As the shields dissolved, Otakay, Meoquanee, and Qaletaqa materialized behind her.
Angelus’s eyes widened in surprise, and the doppelgangers froze, as he lowered his weapon. His eyes opened even further, and a shiver ran through his ebony feathered wings, as a false Tatya walked toward him, her hips swaying, her gaze fixed on him, while the real Tatya remained at a distance.
"Well done, Tatiana! I’ve never seen anyone master the doppelganger trick that easily. You are a fast learner, and I have much to teach you. But, please, dear one, introduce me to your friends for I sense a familiarity about them, and I would learn the names of those who enter my domain without invitation and seek to do me harm before I destroy them."
Intent on keeping Angelus’s attention focused on the doppelganger, Tatya drew strength from Otakay, and endowed her creation with more solidity. The illusory Tatya inched closer and lowered her eyes, flirting with the demon. Tatya’s confidence increased as, at last, the low Bandrui mantra beat in time with her heart, and their ancient power flooded through her and into the illusion. "We need to talk. It's clear you can't be defeated," the false Tatya smiled, flicking her tongue along her upper lip, then biting her lower lip, and allowing her gaze to linger on the demon's body.
"You wish to discuss terms of surrender?" Angelus's eyes smoldered as his gaze fixed hungrily on the doppelgänger. His ruby lips stretched into a smile of triumph. Entranced by the possibility of multiple Tatyas serving his every whim, his doppelgangers winked out of existence. "What do you suggest?" He stepped closer to the false Tatya, eager to realize the tantalizing promise of her submission.
Boosted by the Bandrui magic, Tatya poured her strength into the dagger she held behind her back. Within seconds, the blade lengthened, widened and became the sword she needed.
Possession dominated Angelus's mind as he reached out and grasped the doppelgänger's hand.
Without hesitation, Tatya brought the pale sword forward and thrust it through her doppelgänger straight into Angelus's heart. The doppelganger flashed out of existence, and Angelus staggered back a step, letting his weapon fall.
“Vanse, Forked Lightning, now!” She whipped her blade out of Angelus’s chest, and collapsed the shield.
Together her companions leaped forward, and grabbed the demon’s arms, yelping in shock and pain as the heat from his skin blistered their hands.
Meoquanee and Qaletaqa instantly flung a cooling layer of protection around their hands, and sent power along the links as Vanse and Forked Lightning forced Angelus to his knees, but they barely managed to constrain him.
He twisted and turned in their grip, snarling obscenities at them The sight of Dhanu, Brigid, and Fidelma standing behind Tatya sent the demon into a rage. “You, witches! You dare to come here?" Spittle flew, and he frothed at the mouth, insane with hatred as he reared up against his captors' hold. "I will annihilate every trace of your existence if it's the last thing I do," he shrieked.
"Pick up his sword," Dhanu whispered in Tatya’s ear, her keen gaze fixed on the lethal instrument of death.
"Grab his wings," Tatya cried to Vanse and Forked Lightning, as despite the shielding from the spirit guides, she watched in horror as the skin on their hands blackened and crisped like crackling on a roast. Somehow, they held on to him.
"You must pick up his sword," Brigid commanded.
The ebony blade lay quiescent on the floor halfway between her and Angelus.
“I am the only one the sword obeys. Don’t touch it, my sweet, it will destroy you.” Angelus begged, writhing and twisting in his enemies’ grasp.
The beautiful Fidelma placed her hand on top of Tatya's. "Have no fear. The blade will not control you."
Brigid and Dhanu joined Fidelma, and the pool of swirling energy within her grew luminous with power.
The instant Tatya grabbed the hilt, sweeping the weapon out of the demon's reach, the runes flickered wildly, and a bitter chill spread up her arm.
Angelus stopped fighting against his captors, and watched, his expression one of expectation.
Vanse and Forked Lightning grabbed their chance, released their hold on his arms and seizing large handfuls of feathers, yanked the kneeling demon’s wings backward.
Angelus didn't take his eyes off Tatya.
"You must press the two together." Fidelma urged. "Hilt to hilt and tip to tip."
