by AJ Mullican
“Well, we’ve got to get going.” Lena threads her fingers through Samsher’s and plants a kiss on his cheek. “I have to fuel up if we’re going to storm the warehouse, and no offense to Cherry and Holden for your hospitality, but after checking the traps and wards I put around our house, I’d say it’s safe for us to stay there for the night. I kind of want to sleep in my own bed again. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it.”
Cherry nods and wraps her arms around Holden’s waist. “So when do you think we should launch this assault on the demons’ lair? Tomorrow? Next week?”
“Tomorrow.” All eyes shift to me, and I realize I said it out loud. “I mean, c’mon, we’ve figured out the hard part: getting the demons out of the human bodies and weakening them. Now we have to finish getting ready and just do this. No more dicking around.”
Lena grins. “Now you’re talking.”
Chapter 19
The next twenty-four hours consist of me conjuring berries almost nonstop while Cherry and the Hunters juice them and bottle the results. I catnap for a few hours at midnight, but once the sky starts to lighten we’re all right back at it. We break for lunch at noon on D-Day, with no sign of Lena or the incubi. I’d worry, but Lena’s so capable I just can’t imagine her getting into trouble.
While we eat, we stream the final episode of this season of Orion’s Calling. It ends on a major cliffhanger, with Captain Hardigan lying in a pool of his own blood, and only the promise of another season to come next year gives me hope that he’s not dead. He’s my favorite; I’d hate to have to get used to a new captain in the next season. Cast changes always piss me off. Seems lazy on the part of the producers.
Twenty minutes into the behind-the-scenes special, Kamran appears out of nowhere smack-dab in the middle of the living room, his body covered in dark, oozing demon blood. He cradles a trembling Callie in his arms, and though more of the black blood smears across her cheeks, aside from minor acid burns from the blood she doesn’t appear injured herself.
“Kam! What the fuck happened?” Holden shoots up out of his seat and goes to the incubus as Oren scrambles to tend to the demon’s wounds. The massive shifter takes Callie from Kamran and lays her on the couch, which Billy, Kalen, and Rick vacate without hesitation. I gaze over at her light but see none of the demonic red that would indicate a spell.
Once he’s got Callie comfortable, he waves Cherry over to start healing the acid wounds. Holden whips around and stalks back over to Kamran. “Where are Lena and the others?”
Kamran coughs up black fluid and falls to his knees. Oren kneels at his side, his blue fae light glowing bright. “They have been taken. I escaped with young Calliope, but Lena and my brethren were captured.” He blinks, and his thick lashes push blood-red tears down his battered cheeks. His normally smooth, sultry voice rasps from his throat. “It was a setup. They allowed us entry into the warehouse, but as soon as the door shut behind us, they struck. The demons must have placed wards around the buildings that we did not detect.”
“Hold still, Kamran.” Oren’s hands hover over a large gash in the demon’s shoulder. “Your wounds are deep and numerous; this will take some time.”
I bite my lip ring and look back and forth between Kamran and Callie, trying to figure out where I can best be of help. Finn’s already kneeling at Callie’s side, holding her hand and threading his energy into her to calm her and bring her out of her shock. Oren seems to have a handle on Kam, even pushing Holden away when he offers to try his Alpha healing magic on the demon. Billy, the shifter who’s bonded most with Cal since they met, has turned full wolf, and he places his snout on her lap, whining deep in his throat.
Still not sure how I can help, I use my fae sight to assess the two escapees. Kamran’s reddish orange light glows dimmer than I’ve ever seen, but with each pass of Oren’s healing light it brightens a fraction. Callie’s light shakes more than she does; Finn’s spirit magic intertwines with her energies, calming her. Though both are far from any definition of “all right,” I don’t think they need me.
Holden runs his hands through his sandy hair and paces while my fae do their work. Matt wraps an arm around Cherry, who toys with the necklace Lena gave her. Rick and Kalen stand off to the side, speaking in low voices, and I feel kind of like an idiot for not doing something.
