by Angie Fox
A dribble of sweat ran down my back. I lit my candle and glanced back one more time at Dimitri, standing bare-chested outside the circle of witches. He looked exhausted but happy. Poor guy had given me the shirt off his back. When he caught my eye and winked, I couldn’t help but smile.
You can do this, Lizzie.
I’d do it for him and for all of them. With that, I ducked inside the Cave of Visions.
My sweat gelled the second I stepped inside. The interior of the wagon was freezing cold, pitch black and smelled like canvas and dirt. I placed the candle in the center of the narrow space, with the fish right next to it. Breathe. I assembled myself into a Sukasana yoga pose on the floor in front of the gnarly-looking goat skull because, well, it seemed like the thing to do.
Sacrifice yourself. I had to believe I was doing the right thing, or I would have been tempted to sprint out of that wagon and never come back. The hexed fish swam circles in their jar, the dead one bobbing against the side. My ankles warmed where they crossed. The rest of me shivered.
You can do this, I reminded myself.
I had to do this.
I could feel Dimitri outside. He’d woven a protective spell, like a soft wind. He’d infused it with strength, purity and wisdom. Anyone else might have also tried to mess with my free will. Dimitri, curse him, was too noble for that.
The Red Skulls chanted outside, the words washing over me as I watched the yellow flame of the candle. It danced on the blackened wick and, with a start, I realized we’d used this same candle to summon Serena at the Paradise. Scratches marred the surface from the day we’d lost Phil.
I focused on my fairy godfather, thought about the way he’d taken care of me when I didn’t have anybody. And how it was my turn to take care of him now.
In my mind’s eye, I saw him. The mark on my hand tingled. My breath roughened, each exhale a cloud in the rapidly freezing air. My fingers clenched.
I was Phil.
Scared. In love. And insanely jealous.
Serena doesn’t want me anymore. She only married me in order to control me. And as soon as I deliver the blackout, she’ll take what she wanted and get rid of me.
Shock threw me out of my vision. I found myself standing in the narrow space. My heart slammed in my throat. Serena wanted to take something? I thought she wanted to open up the portal. I couldn’t afford to be wrong about this.
Focus. I steadied myself in front of the flame, forced myself to sit back down, resume my yoga pose. Two of the fish floated, dead.
Holy Hades.
I closed my eyes, pulled closer. I willed my mind to calm, my breathing to grow even. I wound my mind through the space like swimming through cold, dark water. The mark on my hand burned, and I used it to draw power.
Max stood in the rotting prison under the desert. The iron doors shook and bent. They were getting stronger. His seventeen demons were breaking out.
I caught my breath as a blackened demon writhed out from between the cracks in the door. I lurched for the hunter. Max stabbed the screaming, heaving succubus with a switch star and shoved her into a pile of writhing demons. Black blood caked his golden hair in a halo of death and red blood ran from deep cuts in his face.
“Get out, Max!” No way he could handle the demons behind those doors, or the bloodied ones behind him, once they regained their strength.
“Doesn’t work that way,” he said, squinting, his breath coming hard. “Think, Lizzie. Your Cave of Visions is set up for revelations, not painful truths. So you’d better figure this out soon.”
“They know the end is near.”
“Thanks for the pep talk,” he muttered, dragging a stunned, hissing demon into an iron holding cell.
“I found the portal,” I said in a rush. “They’re using Ricardo Zarro and sex to drive it open enough to get six hundred and sixty-six through. We can’t stop the concert. It’ll be swarming with succubi. I’ll bet they’ve got the dam guarded too.”
Max shot me a look. “Figure it out. You know you’re the only one who can stop this now.” The iron doors around him shook and groaned.
The truth cut me like a thousand switch stars.
Max’s eyes blazed. “It’ll be the highway to hell. You don’t want to know what’s in the deeper layers. I don’t, either. It’ll make what I’m dealing with here look like Cirque du Soleil. It’ll be a massacre.”
And, I realized with a start, the dark mark wanted it.
