Chaos Rises: A Veil World Urban Fantasy

by Pippa Dacosta

  Beside the doors, Torrent suddenly hissed through his teeth. His element snapped to him, stirring mine in its wake. He glared ahead, through the grime-coated doors to the demon perched on the edge of the reception desk.

  Vanessa.

  She wore yet another vessel, this one a dark-skinned female. Loose, dark curls spilled over her shoulders. Her all-black clothes and glossy leather boots completed the brooding persona. I spilled a little demon into my vision and noticed how filaments of fire danced in her dark eyes, eyes fixed on Torrent. She might have looked human, but her desktop crouch and flaming eyes revealed the truth.

  I hadn’t counted on her being the one to greet us. Torrent could handle Allard, but Vanessa clearly rubbed his scales the wrong way. He stood rigidly, his hands clenched into fists.

  I wanted to tell him he could face her, but if she heard, she’d consider my support his weakness. Better for him to stride right on in like he didn’t care. Vanessa cocked her head. Her fingers rippled where she hung her hands over her knees.

  Finally, Torrent broke through whatever held him back. Vanessa watched us approach, a smile crawling across her lips with our every step.

  “And the pets return,” she purred the moment we entered the foyer. “Allard will be pleased.” She spared me little more than a glance before all of her attention fell back over Torrent. “You’re not going to kneel, my Torrent?”

  “I’m not yours.” His smooth, calm tone was made all the more chilling by the very real and sharp lash of his element.

  “Ah, yes. Allard’s now. Well” —she flicked her wrist —“he’s not here.”

  “Where is he?” I butted in while I could. If she pushed Torrent, he’d push back. I needed answers before these two tore into each other.

  Vanessa reluctantly pulled her gaze away from Torrent and slid it toward me. “Celebrating, no doubt.”

  “Celebrating what exactly?”

  She hopped off the desk, landing lightly on her feet, but hung back, keeping a healthy distance between us. Her magnetic glances strayed back to Torrent simmering beside me. “We’ve ascended,” she said with an over-the-top flourish. “Azazel achieved the impossible. A squabble of demons has ascended to the heady heights of the Dark Court.” She took a few steps toward me, her gaze roaming, prickling my skin. “Can’t you feel it?”

  I could feel a whole lot of things, but I had no idea what any of them meant.

  “Of course, it will never stick,” she continued flippantly. “You can’t force demons into power. His circus will collapse around him.” There was fire in her eyes again, and this time, when she looked at me, the glare burned deep. “I could help you with that, if you were so inclined.”

  Neither of us looked away. She smiled, and her pointed little white teeth crowded her human mouth. I had no doubt she could help me. Allard had torn her wings from her back. In her position, I’d want him skewered and slow-roasted too. But there would be a price.

  “Azazel is formidable, even more as an ascended one. You are not strong enough, Gem. But the two of us?” She drifted closer and darted the tip of her tongue along her bottom lip. “Your ice alone won’t stop him. My fire washes over him. But imagine—theoretically—what may happen should fire and ice assault Azazel in unison.” She demonstrated by lacing her long fingers together and then flung her hands apart.

  “We didn’t come here to fight Allard,” Torrent said. I’d been so engrossed in Vanessa’s theories I’d forgotten he stood beside me.

  “You didn’t,” Vanessa replied, keeping her gaze trained on me. “But she did. You can’t hide your intentions, Gem. Not now. We’re family. We’re court. I taste your thirst for vengeance like I feel your element. Allard will taste it too.” She paused, letting her words sink in. “You and I, we want the same thing.”

  “Don’t trust her.”

  Vanessa snapped a scolding glance at Torrent. “So quick to defy me with Azazel behind you. Make no mistake. You are mine Torrent, no matter what he says. You will always be mine.” Torrent’s element swelled, and Vanessa laughed, “Oh, down boy. Don’t be so dramatic. I’m not going to hurt you. Unless you want me to?” She winked.

  Power lashed around Torrent, sparking across my skin, stealing a small hiss from between my teeth. He was quick to recognize it though, and rather than attack, he retreated with a low growl.

