Death of a Demon_An Urban Fantasy Romance

by Lacy Andersen

  Luke had shown me the alarm once before during our father-daughter sessions. It was housed in a little room only a few doors down from his office. In many ways, the Nephilim had maintained mostly ancient methods of fighting and fortifying their home, but the alarm was one of their first forays into the modern world. It blasted through the hundred or so speakers wired across the property, sure to wake anyone up from the deepest of sleeps. The last time it rang out was when a feral army invaded the manor grounds last summer and killed many of our friends. The memory was burned in my mind, a reminder of the depravity of demons and their never-ending thirst for violence.

  The sounds of fighting broke out not far behind me. Raquel’s shouts of victory were music to my ears as I raced down the hall. If I remembered correctly, it was the tenth door on the right. An unassuming door, easily mistaken for a janitor’s closet. It was just within my reach.

  A hand clasped my wrist and spun me around. Before me stood a man of average height with a black beard and eerie red eyes. He jeered and reached for my arm again, moving with inhuman speed. A feral.

  I sidestepped him and went for the dagger in my boot. My fingers wrapped around the familiar hilt, yanking it free. I went to lunge, but was too slow. He clawed at my shoulder and ripped my favorite t-shirt to shreds. I screamed out as the searing pain of his wicked nails dug through skin and muscle. Hot blood ran down my back, soaking my clothes within seconds.

  With a quick glance down the hall, I could see Raquel struggling with three ferals of her own. She was doing a great job of keeping them at bay, but two had managed to bypass her and were coming straight for me.

  I didn’t have time for this. With an impatient puff of air from my lips, I struck out with the dagger, hitting the bullseye. The bearded demon stared down at his chest with the hilt of my dagger poking out. He roared and clawed at it, to no avail. In a poof of black smoke, his body disappeared and I plucked my dagger from the ground.

  Wasting no time, I shot through the doorway to the alarm room. A few computer monitors blinked at me. A rolling chair with gum stuck to the armchair stood in front of them. To the right of that lay a brown box, covered with a clear plastic case. Within the case was a bright red button. It reminded me of the nuclear missile buttons in old war movies. Except, instead of releasing a nuclear weapon, this button would save lives.

  I flipped the case and pressed down on it with all my strength. There were a few moments of silence, which made my heart skip a beat. I bounced on my toes and willed it to work. Suddenly, a long, low horn sounded. The noise reverberated through my skull, forcing me to cover my ears with my hands. The alarm worked!

  “Lizzy!”

  Raquel’s voice called for me from the hallway. Grasping the dagger tighter in my hands, I ran out to meet her. By now, the ferals had overrun our portion of the manor. I expected them to charge at me—to strike back at the person who had alerted the rest of the Nephilim to their presence. But no, they ran past Raquel and nearly bowled me over. Spinning around to watch them, I felt a tingly sense of alarm as I watched them break down the door to Luke’s empty office.

  They had to be after something. No feral would bypass a fight, unless it had strict orders for something else.

  “Come on, we’ve got to stop them,” I said to Raquel, giving her a quick look over.

  Glistening with sweat, she didn’t seem too worse for wear. She’d really came into her own as a warrior this past year. There was no way my cousin could’ve fought off a dozen ferals by herself when I first met her.

  She gave me a curt nod and sprung forward. A tall demon with brown skin lunged at her first, his muscular arms wrapping around her. She artfully dodged his embrace and slid her dagger in the space between his ribs. At the same time, I found myself in hand-to-hand combat with a demon of my size, her long brown hair braided in pigtails.

  She screeched and swiped at me, her deadly claws extended. I bent backwards and her arm swept over top of me. Regaining my footing, I took advantage of her momentum and spun her around, sinking my dagger just under her shoulder blade.

  Although at least five more demons blocked my view of Luke’s office, I could tell they were crowding around something important. Dodging another attack by a third demon with frizzy black hair, I ducked under her arm and peered into the room. A tall demon with red hair that covered his head, chin, and arms had Psyche's Urn tucked under his elbow. Red-beard was pointing at the doorway, as if to tell the other demons to fight us back.

