by Brenda Trim
The furniture was modern with antique pieces sprinkled throughout. Decorations hung on the walls. Some were palm leaves. Others were of the architecture in the Quarter. And then there was the wood signs proclaiming that all were welcome. The wood floors were stained a dark color while the walls were pale grey. Until the blood started pouring down them. Then you got a much clearer picture of the house’s story.
Araton’s favorite room in the house had to be the kitchen. The appliances were all stainless steel and the countertops were marble. It was the position in the house that let in the afternoon light that made it so appealing. The light cast out the shadows that seemed to linger in every other room.
Araton glanced out the window when he was treating a living room and saw Aison in the courtyard keeping watch. He knew Micah was in the streets in front of the house doing the same. They didn’t expect trouble, but he and his brothers were accustomed to including the Dark Warriors when possible for an extra layer of protection for humans.
“I’m calling in the others to help the spirits cross over,” Ayil called out as he stuck his head in the room.
“Sounds good,” Araton replied then smiled with Ayil when they heard their brother.
“My heads spinnin’ round and round. But in the seasons of wither. We’ll stand and deliver. Be strong and laugh and Shout, shout, shout at the Devil,” Abraxos crooned as he worked from another part of the house.
“He sings a lot, doesn’t he?” Lia interjected. She’d been following Araton quietly and watching as they worked. She’d been around them long enough to pick up on one of Abraxos’s quirks.
“That he does. Let’s head up to the attic. I hear the other angels arriving downstairs to help the deceased cross over,” Araton informed her. “We can send the ghosts back down to them.”
Nodding, she followed behind him up the narrow staircase. When they reached the attic, Araton fought hard to hold back his reaction. There were countless ghosts crammed in the area.
Some images were of people in cages. They’d clearly been tortured. Hands were missing from one young man. Another held a woman that was missing her eyes. And still more had their throats slit.
One guy had been decapitated. Another had a bull’s head sewn onto his body. The sight was depraved. Beside him Lia shook. Araton couldn’t even meet her gaze. They had to work fast, or they would never be able to free these poor souls. He opened his jar and began sprinkling the mixture that incited the souls around.
The walls immediately started bleeding. Araton reached the far corner and his gag reflex was doing pushups in his throat. Several babies lay there in a pile with their mothers reaching through the bars of a cage.
“Don’t come over here,” he told Lia as he sprinkled his concoction around the wood floor. He’d moved a few feet when he realized she never responded to him. He turned to reassure her that they were offering these people peace.
His blood froze in his veins when he didn’t see her anywhere. There was no doubt she couldn’t handle the images in that room. Araton had to force himself to finish the attic before he went in search of Natalia.
He ran into Abraxos on the second floor. “Have you seen Lia?”
His brother glanced around and shook his head. “Not for a bit. Did you get the attic?”
“Yeah. That was worse than the seventh circle in Hell. So many lost their lives in there. It’s what sent Lia away,” Araton explained. “I’d better find her and make sure she’s okay.”
“You’ve got it bad, little brother,” Abraxos teased.
“Fuck off,” he snapped and headed down the hall. A rapid search of the rooms on the second floor told him she wasn’t there.
By the time he reached the lower level he was certain she had to be outside. With the angels working to help the spirits on the first floor, she wouldn’t have hung around. She still wasn’t comfortable around anyone but him.
He walked through the kitchen and froze on the back porch as he looked into the courtyard. “What the fuck?” He growled. Denial put up blocks in his mind. That could not be her.
Natalia lifted her head and stared at him. Her familiar green eyes were nowhere to be seen. Instead vibrant red looked back at him. The creature before him had her long silky black hair tied into a ponytail. And her round face. Its upper lip was even smaller than the lower exactly like Lia’s.
The smile that curved the thing’s mouth was not even remotely like the woman he was falling in love with. A glint of light shone in his eyes when she stood up. The light reflected off the bloody knife she held clutched in her hand.
