Pandemonium

by Sonia Harper

  “Cain told me to stay here,” Adelyn took the duffel back from him and returned it to her back.

  You will stay there. Cain's voice boomed inside her head. Derion, leave the gate to the guards. Derion, Pytho, get out here. Let's finish this.

  “How does he do that?” Adelyn demanded, whipped her head around and looking for Cain. She saw him in the distance through the opening that used to be the front door. Her eyes widened as three guardians leapt onto him at once.

  “Pyth-,” Her voice died as the three guardians went flying in the air, landing hard in the fountain. Cain looked bored as he waited for them to resurface and attack again.

  “Hm?” Pytho asked distractedly, raising his eyebrows as he threw an empty magazine onto the floor and reloaded.

  “Never mind,” Adelyn shook her head and tore her eyes away from Cain.

  “Cain's right,” Pytho put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a slight nudge. “You'll be safer in here, but I would stay out of sight.”

  “How many are left?” Adelyn asked.

  “No clue, but their numbers must be dwindling if we were able to drive them away from the house,” Pytho replied. “Now if you'll excuse me, I have some guardian kindling to take care of,” he leaned down and suddenly gave her a quick kiss on the end of her nose. “Wish me luck!” He winked and ran over the fallen oak door to the entryway outside.

  Adelyn grinned and felt a short laugh escape her lips. “Stay safe!” She called after him and walked toward the parlour, but not before stomping on the nearest guardian's ashes and flipping them off. She was feeling confident now.

  They were going to win this thing.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Pytho!”

  Pytho whipped around and caught sight of Donovan slicing off a guardian's head.

  “Take care of these,” Donovan pointed to the bodies of several fallen guardians, his voice ever-calm and mild even in the midst of a battle.

  “Is that my katana?” Pytho's eyes narrowed in on Donovan's hand as he reached his own hand out and called forth flames to the bodies. “Jesus, first an underwear model and now a damn samurai.”

  “Less talk, more flames,” Donovan called over his shoulder as he chased down a retreating guardian with a broken leg. “Their numbers are dwindling and they're starting to retreat.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Pytho grumbled, turning around and shooting a guardian that was about to take off and fly towards the house. He took out his anger on it, igniting flames on its skin before the guardian was dead and burning it alive. He felt a sort of twisted pleasure in hearing its screams as it dropped to the lawn and disintegrated to dust.

  “Behind the pool house!” He heard Adelyn shout through the broken parlour window.

  “On it!” Pytho spotted the two grey figures as they made their way over to the high fence surrounding the property. No doubt they intended to fly over it and disappear into the heavily wooded area that surrounded them. “Not today, assholes,” he didn't even bother with his gun, tossing it to the ground and throwing both arms out to call forth flames around the guardians.

  Before the flames could close in on them, gunshots rang through the air and they both dropped to the floor, gunshot wounds in the head.

  “What the fuck did you do that for?” Pytho raged as he commanded the flames to rip through their still bodies.

  Derion appeared from behind the pool house. “Why did I shoot them?” He asked, perplexed.

  “Why did you make it quick? I wanted to make them hurt,” Pytho eyed the ashes as they started to scatter across the grass in the wind.

  Derion reached out and shook Pytho's shoulder roughly, giving him a stern look. “This isn't playtime, Pytho. Just get the job done.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Pytho grumbled and was about to turn around when something caught his eye. “Shit!” His eyes widened as he pointed to the sky. “Incoming!” He shouted at the top of his lungs.

  Derion cursed and picked another gun out of his belt, aiming two guns at the oncoming swarm of about ten guardians that were flying in their direction.

  “Are you kidding me with this shit?” Pytho ran and retrieved his gun from the ground just as the swarm reached them. “Gideon, get your naked ass over here!” He called over his shoulder and ducked to avoid the claws of the first guardian to reach him.

  Adelyn heard Pytho yell Gideon's name and watched as the daemon went running past the parlour window to the side of the house.

