The demon is here—
A voice in her mind. Kieran?
Run. Take the back exit. Down the steps to the beach. I’ll meet you there. Go now.
Oh God. Fear stabbed her through, bubbled up in her throat and nearly strangled her. All of those kids. Their parents. No. Don’t think about that, she ordered herself, already heading for the locked gate leading to the beach steps. Kieran would protect the innocents. Just as he would protect her.
She flipped the latch placed high on the gate, rushed through and slammed it closed behind her. The wind caught her hair, threw it across her eyes and she whipped her head back to clear her vision. Waves crashed on the shore, a roaring pulse of sound that beat out a rhythm she followed on the steep, narrow stairs.
Her black leather boots hit each step with a solid thunk of sound that reverberated up her spine. Her fingers curled around the cold iron banister and held on tight. Wouldn’t do her any good to escape the demon only to break her neck on her wild flight to the beach. She chanced a look back up the stairs as she made a sharp curve and worried when she didn’t see Kieran right behind her. Was he fighting the demon already? Was there even now a battle going on in front of those children? Was Kieran in danger?
Hurry, Julie!
Grateful to sense that short command in her mind, she hurried her steps, hit the bottom and stepped into the sand, feeling it shift beneath her feet. The sun was almost completely down now and twilight was blending into the coming night. The first stars shone from the clear, black sky and the wind and roar of the ocean slapped at her, as if warning her to go back.
Go back.
“There you are.”
She spun on her heel to face the man speaking.
Not Kieran.
He had a neatly trimmed beard and eyes that were as black as the sky overhead. When he smiled, a cold chill shot down Julie’s spine. While he watched her, she heard again, Run, Julie. Go now.
“It was you.”
“Oh, yes,” the demon said affably, stroking one hand across its beard.
“And may I say you were easier to reach than I had expected.”
“Great,” she said, glancing around her, looking for—anything. But there were no others on the beach. Up and down the sand, there was emptiness, as if everyone had sensed the presence of evil and had stayed away. Everyone but her, that is.
“What do you want?” she asked, backing up slowly in the sand that felt as treacherous as mud.
“I should think that would be obvious.” It came closer, the demon in a man suit, and gave her another smile that warned her of misery to come. “I want you and then the Guardian.”
Julie shot a silent message to Kieran, hoping he would hear. On the beach, Kieran. The demon.
“Thank you,” it said. “Very kind.”
“I’m not doing it for you,” Julie snapped and wondered even as she did, what the human male had been thinking, to give its life and body over to a demon. “Kieran’s going to send your ass back to whatever hell you came from.”
The smile faded, the black eyes narrowed and the demon took a quick, heart-stopping step forward. “He will not. The longer I’m free, the stronger I become.”
I’m coming.
Relief, thick and sweet, rushed through her veins until she felt the demon’s delight.
Maybe she could distract it. Keep it off guard until Kieran got there. “If you’re so damn strong, why’ve you been hiding from him?”
“Not hiding,” it assured her with a sigh of pleasure, “amusing myself.”
Oh God.
“So many lovely women here,” it mused, and inhaled sharply, deeply. “It is good to be here among you again. You have progressed much in the last hundred years or so, but thankfully, there are still those among you willing to hand over their bodies to me.”
“How did you get him?” she asked, running her gaze up and down the rather ordinary-looking man who now housed a vicious demon.
“This one?” It smiled. “This one was eager for me. Bob Robison possessed the potential for great evil. He simply had no direction. Until I—” it swept her a mocking bow “—came along. Since then, we have gotten along admirably.”
A demon named Bob.
Why that struck her as funny, Julie couldn’t have said. Probably hysteria. And who could blame her?
“Why?” she asked, stalling, keep stalling, get it to talk, make time for Kieran to reach her. “Why kill all of those women? Alicia? Why hurt Kate?”
