So much for soft words from others. Blaz and I peeled away to the south and I put a hand on his neck. “There won’t be much surprise if we come at him from behind.”
What are you thinking?
“Dive bomb him.”
That’s a one shot move, Rylee. At least if we miss from behind, gravity isn’t working against us.
He winged away fast, and I knew what the demon would see if he looked our way. We were making a run for it, leaving our friends behind.
Something about the setup was wrong, though. “Blaz, go high.”
Shit, Rylee, this is not the plan. Lark has it right.
I reached for my crossbow on my back. “Well, she isn’t running the show, is she?” I wasn’t being petulant. Something felt off about this demon’s attack. There was no way to put my finger on it, so I opened myself to Blaz and let him feel what my instincts warned: this was not the way to fight Pestilence. If we did this Lark’s way, something very bad would happen.
Blaz grunted as my emotions and thoughts rolled through him.
What do you want to do, then?
“The demon is after me, right?”
Rylee . . . .
“So let’s make sure he sees us and comes our way, instead of theirs. Unless, of course, you don’t think you can outfly him?”
Don’t insult me.
He dipped his wings and within seconds we were turned, heading straight for the rolling black clouds. I couldn’t see Eve and Marco, or any of my friends, but a bright light lit the darkness that was the demon, like a nuclear bomb exploding inside of it.
That was either Pamela or Cactus, but I was betting on Pamela. She wouldn’t wait, she’d rush in like the headstrong girl she was. Like I encouraged her to be.
“Hurry, Blaz, we have to get to that fucker before he gets to them.” Already the wind had gained momentum. I could see the particles of disease on the air spinning outward. Infecting my family with whatever deadly disease he had up his fucking sleeve.
Blaz stretched his neck, flattening his body as his wings picked up speed. Another light lit the clouds, like a storm brewed deep within. For a split second, I thought I saw a figure in the middle of the maelstrom. The demon floated what looked like a hundred feet above the tarmac of the parking lot, hiding within the smoke and mirrors he’d created with the storm. All around him, darted tiny lights, like oversized fireflies.
The edge of the clouds reached out to us and I took a deep breath. The scent of road tar filled my nostrils, a scent I hadn’t smelled since my first run-in with a demon almost a year ago. It clung to my tongue and coated my throat as I breathed, gagging me.
Mist and shadows wrapped around us and the demon spun slowly, his face a mixture of pleasure and surprise. He was lean and wiry with long hair that curled around his face. Young, was my first thought; he couldn’t be much older than me. Or at least, the body he’d stolen wasn’t older than me.
All around us lightning danced, and through what I could feel of Blaz, it was his doing; a strength of his we hadn’t used often. Able to control the weather, he broke up the storm and sent the clouds at the front of it skittering away.
I unbuckled the harness and stood as I pulled a sword from my back. I pointed it at Pestilence. “You want me? Then you’d better get your ass over here and see if—”
Claws dug into my shoulder, slicing through the leather jacket, and I was yanked upward, clear of Blaz. I swung my sword over my head without looking, cutting the creature’s legs off. They fell away from me, the claws releasing in death as a scream rent the air, like the cry of a rabbit being tortured by an overzealous cat.
I fell, blood pouring around me from the creature’s now amputated legs. Before I could wonder how high I’d been taken, I hit Blaz’s back and rolled, stopping when I came against his spine. “What are they?”
Blaz did not answer me.
Pestilence did.
“My pets? You don’t know what they are?” The demon floated slowly toward us, his feet stepping as if he were on the ground, not a hundred feet up. He was dressed in a suit and tie like a high-end businessman, right down to his polished shoes. I found myself staring as he tugged the cufflinks on his shirt.
“I’m going to kill them.”
“Ah, but I’m so proud of them. My first of what will be many creations now that I am free of the Veil. Flying monkeys are something humans invented. I wondered if I could actually create them and . . . I could. Lovely, don’t you think?”
