielding my breasts.
Eventually, I realized no one was paying attention to me and relaxed enough to stop blushing. I would still hang out with Sandy a couple of times a week, but I stopped keeping my shower supplies at her house.
The scent of soap wafted to me seconds before the mattress sank. I cracked open an eye and discovered Hawk sitting on the edge of the bed with his gaze focused on the wall. His wet hair stood on end, his shoulders were still damp, and only a towel covered his waist. For some reason, I almost rested my hand on his leg.
Don’t be so human.
But you are a human, or at least you’re still part human.
When I first learned I was becoming an immortal demon, I didn’t exactly shout for joy. No, there were some definite “pity me” moments. I also spent a whole lot of time inspecting myself for horns and a tail, but thankfully, I never sprouted either.
I’d felt so lost in a world that was so regimented and certain the day before. I was one of many who volunteered to become a soldier and live at the wall where I learned the truth about demons coming to Earth. Every day I woke up knowing I would eat, train, be on guard duty, and sleep.
At the time, I was sort of dating a guy. He was super cute, one of the funniest people I’d ever met, but not that great in bed. The fact he made me laugh so hard I almost piss myself made up for him rarely getting me to the finish line.
Then, one day, I woke up and everything changed. I’d always seen the souls of others, but I’d never set my sheets on fire before. I didn’t even know how I activated it before flames were consuming my bed and Sandy was running in with a fire extinguisher. I stood, gawking at the mattress as Sandy doused it with white foam.
“What happened?” she demanded when the fire was out.
“I… I don’t know,” I stammered as I gazed from the fire extinguisher dangling from her hand to the bed and back again.
Sandy rested her hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay.”
But I didn’t know if it was okay or not as I lifted my hands to gaze at my palms.
“The fire came from you?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She set the extinguisher on the ground and grasped my hands. “You have to tell someone.”
I felt the blood rush from my head at the idea and rested my hand on the wall to keep from falling over. What would they do? Would this make me more of a freak? I could conceal the soul thing, and I did from most people, but how did I hide becoming an overnight flamethrower?
As much as I preferred to live in a world of denial, Sandy was right. However, I did manage to limp through that day in the land of denial. Having to sleep on the couch that night helped break through the barrier, but melting the coffee pot the next day solidified the knowledge I had to do something.
Before I could set the house on fire and accidentally kill Sandy or someone else, I requested a meeting with the commanding officer of our base. When he heard what I had to say, he brought in the demon leader. That was when I learned demons once walked the earth, and some found their Chosen with humans and had children with them.
Unable to return to Hell without their Chosen, those demons often chose to stay and perish on Earth. When the fallen angels entered Hell, demons were barred from walking the earth and all gateways out of Hell remained closed until the humans blew one open.
It was such an insane thing to think about, but one of those demons, from over six thousand year
s ago, created the line that would one day give birth to me.
The news had thrown my orderly world into a tailspin. I spent the next week in a fog as I tried not to set things on fire while settling into the knowledge of who I was now. Zanta was assigned to help me through the transition and to teach me about demon things. That was when I learned fire was the beginning of my changes. I was also faster, required less sleep, food, and water, and didn’t go to the bathroom as often.
During week two, and after I set the couch on fire, I decided to move in with the demons who had taken up residence in a large paddock behind what used to be a farmhouse. Sandy asked me to stay, but anxiety over what I might accidentally do next propelled me from the house. Once in my tent, I decided it was time to embrace what I was or spend an eternity wallowing in uncertainty.
It took a while, and three tents, before I learned to control my fire. During that time, many of the demons were patient with me, but my sort of boyfriend also found someone new, and who could blame him?
He hadn’t signed on for the “immortal demon who could sometimes burn things” aspect of a relationship. And what kind of relationship could it possibly be when he was growing older and I was going to look like a twenty-three-year-old forever?
Once I stopped feeling sorry for myself and grieving the things I’d lost, I decided to embrace the things I’d gained. I still stumbled along the way, and there were times when I contemplated running away and burying my head in the sand, but over time, I adjusted to the demon way of life.
But, no matter how well I fit in with the demons now, I was also part human and was raised as a human. I still had all the emotions that came with my humanity, but having feelings for a demon was an excellent way to get my heart broken.
Still, I couldn’t stop myself from resting my hand on Hawk’s thigh. His flesh was warm beneath my palm, and despite my exhaustion, I found myself reacting to him.
Kiss of Death: Hell on Earth Series, Book 3 Page 7