No. I shoved that thought away. I couldn’t risk it. Not when Jenna and Sam were counting on me. If I had to choose between them and Maya, well, Maya was already dead. She’d have an eternity to escape.
“Trust me, Maya,” I said as I pointed the gun at her and started to pull the trigger. “Please stop.”
Maya slammed on the brakes of the trike, and we went into a skid as her tires squealed. My arm screamed in pain as I was thrown forward, but thankfully my magical hold on her trike kept me from becoming road putty.
We stopped just as Dante zoomed past us, which was absolutely, one hundred percent, not according to plan. Where the fuck was Sam?
A quick glance over my shoulder revealed Sam’s trike in a dead stop behind us. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with it, but either way it wasn’t moving.
“No!” I screamed, my heart sinking as I reached out toward Dante’s trike. Maybe I could stop him too.
“Mac, what’s wrong?” Maya asked, looking from me to Dante.
“We’ve got to stop Dante!” I cried, and as I said it, Maya cursed and slammed her foot down on the accelerator.
“You’re such a fucking idiot!” Maya snarled as we took off in a burst of speed that sent a fresh jolt of pain through my shoulder. I narrowed my eyes against the onslaught of wind as I grabbed onto the roof of the trike with my left hand and prepared to let go with my magic so I could try to blast him.
Before I could, Mammon appeared in front of our trike in a burst of pink and held one white gloved hand out toward us. We crashed into him, and our trike practically disintegrating as it wrapped around him like he was one of those cement security barriers.
My body lurched forward, and as it did, he grabbed me around the throat and pulled. My magical grip on the roof of the trike ripped free in a shriek of flesh, bone, and steel as he pulled me close to his face and smiled like a crazy person.
“I thought about how everything has gone, and though I tried to get over it, I realized I can’t, Mac.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’d say it’s not you, but it is.” Pink fire flashed through his soulless, flat predator eyes as I struggled helplessly to get free of him.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked as Dante crossed the finish line behind him and a bolt of fucking lightning came down and struck his trike. In that moment, I knew we’d lost. Not just the race, but everything. There was no way we were getting out of here.
“Do you even have to ask?” he said, smirking as he touched his chest with his free hand. “I’m a fucking demon.”
26
I took a deep breath, trying to figure out what to do when Maya leapt out of the trike and stared down the demon holding me by the throat.
“Get your hands off of him, Mammon,” she said, raising one hand. As she did, it began to glow with white light that seemed to bend the reality around her. No, I’m totally serious here. It was like Hell retreated from her as she strode forward, light swirling around her like fucking battle armor. “Or I will fuck up your whole day.”
Mammon, glanced at her and a snarl erupted from deep within his throat. “How did you get that in here?” he asked, and I could have sworn, I detected a hint of fear in his voice.
“Put him down.” A blade of solid white light appeared in her hand, and she swept it through the air. The smell of burning ozone filled my nose, but weirder still, was that her slash left a permanent scar upon reality. “No more chances.”
The demon dropped me, and I hit the pavement hard. He took a step past my fallen form, puffing out his chest as he glared at Maya. “You wouldn’t dare.” His grin was back, but it hardly reached his eyes.
“Fucking try me,” Maya snorted, taking a step toward him. As she did, the demon actually backed up.
“You’ll regret this,” Mammon said, lunging forward. Maya swung her blade, but the demon was so fast, it almost didn’t matter. Her blade sank deep into Mammon’s abdomen as he backhanded her across the face with enough force to send her flying twenty feet through the air. She hit the ground with an earth shattering crunch and bounced.
The smell of burning meat filled the air as tendrils of white light began to worm out of the wound in Mammon’s stomach. He turned his eyes on it and stared down at the blade lodged in his torso as his golden demon blood began to bubble and hiss.
I scrambled to my feet as Mammon gripped the blade by its golden hilt. The flesh on his hand melted, filling the air with the smell of charred meat as he tore it free and tossed it onto the ground. It hit the pavement with a small thwap before exploding into a thousand fragments of scintillating white light that quite literally ate through the air itself.
