Demon Kissed: Book 2 of the Venandi Chronicles (An Urban Paranormal Romance Series)

by Sara Snow

  “I think Paimon’s brewing up another storm. We might be able to outrun it, if we’re lucky.”

  We weren’t lucky.

  The clouds rolled across the flat landscape at breakneck speed, and it was only a matter of minutes before they released their torrents of rain. A clap of thunder rocked the car, followed by streaks of crackling lightning.

  “Not again,” Olympia groaned, waking from her nap. “Don’t these demons ever let up?”

  “No,” I said curtly. “They don’t. We could use one of your weather spells right about now.”

  I didn’t have a lot of faith in Olympia’s magic at the moment. Our trusted tools—Kingston’s invocations, Olympia’s spells—had been falling short against these demons. Kingston had said that Paimon’s power was growing, and he was right.

  Is Paimon drawing strength from Georgia already? Sucking power off his daughter without her knowledge?

  Nothing would surprise me about the demon kings at this point.

  The rain slanted down on us in sheets. Just like the storm that hit us yesterday, this downpour came down much faster than my wipers could clear the glass. In this totally flat farm country, the highway was soon swamped. I did my best to keep the car on the road, but I could feel the tires slipping and sliding on the road.

  To add to the excitement, high winds rocked the vehicle, rolling us forward and back. The wind howled in rage, as if we’d personally offended it somehow.

  “What the fuck is this?” Jacob asked, leaning forward to peer through the curtains of rain. “When did Paimon get so much control over the weather?”

  “Weather has always been one of his specialties, according to Kingston. But it does seem insane that he’s suddenly able to smack us with a flood.”

  One more sign that he’s already cashing in on Georgia’s power.

  The word “flood,” as we quickly discovered, was no exaggeration for the volumes of water rising alongside the car. By now, I could barely push the vehicle through the rain and wind. The car lurched forward, only to be washed back.

  “Georgia, make it stop!” Olympia yelled. “Do something about the water! Focus!”

  “What am I supposed to do? I can’t move water!”

  “Then try to push the car,” she ordered. “I’ll work on the flood.”

  “Your spells haven’t been working all that well,” Georgia said. “I don’t think this is going to work.”

  “We don’t have any other options,” I pointed out.

  In a matter of minutes, we’d be floating—a steel boat rising on the tide of a demon hell-bent on capturing his daughter.

  The car filled with the sound of Olympia’s chanting, louder and more urgent this time, as she tried her Trikoni spell. This time her magic seemed to be working, at least enough to hold the water back a few inches on either side of the car.

  I didn’t need to see Georgia in the rearview mirror to feel her focusing her mind. Her power radiated from her in magnetic waves. Telekinesis was the first gift I’d noticed in her. In the beginning, she threw things when she was pissed off or scared. Then, she’d learned how to change their direction, their speed.

  Now we just need her to push a vehicle through a freaking flood. Baby steps, right?

  The car lurched again, then bucked like a bull at a rodeo. Suddenly, we were sliding, the wheels still skidding. But at least we were moving forward, and the water was miraculously holding fast on either side.

  “Go, Georgia, go!” Jacob shouted. “We’re moving!”

  I glanced back at Georgia to see her staring straight ahead. She was as pale as a ghost. A wrinkle had formed between her eyebrows, and her jaw was set. She trembled from the force of her own concentration, and it was working.

  Olympia shrieked with joy. Then she started chanting again. I had to give her credit for not giving up. This time, her incantation was actually making the water subside.

  I kept driving, clenching the steering wheel as if I could force the car to advance with the power of my hands. My only goal was to keep the freaking car on the highway for as long as Georgia’s power held out.

  We crept down the waterway for about a mile—a mile that seemed to last an hour—when I spotted an exit. Relief flooded my body, the rush so hard and fast that the air whooshed out of my lungs. The rain had lightened to a steady drumming on the roof.

  Everybody cheered as I guided the car onto the exit ramp. Through the rain, I could see a small building in the distance.

