Trust yourself.
Amaliya planned to do exactly that.
“Finish the ritual!” The Summoner barked at the black witches. Reaching over his head, he gripped the hilt of Lucifer’s Sword.
“I’ve got the witches!” Cian shouted.
“I’ve got The Summoner!” Amaliya answered, but immediately knew she was too late.
The Summoner swung the sword toward Bianca’s throat.
A great white sparkling mist billowed into view. Riding the wave was Samantha, eyes glowing, body shrouded in the power of the dead. Amaliya gasped as the ghosts bore The Phasmagus down on The Summoner. Samantha struck the sword from his hand a split second before it was going to strike Bianca. The look of shock and anger on his face was extremely satisfying, then The Summoner launched himself at Samantha.
The Sword of Lucifer arced through the air and Amaliya ran after it, tracking it with her eyes. Blood flew through the air as Cian killed the black witches, darting around their bursts of magic with eerie swiftness. Orbs of white fire flashed, driving back the demons rushing to help their masters. The glint of silver blades revealed Cassandra’s brutal dance of death through the vampires and infused humans.
Amaliya lashed out and the hilt of Lucifer’s Sword slapped into her palm. Twisting about, she sprinted after The Summoner. The ghosts had lifted Samantha out of his reach, but he was scrambling up the broken walls trying to catch her. Not a vampire, not human, not a necromancer, he was confined to his false form.
Bianca, much to Amaliya’s surprise, was closing in on him, scampering up behind him, clutching at his ankles and bare feet to drag him off. The blonde girl climbed rapidly and with purpose, but he kept out of her grip. So consumed in anger, The Summoner had made a mistake. Unarmed, his pursuit of Samantha was futile.
Hovering just above him, The Phasmagus goaded him on. “C’mon, fucker!”
The power of Lucifer’s Sword called to Amaliya, demanding blood, vengeance and release. She intended to give it what it wanted. Amaliya hurled herself into the air, flying toward The Summoner, the sword in her hand ready to swipe off his head.
The Summoner paused in his climb, recognizing his folly. Eyes locked with Amaliya’s, he read her intent as she swooped toward him. With a wicked, triumphant smile, he blinked out of existence.
The sword cut through where he had perched seconds before. Spinning about in the air, Amaliya searched for The Summoner.
“Where is he?” Amaliya shouted at Samantha.
“I don’t see him,” Samantha floated in the cloud of phantoms. They held her aloft as the phasmagus searched for The Summoner.
“Let’s play, shall we?” Bianca’s voice snarled below.
Looking down, Amaliya saw the other woman’s eyes glowing brightly.
Then the bodies of the many humans The Summoner had slaughtered rose to their feet.
Chapter 29
Jeff scrambled down the makeshift stairs Baptiste had summoned. The steps made of bedrock and dirt were steep, forcing him to descend faster than felt safe. Jeff kept fearing he’d miss a step and fall. Baptiste led the way, Jeff followed with Eduardo on his heels, and Alexia took up the rear.
Water poured from broken pipes, the reek of sewage filled the air, and gas lines burned like torches along the walls of the chasm. Below, the bright sparks of magic illuminated the remains of the old Mayan temple. The greatest light came from the luminescent cloud of ghosts that held his fiancée aloft. Samantha looked nothing like the sweet, bullheaded girl he’d first met. With the spirits surrounding her and her power flowing in great glittering waves around her, she looked like a goddess.
“Your girlfriend is amazing,” Baptiste said, observing the same view.
“Are we winning?” Alexia asked.
“Hard to tell,” Jeff admitted.
It was difficult to track everything that was happening. Cian was on a killing spree, Cass was dodging stone spikes being thrown at her by a redhead, and Aimee was holding off a horde of demons while flitting around in the air and hurling magic bolts. Amaliya was holding a beautiful, terrifying sword while flying toward The Summoner.
Arriving at the bottom of the cavern, Jeff ran across the muddy surface. The drizzle, water, and sewage were making the ground into sludge. Eduardo surged past them and leaped into the fray.
“I got the elemagus,” Baptiste said, swerving off to confront the redhead.
