by Grey, T. A.
Lyonis was outside in the blink of an eye. Tyrian, Chloe, Lily, Telal, and a guard walked towards him.
“What the hell took you so long?” he roared. His pack knew the intensity of his anger and flinched at his voice.
Chloe gave a disgusted glace at the demon Telal. “Ask him.”
Telal merely shrugged and Lyonis saw red. He had the demon on his back, his hands on his throat in the next second. His hands transformed, forming sharp taloned claws that dug into the demon’s neck.
“I’ll kill you,” Lyonis spit out.
The demon didn’t flinch. “Then do it. Otherwise get the hell off me, shapeshifter.”
Lily stepped forward with a fierce scowl on her face. She planted her hands on her hips and glared down at Telal. “You don’t have to be such a bastard. His pregnant mate has just been stolen by the demon and he has no way to get to her. You’d be freaked out too.”
“I’d have to care about her first.”
Lyonis’ fist slammed into the demon face. The demon cocked his head to the side to spit out blood. Still, his face was impassive, uncaring.
“If you want my help get off of me now. Or I’ll make you get off,” he said softly.
Lyonis was forcefully tugged off the demon by his guards and he let them because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get off him on his own.
Telal flashed to a stand. “Why was I called here?” He sounded bored. Lyonis shook against the arms holding him. He knew he wasn’t mad at the demon—much—but that he wanted an outlet to release energy on. Still that didn’t stop him from lunging again at the demon.
The blue-haired demon looked at him as if he was no greater a threat than a fly.
“What happened to our sister,” Chloe asked, her hand clenched in Tyrian’s.
“She gone,” Lyonis said, then restated what had happened in the house with Rachel.
“The demon took them both?” Chloe said.
Telal scoffed. “Dura is a jaheera demon that thrives off fear and death. Its powers are magnificent when at full strength. Even now I doubt she’d taken Rachel. The shapeshifter is useless, unless she was being controlled.”
“Controlled?” Chloe said.
“Yes, I’m sure the other members of your little pack that have gone missing are gone right now. Go ahead, check,” Telal said with that same straight face.
Lily marched up to him and slapped him across the face. He slowly turned his head to look at her and a small spark of anger, or something, was there.
“Don’t ever hit me, lilit.” His words were deathly quiet, controlled.
“Then don’t pull this nonchalant attitude with me. This is my sister you’re talking about.”
He shrugged.
Thane had already taken off into the pack to find out about Stephanie. He came back a few minutes later, a grim look on his face.
“Stephanie’s parents say she left the house to go to a friend’s house, but none of the guards have seen her all night.”
“See, she’s been using them all along. It’s a smart way to infiltrate the enemy really,” Telal said.
Lyonis made another lunge for the demon, but stopped when Lily stretched up on her toes, grabbed the demon’s golden-skinned face in her small hands, and planted a big kiss on him.
She pulled away before he could push her off. The demon looked...stunned.
“I told you not to touch me.”
“You said not to hit you. Say another smart-ass comment while my sister’s in danger and I’ll keep planting them on you. One horrible kiss at a time, got me?” The hard edge to her voice belied the teasing words. The demon twitched but didn’t say anything.
“How do I get to her?” While she’s still alive, he added silently. He could sense her, feel her, as all mates could do. He could feel the strength of her soul still beating, but for how long?
All eyes trained on Telal.
He crossed his arms across his big chest. “I can teleport to the deepest level of the rift.”
Lyonis shook off the arms holding him. “Take me now.”
“But,” Telal interjected, “I can only take one other person with me at a time and you won’t be able to kill the demon.”
“Yes he can!” Lily said. “She was stolen from the house so the potion and dagger should still be here. He can take that down there and use it.”
Telal rounded on her. “A mere dag and vanishing spell will not kill Dura.”
Lily cocked her head to the side. “Yes. It. Will. The dagger was enchanted and blessed by a good friend of mine.”
Telal tossed back his head and laughed.
“You may have heard of her, Rosa El Blanco.”
