The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers ds-2

by Angie Fox

  Dimitri wedged his into the slot.

  The air in this hallway used to be stale and metallic. Now the only thing I could smell was the sulfur stench of demons.

  I ducked past Dimitri and threw open the closet door, switch stars ready.

  Where were they?

  The waters of the magical hallway churned with a murky froth, like the ocean after a hurricane. They’d gone from crystal clear to dishwater gray. A dead fish floated past, tangled in seaweed. I stepped in and pitched forward when the waters of the hallway swallowed me to the knees.

  “What the… ?” I stumbled three feet and braced my hands on the opposite wall. The water had gone from tropical to downright chilly. Before, it had lapped at my toes, but left them dry. Now, I was wet. And cold.

  Goose bumps skittered down my legs.

  The sulfur in the air made my eyes water. I could actually taste it in the back of my throat.

  I fought back a wave of nausea.

  Half the chandelier lights had been ripped from their sockets. Every Skeep post down the long corridor stood empty. It was like a bomb had gone off on the thirteenth floor. The air sizzled with energy, and yet the silence was deafening.

  Like all hell had broken loose.

  Dimitri braced his hands on each side of the closet doorway. I’d never seen him so resolute, or so terrifyingly vulnerable. I could almost see them suck him dry.

  Well, not if I had anything to say about it. I waded back through the frigid water, grabbed his key card, and slammed the door before he knew what I was doing.

  “Lizzie!” He pounded on the door.

  I ignored him. He had to trust me on this one.

  Who was I kidding? I had to trust myself.

  I could feel them stalking me.

  Shadowy forms floated beneath the surface of the water in the hallway. Despite the chill, sweat pooled under my arms and on my palms. I wiped my switch star hand on my shirt and began wading toward Battina’s room full of wards.

  No way the witches would have gone down without a fight. I had to believe they’d made it out or—my breath caught in my throat.

  Grandma floated faceup in the murky water, her dirty hair tangled across her forehead.

  “Oh no.” Shock slammed through me.

  Grandma’s mouth slacked open, and a thick rusty ooze bubbled from her forehead. Oh geez. I touched it gently. Had to know if it was blood or magic or… I would have plopped down from relief if I hadn’t been so scared—possum goo. Protective magic. Thank God.

  Her skin felt cold and clammy, her neck worse as I felt for a pulse. It was weak, but there.

  Grabbing her around the shoulders, I lifted her out of the water with more strength than I knew I had. Ice-cold water sloshed down my body.

  I reached up for the handle and flung open the Exit door. Dimitri, the jerk, had had been trying to jimmy the lock with my broken key card. “Emergency! Take her.” I unloaded Grandma onto him, swiped half the broken card and slammed the door again, ignoring his cursing from the other side. No way they’d make it out of this hall alive in a fight. Heck, I wasn’t so sure even I’d make it out.

  A high-pitched whistle sounded, and before I could think about it, a demon dropped out of a chandelier. It screeched, claws outstretched. I nailed it with a switch star, just in time to see two more coming from behind. A sulfuric wind threw me face-first into the water, my eyes stinging with salt water. No way I could recover in time to switch-star them. I dove straight down, forcing my arms to pump as hard as I could, fighting the numbing cold.

  I could feel the mass of demons in Vegas, like an army of locusts. I could sense their hunger, their need to suck the living energy out of everything they encountered. Maybe a city like Las Vegas could handle a few, but not this many. It was like they were using Grandma, Ant Eater, the energy of the witches to open a gateway. They were feeding, taking and growing stronger and more menacing with every passing minute. I felt them like a weight in the very pit of my stomach.

  The dark mark throbbed against my palm. It recognized them, and it wanted them. Yeah, well so did I.

  Chapter Sixteen

  My hair tangled around my face and my lungs burned. The dirty water heaved with broken bits of seaweed and remnants of paradise. Bubbles forced their way up through the underwater nightmare, but I knew better than to give in to the desire to break for the surface. It churned above me, surrounded by the pure white walls of the hallway and the slick black shadows of not one, but two demons landing on the surface. Yellow talons attached to black leathery legs broke through the water right on top of me. I couldn’t let them corner me. But I couldn’t throw switch stars though the water, could I?

