Temptation by Fire

by Tiffany Allee

  Yes. They were both far enough in. I lowered Miriam to the floor, crooning small nothings about how everything was going to be okay. When I stood, I turned my attention to Hugh and Thomas. I couldn’t see them well in my cell phone light, but I could see their movements. Was my night vision rune—or whatever they called it—working at all now? They glanced around the tunnel, looking twitchy, as if they were suspicious even though nothing was obviously out of place.

  As they should be.

  I grinned and looked for the broken line on the floor. It was barely visible to me, even though I knew what to look for. I reached slowly into my pocket and pulled out a handful of salt. Silently, I poured it onto the free space, the brown salt blending well with the dirt around it. I watched the line as I released it, making sure I covered the two-inch break thoroughly.

  The sound of a hand slapping onto the ground reverberated through the tunnel, and I stared at the dark space behind the demons. I couldn’t see what was happening, but the sound of a man’s voice followed the slap. The words—if that’s what they were—were indistinguishable from one another and sounded more like a monk’s chant than a spell. What I imagined a spell would sound like, anyway.

  Hugh spun to face the chanting, and while his speed was still superhuman, I followed the movement easily with my eyes. Thomas ran for it, moving far more quickly than I’d even seen Karson move.

  So much for total weakness.

  But Karson was ready for them. One second he was out of my view, and the next he stood, clearly visible now that I’d located him with my cell phone’s light.

  “Clausis,” Karson said, voice firm. The word wasn’t necessary to keep the demons bound. The salt did that. But, as Karson had explained to me earlier, it would bind the symbols in the room more tightly together. And it was nice and showy for the demons.

  Thomas stopped abruptly, like he’d run into a wall, and he jumped back from Karson’s side of the tunnel. Hugh, his back to me, didn’t move.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Karson?” Thomas asked.

  Karson smiled at him. Then he lowered his head to his chest and filled the room with whispers, to imbue the empty crevices with the magic of his words.

  Thomas turned to me from across the room and covered a grimace with his plastered-on smile. He made his way closer to me, but stopped in the middle of the tunnel when I took a step back. “Ava. This isn’t necessary. We’ve already told you we will let you and your friend go. Leave you be. Please, give us the same courtesy.”

  “Oh yeah, you were totally going to let us go,” I said.

  “You don’t know what he is, what he’s doing.” Thomas’s smooth voice crooned over the harsh whispers coming from Karson.

  “You’re wrong,” I said. “I know what he is. I know what you are. And I know enough to pick a side.”

  Thomas’s grin disappeared and Hugh turned to me. His face was a stone fortress, even as Thomas’s façade collapsed. His cold eyes made my heart speed up, even though he was trapped within the oblong circle.

  “What is this?” Thomas screamed, angrily scanning the room. “There’s nothing here. No runes, no candles.”

  “Oh, there are runes,” I said, confidence returning. “You just can’t see them.” I reached into the dirt at my side and unburied a long, battery-operated light. An audible click sounded and the black light flickered to life. I set it back on the ground, light facing up.

  I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the change in light. Thomas’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open as he stared down the tunnel. Symbols covered the surface of the concrete, most nonsensical to me. But I didn’t need to understand them. The markings painted down the walls and onto the curve of the ceiling made sense to Thomas and Hugh.

  I couldn’t recall exactly what the symbols carved into Thomas’s chest had looked like the day I rescued him. The day I made the biggest mistake of my life. But I was willing to bet they were similar to the markings that traced the walls around us now.

  Thomas’s eyes moved from the symbols to the area I stood in. He stared intently at the floor.

  “Brown sea salt,” I explained. “Tough to find, especially on such short notice. But we managed. It’s good for you…well, not for you, personally, but—”

  Thomas screamed and ran back to Karson, crossing the tunnel before stopping abruptly short. “You will pay for this, Karson!” He turned back to look at me. “And you and your friend? You’re dead. Dead!”

  I twisted my finger in the air, twirling it, before backing away. Elation ran through me as Karson’s chanting began again, this time his tone harsh and violent. But even as my heart beat faster and hope rose in my chest, I felt my stomach roll, and saliva filled my mouth.