  Shit. There was no window on that side of the parlour wall. She couldn't see what was going on.

  She slid from her perch on the fallen couch and turned, determined to see what was going on from the hallway bay window.

  She gasped when a suit-covered chest filled her vision and an arm sprang out, grabbing her hair at the base of her neck and tilting her head up.

  “Erik!” She shrieked, hands grappling with his in her hair to release his grip.

  “You,” Erik's eyes were blood-shot and teeming with rage. His arm shook with tension as he gripped her hair tighter. “You ruined everything!” He shouted in her face, shaking her by the hair and ignoring her screams.

  “Let me go!” She screamed and brought her leg up to knee him in the groin.

  He quickly pulled his lower body back to avoid her blow and released his grip on her hair in the process. She reached her arms out and shoved him out of the way, racing toward the entrance hall.

  She stopped short and gasped as a guardian dropped to the ground in front of her and stood, grabbing her shoulders with unnatural speed and turning her around to face Erik again. It pinned her arms to her sides with enough force to cause her to cry out at the pressure on her ribs.

  “I thought about killing you,” Erik turned and faced her once again. “But that would be too easy. Instead, I'm going to rebuild my army and then,” he stepped closer, towering over her and tilting her head up by her chin. “I'm going to destroy you and the rest of these demons. But first,” a wicked smile crossed his face, making him look slightly deranged. “I'm going to go after everything and everyone you care about and make them hurt.” He squeezed her chin for emphasis, his thumb pushing into the hollow of her cheek painfully.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to hold back another cry of pain. It would only bring him satisfaction to hear it.

  A gurgling noise was the only warning she received before a wave of black blood gushed from above her and ran down her hair and face. She closed her eyes instinctively, but not before she saw the look of horror on Erik's face. The guardian's hands released her arms as its body fell down to the floor behind her.

  She gasped as two hands found her waist and lifted her, pulling her back and over the guardian's body. She stumbled a bit because her eyes were closed, but managed to stay upright as the hands set her down on the floor again.

  A large hand wiped the blood off her face and slicked her wet hair back off her forehead in one upward swipe. She blinked quickly to make sure there wasn't any liquid on her lids and opened her eyes, staring into the impassive face of Cain as his hand rested on the top of her head. His light grey eyes quickly scanned up and down her body, probably searching for injuries.

  “M'okay,” She mumbled, then reached up and wiped away blood as a droplet rolled down her cheek.

  “Who is this human?” Cain demanded as his other hand came up to wipe away more blood away from her face and back into her hair.

  “He's-,” Adelyn's response was cut off as a loud screech pierced the air, and a guardian flew through the broken window. Before Cain could remove one of his hands from Adelyn's head to reach for it, the guardian wrapped its arms around Erik and hurtled itself back through the window with unnatural speed.

  Cain roared and took off after them through the window, leaping over the fallen couch and landing on the grass in one leap. Adelyn turned around and raced through the opening at the front of the manor and scanned the skies as soon as her feet hit the gravel of the circular driveway.

  The fad
ing sun and pink sky revealed no sight of Erik or the guardian.

  “Damnit,” she cursed under her breath.

  Cain roared again, punching the outer wall of the fountain and easily cracking the concrete with his fists. He punched again and again until the wall burst and water flowed out from the fountain and onto the gravel.

  Ignoring the danger, she stepped forward and quickly placed a hand on his back. His chest was heaving with each breath as he bent over the broken fountain and let the water rush past his calves.

  “It's okay,” She told him, “We'll find them again,” she promised. “Besides, Erik isn't the only one in charge of those monsters,” she pointed out. “I heard them say something about a council.”

  “She's right,” Donovan stepped forward, wiping off black blood from his new sword and pushing back his long dark hair from his face. “We need to cut off the head of the snake.”

  “I know that,” Cain growled darkly, hands curling in on the remainder of the fountain wall. It started to crumble under his grip.

