“Goddess.” Rodán spoke as he knelt on the other side of me. “It must be Abaddon. I will cloak you with my magic—”
The entry way of the museum exploded.
A powerful sound echoed through the night as if a plane had crashed into the building.
Glass, stone, and metal shards were embedded in my skin as they slammed into me, and I was flung backward.
CHAPTER 32
My head struck something so hard I thought the force of the blow had split my skull.
My mind spun. The world grew light and dark and light again. I opened my eyes and saw that I’d hit the statue and was crumpled on my side at the base of it.
A deep chuckle brought me closer to ... consciousness? What had I been doing? I had to pull my thoughts together.
Museum.
Pain.
Explosion. Goddess.
Shouts and cries, snarls and growls, were distant, but rang louder in my ears as I started to come back to myself.
My entire body was nothing but pain. I moved so that I could brace myself with my knees. Acid rose up my throat and I puked beside the statue. I wiped the back of my hand across my mouth and struggled to stand.
I looked up just in time to see an almost invisible beam of power barely miss me. The beam slammed into the statue. Metal and stone exploded, and more shards embedded themselves in my skin.
My battered body screamed with agony. I collapsed. Automatically, I rolled over and over, away from where the statue had been, and this time managed to stagger to my feet.
In time to see three Gargoyles spring out from where they’d been hidden in the statue. The ash-gray Gargoyles looked like hideous bulldogs the size of cargo vans as they raced up the steps.
I raised my eyes and froze.
A flood of green Demons, none like I’d ever seen, came through the destroyed entrance and poured out onto the concrete steps. They moved like apes, powerful hind legs propelling them forward, knuckles scraping stone.
The thirty or more roaring, screeching Demons flowed around T and Chance, who stood on the landing, facing one another.
Oh, my Goddess.
T and Chance.
Then the two males morphed.
My body refused to move, even as the green Demons barreled toward me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of T and Chance.
It took only a second or two, but the males’ features twisted until each of them looked like depictions of the human version of the Devil. Large, black curved horns, red skin over bulked-up bodies with powerful muscles, and at least eight feet tall. They could have been twins.
Twin Demons.
The first of the three Gargoyles from the statue reached the Chance-Demon. With the back of his hand, the Demon batted the enormous Gargoyle aside as if it were a toy.
With a screaming roar, a Gargoyle flung itself toward the T-Demon, which held up its arm and rammed its fist into the huge being. The T-Demon struck the Gargoyle so hard the creature’s body flipped end over end. It sailed over our heads and disappeared somewhere in Central Park.
The Chance-Demon used black/red fire and blasted the other Gargoyle so far down Central Park West I couldn’t see where it landed.
Oh, shit.
I didn’t have time to think after those first few seconds. The green, snarling, apelike Demons were attacking all of the Trackers, along with Adam and Olivia. Blood already coated one side of Fere’s face.. Adam was now clearly visible. He and Olivia held their handguns in two-handed grips and fired at oncoming Demons that were so close to them that my heart was beating like crazy in fear for their lives.
The two beings they’d shot shrieked, came to a stop, and shook their massive heads. But then they were going for Olivia and Adam again. Each had already bolstered their weapons and unsheathed long knives, and they were in ready battle stances.
One of the Demons was nearly on top of me. Adrenaline rushed through my body and I no longer felt any pain. I only felt the fire of anger and fear for us all.
I unsheathed one of my dragon-claw daggers and brought it up in a slicing motion just as the Demon flung itself at me.
The Demon wasn’t armored like the underlings we’d been fighting and my blade sliced through its neck at just the right place. Bone, tendon, and muscle gave way as my dagger separated the Demon’s head from its neck. It was a lucky kill and I knew it.
The headless Demon’s body almost plowed into me. I dodged to the side in time but its rough, scaly skin scraped my arm like sandpaper. Its carcass smelled fetid, of rotting meat and spoiled milk, as it slammed into the concrete beside me.
My heart pounded as I gripped my dagger’s hilt with both hands and swept my gaze over the completely chaotic scene. Everyone was still alive, thank the Goddess.
