by Leia Stone
I hadn’t learned a lot about the demons, mostly just what I’d learned from that poster at Lumen Academy, but it was clear they could affect humans and cause them to do things, and that thought scared the crap out of me. Had I ever been demon-influenced?
I shivered, feeling bad for all of the unsuspecting humans around who weren’t Shades and had no idea what was happening. To them it was just a bar fight.
“Do something,” I urged Gage, but he just looked back at me and lifted his eyebrows, stepping away from the fight and settling a shoulder against the pillar, clearly not going to do anything to help break it up. In fact, he looked to be enjoying the show.
"Really?” I said. “I expected more from you.” And I did. There was that spark of goodness in him that I kept latching on to.
“You shouldn’t,” he said, chuckling when the smaller of two brawlers landed a blow to the other’s jaw.
“Why not?” I pressed.
Gage trailed his gaze back to me, irritation oozing from him. “Stop trying to make me into something that I’m not.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Straightening, Gage spread his arms wide. “Take a good look, Tate. This is who I am. And if you are hoping for something else, you’re going to be disappointed.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You can put on an act and pretend to be some unredeemable ass, but I don’t believe that. I know there’s more to you than that. You just stepped forward to protect me from the fight. You saved me from the demon in the diner. You even called Lumen Academy to warn them about the demon attack.”
He snorted a humorless laugh. “Yeah, what a mistake that turned out to be. That momentary lapse in judgment is what got me into this mess,” he said, gesturing between us.
Okay, technically I’d used his good deed to force him into helping me. I didn’t feel great about it, but having it thrown in my face like that annoyed me.
I tipped my chin up high. “I think you would have helped me regardless.”
“You think wrong.”
I stepped closer, until we were chest to chest. “I see you, Gage Alston.”
His expression faltered the slightest bit, and I knew I’d gotten through to the one shred of light within the darkness. But he said nothing. So stubborn!
Gage and I just stared at each other. Anger sparked, growing big and ugly and filling the air between us.
Just then a feminine hand skated over Gage’s shoulder. I noticed the red fingernails were filed to points as Claire shimmied up next to Gage, pressing the length of her curvy body to his side. She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and toyed with the ends of his hair with her claws.
Watching Claire touch Gage made me sick to my stomach, but I wasn’t going to do anything about it if he wasn’t.
“Why did you run off, G? Things were just getting interesting,” Claire purred.
I narrowed my eyes at her as she shot me a coy smile and then nuzzled his neck, planting a kiss on the spot beneath his ear when he tilted his head to give her better access. Her lips left a red stain on his skin, like she’d marked him.
Gage’s gaze never left mine. I knew what he was doing. There was a clear challenge in his green eyes. He was proving to me he wasn’t the guy I wanted him to be.
Claire slid in front of him, rubbing her hands over his chest and then down his stomach suggestively, stopping dangerously close to the waistline of his jeans.
My annoyance at her antics and his refusal to stop her advances bloomed into full-blown anger when she tilted her face up, a clear invitation.
He wouldn’t, I told myself. Not right in front of me.
But then he did.
Lowering his head, he brought his lips in line with Claire’s, and kissed her.
It wasn’t a long kiss, or even a particularly passionate one, but it felt like a shot to the chest. I staggered back a step at the unexpected burst of pain.
Gage held my gaze as his lips connected with hers, wanting to see my reaction. When he pulled back and let Claire paw at him and rain kisses on his neck, I expected to see triumph in his eyes, but instead it was all dark, emotionless.
Gage was broken.
See, his green depth’s seemed to say. I told you this is who I am.
Unable to watch any longer, I turned and fled into the crowd.
Where the heck was Indigo? I searched for her for at least thirty minutes with no luck. Frustrated with Indigo, pissed at Gage, and upset with myself, I was beyond ready to get out of this seedy club. Giving up my search, I was headed for the exit when Indigo found me.
“Girl, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” she said. She appeared sincere, but I could smell the booze on her and see the slightly glassy look in her eyes.
“I’m leaving,” I said.
“No,” she pouted. “Not yet. We practically just got here, and we haven’t even hit the dance floor together yet.”
Just got here? I was sure it had been at least an hour, but even if it had only been five minutes, I was done.
Sucking a deep breath of air, I reined in my ugly emotions. Yeah, I was irritated it took so long to find her, but I shouldn’t unload on her. She didn’t deserve the full force of my ire.
I dug into my purse and then lifted my shiny new platinum card in the air. “I’ll get a cab back to the academy. It’s been a long day and I just want to crash. You stay. I don’t want to ruin your night.”
Chewing on her dark bottom lip, she considered my proposition. She started to shake her head and opened her mouth to respond, but I never got to hear what she was about to say. A gust of sulfur-scented air blew into the room, causing both of us to freeze.
I gasped as a portal opened on the other side of the club, the swirling red vortex only taking a few moments to widen enough for a demon to emerge. This one was the most human I’d seen so far. He had the body shape of a man, but his skin was covered in black scales; he had horns protruding from his forehead, and claws at the tips of his fingers.
