“Hey, Dienes,” I said, as the horned demon appeared. “Recognise this place?”
He looked up, then side to side, as though searching for a way out. “Shit.”
“Tell me, you bastard,” I growled. “Tell me who you’re working for or I’ll burn you in celestial light. Is it the arch-demon?”
He yelped as I shone the light in his eyes. “Not him—another bears his power, his fire.”
“Don’t give me crap,” I told him. “Who is the demon that keeps hopping in and out of this dimension? You weren’t behind it.”
His eyes closed. “You met him. Azurial…”
“Him?” I said in disbelief. “But I killed him.”
Crap. He was a warlock… or as Nikolas said, a demigod. The child of an arch-demon. And I remembered too clearly what’d happened when Nikolas had shot his brother with lightning. He’d been back on his feet within a day.
He must have known.
“Azurial steals more of his master’s power every day, celestial. He can already cross realms without assistance.”
“And drag celestials back into his own realm.” My words dropped from my mouth like heavy stones. “So he can throw them wherever he likes, and leave the rest of us to pick up the pieces. That’s his plan.”
There was no rhyme or reason to the murders at all. Just the acts of a mad demigod stealing the power of his arch-demon sire and using it to cause chaos in this dimension.
“And his endgame?” asked Nikolas.
He shook his head, eyes screwed up in pain. “I don’t know. I’m only the messenger.”
“Yeah, you’re disposable,” I said, ignoring his pleading look. “Both to him and to us. How does he track the victims down?”
“Through… the fire.”
“What fire? The victims burst into flames after seeing him, right?”
“Not that fire. Inside you… the flame.”
My celestial flame? He’s planning to use our magic?
“He can travel through celestial fire as well?”
He nodded quickly.
“But he still can’t actually materialise in this dimension,” Nikolas said. “That’s why he needed to use a proxy.”
“He plans to,” said Dienes, shifting inside the pentagram. “Get me out—ow, that hurts.”
“I don’t give a crap. You were complicit in murdering people, Dienes, and threatening my friends. Tell me what he’s planning.”
He breathed shallowly. “I can’t—”
I moved the celestial light so it burned his arm. He yelled in pain, smacking against the pentagram’s boundary.
“Tell. Me. A demon killed Gav, my friend. You knew that.”
He shook his head frantically. “No. He must have figured out how far you’d progressed in your investigation. I never wished to harm you, Devina, but I was offered a price I couldn’t refuse. If the arch-demon dies, so does the city of Pandemonium. We need a new leader before he expires.”
“You should have thought of that before you fucked with me,” I told him. “Because I won’t just kill your demon boss—I’ll burn your whole city to the ground.”
Anger rolled through me, bright as celestial fire.
Nikolas spoke before I could break the pentagram and wring his neck. “Did I hear you say he’s taking power away from his father?”
“He will be the next ruler of Pandemonium, so he needs the power of an arch-demon,” said Dienes. “But before then, he’ll come here. He’s coming for the celestials. If you don’t hide, this world will burn around you.”
The door slammed off the wall behind us, and two vampires ran in.
“Celestial,” one of them shouted. “You murdered our entire nest.”
He darted forwards, impossibly fast, as though the coffins and bodies on the floor weren’t there at all. I drew my sword, and at my side, Dienes vanished into the pentagram.
I’m not done with you, you traitorous little worm.
Nikolas advanced on the vampire with black lightning dancing from his palms, but the bloodsuckers barely staggered when hit with his lightning attacks. Though he moved quickly and was probably immune to vampire venom, I didn’t have that luxury.
The first vampire and I circled one another. My blade swiped high and low, and I pursued him across the coffins. The tip caught his arm, slowing him, and I thrust it into his chest. I didn’t quite hit the heart, but it didn’t matter. The celestial light set him ablaze.
Nikolas blasted the second vampire in the chest with lightning, his dark aura blazing. The vampire flew into the air, hit the wall, and slid down into a heap. He turned to me, eying the dead bloodsucker at my feet.