Battle cries, gunshots, roars, breaking glass and metal echoed in the night. I glanced behind me and saw that some of the Demons had landed on cars parked at the curb, crushing them. The Demons were surrounding the ten of us. Boxing us in.
A Demon crouched on the concrete, not far from me, no doubt searching for someone to battle. Or searching for someone in particular. It met my gaze and I knew it was looking for me.
I didn’t give the Demon a chance to attack. With a Drow warrior’s battle cry, I went on the offensive and charged it. If a Demon could look surprised, it did.
I used the advantage of surprise and flung myself forward, gripping my dragon-claw dagger in both hands. Before it had a chance to react, I gave another warrior cry and swung my dagger at the Demon’s neck.
It screamed and lunged for me at the same time my Drow blade severed its hideous head from its shoulders. The huge body collapsed on top of me, its scales rasping over my body as it slammed me to the concrete. Air exploded from my lungs and my sight blurred. For a moment I registered every screaming pain that the adrenaline had been masking.
But only a moment. My Drow strength was enough to shove the Demon’s body off of me and I lurched to my feet, preparing for another attack, but only two Demons were still alive. Adam and Olivia were handling one, Rodán dispatching the other. I counted ten of us. Everyone was still alive.
At the fringes of the battle humans had come out of their apartments and homes, and were staring or screaming at the sight of the carnage. Several cell phones were out, some humans recording what was happening, others calling 911.
Sirens were already screeching through the night.
Where was a Soothsayer?
The more unusual sirens of the Paranormal Task Force were on their way, too. This scene would need a big cleanup when we eliminated all of the Demons.
And we would eliminate all of the Demons.
My heart thudded at the thought. Ten of us. How many more Demons?
I caught a glimpse of a horrified Lulu. She had her arms stretched out, trying to freeze the scene with her magic. It was obviously too much for her, or Demon magic was overwhelming her powers.
A flash of white light, and then Soothsayers Jeanie and Karen appeared next to Lulu, using their gift of transference to get to her. Lulu gave a tremendous look of relief and said something to the two other Soothsayers. Then the three of them raised their arms. In moments the scene around us froze.
The human part of it. The Demons, no such luck.
I whipped my head around to make sure Adam and Olivia weren’t frozen, and breathed a sigh of thanks. Lulu must have told Karen and Jeanie not to freeze the pair.
More sirens cut the night in the distance, but I knew the three Soothsayers would take care of them when they arrived. This was not going to be easy to keep under wraps. With this kind of massive attack, we had to worry about news helicopters. I could already hear the whump, whump of helicopter blades nearing us.
Lulu, Jeanie, and Karen would probably need the other two Soothsayers. In answer to my thought, there was another flash of light and Nevy and Tara appeared so that the five of them stood shoulder to shoulder.
The roars of the last Demon cut off and I snapped my gaze in its dire
ction to see the body land in a thud at Adam’s and Olivia’s feet.
The Demons were all down. I looked up at the archway and the destroyed entrance to the museum.
And met the ferocious, burning, red-eyed gazes of the Chance-Demon and the T-Demon.
Fury possessed me as if I, too, were a Demon bent on nothing but destruction and the desire to kill.
I gave a tremendous cry and charged up the steps toward both devil-like Demons, using my Drow gift of speed.
My companions didn’t hesitate and I heard them charging after me. Rodán passed me in a blur.
A blast of power slammed into me and knocked me back down the concrete stairs. I didn’t allow myself to register the pain. I got to my feet and reached the foot of the stairs in time to see the Chance-Demon battling Rodán. The Demon had a smoking black sword, and it clanged every time it met the Elvin blade of Rodán’s sword.
Rodán jabbed and made contact with the devil-Demon’s belly, his blade sliding into the Demon’s flesh. It howled and raised its hand. I could see black/ red fire already smoldering in the Demon’s palm, ready to blast Rodán.
“No!” I screamed, and charged up the stairs.
