“Yeah, I know. I’ll let him know you asked about him.” Her voice broke. She coughed and gave her friend a smile.
More than pain hid behind her smile; a pang of hope chimed in Kyria’s voice. Hope that she would save Darius. A hope that he smothered every minute he kept her father’s location to himself. But her false hope was far better than her dead body.
Kyria said her final goodbyes, and he followed her out of the store’s back door. They walked along piles of huge wooden beams. His last glance of father and daughter was Josh’s suspicious glare and Lennie’s magnified eyes staring after them. They were friendly enough, but definitely hiding something.
It haunted him for a moment, as if he was on the verge of another vision, but nothing came. He shook his head to clear it.
On their way to the truck, Kyria was mentioning something about Lennie’s family history when he put an arm in front of her to stop. A lone figure in flannel and muddy boots sat on top of the high brick wall that surrounded the store’s backyard—one of the people he’d seen in the truck that passed them on the highway.
The demon gave them a crooked smile, one hand propped on his knee as he leaned forward. “Well, look what the demon slave dragged in.”
Kyria stepped behind Ramiel and placed her hand on his back as he faced the intruder.
“Get lost.”
The demon laughed, a horrible rotten smell wafting from him. Her eyes watered.
“Or what? You gonna throw another kitchen knife? So scary.” Black, crooked wings with missing feathers unfurled from the demon’s shoulder blades. This wasn’t one of her original attackers, but he knew about the confrontation.
“Did you really think you could shake us? Granted, it’s been difficult to pinpoint exactly where you’ve been holed up. But we’re here now. Give us the Nephilim, and we won’t tell Nema what you’ve been doing with it.” The demon winked at her.
Ramiel stepped forward. “You’re gonna have to kill me to get to her.”
Her heart tightened. “No, wait.”
“Challenge accepted.” The demon lunged off the wall, claws and teeth extended.
A roar ripped through Ramiel as he leaped to meet the redneck midair. The impact of their bodies shook the ground under her feet.
Ram wrapped his chain around the thick neck and flipped the demon down. Another demon appeared from thin air and dropped onto his back, this one very familiar in his coveralls.
She shouted Ram’s name helplessly, unable to move. She stood, frozen, as memories of her recent attack assaulted her senses.
Ramiel loosened his grip to toss Coveralls over his head.
The first demon took the opportunity to slip under the chain and free himself. Ramiel lumbered forward, trying to grab him again, but the demon turned into a trail of smoke and reformed across the yard as two more figures appeared. Four in total now.
Ramiel was strong, but he couldn’t do this alone any longer. Kyria widened her stance and scanned the area, focusing all her senses.
Ram threw two daggers at twin demons heading for him. Picking up one of the heavy wooden beams from its pile, he tossed it effortlessly with one hand and knocked a third demon across the yard.
The two demons with daggers in their chests, after regaining their composure, turned to mist and coiled around Ramiel’s limbs. They manifested their physical forms, holding him in place as they tore into his flesh with their talons.
He swung away from one, kicking it back. “Kyria, flash!”
She didn’t hesitate, disappearing and reappearing at his back. With her wings fully extended, she lashed the demon still digging his claws into Ram’s shoulder with the full weight of her feathers, sending him flying.
Gaining some space, she twisted and tried to grab on to Ram. If she could just get a moment to concentrate, she could flash them to the ranch.
Large muddy hands interrupted, wrapping around her throat and wrenching her away.
Ram spun around and latched on to her attacker. “Flash. Now.”
One of the injured demons reappeared behind him, disfigured and larger now, his true form showing.
He caught Ram’s chain and wrapped it around his meaty hand, throwing him to the ground with a violent yank.
Much bigger than Ramiel, he didn’t look like he was backing down anytime soon.
Two of the others had recovered and joined the dog pile. Ramiel fought hard, swinging and kicking, yet each time he knocked one demon down, another filled its place.