The humans in the room seemed oblivious to the creature’s entrance, but a handful of heads swiveled in the direction of the portal. Humans might not see what had just happened, but the Watchers could.
“Whoa,” Indigo said. “A level eight.”
“What the heck? Isn’t this Shade turf? What’s it doing here?” I asked.
No sooner had the words left my mouth than the creature’s fiery gaze landed on me.
“Shadowling,” he rumbled, his voice louder than the music, and then headed for me, ghosting through humans along the way.
Not again.
I turned to flee but stopped when I noticed the humans’ reactions after the demon phased through them. Each and every person turned instantly violent, attacking whoever was next to them, smashing bottles, throwing punches, chucking chairs. People screamed as a full-blown club-wide brawl broke out.
Indigo grabbed my hand and pulled. “Time to go,” she yelled over the shrieks and calls for help.
I snatched my hand back. “Time to go? These people need us. They don’t even understand why they’re acting the way they are right now.”
Someone hurled a bistro table and it smashed to pieces against the wall to my left.
“That’s not what we do,” Indigo argued. “Demons show up, and so long as there is no Lumen threat to their portal, Shades get out of the way. All things considered, our job is actually pretty easy.”
That was so wrong. And that might be how Shades acted, but I wasn’t a Shade.
Conscious of the large, scaled demon stomping my way, I ran away from Indigo and to the bar. Boosting myself up on top of it, I scanned the crowd.
The club was a madhouse. There was brawling everywhere, and smaller demons poured into the building through the still-open portal. It was easy to spot the Shades because they were the ones skirting the violence and heading for the exit. The cowards.
I racked my brain for what to do. I was utterly weaponless, but even if I h
ad thought to grab a dagger or two before we left Shade Academy, I didn’t think normal blades would work on this demon. I needed one of those special light-up weapons the Lumen hunters had used against the shadow demons at Lumen Academy.
Something drew my attention to the ground. There was a redhead curled into a ball just below me. People tripped over her, and she shook from the force of her sobs. I might not be able to battle the demons, but I could help this girl.
I slid off the bar and reached down to help her up. She screamed and slapped my hands away but stopped when she realized I was only trying to get her to her feet. Her leg was injured, a boot-print bruise was already forming on her thigh. There was no way I could get her to the exit in all this chaos, so after helping her stand, I steered her behind the bar to take cover.
The level eight demon roared, and a tremor shook the entire building. I didn’t think the humans could hear the earsplitting noise, but they must have felt something, because the redhead’s eyes grew even wider. Letting out a whimper, she pulled her knees to her chest and started rocking.
“Stay here,” I said, but I don’t even think she heard me.
Popping up, I scanned the room, fully expecting the demon to be right on the other side of the bar, but he wasn’t. I grinned when I spotted a small group of teens, their swords and daggers covered in electric light as they battled the monster.
The Lumens had arrived.
Drea, Jacob, and the others slashed at the beast, keeping it from advancing toward me. Relief came fast and sharp, loosening the knot of dread that had settled in my belly. I wasn’t alone. They must have been shadowing me this entire time to have gotten here this quickly.
“Drea! Marlow!” I shouted, but they couldn’t hear me over the noise.
The Shades and some humans had fled the club, so there were fewer bodies to dodge as I made my way toward my Lumen friends. If I could reach them, maybe they could share one of their weapons with me so I could fight off some of the level one and two demons who were feeding into this anarchy. There were still about a dozen humans involved, and I wanted to help.
Before I could get halfway to Drea, somebody tackled me, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. While I was still dazed, the guy who had taken me out rolled me on my back and straddled my stomach, pinning me to the ground.
“Get off,” I yelled, but the dude just stared at me.
His lips twisted into a creepy grin and his eyes flashed red as he pulled a switchblade from his back pocket.
“I’d like to see if Shadowling blood runs red,” he said, his voice a deep and unnatural tone that seemed to echo.
Screw that. This creep wasn’t making me bleed.
And why did these fools keep calling me Shadowling? What did that mean?
I threw a punch that landed on the side of his neck. My leverage wasn’t good, but the hit was strong enough to throw him off balance. As he tumbled to the side, I squirmed out from under him and tried to crawl away. I got about a foot before he grabbed my ankle and yanked me back.
Flipping me over, he wrapped his hands around my throat and squeezed. Pain cinched the tender skin at my throat, and I couldn’t breathe. I panicked as I tried to pry his hands away. But he was too strong. I clawed at his face, scratching deep cuts into his cheeks, but not even that erased his deranged grin. I could see, just for a flash of a second, the demon latched on to his back before the vision disappeared.
A blur passed overhead and then the guy was off me. I sat up gasping, not understanding what had just happened, but thankful I could finally breathe. I wheezed as I sucked in deep lungfuls of precious oxygen.
My attacker slammed to the ground next to me, and then was hauled back up by a figure cloaked in black shadows. I blinked, and realized the shadows were actually black wings.
Gage.