  I wasn’t sure how the ferals had gotten past Luke’s security, but something inside of me clicked into fight mode. My determination only doubled as I saw them fan out to protect the box. It was important to them. Obviously, they knew something more about its powers than we did. It had to be a weapon of destruction.

  I’d die before I’d let them take it.

  With Raquel fighting beside me, we made it into the office. Blades flashed as we fought the remaining demons. I felt a sting on my arm when Red-Beard lashed out, his large hand clawing at my dominant arm.

  “Drop the box,” I yelled at him, clasping my hand to the wound. No time to check the damage now. I had to get that box.

  He gazed at me, his eyes burning bright red. As we stared each other down, he cocked his head to the side with the jerky movements of an insect. A shiver went through me. I’d been to Hell. I knew what his true form was. A shadowy, horrible creature with skeletal features. The human form he wore right now might have hidden his hellish interior, but I knew better.

  “You won’t get out of here alive.” I gestured at Raquel, who had just finished burying her dagger in the last demon. “You’re outnumbered and outgunned. There’s no place to run.”

  A deep growl came from his lips. His eyes flicked between us, like an animal waiting for the pounce. I edged forward. He still had the box tight under his arm.

  “Lizzy.” Raquel’s warning tone wasn’t lost on me. “The box...”

  “I know.”

  I saw the look in his eyes change before he even took a step. With super speed, I raced him to the window—his only exit. My left hand closed on the edge of the Box of Awakening. I managed to yank it out of his grasp just as the window shattered. He screeched and twisted his body as he fell. A dagger whizzed just an inch past my head as he fell. Raquel joined me at the edge of the window ledge to look down below. Red-Beard was sprawled on the grassy lawn below, his leg at an awkward angle. A second later, he burst into a cloud of black, leaving behind a single dagger buried in the ground.

  “Good aim,” I said, hugging the box closer to my body.

  “Thanks.” She panted, her body shaking with excess adrenaline. “But he wasn’t exactly a small target.”

  I shrugged. It was still an impressive throw. And she’d managed not to bury a dagger in my back. I was more grateful for that than anything else.

  The alarm was still blaring across the yard. We snapped out of our momentary break to dash back down the stairs and toward the bleachers. The Nephilim had abandoned their seats and were running this way and that. Children screamed as they clung to their mothers. A few of the older Nephilim had been ushered to folding chairs on the lawn and were surrounded by younger warriors. At least two dozen Nephilim had some kind of weapon in their hand and I was at once thankful to those who always came prepared.

  “Luke!” I found my father presiding over a group of Nephilim, trying to take a roll call. He turned when he heard my voice and pulled me into a firm embrace.

  “You’re alright.” He saw Raquel just behind me and pulled her into our hug. “You both are. Where were you?”

  “The manor.” I looked up at him, the sun bright in my eyes. “We had to sound the alarm. The ferals were going to ambush you.”

  “That was you?” His eyes shown with tears. “You ladies saved lives today. I don’t know how those ferals got through our defenses, but if it hadn’t been for you, there would’ve been many casualties before we could figure out what was going on. We have you two to thank.�
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  He hugged us again, finally noticing the box in my hand.

  “Why do you have that?” He gestured at the antique.

  “The demons were after it,” Raquel spoke up in a breathless voice. “We fought off over a dozen breaking into your office.”

  “Psyche’s Urn?” He frowned at us, disbelief in his light blue eyes. “But why would they want that? As far as I can tell, it’s just a trinket. A useless artifact with no imbued powers. A fairy tale.”

  “They definitely wanted it,” I replied, sticking my chin out. “They died for it. We have to figure out why.”

  At that moment, Georgia came racing toward us. The blood had drained from her face and she was clenching a torn t-shirt in her hands.

  “Has anyone seen my boy? Has anyone seen Gabe?”