I glanced where he pointed. Above us were indeed flying monkeys. Though they were like no monkeys I’d ever seen—even discounting the wings. Their bodies were out of proportion, limbs askew, eyes dead. And they were silent; their wings barely moving enough to keep them afloat.
“They are infected with the pox, all of them. Just in case your friends were wondering.” He flicked his hand at the monkeys and they plummeted from the sky, heading toward my friends.
My family.
Blaz didn’t wait for me to tell him to go after them. He tucked his wings tight and dropped, lightning dancing around us as he tried to take them out. I swung my crossbow around and shot three monkeys, dropping them out of the sky. Three of more than a hundred of the infected little bastards.
Behind us, laughter echoed through the sky. “So predictable.”
My heart clenched, but I didn’t care that I was predictable. Not in that moment. The monkeys screeched, coming to life as they seemed to understand the dragon behind them was doing serious damage. I swung my crossbow to my back and pulled both swords.
“Grin at them, Blaz.”
What the hell—
“Bare your teeth. It’s a challenge.”
I stood on his back and grinned at the stupid fuckers for all I was worth. “Come on, you little assholes!”
The first monkey who saw me let out an unearthly howl as he arched his back, wings flapping furiously.
Like a rocket, he dropped toward me, his wings not even fluttering for a second as he came with all four clawed feet outstretched.
I swung my sword hard, slicing through his stomach and cutting him completely in half. He fell to either side of me; his death seemed to be a signal to his buddies.
En masse, they attacked.
“Blaz, get Eve and Pamela closer. We need firepower. But not too close! I don’t want them infected.”
You got it.
The monkeys swarmed, ignoring the dragon, coming straight for me. Fine and dandy as far as I was concerned. The first wave leapt in threes, one from each side and straight on. I kicked out at the one on my left as I slashed my sword to the one on my right.
The one in the middle slammed into me, driving me to Blaz’s back. We rolled and another monkey jumped onto my back, grabbed my hair and yanked me toward him.
In the distance, Pestilence laughed, a deep belly laugh that drove my anger to a peak I didn’t know existed. I swung my elbow back, catching the monkey behind me in the face and launching him off. I might have lost hair as I sent him flying, but I didn’t slow for a second. Couldn’t, not if we were making it through this shit.
I drove my sword through the first monkey, then the second, then the third. Over and over I slashed through Pestilence’s creations, taking them apart piece by piece until I was slick with blood and my arms shook with fatigue.
Their teeth found my bare skin, and their claws swiped my face more than once, barely missing my eyes on several occasions.
One grabbed at my legs, tried to yank me off my feet. I stomped at him, then kicked him hard toward Blaz’s head. The dragon snapped his mouth over the flying monkey, crushing him and then spitting him out.
They taste like shit.
“Not a surprise,” I breathed out as I spun on his back. “They’re demon made.”
The minutes ticked by, and I wondered at Pestilence and his motivation. Why the fuck hadn’t he tried to take me while I was dealing with his flying butt monkeys?
What kind of game was the demon playing?
Only a few left, Rylee. Blaz’s words snapped me out of my fog. Sweat slid down my skin, soaking my shirt and jeans as if I showered with my clothes on. I shrugged out of my leather jacket.
“Let’s finish this then.”
It was only then I realized Pamela and Lark had never arrived.
Motherfucking demon, his monkeys must have broken through to them.
Unless, Pestilence had something else up his sleeve. Gods be damned, I hoped that wasn’t the case.
CHAPTER 7
RYLEE
BLOOD AND GORE splattered my white shirt, though Blaz’s back had gotten the worst of the mess, and was covered with fur and bits of monkey. The remaining seven bastards flew toward their master.
He gave a slow, haughty clap. “Well done. I see why you’ve survived this long, Tracker. Orion is afraid of you. Did you know that?”
I struggled to get my breathing under control. “What did you do to my friends?”
I didn’t give a flying fuck about Orion. His time would come soon enough.
Pestilence raised an eyebrow at me. “You mean them?” The remaining clouds parted as he pointed. On the tarmac lay Eve and Marco, flat out.