  I said a quick prayer and zinged one for the demon right above me. The thing shattered into a million flecks of light. Yes!

  Lungs ready to explode, I broke through to the surface. I scrambled out of the depths like I was climbing out of a pool, though I could make it out only to my knees. The salt water stung my eyes and dripped down my lips. I gave them a quick wipe and crouched, shaking as the air-conditioning of the hallway hit me like an arctic wind. “You found your slayer!” I screamed down the deserted hallway.

  Switch star in hand, I sloshed down the corridor. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

  I could feel the last one siphoning the energy from the floor. It didn’t even need to be in devil form. These things could exist anywhere.

  “Come on, girlie. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  She rushed me from behind. I turned at the last second, switch star out, ready to throw. She slammed right into it, burning me with countless pinpricks of energy. The impact seized me like an electric charge. I closed my eyes against the glare as the impact punched me backward into the murky water.

  The ocean swallowed me whole. My face, arms, chest shocked and useless. Salt water flooded my mouth and I choked. Terror gripped me as my arms refused to move.

  Sweet switch stars. I couldn’t survive a triple demon attack only to drown in the aftermath. I forced my legs to move. Nothing. My arms. Nothing.

  I held my breath, salt water going up my nose. If I choked, I’d breathe in more water. It was the only thing I could control.

  Holy mother, I was sinking fast. My left side caught a sharp coral reef and I winced at the impact. Dark blood—my blood—clouded around the wound, reaching with gauzy tendrils until it faded into the suffocating waters. The murkiness consumed the streaming light of the surface until it took too much energy to bother to look up at it.

  I closed my eyes. Numb. And I thought of the dark mark.

  Maybe I couldn’t move my hand, but I could feel the power of the mark on my palm. I called out to it, invited it to flow through me. This mark had been given to me for a reason.

  My cheek hit the soft, sandy bottom and my hair streamed around my face. I kept my eyes closed tight and focused on the mark. Flooded with a cool calm, I let the power of the mark wash over me like the water that was killing me. I felt it snake through my fingers, burn through the veins of my arm. It pricked into my chest, into the very core of me. I floated in the mire and let it come.

  Give me the power to save them and to save myself. Give me the power to make a difference.

  The pain ebbed and for a moment, I thought I was dying. It wasn’t as unpleasant as I’d imagined—almost a way out of an impossible situation.

  At least I still had my soul.

  Suddenly, my arms and legs crackled to life. They tingled as if they’d been asleep. I pumped my way to the surface and burst through. I spit water and inhaled sharply, ready to choke as I scrambled for the safety of a wall. I couldn’t stop shaking. I was half standing, hands braced against the white swirling wallpaper when I realized I was breathing normally.

  “Son of a gun,” I murmured, feeling a raw burning in the back of my throat, the only indication that I’d been practically breathing salt water.

  The door to the outside rattled on its hinges.

  Correction
, it was mostly off its hinges as Dimitri cursed up a storm on the other side.

  “Hold up!” I called.

  I glanced up and down the deserted corridor. The hallway felt clear. For now.

  Legs tingling, I tested each step on my way to let Dimitri into the hallway. Grandma had looked terrible when I handed her over to him. Fingers numb, I felt my face and inspected my skin. My arms looked sunburned, the water at my knees sizzled, and my dark mark positively glowed. I touched it to the door lock and heard a sharp intake of breath on the other side.

  I did what I had to do.

  The situation had gone from bad to completely terrifying. Still, I didn’t regret using the dark mark. Dimitri may not like it, but this was the supernatural gift I needed to help us survive hell. I’d be a fool not to use it.

  I’d barely turned the lock when Dimitri exploded into the murky hall, running straight into me and sending up a wave of water.

  “Lizzie.” He gripped my shoulders like he wanted to pick me up and drag me back to Greece with him.

  “How’s Grandma?”