“Ah, your little friends,” it said, mouth curving into a smile of reminiscence. “I don’t mind talking, you know. It’s always pleasant to share one’s proud deeds with a truly interested audience.”
“Great.” She swallowed hard and fought against a rising tide of sickness lurching in her stomach.
“And besides, we’re in no hurry. I’m content to await your Guardian before killing you.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, sending another wild thought into the mists—
Kieran!
“Your friend was delicious,” the demon purred, licking its lips as if remembering a particularly juicy meal. “She whimpered and pleaded for her life. Music.”
Rage crowded against the fear crawling through her and Julie glared at him.
“Ah!” It smiled, pleased at her attitude. “If only she had had more of your vinegar. It would have been more gratifying. As for your other friend…”
The demon paused, and frowned thoughtfully. “Clearly I should have taken more time with her. But once I’ve dispensed with your Guardian—and you, my dear—perhaps I’ll just pay her a return visit and give her my full attention.”
“You stay the hell away from Kate,” Julie said grimly. It laughed. “You really are a delight. So fiery and full of spirit. It’s no wonder the Guardian has become enamored of you.”
Julie took a staggering step backward as her boot heel came down on a rock. “You bastard, Kieran’s going to turn you inside out.”
“Brilliant,” it shouted, laughing again with a shriek of sound that was nearly ear shattering. “You entertain me so.”
“Julie!” Kieran’s shout sounded out loud over the roar of the ocean and the wail of the wind.
She turned, looked up and saw him standing at the top of the cliff staring down at them. She didn’t need to see his eyes to feel the fury emanating from him like thick ripples in the air.
Glancing at the demon she said, “You’re about to be entertained in a whole new way, you son of a bitch.”
Ignoring her now in favor of the man it had been waiting for, the demon moved suddenly, wrapping one arm around Julie’s neck, hauling her back against it.
“Guardian!” it shouted. “Come and play and maybe your woman will survive the night!”
Julie tore at the demon’s arm, slicing its skin with her nails, pulling and tugging with all her strength and yet, she might as well have been trying to push a mountain out of her way. The demon’s strength was awesome and for the first time, she really feared for Kieran’s safety. Yes, he was strong. And fast. And trained.
And immortal.
But he could be hurt. He could be wounded badly. He’d told her of Guardians who had been nearly destroyed protecting the innocent. As the demon’s own fury wrapped itself around her like the coils of a hungry python, panic reared up inside her. The demon was going to kill her and she hadn’t even had the chance to tell Kieran how much she loved him. In a heartbeat of time, she experienced the sorrow of knowing that no matter what happened here, her time with Kieran was almost over. If she died, he wouldn’t know of her love. And if she lived, she would still lose him to his own sense of honor.
“Kieran, no!” She shouted the warning, knowing it was useless. Knowing he would ignore her.
Knowing that nothing would keep him from her side.
He wouldn’t turn away from the battle he’d been trained for. Wouldn’t turn away from his duty. Or her.
And in the next instant, he proved her right.
He jumped off the edge of the cliff. The sides of his coat billowed out around him, looking like wings as he sailed through the air, sword held high, pale eyes murderous.
14
H e landed lightly on his feet, then immediately sprang up, sword at the ready and a part of Julie was flabbergasted despite her fear.
“Cease,” Kieran announced, not looking at Julie at all, instead spearing the demon’s gaze with determination. “Let the woman go and we will settle this.”
Julie felt the rush of adrenaline pumping through the demon as it tightened its hold on her throat. Her breath was cut off and her vision began to swim, blurring as her lungs fought for air. She looked at Kieran and even though she was sure this was her last moment, she couldn’t help feeling a thrill of pride and admiration in him.
He looked impossibly tall, fearless. His black hair twisted in the wind, his pale, icy eyes were narrowed in tightly leashed fury and his very body hummed with the power just waiting to be turned loose on the demon. In the dim light of the stars, Kieran looked like an age-old avenger and she wondered why the demon wasn’t shaking in its sneakers.