  I ran back the way we’d come, only making it a few feet. Blood rushed to my ears, blocking the sound of Karson’s chanting, as I emptied my stomach contents. Coughing, I pushed back and sat on the floor. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, and the noise of the room rushed back. Something had changed. I held my breath and listened. A shouting voice filled the air. Karson. But he wasn’t chanting anymore. I looked up, just in time to see her.

  Miriam stood, and for half a second hope sped my pulse. If my friend was up and moving, she was going to be okay. But in a flash the feeling of gratitude disappeared and panic set in. Miriam wasn’t just up. She’d moved closer to where the demons were trapped.

  Inches away from her, Hugh crouched. As I watched, horrified, he stood at Miriam’s level. He crooned to her. Voice soft, he mumbled words I couldn’t understand.

  Miriam’s gaping mouth and wide eyes stood out, making her profile strange and distorted. As my lungs filled to yell at her, Miriam moved a couple of inches closer to Hugh, edging her way slowly toward the salt circle.

  What was she doing? The vision I’d seen in Hugh’s mind hit me just as I remembered what happened when I’d broken Karson’s circle. All Miriam had to do was touch that salt—a one-inch gap was all that would be needed to break Karson’s hold and escape the room. If we escaped, Hugh’s hands would be at Karson’s throat in moments, or my own. I sprang up from the floor and lunged at Miriam’s form. “Miriam!” I screamed. “Miriam!”

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realized Karson had begun chanting again, voice urgent. The words filled the air in a rush.

  I hit Miriam’s side, tackling her like a football player sacking a quarterback, and then I heard Karson’s shout. The wind flew from my chest and Miriam squealed as we tumbled onto the ground in a painful heap. I turned to see if Hugh had broken through the circle.

  Hugh stood, arm outstretched, touching the air above the still-secure salt line. His eyes were narrowed and his mouth turned in a snarl. Thomas stood next to him, a grimace on his face. Hugh turned away, looking toward Karson, but Thomas stood still. His muscles tensed, he seemed locked in place.

  I threw an arm in front of Miriam, wishing I was strong enough to protect my friend, dreading I wasn’t. But as I watched, Thomas’s face contorted in pain. His eyes widened, and the sound that escaped his mouth was like nothing I had ever heard before. An inhuman screech ripped through the air, and my hands flew to my ears to block out the noise, and I could only block Miriam with my body from whatever might come. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the demon’s face.

  He paled to a sickening gray, a color no living man should be. His skin darkened and charred, then cracks appeared in it, like fissures in the ground after an earthquake. As if floodgates opened, the dry partitions in his skin filled with blood.

  The horror on his face was replaced with an expression of pain so pronounced it hurt me to look at it. Blood poured from the cracks in his skin, and he took a shuddering step forward, one arm reaching out, caught in Karson’s exorcism spell. I cringed, then jumped back when the pooling blood gathered form. It strained toward Thomas, even as the cracks in his skin healed. He stared at it, transfixed, then he fell to the ground, face first.

  Moments later, he grew still.
<
br />   The blood took longer. A few seconds after its host fell, the blood splashed onto the ground, soaking into the earth near and beneath Thomas. I couldn’t tell if Thomas was still alive, but I was going to throw a bitch fit at Karson after this. He’d said that exorcisms could be bad—whether they worked or not. But “bad” hadn’t prepared me for what I’d just seen.

  Something else moved in the corner of my vision, and I jumped up. Relief flooded me when I realized the new person moving near me was Franklin. Face somewhat ghastly in the black light, he smiled at me, offering a flood of reassurance that I desperately needed.

  A loud cry caught my attention. On the other side of the salt, Hugh’s skin blistered, and his eyes were fixed on Franklin. I looked away from the gruesome sight. It was almost over.

  Miriam shuddered on the ground, arms hugging herself while her gaze remained locked on the unmoving shape of Thomas Winston.