Once Kamran’s wounds heal up, Oren stops and wipes sweat from his brow. His skin, even paler than normal, has a thin sheen of perspiration on it, and I wonder how close Kamran was to dying just now. I’ve never seen Oren have to work so hard to heal someone. Could it be Kamran’s demon nature that caused the extra effort, or was it the sheer amount of damage he took?
“He gonna make it?” Holden’s question hangs heavy in the air.
Oren nods. “Yes. He will live, though I may need Molli’s help in determining if there are any active spells imbedded in his skin that could bring our enemies to your doorstep. I do not know enough about infernal languages and symbols to tell his normal tattoos from new ones that may have been applied by our foes.”
Ooh! Something useful for me to do! I jump out of my chair and squat next to Kam.
At first it’s hard to differentiate the magic in his infernal tattoos from his personal demonic energy, but once I get the hang of weeding out the deeper red areas, I dive in and search for any suspicious-looking lights over the markings. One in particular stands out, an elaborate design on his exposed bicep, and I peel back the shredded material of his shirt to get a closer look with my physical eyes as well as my fae vision.
Unlike his other tattoos, which glow with a more vibrant shade of his natural color, this glows a ruddy black, and it almost hurts to look at. I keep it in my peripheral vision to inspect it, and my stomach churns as I work out purpose behind the magic rolling over it and spreading across his arm in fat, winding tendrils. I swallow past a sudden lump in my throat and meet Kamran’s gaze.
“You know what this means, don’t you?” It’s half question, half statement, but I don’t want to be the one to break it to him if I’m right.
Kamran nods. “Yes. It’s a death sentence.”
Shit. Well, at least it won’t be news to him when I confirm it. “That’s what I was afraid of. I’m guessing you’ve got, what, half a day for us to figure out how to get this off of you?”
“If that. It was intended as insurance to keep me in Hell. The second I left with Calliope, it activated.”
A Goddamn booby-trap. A death mark. Essentially a slow-acting poison. Fuck. “You seem pretty calm for a dude who’s got half a day to live. If that.”
He shrugs. “I look at it as half a day to rescue Lena and the others.”
“Oh, no you don’t!” I smack him upside the head and roll up my sleeves. “Lena will fucking kill me if I let this thing kill you. No, once I’m done with you, you’ll have all the time in the world to find her and rescue her. I’m not about to give up on you just because this shit’s embedded deep and spreading fast.”
Cherry hands me a cup of the juice from our earlier efforts with my berries, but I shake my head and push the cup away. “Thanks, but we don’t know if that’s going to work. He’s been imbued with pure death, and I’m not sure some eau de Molli is going to work fast enough. I’ve gotta do it myself.”
I hold my hands above the death mark, but before I can focus my energies enough to try to remove it, Matt pipes up with a disturbing thought.
“If something like that will kill an immortal demon in half a day, what would it do to Lena—and Ben?”
Great. Now my hands won’t stop shaking.
“They had not marked Lena when I escaped. They merely imprisoned her. I would have retrieved her, but she insisted I rescue Calliope first.” Kamran twitches as my fingertips brush over the marked skin.
“You shouldn’t have listened to her,” Callie grumbles from over on the couch. I glance away from the death mark to see her sitting upright, scratching Billy between his ears. “She’s fucking pregnant, Kam! Why didn’t y
ou save her first?”
A dark haze flickers through Kamran’s life-light, and I scowl. “Ease up off him, Cal. He did what he thought was right in the heat of the moment. I don’t blame him for his choice.”
“But what if they give her the death tattoo? I don’t want to lose my sister and my nephew!”
“You won’t.” The certainty in Holden’s voice shuts her up. “We’ve got a good team here, and we’ll get them all back—alive—once Molli’s done here.”
Ignoring the implicit pressure in that statement, I go back to focusing on the task at hand. I poke the dark magic with my life energy, testing how the outlying tendrils react to it before diving in headfirst.