There was no way she was leaving him. By the time she flashed to get help and came back, he’d be finished. Arching her back with a powerful beat of her wings, Kyria reached for a salt-dipped dagger hidden under her shirt.
The redneck demon let go with a curse and she spun to dive at him before he could grab her again.
Staggering back, he grinned. “Let’s play, little girl.”
He wasn’t worth a response. Ducking under his reach, she sliced and stabbed. Her knife went through skin and bone, carving the muscle.
Looking at the biggest one with boils, she flashed behind him and stabbed the side of his neck. Roaring, he grabbed the sizzling wound and vanished.
“Kyria,” Ram grunted as he took another hit. “Leave.”
“No.” She twisted and flashed, stabbing the newest demon hard at the base of a thick neck. “Not without you.”
Ram had a demon under him, chain looped around his throat. One hard yank of his arm and his neck cracked, snapping into a disgusting, uncomfortable angle.
Ramiel was already reaching to wrestle with the large mutated demon before it pinned him again.
God, someone help him. Please!
A heavy arm wrapped around her waist. Another hand pulled at her left wing. Her feet dangled. The redneck demon easily carted her off toward the truck.
A heat wave of panic prickled through her. Without thinking, she plunged her knife through her own wing to stab at her kidnapper. Pain and bright red blood blotted her vision.
He screamed. Claws dug deeper into her flesh. She screamed, too, and twisted the blade further, determined to finish it.
She kicked at a knee behind her, and when her captor leaned forward to avoid it, she threw her head back into his skull. Stunned, he dropped her.
She faltered but scrambled up wooden steps and blindly reached for the handle of the door back into the store. Josh had a couple of guns. Almost everyone in town did.
“Hey, come here often?” The fourth demon she had forgotten about appeared and caught her in a tight grip, close to his chest. “Let’s dance.”
“Let go of me.”
“Sorry. Not gonna happen.” His arms tightened as he pulled her away from the door. She stomped down, digging her boot heel into the top of his foot then kicking his shin.
He groaned out in pain, then laughed. “So sweet.” The demon’s hold remained firm around her as he spoke through clenched teeth. “Now I’m really gonna enjoy carving my name on you.”
He flipped her and wrapped his arm around her neck, forcing her chin up. Clawing at his arm, she was helpless to stop his free hand from bringing out a short sword.
Kyria used her whole body to squirm and thrash, trying desperately to remember what she’d been taught if she was ever in a choke hold. Strips of his skin collected under her fingernails as she tore at him to get away.
Her brain was mush, her airway blocked by his arm squeezing over her throat. Her vision darkened. If she could just break his hold long enough, she could flash. But her arms dropped limply to her sides.
Something or someone rushed from behind with a yell. The demon grunted and released her, leading with his sword as he spun around. An explosion made her ears ring.
Kyria fell. The impact and sudden freedom brought her back. She scrambled away, clutching her neck as she gasped for air.
Behind her, Ram had taken care of his own attackers, but she stumbled at the sight of Josh impaled on the demon’s blade.
His shotgun clattered
down the concrete steps as he fell to the patio in slow motion. The demon had disappeared, leaving a slimy black mess that covered the ground where he had stood.
She gasped, cupping a hand over her mouth. Lennie ran down with a shotgun in her hands. She froze, face pale, then glanced up and shouted, “Duck.”
Another demon lunged at her. Another explosion was followed by another splatter of tar on the ground. The demon was gone.
A groan of anguish brought her attention back to Lennie. She was on her knees at her father’s head. “Daddy.” She gaped at Kyria, wild-eyed, babbling, “I don’t understand, what are you?”
Everything slowed. Moments passing forever as Josh bled out on the sword. An image of her father’s broken body and her not being able to reach him slammed into her brain.
The suited demon reappeared with his right arm gone. He stood over Lennie and her father, yanking his weapon from Josh’s gut.
Then he turned to Lennie and grabbed her arm. “You’re not human.” He pulled her closer to him and pressed his face to her neck, laughing. “Wait, yes you are. But that baby inside you isn’t. Bonus points. Two Nephilim in one trip.” He glanced at her swollen belly. Two more demons appeared behind him. “Take the redhead.”
