by Angie Fox
"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 my 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.
God, what was happening to Dimitri?
I'd failed tonight. Dots hovered in front of my eyes as I stared at the dark marble floor in front of me. Sweat trickled down my spine as I racked my brain for something, anything to do.
No one came.
They were coming fast. "A hundred and twelve!"
Maybe, if I tried hard enough, I could reach Phil. Never mind that it had barely worked before Serena married Phil, took over his free will and tasked him with an integral part of her plan for world domination. It was better than counting the demons flooding through the portal.
Sweat tickled between my eyes. I cocked my head and wiped my forehead on my shoulder. Cripes. I still wore Dimitri's T-shirt. His musky scent short-circuited my brain and drilled warmth straight through me.
I had to do this—for him and for everybody. I closed my eyes and pictured my fairy godfather.
"Phil?" I called, pleaded really. I focused every ounce of strength and concentration into finding him. Maybe I could break through.
"Phil." I clenched my jaw and willed him to answer. Through the soupy, murky distance between our minds, I scrambled for him. I ached for him. Last time, I'd found him in a hurry. This time, I couldn't locate a trace of my quirky, funny, teddy bear of a guardian. The man who'd fought to protect me had disappeared from the astral plane as if he'd never existed.
I braced myself as Max's demons broke free in a rush of bodies, tumbling, clawing, lashing out at whatever they could reach. They roiled toward the city, fracturing off along the way. The bitter taste of sulfur practically choked me.
Add the demons from the portal and we had one hundred eighty. Make that one hundred eighty-eight. No way I could recapture that many demons, or stop the destruction.
No more. I couldn't watch. I forced my eyes open. I had to get away, even if it meant taking comfort in a deserted, dimly lit hallway. But I should have known it
wouldn't be that easy. This place had changed too.
Yellow vapor clouded the light from the sconces and the stench of sulfur lingered. I could see my breath in front of me, as the hellish smog wound through my lungs. I renewed my battle against the forces that kept my hands pinned in the floor, now icy with the power of Hades. I couldn't feel my hands any longer, but I knew I had to get out of there.
Now.
Fear surged through me. It was survival at its most basic. Because they were coming for me next.
I pulled until my wrists stretched nearly out of their sockets and thought, hoped, prayed I felt one move. This had to work because, frankly, nothing else had.
However late, I had truly believed Joe would arrive, or Grandma and Dimitri. Or maybe Phil would find the strength to defeat the demons that held him, however impossible it seemed. I refused to think Serena would win.
But she did.
"Three hundred." And counting.
The demons rushed me in a wave of sulfur and rot. I could feel their leathery bodies, see the black shadowy figures surrounding me. Bony hands grabbed at my hair and clothes. They slipped under my arms, yanked me out of the floor and straight up.
My toes left the floor as we hurtled straight up into the air. "Blazes!" Pain lanced through my head as they smacked it up against the ceiling.
I breathed too close to one of them, inhaling the stench, and the back of my throat watered. They smacked my head against the ceiling again and my vision blurred.
"Halt!" ordered a raspy voice as they practically smothered me with their frigid bodies. "It's human. It can't pass through."
Talons dug into my arms and I cringed at the multitude of icy hands pressing the top of my head against the concrete ceiling, as if they didn't quite believe I could be so supernaturally inept. Acidic breath singed the back of my neck.
My freed wrists ached and cold, dark, freezing air prickled my face as they rushed me down the hall. My toes never quite touched the floor as we darted around a corner and up a flight of stairs. So this was it. Serena was strong enough to kill me and take my power. Most likely, my Uncle Phil was already dead. They'd drain Dimitri. The Red Skulls would be fighting a losing battle for their lives.
We burst into the control room and I winced against the glare. A second power source, most likely a backup generator, had kept the lights blazing and the control panels lit. Engineers' stations lined three of the four walls, all the chairs empty, save one. Phil slumped over the control panels, his bulbous nose at rest next to a flashing orange button.
My fairy godfather wasn't dead. Not yet, anyway. I could feel it.
I wondered if anyone else knew that.
Windows along the fourth wall overlooked a massive sunken room with six truck-sized generators, each of them silent. Serena watched them, knowing I was there.
It ticked me off.
It was bad enough to be powerless, weaponless—without her rubbing it in.
I had to figure out a way to destroy her before the demon army reached six hundred sixty-six. Because after the gates of hell opened, well, I didn't know what could stop them.
Five hundred and one.
Triumphant, Serena flipped her pageboy haircut and strolled straight for me.
Son of a mother. I wasn't surprised, but I had a hard time containing the dread. She wore Dimitri's emerald.
She followed my gaze. "Oh, this old thing?" she said, her French-tipped nails lingering over the teardrop-shaped stone at the hollow of her throat. "He's not coming. For all I know, someone else finished him off. He was quite tasty."
My stomach hitched. I wanted to kill her.
I needed to force my emotions down or I'd never be able to focus. I had a job to do. Plain and simple. No telling how I'd destroy Serena, recapture the succubi and save Phil, but I knew I had to try.
Five hundred eighty-two.
A blue bubble formed in Serena's palm, pulsing with a life of its own. Claws erupted from her fingers and her hands took on their true, skeletal form. I took an involuntary step backward and into a wall of freezing cold demons. They shoved me forward and I almost stumbled.