“Lizzie,” Max said, his image fading from my mind, “your last fish is dead.”
My mind hurtled back to the Cave of Visions, where I sat crosslegged with a smashed pickle jar in my hand. The fish lay lifeless on the wooden floor of the wagon. I’d dropped the jar.
And nothing happened.
Joy and relief welled up inside me. I didn’t need Grandma or the witches’ spells. I was the only one who could stop the demons tomorrow night. I alone could save Phil, free Dimitri, destroy the portal, end this thing for good.
Sacrifice yourself.
Power shot through me, my body aching with the pleasure of it. The demons could try to darken the U.S., summon sexual power from the masses, eat my lover. But I could take out their entire operation. I could crush Serena.
No mistake, I could feel her, out there, waiting. A smile curled on my lips. I never had to worry about finding my power again. I had it all if I wanted it.
Strength coursed through me, surged from the dark mark into every cell of my body. I needed it like I needed my next breath. This was my secret weapon to defeat the demons. I reached out with my mind, saw Serena as she really was—a blackened shell of a creature, a living locust. I nudged her with my power, and she turned, bewildered. She couldn’t even see me coming. I shoved her again, laughing at the irony of it. She could be mine. I could take her. And then, I realized, I’d have to give something back to the dark mark. This could consume me.
Oh Sheboygan.
This wasn’t me.
I swallowed a lump in my throat.
This felt too good, too easy. Holy smokes, I wasn’t even cold anymore. I didn’t know what I’d invited in, but I did know that absolute power corrupts. There would be a price and no matter how good it felt, I couldn’t keep the strength if it harmed, well, me. Who I am.
I pulled back from her, watched as she wrapped her arms around herself and searched for me. She stood in a narrow art deco hallway right below the control room of the Hoover Dam, where Phil worked to cripple the turbines. I had the information I needed now. So why couldn’t I let go?
My fingernails bit into my palms as I resisted the urge to shove her once more.
This mark was wrong. I didn’t need it. I didn’t want it. I was strong enough on my own.
Sacrifice yourself.
I didn’t need to sacrifice who I was. I needed to let go of the temptation to be something I wasn’t.
I let go.
With a blaze of power that sent goose bumps up my arm, my hand absorbed the mark like it had never been there. I stared at my palm, amazed, unwilling to believe I’d actually gotten rid of it. I felt whole, grounded. Good gravy. I felt like myself again. Relief erupted in me, followed by the sheer joy of having my life back again. Dimitri was right. I could do this with the power I had.
And that’s when things went to hell.
Chapter Twenty-six
Serena’s fiery red eyes caught mine. Holy Hades—she could see me. I stared at the demon, my unmarked hand, the demon. Shock darted across her features before she grabbed me by the soul.
I tumbled through cold, wet air. Winds crashed into me from every direction. My lungs screamed as they fought to breathe. I couldn’t see up, down. The whole time, Serena’s fingers dug into my chest, pulled me through the freezing, churning void. I grabbed for my switch stars, but couldn’t get a handle on them in the whirlwind.
Warm air smacked me in the face like a wave as I crash-landed on something cold and hard. I gasped for breath, planted my numb fingers on the slick su
rface and fought to get my bearings. My head swam, my neck burned and my mouth tasted like I’d been chewing tinfoil.
White boots strolled into my line of vision. “I’ll give you one thing,” said a voice dripping with sex. “Your family is certainly original.”
Serena.
I struggled to stand, did a bad impression of a baby deer and flopped butt first back onto the floor. Yeah, well the she-demon had made a big mistake. I dug for a switch star, ready to end this debacle for good when I came up empty. My chest constricted. My utility belt was gone.
Serena shot out a laugh. “Oh please, I’m certainly not going to suck you through the eleventh dimension so you can put a switch star through my forehead.”
I shoved my tangled hair aside and peered up at her. Serena had tossed my utility belt over her shoulder, a single claw looped through the buckle. The roughened black talons crackled under leathery skin. She’d hidden the rest of her demonic nature behind her petite body and Barbara Feldon good looks.
