by Michael Todd
She was trying to stay alive, fight the Leviathan, and keep the demons back all at the same time, not to mention the fact that it was about a million degrees down there, which was very quickly draining her energy. Katie flew over the heads of two demons who lunged at her, then landed behind them and sliced them in half. She wiped the sweat from her forehead. She was exhausted already. Can you open the portal again?
And keep you kicking ass? Pandora blew out a puff of air. I can’t do both, baby.
Katie narrowed her eyes and kicked a demon in the chest so hard that it sent him flying back into the depths of hell.
She held her sword with one hand and took a deep breath. With all her strength, Katie shoved her hand into her chest, pulling with an angel’s strength.
When she ripped her hand free, it felt like she was tugging herself apart. But she was pulling Pandora free.
Katie dropped Pandora on the ground in front of her and the demon stood there in her full demon form, shocked. At first, Pandora’s body shook, unused to being free. She had been stuck inside Katie for so long. Then she took a deep breath, reveling in the hellish air.
Katie leveled her sword at the demons charging her but spoke to Pandora. “Now’s your time, Pandora. I’ve put all my faith in you. Save me, kill me, make me your angel bitch. It’s up to you. What’s it going to be?”
Pandora looked at her for a moment and began to cackle maniacally. A flash of panic ran through Katie. She was unsure what exactly Pandora was laughing at. Had she been played? Had she only pretended to care for Katie all this time to save herself?
Was Pandora really the demon Katie had tried to deny she was?
Pandora slowly craned her demon head toward Katie, her eyes bright in their sockets. “No one should ever, ever trust a demon, Katie. Especially not an angel.”
Katie flinched as Pandora launched herself up, putting her snarling face in Katie’s.
Katie gasped, ready for a fight. Instead, Pandora winked at her and kissed Katie’s cheek. She lazily threw an arm up toward the demon horde attacking them and released a massive amount of dark, freezing energy. The icy black magic stormed through the air, laying waste to any demon in her sight.
The demons fell to the ground and burst into pieces, their bodies becoming wispy black smoke.
Pandora whispered, “Don’t tell anyone, but you’re my sister in word as well as deed.”
Katie let a smile move across her lips. Pandora leaped up, unleashing her icy black death on more demons. Her demon body had transformed, and she was beyond beautiful. She was powerful and strong and everything that she had ever claimed to have been. Katie knew right then that she could always trust Pandora, even if she were outside their body. It was obvious that Pandora had been honest with Katie all along.
The demons decided they’d had enough. Instead of running full speed toward Katie and Pandora, they were now running as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Katie raised her sword. “I didn’t even get to use this.”
She laughed. “Fuck the angel sword. None of them want to mess with the Mistress of hell.”
Behind them, Tiamat struggled to get to her feet. She huffed and puffed, struggling to breathe in the hot winds of hell.
“Hey, fish-face!”
The Leviathan turned toward the voice. Pandora was walking toward her, hellishly beautiful and beautifully hellish. “I hope you enjoyed stomping on the humans while it lasted. You’re in my domain now, bitch!”
Tiamat let out a loud bellow, ready for a fight that never came. Instead of rushing the Leviathan, Pandora took a few steps back.
The demon queen extended her claws, black energy sparking around her. Nearby, Katie stuck her angelic sword in the rocky ground and leaned on it. The heat of hell was draining her, but she was resolute, not willing to give in. Still, she was weak.
Tiamat saw her chance. She howled with rage and ran for Katie.
Pandora chuckled and leaped for Katie. She grabbed her by the waist with one hand and pushed every ounce of dark energy she could in front of her. The dark stream sliced through reality itself. She had made a way out of hell, and she was taking Katie with her.
The Leviathan wasn’t fast enough. She raced for them, but Pandora lifted Katie like they were newlyweds and leaped through the portal.
As soon as she felt the cool Earth air, Pandora slashed her claws in the air, closing the portal behind her. As the gate slammed shut, Pandora could hear Tiamat’s bellow. She had been left behind, stuck in hell.
Pandora hit the ground with Katie, and she rolled across an asphalt road until a brick wall stopped them. Pandora cursed, then clawed at the wall in an attempt to pull herself to her feet. She wrapped her arms around her naked body, her tail covering her. They were in the same alley where they had saved a girl. That was a long time ago, it seemed, but it was fitting, considering that both of them were in pretty rough shape.
Everything had happened so fast. Pandora couldn’t keep herself on her feet. She dropped back down on her knees and looked at Katie. Lying on the ground, Katie was unconscious.
Pandora weakly whispered, “Katie?”
Only a small groan came from the woman’s lips. Pandora slapped her claws on the ground, gathering enough strength to crawl toward Katie. She was exhausted. The power she had in hell was gone, and the magic she had used was taking a toll on her body.
Pandora pulled herself over to Katie and leaned close to her face. “An angel should never trust a demon, Katie. But sisters always have each other.”
Pandora closed her eyes and collapsed onto Katie. Her demonic body faded as she went back inside Katie.
Katie was alone in the alley, breathing quietly…and then not at all.
The only sound was the screech of a cat.