My heart screamed, too, as the T-Demon gripped an enormous flaming sword and held it high.
T swung before I could reach them. The fiery blade arced through the air toward Rodán and the Chance-Demon.
Everything seemed to slow down. My scream sounded long and distant.
The blade neared Rodán and the Demon. The sword passed over Rodán.
T sliced the Chance-Demon’s head from its shoulders.
Shock nearly made me stumble. I came to a stop, a step away from the landing. The Chance-
Demon’s head rolled down the stairs and landed at the foot of the destroyed monument. The Demon head’s skin bubbled, sizzled, and hissed, with its wide red eyes staring up at the night sky.
A fraction of a moment, and then the ten of us were charging T. Why he’d just killed the other Demon and saved Rodán. I didn’t know. None of us knew. Maybe it was to gain power and position in the Demon ranks.
All I did know was that we had to eliminate T.
A rumbling filled the air, and the steps jerked and shook so powerfully that I fell to my hands and knees. I lost my grip on my dagger and it skidded down the stairs, the metal rattling as the blade hit each concrete step.
Everything kept rocking, and I couldn’t find purchase and I slipped down the stairs. Vibrations filled the air again. I twisted and shouted as pain wrenched my body.
I took fast, shallow breaths and started crawling back up the stairs, my muscles straining with each movement. Pain didn’t exist. I wouldn’t let myself feel it. I focused on the T-Demon that stood on the landing, still holding its flaming sword.
Rodán was in front of T, his footing sure despite the rocking and bucking of the concrete. But Rodán wasn’t attacking, and neither was T.
Gritting my teeth, I crawled up the stairs, bracing my forearms on each step as I pulled myself up, barely making headway against the tossing of the stairs.
I reached the landing again, and my blood rushed in my ears.
A figure strode through the wreckage of the front entrance. A tall, powerful being who was dragging a large man’s body as if it were dental floss.
Abaddon! It had to be the master Demon, the Destroyer. I knew it as if the being had spoken the truth aloud. The human appearance had to be deceptive, the Demon’s powers far more powerful than what he looked like he was capable of.
My skin crawled as I stared at Abaddon.
The master Demon looked as human as the underlings we’d been battling. Abaddon had long black hair that fell around his shoulders and golden eyes. He was handsome. Stunning.
Then I saw who Abaddon was dragging. Officer Jaworski, the second missing liaison. Jaworski looked dazed and didn’t seem to register what was going on, much less the fact that he was being dragged by a master Demon.
When Abaddon came to a stop, just ten feet away, he glanced at the T-Demon and then at the decapitated Chance-Demon, but didn’t let any feeling cross his expression. He probably didn’t have feelings.
Abaddon looked directly at me. He crooked the finger of his free hand and smiled. “Come, Drow Princess. I’ve been waiting for you.”
More shock stung me as his deep, reverberating voice called to me. He’d been waiting for me! For the shortest of moments I didn’t know whether to move or stay.
“Don’t move, Nyx,” Rodán commanded as I got to my feet.
Abaddon looked casually at Rodán. My heart pounded and blood rushed in my ears as Abaddon flicked his fingers at Rodán.
Rodán dropped to his knees as if some great weight forced him down. Sweat beaded on his forehead and trickled down his clenched jaws. He gripped his sword hilt to the point that his knuckles were white. His muscles bulged, straining against whatever power was attacking him.
As I watched in horror, I rocked on my feet, unsteady, as if the stairs were still moving.
The effort it cost him to fight such magic must have been great, but Rodán had the strength to not writhe on the concrete in agony. I wanted to run to him, help him, but I knew the only way to help him was to somehow kill Abaddon.
The T-Demon stood calmly at Abaddon’s side, watching Rodán without any expression on his devil’s face.
Abaddon cocked his head and looked interested as he stared at Rodán. “I’m surprised, Rodán of the Light Elves. Good show of resistance.”
Rodán said nothing as he gritted his teeth, sweat beginning to soak his tunic.
With a glance toward me, Abaddon clearly dismissed Rodán as if he was no threat. “I said come here, Princess.”