  “It would have been a hell of a lot easier to find the damn head if that fucker had squealed,” Gideon also appeared, landing heavily on the edge of the fountain and pulling something out of his bleeding, bare foot. “I would have loved to torture that son of a bitch,” He cursed as he slapped some blood away from his knee and stood once again.

  “In your underwear?” Pytho popped up behind Gideon and stood next to him.

  “Boy, I'm going to pummel you into the ground,” Gideon growled, then was pushed back as Derion slid in between the two daemons and separated them.

  “Have you finished taking care of the bodies?” Donovan asked Pytho, eyebrow raised.

  Pytho nodded. “They're all gone,” he promised. “Including the ones in the kitchen.”

  “They made it as far as the kitchen?” Cain roared angrily, standing and turning around to face the others.

  “It won't happen again,” Derion promised. “We'll be better prepared next time.”

  “You're damn right we will!” Cain shouted, then turned and punched the concrete one more time, the skin on his knuckles splitting open and spraying blood onto the fountain wall.

  “What next?” Donovan asked Cain, watching warily as his leader ground his fists into the concrete to try and gain some sort of control over himself.

  A silence settled over the group as they waited for Cain's orders. Cain's jaw clenched and he closed his eyes, still grinding his knuckles into the fountain wall.

  Adelyn glanced up at the Manor and saw movement from one of the windows. She sighed in relief as Salien and Sinatra’s faces peered out of Pytho’s window at her. They were safe.

  Pytho glanced around at the group. He cleared his throat. “Are we just going to ignore the fact that he,” he pointed to Donovan, “has miraculously healed, and he,” he pointed to Gideon, “came out before nightfall?”

  “Not now, Pytho,” Derion sighed and shook his head. “We'll have that conversation later.”

  Adelyn gasped suddenly as a thought occurred to her. “Oh, no!”

  “What?” All five daemons turned towards her and spoke at once, hands immediately going for their weapons.

  “Kate!” Adelyn looked around the group helplessly. “She's in danger!”

  “Who?” Derion asked, frowning.

  “Erik said he would hurt anyone I cared about,” Adelyn started rambling, trying to get all of her words out at once. “He's going to hurt Kate. She's my best friend. Even though she's his girlfriend, I don't think that will stop him. Oh god,” she started to feel lightheaded at the thought of something happening to her best friend because of her. “Oh god, my mother,” she gasped and brought her hands up to her face. “What if he hurts my mother?” She turned to Cain, the nearest daemon and grabbed his shirt sleeve for support, shaking it lightly. “We have to do something quickly!”

  “Adelyn,” Donovan cut her off firmly but sharply. Adelyn turned to see him cautiously reaching a hand out to her. “Quickly remove your hand from Cain and come over here.”

  “Huh?” Adelyn looked down at her hand, then up at Cain, who was staring at her hand as if he wanted to bite it off. “Oh,” she quickly dropped her hand from his shirt and took a tiny step back, but didn't fully step away from Cain. She could tell from the lack of shaking in his body that he had more control now.

  “We have to do something quickly,” she pleaded with them. “Please! I don't want them to get hurt!”

  “Don't worry, we'll-,” Pytho was cut off by Derion.

  “Don't make promises you can't keep,” Derion gave him a pointed look and turned back to Cain, still awaiting orders.

  “Please,” Adelyn turned to Cain and pleaded with him. “Please,” she whispered, stepping in front of him and meeting his hard stare dead-on.

  Everyone stood very still while they waited for Cain to react. His eyes skimmed over hers, then briefly over her face, lingering on the dried patches of black blood on her skin. She held her breath as his hand slowly lifted up from his side. Her heart thudded in her chest as his fingers twitched as they passed her neck. She heard a few daemons grip their weapons, so clearly they saw the movement as well and thought that he was going to lose control and strangle her. With a hard swallow, he continued to raise his hand up, skimming his fingers past her cheek and resting his palm on top of her head.

  “You willingly offered your safety and your life to help us,” Cain's voice came out a mere whisper as he stared hard at his hand on her head.

