Cal ducked beneath a blow aimed for his face, rolled forwards and came up behind the daemon who had dealt it. He grabbed the man’s head and twisted hard, his handsome face etched in dark lines as he snapped the daemon’s neck.
He shoved the dead daemon at his comrades and flung his hand towards the other two daemons. They braced, clearly expecting to be struck, and tensed when the air around them swirled faster and faster, trapping them.
“Air works in more than one way, boys.” Cal grinned as the two daemons began to gasp, their faces reddening as they grasped their throats.
Suffocating.
“Cal!” she screamed as the barrier he had created to hold the other daemons back suddenly weakened.
“Damn it.” Cal grunted as three daemons launched through the wind and tackled him, tried to fight them as they struggled to pin him down. He battered them with more wind, rocking them forwards and sideways, almost succeeding in lifting one off himself.
His blue eyes leaped to her.
Fear in them.
Cold skated down her spine.
He frantically kicked and clawed at the daemons, shoved one off him and slammed his fist into another’s throat. That one went down, landing beside him, wheezing as he curled up.
The rest of the daemons piled into him. Cal didn’t stand a chance. He grunted as they kicked him and stamped on him, tried to protect himself but whenever he moved, one pulled him onto his back again.
“Stop!” Marinda jerked forwards and the biggest of the daemons looked at her.
Held his hand up.
The other men halted their attack.
Cal groaned and rolled onto his side, his back to her.
“Just come quietly, and he doesn’t have to die.” The daemon nodded towards Cal, his violent green eyes still locked on her.
“Come quietly where?” She stood her ground when the daemon stepped away from the others, slowly narrowing the gap between them.
“No,” Cal croaked and then coughed, sucked down a shuddering and shaky breath, and she felt as if he wanted to say more but couldn’t.
The scent of his blood was heavy in the air, the feel of his pain like ice in her veins, dragging her temperature down as that dreadful cold began to spread through her. He had been hurt because of her, because she was weak.
“We’ll take you to the boss.” The daemon’s smile said it all as she looked at him.
He knew she was tempted by that.
Would it be so bad to go with him?
They would probably let Cal go and she would find the men who had killed her father, and his sister. She could give Cal vengeance too as she took it for herself.
Thanatos’s deep voice rang in her mind like a warning bell, one that had her coming back to her senses.
She was part of a power circle with two others like her, two she felt Cal suspected were working with his enemy—her enemy. Going to them because she wanted revenge, letting that side of herself get what it wanted, wouldn’t just be bad.
It would be very bad.
She would complete the cycle of power and strengthen the other two furies.
“Don’t do it.” Cal sank onto his back and wheezed as he rolled to face her and tried to push himself up. A daemon kicked him in the back and he gritted his teeth, grunted and sagged against the floor. He tilted his head towards her. “There’s a reason… your father… kept you secret. Safe. Didn’t want you in… their hands. Don’t throw away… what he did.”
Calm washed through her as those words registered, as they sank deep into her and she thought about her father, about everything he had done for her, and how her mother had wanted to keep her secret.
Safe.
“We’ll find them.” Cal pressed a hand to his bloody stomach and winced. He swallowed hard. “We’ll get revenge… for your father… and my sister.”
The cold hunger sparked inside her, chilled her blood to sub-zero and had the calm she felt turning into a strange numbness.
As she stared at Cal where he lay on the floor, a pool of blood forming beneath him, she saw flashes of her father, felt the same fear and pain she had then.
Because she couldn’t lose him.
Fire blazed through her, scalding her insides, rage so fierce and powerful she couldn’t fight it.
Didn’t want to.
This time, she surrendered to it.
She embraced it.
On a high cry, she kicked off, trying to remember everything Cal had taught her in this very room. Only she didn’t need to hold back. She didn’t need to fear her own strength. She could go all out.
Something surged through her as she thought that, something intoxicating and addictive. She hit the first daemon so fast he didn’t see her coming, her fist slamming into the centre of his chest.
Punching right through his ribs to his heart.
Fear threatened to overwhelm her and she shoved back against it, wrestled it under control as she pulled her arm from his chest and turned on the daemon who had dared to come up behind her.
She snapped her hand out, catching him around the throat, and closed her fingers over it. Short claws extended from her fingertips and she dug them into his flesh as she yanked forwards, ripping his oesophagus free.
That adrenaline high grew sweeter.
Two down.
She twisted low and swept her leg up, slamming the heel of her foot into the side of another daemon’s head, knocking him sideways. He staggered to the nearest wall and pushed off it, snarling through sharp teeth as he came at her.
Marinda was ready.
A vicious hiss pealed from her lips as someone grabbed her from behind.
She leaned into them as they pulled her backwards, their arms hooked under hers and hands grasping her shoulders. She kicked upwards as the other daemon came at her, spread her legs as they reached shoulder height and hooked one foot around the back of his head. She shoved forwards with her other foot, snapping his head back to push him off balance, and then pulled him forwards, into a headlock.