Then a cold wind moaned through the alley, and a moment later rain began to fall. A single drop of water plummeted between the buildings and splashed on Katie’s head.
Katie gasped for air, and her eyes snapped open. They were redder than they had ever been before.
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
August 13, 2018
First, THANK YOU for not only reading this story but also reading through the back to our Author Notes, too!
I have a confession.
I can’t seem to stop loving donuts (which wasn’t a thing before I worked on PBTD and WOTD) and I have to blame my partners in crime on the Protected by the Damned Facebook group. It got so bad I threatened to create a character that loved Brussel sprouts, Keto diets and working out.
I hate all those items. Well, not so much the Keto diet (not that I am on it, but I’ve lost weight twice using that style of eating. It helps that I love meat.)
Everyone in the group seems to enjoy finding and displaying donut memes and damned if it doesn’t make me salivate wanting another donut. I get them from time to time (the donuts), but the flavor rarely approaches the deliciousness of the images.
But, I’m not a quitter, so I’ll try another donut in case it was that last donut I tried which failed me.
This book was a bit fun for me to work on, with the whole massive beast and sending it to hell as a solution to get rid of it. I wanted to see what it would be like for Katie and Pandora to go back to hell, and how Pandora would react given the opportunity to reveal a secret plan and would she grab Katie and deliver her or is she who we think she is, and really has given those demons down below the finger?
While I can’t make any promises, it seems that Katie and Pandora are staying on Earth…
For now.
Hope to see you in the next book, and if you have a moment, would you tell a friend or two about Pandora?
She would really appreciate it.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael
Author Notes - Laurie Starkey
August 20, 2018
Yay! You made it to the author notes! As always, thank you so much for picking up a copy of book 5. I hope it made you laugh, cry, throw a few Cheetos? Maybe? No
on the food throwing? All good.
The series has been a blast to be a part of. I know you guys have checked out the comic books Mike is working on for the series too, right? If not, you gotta jump on Facebook in the Protected by the Damned group and see these things.
They’re beyond cool, and it’s just like Mike to think outside the box. It’s one of the best parts of working with him.
Well… summer is winding down. Only five more months of sweat your ass off heat for Texans. I can remember pacing the floor as a kid as October approached each year and summer was still in full effect.
What to wear on Halloween that you wouldn’t risk passing out in as you collected your much deserved candy. I’d also try for dressing like a hooker (it’s cooler like that), but my preacher mother wasn’t having it. Too hot for the latest Halloween getup.
But I’m not in Texas right now. We’re up in Kingston, New York and headed back up to Canada in a few days. It’s not really that cool here either, but I’m loving the peace I’m finding in the little house we rented.
I’m thrilled to say that mine and Mike’s 7Sons project should be coming online in September. We’re wrapping up reviews and covers for the first four books in our Immortal Huntress line for the world. It’s turned out to be quite a ride.
And on the Damned front, we’re both busy working on Ella and Damien projects for this fall. I’m hoping we get to see the fruits of that storytelling next month as well. That’s the plan at least.
Hope you’re enjoying yourself in the series and in your life, wherever you might be. Summer is almost over, and fall is headed our way. Maybe. Depends on where in the world you are.
On that note, thanks again for stopping by the back of the book. I hope you reached this part because you finished the story. Even more than that? I hope you loved it.
Slave to Many Stories,
Laurie Starkey
Subversive Giants
War of the Damned Book Six
Chapter One
Tiamat was gravely injured. It was a new experience for her. She lay snarling and growling on the hard lava stones of hell. This was not her dimension and not where she was supposed to be. Moloch and Baal had had an agreement with her from the beginning. When she was done with the work they had asked her to do, they would send her back home. However, demons weren’t the best at keeping their words.
“You need to release me. I belong somewhere else. You know this,” Tiamat growled.
Baal looked at Moloch and shrugged. “I’m still stuck on what the fuck just happened.”
Moloch snorted. “You and me both. I couldn’t believe my eyes when Katie pulled Lilith out of her body.”
Baal scratched his head. “Not just that, but Lilith took on her own body. She used all the magic she had here in hell before she was sent topside. That’s not how it works. A human isn’t supposed to be able to pull their demon out of them. They’re not supposed to survive it, anyway.”
Moloch looked down at Tiamat. She was beginning to pant, and blood was seeping out the side of her drooping dragon jowls. “Just when we thought we had seen it all? She walked over and took that Angel girl back to Earth through her own portal. She used all her energy here in hell, and as far as I understood, the power she had here doesn’t necessarily transfer to Earth. If it had, we would’ve seen a lot more frozen demons over the last couple of years.”
“Shit, I don’t even remember her having that power in hell when she was here. It’s not like we demons really like the cold. You would think the king would have put a stop to that immediately.” Baal shook his head, completely exasperated.
Tiamat coughed blood. “I saw it from you before, and you did it again. You underestimated this demon. I underestimated her human and how ballsy she was. Of course, I wasn’t aware that I would be facing an angel while on Earth. Just a note—next time you look for a Leviathan to do your dirty work for you, you might want to let them know the whole story.”
