Mutated, burned, scarred, they stared at me with glazed eyes. Scales, feathers, fur, no matter what they were covered in, they bore the telltale red streaks of iron poisoning.
The hot, swampy stench had so many notes to it from rotting flesh to fungus to excrement, urine to sulfur, that if demons bottled it and sent it into our nightmares, humans would be helpless in its wake.
I kept my sleeve over my mouth as I crept along the narrow pathway, my shoulder blades prickling from the weight of all these demon eyes tracking my progress. At least the noise covered my approach. Raspy caws, feeble growls, claws scraping bars, individually their cries of distress were barely above a whisper but hundreds of them together made the most unholy lullaby I’d ever had the misfortune to hear.
Lilith perked up, a silent fury rolling out of the box. Destroy these abominations.
With you on that. Except I couldn’t. Not unless I wanted to free her.
It got worse from there, because when I turned the corner, I found the active part of the lab. I ducked behind a metal shelving unit crammed with boxes of gauze and surgical supplies.
One wall held giant glass fridges of vacuum-sealed packs of liquids in various colors. Demon blood? The blood needed to bind demons on a large scale? The “blood to rule the might?”
Scientists in splattered surgical garb cut demons open with whining, spinning saw blades, plucked out eyeballs with dull hooks, and in one case, cranked the voltage to eleven, charring the bucking reptilian body on the metal gurney.
Its one fish eye blinked blearily at me, wordlessly begging me for mercy.
The most benign part were the two scientists discussing X-rays on one of those lit up viewers. I couldn’t begin to identify what physiology had made some of the shapes captured on film.
I bolted out of there, racing past the caged demons for the exit, and crashed into Pierre who’d burst through the door with his team. He stumbled sideways to avoid knocking into me, saw the cages, and launched into the worst flurry of swearing I’d ever heard from him.
“Mad scientists.” I pointed in the direction I’d come from. “Most are wearing gloves but the couple that weren’t didn’t have rings. Possibly not Rasha.”
I couldn’t use my magic, but I still had fists and legs and a battery of fighting techniques.
We spilled into the room, Pierre booming at the scientists to put their instruments down.
Most of the men tried to flee, but some kept at their horrific experimentation. I’d been right and they weren’t Rasha, so it was easy enough to round them up.
“The outside has been neutralized,” Baruch said over the mic. “Report.”
All the team leaders reported in. All had been successful. We’d secured the compound, but there was no sign of either Mandelbaum or Sienna.
I accompanied a couple of Pierre’s men to help transport the scientists down to the armored truck. Pierre and the rest of his squad stayed behind to document the demons and blood on camera, keeping a couple as proof then killing the rest before scouring the lab with fire.
The mood outside was festive as our team reunited now that Mandelbaum’s men were imprisoned. Yes, we still needed the rabbi, but we’d foiled his plans and had the proof to enact change.
Most importantly, we’d kept humanity safe from the rabbi’s nefarious agenda.
And even though, yeah, I still needed to stop Sienna, I was living in a world in which I had Rohan’s love and he had mine. No barriers. No bullshit. Sienna was going to help me keep living that reality.
Pierre and his remaining men came out with a few demons they’d contained that bore the worst marks of experimentation and a couple armfuls of equipment. Their hair was plastered with sweat and soot, but they flashed triumphant thumbs-ups.
We all cheered.
Rohan pulled me inside the foyer, into the darkness of the half-ajar front doors. “How about a celebratory kiss, love of my life?”
I wound my arms around his neck. “Say that again. And again and again.”
And as my lips brushed his, a voice boomed out over a bullhorn. “Put your hands up!”
30
Outside, every Rasha on my team simultaneously activated their magic.
“Give yourselves up,” the woman on the bullhorn commanded.
No one did, tension rolling over the courtyard like a blanket.
I peeked out through the half-ajar door in time to see the air around the compound’s property line ripple.
A dozen women ranging from their twenties to their fifties stood there, expressions alert and bodies coiled to spring. They wore identical black uniforms that seemed to suck all light into them.
