I saw him then, walking slowly forward as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He had one long sword in his right hand and a scar on his face. No, there was no way that it could possibly be him. How could he be here now? Of all places I had dreamed of fighting him, seeing him here in hell was the last thing that I had expected.
This was the man I had seen every night as my nightmares took hold. He killed my parents in front of me again and again. Sometimes I was able to stop him; sometimes I was only able to claim my vengeance. Either way, I ended up flying through the night to burn our city to the ground. Killing this man in my dreams had turned me into the destroyer.
He continued to walk toward the stone circle, and the chances that it could have been anyone else evaporated with each step that he drew closer. I would never forget that face. It was seared into my mind and tied to the most horrible event in my life. This was the man who changed my life forever. I’d never forget that cruel smile or the happiness that sparkled in his eyes when he killed them. This was my chance to get the vengeance that my family deserved and I so desperately wanted.
My parents would have told me that vengeance was overrated. That piling violence on top of violence never solved anything. But they were dead now. Even though killing this man wouldn’t bring them back, it sure would make me feel better. I could feel the anger flowing through my body. It almost thrummed with the tension that I felt. Everything in my line of sight seemed to narrow until there was only him. I had become hyper-focused on my target, and he wouldn’t live to see tomorrow. I would finally be able to sleep knowing that their murderer had found justice.
Right before I stepped onto the circle, the reality of what was about to happen washed over me. This was the man that had haunted my dreams. Over and over again I had killed this man, and each time I had become the destroyer. If he was here now, then becoming the destroyer was probably exactly what the demons wanted to have happen. That feeling of power when I burned the city to the ground was still with me. I never could decide if killing him was worth it. Now with no other choice except to die myself and condemn my father to a life in hell, it seemed that the decision had been made for me.
Stepping onto the stone circle, I promised the memory of my mother and my father that I would not fall into the darkness. After he was dead and my father was free, I would return home and bury myself into April’s warm embrace. She had better be working hard on her therapy, because we might not be leaving our room for days. I would surround myself with love when I returned. My parents, my best friends, and my mate. There was nothing we couldn’t accomplish together.
A spring worked itself into my step, and I realized for the first time that I was actually excited. The man with the scar looked at me, and his eyes widened slightly as he realized who I was. That’s right, asshole, come and get it.
He walked forward, sword pointed at the ground as if this were some kind of duel. My swords found their way into my hands. They spun around almost weightlessly as I worked out the kinks in my wrists. It wouldn’t be long now. As soon as he made a move, I would be committed to ending him.
“So we meet again, Jackson,” he said with a smirk.
“I’m surprised you know who I am.” I fixed him with a glare. “No one even cared enough about you to tell me your name.” That seemed to get him angry. Good, I wanted him that way. Angry fighters made mistakes. “Stillman just told me you were a nobody and that you’d been dealt with.”
A snarl formed across his lips. “The name is Antovious, and you will whisper it with your dying breath.”
“I doubt that very much.” His sword rang out as he dragged it across the stones. “You do know why they brought you here, right?”
“They promised me riches and to fulfill my darkest desires. As long as you died on my blade.”
“I bet they would have promised you the world to get you in this ring. The demons believe that if I kill you, I will become the destroyer, that I will help them conquer our world.”
The slow circles we had been making stopped as the reality of his situation struck him. He hadn’t been summoned to hell to deal with some errant boy for his master. He had been brought here to die. The demons would cheer for his death, and laugh as they carried away his corpse.
“That means nothing to me. I don’t plan on dying here today.”
As the last word tumbled from his lips, he lashed out. I had been ready for it and slapped his blade easily away. You couldn’t expect honor from a man who worked for the greatest deceiver our world had ever known. The time for talking had ended. Now there would be only vengeance.
I let him come at me again. This time his blade came in low. I jumped over it and lashed out with my left hand. My blade sliced up the side of his face, reopening his scar. He put a hand to his face and looked at the blood on his fingers. When his eyes turned back toward me, they filled with hatred. His long sword came down on a diagonal. I batted it aside and deflected the strike he aimed at me as his sword bounded off the stone.
We took a step back from each other. Each one of us was sizing the other up. The simple volleys we had launched so far wouldn’t tell us too much, but it was enough. He was about to strike again when I felt a pull on my power. The stone circle below us briefly glowed with a violet aura, and I felt my magic slipping away. By the wide-eyed expression that Antovious had on his face, the same thing had happened to him. So this would be a physical battle only. One mistake could be deadly.
I pushed forward, hoping to make the best of the distraction. To my surprise, he was ready for my blades. He moved his single sword with liquid grace, blocking my two blades with ease. His longer blade gave him an advantage unless I stepped in closer, so I forced the fight to him. Back and forth we danced across the circle until I felt his sword slice my leg as I spun away. I nearly stumbled, but I managed to stay upright.