His laughter died, his expression almost becoming angry. “You know Rosa the White?”
“We’re besties,” she whispered fiercely.
Telal looked as if he didn’t believe her but then he just shrugged. “If the white witch has truly enspelled the weapon then you may serve to deal damage to the demon. Though I doubt it can kill it; perhaps just hurt it.”
“Take me there now,” he said to Telal.
Turning, Lyonis ordered Jackie to grab the dagger and spell. She returned with it a minute later. He saw the worry and hesitation in her eyes. She was worried about her Alpha. But he could issue no comforting words to her now.
Lyonis took the dagger from her and instantly felt the power in it. It was heavy but not from its mass; the spell held a positive, wavering energy around it like an aura. He clenched it in his hand then stepped towards the demon.
“Please bring her back,” Chloe said, tears falling down her face. The sisters huddled next to each other, hands held tightly.
Telal stepped forward, clasped Lyonis’ shoulder in his hand and said, “Hold tight.”
And then they disappeared.
Chapter 40
The dark, endless sky above cracked with streaks of silver lightning. Thunder boomed in the open space around her and Willow struggled to sit up to see. What kind of magic was this?
She cried out as her broken ribs stabbed at her. The sky formed a white slit that reminded her of a thin cloud, and then it was gone and two men appeared on the ground. The demon roared and spewed garbled words. Danny, Stephanie, and Rachel launched themselves at the intruders.
Willow gasped at the sight, blinking several times as unbelievable hope filled her chest.
“Lyonis!” It came out more as a croak, but he heard her.
He turned back to look at her just as Danny tackled him down to the ground. His eyes took in everything in a blink, then his gaze focused on the boy on top of him, and she saw his pained expression.
The blue-haired demon was here too. He locked into a battle with Rachel as Stephanie sidestepped around him to engage with Lyonis. Telal quickly got Rachel in a chokehold.
Willow struggled to her feet, favoring her good leg. Her chest hurt to breathe, to move, and hell, it hurt even when she didn’t move, but she stood.
“Don’t kill her!” she screamed.
The blue-haired demon flicked her an annoyed gaze, and tightened the pressure around Rachel’s neck. Her eyes fluttered shut slowly and her body slumped. Telal dropped her to the ground, surprisingly gently.
He squared off with the demon who started chanting more dark words. Black, wispy smoke came out from the ground and slowly took the shape of clawed hands. Another arm appeared then dozens of skeletal bodies, black and oozing like tar, pulled out from the sharp ground with groans and moans.
Willow made her way towards Lyonis, dragging her useless leg and holding her ribs. She had to help him, had to kiss him one last time just in case they didn’t make it.
Telal suddenly let out a fierce battle cry. The sound brought chills down her body and made her pause at its power.
Lyonis also knocked down Danny and Stephanie without killing them, and then he rounded on Dura. Dura took a hard step back and Willow toppled to the ground with a choked scream as her hurt leg roared with pain. Only Telal and Lyonis didn’t budge
as the demon moved with quaking steps.
Willow refused to give up. She had to help them.
The black, oozing monsters she’d summoned surrounded Lyonis and Telal, screeching war cries. Willow rolled onto her stomach and used her elbows to lift herself off her broken ribs. The pain was excruciating; tears fell again and again, intermixed with her sobs of pain as she crawled, dragging her useless leg behind her.
Lyonis transformed. She’d never seen anything like it.
He let out an unholy roar as his body grew into a great monstrous beast. A gigantic wolverine, Lyonis towered as tall as the demon with claws as long as a butcher’s knife, legs as thick as tree trunks and brown shaggy fur covered pointed ears, a fanged mouth, and a monstrous chest. Still, he clenched the miniscule dagger in his paw and launched himself at the demon.
He hit it, knocking the demon to the ground. They rolled together and then he plunged the dagger into the demon’s big rounded belly.
Telal spun on the black summoned beings. He held out his hands and spoke harsh demonic words. The beings slammed against an invisible barrier, falling backwards, only to charge again and again at it.