Rohan was at my back, the heat of his body pressed against mine, whispering into his mic, asking if anyone was still inside.
“Give yourselves up or we will take action!” Standing slightly in front of everyone and holding the bullhorn, was a tall, broad-shouldered woman who could have taken Tree Trunk in a wrestling match.
I couldn’t see who she was consulting with, until she stepped aside.
Sienna.
She took the bullhorn from the other witch.
Fuck. She’d brought the Malfoy wannabes.
“Hello, Rasha,” she purred. “We have your rabbis. Don’t worry, they’re not harmed.”
So much for her inability to handle the compound by herself. I’d bet good money that Sienna had known exactly which Rasha I was working with. She’d arranged things so we were all in one place to be dealt with and the rabbis were left exposed.
My old frail Rabbi Abrams being taken like some kind of common criminal caused magic to crackle off my skin.
End them, Lilith crooned.
I grit my teeth and held my fire. I was not throwing away my shot.
“Thank you for your assistance in destroying the demons,” Sienna continued. “Now it’s time for you to come along quietly. The gig’s up. For all of you.”
“And if we refuse?” Kane, who’d been standing off to one side, strutted toward her. He struck a pose like a diva supermodel, hand cocked on his hip. “We going to have a good old-fashioned magic showdown like civilized people?”
“Oh, sweetheart, you boys might be the top Rasha, but your magic days are over. These fine women are here to make sure of it.” Sienna waved a hand at her allies.
The women began chanting, a low unfamiliar refrain.
The ground boomed and cracked. Brambles sprung up, their twisted branches studded with cacti-needles and tipped with wicked-looking thorns. The Rasha tried to avoid them, tried to cut them down or blast them away, to no avail. The brambles sought them out, forcing them into a stumbled huddle, the ground undulating under the hunters’ feet.
I grabbed onto the front door frame, knocked off-balance even inside the building.
The chanting grew louder, the witches now stomping their left feet in a percussive rhythm.
The brambles grew wilder, higher, herding the Rasha closer together, until they were so tightly packed there was no room between their bodies, the branches almost shoulder-height.
The chanting and stomping abruptly stopped, leaving an eerie silence.
“Fuuuuck,” Rohan whispered.
Instead of a brambly semi-circle enclosure, Kane had his own special contingent of steely-eyed witches keeping him apart from the others.
“Overkill much?” he said.
“We’ve learned to be cautious. Especially around men whose leader was planning to unleash demons out of some kind of misguided power play.” Sienna wagged a finger at Kane. “Not cool.”
Kane was not to be deterred. “Agreed. Which puts you and I on the same side.”
“When have your people ever reached out to mine?” Sienna’s lip curled. “When we were in trouble, when our magic was dwindling, when did a Rasha come to us and say we were on the same side?”
“Times change.” He prowled toward her, ignoring his guard.
The air snapped like an electric wire.
The
witch closest to him, rocking an impressively spiked mohawk, made a fist, then blew on it, releasing a stream of icy vapor into the air.
It swirled around Kane, gathering weight and shape until a jagged icicle formed and sliced through his calf, pinning him in place, all in the blink of an eye.
She raised an eyebrow as if daring him to make another move.
He paled. Death was before him, but he didn’t cry out. His face was a mask of bravado, as it had always been, except for one moment where he glanced at my brother and pure sorrow broke through his features before it was replaced by gritty determination.
He cracked his knuckles, yanked the icicle from his bleeding leg, and took another few steps toward the witches.
Two massive icicles, about half of Kane’s height, coalesced out of thin air and slashed down at him.
Ari burst out of the shadows, grabbed Kane, and whisked him away.
The icicles shuddered into the ground with the force of Excalibur embedding in rock.
I screamed and Rohan grabbed me about the waist, keeping us hidden, his hand clamped over my mouth.
Everything outside the doors had literally frozen: the Rasha and witches powered up for a fight; the bright bursts of magic, showers of earth, weaving vegetation, all was motionless.