She seemed relaxed, too relaxed, for a demon standing in an art deco hallway under Hoover Dam. “Good to see you didn’t blow town.” She tilted her head, showing off a long neck. “When I stopped sensing you, well, let’s say I was ready to send out an entire army.” Her predatory smile told me she wasn’t kidding.
I flexed my hand, wishing I had something to zap her with. Amazing. I’d given up the dark mark as easily as I’d gotten it. Both times had been a disaster. I planted my hands on the floor in front of me, gathering strength.
Rage churned inside me. She didn’t think I could fight back. If I wanted the dark mark, I’d bet I could have it again. I could shove her, push her, destroy her. My strength surged just thinking about it.
I made a running leap for her, snagged the belt and went for my switch stars. Holy Hades! The belt was empty. I dug through the pockets. Everything was gone—even the creature who lived in the back.
Serena crushed me to the floor. I was too shocked to scream when my left hand sunk into the pink marble. H-e-double-hockey-sticks. I grabbed for the belt with my free hand, only to watch in horror as both of my hands sank up to the wrists.
Serena’s two-way phone crackled and beeped, echoing down the hall. “Hell Fire Three reporting.”
“Go ahead,” Serena said.
“Lover boy is blowing out the turbines. Zarro is on stage.” She talked like she was reading from a to-do list, like she wasn’t about to unleash hell on Earth. “Do you have the demon slayer secured?”
She grinned, showing very un-Barbara Feldon-like double row of jagged teeth. “Affirmative.”
“We’ll commence as soon as the turbines blow.”
“Thanks, babe,” Serena chirped sweetly.
“What?” I struggled to stand. The end, the concert, the demolition of the power system—that was supposed to happen tomorrow night. Even then, I didn’t know how we were going to stop it, but now? I needed more time. And how could they possibly move up a complete takeover of the North American airwaves?
“You can’t,” I insisted. Because, they couldn’t, they simply couldn’t. “It’s impossible to move up a concert by a day.”
Her brows knit. “This is Saturday,” she shoved me with her toe. “Your fault,” she added, as I lunged back at her.
Hell and damnation. Had I really been hurtling through that pathway for nearly a day?
Serena sighed. “I’d have been up there twenty-one hours ago if I hadn’t been busy dragging your stubborn butt through the eleventh dimension. Broke a nail too.” She flexed her talons. “Oh wait,” she said, as it grew back, long and sharp. “One problem down. One to go.”
I struggled against whatever hold she had on me. I used every ounce of my demon slayer mojo, but my hands didn’t budge.
“You stay put. I’ll come get you when it’s time for the end of the world.”
I stiffened.
“Kidding,” she added. “That’ll take at least another week. I’ll come get you once we ax North America, give or take Panama.”
“Panama is in Central America,” I said, my voice raising two octaves at the end. Call it the natural response of a teacher, or more likely, the only thing my brain could grasp at that moment. I felt bad enough about Phil and Dimitri. I couldn’t be responsible for the end of North America. And Central America. And… oh geez. How many billions of people were we talking about?
Damn the creature, she beamed—proud of what she was about to do. “You stay here,” she said, stepping past me, her ankle sideswiping my nose on her way down the hall. “Oh, who am I kidding? Where else are you going to go?”
“What are you going to do to Phil?” Not that there’d be much of a world left for him, but there were worse things to take than someone’s life.
She barked out a laugh. “Phil’s soul is mine as soon as the turbines shut down. Phil is a pain in the ass. Always resisting.” She surveyed me, cold and calculating, as if wondering if there was more to me than what she saw. “The guy almost threw himself over the dam when I told him I needed him to lure you here.”
Phil was bait?
The pieces fell together with gut-wrenching clarity. I’d been so proud. So determined to be some great demon slayer—so convinced this whole thing had been about everyone needing my help. It was never about the kick-butt demon slayer blazing into town to ride to the rescue of good ol’ Phil. He’d been trying to save me.
Shock froze my brain. “You needed him to sabotage the dam,” I said, almost to myself.
