“I know. Me too.” Sophie hugged her, and the two women clung to each other. For two hundred years, they’d survived in the hostile demon kingdom. “I can’t believe we’re out of time,” she said. “I thought we had it managed.”
“They’re demons. You can’t manage them.” Maria pulled back, and then swayed to the side.
Sophie caught her arm to stabilize her, surprised at how cold her skin was. She frowned at how weak Maria still was. “Have you recovered at all since healing Ashlynn?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Maria turned away, not meeting her gaze. “Grab some weapons. We’re going hunting.”
Sophie didn’t move. “Why aren’t you healing?”
Maria shrugged “It doesn’t matter.” She strapped another knife to her waist. “When are you going back to Lucien’s chambers?”
“Tonight.”
Maria looked at her sharply. “Really?”
She nodded.
“Okay. Then we have eighteen hours to get you out of here.”
Eighteen hours? Sophie closed her eyes at the fear that sliced through her, but she shook her head. “Even if there was a way out, I wouldn’t leave without you, and the other women. You have to come as well.”
“Don’t be a fool.” Maria shoved a dart gun into her bodice. “We can’t get everyone—”
Sophie folded her arms over her chest. “Then I’m not leaving. You think I can survive the earth realm, knowing that you and the others are still down here, suffering?”
Maria swore and turned toward her. “You’re from the earth realm, Soph. You belong there.”
“You’re half human—”
“I’m also half-demon. Every woman down here has been so infected with demon semen that their blood is barely distinguishable from demon blood. You’re the only one still human enough to break through the barrier.”
“But—”
“Once you get out, you can figure out how to save us, but if you stay, if you become Lucien’s concubine, you’ll die.” Determination filled Maria’s face. “I’m not going to let you die,” she snapped. “So don’t even try.”
Sophie bit her lip, knowing that Maria had a point. The invisible net that kept the demons trapped would apply to all the others. “Then I’ll find that jewel and break the spell.”
“And what? Let Lucien out into the human realm? Screw that, Soph. You’re smarter than that. I know you are.” Maria’s eyes glistened. “You’re going. Do you understand? It’s the way it has to be.”
Sophie sighed. “Fine.” She was lying. She’d never leave without Maria, and from the look in Maria’s eyes, her friend knew it, but didn’t care. Maria was planning to make her leave if they found a way. Sophie was going to find a way to stay, or get Maria across. But neither woman was going to admit it.
“Good.” Maria jammed one more dagger into the waistband of her pants. “Then let’s go. My brother is hunting this morning. We’ll find him.” She turned away, heading toward the door. “Get some weapons. We’re about to go where we’re not supposed to go.”
Sophie couldn’t help but grin. It had been a long time since they’d mounted an out and out assault on the barrier. Even with Maria temporarily weakened, they were both more powerful than they had ever been. Determination flooded her. Maybe this was the time it was finally going to work.
It had to.
If it didn’t, and she had to face Lucien tonight, she would die.
Time was up.
Gritting her teeth, she grabbed an assortment of weapons from Maria’s cache. By the time she’d strapped them to various parts of her body and walked out, Maria was pacing restlessly in the hall. “Ready?”
Sophie tightened her grip on the dagger. In the past, she’d used her weapons only to protect other women, because no demon could touch her. Now…it was different. Now, her own life could be at stake. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself for the battle she had no idea how to fight. “Let’s do this.”
Maria nodded, and the two women strode down the hall, side by side, to take on a battle they’d fought and lost countless times before, and they both knew it.
Chapter 9
For a split second, Gabe was too shocked by the horned warrior to react. They’d crossed over to the demon realm? That was impossible. Impossible. And yet Vlad had dragged them across. He immediately reached out with his mind. They were here….in the realm where Dante’s body was.
Dante.
Gabe immediately dismissed the demon warrior and concentrated on his leader. Dante. Can you hear me? He sent the pulses of energy in all directions, letting it bounce off the cavern walls and ceiling, hurtling the energy through the tunnels. As his energy sped through the halls, a virtual map of the area formed in his mind, created by the millions of messages sent back to him, like bat sonar. Within seconds, he knew every tunnel for five miles…and Dante wasn’t in any of them.