Lark, Cactus, Pamela, and Alex were nowhere to be seen, which gave me a little hope.
I pointed both my swords at Pestilence. “You know, most demons rush me and I kill them. I’m guessing you don’t want to play that way.”
He smiled at me, his eyes crinkling around the edges.
“Rylee, correct? Perhaps you and I can come to an understanding.”
“I’m sorry, do I look like a dumb shit to you?” I wanted to reach for my crossbow. While I could imbue my weapons with my slayer abilities while I held them, the crossbow only gave me a few seconds. But with Pestilence this close, those seconds would be enough. But that would mean putting my swords down and I didn’t want to do that, either.
His grin widened, mouth stretching impossibly as his eyes bled from a dark brown to a flickering red. “Perhaps the word dumb would be giving you too much credit.”
I raised an eyebrow along with the tips of my swords. “Perhaps you’d like to rephrase that?”
He threw back his head and laughed.
I sheathed my swords and grabbed my crossbow, slinging it forward as Pestilence continued to laugh. Jamming a bolt in the channel, I sighted the bow and pulled the trigger.
The bolt flew true, driving through the demon’s neck. He stumbled back, the air around him stilling as he fell from the sky like a rock.
Blaz let out a roar that reverberated in my chest.
“Follow him. He’s not dead yet,” I yelled.
Pestilence’s monkeys scattered, running while their master was no longer controlling them. Fuck, they were infected with the pox. “Blaz, drop me and go after them.”
Rylee, this world—
“Won’t be worth fighting for if they get away and re-infect everyone.” For all we knew, Pestilence had a new disease residing in his pets. Fucker.
Blaz dropped to the tarmac and I slid from his back. He launched into the sky a heartbeat later. I trusted him to get the job done, to track and wipe them out.
Besides, he couldn’t help me with this last bit. Pestilence would only die when I laid my hands on him and drove the demon to the seventh level of the Veil: the deepest level, home to Orion and his demon horde. Or at least, it was until they’d all broken free.
Standing in the parking lot, Pestilence tugged at his cufflinks (apparently even demons had nervous ticks), the wound in his throat already gone and the crossbow bolt on the ground at his feet. “It’s a shame, you know, you could have been at the top of the food chain with us. But instead, here you are in the dirt with the rest of the worms.” His eyes fluttered to half-mast and a smile slid over his face. “You don’t really think you can send me back, do you?”
I slid out of my crossbow and laid it on the ground, then pulled both my swords. “I’m counting on it, actually.”
He chuckled. “Ah, the optimism of the walking dead; it knows no bounds.”
The wind around me swirled, and I went to a knee, driving one of my swords into the asphalt. If the wind picked up enough, I would need something to hang onto without Blaz around to catch me. “If I’m already dead, Pestilence, then I have nothing to lose, do I?”
His eyes narrowed and his mouth thinned as he stalked toward me. But his body didn’t shift as I thought it would.
“What, no monster under your skin?”
“I don’t need to be a monster to kill you, Tracker. Do you know what my abilities entail? I’m guessing not since you are standing there like you aren’t afraid of me.” He circled and I moved with him.
“Enlighten me then. Tell me what you know, oh-demon-of-wisdom.” I kept moving with him, my sword I’d driven into the tarmac between us at all times.
“Yes, I think I will enlighten you.”
I wanted to laugh at him. The classic bad guy monologue? He had to be kidding. Pride had to be on his list of vices.
“The four horsemen are so much more than just War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. Each has abilities. Many of mine are tied to the element of air. I could suck the wind out of your lungs with a snap of my fingers, if I so chose.”
I swallowed hard. “And you don’t because I’m such a conversationalist, right?”
“No, I like to feel my victims die, to watch the light go out of their eyes as their hearts struggle to beat one more time. I like to have my hands on them.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Rather perverted, don’t you think?”
He grinned widely at me. “It’s the only way I can catch their souls and eat them.”
Oh. Fucking. Hell.