With black wings stretching wide, they vanished and before she could think, they each had her by an arm. Fighting them did no good. They were too strong. Forcing her head to the side, she tried to find Ram, hoping he was free.
At the sight of him down and bloody beneath the foot of the large demon, she cried out.
There are too many. And she didn’t have the power to do anything but run away. The only thing in her life she’d ever been any good at.
A new broad figure materialized—brown skin and sharp cheekbones with silver-streaked wings. White flames crawled over his body.
He lifted his arm. The ivory inferno swirled and merged to a single focal point in his hand then shot out in a gush of fiery light. The demon to her left, completely consumed, turned to ash.
The stranger turned and aimed at the demon on her right, who tried to run but made it only two feet. Incinerated.
“Begone, foul creatures,” a new voice called out, calm in the chaos. A small woman sat on top of the brick wall, her short black hair cut into a bob at the perfect angle.
The woman held her hand out, and an indigo symbol Kyria didn’t recognize appeared on her palm. The ground beneath them shook and turned dark.
Black rings appeared on the ground, scorching dirt and grass with Enochian patterns. Then one giant circle encompassed the whole yard, as the smaller rings formed ebony sigils like the one on the woman’s hand.
The remaining demons cursed and scattered, but they couldn’t escape the ring, held against their will by an unseen force.
Their wings burned. The demon on top of Ram backed off, only to contort with invisible pain, eyes purging an oily substance. Kyria scooted back, unable to stand, eyes wide.
The woman mercilessly clenched her fist and twisted it in the air as if she were ripping out a heart. The demons screamed and writhed. Then they dissolved into nothing with a crackle in the air before an unnatural silence fell across the yard.
Just as fast as the demons had come, they were gone.
The symbols and the circle on the earth faded away. The woman flashed from her spot on the wall and reappeared next to the man on the porch.
Kyria’s heavy limbs wouldn’t move. She was exhausted, but she knew. Angels.
She noted the touch of gray at the tips of the woman’s white and silver wings. Fallen angels.
The pair paid her no attention. Their eyes were fixed on Ramiel, who was lurching to his feet. Kyria faltered when she took a step toward him, driven by the need to heal his wounds.
Ram met her halfway, and he pulled her in his arms, his hands roaming down her body in a blind search. “Are you hurt?” The concern in his voice and the tightness of his expression melted her heart.
She gave him a wan smile as a small sliver of healing energy slipped from her to him. “I’m fine.”
He was the one with gashes and wounds. She touched his face, the warmth leaving her hand and healing the broken bone around his eye.
Lennie’s trembling sobs pulled Kyria out of the moment. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, God.” Kyria twisted around and rushed forward to fall on her knees on the other side of Josh. “He saved me.”
Ramiel scooped up the mountain of a man in his arms, heading inside the store. Still crying, Lennie followed, trying to talk to her father as he held onto consciousness by a thread. She clutched her father’s hand the entire way to the counter.
Kyria had to fight back her own tears as she cleared off the counter with a sweep of her arms, allowing Ram to set Josh down.
“This is all my fault. I brought them here.” Kyria whispered, her voice hoarse. The guilt was a vice around her heart. Her eyes stung from the biting sensation behind her lids.
The young woman reached out to Kyria. “I don’t understand. You have wings. Are you one of them?” She glanced at Ram. “You fought them, but you don’t—”
Josh opened his eyes, whispering, “Baby, you need to…”
“Oh, Daddy. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think they’d follow me all the way here from Argentina. Oh, God, I need to call 911.”
Dread sunk deeper into her bones. Her friend was involved with the demons in South America, too? Questions would have to wait. “Lennie, I’m not one of them. Those are demons. They’re hunting me, too. But I do have powers, and I think I can help your dad.”