  “She woke up right when everything went quiet with you. What happened?”

  She woke up when the demons died. There’d be more. “We have to get out of here.” I looked past him and saw Grandma braced against Sid.

  Her mouth sagged and dark circles ringed both eyes. “They’d been hitting the wards all day. Typical. Like a raptor testing for a weak spot. I don’t know how they found one.”

  I nodded. “Can you walk?”

  We sloshed our way down the hallway reviving witches, most of them still in their rooms. They’d all suffered severe energy drain, but at least they were alive. Dimitri kicked in doors in a way that was both scary and efficient. After being held back by the dead bolt in the hall, he was enjoying himself a little too much.

  White streaked his hair. We had to put a stop to this, before I lost him entirely. If he’d been whole, a dead bolt wouldn’t have held him back. He’d have shifted in the maintenance closet and burst into the hallway, a huge utterly majestic griffin. The only reason he didn’t do it today, I feared, was because he couldn’t.

  He was fading. It wasn’t just his eyes anymore or the white in his hair. I could see his magic dull along with the emerald he’d given me. His protective necklace had morphed into body armor when I needed it, tied me to a tree when I didn’t and had even offered butt protection during my foray through Uncle Phil’s living room window. Now, twice when I’d been under demon attack, it had remained utterly still. I fingered the teardrop-shaped stone that used to be warmed by Dimitri’s magic. It still tied him to me. And I felt, I knew, that it still protected me. Still, it was a painful reminder of what had happened to him—to us—as it lay cool and lifeless around my neck.

  Because I couldn’t stand to watch him a second longer, and well, because Pirate needed me, I sloshed down the hallway to my room.

  “Hey, doobie.” I listened for Pirate’s clawing as I slid Grandma’s key card into the door. “Pirate?” I opened the door to a disaster. The television had exploded, along with the light sockets and every other electrical gadget in the place. And worse—no Pirate.

  Panic flooding through me as I searched the remains of our room. He wasn’t under the bed, in the bathroom, or behind the drapes. My chest tightened as I tried to think of other places he’d hide during a storm.

  Tears burned the backs of my eyes. What good was it to sense every demon from here to Hoover Dam if I couldn’t find the one little guy who depended on me to protect him?

  “Lizzie.”

  Dimitri-the-door-basher stood in the entryway, cradling Pirate. Blood seeped from my pup’s left leg, his coat stood on end and his ears dangled lifelessly.

  “Oh my god. Is he… ?” I took his scruffy body in my arms.

  “No,” Dimitri said quickly. “He’s fine. He’s just beat.”

  I buried my face in his wiry neck and felt his heartbeat against my palm. Relief whooshed through me. Through the cold, matted fur, I could feel an undercurrent of warm, doggie heat.

  As if he knew what I was thinking, Pirate curled into me and buried his wet nose in the crook of my elbow.

  Mmm… wet dog. My wet dog. “I’m gonna get you out of here. I promise.”

  In fact, we had to get everyone out. Pronto.

  “What’s the latest on the witches?” I asked Dimitri.

  “All stunned but alive. Seems like you interrupted the succubi before they could finish.”

  Or they’d attacked the witches in order to trap me. Sure, I hadn’t announced my presence in town, but I had slaughtered one of their sisters last night in the basement of the old prison.

  The war was on.

  I was suddenly glad to have the dark mark. It might have been the thing that kept me alive tonight. Still, I wasn’t about to let Pirate and the Red Skulls get caught up in another round. “Let’s get everyone out of here. Now.”

  “No.” Dimitri stopped me with cool, steady hands on my arms. “The Red Skulls are already on top of it.”

  “You’re kidding.” I never thought I’d see the day when the Red Skulls had a plan.

  The tiny lines around his eyes crinkled as he tugged me toward him. “Come here, sweetheart.”

  My insides melted at the idea of letting him hold me. I could use a little comfort right now, to close my eyes, sink into his arms and let someone take care of me for a change.