  “What do you say we wait out the storm here, then keep going?” I asked, slowing the car.

  “Sounds good to me,” Jacob said. He sounded just as relieved as I was.

  I looked back to see Georgia trembling in the back seat. Her face was still pale, but her eyes glowed with pride. Olympia hugged her tight.

  “I guess I don’t have to ask you two,” I said. “Unless, of course, you want to take another shot at parting the seas, Olympia.”

  We had come to a stop in front of one of those old-time gas stations, equipped with two pumps, a small office, and, hopefully, a public toilet.

  “This looks like one of those old places where a guy comes out and pumps your gas for you,” Olympia remarked. “You remember those, don’t you, Carter?”

  “Yeah. I’m vintage, I admit it,” I said. Normally, I would have given Olympia shit for that crack about my age, but right now I couldn’t care less.

  “Here comes the guy now,” Jacob said, nudging me with his elbow. “How long do you think he’s worked here?”

  “He can’t get much business out here in the middle of nowhere,” Olympia commented. “We’re probably the first customers he’s had all month. He’s gonna be overjoyed to see us.”

  The rain was still coming down, so I couldn’t see the attendant at first. Then, I saw him advancing toward us, his body hunched against the falling water. He walked fast, stomping his way across the lot with an aggressive stride that made me wonder if he were really that happy to see us. He raised his right arm in a gesture that looked more like a summoning than a friendly wave.

  Then I caught the hard set of his jaw, the steely glare under the brim of his baseball cap.

  As he got closer, I saw something even worse.

  On his left breast pocket, where I might have expected to see a name like “Milt” or “Earle,” was a single embroidered letter—P.

  23

  Georgia

  As soon as I noticed the gas station guy’s shirt, I knew we were screwed.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out why the attendant had a letter P stitched on his pocket. Maybe that was the new uniform for all of Paimon’s minions, so they could pick each other out in a crowd.

  And I’d been sitting there like a fool, buzzed with pride at my “power,” when I’d actually done the worst thing possible by leading us here.

  I got us all into this trap. Now I have to get our asses out.

  Within seconds after the demon raised his fist, three other demons emerged out of the old building. Unlike their leader, these guys moved on all fours, like giant reptiles with horned heads and eyes that glowed red through the rain. The demon in the uniform threw himself on the windshield and pounded on the glass with both fists, making the whole car shake.

  “What the fuck are they doing?” Olympia screamed as the reptiles leapt onto the car to join their master.

  “What do you think? They’re trying to kill us!” Jacob shouted. “Carter, run them over!”

  Carter tried to start the car, but the key clicked uselessly in the ignition. The pounding of the demons’ fists and feet rocked the vehicle, and a chorus of their demonic screams blasted my eardrums.

  I saw the lead demon raise his fist over the windshield again.

  And heard the crack of breaking glass.

  “Shit! They’re going to get in!” Olympia cowered against me.

  Come on, Georgia. You’ve been through worse than this.

  I felt frozen. I couldn’t light the bastards on fire, not
with rain still dumping down from the sky. Rain wasn’t the only thing coming down anymore—now the skies swarmed with flying monsters who were coasting in for a landing on the roof of the car. The air filled with their ear-splitting screeches and their battle cries.

  “Okay, we need a plan,” Carter said. He looked amazingly calm for someone who was about to be pulverized by lizards. “Olympia, quit whining and work your spell again. Jacob, try your exorcist routine. And Georgia, give it everything you’ve got and shove the car forward!”

  “So, what are you gonna do?” Olympia demanded.

  “Bend over and kiss my ass goodbye, if you all don’t get going,” Carter shot back.

  Between Olympia chanting frantically and Jacob shouting invocations, the car sounded like the scene of a tone-deaf choir rehearsal. I focused as hard as I could, trying to charge us all up as I concentrated on shoving the car.

  You pushed this car through a flood. You can push it through a bunch of demons.