Once again, the world fades away, and there’s just a universe of colored lights. I guide my white life energy to the blackness threatening Kamran’s life until every molecule of death energy is obscured by my fae light. Though I don’t touch the mark physically, the contact of the two conflicting energies sends my stomach churning, as though I was the one poisoned. I swallow back a surge of bile and zero in on the places in reality where the energies touch. Piece by piece, bit by bit, I surround the death mark and compress it with my life magic. The death spell fights back like it was a living thing, and I almost falter in my work as it writhes against my light.
No! I can’t give up, and I can’t let Kamran die. He’s more human than some humans I’ve met, and I can’t let him die from this.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’m dimly aware of gasps of awe as my light flares, blinding even my closed eyes for a few seconds. When I open them again, not a single trace of the death tattoo remains. In its place, Kam’s smooth brown skin glistens with leftover life energy.
“There.” I wipe sweat from my brow and try to stand, but my stupid legs decide they don’t want to work. Oren catches me and supports my weight as I struggle to regain my footing. “Now let’s find the others so I can do that all over again.”
Kalen frowns and helps Oren guide me to a nearby chair. “Molli, you are drained. You must rest if you are to do this three or four more times. Do you think yourself able to repeat the process?”
Three more demons that might have death sentences tattooed on them. Maybe Lena, too. And as soon as we get them out of there, they’ll have half a day at most—less for Lena and Ben—for me to heal them.
“I have to.”
Cherry holds the cup out to Kamran. “Would this at least slow the process, Kam? Do you think if we proceeded with our original plan this might do some of Molli’s work for her, or at least buy her time to heal them?”
Kamran takes the cup and inspects the glittering liquid inside. “Quite possibly. As Molli stated, the pure death magic might not be negated by her liquified essence, but it may stall the spread of the spell if administered in large quantities.” He dips a finger in the juice, and I half expect it to sizzle because of his demonic nature. No reaction, though; he just licks his finger clean and nods. “Yes, this magic would slow the death-mark’s progress.”
Cherry and Kalen exhale twin sighs of relief. Kalen takes my hand in his and looks in my eyes. “You should have used the elixir first. You risked too much by taking on the task without help.”
“I’m okay, Kalen. Just a little tired. Certainly good enough to go out and kick some demon ass later today.” I pull him close for a kiss. “I won’t take any major risks that I don’t have to.”
His hands cup my cheeks. “I would rather you didn’t take any risks.”
“I know, baby, but this is war. You were a soldier; surely you understand that I can’t just stand by and do nothing when our friends are in danger. When our world is in danger.”
“Sometimes I wish you were not so brave.” He presses his forehead to mine. “Though I cannot imagine you as anything other than what you are. A warrior. A goddess of goodness and light.”
“Hey, I’m nothing without you guys.”
“Okay.” Holden huffs out a puff of air and starts to pace. “So they had you in Hell? That means you guys went to the old, abandoned church to find a test subject instead of the warehouse?”
“No. We went to the warehouse.” Kamran’s words kill the mood quicker than that death mark would have.
“So they took you to Hell from there?”
He shakes his head. “No. The warehouse’s exterior remains, but it is changed, transformed. The blackness of my kind warps and twists the structure, and once inside there is nothing recognizable as being Earthborn. The whole of the building is an entryway into Hell, and the sickness spreads to the surrounding properties by the minute.”
“Fuck!” Holden’s life-light flashes red with rage, and his fist leaves a hole in the drywall. “Does this mean we’re too late to stop the whole Hell on Earth scenario?”
“I do not know. We may yet be able to stop their efforts, but our task is much more difficult now.”
Something nags at the back of my mind, until I have a light bulb moment. “Hey, wait, so there are no sprinklers, right?”
“Correct. The building exterior is merely a shell; inside, fire and brimstone reign.”
I reach for Oren and pull him by the arm. “Baby, your water magic can act like sprinklers, right? Even in an environment as harsh as Hell?”
“Yes, my love. I can project my magic as a spray or stream, much like the sprinkler system.”
