The Death Skull: Relic Defender, Book 2

by Cassiel Knight

  Her lips twitched then she faced the demons. The smile tugging at the corners of her lips drew his gaze, their pink fullness reminding him of when he’d had her beneath him, the taste of her mouth sweet on his.

  Jesus H. Christ, son. You’re getting your ass kicked and you stop to think about sex?

  Another movement, this one from his right, pulled his gaze from Mari and collided with the midnight glare of Lucifer’s Slayer. Jackson didn’t have time to find out why, because the creatures, obviously recouping their courage, attacked en masse.

  Time became a blur of gray as he fought alongside Mari and Ash. Every few minutes, the darkness was lit by a flash of green, which told him Kanek was alive and kicking.

  Finally, when Jackson thought they might fall under the volume of nasties, they stopped attacking. From within their mass, movement split their rank and file in half like Moses parting the Red Sea.

  A figure dressed from head to toe in a muddy-brown hooded robe stepped through. The creatures nearest him flinched, their bodies physically drawing away from the hooded man. Ignoring them, the figure lifted one hand, his fingers curled into claws. On a bony finger, a large crystal ring—shaped like a skull—winked in the bright light. The finger pointed.

  Jackson heard Mari suck in her breath with a loud hiss. He could almost feel the tension in her body from a foot away. It radiated off her with a physical presence. He gave her a grim look but didn’t ask if she knew the figure.

  “We are pleased to see you again, Marisol Asheni.” Its words, singsong and soft in deep contrast to the nasties’ growling tones, raised the hairs on his arms. And not in a good way.

  Jackson jerked his head to look directly at Mari. From the corner of his eye, he noted Ash did the same thing. Under the pressure of both their scrutiny, she seemed to duck and if he didn’t know better, her feet shuffled. She didn’t return their looks, just kept her gaze firmly on the creature in the robe. But something he could see—a darkness in her eyes—let him know she was taken aback by robed dude and its comment.

  She lifted her chin. “I can’t say the same. In fact,” she purred and lifted her sword, “if you come closer, I’ll show you just how unhappy I am to see you.”

  Go get ’em, beautiful. Got to admire the woman—she stayed tough even when he sensed she was anything but.

  The thing laughed, a shudder-inducing sound. “My king is expecting you. You may pass.”

  Jackson reared back, unnerved by the sudden change. He’d thought he was going to die, then suddenly, she and Ash join them, and now they can pass? Just like that?

  Mari shot him a look. “Let’s go.”

  Jackson frowned. “That’s it? Let’s go? Don’t you find something odd about this?”

  “We have to get to the skull before Beliel does.”

  “Agreed, but I was getting my ass kicked a second ago and now we are free to go? Pardon me, but if it smells like shit, it probably is shit.”

  “The demon speaks the truth. We will not be harmed.”

  That was from Kanek. He’d spoken English? When the hell had he learned? Or had he hidden that ability from them?

  “Um, yeah, I’m not going to take the word of a boy, even if he can throw green balls of light.” Jackson looked around, glaring at each of them in the face. “Does anyone else here think this is a trap?”

  “Jackson.” His name on her lips shut him down. He’d gotten so used to hearing her calling him “human” instead of his real name he figured she didn’t even remember it.

  Mari shifted until she faced him squarely, with her back to the creatures. He cringed, imagining one of the bastards leaping at her and slicing through her neck before she could blink.

  This close, he nearly drowned in the pools of red her irises had become. He’d never thought crimson eyes would be attractive. Hers were different. Not blood red or even ruby, but more the color of claret.

  “Indeed, I am quite certain this is a trap. Still, we have to get to the skull. We can deal with the trap when we have the skull. Time is running out. Beliel has Kat and he will make her help him find and use the skull. If we are to save her and keep the skull from Beliel, we must go. Now.”