Swearing, he lurched to his feet, preparing to run, when he felt something slam into his shoulder. Pain shot through him, and he stumbled, gripping his shoulder as blood cascaded down his arm. He whirled around. The demon was attacking Vlad, who was already bloody. Vlad flicked his finger, and the demon flew backward, crashing into the stone wall. “There’s not enough living matter down here for me to use against him,” Vlad shouted at Gabe. “Some help would be nice.”
Son of a bitch. He’d landed in a hostile situation and not even paid attention? What kind of focus was that? Dante would be disgusted. Gabe called out his hook swords. The flash of black light lit up the cavern, and the crack as the weapons leapt into his palms reverberated through the halls. Gabe hurtled a sword as the demon launched himself at Vlad. The blade sank deep, spinning the demon off to the right. His wings smashed into both warriors, and Gabe was slammed against the wall over the cavern. Vlad hit right next to him, against a sharp rock outcropping that went through his torso, impaling him.
“Hey! I need him alive!” Gabe called his hook sword back as he hurled the other one. The demon slapped it aside with his wing, and his weapon clattered uselessly against the side of the cavern. Gabe lunged forward, striking fast and hard with his remaining weapon while he called back the other one. The demon blocked every blow effortlessly with his wings, and Gabe’s sword didn’t even penetrate the thickness of the scales that covered it.
The demon moved closer, and Gabe saw its claws elongate, blackened and twisting. Shit! He blocked one blow from the demon, but as he did so, the demon’s other claw sank deep into his side. Searing pain tore through him, and Gabe gasped, gripping his side as the demon lifted him up, holding him above his head like a trophy.
“Back off!” Vlad’s shout bounced off the walls, and then Gabe felt himself lifted off the end of the claw and dragged backward through the air away from the demon by Vlad’s psychic energy. Vlad dumped him behind an outcropping and shoved the demon back against the wall, both at the same time.
Gripping his side against the pain surging through him, Gabe pulled himself back around the rock toward the battle. Vlad had managed to get himself off the outcropping, but he was on his side, slumped against the wall. He was pointing at the demon, and Gabe could feel the waves of energy pulsing off him, pinning the demon against the far wall. The demon was fighting hard, and Gabe could see he was already loosening Vlad’s grip on him.
Vlad’s face was ashen, and his jeans were soaked with blood. “I can’t hold him much longer,” Vlad gritted out. “Do something.”
“Right.” Gabe tried to stand, but his legs gave out. He could feel his muscles weakening throughout his body, and he realized that the demon had injected some sort of poison into him. Shit. He had no time to stop and heal. He slithered down to his stomach, and then rolled onto his side to free his right arm. “Keep his wings trapped,” he commanded Vlad.
“Yeah, no problem.” The strain was evident in Vlad’s voice, but he flicked his finger again, and the demon’s wings slammed back against the wall.
In the same instant, Gabe summoned th
e last of his strength and then hurled his hook sword at the demon. His aim was dead on, and the blade pierced the demon’s chest, right over his heart and jammed into the wall behind him, pinning the demon to the wall.
No blood ran from his chest, but smoke began to rise from the weapon, as if acid was eating right through it.
Shit. “It’s eating my sword. Don’t demons have hearts?”
“I don’t know.” Vlad slumped lower. “Got another plan?”
Gabe gripped his other weapon. “His head? They must have brains, right?”
“I’m a demon, you stupid humans,” the demon snapped. “We can’t be killed. I have a brain and a heart, for hell’s sake, but stop—”
Gabe threw the hook sword, and it went straight through the demon’s forehead.
“Nice shot,” Vlad said.
“Thanks.” Gabe managed to drag himself to his knees as the demon howled in outrage. “It didn’t shut him up, though.”
“No, but it might hold him for a sec.” Vlad was still on his side, apparently using his reserves to pin the demon against the wall. “You know, I think he poisoned me.”