Telal’s expression was fierce as he kept his palm out, then faced his other palm to the ground as if he was coaxing something to come out of it. And then white streaks of energy like shafts of sunlight came out. Brilliant blinding light. The demons screamed and scuttled away from the light as they ran. Those that were too late, too slow, were pierced with the light and exploded in a buff of black smoke.
Willow continued to crawl, somehow managing to move with the intense pain inside her. Lyonis and the demon continued to fight, claws slashing and missing as they both dodged each other’s blows.
She had eyes only for him as Telal continued to destroy the summoned creatures.
Lyonis faced off against the demon. The slash in its belly oozed black blood on the sharp ground. Lyonis lunged forward in his great form and slashed two-handed down the demon’s middle. He caught scaly skin, ripping it in shreds down the front. More blood spilled, but the demon didn’t drop, didn’t seem to weaken.
Telal turned to her with wide eyes. “The spell!” he shouted over the screams and shouts of the monsters.
Startled, she remembered the words and started chanting. Her voice was a croak. Each time she tried to scream to be heard over the monsters, her chest constricted, ribs stabbing at her. Still she continued to crawl forward, chanting the words.
“Go back whence you came, I unsummon thee, demon!”
The demon slashed forward, and Willow stopped moving as the demon’s black claws caught at Lyonis’ shoulder and slashed down. He let out a painful cry as he dropped to his knees. He wobbled for a moment, then collapsed to the ground, his body once again returning to its human state.
“No, no, no,” she cried over and over again as she crawled faster.
Telal spoke louder, fiercer and then the entire room was blinded in piercing white light. The summoned demons exploded in loud cracking explosions like firecrackers. Their black bodies formed a big smoky cloud that smelled so strongly of sulfur that Willow’s eyes burned.
Lyonis pulled his shaking body up onto his knees, but then the demon cried out a garbled sound and slammed its massive leg into his back. Willow stopped moving.
As if in slow motion, she watched as Lyonis cried out then slammed against the ground with a nasty crunch of breaking bones. He laid there, body unmoving.
Telal cursed loudly and dove for the dagger. Turning back to her he yelled, “Don’t fear it! Its power is based off your fear; you summoned it!”
Willow heard his words but they didn’t break through the cold shell around her. Her eyes couldn’t move from Lyonis’ prone body. She moved towards him, the pain she’d been feeling nothing to what her heart was feeling in her chest. The sobs couldn’t be stopped by time she reached his side.
She heard both demons speaking in that dark demonic language, heard the chanting of spells going back and forth but she couldn’t watch. Didn’t even care anymore. She collapsed next to Lyonis and lifted his head onto her lap.
The tears were blocking her vision, making it blurry, so she wiped them away fiercely.
“My love,” she said. She couldn’t stop touching his face, his lifeless body.
Telal let out a pained shout and then he landed in a hard mass next to them. Willow lifted her gaze from Lyonis with a serene, calm look on her face.
Telal looked at her and sighed as he grimaced his way to a sitting position. “Glad you do not fear it anymore, but I need you to do one more thing.”
Willow heard his words but didn’t comprehend them. He handed the silver dagger to her and when her lax fingers dropped it, he picked it up and curled her fingers hard around the handle.
Grabbing her by the back of her neck, he leaned his face close to hers. “I can save him if you kill it.”
She blinked, his words finding their way into the thick, numb cloud in her mind.
“Huh,” she said slowly.
He spoke clearly, slowly. “I said I can save him if you kill the demon. No fear, you know what to do.”
Her heart pounded with a wild, frantic beat as she came to a wobbling stand. The demon teetered on its feet, so much black blood spilling out of its wounds and pooling around it. It must be hurt or else it would have come after her.
Willow cradled her ribs gently, dragged her hurt leg behind her, as she slowly made her way towards the demon. No fear. Save Lyonis. Save the baby.
“I love him so damned much demon. You can’t take that away from me,” she said fiercely. Tears slid down her face.
The demon held out its big hand and started chanting.