“Abraxos, Ayil,” he screamed and lunged into action.
“You’re too late to save your friend, Warrior,” Lia replied in a deep, malevolent voice that was nothing like hers. “And you will lose this one, too.” Lucifer in Lia’s body pointed to Aison where he lay in a puddle of blood.
His right arm looked like it had been cut from his body and there was a hole in his chest. Lucifer was dissecting him in broad daylight. Araton collided with Lia’s and had to ignore the fact that he took her down with enough force to crack her skull.
Lucifer was fast and swiped the blade in his hand across Araton’s shoulder. Growling, he tried to grab hold of Lia’s arm and stop her from hurting him. He was reluctant to really harm her.
That hesitance cost him when Lucifer managed to bite down on the top of his wing. She tore out a chunk of his flesh. Bringing his legs up, he kicked her off of his chest. She growled and flew back toward him. Her knife cut a slash down his arm before he managed to grab hold of her hand.
She bucked and kicked and tried to pull her hand from his grip. He squeezed hard enough he heard bones snap and felt them grind together. Regret tasted bitter on his tongue, but rage overpowered all of that.
“You will not take this woman from me,” he informed Lucifer.
“I already have,” Lucifer cackled. “There is no magic capable of destroying my connection to her.”
He wanted to curse because Marie had told him the same thing. The only way he could save Lia was to mate her and create a bond that overpowered the one Lucifer had forced on her.
“I haven’t had so much fun in thousands of years,” Lucifer continued. “Humans make the best sounds when I eviscerate them. I can’t wait to go beyond blood play with this one.”
Abraxos and Ayil came running out the back door and halted halfway between them and Aison. “Help Aison. You need to call Jace right away so he can save the arm,” Araton told them.
They looked torn for a split second then Abraxos had his phone in hand while Ayil rushed to the injured Dark Warrior. Natalia was going to take matters into her own hands when she learned she had nearly killed someone she considered a friend.
Araton couldn’t think about that much more or he wouldn’t be able to help her banish the devil from her body. He called his sword of Light to his hand. “I will not allow you to kill anyone else while in her body,” Araton informed him.
He forced all soft emotions he had for Lia to a separate part of his mind and allowed his anger and hatred for Lucifer to surface. At the same time, he cast a shield around the area that would hopefully prevent Lucifer from teleporting. It was unclear how it would work on Lia, but it was able to stop archdemons from getting away.
“You are an abomination that will never truly be free from Hell,” Araton told the devil. Lucifer looked around for a couple seconds then snarled at Araton and took off in the opposite direction. Araton took to the air and landed in front of him.
He had to lunge and catch Lia when her eyes rolled back in her head and her body started convulsing. Jace ran by him and headed toward Aison while Ayil came to his side.
“What happened?”
“Lucifer took over her body. Marie told us today that Lia is a conduit for the King of Hell. That’s what has been happening to her. Lucifer hijacks her body and takes over. He attacked Aison.”
“Fuck,” Ayil cursed as he knelt next to them. “We can’t let h
er walk freely knowing Lucifer can take the wheel. Did Marie give you a way to banish his connection?”
Araton lowered his head to the top of Lia’s. There was only one way to save her. Nodding, he looked up at his brother. “I have to mate her and establish a more powerful bond with Heaven. Nothing else will sever the connection. And, I don’t know if I can do that.”
Ayil cursed under his breath and watched the activity while Jace worked on healing Aison. Dante and Micah had shown up at some point, too. Abraxos was in the thick of it with the healer and unaware of the conversation between them.
Meeting his gaze again, Ayil ran a hand through his hair. “Mating is blessing of the highest caliber. I would never change binding myself to Kennex. She is my everything. But if you don’t love this woman and feel like you cannot take another breath without her then you shouldn’t mate her.”
“How can you say that? It would be saving her life.” Araton was torn by this very fact. And needed to make sure he was thinking straight. Something that seemed impossible when Lia was around.
