Dark Huntress (Guardians of Humanity Book 2)

by Harley James

  Siolazar’s demon companion sizzled, rolling and screaming on the floor until the Rephaim shut off the sprinklers with a snap of his fingers, oblivious to his own peeling—and, this time, rapidly regenerating—skin.

  Ari kept his eyes on the fallen angel, shifting back and forth, looking for the demon’s weakness. Kat was right about one thing. It was growing more difficult to push his thoughts at her. He took a deep breath to bank his anxiety. “Whatever you think is going on inside you, you can fight this. I’ll help you, Kat.”

  “Stop thinking about me, Viking. You have a job to do. If he kills you, I’ll be so pissed. I might even drag you back to life to destroy you myself.”

  “How sweet…a lover’s spat.” Siolazar’s serpentine blood vessels and wiry muscles pulsed and rolled under his red bodysuit. Ari’s mind spun. He needed to get out of this safe circle before Siolazar got any closer to Kat or the relic.

  No time to reason with her. He widened his stance, gripping his ax tighter. “Kat promised to warm my bed for the next month if I get her out of here alive. And I fully intend to collect on that promise.”

  “You’re talking about sex when this son of a bitch is ruining my club?”

  Bingo. Ari broke from the circle when Kat’s telepathic censure weakened her hold on him.

  Siolazar launched, fangs bared, eyes afire. Ari raised his ax, lunging toward the Rephaim, but before they engaged, Siolazar froze mid-air, unblinking red eyes fading to a sick yellow, his gray leathery face shriveling. He crumpled to the hardwood floor, twitching, his features twisting in agony while his mouth belched great clouds of steel-colored smoke.

  What the fuck? Ari’s gut clenched, his gaze moving beyond the Rephaim down what remained of the gutted hallway. Both bathrooms and the kitchen were now fully visible without their walls.

  Leviathan walked calmly into view, a pale, clenched fist at the end of her outstretched arm. Her face and lips were as sallow as her fist, except for a pinkish-orange coloring around her striking blue eyes. A silk, sand-colored blouse floated on her tall, willowy frame, a wide pearl choker nestled below her chin, and a sleek, chestnut braid coiled from the right side of her forehead, under her chin, to her left ear, tucking into a shiny bun that defied gravity.

  Ari couldn’t understand his sudden fascination. He slowly stood and took a step toward her.

  “Ari, stop!” Kat snarled.

  Ari shook his head to clear the buzz that had started at the base of his skull.

  Leviathan’s ashen lips curved seductively, her eyes warming. “Like what you see, Viking?”

  “Hell, no.”

  Leviathan’s lips turned down, and she twisted her wrist, making Siolazar scream. Jade and Stark emerged at the mouth of the hall, stopping abruptly when they saw the archdemon. Jade wrenched her crucifix out of her pocket, while Stark uncapped a flask of chrism oil.

  Kat gasped. “No. Go back and protect the others! I mean it, go now!”

  Ari gave Jade, Stark, and the rest of Aqua’s core team a mental push toward the storage room off the kitchen. Any remaining staff who’d managed to stay alive, he compelled home.

  This was a terrible spot to make a stand against a Rephaim, much less an archdemon. He needed a more open area to manipulate air pressure to their advantage. Fortunately, the DJ booth was open on both sides to the pool terrace. Ari built a gust from outside, forcing fresh, oxygenated air inside.

  “We need to build a storm.”

  Kat coughed, then nodded. With Kat’s water and his air elements, they could create a greater calamity than he could make on his own. As Leviathan began speaking in the old Enochian language, Siolazar quaked, his movements pulling down more Sheetrock and tearing down two-by-four framing posts. Sweat rolled between Ari’s pecs. He’d been in confrontation with an archdemon only twice in his eleven hundred years, but both times he’d had Alexios at his side.

  He sent out a call to their Guardian leader, then raised his ax and zeroed in on his target. “Leave now or in pieces, Dark One.”

  Chapter 13

  Katherine moved away from the reliquary door toward the demolished hall to watch Leviathan with morbid interest. What could she do to help Ari? She could feel him stoking his considerable power. It was both arousing and terrifying. But looking at the archdemon, she also felt frozen by a strange sort of detached horror mixed with admiration and…affinity?