Kyria ran her hands over the laceration in his gut, the wet flesh leaking blood with each ragged, short breath the man took. The gash was about as long as her palm, but not very wide. How could so much blood come from such a narrow wound?
When she checked for Josh’s pulse, his heart slowed with each beat, and soon it would be silent. Panic tried to seize Kyria, and her energy drained away. For a moment, she doubted her powers. But now wasn’t the time to freeze. Ram pressed down on the wound and shook his head. “The injury is fatal.”
“He won’t make it to a hospital.” Looking at Ram for reassurance, she declared, “We have to do something now.”
With a nod, he pulled her hands down to plant them over the wound and placed his palms over her fingers.
“Lennie, stand back. I’m not sure how this will work.” Kyria lowered her head and sent up a quick prayer, shoulders tense.
Kyria ran cold for a second. Josh’s ragged breathing had stopped. He was leaving her. “Ram?” She had to lock her knees to keep her legs from buckling under her.
“I see him.” He ran his thumbs across her wrists, instantly calming her with a simple touch. “I’m going to try and hold his spirit here.”
She took a deep breath and focused all her energy into the warmth flowing into her trembling hands. This isn’t a tree or a simple cut. It’s Lennie’s father. She steeled herself. “I’m going to heal him.”
“What? How?” Lennie sniffled, anxiety permeating her words.
Josh groaned, then relaxed. It wasn’t too late. An inkling of hope ran through her.
She glanced up at Ram one last time. What the hell is he looking at?
The two angels stood quietly in front of the paints and brushes shelf.
She shook her head and concentrated. No time to wonder about those two. No one else was going to lose their father, not if she could help it. Blood rushed through her ears as she tried to focus.
Don’t faint. Don’t faint. Creating a rhythm in her breathing, Kyria pictured the study and all the books. It was her place of healing. Of peace.
Ramiel sitting in the chair popped into her mind. Kissing him and touching his skin. His body responding to her.
A sharp, burning pain raced up her arms and bit into the back of her head. Stars clouded her vision, but she didn’t stop there. Ignoring the anguish, she pushed her light out farther, harder.
She thought of the s
un kissing the earth. Ram standing before her naked, the warmth of his skin as he surrounded her with love. Birds building nests. Eggs hatching. The cracking of the shell.
Trapped. The walls of the shell wouldn’t let her out. It was too hard. Her muscles failed her, and she couldn’t push through.
Ram touched her and said something soothing. It calmed her and gave her strength, just long enough to let her flood healing energy into Josh.
Life lines ran through her body and into his. She could see fibers mending and reforming connections, could feel her own life force pulled as she pushed through. Freedom. They were out of the shell.
When she opened her eyes, the world shifted. Her knees gave out as weariness rushed in. She fell back. Ram caught her, surrounding her with his broad arms. Lennie hugged her father as she cried quietly. Josh managed to open his eyes and lift an arm around his daughter weakly, though the sight warped as Kyria teared up.
“You did good, gingersnap.” Gruff but gentle, Ramiel reassured her, his free hand stroking her hair.
“I don’t think I can stand.” She kept her voice low as her head pressed against Ram’s neck. His pulse gave her a signal to follow so she didn’t slip away.
“We know why you’ve been too busy to write.” The dark, male angel stood on the opposite side of the counter, face dark with bitterness. “She’s a bit young for you, isn’t she?”
The dark-haired woman peered at them over round glasses that sat on the end of her nose. “This could be interesting, though.”
With a snarl, Ram left Kyria’s side and tackled the male, their bodies hitting the wooden floor and sliding down the aisle.
“Ram?” Were they still in danger? Kyria tried to call forth her wings to shield Lennie and Josh, but her body betrayed her, and she faltered. She managed to catch herself on the table and lean against it. She glanced at the female angel who was watching the two men as if totally bored.
The woman spoke placidly. “Ram seems a little pissed at Daniel.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ram’s vision dimmed on the edges. Only one image was clear—the man from his past. A man he once called brother, before the bastard betrayed him.
Unchained Desire Page 17