  Then she gasped at something behind me, and trembling, I turned to look. I expected to see something horrible, like Hugh disintegrating into a mess of broken flesh or bursting into flames. What I saw was even worse. Only a scant few feet away, Franklin stood on the salt line. Then, very deliberately, he slid a foot across it, marring the perfect circle.

  “No!” The cry ripped from my throat before I could stop it. Franklin gave me a pained glance before he stepped to the side, allowing the nearly deformed-looking Hugh to shamble across.

  And even as I watched, Hugh’s skin began to heal and re-form. Visibly. It was almost as disturbing to watch as the decaying injuries had been, especially since his gaze never moved from me as he walked.

  “Remember the deal,” Franklin said, voice gruff. “Girl’s ours. You can have the other two.”

  My thoughts raced faster than I could grasp. Franklin, kind old Franklin, had betrayed the Venators. Betrayed Karson. And for what? For me? It didn’t make any sense.

  “The deal?” Hugh said, voice low and garbled, like his mouth had been injured. “What is it you humans say? Deals are made to be broken.”

  Franklin took a step back, and a shadowman coalesced, forming from the endless supply of shadows filling the tunnel.

  …

  A few seconds earlier, I would have sworn that nothing could equal the pain of losing my family, nothing save for losing Ava to the same fate. But the pain that wrenched through my chest at the sight of Franklin—my teacher, my mentor, my friend—releasing the gravely injured Hugh from our trap was almost more than I could bear.

  I was an idiot. Franklin’s fascination with Ava’s powers had been obvious. And I knew he was a man who got what he wanted, without fail. But I’d never foreseen this.

  Precious seconds passed before I could even react to the situation, and by then, Hugh had a shadowman on Franklin and was reaching for Ava. How the demon could even summon a shadowman in his condition was a wonder. The demon’s strength was unlike anything I had ever encountered.

  I flew toward Hugh, who gripped Ava’s arm as he struggled to pull her back the way they had come in. The shadowman tossed Franklin as if the man weighed nothing, against the wall. Franklin hit the black light that Ava had set on the ground and the tunnel plunged into darkness.

  Luckily, thanks to a rune, I could see quite well in the dark.

  The shadowman met me halfway, but it slid sluggishly across the concrete floor of the tunnel. The runes along the walls were slowing it down. Two slashes with my long machete and the shadowman bled energy.

  Hugh yelled something, and Ava’s answering scream took my attention away from the shadowman for a second. Ava had out the knife I had given her, and she stabbed at Hugh. Miriam, finally rousing from her stupor, grabbed at the demon’s arm.

  The shadowman used my momentary distraction to slash at me with its long nails. Fire burned across my stomach, and I could feel blood wetting my shirt. I stabbed wildly at the creature, fueled by pain and anger and fear so strong that it threatened to choke me. I couldn’t let Hugh take Ava. I wouldn’t.

  The cutting seemed to finally weaken it—Ava stabbing at Hugh likely helping to weaken it as well. I impaled it in the chest, my blade sinking almost to the hilt, and the thing screeched. I pulled on every bit of my strength and whipped the shadowman over my hip, using the blade still buried in its chest for leverage. It slid several feet away into the darkness.

  I ran for Hugh, leaping over the still-prone Thomas. Hugh had only managed to drag Ava a few feet because she was fighting him for all she was worth. Miriam was back on the ground, lying still. Franklin was trying to get up from the ground, and I kicked his legs out from under him on my way to Hugh. Franklin fell, and a whisper of guilt ran through me. But the rage was far stronger.

  I’d be back for my former mentor.

  With Ava on the opposite side of Hugh, slashing at him with her dagger while the demon held her arm in an iron grip, I had a clean shot. Pulling everything I could from my runes, I yanked my machete from the sheath at my side and swung at Hugh with all my strength. Ava’s eyes widened and she fell back a step, and a line of red flew onto her face and chest. Blood.

  Demon blood.

  Hugh’s head slid off his shoulders as his body went limp and fell sideways. Ava screamed, a long sound that faded before stopping abruptly. Her chest heaved and her eyes locked on the demon’s body.