  At the mention of Kat, Jackson saw Ash go rigid as if he’d suddenly had a board shoved up his ass. So it was true. Lucifer’s Slayer had feelings, or something that amounted to feelings, for the ghost. Wonder if that meant the other rumor was true. The one that claimed Ash had murdered Kat. Talk about obstacles to overcome in a relationship.

  Mari had a point. Save Kat, get the skull and deal with whatever shit Beliel threw at them after. So, despite the itch that niggled at him regarding the seriousness of the threat facing them, Jackson nodded.

  Relief flooded her eyes, turning the red softer. He couldn’t help himself and his gaze dropped to her lips. The natural rose color beckoned for him to touch and his hand lifted before he caught himself and froze. Too late—she’d noticed. Her nostrils flared and she retreated. Damn, the woman was skittish.

  She pivoted and faced the creature again. “All of us pass.”

  It nodded. “That is agreeable.”

  “We know it’s a trap.”

  “I would not expect otherwise.”

  Her head tilted. “It won’t matter. We will get the skull.”

  It nodded again. “Yes.” It slipped back into the creatures but as it did, it tossed over its shoulder, “But will you keep it?”

  “Rotten bastard,” Jackson growled.

  “You have no idea,” she murmured.

  Without hesitation, she strode to the creatures and walked between the first two. Kanek followed, then Ash. Jackson brought up the rear. Soon, with the creatures’ mass behind them and the darkness beyond, his group was swallowed. As he approached the nasties, he got a true picture of just how twisted they were. Before, too busy fighting them to see them, now he got an eyeful.

  When he’d first seen them, he’d thought they resembled humans, but up close the nasties had nothing in common with humans, except for their general shape and the fact they had two arms and two legs, even if the arms ended in Freddy Krueger hands.

  Long necks attempted to support bulging heads covered with what looked like bony humps. As far as he could see, they had no ears or nose and the small eyes set deep in the protrusions were yellow with red streaks. Twisted bodies fidgeted as if they couldn’t remain still for long. He’d thought their skin gray but he’d been wrong. So wrong.

  Under bleached-white skin that seemed paper thin, things moved, curling around as if their bodies were filled with snakes, which seemed even more likely when gray, slender bodies hissed at him from splits in the skin.

  As he passed the nasties, Jackson couldn’t stop the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck from lifting as he anticipated they’d been lied to and any minute, the creatures would attack.

  Even though they growled and snapped and the snakelike things hissed, they didn’t attack. He made it through the group of nasties and down the corridor before he realized he’d been holding his breath. Beyond the cavern, he rested a hand on the stone wall and took a couple of gulps of air and nearly choked on the musty rodent smell. Still, after the rotting scent of the nasties, rat stink was Nirvana.

  When he’d collected himself, he looked around. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he muttered.

  He figured they’d cross into another cave like the one they’d left, or find themselves in a long corridor, but instead, they were in a big-ass cavern that stretched farther than he could see. He stood with the others on the precipice of a large slash in the floor with no apparent way across. He looked out over the blackness.

  “Holy hell,” he breathed.

  In the center of the humongous cave was a structure made of large squares of stone, just like the ones outside in Lubaantun. But these were different. First, they glimmered. As in a golden glimmer reflected in the torches set about the base of the pyramid. Gold? Christ, he’d watched Indiana Jones as a child and was familiar with the stori
es of El Dorado, but to actually be standing before a building made of gold? Un-fucking-believable.

  One of those things would offer his mother security for the rest of her life. Hell, even half of one would.

  Mari had done well when she’d dumped him and Kanek in the cave. She’d set them down within a short distance of their final destination.

  But not close enough.

  He slid her a flat look. “So,” he whispered, “how do we get to the other side? I don’t suppose you can fly?”

  Lexi had once told him that flying with an angel was a very private thing and it didn’t happen as a matter of course. She’d flown with Mikos once. There was something so incredibly binding about that—the intimacy of the event. He and Mari were in no way ready for something like that. Even if the flying thing was true, he certainly didn’t expect her or Ash to take them across.

  At his comment, she bared her teeth at him, then closed her eyes. He expected something, but nothing happened. After a minute or two, she opened her eyes.