  Panic whittled a hole in my chest as I turned to scour the crowds for a sign of him. It was nearly impossible, due to the nearly two hundred Nephilim gathered on the grounds.

  “Those demons dragged him off.” Noah Brown appeared at her elbow, concern etched into the lines on his forehead. A trickle of blood trailed down from his lower lip. “One minute, he was fighting right next to me. The next, I saw them yanking him into the forest. I tried to go after him, but a feral got in the way.”

  My lungs struggled to bring in air. He couldn’t be gone. I continued to search over the crowds, hoping against hope that Noah was wrong and Gabe was still nearby. Maybe he’d fought off the ferals in the forest and was on his way back here now. He was the best warrior I knew. He would win.

  Despite Luke’s warning touch on my arm, I broke away and ran toward the edge of the forest. My eyes scanned the trees. My green-eyed angel was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t made it back.

  Blinking wildly, I almost missed the figure lurking in the shadows. A tall man with a long, handsome face and flashing black eyes. Despite the heat, he was wearing a woolen suit entirely in black. A sympathetic smile pulled at his sensual mouth, as if he knew what panic coursed through my veins.

  I stopped moving and stared at him, wondering who could be so brazen to stand in a demon-infested forest close to the home of a clan of deadly warriors. He didn’t look like any human I’d ever seen. Or demon.

  “Hello.” His voice was sickly sweet and dark like molasses. He tilted his head in greeting. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again, Lizzy Redding.”

  Clutching my dagger tighter in my hand, I squinted at him. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

  His lips parted in an amused smile. “Don’t you know me?”

  “No.”

  I looked past him, into the dark woods. I didn’t have time for this. Gabe was missing.

  “Well, I know you.”

  He stepped closer. In his eyes, a smoldering sensuality lit.

  I wrapped my arm around my stomach, feeling suddenly naked under his gaze.

  Extending a slender arm, his pale hand reaching for mine, and he smiled again. “They call me Seth. You’ll be seeing a lot more of me from now on.”

  I didn’t care who he was. Right now, I needed to find Gabe. And he was getting in my way.

  A shout came from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Luke and a few Nephilim sprinting our way. By the time I looked back at Seth, he’d vanished into the trees. A cold wind breathed on my neck, raising the hairs along my skin. Why had he seemed so familiar? Surely, I’d remember meeting someone as unsettling as him.

  The cold breeze blew again and suddenly, I knew the answer. The realization chilled me to the bone. That chilling presence. The innate evil in his eyes. The immense power rolling off of him. There was no question.

  A Prince of Hell had come to Westward Manor.

  Chapter Eleven

  Luke made me wait in the ballroom with the rest of the panicked Nephilim. Despite my demands that I be allowed to go after Gabe immediately, he put his foot down and calmly explained that he had sent highly trained scouts out into the forest to look for signs of him. Scouts who had far more experience tracking than anyone in this entire room, myself included.

  They’d find him. Until then, I had to sit tight. He’d let me know the minute he heard back.

  I paced the edge of the room, my hands clasped behind my back. My father had confiscated Psyche's Urn to resume his studies. Without the powerful object in my arms, I felt weak and insignificant. As if it would’ve allowed me to rescue Gabe. My partner. My love.

  But Luke was right. We didn’t know why the ferals were after the box. It could’ve been a fluke. After all, he had dozens of ancient artifacts scattered throughout his office. Maybe, they went after the wrong thing. It could be just a useless wooden box. No hidden powers, no secret meaning.

  Still, my gut said otherwise. There was something fishy about that box. From the moment we’d plucked it off the priest, I’d had a strange feeling about it. And if it had been the true target of the ferals, they obviously didn’t want us to have it. But instead of carting off the magical item, they’d carted off my angel warrior. My stomach clenched at the thought. I hoped that wherever he was, he was safe.

  “People, please,” Luke called out from the other side of the room, raising his hands for silence. “We’ve had an update.”

  I raced forward to hear. A forbidden hope welled up inside me, wishing for Gabe’s immediate rescue. But that hope was soon squashed as Luke gave me a somber frown and shook his head slightly.