Summoning some of the fire from the flaming pipes above, Baptiste hurled it at the elemagus fighting Cassandra. Her head jerked in his direction and she thrust out her hand. Baptiste barely avoided a stone spike that erupted from the ground. The other elemagus barely avoided the fire ball and then charged Baptiste, abandoning Cassandra.
Jeff gripped the silver stake in his one hand tighter, and lifted the pistol in the other. The demons were herding Aimee into a corner. The modified bullets in the gun contained vanquishing spells. When used on any other creature, they’d have the impact of a normal bullet, but on demons it would send them back into the abyss. Taking careful aim, he started to fire. He grinned when the first demon he hit winked out of existence.
From behind a large rock, a mortal young man bolted toward the stairs Baptiste had created. He clutched an iPad to his chest and ran like a scared rabbit. Jeff pondered going after him, but the demons had turned their attention in his direction. Reloading, Jeff was glad he had allowed Cian to infuse him. He was much faster doing the task than ever before. A demon barreled toward him, hands aflame. Jeff slapped the clip home and raised the pistol. He fired and the demon vanished.
“Out of my way!” a voice shouted behind Jeff.
Twisting about, Jeff saw the young man rushing Alexia. She started to raise her gun, but thought better of it when she must have realized he was unarmed and mortal. Instead, she pistol whipped him, then kicked him into the bottom stair. Striking him two more times in the back of the head with her foot, Alexia seemed satisfied that he was unconscious and ran to join Jeff.
“I think we got this,” she said with a gleeful smile.
Then a second later the dead bodies littering the cavern climbed to their feet.
“Shit,” Jeff sighed.
The dead didn’t just rise, they were pulled apart and knitted together by sinews of darkness into new, terrifying creatures with bones for teeth and claws. The giant monsters rushed Amaliya, intent on stopping her.
“Oh, hell!” Cassandra cried out, leading the charge into battle.
The dhamphir spun through the air, aiming for the closest creature. She landed on the mushy ground and drove her blades through its torso, ripping it in half. Blood sprayed her as she twisted about, just missing the swipe of a huge clawed hand. Hacking away at the creature, she had no idea how to kill it, but knew she had to keep it away from Amaliya until the necro-vampire could finish off The Summoner.
Nearby, Cian fought another creature, his black blade cutting off the claws of a multi-limbed creature. A grim expression upon his face, he fought with a brutality that was familiar to Cassandra. All her life she’d been afraid she was like her father. Now she realized she was very much his daughter in every way.
At last, it didn’t scare her. It empowered her.
With a gleeful shout, she decapitated the monster she was fighting and charged the next one.
Leaving the bodies of the thirteen witches in his wake, Cian raced after his daughter to face off against the monstrous beings made of the bodies of The Summoner’s innocent victims. Just before he leaped off the temple platform, he caught sight of Amaliya for a split second. She was a vengeance goddess, eyes glowing red, covered in blood, wielding the terrible sword, and fighting to save them all. In his heart, he knew she was the only one who could actually kill The Summoner and he had to allow her to do just that. Though a part of him wanted to fight the battle for her, he knew his place was with his daughter and the others keeping back the army of creatures that The Summoner had created to stop Amaliya.
Slashing and hacking at t
he claws of the terrible flesh and bone creations of The Summoner, Cian kept them from charging Amaliya. If she wasn’t using her necromancy, there was a reason for it, which meant he had to kill the creatures himself.
The bone claws of one of the monsters raked his chest and Cian cried out in pain. Recovering, he darted around the creature and lopped off one of its arms.
Daring to steal a glance at the temple, he saw Amaliya confronting Bianca’s possessed form. With dread, Cian realized that Amaliya would have to do the one thing she’d been desperately trying to avoid.
Amaliya had to kill Bianca.
Jeff and Alexia dispatched the demons with carefully aimed bullets while somehow still managing to avoid their flaming hands. Baptiste sent the redheaded elemagus flying with mighty gusts of wind, then called lightning bolts down on her flailing form. One struck her and shot her into the wall of the cavern. The redhead fell to the muddy ground, her body sizzling and smoking in the rain.
“That was one tough bitch,” Baptiste gasped, clutching his arm. Stone spikes had struck it and one protruded near his shoulder.