The wings parted to reveal Gage pounding his fist into the guy’s face over and over again. Blood and teeth flew, but I didn’t feel sorry for him. That guy almost killed me.
I stumbled to my feet but didn’t make it a step before scaled arms wrapped around me from behind and tightened into a vise-like grip, lifting me into the air.
Can’t a girl catch a break?
“Shadowling,” the demon hissed in my ear, and I gagged. His foul breath was a mix of diarrhea and vomit.
Terror crawled up my throat as I thrashed in his grasp. My arms were pinned to my side, and nothing I did loosened his grip.
The creature hauled me backward, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“Gage!” I screamed, and his head snapped up.
We locked gazes and the color drained from his face. He shouted something I couldn’t hear and shoved the possessed guy he’d been fighting out of the way. As he started toward me, he pulled a handle from beneath his jacket that with the flick of his wrist turned into a full sword, shadows licking from the blade.
I almost sagged in the demon’s arms, convinced Gage would reach me in time, but the desperate look in his eyes was the last thing I saw before I was sucked through the portal and into an abyss.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
After spinning in what seemed like a washer and dryer set on high, my feet slammed onto dusty black earth and a scream ripped from my throat. The scaly arms around my body cinched tighter and complete and total panic set in.
Where the hell was I?
I glanced around, praying I’d find that I’d been portaled to Brooklyn, or maybe even the Bronx—I wouldn’t even complain about New Jersey right now. When I looked up and saw a giant volcano spewing lava in the distance, I sagged against my demon captor in defeat.
I flicked my gaze to where a bunch of shadow demon snakes slithered along the rocky ground. And then it hit me.
I’d left Earth?
Holy craptastic crap show. This was not happening. Was this the Netherworld?
There was barely any light to illuminate the path, but as my eyes followed the ashy black earth before us, I peered out into a valley of orange veins that looked like they were made of lava. Shadow demons floated about the space, as the earth burped up sulfur and oil.
“Where are we?” I dared to ask.
Hot acrid breath washed over my face as the demon holding me spoke, his voice garbled, as much beast as human. “The Netherworld.”
I knew it. The Netherworld was a sugarcoated word for Hell. This monster had literally dragged me to Hell.
I whimpered.
He spun me around, and I gasped.
Even though it looked like we were in the middle of a volcanic wasteland, there was a city before us. Skyscrapers, cobblestone roads, and streetlights were enclosed within a soaring two-story wrought iron fence and gate.
I snorted. “You close the gates to Hell? As if someone might actually sneak in here?”
Bad idea. Stupid Tatum.
The grip he had on my arms tightened and my hands started to go numb. “Level eight and higher demons only in Shadow City.”
He leaned in and brushed his scaly nose across my neck, and I freaked. Bucking backward, I cracked my head into his ear and flailed like a fish out of water. But the creature was strong, too strong. He only tightened his grip, causing me to yelp in pain as he let out a maniacal laugh. “Master Apollyon told me not to kill you.” His voice was deep and laced with a darkness that gave me chills. “Pity, because I would enjoy it very much.”
My brain short-circuited then. Master Apollyon… Apollyon. Where did I—?
Oh no.
That was the fallen angel that gave the Shades their powers.
“Gage! Drea!” I screamed as he dragged me toward the closed gates.
“Shut it or I’ll cut out your tongue,” the demon growled, and I immediately quieted.
We reached the fence and I stared up at two giant semi-solid shadow creatures standing at each side of the decorative gate. I swallowed hard as I looked up at their horrifying forms. Their lower body reminded me of a bear, but then the fur gave way to scales across
their manlike stomachs. When I finally reached their faces, I had to stifle a scream. Lizard skin wrapped around a manlike bone structure, with only two slits for a nose and thin, beady red eyes. A small cluster of horns broke out on their foreheads, and I tried and failed not to stare. I forced my head up trying to appear confident, hoping that would give me an edge somehow.
“Here to see Delilah,” my captor told the guards.
“Good work, Trilok,” one of them said with a snake-like hiss as he bowed his head. This was so beyond horrifying. I was going to have nightmares for the rest of my life.
They nodded and with a flick of one of the guard’s wrists, the gate started to open. Trilok shoved me through the opening and marched me right down the rocky cobblestone road and into the city.
I should have been scared, I should be peeing my pants or something, but instead I was just so fascinated with the fact that there was a city in the Netherworld. Music pulled my attention, and I peered over my shoulder just in time to see a male demon kissing the side of a female demon’s neck as they stood out front of what looked like a nightclub.
Gross.
But I couldn’t look away. I’d never seen a female demon before, and thank God for that, because it was horrifying. She had black wings that were patchy and looked like they’d been burned. The lower half of her face was normal-ish, but the upper part was gruesome. It looked like her brain was growing outside of her head and she had three pairs of eyes.
I shivered, looking away, keeping my eyes forward for the rest of the walk.
“Where are you taking me? Why did you bring me here?” I tried to get anything out of the dude so I could prepare myself for whatever was about to happen.
The dragon-demon said nothing.