White light streamed from the molten tears in the fabric of Hell as Mammon began to stalk toward Maya, his good hand gripping his abdomen as golden blood flowed through his fingers. His other arm hung limply at his side, and as he moved, the bones and flesh of his hand disintegrated until there was nothing below the wrist at all.
“You may have injured me,” he said, approaching Maya’s prone form. “I’m not even sure why you’re here with a blessing this strong, but I intend to find out, Demon Hunter.”
“No!” I cried, pulling my Glock and firing at Mammon in one smooth motion. I kept pulling the trigger until the gun went empty, but it didn’t much matter because the bullets stopped inches from the Prince of Greed and hung in the air like he was Neo from the Matrix.
“This does not concern you, Mac Brennan.” He waved his hand, and the bullets flew back at me. “But don’t worry, I’ll be with you shortly.”
I dove to the side. The bullets narrowly missed me as I rolled to my feet. He was almost to Maya, and while I wasn’t sure how she’d done whatever it was she’d done, I knew she wouldn’t be doing it in the condition she was in. No, I had to stop this.
“Stop!” I cried, reaching out toward him with my cursed hand. I could feel my power waning, and I was willing to bet he wouldn’t let me try to suck the energy out of him, but I had to try something, and at the moment, Hellfire was in vogue.
“No,” Mammon said, swiping his hand through the air. Maya’s ruined trike skidded across the pavement toward me, and it was all I could do to leap across the hood before it turned me into a bloody smear. As I landed hard on the ground, I realized there might be a way to stop him if he was as greedy as everyone said he was. I just had to offer him something he couldn’t refuse.
Mammon bent down toward Maya and grabbed her by the hair. As he hoisted the unconscious girl into the air, I got unsteadily to my feet.
“Mammon, I challenge you to a game of darts.” I took a breath as he turned his gaze upon me, and I could see the hamster wheel behind his eye turning. “Winner takes all.”
“What are the terms?” he asked, curiosity peaked.
“Our freedom. All of us,” I said, gesturing at Maya. “Maya, Jenna, Sam, and me.”
“And what do I get if you lose, which you shall?” He began moving toward me. He was limping now, his shirt was stuck to his body with golden blood. I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t healing, but I was glad for it.
“Whatever you want,” I said, and Mammon grinned.
“Okay,” he said, a sneer crossing his lips. “If I win, I get all your souls. ALL OF THEM.” His gaze flitted past me, and I glanced over my shoulder to see both Jenna and Sam approaching. “What do you say, Sammy?”
“No one lives forever,” Sam replied as he slapped a hand on my shoulder and leaned in close to me. “Please win,” he whispered before making eye contact with Mammon. “Me and mine agree to the terms. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to shake hands with the winner. It’s called sportsmanship.”
“Excellent,” Mammon said as Sam strode past him toward where Dante stood celebrating at the finish line. I wasn’t sure what his plan was, but as I watched him go, determination settled over me. I’d beaten a demon in a game of darts before, and I could do it again. Prince of Greed be damned.
“Mac, do you know what you’re doing?” Jenna asked, her eye
s flitting between me and the demon. “No one ever wins bets with demons.”
“I do,” I said, hoping I was right as I moved toward Mammon. He was starting to pale, probably from blood loss. I needed to do this before he recovered. “Let’s go.” I smacked my hands together. “Unless you’re too scared.”
“I know what you’re doing,” Mammon replied, dropping Maya’s body to the ground. She landed with a thud that made me wince. “You think because I am weakened, I will lose. It won’t help you.”
He waved his hand, and as he did, a dartboard sprang melded upward from the ground like a liquid metal terminator.
“Ladies and gentleman,” Mammon’s voice boomed across the stadium as he gestured to me with his stump. “This mortal has challenged me to a game of darts. Do you wish to bear witness?” A murmur fell across the crowd, and I almost got the impression they were afraid.
I wasn’t quite sure what they said because their voices were too muffled for me to understand. However, they all silenced when the dwarf from earlier began striding across the track toward us.