The cut hurt, but only the very tip of his blade had scratched me. You wouldn’t have known it by the amount of blood that stained the ground around us. I hobbled to the side as Antovious circled me. The limp became over exaggerated as we continued to move. He forced me to circle, keeping my weight on my injured leg. The advantage was his. The look of supremacy on his face told me all that I needed to know. He thought that he had already won. He continued to circle, and with each step, I made a grimace and limped a little bit harder.
He didn’t completely fall for the trick. He came in with a probing set of blows that I managed to deflect while keeping the act in place. As he retreated, I could see the smile growing on his face. It took everything I had not to smile back. Had he really bought it, or was he toying with me? There was only one way to find out. Slowly I struggled to keep pace with him as he looked for an opening.
Finally satisfied it wasn’t a trick, he strafed to the side and attacked almost instantly. My weight came down on my leg, and I thought maybe for a moment that I had underestimated the damage there, but the leg held as I deflected his blade with my left sword, and then I brought my right sword across at a different angle, opening a wound across his chest.
Antovious stumbled backward and then covered his wound with his left hand. His right still held the sword at the ready, but as we circled, his strength started to waver. I came at him probing, expecting a trick. I tapped his blade to the side and waited. He kicked out with a leg, and I absorbed the blow with my thigh. Then when he made a lunge at me, I knocked the blade toward the ground and cut the tendon in his wrist simultaneously. The long blade clattered uselessly out of his hand. He looked from the sword to me with pure hatred in his eyes.
Antovious backed away, his right hand now clutched to the wound on his chest as his wrist dangled uselessly. He kept his left hand ready to fight. I respected that he would continue on without a weapon. He waited for me to come at him, and I enjoyed the look of defeat plastered across his face.
I slashed low with one blade, forcing him to move. With the other, I made sure that his right arm was useless. The blade sunk into his shoulder, and
the entire arm fell limp. I circled around him faster than he had expected and landed a blow to his hamstring, sending him to the ground. Before he could turn, I slammed my blade into his left shoulder. He tried to get back to his feet, but the wounded leg wouldn’t support him.
I could have kept this going for another twenty minutes, slowly making him pay for what he did. A voice in the back of my mind told me to end it swiftly. I circled around him until we were face to face, and I watched him gasp for breath. All I felt for him now was pity.
“Your human parents were nothing, and they died because they were unworthy to even look at me,” he spat. “You should have heard how your father begged. He begged like a dog.”
My blade found the meat of his other leg. “Tell me, Antovious, how does it feel to be as helpless as they were? Do you like the feeling now that it has been reversed?”
“I told my men they could have fun with your mother, but instead they slit her throat. Imagine my surprise when they would rather kill her then have a little sport with that slut.”
I knew what he was doing. He wanted a quick death. A small part of me wondered if anything he was saying now was true. It wasn’t possible for me to hate him anymore than I did. I kicked him over onto his back. He couldn’t move his limbs, so he flopped around like a fish. Circling him again, I moved until he could see me.
“You have lived a worthless life, and your death holds no greater meaning.” The blade in my left hand moved silently back into its sheath. I hovered the sword in my right hand just over where Antovious’s heart should have been. His soul was so withered that I wasn’t sure if he even had a heart left to pierce. He looked up into my eyes, and even now they were filled only with hate. There was no chance for redemption, and I didn’t have any compassion to give. The blade went in slowly. I didn’t stop until I felt it hit the stone below him. I gave the blade a twist as I pulled it out.
His cold, dead eyes stared up at me, an expression of pain was stuck, twisting his face into a grimace. Now that he was dead, I didn’t feel any different. My thirst for vengeance still felt unsatisfied. The demons cheered, and all I felt was a sense of exhaustion. My soul had grown weary of this place. A small part of me cried out that it was over, that we were going home. Another part of me said I’ll believe it when I see it.
CHAPTER 17
APRIL
The sun was starting to set as the cloud of dust we had been waiting for finally appeared on the horizon. Standing, I nudged Marcus to wake him up. Soon we would meet the other demons, and if we were lucky, we would have our answers.
Marcus moved slowly around the property so he could come in from behind the car. I stood in the center of the patio, hoping to draw their attention. If the demons were foolish enough to come back here, then they were foolish enough to die here. I intended to make them pay for what they did to the family who once owned this property.
The dust cloud grew bigger as the car drew nearer, and my thoughts turned once again to Jackson. My first thought was always a prayer, one that he would return to me unharmed. When he did, it would be my job to smack some sense into him before I buried him in kisses. Part of me understood his desire to protect me, and part of me wished he believed in me enough to take me with him. My soul called out for him. I hoped he could hear it.
The dusty sedan pulled past our compact four-door and came to a stop. The dust cloud took a minute to settle, and then the demons got out of the car. Three men crowded behind a beast of a man. He wasn’t tall, but he had a wide frame and was hideously overweight. He reminded me of a boss I had seen Jackson fighting in Diablo where the demon’s stomach was a giant mouth. I wondered if this demon looked like that under the thick jacket he was wearing even in the oppressive heat.
“Who the hell are you?” he barked out gruffly.
“Oh, I just came to visit some friends, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is home.”