Serena rubbed at the bubble with a taloned finger. "Don't worry, sweetheart. You won't feel a thing." The bubble grew to the size of a basketball. "Besides, you scream too much and I'll send you to the third layer of hell with Max's other slayer."
I stiffened. "You took her?"
Serena winked. "Turned her. Same difference, really." Demons seized my arms. "Now, hold still." Serena gripped the bubble, wound back like a boxer and slammed it into my chest. Ice tore through my veins and at the same time I felt like I'd collided with a live electrical wire. Energy flooded my system and I realized, to my utter horror, that I could use none of it to move. It was like she'd bug-zapped me into complete paralysis.
Six hundred five.
The energy flowed between us in a frigid blue stream as I felt her searching inside me.
"Oh you are a fun one." Her perfectly arched brows knit. "I felt you take the mark," she muttered. "Now where did you put it?"
Sweet happy puppies! She must need the mark to get a grip on my power. And I'd gotten rid of it. My knees sagged in relief as the demons at my sides shoved me forward, upward, closer to Serena.
I'd thought I wanted that extra edge, hoped like heck I hadn't needed it. Max's other slayer must have thought the same thing. But while she'd kept her mark, I'd shed Serena's leash.
Now what was I going to do about it?
I swallowed hard, gathered my strength as Serena's power prickled inside me. I knew I had one shot. One. Before I lost the element of surprise.
It was a classic maneuver, like old J. Bennett used to do at the Springdale Country Club pool. He'd reach up, ask you for a hand out of the deep end and then—whammo—he'd yank you in, flip-flops and all.
If he could do it, I could try. Problem was, for this plan to work, for me to seize all her power, I had to free all mine. I had to open myself up to her completely.
Sacrifice yourself.
I didn't know what her dark power would do to me. Jaws clenched, I served up everything I had and laid it bare. I'd never felt more raw or vulnerable. To my shock, I felt Phil join me. His presence felt like a warm hand on my back. A steady hum surged through my body as he mingled his life force with mine.
Please let this work. I surrounded her energy as it searched me, and braced myself as I chose the precise moment to attack.
Now or never.
I took a deep breath, shot both hands through the blue stream connecting us and grabbed her power at the base of her white minidress. She shrieked as my fingers closed around it. Yeah, well she was going to do a lot worse than that. I kicked her backward and yanked her power into me.
Serena gasped and tried to pull away. I pulled harder, but she'd already started to fall. Wet, red energy flooded my limbs, filling me up. Her sopping power streamed through my fingers and out onto the floor. The more of her power I had, the more I could get until it surged into me. Serena's claws dug into my arms. Ha! They didn't even make a scratch. She couldn't hurt me anymore, and there was nothing she could do. She'd already plunged headfirst into my trap.
It felt amazing.
She stumbled backward as I went back for more, sopping up the remnants until I'd drained her. Then I flung off her measly blue current and shoved her shell of a body to the floor. Strength rushed through me until I was almost giddy with it, drunk on power.
I spun and faced the demons behind me. They'd backed away, but not far enough. I thrust my hands out like Tasers and incinerated them on the spot. No switch stars required.
Good gravy, I could get used to this.
Ohhh, and if I wasn't mistaken, I had a mental map of every demon from here to Panama City. Make that Quito. I could see them, like fire ants scurrying around the mound. And lucky for me, it turned out I could zap them mentally. I squashed the first two, marveling at how I could decide for them not to exist and—whammo. It was almost fun. Bu
t I didn't have time to indulge myself.
Nope, I might have been Lizzie the all-powerful, but I was also Lizzie the efficient. I torched the six hundred five in Las Vegas, then exterminated them in waves from here down to the Andes Mountains and out into California, until they were no more than hissing stains on the ground, or in one case, oozing down a circular staircase. Talk about a grand entrance for the ultimate demon slayer. Like a well-aimed can of Raid up into Canada and sweeping the United States until I hit ocean on every front.
To make sure they'd never come back, I incinerated the portal. I had no trouble finding it now—a burning hole between our world and theirs. I could see why a chilly demon would have a hard time passing through. I fried it until it was no more than a churning mass of burnt embers, and to make it even better than before, wrapped it in a double layer of protection so nothing could dig itself out.
I turned to the demon at my feet. Serena had shed the rest of her glamour. A leathery thing lay in place of the petite brunette. Hair sprouted in wiry clumps from her chin and blackened skull. Her cadaver-like hands scratched feebly at the industrial linoleum. I drove my hand forward to finish her and with a rush of shock, yanked my shot at the last minute.
Phil was still attached to Serena.
My wayward power surge zapped a gaping hole in one of the monitoring panels. Sparks zipped across the engineers' board along the left wall. I raced for Phil, lifting him off the panel as live wires crackled and the whole thing started to smoke.
God bless America.
We had to figure this out. Fast. I didn't want Serena melting into the floorboards with my uncle in tow. And I wasn't sure how the succubi had managed to keep everyone official out of Hoover Dam, but I didn't expect to have the same kind of luck. No way I could explain the blown-out turbines or the scorched control board or the fried demon holes in the floor.
With Serena damaged, I could feel Phil's strength building.
"Hey," I held his head in my hands and brushed his thinning gray comb-over out of his eyes. "I need you to think. She's got you. Is there a way to pull away from a succubus?"