  “I can’t apport.”

  “Apport?” he asked, confused for a second, then answered himself as memory slapped him in the head. His mind had apparently gone on vacation. “Ah, that thing you do when you travel from one place to the next.”

  She nodded. “Something around the pyramid, like around Belize, won’t let me use that particular ability. We have to find another way across.”

  Jackson frowned. “You were able to do it when you sent Kanek and me away.”

  She pulled her lower lip between her teeth. “Yes, I know. It seems the place has very specific rules about where my powers work and which ones do.”

  She turned toward Ash. In a language Jackson didn’t recognize, she spoke. While she and Ash discussed whatever the hell they needed to discuss, Jackson stared at the tall Slayer. He couldn’t get over the sight. Lucifer’s deadly assassin working with them to defeat Beliel.

  Now, he didn’t understand politics and maybe demon politics was different. The fact that Ash worked for the devil himself, and they were all about stopping the devil and his son from having their way with humans, seemed to be a problem in Jackson’s mind. And he wasn’t sure about the whole working-alone thing Beliel had going. No way did the King of Hell not know what his son was doing.

  Besides, Jackson didn’t trust Lucifer’s Slayer. Those black eyes seemed to possess no soul behind them. No emotions. Even Mari, for all that she kept herself contained—with the exception of the night they’d made love—still had raw passion simmering under her controlled exterior.

  As if the bastard had heard his thoughts, Ash looked at him with those black, fathomless eyes. Then, from one second to the next, he disappeared.

  “Jackson, Ash is going to see if he can find a way through.”

  “Wait. He can leave but can’t get us to the pyramid?”

  She frowned, then looked over at the pyramid. “It seems Ash has freedom to use his abilities while I cannot.”

  “So, all the important places we can’t get to, he can.”

  “It would seem so.”

  “Terrific.”

  Silence fell over them for a few seconds then he asked, “Mari, what’s his deal? Why is he helping us?”

  Her nose wrinkled. “I don’t know.”

  “But you trust him?” That boggled the mind.

  She didn’t answer for a long while then she nodded. “Yes, I do.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of Kat.”

  Jackson opened his mouth but closed it. Yeah, he could accept that, even if he didn’t like it. Not much he wouldn’t do for Mari at this point.

  From the corner of his eyes, he saw movement. Kanek walked past him to the edge of the abyss.

  Jackson frowned. “Listen, son, get away from there. It’s a long way to the bottom.”

  When Kanek ignored his warning, Jackson strolled toward him. He wasn’t in a hurry—he didn’t think the boy who could create and throw green fire was stupid enough to let himself fall. As he neared, he heard a low murmur from Kanek. With both arms sweeping in arches, the boy chanted, a soft litany of words.

  With her teeth, Kat tugged on the ropes that bound her wrists. She blew out an exasperated breath when her efforts resulted in nothing. She gazed around her prison. After traipsing through the jungle and practically being eaten alive by these little biting gnats, she—along with Beliel in his new form and his entourage—had reached the ancient Mayan city Beliel claimed was where he’d find and possess the Death Skull and take over the world.

  Using her to do it.

  After shoving her down against one of the fallen stones littering the ground, he’d left her with a hulking man who had a flat forehead, pointy chin and a nose that was disproportionately small to the length of his face. Beliel had instructed the hulk to watch over her and make sure nothing happened to her. Good to know she wasn’t in any danger of being hurt.

  Yet.

  As long as he needed her, Kat was safe. The minute he got from her what he said he needed, she doubted she’d live long enough to enjoy this body. Would she go back to being a ghost or was one screwup enough?

  And what was she supposed to be able to do that Beliel needed so much? As if she planned on helping him. She might have spent the last twelve years as a ghost but she was far from stupid. Whatever he was planning would end in disaster for the world. Even if it meant losing her life again for forever, she’d do it rather than give the asshole what he wanted.