“So that’s how you knew the true method by which they killed the victims,” he said. “I should have guessed.”
“I’ve not killed many vampires before now, but that’s no excuse,” I said. “I just didn’t think you could do that to celestials.”
The vampire who Nikolas had hit groaned a little, and tried to climb to his feet.
Nikolas got there first, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and pinning him to the wall.
“Talk,” he told the vampire. “Whose idea was it to collude with demons?”
“His.” He jerked his head at the dead vampire next to me.
Nikolas cursed under his breath. “He must have been offered a hell of an incentive to work with the demons.”
“Hell is kind of their speciality,” I said.
Lightning sizzled from Nikolas’s fingertips, and the vampire’s head caught fire. He crumpled, screaming shrilly, until he dissolved into ashes.
“I have the distinct impression they weren’t alone,” Nikolas said. “Rachel’s being unusually quiet.”
“They didn’t get her, did they?”
“She’d have made more noise if they had.” Nikolas stalked towards the door, power crackling in his hands. Every hair on my body stood on end and power trembled through my very bones.
“You might want to stand outside for this part,” he called over his shoulder. “Rachel, come out.”
Lightning surged from his hands, and cracks began to appear in the ceiling.
“Wait!” I hurried after him. “What if there are innocent people in here? Or another stash of demon traps?”
“I’d sense them if there were,” he said. “Besides, only vampires are affected by daylight, and no vampire in here is an innocent.”
Lightning struck the door, blasting it off its hinges. Daylight flooded the hallway, and the vampire poking his head out of the next room recoiled in terror. Rachel kicked him aside, covered in blood, but didn’t look hurt. She bounded past outside, as more lightning bolts struck holes in the walls and ceiling. I took Nikolas’s advice and sprinted through the gap where the door had been.
Not a moment too soon. The walls dissolved in black lightning, leaving a gaping hole opening outside. Screams came from the vampires inside the house. Nikolas walked out, throwing another handful of lightning over his shoulder. The roof disintegrated, prompting more screams. Faces appeared in the windows of the neighbouring houses. Humans. The vampire nest was hidden amongst ordinary people.
The screaming continued. “Nice going there,” I told Nikolas. “Not that they didn’t deserve it, but a house of dying vampires might just draw a little attention.”
“That’s why we need to move.”
He took off, and I followed, breaking into a sprint. Warlocks might not be as fast as vampires, but I was still out of breath by the time we left the vampire’s screams behind and returned to a more familiar area, near the warlocks’ house.
“Javos is still at the guild, right?” I asked. “Shit. I have to tell them, even if they lock me up. They’re still searching for me as it is. But… I think Azurial’s planning a direct attack on them next. He tracks them using fire—celestial fire. I doubt they’ll believe me, but they’re the biggest source of celestial energy in the city, and Dienes will have run off to tell him that we destroyed his vampire nest. He’ll be angry. I don’t
know the guy, but he seemed a little hot-tempered.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Rachel said. “But we don’t want him here in this realm. We need to figure out how to stop him. You’d think his arch-demon father would have put a stop to him.”
“He’s not exactly all there, is he?” I pulled out my phone first, typing a message to everyone at the guild via their universal email link. Not everyone bothered to check their messages, but I hoped someone would have the sense to. As a last resort, I sent a message to Gav’s phone again, telling whoever held it that a direct attack on the guild was imminent, and that the demon was using the celestials themselves as the conduit. If Azurial was stealing power directly from his arch-demon father, he’d be able to materialise fully in no time at all.
My phone started ringing before I’d finished the message. I hit send and answered—“Fiona?” I asked. “What’s—”
The sound of a voicemail tone sounded in my ear. Then—
“Devi!” she screamed. “Help me. A demon’s in the flat. Now. I’m hiding. I thought you—”
Her voice cut off. So did the voicemail. The timer said it’d been sent several minutes ago.
I stared at the phone, then at Nikolas. “Azurial has Fiona. My friend… she has nothing to do with this.”
