Savior (Starlight Book 4)

by D. N. Hoxa

  I sheathed my katana and took out a small knife. Samayan’s soldiers took a step forward. The table disappeared into thin air and the next second, both Seriel and the werewolf who had taken Everett’s place jumped in front of Samayan. But Samayan wasn’t my target.

  Azazel was.

  The knife slid from my hand and hit him right in the chest. His face registered surprise for a short second. Kyahen flew forward, his wicked sword drawn. He was met by Karina, who for a second, suspended him on air. Kai ran forward, too, straight for Samayan. The werewolf met her halfway.

  The rest of the group charged, too. And I? I watched as Azazel took a step back, and Aaron began to run towards me.

  I remembered when Ella and my father had been under the influence of the potion in Lyndor, when McGraw was still alive. I remembered exactly how it had felt when they’d attacked me. This felt no different. I was frozen in place as Aaron ran and ran, then aimed his fist at my jaw. I leaned back at the last second.

  “Aaron,” I breathed, but I shouldn’t have bothered. This person in front of me was not Aaron. It was Azazel, controlling his body and mind while he cowered back and smiled.

  Dodging his hits wasn’t hard because I knew exactly how Aaron fought. I knew his body language better than my own. The problem was, he knew how I fought, too. I tried and tried to hit him hard in the head to render him unconscious, but I never succeeded. I also tried to grab him by the throat and put him to sleep, but no luck there, either. Killing him crossed my mind for a second, as the sound of battle filled my ears, but it was just a thought. I would never kill the man I loved, even though I knew he’d come back.

  “Arturo!” I called and hoped he’d be able to hear me. He was fighting the new warlock Samayan had recruited, as Jack, Frosty and Everett’s wolf fought against Vladimir. Edison fought alone against three Royal Guards…nope, two Royal Guards now.

  Frosty must have heard me because he broke from the circle around Vladimir and charged the warlock. Arturo ran and put himself between me and Aaron.

  “Don’t hurt him,” I said, but I couldn’t be sure he heard me as Aaron attacked him with his fists because the fucking demon hadn’t even given him any weapons.

  Finally free, I charged forward. Azazel knew I was coming for him, but he didn’t look concerned. Instead, he grinned brightly as he uncrossed his arms from in front of his chest and stepped forward to meet me. With Bob in one hand and Frosty’s blade in the other, I jumped in the air and crashed onto him before he had the chance to call on his magic. As we rolled on the ground, trying but failing to grab and hold each other, I began to feel it. It was exactly as it had felt when the demon Abrax tried to possess me in his tattoo parlor, only this time, the power was a hundred times stronger. My knees buckled and my hands began to lose hold off the handles of my dagger and sword.

  The feeling began in my chest, sparkling to life like a ball of fire, and it spread fast through the rest of me. Bob fell from my hands first, then the sword. I took a step back, thinking that if I put some distance between us, he’d lose his hold over me. I was wrong. Alarms rang in my head as my own hand reached behind me for one of my guns without my consent. Fear gripped me by the throat. I wasn’t that weak, was I?

  “Surrender now, Raven,” Samayan said. He was right there, next to my left ear, whispering to me, yet I couldn’t even turn my head. “You’ll get your sister back. Your lover back. I’ll even spare the traitor leopard. You have my word.”

  My jaw didn’t work. My hand was in front of me now, my finger on the trigger of my gun. The gun that I was slowly aiming at myself.

  “This isn’t worth giving your life for when the alternative is so much better. Think of all the power,” Samayan whispered in my other ear now, and I hadn’t even felt him move.

  Power. I was thinking about all the power pouring from Azazel’s chest. I couldn’t see it through his black shirt, but I was certain that Illyon was around his neck, still a necklace as I’d made it. It was so close to me now, almost as if I were touching it.

  As my hand rose and rose, and the barrel of the gun pressed against my temple, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, focusing only on Illyon’s energy. It was mine. No, it was me. And together, we could command the elements whichever way we pleased.

  I chose air.