  A mass of slimy demon skin, flailing fists, wings, and feet blocked the world outside the vehicle. One of the reptiles smashed his monstrous face against the window. I saw the crazed hunger on his face, the insane light in his red eyes. His jaws opened, and his long tongue slithered across the glass, leaving a trail of silver fluid.

  That is not what I am, and I will not let you have me!

  A wave took shape in the depths of my mind. The wave gathered force and crested in a tsunami of energy.

  I heard the click of a switchblade popping from its sheath. Carter quickly rolled down the window. When the lead demon crawled over to grab him, Carter reached up and thrust the blade into his throat. The demon howled and rolled back onto the hood of the car, black fluid gushing from the wound.

  I let the tsunami go.

  The car reared up, then hurtled forward. The leader flew off the hood, and I brought the weight of the vehicle down as hard as I could. I heard the sickening crunch and thud of his body under the tires, followed by more crunching as the wheels ground forward.

  The rain stopped. The iron-gray cloudbank lifted and parted, and a blade of light burst through. Hordes of winged demons flew back into the air as if they’d been shot from a cannon.

  At least for the moment, we were free.

  24

  Carter

  For the first few minutes after the gas station massacre, we all sat in shock. A heady combo of terror and elation rushed through our veins.

  We’d pulled off another victory, but just barely. I knew that this confrontation had taken a lot out of Georgia. The cambion trembled in Olympia’s arms, trying to catch her breath as we left the scene of the battle. Crushed carcasses of demons lay strewn across the ground, with shreds of wings and tails scattered in their midst.

  What’s Paimon going to think when he stops by and finds a whole legion smashed to smithereens?

  We’d been able to scrape up the last of our wits at the last minute, merge our strengths, and conquer the enemy, or at least this battalion. The more time I spent watching Georgia’s evolution, the more I understood why Paimon was so desperate to have her for himself.

  If Georgia had been on the demons’ side in that battle, the Venandi would be nothing but a heap of blood and guts right now. Even though Jacob could banish demons, his power hadn’t been strong enough to fend off that horde alone.

  I wasted no time getting us back on the road. We still had hours to drive before we neared Texas, and with each of these nasty confrontations, I was getting more primed for the final showdown.

  I couldn’t wait to see Paimon, Bebal, and Abalam go up in a massive inferno.

  “Holy hell. We pulled our asses out of the fire with that one,” said Jacob, echoing my thoughts.

  “More like out of the flood,” Olympia said. “Even Georgia couldn’t have started a fire in that downpour. If I get out of this alive, I’m moving to Arizona. I never want to see rain again.”

  “If Paimon has his way, there’ll be rain wherever you go, and worse,” I said. “But yes. That truly sucked.”

  I turned my head at the sound of a small giggle in the back seat. Georgia was trying to choke back laughter, hiding her mouth with her hand. Olympia caught the bug, and soon, both women were erupting in laughter.

  “They have that effect on each other, I’ve noticed,” I said to Jacob.

  “It’s a girl thing.” He shrugged. “I don’t get the joke myself.”

  But I did. You either laughed your ass off, or you screamed your guts out in horror at a time like this. Georgia and Olympia had chosen the more pleasant path. I actually started to chuckle myself, and it wasn’t long before we were all wiping tears off our cheeks.

  “Could you believe that guy’s uniform?” Olympia whooped. “He was like something out of the Andy Griffith Show.”

  “Help us, Sheriff! The whole town of Mayberry’s infested with demons!” added Jacob in a Barney Fife accent.

  I blasted music on the stereo, which was probably one of the few components of the car that still worked reliably after that fiasco, and we drove down the highway singing.

  Georgia would have at least one happy road trip memory.

  We stopped for a break at a truck stop a couple hours later. This time I chose one of those sprawling commercial joints—no more quaint motels or deserted gas stations. Character was out, and safety was in.