Moloch ignored Tiamat’s response. “That bitch flew right through the portal and didn’t even care that it snapped shut behind her. I swear, this shit’s getting old.”
Baal put his large, scaled foot on top of a frozen demon and rolled him over. He snarled as he looked down at the face frozen in fear. “We aren’t even safe within our own walls of hell. The bitch started a goddamned blizzard down here. Now look at this fucking mess. These were good demons, and now we have a pile of fucking demonsicles.”
Moloch took in the mass of frozen demons still thawing on the floor of hell. Some of them were half-turned to dust and half-frozen in a sheet of ice. Others were still kicking and starting to break through the ice that surrounded them.
He wrinkled his nose. “There’s nothing worse than the smell of wet demon. The sons of bitches don’t keep themselves clean for anything. It’s not like one of those human fucking dog pens.”
Baal chuckled. “Well, now they’re clean. If they can free themselves before they fucking die. I’m half-tempted to toss them into the lava and start over from scratch. There’s plenty of humans up there that belong down here. We can build a different kind of army.”
Moloch sighed. “There’s no point in wasting good demons. Let them thaw and think about what they’ve managed to get themselves into. It’s way too fucking hot for ice to last long down here.”
Baal pulled his leg back and punted a frozen head. It sizzled when it landed in a stream of lava a hundred feet away. “The rest of this shit needs to be moved to the lava pits. I don’t want to step in a pile of demon dust in the middle of the night when I look for a snack.”
Moloch swatted Baal hard on the shoulder. “Next time I talk shit about Lilith, make sure she’s still in her meatsack’s body. I don’t want to talk to her personally.”
Baal put his hands on his hips and looked around. “No shit.”
“I hate to break up this touching moment between the two of you, but you need to release me,” Tiamat snarled.
Moloch and Baal turned to the giant beaten Leviathan. A small runt of a demon had become a little too curious. He inched closer to her, and she snapped at him and missed. The demon jeered, but Tiamat’s tongue lashed out, wrapped around the demon and dragged it between her jaws. She pulverized the demon with her vicious teeth. Baal and Moloch glanced at each other, and both took a big step backward, out of Tiamat’s range.
Baal mused, “She did her goddamned job. You know I’m not one who keeps my word. Kind of messes with my reputation, but I don’t want her getting better down here. You know there’s only one of us who can control a Leviathan in hell.”
Moloch scoffed. “If you haven’t noticed, it looks like she’s about to bite the dust.”
Several smaller demons started to gather around her. She swished her tail violently, smacking several off into the distance. Baal shrugged his shoulders. “If it were me, I might just let the demons kill her. Then you’d have a huge Leviathan soul chained in hell. That could come in really useful in the future.”
Moloch waved his large, taloned hand. “There are six more. We don’t go back on our word. I know most demons do, but remember that we hold ourselves to a higher standard. We were looked upon by Lucifer himself. He may be a demon, but he keeps his word almost every single time and expects us to as well.”
Baal conceded the point. “I suppose you’re right. The last thing I want to do is go through all that we went through today and then have to face an angry Lucifer. I need a vacation, a bowl of fresh puppies, and some wench to rub my tired feet.”
Moloch chuckled. “I feel sorry for whatever soul you have rub your feet. I don’t care what crimes they committed during life.”
Baal raised a gnarled and knobby foot. “Hey! I take care of these beauties. All the lava and hot rocks really take a toll.”
Moloch shook his head. “Come on, let’s get this Leviathan back Earth-side so we can wash our hands of it. Doesn’t look like she’s gonna last much longer.”
Moloch turned toward Tiamat and whistl
ed in her direction. She grumbled and carefully lifted her head off the ground, barely able to move. The two demons slowly opened a gate right next to her. She took her time getting to her feet as they watched impatiently.
Baal looked down at his fingernails. “Anytime today, beast. I may have eternity down here, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend it with you.”
“I just don’t understand what is taking so long,” the general muttered as he looked out the window on the observation deck of the ship.
The captain peered at the island and tried to calm the general. “Sometimes these things take time. That was a big motherfucker.”
“Anything on the video surveillance?” The general walked over and stared at the screen.
The petty officer adjusted the clarity of the screen and scanned the island. The trees swayed gently in the breeze, and water lapped quietly against the shore. Other than that, there was no sign of Katie or the Leviathan anywhere. The petty officer slowly shook his head, and the general rubbed his forehead. “It’s been an hour since we’ve seen either one of them. We’ve got no view of them, no view of the Leviathan, and no idea whether we should be sending in more forces. Captain, what do you think we should do next?”
The captain took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his neck. “At this point, we have to assume someone is still left over there, whether it’s the Leviathan or Katie. We can’t sit by and do nothing. Our pants are down, here. I suggest we go ahead and send in the SEALs. They’ve been locked and loaded and ready to go since before this mission started. I can have them here within minutes.”
The general walked back to the window and rubbed his chin. “I would hate for anyone else to get killed because I’m impatient. I’ve never seen Katie take on a demon and not be done in under an hour. She wouldn’t just be hiding out there, that’s for sure.”