Fury blazed through my nerves. Not content with murdering my mentor, the demon had decided to kidnap my one ordinary human friend. Clover was incapacitated. And I had nobody left to rely on… except the two warlocks at my side.
A deafening scream came from down the road. Nikolas flashed me a grim look, and we ran.
Chapter 22
Nikolas and Rachel overtook me in seconds, even with my celestial power switched on. My feet pounded on the pavement, as the warlocks’ guild drew closer.
The gates lay open, the defences switched off. My heart plummeted at the smell of brimstone. I took one step towards the gates, and a venos demon leaped out, stinger swinging wildly. I jerked out the way of the scorpion demon’s deadly venom, grabbing my sword. Someone must have destroyed the house’s defences while we were gone.
Venom splattered the ground, narrowly missing my new shoes. My sword sank into its tail, severing the deadly stinger. The scorpion swung around, its tiny mouth opening and revealing pointed teeth dripping with even more venom. Yay. Gotta love defence mechanisms. Blood pumped from its severed stinger, and it spat venom at me. I jumped, swinging my blade, and decapitated it.
“Nikolas!” I shouted, running to the doors. “Are you in here?”
No sound responded. The door hung off its hinges, and silence blanketed the house. I walked into the hallway, seeing more demon blood and venom on the walls. How’d they broken into the guild? Was the fire demon here?
A human-sized body slammed into me, pinning me to the ground. Teeth pierced my hand to the bone and I screamed aloud, pushing at the impossibly hard weight on me. A vampire. He’d bitten me.
Shock numbed me, slowed down time to a trickle of seconds. My body went limp, then a surge of adrenaline ignited my nerves. The vampire’s cold, strong hands pushed me into the carpet like I was a fly in a net. My hand throbbed, and I could almost feel my pounding heart hurrying the venom’s flow around my bloodstream. Slowing my instincts. Hastening my impending death.
His teeth grazed my neck. I tried to lunge forward but barely managed to free my trapped hand. My demon’s mark was exposed, pulsing dark. I had nothing left to lose at this point.
I shoved my demon marked hand into his mouth.
The vampire’s teeth bit down. I yelled again, agony spreading from my right hand to my arm. The vampire gagged and lurched away from me, spitting blood onto the carpet. Gasping, I staggered to my feet. Both my hands were torn open at the palm, making it impossible to hold a weapon even if I had one.
I backed out of the hall. I’m dead. My celestial light reacted immediately to an enemy’s presence. If the demon did show up, I’d catch on fire like the other victims before I could even land a punch. Of all the pointless ways to die. And Nikolas was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t really want him to have to watch me catch on fire, but some stupid part of me had hoped we’d get more out of this little misadventure than a single kiss.
I stopped, scrambling for my phone. My hand stung with pain, but the wounds had already begun to close. Vampire wounds were self-healing, even on celestials. Had anyone at the guild known it was possible to die in such a way from demon-infected vampire venom? Surely if they did, someone would have guessed the cause of the deaths sooner. But when Rory had died—not only had we not run into any vampires, the guild had outright dismissed my reports and refused to accept them as truth.
Now I might die in the same way he had, after all.
I opened my contacts and found Nikolas’s number.
“Where the hell are you?” I yelled. “I’m dying down here, you arse.”
No answer. I swore and skipped to the next number—Javos’s. Not like I had anything to lose.
“Devina,” said a deep voice.
“Javos?” I said, not having expected an answer. “I need to know if there’s an antidote for vampire bites infected with demonic energy. Otherwise I’m dead. It’s how they’re killing the victims. The venom reacts with our celestial magic and—”
“Stop babbling. You have a demon’s mark, which makes you immune to most demon diseases.”
Oh. I breathed out. “Thank the Divinities for that,” I said, thankful Nikolas hadn’t witnessed my minor meltdown. “Nikolas and Rachel are missing. We were attacked at your house. And I know who the killer is. Azurial.”
There was a short pause. “His mark wasn’t on the bodies.”