It was dead silent by the time he reached us and looked from Mammon to me and back to the demon. “The senior partners have agreed to allow you the use of our venue for this challenge.” He gestured toward me. “I will judge the challenge. What is the game, and what are the terms?”
Mammon told him, and as he spoke, the dwarf’s face paled. When he turned his eyes upon me, he was visibly shaken. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, but a bad feeling had settled over me. Why was everyone so scared? Surely our little contest couldn’t be that important.
“Very well,” the dwarf nodded to us both and reached into one deep pocket. He pulled two sets of gleaming darts from it and offered us each a set. “Each of you will begin with a score of 501. You will each get three turns in which to draw your score to exactly zero. If you reduce your score below zero, your turn will be voided. The person with the lowest score at the end of the round wins. In the event of a tie, we start a new round. Understand?”
“Yes,” Mammon said, and as he spoke, the ground shook beneath my feet. It probably should have bothered me, but since I was guessing he was trying to rattle me, I ignored it.
“Good,” the dwarf said, glancing at me as he fumbled with a coin. “Who calls?”
“He can go first,” I said, shrugging. “He’s going to lose, anyway.” I grinned at Mammon, who looked somewhat taken aback. It’d seemed like he’d been about to argue, but instead he watched me carefully.
“Okay,” the dwarf said and nodded to Mammon. “You may begin.”
The demon smiled at me, and with a flick of his wrist, threw the darts at the board, nailing all of them into the triple twenty. I sighed as I watched. So it was going to be one of those games.
27
It’d been twenty rounds, and I was starting to get tired. Mammon had been fairly consistent, throwing two triple twenties and finishing with a 141 checkout almost every time. I could tell he wasn’t quite as good as Vassago had been, but at the same time, he was still doing well enough that on a long enough time frame I might lose. That thought made me go cold inside. If I lost, I’d have ruined everything. There’d be no escape. Even Sam would be trapped here because of it, and he trusted me to win. He, along with Jenna and Maya were counting on me, and I swore I wouldn’t fail them no matter what.
Besides, Mammon was dying. I just needed to hold out a little longer because a pool of golden demon blood surrounded the demon’s feet as he stood there, lining up for his final dart. His pants and shirt had long since soaked through and he was visibly shaking. I just had to hold out until he passed out. Hopefully, I could.
Unfortunately, he just needed a double twelve to reduce his score to zero and then it would be my turn. I wasn’t worried about being able to check out myself, but I was worried about the prospect of standing out here forever. Sam had long since returned and now waited patiently beside Jenna. Maya was still unconscious, but I tried to ignore that since when I’d glanced at her, Sam had given me a thumbs up. He might have been lying, but either way they were all counting on me.
As Mammon reared back to throw, an explosion of emerald fire erupted from a foot to his left. He turned his head toward it as the dart left his hand and sank into the triple twelve. My mouth dropped open in surprise as Vassago appeared beside the Prince of Greed wearing an orange bowling shirt and tan slacks. He flashed a predatory smile at Mammon.
“I heard there was an awesome game of darts going on,” Vassago said, glancing from Mammon to the board, and then to me. His eyes twinkled mischievously. “But looks like you just went past zero. Doesn’t that mean you lose all your points this round?” The demon prince shook his head in disgust, but I almost didn’t notice because I was suddenly so excited I couldn’t breathe. I could end this now!
Mammon spun on his heel and glared at Vassago. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”
“Watched you lose?” Vassago replied, shrugging as his eyes raked over the pink-suited Mammon. “Go ahead, Mac. Show him how the game is played.” He flashed a shark-like smile at me.
I nodded and stepped up to throw as Mammon glared at me so hard, I actually felt my clothes start to smolder.
“Now, now, none of that.” Vassago waved his hand, and the heat vanished. “No one likes a cheater.”
I concentrated and threw my first dart, sinking it into the triple twenty. A hush fell over the crowd as I readied my next throw. It went true and hit the triple nineteen, reducing my score to a cool fifty points. Now all I needed was a bullseye to seal the deal.