Tatya couldn't feel her fingers and the malevolent sword was now a dead weight. The cold crept up to her shoulder, and her grip on the hilt slackened.
Vanse and Forked Lightning had Angelus on his knees, but his gaze never strayed from Tatya, fixing on her the way a snake transfixes its prey before attacking.
The icy sensation grew, creeping past her shoulder toward her heart.
"Tatya." Otakay's sharpness startled her, and she blinked as warmth from the spirit guide chased the cold from her body.
The silver and gold runes on the white sword swirled and pulsed with bright energy, as a ruddy light illuminated the crimson sigils on its twin.
As she raised the two weapons into the air and brought them together, the pale blade’s brilliance expanded till it smothered its malicious double. A spine-chilling wail echoed throughout the hall as the dark twin disintegrated.
Angelus screamed as his wizard ensorcelled weapon died. He whipped this way and that as he fought to free himself, but Vanse and Forked Lightning had twisted his ebony wings behind him, and pressed the feathered membranes painfully down into his back.
"Thank you for freeing our brother," Dhanu said. "Now you must behead the demon."
“What!” Tatya couldn’t believe she’d heard the Bandrui’s words correctly.
"You have plunged the sacred blade into his heart twice in this lifetime, and each time he has returned. This is the only way to kill him. Who knows how many lifetimes we may have to wait before this chance comes again.”
Tatya looked at Angelus. Pinned to the ground by Forked Lightning and Vanse aided by the spirit guides, and with her blood thrumming with Bandrui power, he no longer seemed such a threat. But the Bandrui were right, she had thrust the oak dagger into his heart twice, and he’d survived. Yet, she balked at the thought of beheading someone, even if that someone was Angelus.
Abruptly he ceased struggling. "Tatiana. Tatiana." His voice was soft and cajoling as if this was a lover’s tiff. "I never meant to hurt you. You can keep your pets if that will make you happy. Please don't do this. Please!" He begged, "Tatiana! No, Tatiana!"
"What are you waiting for, sis? Do it for Leyla and my dead child."
"Do it for Sean, and your Aunt, and for the countless numbers of innocents this creature has slaughtered over time to further his ambition." Vanse's voice dripped with revulsion, as the demon bucked beneath him. "Do it and free us all.”
The demon lord twisted his head, and glared balefully at her, muttering under his breath.
Vanse had saved her from this hateful monster countless times, and his love for her would condemn them both to more of the same for who knew how many lifetimes if she didn't kill the demon. This was the reason the Bandrui had silently accompanied her for centuries. If she did this, their mission would be complete, their vows fulfilled, and they too could join their ancestors.
The air shivered as Angelus’s words transformed from wrath-fueled ravings to an incantation.
"Do it, Tat, before something bigger and badder appears." Forked Lightning begged as he and Vanse pushed down on Angelus’s wings, forcing his shoulders to the floor, and each placing a knee on his back to keep him in restrained.
“Do it before he invokes his benefactor, the one who granted him this slice of hell," Dhanu urged
Trapped by their knees, and with his head twisted sideways, Angelus found it impossible to shift his captors, but he continued his sorcerous conjuration. The light in the hall dimmed and the walls shook with the intensity of his appeal.
Tatya raised the shining sword.
Angelus felt the hands tighten on his wi
ngs, the knees press deeper into his back, and the soft sound of Tatya’s approach.
Tatya stared at the demon, and gathered her resolve. She opened herself to the Bandrui, to Otakay, and called on Changing Sky to beg the Great Spirit Above to forgive her for this act.
Angelus’s voice grew louder, more piercing, and the air quivered as the words spilled faster and faster from his mouth.
Forked Lightning and Vanse’s hands juddered as they drew on the links to their pack and family to prevent the demon gaining his freedom, but they couldn’t silence him. Both gazed at Tatya, their eyes imploring her to end this.
The spell intensified. The ground quaked and the air thickened with malignancy as the demon approached the climax of his summons.