  “I’m sick.”

  “Aye, very sick, elskan.”

  Kat closed her eyes and forced Ari from her mind. She felt the drain of their disconnection almost immediately.

  “Don’t waste your resources so foolishly,” Ari chided, angling his body between her and Leviathan.

  She didn’t have the strength to respond.

  Leviathan tilted her head back and laughed euphorically, then opened her fist. Siolazar stopped smoking from his mouth and staggered to his feet. He demolecularized instantly into a stream of twinkling red vapor. The vapor twirled into a mini cyclone, ripping down a crystal chandelier as it shot toward the reception area, then blew out the main entrance door. The melted plaster and Sheetrock from the walls bubbled one last time, then hardened to a milky white on the floor.

  Leviathan’s friendly smile sent chills up and down Katherine’s arms even as it made her want to sit down in a warm room and divulge all her secrets. “Temper tantrums, violence, and insanity… Siolazar has never managed his emotions well,” the archdemon said softly. “Hence he’s Rephaim instead of Nephilim.”

  Katherine felt Ari trying to communicate with her, but if she let him influence her, how would she ever know Leviathan’s true intentions? She’d been on the wrong side of people’s judgments far too often herself. She’d be damned before she’d be like them.

  If she could look beyond the Devil’s daughter’s shell, beyond the evil story, maybe others would give her the same benefit of the doubt.

  Kat’s legs wobbled. She reached out to support herself against what was left of the wall, her stomach churning. I’m not myself.

  Leviathan’s blue eyes seemed to see into her soul.

  Ari’s knuckles whitened as he gripped his ax, stepping closer to the archdemon. How stupid to think she could keep him contained. Kat had known he wouldn’t force down her puny binding because it would hurt her, but she hadn’t counted on him baiting her, distracting her so he could slip out of her bindings without harming her.

  How could she protect him?

  This was all her fault. She couldn’t stand it—would just want to die—if something happened to him because of her. She moved forward and grabbed his arm, feeling his warmth, his need to charge in full-on Viking mode, but recognizing he needed more mojo.

  Mojo he should have been able to count on her for.

  He shook off her grasp and made his body bigger as though to shield her. More aggression, but that wasn’t the answer. Was it? She was so tired of fighting. Fighting to keep people the right distance from her brokenness. Fighting the evil around her.

  And the darkness within.

  It was growing, that darkness—whatever it was. She could feel it spread through her cells, a slow-moving but relentless taint, sapping her Guardian life force.

  Her legs quivered, then gave out. Ari was there before she hit the floor, his back and legs pressing her into one of the few remaining walls so she didn’t slump to the ground.

  “Let me heal you, Katherine,” Leviathan called fervently. “You can’t carry on this way.” Her smooth voice wrapped around Katherine’s limbs like the Bible’s serpent.

  “The day you touch her is the day this world ends.”

  Kat blinked at Ari’s back as his words rumbled out. How could he sound so calm? Leviathan would kill them all, take the relic, and disappear into Hell where she’d horde the Chains until they secured enough relics to free Satan and start Armageddon. And I can’t even hold myself up.

  Leviathan clucked her tongue. “Such bravado, Mr. Grimmson, but so far, I’ve seen nothing to back it up.” She moved into
Katherine’s line of sight. “Beautiful Guardian, regardless of what my brothers and sisters have come for, I’m not here to fight you or destroy this beautiful island. I wish to get to know you and help you. Most of all, I want to know what it feels like to have a friend.”

  Ari laughed, though his body remained rigid. “That’s the biggest crock of bullshit I’ve ever heard. Nice try, demon, but you’re what’s making her sick.”

  “Katherine, surely you can do better than this overgrown cave dweller who kept women as slaves. As a protégé of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, that’s got to rankle.”

  Katherine closed her eyes, imagining what Elizabeth would have thought if she knew her apprentice was in league with a Viking. Sure, she’d been a women’s rights suffragist in those days, but hers had been self-interested activism. When she’d run away at fifteen, she received boarding from a friend of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She’d been spoon-fed women’s right ideology by the very leaders who’d made history.