“Looks like you’re going to lose,” Vassago said as I lined up the throw. Before I could let the dart free, Mammon lunged at me, his good hand snaking out like a claw. His fingers swiped at me, passing within a hair’s breadth of my throat.
Vassago jerked the Prince of Greed backward, his hand tight on Mammon’s collar and held him there like a naughty kitten. “Go on, Mac. I’ll keep the riffraff from cheating.” He glanced at Mammon and waggled a stubby finger in his face. “For shame.”
“Do you know what you’re costing me?” Mammon snarled, spit flicking from his lips as he spoke.
“Never bet what you cannot afford to lose, Mammon,” Vassago said, shrugging off Mammon’s glare. “How does that make you feel?”
I ignored the two of them as I sank my last dart neatly in the bullseye, reducing my score to zero. A grin spread across my lips as the dwarf stared at the board and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“The winner is Mac Brennan,” he said, and though the words were quiet, they seemed to boom in the silence of the arena. “So it is and so it shall be. Mammon has lost claim to these four souls.”
“Well, how about that,” Vassago said as he casually flung Mammon backward over his shoulder. Mammon landed in a heap on the ground, and as he tried to get to his feet, Vassago snapped his fingers. Green flame engulfed the demon, and his screams filled my ears.
“Thanks,” I whispered, watching Vassago carefully. I wasn’t sure what his game was. I doubted he was here to help me, but then again, Vassago was an opportunist.
“Don’t mention it,” Vassago said, slapping me on the back. “Mac Brennan, two-time demon dart champion. Who would have thought?” An evil grin spread across his face as he let go of me and moved toward Mammon. “Now move along. I have some territory to acquire.”
I sighed. Of course. Now it made sense why Van had helped me. Vassago had coveted Mammon and Asmodai’s territory, and what better way to get it than by helping me. I suddenly felt used and dirty, but at the same time, we were free, even Maya.
“I knew you could do it,” Sam said, sidling up next to me. He had Maya slung over one shoulder. The girl was still unconscious but seemed otherwise okay. I mean, she was still breathing and was already dead, so yeah…
“You did not. You gasped every time he threw a dart,” Jenna said, glancing at him.
“I believed in you in spi
rit,” Sam said, turning away as Vassago reached into the writhing flame. A shriek erupted from Mammon as Vassago tore something black and pulsing free of the fires and held it up.
“I claim these lands in my name unless anyone wishes to challenge me for them?” Vassago asked, but no one responded. I’d never heard an arena so quiet. “Excellent.”
“How about we get out of here?” Sam said, moving toward me and pushing the ring into my hand. It glowed with ethereal crimson light, and as it touched my skin, I nearly shrank back. It was hot.
“But we lost,” I said, confusion filling my voice as I stared at the ring.
“Nah,” Sam shrugged. “I gave the ring to Dante. Said I’d help him win if he held onto it. You’re welcome.”
“You should have told me,” I said, slipping it on my finger. Something about it felt like coming home. “Maybe I wouldn’t have had to fight a giant fucking ogre.”
Sam looked at me in confusion. “He was supposed to help you.”
“Well, he did for a bit, then he tried to smash in my skull.” I sighed and put the ring on. I could have sworn I felt the cat demon’s presence, but as I reached for her, it was still that same feeling of being alone in the dark and knowing a monster was creeping up behind you. Oddly enough, it was strangely reassuring because she was my monster.
“Ogres. What are you gonna do?” Sam shrugged and took my hand while gesturing for Jenna to do the same. “Vassago, do you mind helping us out?”
“Not even a little,” Vassago said, coming toward us. His mouth was covered in golden ichor, and the writhing bit of meat in his hand appeared to be missing several bites. He looked pointedly at Sam. “Remember, once you leave, don’t come back.”
“I don’t plan on coming back,” Sam said, and the way he said it made me turn to look at him. The cat in my mind hissed, and though the sound was far off, it felt like somebody walking over my grave.
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