“Me too. You good at healing?”
“Most things.” Vlad’s face paled even more. “Not this, apparently.”
“Shit.” Gabe looked toward the doorway that led to the rest of the demon realm. He was so close to Dante. He couldn’t die now. “Can you bring the rest of my team through? They could contain him.”
Vlad looked over at him with a look that said that was one of the stupidest questions he’d ever heard. “Does it look like I’m a little busy? Because I feel like I’m a little busy.”
“Well, if you brought them over, you could be less busy.”
“If I take my energy off him to bring your pals over, he’ll kill us while I’m distracted. Your pals will be here, but then I’ll be really not busy because I’ll be dead. Sophie will have no one to save her.” Vlad looked pissed. “So shut the hell up and let me think.”
All good points. Gabe wasn’t too high on dying right now either. But what the hell options did they have? The demon’s howls of outrage increased, and Gabe glanced over at him. “Oh, shit.”
Vlad followed his gaze, and swore.
Black blood was pouring down the demon’s head from the wound in his skull. It was slithering over his body, and across the floor toward Gabe and Vlad, moving with rapid speed. “Holy shit.” Gabe lunged to his feet, staggered over to Vlad and hauled him off the ground. He dragged Vlad onto a higher outcropping and leapt up beside him. The move took the last of his energy, and he collapsed beside Vlad, his chest heaving with the effort of breathing.
Vlad’s eyes were focused on the demon, and he was muttering something silently, his lips moving with rapid speed as if he were summoning more magic.
The demon was disintegrating Gabe’s sword, and he knew it would be only seconds until the demon had broken free of that restraint. Once he could focus all his energy on fighting Vlad, he would defeat them within moments.
Shit! There had to be something—
“What the hell are you doing to my brother?” A woman’s voice broke through the battle, and Gabe looked up just as a woman in black leather appeared in the doorway to the cave. She exuded sensuality, even with her dark eyes flashing with anger, and her breasts were barely contained by her top, but he quickly dismissed the eye candy part as an attempt to distract him from being focused on the battle.
Her strategy didn’t work, because he didn’t care about her breasts. What he noticed were the number of weapons she had strapped to her body, all of them strategically placed for access no matter what position she was in or what direction a threat might be coming.
She wasn’t simply a female demon.
She was the x-factor that was going to tip the scales in the wrong damn direction.
Vlad felt like every cell in his body was on fire, and he knew the poison was working fast. His mind was reeling, and he could barely think. He was vaguely aware of someone shouting, but he could barely process it, could barely even hear it. His hearing was fading, his vision was blurring, and he felt his muscles begin to go limp, as his body began shutting down non-critical functions in order to focus on holding the demon in place and fighting off the poison.
Swearing, he managed to raise his head enough to look toward the demon. He could barely make him out, and his image appeared to be undulating. He met the creature’s black gaze, and felt it penetrate his mind, building a bridge between them until he could feel the beat of the
demon’s heart mirror his own.
The rest of the world ceased to exist, and he could see nothing but the demon’s eyes, and feel nothing but his heartbeat.
“Let me go.” The demon’s voice rolled through him, a heavy, thick compulsion.
For a split second, Vlad’s mind wanted to obey, but he swore, fresh fury raging through him as Sophie’s face appeared in his mind again. He saw the same blue eyes and blond hair, but her face was older and more angular, but he knew it was her. “No,” he shouted into an abyss of silence that even his own voice couldn’t penetrate. His throat hurt from the force of his scream, but he heard no sound coming from his own mouth. “I will not abandon Sophie again. You’re in my damn way, so back the fuck off!”
With a roar of fury, he lunged to his feet, hurling pulse after pulse at the demon, screaming about Sophie, using every last bit of energy he had to attack the demon, at the same time his mind was whirling at high speed, processing everything. The demon couldn’t be killed. Only vanquished. How to debilitate a demon? How the fuck did he shut him down?