  She’d only wanted a place to feel safe. So she listened to their speeches and attended their meetings. But she never felt their passion. Their unrelenting drive for equality.

  Life wasn’t fair and never would be.

  Agitation pumped blood back into her limbs, and she squirmed against Ari.

  He shifted, letting her stand on her own, though he didn’t turn away from Leviathan. “Thralls were paid workers. They could even buy their freedom from their masters.”

  Leviathan rolled her eyes. “Thralls, huh? Polite vocabulary never ennobles slavery. The fact is, you Vikings were brutal plunderers—of women, land, and culture. Quite frankly—”

  “Quite frankly, you can turn the TV off and go back to school. We were farmers and explorers. When we raided, most men didn’t take the time to rape anyone.”

  Leviathan laughed. “So inconvenience was the deterrent to rape, not morals?”

  “You’re twisting my words, demon. Vikings love and respect women. Rape was severely punished.” Ari glanced back at Kat. “Viking women could freely divorce their husbands. A society that gives women that kind of power isn’t barbaric.”

  “Yet you captured innocents in violent circumstances and brought them back to serve you as spoils of war. In any age, that’s called human trafficking, Ari,” Katherine said quietly, feeling the loss of her vigor once more.

  Ari’s cold stare made her stomach feel warm and twisty. “I’d never condone that anymore. Come on, Kat, you know it was a different world back then.”

  “Indeed. How about…diabolical?” Leviathan supplied, and Kat knew her mentor Elizabeth would’ve agreed.

  Ari threw down his ax and summoned his sword. “This is rubbish. I’m sick of your meddling. Go find some other planet to terrorize, you treacherous bitch.”

  Leviathan’s face revealed none of her feelings. “Real classy, Mr. Grimmson.” She turned to Kat. “I’m deeply sorry that my presence has brought out the wickedness in him, but perhaps it’s for the best. He will only cause you pain.”

  “Kat, don’t listen to her.” He placed a hand gently on her shoulders. “Look at me. Look.” He crouched down slightly so she was forced to stare at him or look childish with her continued refusal. “You know this is exactly how demons operate. The more vulnerable someone is, the friendlier they come on. They suck you in, steal your soul, then leave you an empty shell. Don’t let her do this to you.”

  Leviathan sighed loudly. “There he goes again, lumping all demons into the same tired stereotype. Are all humans the same? Are they all good, all bad? No. Are all Guardians the same level of fucked up? No. Neither are demons. Use your logic, Katherine, then let me know when you want to talk. Remember, I’m not here to make trouble, as I’ve demonstrated by my timely dispatching of the Rephaim.”

  Katherine’s skin prickled as a loud whoosh of air flushed through the space. Compressed molecules quivered like Jell-O shots spilled on the bar, and she thought her body would implode. Ari lunged at Leviathan, throwing his sword, severing her braid as she spun away. She raised her hand to freeze him mid-leap and encased him in solid ice. Ari’s frozen prison was so thick it nearly blocked the entire width of the demolished hallway and made the black of his T-shirt appear a murky gray.

  Leviathan flung the entire ice block out of the hallway onto the dance floor.

  Katherine’s fingers wrapped around an exposed wall stud, trying to breathe. She could feel Ari yelling in the ice, trying to communicate. But looking at Leviathan, Katherine couldn’t remember how to reopen their pathway.

  “I didn’t want to do that.” Leviathan sighed again and brought her tired gaze to Katherine. “You won’t have to worry about anything. I’ll keep a tight rein on Siolazar and his horde. I’ll also help you get this place fixed up in time for tomorrow’s busy crowd. Let me help, okay?”

  Trading one problem for a more deadly one? “Let him go.”

  Leviathan stared at Katherine like she was actually considering it. “Would that make you happy?”

  Katherine nodded, her pulse a heavy knock in her carotid. The archdemon seemed so calm. Too calm? It was surreal having a conversation with one she expected to loathe on sight. Was Satan’s daughter for real? Could she truly only want someone to understand her…

  To like her?