“Oh come on. Axing a dam is nothing compared to capturing demon slayer power. We need six hundred sixty-six she-demons—and you—in order to open the gates of Hell.”
My jaw locked as I stared at her, not wanting to comprehend.
It really was about my power. Dimitri hadn’t needed to flee Vegas. I did.
“And now I’ll take this little number.” I winced as she ripped Dimitri’s protective necklace from my throat. He’d used it to find me before. Now if he tracked the necklace, he’d find… her.
“Pretty,” she said, twirling it around her finger. “And it’d be almost impossible to remove if your big lug of a griffin wasn’t almost dry. Pity. He was tasty.” She sighed, remembering, before turning her icy blue eyes back on me. “I’ll be back for your power soon.”
I battled to free my hands as Serena’s boots clattered down the hallway and up a metal staircase. I had to get out of here. At least my friends would have missed me by now. And Dimitri. I cringed to think of what he was going through right now. They wouldn’t know what had happened to me—or where on Earth or in the underworld to look.
Meanwhile, there was no way to stop the concert or the blackout—not in the next twenty minutes. Phil was completely brainwashed and overloading the turbine timing systems, blowing power to the dam. And Serena, well, she was about to get everything she wanted.
I yanked at my hands until my wrists screamed in protest.
“Mother fudrucker!”
Dimitri should be in Greece right now—putting his family back together. He worked his whole life to do that. Instead, he’d put it off to help me. I’d rewarded him by muddying his pure griffin blood, serving him up as a snack for the demons, stealing all of his energy and now—failing at the one thing we’d sacrificed everything to do.
Sure, he’d come willingly, but that almost made it worse. I loved his loyalty and his courage and—dang—everything about him. He was like the light of a smoldering fire, warm and affirming. The man I wanted with me when things got rough, or to simply curl up with at the end of a long day. But I had to wonder if he’d have been better off if he’d never met me.
It was my fault. Dimitri, Phil, everyone had trusted me to do the right thing and I’d let them down. I buried my face in the black T-shirt he’d given me and inhaled his rich, warm scent, wishing I could see him one last time.
I’d lose my lover, my fairy godfather, my life and everything else that lived and breathed. All because I’d thought I could do this on m
y own.
Now who was going to save me?
Chapter Twenty-seven
“Joe!” I hollered with all of my strength. My voice echoed down the pitch-black hallway. “Joe!”
I didn’t know exactly where I was inside the sixty million tons of concrete that made up Hoover Dam, but I knew Joe wasn’t going anywhere.
Neither was I, if Serena got her way. My stomach roiled at the thought.
“Joe!” I yelled, over and over again until I grew hoarse. I felt the demons clamoring with excitement. With every pleading, desperate word, I yanked at my hands until my wrists screamed in protest and my back nearly gave out.
“Joe. I. Need. You. Now. Joe. I. Need—”
The magical world lurched as the fluorescent lights above me sputtered and died. Blackness chilled me. An orange emergency beacon pitched an oasis of light at the far end of the hall and my concrete tomb grew much, much too silent. I braced myself, knowing this was the intake of breath before the scream.
Maybe Serena’s plan wouldn’t work. Maybe America wasn’t watching Ricardo Zarro or everyone was at dinner or it wasn’t really true what they said about blackouts. Maybe not enough people would make love, or the succubi would fail to harness the carnal energy or… The temperature of the room plummeted at least twenty degrees.
Succubi. I felt their power grow. I closed my eyes and could almost see it. The back of my throat constricted as hordes of succubi pounded on the walls deep below the old prison. My stomach felt hollow. The iron weakened. The demons raged. And I knew it was only a matter of time.
Didn’t mean we wouldn’t go down fighting.
“Joe!” I started to panic. Where was he? Ghosts traveled fast.
Twenty demons burst through the portal at once and the shock of it almost took the breath out of me.
“Joe!”
My stomach flip-flopped as the demons swarmed. They piled on top of each other, through each other. At least forty more made it though. I could hardly count them all.