They were on the outskirts of the major battle between Cian, Cassandra, Aimee and the massive creatures made out of the flesh of humans. Eduardo had one of the smaller creatures cornered, howling gleefully as he tore it apart with his teeth. Jerking the head of a dark haired woman out of the torso of the creature, the were-coyote dashed away like a dog with a toy. Darting around the creature, Eduardo howled with delight and tugged another head out of the monster. The coyote gleefully played with the creature, ignoring the massive battle behind him.
“Uh,” Baptiste grunted.
“Jeff?” Alexia said, her eyes widening.
Reaching into his messenger bag, Jeff yanked out a clip with silver bullets. Slamming it into his pistol, he raised the weapon and aimed. One shot sent Eduardo to the ground, his head blown apart.
“Let’s finish this,” Jeff said, gesturing to the epic battle before them.
The three of them charged forward.
Growling with frustration, Amaliya landed near the stone serpent. The dead witches littered the stones, their blood slipping along the cracks to pool around the head. The sword in her hand froze her fingers, but sent pulses of warm delight through her. It wanted blood.
Amaliya’s mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and half-formed plans. There was no way in hell she was going to kill Bianca to get to The Summoner. Too many people had died already, but if she didn’t kill Bianca more would die.
The Summoner in Bianca’s body smiled. “Do you really think you can best me?”
“Yeah,” Amaliya answered, lifting the sword. “I got this.”
“I have Bianca.” Dropping to the floor, The Summoner bent over and plucked a jagged piece of stone from the debris. “The witches cast the spell. The sword is formed.”
“I have the sword!” Amaliya brandished it.
Bianca’s delicate form in the white gown looked so harmless against the grotesque backdrop of the cavern. A hint of her innocence remained in her features as The Summoner used her hand to raise the stone to her throat. “All that’s needed is the blood of a necromancer.”
“No!”
Slitting Bianca’s throat ear to ear, The Summoner grinned at Amaliya, twisting Bianca’s face into something inhuman and terrible. Blood gushed out of the wound to paint the white gown red. The blood slid over the ground toward the gruesome stone serpent head with its snarling mouth and cruel eyes.
“The ritual is complete,” The Summoner declared.
The Sword of Lucifer sang in her hand, its thirst for blood sated. Amaliya stepped back, the sword slicing through the air. A rent formed in the fabric of reality. A void of endless darkness lay just beyond the tear.
“Don’t move, Amaliya!” Samantha shouted. “It’s opening the abyss!”
Unable to move, Amaliya watched in horror as Bianca’s life spilled onto the ground. She was trapped, unable to move the sword, and fight The Summoner. Even the slightest movement of the sword opened the gash further.
Below the temple her friends and love fought the massive monsters of flesh and bone. Spears of earth and ice revealed where Baptiste fought. Gunshots echoed through the darkness. Ghosts swirled through the battle, tearing apart the creatures only for the golems to reform. Samantha drifted above the fray directing her ghosts.
“Samantha!” Amaliya cried out, then dared to awaken her necromancy.
The bond between them instantly flared to life, darkness and light intermingling. In a split second understanding passed between them. Samantha closed her eyes and Amaliya shut her own.
Instantly the world of the ghosts opened before Amaliya. Tethered to Samantha through the fine sinew of their power, she released her physical form.
Amaliya’s body crashed to the ground, the sword slicing through the air to create an even greater opening to the abyss.
In the world of ghosts, she could clearly see The Summoner wrapped in Bianca’s slim form. Wings of darkness spread out behind Amaliya’s ethereal form as she hurtled toward Bianca. Samantha landed behind The Summoner and Bianca, beautiful in her otherworldly body. The Phasmagus grabbed The Summoner as Amaliya latched onto Bianca. In the spectral world it was clear that Bianca was close to death, which loosened her bonds to The Summoner.
Together, they ripped the two apart.
The Summoner gasped as he was torn from Bianca’s body. His astral body flailed between The Phasmagus and Necromancer, but in this world Samantha ruled. Amaliya released Bianca’s spirit body and seized The Summoner. Amaliya and Samantha dragged him toward the opening to the abyss. The sword had torn through both the physical and spiritual realm revealing the darkness beyond.