  Katherine had experienced the trauma of losing her family because of her own horrible decision, so how could she not give Leviathan a chance?

  She understood the desolation of isolation. The need to feel like you belonged somewhere, anywhere. But everywhere you looked, people whispered and shunned.

  It crushed the soul.

  Especially when she felt so physically weak lately.

  Leviathan fingered the severed ends of her hair, then looked down at her hands like they were a stranger’s. Finally, she brought her gaze back to Katherine’s. “I want to please you, Guardian, but I believe the Viking will be as cranky as a vampire without blackout curtains if he’s rescued by a woman. For that reason, we may want to let him figure it out himself. However, I will defer to your judgment.”

  A trap? There was no way Leviathan would do as she asked…would she? And if she did, would that somehow come back to bite her?

  “Ari?” Katherine tried their intimate pathway, but heard only static. She pressed her palms to her temples as the buzz grew louder. Leviathan took one step closer, a look of concern settling on her fine features. “Are you okay?”

  God, no. Katherine dropped her hands to her sides and wriggled her fingers to try to get the feeling to return to them. “Fine. I’m completely fine.”

  Leviathan held her gaze for a moment longer. Katherine brushed sweat from her temples as she shivered. “If you really want to help, convince your siblings to stop attacking Guardian night clubs and stop this awful search for a way to free Satan. As long as you don’t try to take the relic, I can repel the Rephaim on my own.”

  Leviathan’s shoulders sank. “Sadly, I don’t think so, Katherine.”

  “Don’t think what? That I can repel the Rephaim—”

  “Well, that too, but even I cannot stop the other archdemons. The beauty of our creation is that we are implicitly self-directed. No one can influence us. Not our succubus mothers. Not even Lucifer, our father.”

  A low sound like the chanting of a dozen bass voices seemed to come from far away. Katherine shook her head to clear it. “I don’t believe that.”

  “Your disbelief in our self-determination doesn’t make it untrue.”

  “You don’t want to stop the other archdemons.”

  “If it would make others believe in my goodness, I would stop my siblings any way I could.”

  Leviathan had never looked so earnest, or so young.

  “I don’t understand what you want then.”

  Leviathan’s alabaster skin glowed with an otherworldly beauty. How could someone supposedly so evil be so lovely? “Exactly what I told you moments ago. Understanding, friendship, the chance to be seen as something other than the s
pawn of Satan.”

  “But that’s exactly what you are. You’re a fallen angel’s daughter.” The low chanting in Katherine’s mind expanded, and the remaining chandeliers Siolazar hadn’t brought down began to rattle.

  Leviathan glanced around with wide eyes as though only now hearing the chants for the first time. She raised a hand toward Ari’s ice prison.

  Katherine jerked away from the wall stud. “Stop! If you do anything else to hurt him, I’ll destroy the relic!” It was out before she could stop the words. Destroying the Chains would mean her own immediate dispatch to Hell, but she was gambling on the archdemon being unaware of that clause in the Guardian rule book.

  But was it really a bluff? Looking at Ari in that ice coffin, she realized, yes, she’d do it if it meant saving his life. He was more powerful than her, and therefore more important in the fight against evil.

  And, of course, she loved him.

  “I don’t want—or need—the relic, my dear,” Leviathan said. “The sins of my father are no more my own than you’re responsible for your father’s mistakes. I’d think you, more than anyone, would understand that.”

  Yeah, she understood the whole sins-of-my-father trap, though it was so difficult to outrun the guilt. That kind of thing always managed to defy logic. The heart was never reasonable. It felt what it felt. Even when it knew a restless Viking would always have to leave her to feel whole.

  She’d held Stark in her arms as he shook and spasmed violently, his heroin detox neither quick nor kind. She’d shushed him and sang to him and promised him that blunting the trauma of his past with opiates wasn’t the path to happiness.

  Now, she wondered if she’d been lying to them both.

  And she wondered if her fleeting memories of love—and her ever-present guilt—would ever go away and leave her in peace. Medicating them away was perhaps the path to contentment after all.