Adam shouted, “No!”
Abaddon swept his hands toward the six Trackers, as well as Olivia and Adam, and their weapons were jerked from their hands—swords, daggers, handguns. Then their weapons belts and weapons ripped through clothing from other hiding places. My stomach churned as flying metal glittered in the streetlights before the weapons hit the asphalt in the street with thuds and clangs.
Dear Goddess. How -/’ere we going to defeat him without weapons?
Strange, but he hadn’t taken mine. If I got close enough to Abaddon, I could kill him. I’d lost the dagger I’d been holding, but I still had one sheathed and I had my buckler. Would he have armored skin like his underling Demons?
“Here. Now!” Abaddon roared at me, and I nearly tripped as something that felt like a giant hand slammed into my back and shoved me forward.
Everything seemed impossibly quiet as I stopped when I arrived within ten feet of him.
He smiled. “I’ve been saving you for last, Drow Princess.”
I frowned. But the Chance-Demon had almost killed me. I would have died if T . ..
I glanced at T, and his devil’s expression was impassive.
“You didn’t receive enough poison to kill you,” Abaddon said, and I jerked my attention back to him. “Only to keep you from saving the other Tracker. I needed him to come to your aid so that he’d be in position to enable me to use the power in his body once I killed him. And he had to be in the right location.”
Blood felt like it was draining from my body as I tried to register his words.
“What do you think you are going to do with me now?” I asked in a dry rasp.
His smile was dazzling, as if he wasn’t a Demon but a gorgeous movie star. “You have the most useful powers to help bring my legions from the abyss.” My stomach lurched as he continued. “I have underlings stationed at every point that you’ve sent your Trackers to. At each point a Tracker and a liaison will be sacrificed simultaneously, as I sacrifice you and this liaison.”
“No, goddamnit, Nyx!” I heard the strain in Adam’s voice, and I realized Abaddon must have put up some kind of elemental barricade to keep him and the Trackers from coming to my aid.
Several things happened in rapid succession.
Rodán broke free of Aba
ddon’s power and charged the Demon, jerking Abaddon’s attention from me.
I snatched my buckler and flung it straight for the Demon’s throat.
I summoned the element of air to shove the buckler faster toward Abaddon. Only ten feet separated us, and the buckler was buried in the Demon’s neck before he registered it.
Abaddon’s golden eyes widened.
The buckler cleanly sliced through Abaddon’s throat—
Then stuck in his spine.
That remaining thread of Abaddon’s neck was enough for the flesh to knit back together almost instantly. The buckler slipped from the Demon’s flesh and clanged to the concrete landing.
Rodán shouted dark words in Drow as he reached Abaddon and swung his sword.
The Demon flicked his fingers at Rodán, who stopped hard, as if he’d hit an invisible barrier.
I grabbed every element I could to help throw me the ten feet toward Abaddon.
The power of air. The rush of water storming from the river. The earth buckling at its feet. Flames acting like a rocket accelerator.
It took all my remaining strength, but I raised my dragon-claw dagger as every element took me to him.
I swung the dagger in a two-fisted grip.
Abaddon grabbed my wrists with one hand. The strength of his hold yanked me to a stop and my teeth clamped together. My head jerked back and forth. I lost my hold on my last weapon, and the dragon-claw dagger clanged as it tumbled down the steps. I was so close to him that his burnt-sugar stench made bile crawl up my throat.
A furious expression crossed Abaddon’s handsome face. “Idiot! You’re no good to me if you drain yourself of your powers.”
Good information. Who’s the idiot now for letting me know that important fact? I summoned all of my powers again as he held my wrists. A controlled hurricane of earth, fire, water, and air slammed into Abaddon all at once.
He lost his grip on my wrists and his hold on the human. But he remained on his feet.
My body went still as I tried to comprehend what happened next. The T-Demon attacked Abaddon from behind, shearing off the top of the Demon’s head with his flaming sword.
Demons Not Included: A Night Tracker Novel (Night Tracker Novels) Page 23