  I wasn’t exactly surprised to find that my car was a total disaster. I barely recognized the sleek sedan that I’d once loved to drive—the body was battered beyond recognition. My windshield was all but shattered, and the paint had been raked off the roof and doors, leaving long, angry stripes of exposed steel.

  “Well, look on the bright side,” Jacob remarked, scratching his head. “They were too stupid to slash your tires.”

  “Good luck getting your insurance to cover that,” Olympia added.

  The two of them headed over to the truck stop to stock up on water and snacks for the rest of the drive. If I could keep the car going, I was going to push it as long as I could. No more stops, no more breaks—just pedal to the metal (or what was left of it) all the way.

  Georgia didn’t seem to notice the car. She was unusually quiet, leaning against the beaten-in door, her arms wrapped around her waist. We had entered much warmer territory down here, so I knew she couldn’t be cold. She stared at the highway with a stern, almost angry glare, as if she wished she could turn it into a river of burning tar.

  She undoubtedly could, if she set her mind to it.

  “Hey. What’s going on in that head of yours?”

  I walked over to her and put my arm around her waist. She didn’t lean into me, as I’d hoped she would, but she didn’t back away either. She also didn’t answer me.

  “You were amazing back there, you know?” I persisted. “You must be either stunned or pissed off because I’ve never seen you speechless before.”

  The sun was setting, and the slant of the light turned her eyes into brilliant lavender spheres. A breeze caught the long locks of hair that framed her face, lifting them off to expose the length of her neck.

  I don’t care how old I get, I will always lose my breath when I see that gorgeous throat.

  “I thought you were asking rhetorical questions,” she finally said. “That’s why I didn’t answer. But since you asked, I’m pissed. I’m mad at those monsters who almost killed us and wrecked your car, but mostly, I’m mad at myself.”

  “Why? You saved the day. We’d all be toast if not for you.”

  She shook her head. “I waited too long to react back there at the gas station. And at the motel, I acted too fast. I know I have power, and I know what I can do. But I can’t control it, and that puts you all in danger.”

  “Well, we weren’t exactly in a low-risk occupation to begin with,” I commented. “I’ve been fighting demons since before you were born. From what I can tell, you timed that just right. And as far as the motel goes, that incubus deserved to have his balls scorched off. The owner of tha
t dump will probably retire off the insurance payout, because no one’s going to be able to prove that a pyrokinetic cambion torched the joint.”

  A smile played around her lips, and her eyes softened a little. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but it’s not working. The only reason you’re in harm’s way is because I’m with you. You should all turn around and go back to Chicago. Save yourselves while you can.”

  I took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face me. “What kind of nonsense is that? Georgia, we are all on a mission together. This isn’t about you, or about us. We are trying to destroy a dangerous trio of demons before they take over the mortal realm. I know you’re strong, and you’re getting stronger. But you can’t do this alone.”

  She stared straight into my eyes. My heart skipped a beat, but I didn’t break the gaze.

  “Why not? You could leave me here, and I’ll hitch a ride on a semi-truck. Someone’s bound to be heading to El Paso. Olympia can fill me in on my mother’s location. I’ll meet her there, and set fire to my father and those two idiots who follow him around. Sound like a plan?”

  “Nope. It sounds like a moment of insanity. There’s no way you are going to face the Tenebris by yourself. I know the rest of us aren’t as powerful as you are, but we have our own abilities and we’re loaded up with weapons. You need backup, Georgia. And we’re going to give that to you, whether you like it or not.”

  “I still think you should go back,” she said, but she didn’t sound half as certain anymore. “You can keep fighting my father’s legions, but from a more secure position. I really don’t need you to protect me anymore.”

  I sighed, not even bothering to hide my exasperation. “You don’t get it. I’m not trying to be your big brother or your bodyguard. I know you can take care of yourself. But you matter to me, Georgia. If I lose you, I’ve lost everything that matters to me at this point in my life.”

  She chewed her lush lower lip, and I wanted more than anything to draw her close and kiss her. But we were both too serious in our intentions for me to give in to a melting heart.