The demon was living matter. What if he pulled the cells apart? What if he dismantled him? Still living, but in a billion pieces. Yes. His legs gave out, and he gave up trying to stand. He fell to his knees before the demon, and held out both hands, pointing all his fingers at him. He felt his magic connect to all the cells of the demon, and he began to move his hands apart.
The demon screamed in agony, a sound he couldn’t hear, but that filled him with the agony of suffering, and Vlad knew his attack was working. For a split second, he hesitated, almost choked by the demon’s pain. “Stand down and I’ll stop,” he shouted at the demon. “You don’t have to make me do it!”
The demon howled in outrage, and Vlad felt him throw off part of his grip. “Fine, you stubborn bastard, if that’s how you want it to be, that’s how it is.” He closed his eyes, and hurled all his magic into the demon. He felt the howl as the demon was pulled apart, and victory rushed through him. “Sophie,” he bellowed. “I’m coming!” He had almost reached the point of no return with the demon, when pain exploded in his head and everything went blank.
He knew her.
Sophie knelt beside the man in the leather jacket as he slumped, unconscious, on the ground, studying him intently. His aura had too much power for him to be human, but it wasn’t nearly black enough to be a demon. He had no horns, but his shoulders and muscles were as cut and large as any demon. His hair was a tiny bit too long as it curled against his neck. His leather jacket with the metal spikes on the shoulders was battered, worn, and smelled amazing, like earth, sunshine, and years of hard living, memories of a past she couldn’t grasp anymore, but that seemed to come to life when she was near him.
She knew she should be wary of this stranger who wielded so much power that he would have killed Damon, if Maria hadn’t knocked him out, but he’d called her name. A complete stranger, a non-demon, was in the demon realm, and he knew her.
His voice was still burning through her. The way he’d bellowed her name with such anguish and force had been almost terrifying, but at the same time, she’d wanted to rush over to him and shout that she was there. What did he want with her? Who was he? She studied the spikes on his shoulders. She wanted to touch them, to see if they were sharp. Her gaze slid along his shoulder to his chin, where dark whiskers lined his strong jaw.
Something turned over inside her, something deep and powerful, a yea
rning to touch him that was so strong that she had to fist her hand to keep from reaching for him. “Who are you?” she whispered.
There was no answer, of course, since he was unconscious. Frowning, she brushed her fingers over the spikes on his jacket, startled when she could actually touch it. The metal was sharp and cold, not of this world at all. Excitement jolted through her. “I think he’s from the earth realm,” she whispered in awe. “How is that possible?”
“Sophie! For God’s sake, this isn’t the time for gawking.” Maria was dragging her brother down from his perch where the man who knew Sophie had pinned him against the wall with some sort of invisible force. Damon was unconscious, knocked out by whatever the man had been doing when he’d pointed his fingers at the lust demon. “Check the other one!” Maria ordered. “See if he’s alive.”
Sophie glanced across the cavern to the other intruder. He was writhing on the rocky ledge, his skin streaked with black. Oh, crap. “Damon poisoned him. He’s dying.” Fear sliced through her, and she looked down at the man beside her again, inspecting his skin more closely. For a moment, it looked normal, and then she saw faint streaks of black weaving its way through the tattoo on his neck. Alarm leapt through her. “So is this one!”
“Let them die.” Maria had Damon’s arm over her shoulder, and she was dragging him toward the door. “They’re too dangerous. Anyone who can take down Damon is extremely powerful—”
“No! Don’t you see?” Sophie lunged to her feet and raced over to her friend. She grabbed Maria’s arm, and swung her friend back to face her. “Didn’t you hear him? He came here for me. He broke into the demon realm for me. I need to know who he is.”
Maria shook her head. “No. It’s too dangerous. How do we know they aren’t here to hurt us? You saw how powerful they are—”
“No! Don’t you get it? I’ve lived here my whole life. I barely remember anything from before I was taken, but this man knows me. I want answers from him. Why am I the way I am with jewels? Why was did the demons bring me here? He might know!”
Hunt the Darkness (Order of the Blade Book 11) Page 8