  Blow, I ordered, and even before I’d fully opened my eyes, Azazel was against the wall. In fact, he’d fallen against one of Samayan’s soldiers. Unfortunately for me, my finger began to put some pressure on the trigger. Azazel was not giving up.

  In my mind, I created an airless bubble around his mouth and nose. No air was going to go through to him now. He was a demon, an undead, but this was just a body made of flesh and blood he lived in. He wasn’t a vampire, so he wouldn’t be able to survive without air.

  A second later, my muscles began to loosen. Azazel’s dark eyes were wide in panic as he struggled to draw in air. I let him slide to the ground for a second, then floated him on air. He still managed to keep me at least a bit frozen, enough so that my senses were overrun by him and I no longer saw anything move in slow motion. I fought his hold as I took step after step towards his body, my hand reaching out for his chest. If I could just touch Illyon…

  Black smoke began to surround Azazel’s body when I was just a foot away from him. He’d closed his eyes and no longer tried to breathe. The smoke swirled and swirled around him before suddenly jumping at my face.

  It was like acid. Everything in my body screamed in pain. I lost hold of the demon, and he fell to the floor, his eyes now open, his chest moving up and down. He stood up, no longer smiling, and he came at me as I backed away as fast as I could. Which wasn’t nearly fast enough.

  The burning sensation didn’t stop. It only increased when his large hand wrapped around my throat.

  “You wanted to suffocate me?” he asked, and he seemed shocked.

  When he tightened his fingers around me, I realized he wasn’t expecting an answer. The smoke was still on my face, burning me, making sure very little air reached my open mouth. But Illyon was even closer to me now. If I could get through Azazel’s arms, I could even touch it. I stopped breathing altogether because the smoke was burning my throat and my chest now, too. I called on air again, my hold even stronger this time, and it launched like small rockets from each pore on my skin, expelling Azazel’s smoke in a matter of seconds. I didn’t give him the time to be surprised. I held onto him, focusing all of my energy into gathering all the air my powers could reach. He wasn’t going anywhere now.

  I pried his fingers open from around my neck as he watched me, terrified. As soon as I could speak again, I called out with all my voice.

  “Arturo!”

  It would have been so easy to drive a sword in Azazel’s chest, then cut off his head. But that would mean he’d still have control over Aaron when he came back to Earth. A Nephil, the offspring of an Angel was the only being who could make sure that didn’t happen, and Arturo, my coach, ex-lover and now my friend, ran for us, Frosty’s sword in his hand.

  Azazel began to move, putting all of his strength into resisting me and the air that held him motionless, but Arturo was already there, right behind him. He cut through Azazel’s head while the demon’s hand was still around my throat. When the air released his headless body, it fell to the floor with a loud thump.

  Finally, I thought as I looked up at Arturo, but what I saw wiped the smile right off my face. The blade of a katana was coming out of Arturo’s chest. He looked at me, eyes wide and mouth open, then fell to his knees, revealing Aaron, the sword’s handle still in his hands.

  “Aaron, no!” I shouted, but it was already done. I ran to Arturo and caught him before his head hit the ground. “Shit, shit, shit.” I grabbed the blade close to the handle and pulled it out of Arturo’s body while Aaron watched, completely frozen in place. “Hold on, Arturo. You’re going to be fine.”

  Arturo looked up at me, blinking fast. “He caught my heart,” he whispered. “It’l
l be a while before I heal.”

  “I know, but you’ll be fine,” I said. Thank God he was a Nephil. A blade through the heart would hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t kill him.

  “Go, bella. Finish this,” he said.

  Reluctantly I laid him on the ground right next to Azazel’s headless body. “I’ll be back.”

  “Star?” Aaron said.

  When I looked up into his eyes, I found them blue, all trace of the black gone. A cry escaped my lips, and I jumped in his arms. Now was probably not the time, but I’d missed him so much. It felt like a lifetime ago when were at the Base, in bed, together.

  “What the hell is going on?” he mumbled against my neck.