Tatya took a deep breath and directed her power into the weapon. The sigils shimmered in anticipation of fulfilling the aeons’ long mission. Gathering the pool of energy roiling inside her, Tatya raised the sword, and focused on the demon’s neck, locating the exact spot where the blade would fall.
"Now, now.” Fidelma demanded, "before he utters his master’s name."
"Anav-"
Tatya screamed—a piercing primal sound that echoed around the hall—and the blade sang joyously as she cleaved Angelus’s head from his body in one swift stroke.
The demon’s body stilled, and the light in his eyes died.
Tatya stood transfixed by the sight of the dead demon, the weapon hanging loosely in her hand.
The Bandrui encircled her and removed the sword. "Thank you, it has been an honor to accompany you," they told her. Putting their arms around her waist they supported her as they sang, their voices caressing her wounded mind, and easing the ache in her heart. "We are not forsaking you," they said as they released her, "but you no longer need our help. We will return and accompany you when it is your time to cross over." The three priestesses smiled, bowed and vanished.
Forked Lightning watched with fascination as the skin on his palms healed, and the black feathers in his hands crumbled to ashes. "Guess you really got rid of him this time, Tat."
The ground beneath them shuddered, as cracks appeared and ran across the floor.
"Tatya, Forked Lightning, his magic created this place. We need to leave. Now." Vanse dragged her away from the grisly scene.
"The portal!" Forked Lightning yelled as the ornately colored stained-glass windows exploded, raining needles of rainbow glass over them as they ran. Vanse and Forked Lightning heaved the great doors open as booming crashes reverberated throughout the palace. They could hear the cries and screams of Angelus's servants and slaves.
"Which way?" Tatya coughed and choked as clouds of dust rose into the air.
Another thunderous rumble and the wall to the left of them crumbled, revealing the garden.
Vanse hauled Tatya along, with Forked Lightning bringing up the rear, as everything Angelus created collapsed into rubble.
"Where are the spirit guides when you need them?" Forked Lightning sprinted for a gap in the half-demolished wall, ignoring the falling masonry that continued to detonate, spattering them with dust and flying rubble.
Fleeing through the gardens as bushes and trees toppled, they scrabbled as fast as they could on hands and knees up the nearest hillside, making it to the top as an explosion from behind sent them sprawling to the earth.
Vanse rolled on top of Tatya, sheltering her from the debris.
Forked Lightning jumped to his feet as soon as the fragments ceased falling. "Look!"
They caught the final moments as an immense sinkhole swallowed the twisted ruined remains of Angelus’s finest creation. Five minutes ago, a gleaming white marble palace with exquisite gardens had dominated the landscape, but now nothing except a bare patch of gray soil could be seen, and even as they watched, the red moss of the swamp reclaimed the land. It was as if Angelus and his eons long dream of power and conquest had never existed.
"The portal is which way?" Vanse looked up at the red swollen sun hanging low in the sky above the distant hills.
"That way." Tatya waved her hand vaguely to the east. "Otakay's holding it open for us."
"Are you okay, Tatya?"
"No, but I’m still alive and breathing. C'mon, I don’t know about you two, but I’m tired and I want to go home."
Chapter Thirty-Three: Epilogue
The sun shone in a cloudless late spring sky as Vanse drove along the highway out of Orleton to the reservation. Leyla would be laid to rest today.
Tatya opened her jacket.
Vanse pressed a couple of buttons and a gentle waft of cool air lowered the temperature inside the car. “I’ll return to town. Call me when you’re ready.”
“None of this is your fault.”
“Angelus ordered Serkan to come to Orleton because I was here.” His voice was flat, but the link betrayed his self-reproach.
“Don’t berate yourself. He didn’t send him here for you, he sent him for me. You were a bonus. He was a demon, and that meant he was always looking for ways to hurt us. The only actions you’re responsible for are your own.” She looked at him, her heart squeezing with the reality of how her days and nights had changed since they woke in her bed a week ago.
He kept his gaze on the road, but the corners of his mouth lifted. “And for those under my care.”
“Okay, maybe those―a bit.”