  Keeping a wary eye on Torrent, Vanessa stepped up close and whispered, “Fire and ice, Gem. We could shatter Azazel.” Promises glittered in her eyes. Pure demon. She’d like nothing better than to grind Allard to dust. I knew because I was thinking the same. Inside me, the ice-cold killer wanted to see Allard suffer like he’d made us suffer, like he’d made my brother suffer and Torrent and who knew how many others? I could dress it up as justice, but I wanted to sink my teeth into Allard and own him. Vanessa knew that feeling. She understood. In this, we were the same.

  “All right.”

  “Excellent.” Her smile brightened.

  “After I get my brother back.”

  Dipping her chin, her fiery eyes peered at me through dark lashes. “You’ll need Allard to release him from the basement. No demon can breach his glyphs.” I moved toward the basement door when Vanessa caught my wrist, pulling me up short. “There’s nothing you can do—”

  “I can get to him.” I just needed more PC34A. I’d take it like I had before, and everything would be okay. I’d get to Del and cut him free. We could leave this madness behind.

  Vanessa’s grip loosened, but she didn’t let me go. Instead, she shifted closer and leaned in to deliver her next words as a whisper. “We face Allard together, and we’ll free your brother. You have my word.”

  The worthless word of a demon. But I knew what she wanted. Revenge.

  She needed me.

  “I have to see Del. I have to know he’s here.”

  She dipped her chin. “You’re ascended. But by all means try.” She let go of my arm, flicking a gesture toward the door. “Life is a lot more complicated now, half blood. Those human feelings of yours will wither and die as your demon rises.”

  Holding her dark-eyed gaze, I hesitated. She wore her vessel well and stared back at me in that stone still way only demons could. Too beautiful to be real, her radiant allure pulled me deeper into her gaze.

  “If my brother’s demon rises…” I smiled and reached a hand toward her face. Her cheek was warm, soft, and smooth. Perfect. Too perfect. Inside, vengeance burned. “Allard will be the least of your concerns.”

  I left her in the foyer, heading toward the basement, casting a glance back at Torrent to find him by the entrance, his glare resting heavily on me.

  Vanessa was right. The glyphs lashed at me as I approached, flash-burning my skin, as though peeling layers back. I shied away with a hiss. I couldn’t get close, not as I was. If I found more PC34A, I might be able to penetrate it, but PC34A would also leave me vulnerable at a time when I couldn’t afford to be weak. I’d have to face Allard and make him release Del. Me and Vanessa.

  Vanessa leaned against the front desk. Torrent had gone.

  She nodded at the doors. “He’s outside.”

  Another time, I might have asked her to tell me more about Torrent. But their history wasn’t any of my business, and we had more pressing matters. Besides, I was leaving soon. Torrent would be a distant memory. “Vanessa—”

  “Call me Van.” Her smile twitched.

  “Van, I need Allard to release Del. We can’t kill him.”

  “Oh, Gem.” She shoved away from the desk and sashayed toward me. “Killing Allard is the last thing on my mind.” When she stopped, her smile turned hard as ice, and fire once again stirred in her dark eyes. “He took my wings. He’ll beg me to kill him. I can promise you that.”

  Demon shivers rolled across my skin at the threat in her words. The chilling presence inside me appreciated her intention. Van might have had her wings ripped from her, but she was still powerful, still deadly.

  “Partners, little half b
lood?” She held out her hand, claw tips—that could pass as black nail polish—glinting.

  Fire and ice working together? She’d likely try and kill me as soon as she’d gotten what she wanted. A good thing then, that I was thinking the same.

  I closed my fingers around hers and gritted my teeth against the pinpricks fizzling through our touch—our elements reacting. “Temporarily.”

  “Temporarily.”

  Chapter 23

  The road outside the high school was choked with vehicles and crowds of people placing bets, drinking, and getting high. I wove unnoticed among them and jogged up the steps, passing a group who had a vitiosus on a chain. The lesser strained against its leash and snapped at anything in biting distance. These people were flirting with death. Any one of the lessers chained in the back of their vans would tear its way through this crowd in seconds. I didn’t understand why they’d take the risk for a few hours of excitement. Had they learned nothing from the Fall?