“Well, there we go! Oren can use his magic to act as the sprinkler system, and we’ll pour the juices we saved into the stream as he works. Our plan isn’t thwarted or whatever; just altered.” Dubious glances meet my excited eyes, and I scowl at the naysayers before they can say “nay.” “Hey, now, it’s a good damn plan! It’s the same fucking plan we already had, just fae-powered instead of relying on old plumbing.”
Holden growls low in his throat. “How big is this Hell-portal though? I mean, the church looks normal from the outside, but inside it extends indefinitely into Hell. Would Oren be able to cover enough of an area to make a difference in there?”
Kamran rakes a hand through his hair. “The interior of the warehouse and the surrounding infected buildings now surpasses the exterior. As the human television show says, it is ‘bigger on the inside.’”
“So we’re still fucked.”
“No! This will work. I’m sure of it.” I run through some rough calculations in my head. We’d only need to save a little bit of the life-berry juices for Elena and the other incubi, which means we have a few gallons to use in the initial spray. We know that my life magic will exorcise the possessed humans, and at the very least we know it’ll remove any harmful spells or tattoos, and that’s a start. “We just have to time it right. Get them when they’re gathered together. That means no surprise attack, because they’re most likely to group up when they realize we’re there, right?”
“Okay, that’s enough speculation and theory.” Holden rolls his eyes. “We should get packed up and get moving if we’re going to save the day.”
I stick my tongue out at him and push myself to my feet. “Well, then, let’s get going! We’re killing daylight when we should be killing demons.” I glance at Kamran. “No offense to you. You’re an exception.”
Kam flashes a wry grin. “My gratitude for your acceptance, young Molli.”
Chapter 20
As the others scramble to get my juice bottled up and ready to transport to the warehouse, Kalen, Oren, and Finn damn near manhandle me into bed for a nap. They insist that I need it to restore some of my energy, but I’m not sleepy.
I forgot that Finn can magic me to sleep regardless of how stubborn I try to be, so when I wake up an hour later, I’m a little confused as to how I ended up drooling into the pillow.
After fighting with the sheets for my freedom, I get up and go in search of the others. No way they’d leave me when I’m the key to healing Lena and the incubi of any demonic spells that might be on them, but the house seems empty.
I find everyone out back, Callie included, taking part in some katas run by the
fae.
Pride surges through me, and I go from zero to we might survive this in two seconds flat.
By the time I get down the porch steps and take a place among the other students, Kalen has moved them on to sword work. I pick up one of the demon blades we stole after the fight at Lena’s house—since I’m part fae now, I don’t want to find out how bad the steel grip of my own sword might burn—test the weight and balance, then follow his forms. Kalen’s a quick study, so when I taught him the martial arts forms from my training, he incorporated them seamlessly into his own sword skills, making himself all the more deadly when we fought the demons that night.
Kalen finishes the class with a formal bow, and as soon as we’re done I slide the sword blade into my belt. “So are we going to go get our friends or what?”
Holden follows my lead with his own sword and tugs his long hair into a man-bun on the crown of his head. “Now that you’re awake, you mean? Yeah. We all wanted a chance to limber up and get a last-minute crash course before we headed out. Feeling strong enough?”
I shrug and cross my arms over my chest. “I’m fine. Let’s do this.”
Preparations include gearing up in whatever thick and heavy clothing we can find, though I’m not surprised that Kalen, Oren, Finn, and Kamran have true armor. The fae wear thick leather breastplates, bracers, and greaves, leftovers from when Queen Una exiled them from Faerie. Kam’s armor has a more intimidating look, all shiny black scales and thick blackened metal plates and spikes. The scales remind me of the hellhound I killed, and I wonder if Kamran skinned that beast or a different one to make his outfit. Either way, it’s badass to be a demon wearing another demon’s skin as armor.
As for the mortals, Callie wears Cherry’s moto jacket zipped up tight, and the shifters all have leather jackets and other biker gear on. I’m both too big in the chest and too short in the arms for any of Cherry’s clothes, so I end up grabbing my red raincoat, which saved my ass from acidic demon blood that night at Lena’s. How long ago was that? Seems like forever, but it hasn’t even been a week.