Marinda twisted against the man holding her, pulling him up off his feet as her entire body flexed and she used the strength of her legs to lever herself forwards. The daemon she held in a headlock with her legs went down, his face purple as he struggled to breathe. She landed on him, the momentum yanking the daemon behind her over her head.
He landed next to Calistos, who was swift to deal with him, breaking his neck with one brutal twist.
She punched the throat of the daemon beneath her.
He went still.
Marinda popped to her feet and launched at the remaining daemons, ripping at them with her short claws and struggling for control as they tried to fight her. She didn’t want to rip them to pieces, not as she had when she had blacked out.
Cal fought one of them as she dealt with the others, her focus split between the battle and him. He was hurt. It fuelled her, had her stepping dangerously close to the edge as she snapped one of the daemon’s necks and turned on the other.
The cold returned, a dark urge to rip him to pieces flowing through her, coaxing her to surrender to it.
She took a step towards him.
Cal beat her to it, punching a hole in the man’s chest with a blast of air that also left a fist-sized hole in the wall.
“Come on. Just need some distance and I think I can teleport us.” He grabbed her hand, banded his other arm around his waist to clutch the wound in his side that was still bleeding heavily, and started running with her, down to the next level.
A garage.
The colourful motorcycles in it gleamed in the bright white lights.
The wide metal door to her left whirred open.
They were going to make it.
Her heart lifted.
And then plummeted into her feet.
On the street outside, three massive demonic-looking beasts were waiting, their leathery wings twitching with anticipation as they blocked the only route out of the garage.
Chapter 2
2
Cal couldn’t stop Marinda before she ran at the three enormous daemons on a fierce battle cry. He growled and went after her, clenching his teeth against the fiery pain that shot up his right leg with each step. The daemons upstairs had been strong, old for their wretched kind, but these three were something else.
He had never faced such powerful daemons before.
Marinda slid beneath the meaty fist the one in the middle aimed at her, and shrieked as the nine-foot-tall daemon to the left grabbed her hair, digging his claws deep into the mass of spun gold.
Cal’s heart lurched in his chest, the darkness rising swiftly inside him as he roared and launched at the daemon holding her. She twisted on the tarmac, both hands on the daemon’s wrist, struggling to break free.
The daemon didn’t take his crimson glowing eyes off her.
Apparently didn’t need to in order to know exactly where Cal was.
Wind rushed from his lungs on a painful burst as the daemon’s right arm hit him in the gut, sending him flying. He grunted as he struck the black metal railing around the small garden, bending each thick piece of iron as if it was rubber.
The moment he could breathe, he raised his hand in a swift arc and sent the other two daemons flying into the air.
Which didn’t work as planned.
Both spread enormous black leathery wings and grinned as they dived towards him.
Damn.
Cal rolled out of the path of the first one, narrowly avoiding being hit, and scrambled forwards to evade the second. The daemon grabbed his ankle and hauled him backwards.
Marinda’s eyes snapped to him, shimmering bright violet.
She unleashed a feral snarl and slashed at the daemon who was holding her, raking claws across his thighs. The male grunted and hauled her onto her feet by her hair, and she gripped his arm and screamed as she flailed.
“Marinda,” Cal bellowed as he tried to teleport to her and nothing happened.
She swung to face the daemon and kicked him hard between the legs.
The huge brute grunted and dropped her, but she didn’t get far. His hand closed around the back of her neck, sharp claws pressing into her soft skin. Blood pooled where they pierced her.
“Let her fucking go.” Cal leaped on the daemon’s back, grimaced and tried to hold on as the male battered him with his wings and swung around. He grabbed the daemon’s black horns that protruded from his forehead and yanked backwards, using them as reins as he tried to steer the daemon towards his companions.
The male easily resisted him, too strong for Cal.
Either these daemons were centuries old, or someone had jacked them up on something. He released the daemon’s right horn, drew his fist back and grinned. Didn’t matter.
He was stronger if he put his mind to it.
He gritted his teeth and reached for his power, fighting the effect of the ward that blanketed the area, mustering as much control over the air as he could manage.
He launched his right fist forwards, using what little air he had gathered to speed his arm, so it flew at the back of the daemon’s head like a rocket.
Fire shot up Cal’s arm as his fist collided with the back of the daemon’s head.
The male fell forwards, coming close to landing on Marinda as he hit the deck.
Cal pushed up on the bastard’s back and nursed his hand. Damn, the daemon had a hard head.
A sinking feeling went through him as he lowered his eyes to the male’s head.
It was lacking the hole Cal had expected to see in it.
The male grunted and shook his head, pushed up onto his hands and knees, lifting Cal with him.
“Fuck.” Cal sprang from his back.
Swore again as one of the other daemons grabbed his left leg and swung him through the air. His townhouse whizzed past his eyes as he was hurled in an arc, and his vision tunnelled as he hit the tarmac on his back. Fire and lightning zinged through every bone in his body and black spots winked across his eyes.
Not good.
“Run,” he grunted. “Will hold them off.”
“No,” Marinda snapped. “I can fight.”