“Yes, it would save her life, but to be tied to someone you do not love will make it impossible for you to fulfill your duty. Something inside would die with the forced bond. It will turn sour and rot you away from the inside,” Ayil replied with a grin face.
“I can’t kill her. And if anyone else tries I’m fairly certain I will stand in their way. I’m…falling for her. I’m not sure exactly what I feel about her, but it’s killing me to even think about her being injured or worse,” Araton admitted.
“Then it looks like you have some thinking to do. In the meantime, take her to Heaven. See if having her there will buy you some time to figure shit out. These times she is blacking out are taking a toll on her emotionally. I get the sense she won’t tolerate knowing she is a risk to others very well,” Ayil said as he stood and brushed off his pants.
“Thank you for not insisting she’s either killed or mated right now. Let me know how Aison does. I need to get her away from here,” Araton told his brother as he stood and cradled Lia close to his chest.
“Will do,” Ayil promised. Araton placed a kiss to Lia’s lips then teleported them to his house in the Garden District. What the fuck was he going to do about this mess? He couldn’t deny that he cared for her, but mating was an entirely different matter.
Chapter 16
“What the fuck are they doing?” Slate murmured with a scowl as they hid behind several parked vehicles.
None of it made sense to Dante. Archdemons and their skirm didn’t set up shop inside a sports stadium. Why were they taking such a major chance with this? It didn’t make any sense.
They were getting cocky for sure and it made him uneasy. Discovering Lucifer could hijack Natalia’s body was a sobering thought. She might be a human female, but the Lord of the Underworld used her body to a chilling degree.
He had nearly cut Aison to shreds. Jace had been able to save his life and his arm. Araton had come out of the house before he cut Aison’s heart from his chest. An immortal could survive the injury, but it would have been a long and arduous healing process.
Thanks to the fast thinking of Araton and his brothers, Aison was making a rapid recovery and would be back on his feet in a few days. Dante couldn’t stop wondering what would have happened if Jace hadn’t been home along with Gerrick to open a portal to the LaLaurie Mansion.
Abraxos had FaceTimed the healer in order to give him the visual he would need to open a portal to the location. Aison was back at Les Augres before Dante had heard what went down.
There was little doubt in his mind that the demons were taking more risk because they were certain Lucifer was going to win. It was the only thing that made sense. After thousands upon thousands of years frozen in a lake in Hell Lucifer was moving freely in the Underworld and now able to cross to Earth in the body of a human woman.
“I’d say they’re moving in,” Dante replied as he kept scanning the front entrance.
“We need to take these fuckers out. This stadium might be useless to humans at the moment, but the Saints will be back,” Micah snarled in a low voice.
“But where is the archdemon? There’s always one close by to control their minions and the lower demons. Those hellhounds tend to get bitey when their aggression isn’t directed,” Luke added.
“We’ve counted eleven so far. Let’s engage now before more arrive. We can see what the setup is inside the stadium,” Dante ordered them. “I’ll text Ayil and Abraxos. Araton is remaining with Natalia to ensure Lucy doesn’t take the wheel again.”
Pulling his phone from his back pocket, Dante fired off a text to the two brothers as well as Zander filling them in on what they’d discovered. He’d barely shoved his cell back inside his pocket when growling made the hair on his arms stand on end.
Spinning around, Dante came face to snout with a massive hellhound. Fucking thing smelled like death. Teeth snapped at him making him jump back. Awkwardly, he tried to reach his sheathed sgian dubh while he was in motion.
Unfortunately, he’d only recently been training full-time and he landed on his elbow. The crack echoed around him followed by excruciating pain several seconds later. The demon dog clamped its jaws around Dante’s thigh.
Finally extricating his weapons from under his armpits, Dante stabbed out at the beast’s head. The knife sunk into the hound’s skull, making it yelp. With a growl, it let go of Dante’s leg and swiped at him with one big paw.