From behind her Telal shouted, “Now, Willow!”
Willow flung the dagger hard. It whipped around flying end over end. It seemed to take forever to watch it move. Willow waited, body still, breath held. With a dull thud it landed in the demon’s chest. The spell Lily’d given her came from her mouth, faster and faster, louder and louder.
“Go back whence you came, I unsummon thee, demon!”
The demon squealed; the horrendous sound carrying so much energy it knocked Willow down to the ground. Still, she kept saying the words, over and over again. A loud rumble came from the ground; the distant walls shook and crumbled to the floor in large chunks. The place was going to collapse in on itself, she thought rather calmly.
The demon dropped to its knees and pulled the dagger out. It glowed white as the holiest of lights in its black hand. The light became so blinding that Willow looked away as she whispered the spell from her chapped lips.
The demon became engulfed in the surrounding white light. With a final terrifying cry, the demon exploded. Thick, black, viscous fluid flew in every direction with a loud boom. Willow ducked away, covering her face as the black filth landed over her clothes, hair, and skin like tar.
Then all was quiet.
Willow looked around in a daze. Telal watched her with a peculiar look on his face. Then he glanced down at Lyonis and said, “Come, lilit, I’ll do this thing for you.”
How could he bring back the dead? The cold, harsh word brought forth a rush of hot tears as she crawled so damned slowly back to her mate. A sob left her followed by more as she fell onto his cooling body.
Telal grabbed her shoulder and nudged her back. “Move on now, the quicker I do this the better chance it’ll work.”
Willow moved back from him, feeling drugged and drunk, her body and mind loopy.
Telal leaned over Lyonis and pressed his palms over one shoulder and then the other. His eyes closed, breathing became deep, each breath being held longer than the next. Soft, strange words left him in a rush. He spoke with a passionate energy that even Willow could feel. Goose bumps spread over her body, the hair on her arms stood up—and she had the distinct, peculiar feeling that something great was happening.
White energy blasted out of Telal’s hands. He grunted, but kept speaking. Willow watched as
the color came back into Lyonis’ face with a jolt. His chest moved as if he’d been zapped with a defibrillator. Telal’s arms started shaking, his eyes closed as if in pain, but still he kept chanting those strange words. Lyonis’ body jerked again and then his eyes were blinking frantically; he gasped one ragged breath of air.
Telal’s face was ashen, eyes red and bloodshot when he opened them. He shook like a leaf in a storm.
Lyonis came to like he was going into battle. He shoved Telal away from him and came to a stand, his eyes looking around the room for any threats, then he spotted the exploded pieces of Dura. His eyes landed on her next. He dropped on his knees before her.
Tears wouldn’t stop falling, then suddenly she burst into a fit of laughter. Lyonis’ gaze traveled over her body repeatedly as he tracked her many injuries. Shit, where wasn’t she hurt, she thought.
Then she threw her arms around him. He squeezed her close, arms shaking around her. He accidently put pressure on her ribs and the pain became unbearable. She let out a cry and passed out in his wonderful arms.
Chapter 41
One month later
Willow swayed in his arms, her head resting on his chest as the soft, classical violins created a soothing rhythm around them. Other couples danced and swirled hand in hand, cheek to cheek at the packs first ever dance festival.
Willow’d insisted on having a dance festival after defeating the demon Dura and getting out of that hell with her man—alive. What had surprised her was that Lyonis hadn’t been surprised at her declaration for an impromptu dance. Maybe he’d even understood her need to have a moment like this with him, surrounded by the pack.
Rachel, Danny, and Stephanie returned to themselves after the demon’s death and aside from needing some therapy, their families stated they were doing well.
The pack was once again happy, the tension gone with the death of the demon. And most of all, her mate was alive and well. She still didn’t quite understand how Telal brought Lyonis back to life. She’d wanted to ask him after she woke up in the medical ward, but he’d already dissolved back home without a word to anyone apparently. He’d just ported all of them back one person at a time, then disappeared before anyone could say anything.