They’d had this discussion more than once on the way to the rez over the past few days as Forked Lightning and Leyla’s friends celebrated her life.
“The blame lies with Angelus. He was the instigator.”
Vanse sighed. “I know, but I can’t help wonder if I’d done something different at some point…”
“Forked Lightning doesn’t blame you.”
“For which I’m grateful. Please offer him my condolences.”
“He tried again yesterday to persuade the elders to let you attend at least the final day, but—”
“They have long memories, and tradition says my appearance at a funeral would be very inauspicious for the departing soul. It’s okay, Tatya.” He turned off the main road and onto the well-worn track to the rez. “At least they’re not trying to kill me anymore.” Ten minutes later, he pulled up by the rusty sign that marked the reservation boundary.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I will need to sleep soon.”
She punched him in the arm. “Oh, now, it’s my fault?”
He rubbed his arm and laughed. “Well, who else sleeps, or rather doesn’t sleep, by my side?”
“You can go home to your lair and sleep in your coffin anytime.” Tatya’s laugh ended as he leaned over and kissed her. The link flared, and she shivered with pleasure. Tatya’s phone rang, and they broke apart. “I’d better go. We’ll finish this later.”
“Maybe…”
“Tease.” Tatya buttoned her jacket and retrieved her purse from the dashboard. She got out of the car and smoothed her skirt.
“You look fine.”
Fabio’s welcome home gift was a new black suit and mid-calf black boots to match for Leyla’s funeral.
“Till later.” She blew him a kiss and pulled out her phone as she headed into the reservation. “Hi, Bill. Yeah, I just got here. See you soon.” She didn’t head straight for the cemetery but took the narrow track leading up to Changing Sky’s old cabin. She had arrived early because she wanted to walk up the hill and sit for a while in the place where her mentor had lived and died.
The sun was almost at midday when she made it to the top of the hill, by which time she was carrying her jacket and cursing her boots. She hadn't completely recuperated from being AWOL from her body, but her hybrid blood was speeding her recovery. Finding herself fitted with an intravenous drip, lying next to Forked Lightning similarly equipped on her right, and Vanse, set up with a blood bag attached to a drip on her left, the three of them lying on her bed had been a shock and a relief.
During their absence, Fabio and Eva had bickered non-stop, with the one
insisting her vamp aspect needed blood, and the other adamant she would stake him if he went anywhere near Tatya's drip.
She had been unconscious for a week, though to her, the imprisonment on Angelus's hellish planet had been months. Her rescuers had been out for two days, though they agreed it felt longer, and both recovered within twenty-four hours. Her spell in the hellish domain left dark lingering shadows in her psyche.
She rested on the bench looking over the landscape as she’d done on many occasions while drinking sage tea with Changing Sky. In her mind, he sat next to her as they looked over to the right where small groups of ant-sized people headed toward the cemetery. His words replayed in her head even now, “As the embodied soul continuously passes in this body, from childhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized person is not bewildered by such a change.”
Her thoughts roamed, and her hand unconsciously touched the image of Lord Narasimha on the locket at her throat. Leyla and her child had been innocents, along with Aunt Lil, Sean, and Nepta. Every one of them had died because of Angelus’s quest for power and domination, and these were the ones she knew of from this lifetime. She saw again the triumphant lust in the demon's eyes when he thought he’d won and shivered. She couldn’t quite believe it was finished. The Bandrui had also gone, and this time, they left no chant, nothing to connect her to them. Others might think that a good thing, as it meant their work was done, but she had shared a deep bond with them, carrying them for many lifetimes, and enabling them together to finish an ancient task. The details of her past lives were fading, with the names of people and places becoming mist-wreathed dreams barely recalled upon waking.
A figure climbed the hill. She could tell, even at this distance, by the hair streaming loose behind him, and the broad shoulders and strong gait, it was Forked Lightning.
"'Morning, sis." He sat next to her and joined her in studying the landscape.
It was the tail end of spring and the recent rainfall had pushed the shortgrass into overdrive. A rich carpet of green covered the undulating land, and the soft grass shimmered in the sunlight.
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