“No! No! You can’t do this!” The Summoner cried out, terror in his face.
“You wanted the abyss. You got it,” Amaliya snarled.
“We’re done with you,” Samantha added in her perky way. “Ciao!”
Together, they hurled him through the rip, his scream of horror immensely satisfying as his sprit vanished into the void.
“Finish it,” Samantha said, turning to Amaliya, her white eyes burning.
Opening her physical eyes, Amaliya scrambled to her feet and flung the sword through the rip in the air. It vanished into the abyss and instantly the tear vanished.
The wet, fleshy splatter of The Summoner’s creatures falling apart filled the eerie silence.
“Did we do it?” Alexia’s voice echoed in the massive chamber.
Amaliya ran to Bianca’s side and crouched next to the girl. Dragging Bianca into her arms, she drew her tongue over gash in her throat. It took several swipes to finally stop the bleeding, but it wasn’t healing.
Cian kneeled next to Amaliya. His shirt was in shreds and deep wounds were healing. “I’ll feed her,” he said, immediately opening a vein.
“I can’t let her die,” Amaliya said, stroking Bianca’s fine blonde hair with her bloody fingers. “I just can’t. Too many have died.”
His hazel eyes meeting hers, Cian nodded. “I know, Amaliya.” Holding his dripping wrist over Bianca’s mouth, he let his blood pour into her.
The cabal drifted into view one by one. The dhamphir was covered in blood and dirt, and a nasty cut was healing on her cheek. The witch was just as grungy and had a few scorch marks on her clothes and bit of singed hair, but appeared whole. Baptiste’s left arm hung limply at his side, a jagged spear of rock sticking out of his bicep. Jeff was dirty, but otherwise unharmed. Alexia was covered in blood and chunks of flesh.
“One of those things fell apart on me,” she explained seeing Amaliya’s look.
Samantha joined them, her eyes still glowing. A mantle of ghosts clustered behind her. Among them was Roberto looking very satisfied.
“Benchley?” Amaliya asked, fear creeping into her.
“He’s with Galina. They’re safe,” Jeff assured her.
Amaliya noted another was missing, too. “Eduardo?”
“He’s
dead.” The coldness in Jeff’s gaze when he looked at her explained the whole story in one second.
“You killed him!” Amaliya gasped.
“He was a serial killer.”
Amaliya took a second to absorb that truth, then said, “Oh, that’s why I was attracted to him.”
“Serial killer?” Aimee exclaimed, the conversation finally registering. “What?”
“Oh, that makes total sense,” Alexia said, continuing to wipe off the fleshy bits from her skin and clothes. “That head thing he was doing was creepy.”
“Amaliya, you need to give her blood, too,” Cian said, drawing her attention back to Bianca. He was pale and drawn from giving so much of his own. “I think we can save her.”
Nodding, Amaliya ripped open her wrist with her teeth and started to feed Bianca.
“She’s still here,” Samantha said crouching next to Amaliya. “I can see her settling back into her body.”
Amaliya gently stroked the girl’s cheek with her grimy fingers. “She tried to save me.”
“And now you saved her.” Cian kissed Amaliya tenderly. “You’re amazing, you know.”
Nuzzling his lips, Amaliya relished the feel of his kiss. She loved him so much it was a physical pain inside of her to think of how close they had come to losing each other.
“We should probably get out of here,” Jeff suggested.
Above them sirens wailed and spotlights from circling helicopters skimmed over the sinkhole’s walls.
“How do we explain this?” Amaliya wondered.
“We don’t have to explain anything. Follow me,” Baptiste said, gesturing to the group.
Cian lifted Bianca into his arms and Amaliya slid her arm about his waist, leaning against him. The rest of the group fell in behind them. When the dirt wall split apart before them forming a tunnel, no one was really surprised.
Baptiste flashed a wide grin. “I have talents.”
Together, they filed into the narrow passage. It was a little disconcerting as the earth parted before them and closed behind them as they walked. The pathway gently sloped upward until at last the ground divided to reveal the dark silhouettes of trees against the night sky.
Pretty When She Destroys Page 33