“The woman matters to you, yes?” the demon taunted. Julie groaned, still tugging ineffectually at the arm snaking around her throat.
“Matters enough that should you kill her, I will not only send you to hell, I will follow you there,” Kieran vowed, his voice soft and deadly. “And I will spend eternity making you pay.”
“Interesting,” the demon mused, stepping to one side and dragging Julie along with him as he moved. Keeping his gaze locked on Kieran, he said,
“She doesn’t seem very special.”
“Let her go,” Kieran said, now moving in the same circle the demon had begun. He lifted his sword and starlight glittered magically on the deadly sharp blade. “This battle is ours. As it has always been.”
“You stopped me once,” the demon said and relaxed its grip on Julie long enough for her to gulp a breath of air. “I won’t be stopped again.”
“Your time here is over,” Kieran said and sliced his blade through the air, making it whistle with promise, purpose.
Julie stumbled and the demon shoved her, keeping a tight grip on her nonetheless.
“I am eternal,” the demon crowed, lifting its head, its black eyes staring at the heavens in defiance before shifting that gaze to Kieran again. “I command legions in hell and I bow to no Guardian.”
Kieran dipped and swayed, twisting his sword back and forth in a hypnotic dance as his gaze locked on his opponent. “Your legions mean nothing, demon. Here, there is only you. And me. The woman is no part of this.”
It laughed, loud and long and the evil slide of it seemed to thicken the air and give it a bitter, horrific feel. “There will be time enough for her later.” It dragged one hand across her cheek and Julie shuddered. “I will take her at my leisure and you will know, Guardian, that she paid for your insolence.”
“Will you continue to talk, demon?” Kieran demanded with a sneer of contempt, “Or will you fight?”
“Let it end, then.”
The demon tossed Julie away from it and she landed hard on the sand, rolling several feet from the two men squaring off against each other. As if summoned by the gathering of power on the beach, clouds scuttled in from the horizon, hurtling across the sky, blocking out the moon and the stars. The threatening clouds crashed into each other in claps of thunder that rattled every bone in Julie’s body. Lightning flashed and struck the sand not twenty feet away and she felt the deadly rush of heat swamp her bones.
Neither the Guardian nor the demon so much as flinched. The wind howled, screaming past the three of them, tearing at clothes, plucking at their hair, tossing grains of sand into the air and hurling them like tiny bullets to rip and tear at eyes and skin. Waves rose, defying the outgoing tide to roar and smash into shore, lifting a showering spray into the electrified air.
Julie couldn’t tear her gaze from the two combatants. As she watched, the demon lifted one hand and seemed to tear a sword from the very air. Thunder rolled, lightning flashed and two swords came together in a clash of sound that was deafening.
Kieran swooped across the sand, wind tearing at his coat, his hair a flying black halo around his head. His jaw was clenched and his two-fisted grip on the hilt of his sword was so tight that Julie could see the whitening of his knuckles.
She braced herself on the heated sand and watched breathlessly, caught in the web of power emanating from the two fighting an age-old battle. The demon laughed, a wild, terrifying sound that lifted into the air and screamed through Julie’s bloodstream. She squinted against the flying sand, lifted one arm to protect her eyes as best she could and held her breath as the demon charged, swinging its sword in a wide arc that had Kieran leaping back to avoid the blow.
“It is my time, Guardian,” it howled, spinning in place, lifting its sword as if to pluck the very lightning from the sky. “My time to rule here on this plane of existence. The humans belong to me and my brethren. The time of the Guardian is done!”
Kieran lunged, spearing the tip of his blade through the demon’s side and its shriek of pain was satisfying, if brief. Instantly the demon retaliated, leaping into the air, jumping over Kieran to land behind him and slice its own blade into the Guardian’s shoulder.