All, that is, except Sienna. She stepped forward, surveying the scene with a shake of her head, then flicked her fingers.
Everyone’s magic winked out.
Her eyes darted over the courtyard, then, finding whatever she was looking for, she made a “bring it” motion with one hand. “Someone has magic they shouldn’t.”
Ari and Kane reappeared outside the still half-open front doors, blinking dazedly like she’d plucked them from the shadows.
I frantically scanned them, but they were unharmed. I’d have sagged to my knees if Ro hadn’t been still holding me.
“Take two,” Sienna said.
The world swung back into motion, all the players looking around, disoriented.
“Magic remains on lockdown. This is not turning into a bloodbath.” Her voice was the crack of a whip. “Which Rasha will speak with me?”
The hunters as one turned to Baruch, who stepped forward.
Kane took advantage of Sienna’s pre-occupation with Tree Trunk to swat the top of Ari’s head. “Idiot. You could have been killed.”
“No,” Ari fired back. “That’s you. Making it your life’s work to piss everyone off and damn the consequences.”
“Whatever. I made it out okay.” Kane waved it off. “You’re the most annoying boyfriend ever.”
Ari snorted. “I got you out–Wait. What?”
Kane’s cheeks pinked. “Shut up.”
Ari smiled, shy and sweet. “Make me.”
Kane clasped the back of Ari’s head and kissed him, hard.
I fist pumped, wanting to yell out “I told you so,” but Rohan shoved his phone under my nose.
He tapped the text that Drio had sent. Chapters stormed. Rasha captured. Meet up.
Gawd. A girl couldn’t even get a moment to gloat about two of her favorite people finally getting their shit together.
“We have to get out of here,” Rohan whispered. “Find who’s still free and regroup.”
“First we need to get out back.” That’s where I’d told Raquel to bring the Tomb. “Baruch won’t let them be taken,” I assured myself, craning onto tiptoe to see what was happening with the parlay.
Sienna said something that made Baruch clench his fists. Then he very deliberately stepped back, resignation in every inch of his frame.
Sienna nodded and the witches swarmed my team.
Baruch let himself be captured, though three of the most formidable-looking witches stayed on him, and even they looked nervous.
Tree Trunk’s counterpart kept repeating Sienna’s directive that no one was to be harmed.
My brother and Kane were prodded into joining the tight circle of Rasha. Kane leaned against my brother’s shoulder like he was never losing contact again.
But I was. The last time Ari was captured, he’d come back tortured. And sure, the demon who’d done that to him was dead, but as long as I lived I’d never forget the drop of my stomach on seeing him after Asmodeus had worked him over, seeing my twin transformed into someone I almost couldn’t recognize and knowing it had, in some way, been my fault.
I’d sworn I’d never let that happen again, yet here he was being herded away with the other Rasha and I was doing nothing.
“I can’t leave him.”
“You can’t help him from whatever hellhole they’re planning to toss them into,” Ro said.
“Nava,” Sienna called out. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Fat chance.
Trusting that Ari would get himself free as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I touched Rohan’s shoulder and we raced through the compound to the Tomb, where Sienna and I would have our final showdown. Between Lilith’s magic and the Tomb, I was the only one who could wrench control away from her. I’d take away her magic until Sienna agreed to move forward my way, working with Rasha and agreeing to get Lilith out of me.
Raquel could help bind her to her word.
A tiny part of me had hoped that it wouldn’t come to this. I wanted to respect Esther’s memory as much as Sienna did, and under different circumstances, Sienna and I could have been friends.
I knew better now.
When we burst out the back doors and saw the sarcophagus on the far side of the yard, I stumbled in relief.
The Tomb of Endless Night was made of iron and covered in symbols like the pendant that had held the Bullseye. It looked like something out of a museum. Or a Scooby Doo episode. The heavy door was wide open.
Slap!
I rubbed my stinging cheek, blinking stupidly at Rabbi Mandelbaum.
“You useless girl!” he screeched, spittle flying. “Look what you’ve done!”