“Honey, if you had friends who lived here, they’re long gone.” He turned and gave his men a smile. “But I’d be happy to show you around.”
One of the men snickered behind him. I walked slowly down the patio and into the dirt driveway. I didn’t stop until I was three feet away from the man. Even then he didn’t notice the hilts of my swords poking out over my shoulders. He had his eyes focused on other parts of my body. Demons, they were oddly predictable.
I smiled up into his quivering jowls. “Maybe whomever you were coming to visit joined them.” I reached out and tapped him lightly on the stomach. “Or maybe you just ate them.”
“I could eat a pretty little peach like you.” As he said it, a sliver of saliva dripped from one side of his mouth.
I almost threw up in my mouth. Maybe I had thrown up a little at the thought of this overstuffed man even laying a hand on me. The men behind him laughed again, and one of them started to move forward. My swords found their way into my hands in an instant, and the demons standing in front of me stiffened. They sensed a true threat for the first time.
“Are we done talking with them yet?” Marcus asked from behind them.
All of the demons spun around and watched as Marcus slowly walked forward. His walk was casual, but I knew that he was seething on the inside. His power was rolling off of him in waves. The demons must have felt it too, because they just turned to look at their boss for instructions.
“You can get rid of those three, but leave the fat one. I’ve got some questions I’m just dying to ask him.”
Marcus flexed his magical muscles, and the three demons ignited in flames. He must have trapped them in a shield, because they didn’t run or move as the flames consumed them. The fat one tried to open his car door, but I kicked it closed. At the same time, I lashed out with one of my blades, slicing neatly through his hamstring. He fell to the ground, howling in pain.
“Mind if I shut him up?” Marcus asked.
“As long as he can still talk afterward, be my guest.”
Marcus looked down at the demon as he screamed in pain. His focus was so intense, I started to wonder what he was doing. The demon’s leg slowly began to heal, and the scream stopped. I gave Marcus a what in the fuck are you doing look, and he just nodded. I took that to mean wait and see.
He hit the demon in the back with his staff and then continued to rain blows down on him as he rolled over, gasping from pain. The demon curled into the fetal position, and Marcus continued to beat him. Finally, when something snapped, he stopped. The look of concentration came across his face, and again the demon was healed. I figured out exactly what he was doing now, and it was diabolical.
“Are you ready to answer our questions now?”
“You haven’t asked me any fucking questions,” the demon said with a quivering voice.
He started to shake, and I nodded at Marcus, who then started to beat him with his staff again. He ended it with a flurry of blows that would have made Conan proud. When he stopped, I didn’t let him heal the demon right away. Instead, I waited until the demon looked at me, and I kicked him in the face. As he struggled back to his feet, I stabbed him in the leg again. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain.
With a motion, I gave Marcus the ok to begin healing him again. The demon’s howls of pain became whimpers, and finally he was silent again. When he met my eyes, I could see the hate in them. This was something he should be used to. For us, it was something new. A tactic that would have never even occurred to us before we found our friend Nitro quivering on the floor.
“Tell me who you work for?”
“I don’t work for anyone.”
He said it with a straight face. I had to give him that. I didn’t want to spend the entire day stabbing this fat little waste of organic matter. I needed to make a point and quickly. I stabbed him in the arm. “Tell me who you work for?”
This time, he only spit on the ground. I slammed the hilt of my blade into his mouth, knocking him over. As he sat there, cradling his broken teeth, I stabbed him in the legs and finally made a cut across his lowe
r abdomen. “You’re going to tell me what I want to know, or I’m going to have my friend heal some of your intestines on the outside. Then if you don’t answer me, I’ll cut them off.” I nodded at Marcus, and he healed the demon again.
“Who do you work for?”
“You don’t understand. She’ll kill me.” His eyes pleaded with me, and he held up his hands to show me he wasn’t resisting.
“You have one choice to make. That is if you want to die fast or slow. As you can see, my partner is a skilled healer, and I’m not very squeamish. We can do this for days if we have to. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to eat your own testicles?”
I gave him a moment to think about it, wondering just how far I was actually willing to go to get the information. I had a lot of anger built up. Not only from what I had seen inside but because of what Jackson did. This chubby little demon seemed like just the thing to take it out on. If he didn’t give us more soon, I’d just kill him. We had a fancy new hotel to get to, and if we placed a call to Adam, they could start researching on where to find a stronger female demon in the surrounding area.
“Nothing you can do to me will be worse than what will happen to me after I die. If I tell you, I could spend eternity suffering.”
“As if I care,” I screamed in his face. I stabbed him in the stomach again with my blade.
Marcus pointed toward the car, and I could just make it out through the muddied window. There was a portable GPS on the dash. If this guy wasn’t going to give it up, then that was the best we could do.
I wanted to make sure that we left a little message for the next demon that came looking for them. I kicked the demon over onto his back, and he lifted his hands up, hoping to ward off the next kick coming his way. Instead, I lopped them off. He screamed again. This time it was louder than it had been before.
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