  Putting demons in cages and on leashes and calling them pets, did it somehow lessen them? Turn demons from the stuff of nightmares to tame objects under human control? Whatever the thinking behind it, trying to control demons was a mistake. I had one inside of me. She too had strained like that lesser on its leash. But without PC34A and after the ascension, she was free, and I could feel her reaching, learning, listening with every heartbeat, every step, every thought. I was on borrowed time. But it would be okay, once I had Del, once we were somewhere—anywhere—else.

  Bloodlust perfumed the air inside the theatre, mixing with the smells of human bodies, demons, and violence. The noise was worse, a great skull-numbing swell of human cheering and demon snarls. Sweat chilled the back of my neck and demon urges distracted me as I pushed into the throngs of people. I dragged the hot, thick air between my teeth and tried to focus on my goal. Get to Allard.

  One of the demons inside the cage fell. The crowd erupted, but even their shouts couldn’t drown out the wet sounds of flesh tearing, of the beast’s belly being ripped open. Netherworld sounds.

  I fell against the back of a chair and stayed there, blocking out the noise, the smells, filling my head with the memory of Del’s hand around mine, letting his words find their way to me in the madness. It would be okay once we were together again.

  The cheers and hoots finally petered out, and the sounds of one demon devouring another faded. I lifted my head and rubbed a hand down my neck, sweeping off the sweat. An announcer gave the crowd a ten-minute warning to get their bets in for the next fight, but the words slid off me, lost inside the pounding in my head. All I really wanted to do was drop the human act and spread my wings. My claws would make quick work of a few of these idiots, and my teeth would do in the next few. It would be over quickly, but there was always the street outside and then the city. They’d all fall at my feet. Pitiful humans.

  “Gem.” Allard’s heavy hand fell on my shoulder. His fingers dug in as he pulled me upright and around into his arms. I stiffened to push him away, but his embrace tightened.

  “Sshh…” he purred.

  His element coiled close, tucking me in tight, and for a few disorientating seconds, all I could smell, hear and taste, was demon.

  “This must be difficult,” he said.

  I knotted his shirt in my hand, not caring that my nails scored his chest. “What did you do to me?”

  “I gave you power. More power than you could ever achieve on your own. But it will take time to adjust.”

  “I don’t understand.” I tucked my head in, listening to the heavy beat of his demon heart. The urges to take, kill, own, fight withdrew, one ragged breath at a time, but they didn’t go far. They simmered around the edges of my thoughts. Allard’s grip might turn deadly at any moment. He could crush the life out of me, and yet… To be held, to have the madness fall away and my thoughts my own again—the relief was intoxicating.

  “A Dark Court has never existed this side of the veil. We are the first.” He sighed into my hair. “I wasn’t sure it would work. Even after all this time, I wasn’t sure…” He leaned back, clasped my face in his smooth hands, and smiled. “We rule.”

  Rule? I frowned and pushed against his chest. Surprisingly, he released me. His easy smile spoke volumes. Would he be so smug if he learned how the Prince of Pride had manipulated him?

  The crowd flowed around us, more people spilling in to see the next fight and watch demons tear strips from each other. I sneered at them and then quickly clamped my lips together. Allard just smiled at me. He tucked a hand into his pants pocket and looked me over, dark eyebrows raised. I suddenly wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him, slap him, maybe punch him too. Those were human reactions. But the icy sensations spilling through my veins promised the next level of violence.

  “The next fight is about to begin.” He brushed by me to walk behind the chairs, along the back of the theatre.

  “You had a prince in the basement.” I followed him. “Is that what you were trying to do, make us like the netherworld’s princes?” I raised my voice. The crowd’s collective chatter grew louder.

  “The prince was the door, the coronam and associated stones, the keys. I’ll admit the ascension didn’t go quite as I’d planned. There are some side effects I hadn’t counted on—” He jogged down an aisle toward an empty row of chairs.

  “It was Del, wasn’t it?”