  She leaned her head back and sighed. Even in the relative shade of the large stone, heat bore down on her, the humidity coating her skin and dampening her clothes. It didn’t bother her. A small price to pay for being able to feel again. To have a body. Even if it was her sister’s.

  How could her mother not have told her she had a sister? How could she have kept something like that from her? Unless Lillian hadn’t birthed Catherine. Had her sister known about her? But no, not with the shock on her face. Had she lived with their father? Was he the reason they were twins? But that wasn’t right. They had to have the same mother in order to be twins. Yet Beliel was certain they were twins. Sure, he could be lying but it hadn’t seemed that way.

  Kat rested her chin on her knees. Now she’d never learn about her sister or what she knew. And she was living in her sister’s stolen body. Damn Ash. He should have just saved her sister and left Kat alone. He’d done enough the first time.

  Something landed on her nose. She swatted it away, then opened her eyes. Hard for her to accept she now felt such things as small as the touch of insect legs on her face. Or the moist heat clinging to her skin. Or take in the earthy scents of dirt, vegetation and even her own sweat.

  Whatever she was supposed to do for Beliel might cause her to lose it all.

  Kat shifted, trying to ease the ache in her right butt cheek. Her movements drew the hulk’s attention. He turned to face her and grunted, as if that sound was enough to tell her to settle down. She resisted the urge to test the whole not-hurting-her bit by sticking out her tongue at him or trying to get up.

  The bright sun darkened as a shadow moved across her. She looked up and squinted. Haloed by the light, Beliel stared down at her. A muscle twitched in his jaw and his fingers clenched into fists. He didn’t bother hiding his demon from one of his minions who looked fairly nervous at the sight. Beliel’s eyes were tinged with yellow and some of his skin had split, peeling back to show black flesh underneath. It was all she could do not to shrink back with fear.

  She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Taking a cue from Lexi’s irreverent behavior, Kat gave him a mocking smile. “What’s the matter, Beliel? Did you lose something?”

  He snarled, the sound low and menacing. This time, she couldn’t help herself and she flinched as he reached for her. After he wrapped his fingers around her upper arm, he squeezed tightly then in a quick movement, jerked her upright. She hissed as his rough grip pinched the tender skin of her underarm.

  “Let’s go. It’s ab
out time.” He leaned in, his face close to hers. “You have a body now. Don’t screw this up or I’ll make you wish you were still a ghost.” Hot breath heavy with the stink of Hell filled her nostrils and she shuddered.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Mari stood in the large open room and stared around her in surprise. Once her group found their way around the gorge by a small slit in the rock face Kanek discovered, they had entered this room.

  The memory of the last pyramid she’d been in flashed through her mind. This one was identical, down to the altar and obelisk holding the crystal skull. Her eyes widened. Just like the hooded creature, the pyramid was real. She’d been in it when Michael had shown her the skull in action during her time-travel trip, courtesy of the Archangel. Her heart raced and her body threatened to curl in on itself to protect the soul she’d almost lost as the whole nasty experience rushed in. She remembered finding out she had a soul, even if it was not complete; she remembered the trip. Why had she forgotten? Had Michael something to do with that?

  “Mari, what’s wrong?”

  Taking a deep breath to get control over her emotions, she turned to Jackson. “I’ve been here before.”

  An eyebrow arched. “Here? You’ve been here before?”

  She nodded. “Michael sent me here. Last week. Remember the library?”

  His turn to nod.

  “This is where he sent me,” she continued. “The pyramid was newer and in a jungle and there were lots of Mayans around, but it’s still the same place.” She swept her hand around, waving at the altar and obelisk. “And that. That was exactly the same. The skull even sat in the same place.”

  He stared at her as if he tried to think of some kind of reply, whether to agree or laugh at her, she didn’t know.

  Stones rattled and Ash stood before her, back from wherever he’d gone. “I must go.”

  She didn’t get a chance to speak because Jackson shoved himself forward.

  “What?” he said. “You pop in to tell us you’re leaving just when it’s about to get real?”