Julie screamed as Kieran staggered and another flash of lightning shot from the sky and singed the air. Her heart in her throat, she went up on all fours, fingers clawing into the sand as if holding on to the world. Kieran felt her fear. He couldn’t risk looking at her, though. Couldn’t distract himself by worrying about her. When he’d first heard her calling him from the beach, he’d felt raw panic unlike any thing he’d felt in centuries. Knowing that the demon had her, could kill her, end her, at any moment had nearly paralyzed him.
He’d escaped the school by bending everyone’s perception of him. Making himself invisible, he’d rushed to the cliffs and looked down on his worst nightmare. Julie in the hands of the demon he was sworn to fight. To find her alive filled him with more joy than he’d ever experienced before. But to keep her alive, he had to focus on his duty. On the one thing he did better than anyone else on the face of the planet. Julie’s thoughts flashed through his mind like the lightning bolts crashing all around them. Her fear. Her worry.
For him.
And his power sang through his blood.
The demon’s strength had grown far beyond what it had been back in Whitechapel so long ago. Its might now rivaled Kieran’s own and he knew that this fight would be the hardest fought and the most important one of his long, lonely life. He must win.
To save Julie.
The demon’s blade swung out and Kieran parried it, darting to one side, pulling the demon farther from the woman who crouched on the sand, eyes wide, brain racing.
“I will cripple you,” the demon sneered, lunging again, dipping beneath Kieran’s blade to take a lethal swipe that only just missed. “And as you lie on the sand, helpless, you will hear me take her. Use her. And as she dies, her screams will echo within you for centuries, Guardian. That, and the knowledge that you failed her.”
His blade lifted, Kieran made a stab at the demon again that only just missed and in a heartbeat of time, the demon slipped toward Julie, swinging its sword high.
Kieran’s fury nearly blinded him. To capture the demon, he must first incapacitate it. That meant wounding the human body it inhabited. Only then could he use the Guardian netting he carried in his coat pocket. Once captured, the demon would be helpless and easily transported back to its hell.
But he’d never had to fight while trying to protect a human at the same time. Especially not a human he loved.
Kieran took one long leap toward the demon, sword outstretched to impale it—but the demon had anticipated him. Ducking low, the demon swung its own blade, deflecting Kieran’s blow and landing one itself.
“Kieran!” Julie’s scream cut through the tumult of the storm and sliced into
him more fully than the sword had done.
Tumbling to the sand, Kieran gathered his strength to attack again and opened his eyes to see her charging the demon like a madwoman, a rock clutched in her fist. No, Julie. Stay back! His mind reached for her, but she was beyond hearing.
Her eyes flashed, her features were tight with rage and fear and when she closed on the beast, it lifted its sword…and impaled her.
“Julie!” Kieran’s voice lifted into the wind, wild grief drawing her name into a cry of agony that tore through the heavens.
Stunned surprise filled her, dulling the pain until it became no more than a shadow in her mind. Julie felt the blade piercing her through and knew that she should be in agony, but somehow, there was nothing. She felt Kieran’s grief stronger than her own pain. She stared into the blackness of the demon’s eyes as it laughed down at her and knew it was over. She’d lost. Everything.
She couldn’t move. She could only hang, pinned on the demon’s sword, sliding inexorably toward the jeweled, golden hilt. It laughed at her, enjoying her sorrow, thrilling to the end of her dreams, her love, her life. She heard Kieran as if from a distance and wanted to say so much to him. She wanted to tell him how she loved him. How she didn’t care that he was an Immortal. Didn’t care about the worlds of differences separating them. She wanted…so much.
Still dazed, she fell forward, landing against the demon’s chest in a macabre parody of an embrace. Her hands weakly on its chest, she felt its laughter shudder through her and she winced as it screamed in victory.
“Guardian I have taken your woman. Now you will live for centuries, knowing that it was I who beat you!”
The world spun and began to fade. Julie watched her blood dripping from her body to pour over the demon’s chest and spatter in weird patterns on the sand at her feet.
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