  Allard stopped at the row of chairs but didn’t take a seat. Instead, he stood tall, admiring the theatre below. “Delta’s element held some surprises.”

  I smiled as I stopped on the step beside him. “Chaos is like that.”

  Allard’s teeth flashed white behind a sudden smile. “Remarkable really, how he’s been able to maintain his sanity for so long. Chaos demons are exceptionally rare. Did the Institute know what they were creating in him?”

  I remembered the tests, the trials, the maze, and facing my brother—staring into the eyes of pure chaos. “No.”

  “They should have destroyed him.”

  Perhaps. But the Institute would never have destroyed what could have potentially been their greatest weapon against the demons. They didn’t yet know that chaos can’t be controlled.

  “I’m grateful they didn’t.”

  “You’re keeping him in the basement?”

  “Where he’ll stay.” Allard’s smile tugged down at the corners. “Your brother is too dangerous to be free.”

  “My brother was fine until you took him.”

  Allard’s gaze dropped to my hands. I unclenched them. “Really Gem, what do you think you can do? I’m not going to create a Dark Court—bring demons into power—without ensuring that power is mine. Attack me, and you attack yourself. We’re linked, all of us. You can’t have a court without sacrifice.” He wet his lips and stepped in close. “I can taste your lust for vengeance, but hurt me Gamma, and you’ll be hurting yourself and your brother. The court is our strength and our weakness. Some of us are longer lived than others. Consider your mortality before striking at me.” He held my gaze, waiting for my challenge or denial.

  My heart hammered. “Are you saying if you die, I die?”

  “No.” He smiled, clearly humoring my ignorance. “I’m saying, half blood, that I’m an ascended demon. Ascension comes with privileges. I can’t die, whereas you’ll always be a half blood.”

  He couldn’t die? I tried to keep my expression flat and any sign of my surprise off my face, but he still half-smiled back at me. Was he truly immortal? Or just lying? I swallowed, realizing I really didn’t care either way. Immortal or just tough to kill, what difference did it make? Him, his schemes, the court, even the prince—I didn’t care about any of it. All I wanted was my brother beside me and the world to leave us alone. “Let me take Del away. You’ll never see us again.”

  The next fight was announced, and a cheering wave rose up from the hundreds crammed inside the theatre.

  Allard’s easy smile was back, but where his blunt human teeth should be, light licked a
cross vicious fangs. “Delta can never be free.” He turned away and faced the cage, comfortable enough to believe I wasn’t about to plunge an ice dagger into his back. I might have, just to see if I could hurt him. I’d known he was powerful, but immortal? Van was right. I couldn’t hurt him alone. But I would be getting Del and soon, if the hoots and hollers from the crowd were anything to go by.

  Torrent stood shirtless inside the cage, not in demon form—not yet. Harsh spotlights highlighted the scars crisscrossing his chest. He turned slowly, and that light rippled over the frozen lashes gouged into his back. Arms out, he smiled the way he had when he’d faced Joseph on the pier, and the crowd went nuts. Whether they thought he was a suicidal human or a higher demon, it didn’t matter. They wanted blood, and they were about to get it.

  The cage-side heavies dragged in a hissing scorsi at the end of their handling poles. The scorsi launched its stinger overhead and snapped its single pincer at anything it could lock its sights on. As soon as it got a look at Torrent in the cage, the beast hunkered down, squatting on its six legs. The heavies manually heaved the lesser into the cage. The door slammed closed. The cage rattled. And Torrent started circling.

  Allard’s lips were parted, just a little. I wasn’t even sure if he even blinked. He soaked in the sight of Torrent as if the crowd, the noise, didn’t exist.

  Lust. The Court wasn’t Allard’s only weakness. When it came to Torrent, Allard was entirely too predictable.

  The scorsi chittered a loud, nervous sound that tugged on my demon instincts to pounce. Scorsis could make quick work of me. One strike of its stinger and I’d be out for hours, then sick for at least a day. I’d always done my utmost to avoid them, but now, watching Torrent bait the creature, my fingers twitched, and blood pounded through my veins. I wanted to be in that cage, right there beside him, fighting demons as I had in the maze.