She desperately lunged at the daemon who towered over him, driving the male back towards his allies. Cal wanted to tell her to stop, to listen to him and run, because neither of them were strong enough to win this fight.
He had lost too much blood, and she was still too afraid of the things she could do if she lost control.
But she was incredible as she fought, her speed increasing with each duck and dodge, each blow she managed to land as she took on the three daemons at once.
He rolled onto his front and pushed onto his knees, shoved himself up and slowly straightened, resolve flowing through him.
Because he needed to keep her safe.
And if he had to die to do it, so be it.
He clutched his side, hand slipping in the blood as he limped towards the battle, his eyes on Marinda.
A tempest brewed inside him, gradually building around him. The leaves on the trees rustled, the bushes of the neat garden rocking as the wind built. He coaxed it, fed it, gathering all of the air to him.
For one last attack.
Expending so much energy at once would knock him out. He knew it. His body was at its limit.
Marinda took a hard backhand to her face and went down.
The scent of her blood joined his in the air and his fangs descended, his fury mounting to startling new heights as she didn’t move.
Cal checked her with his senses, ensuring she was alive, and silently asked her to forgive him for what he was about to do. It was her, or him.
And he chose her.
He narrowed his eyes on the three daemons.
Pulled down a steadying breath and let calm wash over him.
His brothers would get things done without him. They would find Calindria’s soul.
He would see her again.
In the Elysian Fields.
He yelled a battle cry and kicked off.
The three daemons imploded, pieces of flesh and bone battering him as black blood rained down on him, the force of the blast knocking him onto his backside near Marinda.
Cal stared in disbelief.
“What the… fuck?” He planted his hands behind him as he struggled to make sense of what had just happened.
Because it hadn’t been him.
As the black mist cleared, it revealed a tall raven-haired woman with ice-blue eyes and blood-red lips. The long slit up the side of her figure-hugging black dress opened with each sure step she took towards him, her curvy hips kicking in a sensual way as she flashed a lot of pale toned leg at him.
Another enemy?
Just what he needed.
He shuffled closer to Marinda and reached out with his senses. The wards were still in place, and this woman had just somehow obliterated three powerful daemons. He wasn’t sure what she was, but he knew she was trouble.
The woman’s cold ice-blue eyes fell on Marinda.
No damn way Cal was going to let this woman take her.
“Oh my gods!” Her eyes widened and misted with tears. “Mari.”
Cal tried to catch up as the woman unceremoniously shoved him aside and gathered Marinda into her arms, rolling her onto her back.
“Mari?” The woman gently patted her cheek, a wealth of worry in her eyes as she gazed down at her. “Oh gods, Mari… wake up.”
“Who the fuck—” Cal stared at the woman as she lifted her hand and tiny orbs of soft violet light chased around it, bathing Marinda in their glow. His eyes widened as the cuts on Marinda’s neck healed. Cal amended his question. “What the fuck are you?”
The power this woman commanded flowed around him, thick in the air, leaving a strange taste on his tongue.
“Her guardian.” The woman’s tone had no warmth, was pure ice as she ran a glance over him, absolute disgust on her face. “And doing a better job of looking after her than you are.”
“Hold
on now—”
“I must say,” she continued, cutting him off, her Russian accent gaining a sharp edge as she stared at him, hiding none of her feelings. “I did not think you could be more of a disappointment… but here we are.”
“Disappointment?” He scowled at her and then something hit him. “I know you.”
Or at least he knew the feel of her glare on him.
“You’ve been stalking me,” he barked.
She didn’t look at all apologetic as she casually swept the left side of her wavy black hair from her face. “And you’ve made a wonderful impression on me.”
Marinda’s nose wrinkled as she frowned and a quiet moan slipped from her lips.
The woman changed in an instant. Cold to warm. Hateful to loving.
“Mari, sweetie,” she cooed as she petted Marinda’s cheek.
Playing the doting guardian.
“Cass?” Marinda croaked, disbelief lacing her softly accented voice. The frown flickering on her brow deepened as she tried to open her eyes. When she managed it, she flew at the woman, wrapping her arms around her neck. “Cass! It’s really you.”
The one called Cass hugged her close.
And glared at him over her shoulder.
He glared right back at her. “Marinda, are you okay?”
She nodded. “A little shaken. What happened?”
She tried to pull away, but Cass didn’t let her, and malice filled her blue eyes as she spoke.
“Apparently, you need a better protector. This one let you get trampled by a few weak little daemons.” Cass smiled as she dealt that blow.
A growl erupted from him. “I protected her. I was doing just fine before you showed up.”
“You were about to get yourself killed.”
When he didn’t deny that, Marinda pushed Cass back and looked at him. Horror slowly filled her eyes.
“I just wanted you safe.” He hated the way she looked at him like that, as if he had lost his mind, had been crazy to even consider sacrificing himself for her.
She couldn’t see that she would be worth it to him.
If it meant she could live, he would gladly die.
She looked as if she wanted to say something, probably something cutting judging by the look in her eyes.
Calistos: Guardians of Hades Series Book 5 Page 22