  Letting him go was hard, but I had to do it. I looked into his eyes and though he was still pale and looked exhausted, he was alive and his mind and body were his own again. I went for Frosty’s blade that had slipped through my fingers when Azazel possessed me, and I handed it to him.

  “We need you,” I said, and without hesitation, he took the sword from me.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Before I had the chance to tell him to shut the hell up and get to fighting already, I saw Vladimir smiling at me.

  “Watch out!” I said to Aaron, even before Vlad disappeared from across the room, only to appear again right behind Aaron. Aaron swung the sword around without aim as I ducked down.

  For now, I had to leave Vlad to him. I needed to get my hands on Illyon. I leaned down over Azazel’s headless body, the chain of Illyon visible now, visible and soaking wet in the demon’s blood. My heart pounded in my chest as I reached for it, but when my fingers were barely an inch away, they froze.

  Azazel’s body began to move. It slid and slid until it was at least ten feet away from me, and when I looked up, dumbfounded, I saw Seriel, her arms stretched wide, walking toward me like she had all the time in the world.

  Her cold eyes locked with mine and her thin lips moved as she chanted whatever spell kept my hand frozen. Bob was there, within my reach, and I managed to grab it before her spell took hold of the rest of my body. As soon as the tip of the blade was between my fingers, I threw without aim.

  Bob buried itself deep inside Seriel’s gut. The witch grunted and stopped chanting for a second. A second that gave me back my hand and arm. I reached out for my second gun, the first lost. Aiming for her head, I fired the gun three times. But the bullets stopped midair, then fell to the floor.

  The witch chanted again, and my vision filled with black dots. She was trying to force me into an illusion, but I wasn’t going to have it. I’d had enough of illusions to last me a lifetime. I fought back with all my strength, some of it borrowed from Kyahen, and the rest from Illyon. I went for my knives, but I couldn’t aim properly. The old witch dodged without too much trouble. She circled me, her arms still stretched, Bob now on the floor, its blade red with her blood. She’d probably healed by now, and as I drew my katana and swung my arm around like a lunatic, she managed to take almost all of my vision away.

  Darkness everywhere I looked. It would suck to be killed by Seriel right now, though I doubted killing me was her intention. Her master wanted me alive.

  Left without options, and without any more knives to throw, I reached for the only thing I still had on my person: my Zippo. She was already expecting me to use air, and she would be able to counter my attack with her spells, but fire was a different story. It could burn through her spells as fast as she threw them at me.

  Completely blind to what was going on around me, I lit the Zippo and felt the fire as it came to life. With Illyon still close to me, I was able to seduce it fast enough. When the flames danced from the lighter and onto my palm, I rubbed my hands together. The smell filled my nostrils, and it acted as fuel. I threw the small ball I’d made forward, but nobody cried out in pain. So before I threw the other, I took a second to listen.

  The sound of clinging metal, gunshots, and stuff—possibly people—being thrown on the floor and against walls was overwhelming, but after a few seconds, I could hear Seriel step behind me. Without another thought, I turned as fast as my body would allow, and I threw the ball of flames behind me.

  Instantly, the darkness that blinded me disappeared, and I was looking straight at Seriel getting burned. Call me mad, but it was a fucking sight to see.

  She had her hands pulled up in fists as she chanted, and to my horror, the flames that burned her chest began to subside. Not on my watch. Already connected to the fire that made a mess out of her grey clothes, and probably her skin, I seduced them to spread faster. Wider. Swallow her whole. The fire obeyed and lazily slithered down to Seriel’s legs. She looked down at herself, her cold eyes filled with panic, because she threw spell after spell at my fire, but as soon as it went off, I made it spread again all over her. It looked like it hurt like a mother, and when she finally fell to her knees and looked behind me, I knew I’d won the fight against her. She was looking at her master for help.

  A grin stretched my lips as I stepped back and grabbed Bob. It was going to be a pleasure driving the blade straight through her heart and watching the life leave her body. When I was two feet away from her, she began to scream. The sound was horror-movie worthy, but it didn’t stop me from burying Bob deep in her chest. Her heart stopped beating, and I pulled the dagger out. Her torso was still on fire—I deliberately didn’t let it touch her neck or face—and I didn’t want Bob’s red leather handle to melt.