It wasn’t until Dante climbed to his feet that he realized the others were engaged in battles of their own. Dante’s blade was still sticking out of the hound’s head, so he grabbed it and twisted while he plunged the other into one of its eyes.
A pus demon came at him from behind and grabbed him around the waist. His hand sank into soft, slimy flesh as he shoved one of his hands behind him. Pulling the knife free from the gelatinous beast, Dante jumped as much as his injured leg would allow and stabbed both weapons through the pus demon’s skull.
He launched off its falling body and into a skirm. The rapid-fire thrusts managed to ash the fucker after his third strike. Two hellhounds approach him from different angles. Dante jumped onto the hood of a car and kicked one of them in the head.
He was flying through the air toward the other creature before the first got its bearings. Roaring out his frustration, Dante’s blade sank into the top of the hound’s skull. The one he kicked had recovered from the blow and was leaping over the vehicle toward Dante.
Taking a running start, Dante slid on his injured leg and nearly passed out from the pain. He hadn’t thought that through. It took great effort to force himself to lift his hand and eviscerate the demon dog as he traveled under its body.
Jumping to his feet, he almost toppled when a fist slammed into the side of his head. Dante punched a fist toward the rage demon and tried to keep a lid on his anger. It would only fuel this enemy.
Instead he relished the feel of flesh bruising under his blows. When the rage demon staggered, Dante sliced a blade across its throat. Black blood spurted out of the injury. The specks that landed on his exposed skin burned. The rage demon managed to inflict another blow as it went down.
At first Dante didn’t realize what had happened, but then the warm liquid gushed down the side of his neck telling him the creature’s claws managed to inflict a deep wound.
Slate was at his side, panting a second later. The Dark Warrior placed a hand over the wound and applied pressure. “The bleeding isn’t stopping. Do you need me to take you back to the manor?”
Dante knew why it wasn’t stopping. He hadn’t fed properly for months. The little sips he’d gotten from kisses and caresses weren’t enough to feed his inner demon. Dante was going to have to make the time and find a female today or he would be down for longer than he could afford.
Being back in the thick of the action was what kept him going. Ever since returning from the Underworld with Rhys and Kellen he’d been searching for something to fulfill h
im. He wished every day that his friend Nikko was still with them, but he loved his new role. It gave him a purpose he’d been needing for centuries.
Cambions were creatures of heat, fun and passion, but that had become common place for Dante over the centuries. His role in the Alliance had been minimal until recently when he discovered new fun for him.
Feeling light-headed, Dante nearly opened his mouth to say yes, he wanted to go back to the manor. His need to see this through kept his mouth shut. “Fucker got me good. I’ll be fine soon enough. The bleeding has already slowed.” At least that last part was the truth. The bleeding had slowed but hadn’t stopped.
Glancing around the lot, he noticed the bodies littering the asphalt like a macabre art display. It was incredibly satisfying to see so many dead demons in one place. The cars were worse for the wear which made him feel bad.
It was as he was assessing the damage to the vehicles that he realized there were far too many with the humans not venturing near the stadium at the time. “What are all these cars from? Have demons learned to drive?”
None of it made any sense. Having a pus demon behind the wheel of a car, or even a Behemoth demon, was ridiculous and made him want to laugh. Unless humans were lured to the stadium and the demons were filling it with enough sacrifices to make Lucifer strong enough to break free of the spells and cross fully to Earth in his body.
“The rental car companies don’t have anywhere to park their vehicles, so they’ve used locations like this where they can store them while they aren’t being rented,” Luke explained.
“Thank the Goddess. For a minute there I was worried the demons were luring humans here for one massive sacrifice,” Dante admitted. “That would be a fucking disaster since I’m fairly certain it would generate enough power for Lucifer to get free of Hell.”
“Don’t even think it,” Micah hissed under his breath as if the demons might like the idea and go for it.
“Let’s sneak in there and see what we can discover,” Dante instructed as he limped toward the entrance while holding a hand over his wounded neck.