  I forced myself to stiffen and pull away, ignoring the hurt that flashed across his strong features. He might have been the one for me, but not now. Just because I wanted him, didn’t mean I could have him. I couldn’t let him drain me or feed the demons that had their claws in him.

  “We don’t have time,” I said gently. “So tell me. What’s the plan?”

  His features hardened, making him impossible to read. “Battina and Ant Eater are working on a new ward,” he said. “It won’t hold forever. In fact, they’ll drain it even faster once they realize they’ll need to send more than three demons to finish us off. But it’ll do until we decide where we can go.”

  My first instinct was to get the heck out of Dodge. Dimitri hadn’t been the first one to feel what it was like to sink down into the hallway. Something had turned the warm water into a dark ocean. Freezing droplets still clung to my skin.

  I wanted to argue, but curse Dimitri, he was right. There was nowhere we could go that the she-demons couldn’t follow. Our best bet would be to create our own safe place here until we could figure out what to do.

  “You sure Battina and Ant Eater are up to it?” I hadn’t gotten a look at either one of them, but if they’d gotten hit half as bad as Grandma, I didn’t want to count on them.

  “I heard that, Miss Permit.” Ant Eater’s voice, weak but still annoying, echoed from the hall.

  Okay, so maybe she was feeling better. “You’re welcome,” I answered. “You know, for me saving your life.”

  Ant Eater leaned her head inside the door. Her gold tooth sparkled, but her eyes had lost their hellfire. She’d wrapped her arms around half a dozen recycled pickle jars. Inside, the greenish brownish sludge took on a life of its own.

  One side of her curly hair was mashed to her head. “Yeah, well you could have gotten here before those twits gave me the magical hangover of the century.” She grinned, despite herself.

  “Anything I can do?” I asked, eyeing the sludge.

  “Stick to demon slaying,” she said, smashing a jar at my feet and taking great delight in watching me jump back.

  “Lovely,” I said, wrinkling my nose at the slime oozing across the carpet. It smelled like moldy basement and feet.

  “A G-bomb a day keeps the demons away,” she said, standing next to me, surveying her work. “Just make sure you keep it wet and out of the sun. Also, try not to look directly at it.”

  “Sure,” I said. “Is it a ward?”

  “It’s not an air freshener.” She clapped me on the back.

  “Are you sure this is goin
g to work?” I didn’t think I could handle another demon attack right now. We’d barely survived the last one.

  “For a while,” she said. “It’s not like we ever used to fight ‘em. We’d spell and run. Battina and I keep a stash of emergency wards. Otherwise, you’re never going to get enough turtle knees on such short notice.”

  “Sure,” I said. I was all about planning.

  I found Grandma hunched on the bed nearest the door to our room, the phone to her ear. I was about to ask her what she was doing when I caught an unusual sight out the thirteenth-floor window.

  Gargoyles circled the top of the Luxor, screeching and pounding their leathery wings. Even the smaller ones were about the size of a German shepherd. I dragged the curtains shut. I couldn’t take any more weirdness.

  “I need as many rollaway beds as you can find,” Grandma ordered into the phone.

  She nodded at my upshot eyebrows and did a curlicue with her finger. “Wards are safer in these three rooms.”

  I plucked the receiver from her ear and slammed it down. “We can’t stay. In fact, I need you to think. Where is a safe place for you and the witches?”

  “Lizzie Brown, what has gotten into you?”

  “Into me?” I’d saved her life. I’d rescued the whole coven.

  Never mind the fact that I seemed incapable of saving the one man I might actually love. I could hear myself growing angrier with each and every word. “You have to get out of here. These succubi don’t want you. They want me.” And I had a feeling they’d follow me until I fought them—all twenty-two of them.

  Make that twenty-four. Damn. They must have used the witches’ power to draw two more out of hell. I could never destroy them all—not at this rate.

  Grandma stiffened. “What I meant, sport, is how did you kill the phone?”

  I stared down at the crumpled heap of plastic on the nightstand. Sure enough, I’d slammed the receiver down into the phone. A rivet of shock ran through me. The beige plastic split open like I’d run over it with my Harley.