“No, the victims died from vampire bites infected with demon energy. But he’s calling the shots, and he has my friend captive. Do you know where—?”
My phone flew from my hand as the vampire slammed into me again, and we collided with the wall. Apparently he’d recovered from sinking his teeth into my demon mark. I twisted around, no longer afraid of his bite. His eyes had the same weird tint as the others who’d been infected. How’d he even got into the house, anyway? He’d die in the sunlight, so he must have got in another way. And there were no traces of any demons in the street. So they’d been summoned inside…
There was only one place they could have come from.
I elbowed the vampire in the side, then punched him in the nose. Pulling myself to my feet, I ran through the kitchen, down the hall to the room with the demonglass.
The sheet of glass blazed bright, and the smell of brimstone filled the room. Around the glass lay shattered pieces of stone. Ingredients to make a portal.
“You didn’t,” I whispered.
Nikolas had gone to ambush the fire demon himself. Didn’t explain the vampire, but maybe he and the demons had got loose when Nikolas had left the portal open. But why? To stop Azurial targeting the celestials… or to stop him attacking me?
The vampire swooped in behind me. I hadn’t asked whether summoning my celestial blade would still have adverse side effects with my newfound vampire infection, but right now, I didn’t need it. I kicked the vampire viciously in the side, and held up my demon marked wrist. The wounds had sealed entirely.
Without looking back, I jumped through the glass.
Fire engulfed my body, roaring flames filling my vision. The humming in my ears turned to screaming. A scream I’d heard in my nightmares for weeks—for months. So real, it might have come from right beside me.
“Rory!” I shouted.
His face burst into life before my eyes—eyes burning, mouth stretched open in terror. I grabbed his hand and dropped it, smoke pouring from my own hands as though I’d brought divine judgement on both of us.
Only now, I remembered exactly what that judgement had looked like.
We’d been tracking a demon in Cornwall, which had involved a lot of crawling through caves in search of the beast we’d been sent to kill. After we’d tracked it through a cave full of lesser demons,
we’d found where it’d presumably been summoned—a room containing an active pentagram. Before I could shut it down, the demon had grabbed me. The last thing I’d heard was Rory screaming my name before the demon yanked me through the portal.
I fell through fire, crashing onto burnt earth. The world was a wasteland, smoke rising from the barren ground, nobody and nothing around but the demon before me.
The true form of a Grade Three demon was a terror to behold. I didn’t recall the entire fight. Just the desperation—the clash of teeth on sword, and the grim knowledge that I was going to die here, in a realm that wasn’t mine.
When the demon lay dying at my feet, I turned my gaze to the burning sky. I kicked its body away, retracing my steps to where it’d pulled me through. I’d been doomed the moment the demon had dragged me along for the ride. But now the adrenaline of the fight had begun to wear off, the cold grip of panic ensnared me. I was stranded on an alien world with no way back to the other side.
In a panic, I’d appealed to the Divinities for help. “Get me out! Please.”
I held out my hand, baring the celestial mark, and turned the power up to max. Light flared around me, washing over the barren wasteland. A beacon to heaven, if such a place existed here or in any realm. Wherever the Divinities were based, I didn’t know if they could see me here. I was willing to try anything to get out.
The Divinities had performed exactly one miracle for me in my life, and I hadn’t expected an answer. But my right wrist had stung with sudden pain like a wasp had landed on me. My skin tingled all over, and the light continued to burn, like white flames.
Then it faded, and a pentagram lay in its place. My hand stung like crazy, but someone had answered my prayers. Apparently the Divinities weren’t quite dead in this realm after all.
I stepped into the pentagram, which ignited around me. First came a second round of white light. Then, fire. Agonising, torturing flames licking up my arms, burning my sleeves, scorching my exposed skin.
I fell out of the demon’s dimension, the flames disappearing, my knees hitting the floor. The fire was gone… but someone was still screaming.
Celestial Magic (Celestial Marked Book 1) Page 20