  But it wasn’t enough. Only the barest hint of satisfaction rolled through me at the sight of Hugh’s body. Franklin’s betrayal was somehow worse. He was human. He wasn’t an evil creature driven by his nature. He was a man I’d looked to as a father figure. One who’d chosen to betray me. To risk Ava.

  Rage still burned in me.

  I turned to see Franklin, now back on his feet, shuffling away. I strode toward my teacher, my friend, each step purposeful and filled with anger.

  Franklin stopped in his tracks and turned to face me, his expression resigned but defiant as well.

  “She could help us take so many. Think of the lives we could save!” he said.

  “At what cost? Me and Miriam? The cost of her freedom? The lives of the people that demon would have killed?”

  Franklin’s jaw tightened. “It comes down to the math. I’m sorry, son. But she’s more valuable in this fight than any of us—”

  I grabbed Franklin by the throat and shoved him against the concrete wall. His body thumped loudly in the tunnel.

  “Karson.” Ava sounded so far away, and my hand tightened around Franklin’s throat. I’d known my teacher looked at things in a dispassionate way, but I would never have believed him capable of this.

  “Let him go.” Her voice was close now.

  “He was going to let them kill me and Miriam, then he would have taken you. I’m guessing he has a trap for the demons down one of these tunnels that he would have used to slow them so he could take you. He had to know they’d betray him in the end. He was hoping that you’d see the demons kill us, and that you’d be willing to fight for him because of it. He could have gotten you killed,” I said, voice flat, even to my own ears.

  “But he’s a human. It’s not your job to kill him.” Her hand touched my shoulder softly.

  “I’m a killer, Ava. It’s what I am.”

  “You’re a killer of demons. Not a murderer of men.” The vehemence in her voice was strong. She believed it. She believed in me.

  Even when I didn’t believe in myself.

  My grip loosened, but I couldn’t seem to let go.

  “Karson. You have a choice here. You don’t have to become him. I know that you’re better than this. You don’t have to live your life ruled by the need for vengeance. Let Franklin go. Please.”

  Ava. Just her name. Just the whisper of her name in my mind was all it took. With a growl that echoed through the old tunnels, I released Franklin. The man fell to his knees, gasping for air.

  I took a step back, and Ava was there. She tugged me around so she could pull me into a tight hug, and for several seconds, it was all I could do to cling to her warmth, breathe he
r calming scent.

  “Ava?” A thready voice called from the darkness.

  “Oh shit. Miriam. We have to get her to a hospital, Karson. Where’s Caleb?”

  “He’s waiting above with the truck,” I said.

  “Is Thomas…?”

  I walked to the young man who had housed a demon for the last few months, tugging Ava with me. I didn’t want her to see Thomas if he was dead, but I couldn’t let go of her hand in this dark place.

  Part of me was numb to the thought of Thomas making it—or not. But something inside of me cared about the young man behind the demon’s mask. Cared that this young man make it out of this world, when I hadn’t been able to. I touched his neck, and felt a steady pulse.

  “He’s okay,” I murmured, almost not believing it myself. “There’s a radio a little ways down. We’ll call Caleb to come and help.”

  With extreme care, I picked up Miriam and then headed down the tunnel to where the radio waited. I didn’t even glance at my teacher when we walked past him. Instead, my gaze followed Ava.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Twelve hours later, I parked next to the emergency room doors, blocking the ambulance lane for the couple of seconds it took Caleb to walk Ava out to the car. Caleb looked angry. Whether it was because he’d been stuck outside during the fight, or because of Franklin’s betrayal, I wasn’t sure. Probably both.

  Since I’d left Ava and Caleb with Miriam and Thomas at the hospital, I’d worked nonstop to try to get word to the rest of the Venators about Franklin. Energy expended doing vocal magic was no joke, so I’d had to do it in between bouts of unconsciousness.

  Specifically, I’d done my best to let anyone who would listen know what Franklin had done. It hadn’t been easy. The Venators had very closed lines of communication for safety reasons, but I’d managed to get word to enough people that it should spread quickly.

  Ava settled into the passenger seat, shooting me a small smile. Even in the low lighting, the darkness under her eyes and the slump in her posture was apparent.

  “How are they doing?”