He was apoplectic, his skin splotchy with rage.
“Shut the fuck up, you megalomaniac,” I said. “You did this and you’ve cost us everything.”
The rabbi rushed me again, but I got him in a headlock with his arms wrenched up behind his back.
His pained wince was so satisfying, I wrenched his arm up higher, savoring his torment.
“Where’s Raquel?” She wouldn’t have left the Tomb unguarded.
“Raquel?” His confusion wasn’t faked.
Icy fear prickled my neck.
“You going to kill me now, witch?”
My hands went sweaty with dread. Mandelbaum slithered free as I cursed myself. “You knew?”
“Not at first. I wanted to know why you were investigating Ferdinand.” His smile chilled me. “Given the right incentive, Tessa was very forthcoming about there being no such thing as a female Rasha.”
Rohan caught me before I could choke the rabbi out. He faced the rabbi, his blades snicking out.
“Rohan. Enough.” Mandelbaum sounded impatient. “You’re Rasha. Nava is nothing. A good time, easily forgott–” He screeched as Rohan broke his wrist.
“Say another word about her. Go on.”
“Why did you let me live?” I said. What was his endgame with me?
“Rather arrogant of you to assume you were such a scary antagonist that your death was the only solution. So many other uses for you.” Hybris stepped out from behind the Tomb. She didn’t look much better than those demons in the cage. Obsidian black reptilian skin peeked through the holes in her human glamor: a splash across her collarbone, a curved strip up one cheek, on her left webbed hand and part of her forearm. Her once-lustrous long hair was patchy and scraggly and her red eyes were wild.
Mandelbaum had produced a gun which he dug into the side of my head, his broken wrist cradled against his chest. “I promised Tia first shot at you, but she’s assured me there’ll be plenty left over for me.” He motioned Ro away from me with a jerk of his head. “Give me a reason to shoot Nava. Please.”
&nb
sp; Fury rolled off Rohan, but at my head shake he kept himself in check. Barely.
My scalp was sweating. I could have disarmed the rabbi, but Hybris complicated things and I needed to save all magic use to stick Sienna in the Tomb. Then Ro and I could take out Mandelbaum and this spawn.
“Left over for what?” I said. Let the windbag talk and buy me time for Sienna to arrive.
“I was going to kill you,” Mandelbaum said, “but it seemed more prudent to keep you alive. Watch you to see what the witches with the real power were up to.”
Unbelievable. He was still dissing me. I couldn’t wait to make him lose that stupid smirk for good.
“But you have more value than I realized,” he said.
“I’m not helping you capture Sienna,” I said. I mean, I was going to capture her, but no way was he getting his hands on her.
Hybris patted the side of the Tomb. “Fun as this is, I’d like my payment. I got you the Tomb. Now, give me the Ring of Solomon.”
A ring? And what the hell? Hybris had brought the Tomb for Mandelbaum? This wasn’t a fortunate last-minute interception of the Tomb. The demon and Mandelbaum had planned this. I shoved my worry for Raquel down tight.
“Of course.” The rabbi flicked his wrist.
Hybris gasped softly. A pale silver dart embedded in her cheek glowed in the moonlight. She stood there, twitching.
“That’s the poison coursing through you,” the rabbi said. “This demon venom really burns.”
Baruch’s Stinger.
“More of a tiny prick. Like you.” Hybris yanked the dart from her cheek. “Not so effective on us ancient ones.” She ran directly for Mandelbaum.
Rohan, blades still extended, sprinted to intercept her.
They collided, grappling with each other. A blur of glinting blades, kicks, and punches. For every step the demon drove Rohan forward in her snarled attempt to get to the rabbi, he knocked her back two.
She body-checked Ro, sending him staggering but he quickly regrouped, head down, and charged her.
Mandelbaum’s gun fired.
Rohan jerked sideways, blood blossoming on his gut. He crumpled to the ground.
I screamed and ran over to Ro, pressing my hands against his wound and reaching for my healing magic.
The Unlikeable Demon Hunter: Fall Page 32