“Yes, I see by your face you finally understand what I am. Why were Pestilence and I attached to one another? A slow death peels the soul from the body and makes it harder to resist me.” He snaked out a hand as if to grab me, and I swung my remaining sword as I stepped back.
It sliced off the tip of his middle finger. He snatched his hand back and shook it as if he’d burned it and not had a piece of it removed. “You are going to be so sweet to drink, Tracker. The Blood of the Lost, a vintage I haven’t tasted in many, many years. Not since your mother, I believe.”
A razor’s edge chill slid down my back and I didn’t even think about anything past what I wanted to do to him. Chop him into tiny fucking pieces and have Blaz roast him to a crisp before throwing what was left to the fishes. I leapt forward, swinging with what I knew would look like wild fury. My sword slashed through the air and I missed him over and over again.
On purpose.
Erik’s words when I’d trained with him echoed in my head as if he stood at my shoulder and guided me through the exercise.
“Don’t let them see how fast you really are; don’t let them see the control you have, the ability you have to read them and the situation. Let them think you’re out of control. Let them think you are going to be easy. Because they will be anything but, and you need to be ready for the fight of your life.”
Pestilence laughed at me, and beckoned me forward. “How in the seventh Veil Orion rose to power is beyond me, if he thinks you’re so terrifying.” He held his right hand out and a sword appeared in it. Made of a bright white material, it caught the sun and reflected a shimmer of rainbows around us.
I forced myself to pant, sucking air hard, even going so far as to stumble and go to one knee.
If I could get him to come at me, to drive me backward, I’d have him.
Of course, that was when the cavalry arrived and whatever plans I had went to shit.
Alex, in his mixed up werewolf form, ran across the lot from the left, Peta loping beside him albeit a bit wobbly. Lark was behind them and all three were covered in open wounds, pustules that oozed thick green mucus.
“Get away from her,” Lark barked out, coughing on the last word.
Pestilence turned to them. “Not dead yet? Let me help you with that, you meddli
ng Elemental. I’ve had enough of you.”
He took a step, but the earth below him softened, sucking him into a hole all the way to his neck. Rage lit his features, twisting the handsome face into the monster I knew he was; his mouth opened past the point any human jaw should and three tongues, each one the length of a car, snaked out of him.
“Good job, Lark. Good fucking job.” I sidestepped the first tongue, but only just. Saliva flicked out across me, burning through my shirt and pants.
“Shut up, you ungrateful Tracker. If you’d followed the plan, we’d have him by now.” Lark dropped to her knees and drove her hands into the pavement, pulling it up and throwing it behind her in chunks. Peta let out a snarl, pressing herself to Lark’s leg and Alex ran to my side.
“I’m with you, Rylee.”
I dropped a hand to his head for the briefest of seconds before I had to leap out of the way of the second tongue as it whipped toward us. “If I’d followed the plan, you’d probably be dead along with Eve and Marco.”
“Please. You think I can’t take care of a demon?”
“I know you can’t,” I snapped back. I ran toward my sword driven into the ground and went to one knee behind it. Pestilence flicked a tongue at me.
“Alex, stay down,” I said as I clung to the handle of my sword. This was going to hurt, no way around it. I took a breath a split second before the thick meaty tongue wrapped around my sword and me. The saliva burned through my clothes and within seconds my skin blistered.
Pestilence pulled me slowly toward him and his gaping mouth. Shivering with pain, I struggled to hold it together. “You’re a fucking pussy, pesty boy. Orion sent you because you are the weakest of his generals.”
With a roar, he yanked me toward him with a speed I never could have mustered on my own. My body screamed at me to do something to stop the burning, anything to ease the acid eating through me. As Pestilence held me directly over his mouth, Lark yelled at me.
“Tell me you know what you’re doing.”
“I know”—I yanked my sword upward, slicing through Pestilence’s tongue—“what I’m fucking doing.” The tongue flew away from me and I dropped, landing with a foot on either side of the demon’s head.
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