  She swallowed, unsure if she should respond. Instead, she merely nodded lightly.

  “She saved my life as well,” Donovan offered quietly behind her. She wanted to turn her head to see him but didn't dare with Cain's hand still resting heavily on her head.

  Cain's eyes briefly met Donovan's above her head before looking down and meeting her gaze.

  “Every muscle in my body is screaming to tear you apart right now,” he continued softly, so softly that Adelyn wasn't even sure that the other daemons could hear. “Why is it that I cannot?” He asked, almost to himself.

  “Because you need me,” Adelyn found herself saying without thinking, her voice just as quiet. “Even though I'm human, I can help you protect your people.” She paused. “I want to help you.”

  His eyes practically started to glow as he continued to meet her gaze. “Yes,” he agreed, dragging the word out as his fingers buried themselves in her tangled hair.

  “Go get the human and bring her here,” Cain ordered, never taking his eyes off of Adelyn.

  “Which one?” Pytho asked, bewildered.

  “Oh, fuck, no! Come on! One's enough around here!” Gideon shouted angrily.

  Cain growled and released Adelyn's hair, lightly shoving her back into Donovan's chest. “You think to question me?” He roared, turning to Gideon.

  Gideon tensed slightly, meeting Cain's stare. “No,” he finally gritted the word out and crossed his arms over his chest, clearly unhappy at the thought of more humans around him.

  “Pytho, Derion,” Cain snapped. “Go get this human-,”

  “Kate!” Adelyn interjected.

  “-and bring her here. Use force if you must-,”

  “Don't use force, tell her I asked her to come!”

  “-but do not let her fall into their hands. I want to know if this woman knows anything,” Cain finished, ignoring Adelyn's interjections. “The rest of you will work on clearing away the debris in preparation for repairs to the home tomorrow. Leave a note for Gregory. I want this place fixed by nightfall tomorrow,” He turned to Donovan and waited for his nod.

  “What about my mother?” Adelyn asked. “Erik doesn't know where she lives, but I'm sure he can easily find out.”

  “I am not housing everyone you know here,” Cain replied. “I am only allowing the woman because you said she was close to the vermin who escaped me. She may have information to share, or she will be bait, either way suits me just fine,” He turned and started walking towards the
manor.

  “But-,” Adelyn called out after him.

  “Pytho, move her mother to a new location. Make sure it's untraceable. Once you've located her, contact me. I will force her compliance and implant the suggestion in her mind that she has decided to move on her own.”

  “Consider it done,” Pytho called out after him.

  Adelyn sagged in relief against Donovan. “Thank you,” she called out after him, even though she knew he wouldn't acknowledge her.

  “I don't need your thanks!” He snapped, then stopped his stride suddenly. Facing his head skyward for a moment, she saw his shoulders tense up and then release as if he had taken a deep breath.

  He turned around and strode back. As he approached, he reached out and grasped her chin to tilt it up to meet his gaze. Donovan's hands immediately locked on her shoulders, prepared to pull her away if necessary.

  “Show me your thanks,” Cain demanded, his gaze suddenly overwhelming and intense. “Show me your thanks by helping us rebuild. Show me your thanks by convincing the woman to give us whatever information we need,” his fingers started to tremble, and she could feel rage starting to reclaim his body.

  Without thinking, she automatically reached up and grasped his wrist with one hand, holding it tight and digging her fingernails hard into the soft flesh of his wrist.

  He sucked in air through his teeth and his eyes closed briefly as he used the minor distraction to control the energy rising within him.

  He opened one eye and continued. “Show me your thanks by vowing right here and now that you will never betray us. That you will lay down your life to protect us as we would with you. That you give your allegiance to me and obey my every order.”

  Donovan's hands tightened on her shoulders. “My lord, you're...letting a human take the oath?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Gideon roared.

  “Most orders,” Adelyn countered and met his gaze.

  Cain shook his head. “Every order,” he enunciated every syllable.

  “Every order that I agree with,” Adelyn's eyebrows lowered into a frown.