  “We’ve had word from our scouts,” he said to the crowd. A dozen or so heads bobbed in anticipation. “A feral army has amassed in the East. At least five hundred, from what they could see. They’re five miles out from our borders.”

  Chaos broke out among the Nephilim. Children cried and angry shouts pierced the air. Luke waved his hand again as the mass of people pushed forward, their questions peppering him with expectations.

  “What are we doing to protect ourselves?”

  “Are they moving to strike?”

  “How did they cross the protections of the manor?”

  “How could you have let this happen?”

  “People, please.” Luke stretched to his highest height.

  He wasn’t a man used to bellowing across the room, so the noise of the crowd swallowed him whole. With a defeated shake of his head, he turned to Esther, who stood beside him, and grimaced.

  “This isn’t his fault!” Heads began to turn in my direction before I even realized it had been me who’d yelled.

  Swallowing down the bile that had risen to my throat, I coughed and ran a tongue over my dry lips. It wasn’t fair that Luke was getting all the grief. He couldn’t have stopped the ferals from gathering. None of us could. There were more powerful forces at work here.

  “This was an attack from a Prince of Hell,” I said as the room went silent. “He was in those woods today, coordinating this ambush. He’s here. I saw him with my own eyes.”

  A murmur passed through the crowd as a hundred pairs of eyes stared at me in disbelief. I cleared my throat and pressed forward. If I didn’t speak soon, I’d lose them.

  “The Prince wants nothing more than to defeat the Nephilim and to take control of this Earth and the humans who live here. He’s been planning this for thousands of years. We should’ve known he wouldn’t stop. I should’ve known. We were warned.”

  “Yes, you were warned.” A woman with stunningly beautiful dark skin and a closely shaved head raised her voice.

  If I remembered right, her name was Jada. We hadn’t had the chance to do much more than nod hello when we passed in the halls.

  “You were warned when the demons used you to open the gates to Hell,” she went on to say. “What is to keep them from using you again?”

  Clenching my jaw, I hissed through my teeth. “They’ll never use me like that again. I didn’t know then that I could close the gate. But I know that now. And so do they. They won’t make that mistake again.”

  She regarded me down the bridge of her nose for a full ten seconds before tilting her
head in approval.

  “How did a Prince of Hell even get here?” another yelled out.

  A quiver of anger shot through me. It was the same question that I had. “He must’ve slipped through when it was opened last year. He’s been biding his time over the months, building his army.”

  It made sense the moment I said it aloud. Without his armies in Hell, the Prince had to be resourceful with the demons on Earth. He must’ve been hunting demons right alongside us, adding to his armies while we executed the stragglers.

  I wanted to kick and scream my frustration. All that work we’d done this summer, all the senseless death, was like a drop in the bucket compared to the five hundred or so demons he had at his beck and call. No doubt, all of them had inhabited a human host, making them much stronger than the normal shell of a feral we fought in the woods. This fight would be brutal for all involved—including Gabe, if we didn’t find him soon.

  Georgia and Ben weaved their way through the crowd toward us. Stricken frowns marred both of their faces. Gone was the regal stiffness I’d first seen in Gabe’s mom. The woman standing before me was hunched with worry, her eyes darting around the room.

  “Where’s my son?” she demanded, splaying her hands open in front of Luke. “Have you found him?”

  His nostrils flared as he took a shallow breath. “I’m sorry, Georgia. There’s no trace of him, yet. I’ve got all my best trackers on it.”

  Adam, Ashley, and Raquel appeared next to me. Adam wore a similar expression of worry on his face as his parents. It was no wonder. Despite all the disagreements and flare ups between the boys, they were still brothers. Their bond originated a hundred years before I ever came into the picture. I could imagine how Adam was feeling, underneath the stern bravado.

  “Did the Prince take him?” Ben had edged in closer. He had a quiet strength about him which stood in opposition to the worry coming off Georgia in waves. “Maybe for leverage?”

  “We can’t say for sure,” Luke answered.