  There, I thought. One more enemy defeated. One less fairy debt to pay.

  “Enough.”

  The word was spoken in a normal tone, but coming out of Samayan’s lips, the whole room seemed to suddenly suspend in time. Illyon was just a few feet away, but fear burned my throat, just as Azazel’s smoke had. Would I make it to turn it back into a book, read it, then figure out how to use the power of the sky to defeat Samayan?

  Unlikely.

  And if he could command with just one word like that? I didn’t dare think about how screwed I was.

  “It seems I’ve wasted unnecessary time trying to get to your small, naive mind, Raven,” he said, then stood up. Nobody in the room moved a single muscle, myself included.

  Then Samayan appeared right in front of me and he actually slapped me. I fell back all the way to the wall and hit it with the back of my head so hard, I had no chance of landing on my feet. Something must have broken because I could no longer breathe. And Samayan was right in front of me again. His boot touched my cheek as he looked down at me in disgust. The next second, he was at my side, squatting down.

  Impossible, my brain insisted. He moved at an impossible speed. I couldn’t see him, even though everything and everyone else had just moved in slow motion for me.

  “Pathetic little creature,” Samayan mumbled.

  Before I could even drag in air as I healed, he grabbed me by the hair, and as if I was as light as a feather, he pulled me up. My feet dangled in air for a second, then he threw me again, all the way to the other side of the square room.

  I hit another wall, this one with my face. Nothing was broken because I managed to make it to my feet and turn around in time to see Samayan reach out a hand to me. My body floated on air as if invisible strings held me, and they carried me to the middle of the room, in front of Samayan. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breath. Fighting was now the last thing on my mind.

  “I gave you every chance,” Samayan said. “More than I’ve given anyone before.”

  His hand pulled into a fist. The sound of my own bones breaking was terrifying, but still nothing compared to the pain that followed it. My mouth opened, and I longed to scream but I couldn’t.

  Everything in me was detached. My legs, my arms, my chest, my neck…I was bleeding—I could smell it, but the only thing I could move were my eyes.

  The cold reality made the pain even worse. I was going to die in the next few minutes.

  “And what did you do? You diminished my army and you killed my people. For what?” Samayan his
sed, and with a single wave of his hand, he threw me to the other side of the room again. I was tired of hitting walls with my head, but this time, I didn’t even feel it. I was too busy being in agony from having every bone in my body broken. As scared as I was, I looked at the others, their eyes wide as they looked at me from across the room. They were all alive by some miracle, including Aaron. And they were all frozen, unable to even whisper a single word.

  I’m sorry, I tried to say, but speaking was out of the question. And then Samayan disappeared for a split second from the center of the room, then came back with a body in his arms. Ella.

  He let her go, and she fell to the floor in front of his feet. He looked at her, disgust clear on his face.

  “And after all of this, I’m still going to give you one more chance. One more. The whole world will be yours. Unlimited power. Unlimited possibilities,” Samayan said. “All you have to do is say yes.”

  He met my eyes, then slowly put his foot on Ella’s throat.

  “No,” I whispered, and I began to crawl towards them. The smell of burning flesh filled my nostrils and made me want to suffocate just when I’d healed enough to breathe. Seriel’s body still burned a few feet away from me.

  “She’s going to die. They are going to die”—Samayan pointed at my group, still as statues—“your people, my people are going to die, and then you’re going to die. Unless you say that one word.”

  He pulled his foot up and brought it down with all his strength right on Ella’s chest.

  I cried out with all the voice I could muster. “Stop it,” I begged. He had to stop it. She was my little sister. She hadn’t done any wrong to anyone. Her only flaw was that she was my family. She didn’t deserve to be treated like a fucking animal, but that wasn’t going to stop Samayan.

  So I crawled and crawled as fast as my broken body would let me, my eyes on Ella’s lifeless-looking face. If I could just get to her, shield her with my body…then what?