Claimed by the Demon Hunter

by Harley James

  My God, was the Hell Prince feeding off Nate’s blood? Blinding fear surged through her. She jerked the duffel bag open, pawing through it until she extracted what she was looking for. She shot unsteadily to her feet and held up the elaborate frame with the gilded metal sheet that had been protected for ages. “Stop! Stop, stop stop!! I’ll give you what you want! Just let him go.”

  Asmodeus immediately withdrew his tongue, bloody and raw with sinew from Nate’s body, and burst through the remaining roots that had been restraining him.

  Nate slumped to the ground. The monster reached down for him, then drew upright, practically vibrating with power now that he’d fed on Guardian blood.

  “Put him down. P-please. I’ll give you the Veil. I just want him…and…and my grandparents.”

  Asmodeus’ deafening screech made her cry out. One moment, Nate was in the demon’s grasp, the next, he was thrown against a massive headstone as though he weighed little more than a rag doll. The monument cracked down the middle.

  Nate didn’t move or make a sound.

  “Nate!” Jessie’s blinked through a surge of tears. This couldn’t be real.

  Asmodeus approached until his cloven feet were an inch from the chrism oil line.

  Don’t look at him. She’d lose her soul. Nate’s fight would be in vain. “Nate, I love you!” When Asmodeus screeched again, she proclaimed her love one more time. Louder.

  Was he dead? He’d been trying to protect her. Like he said he would. Like he said he’d die to do.

  The duffel glowed, casting light on the gold frame she held in her hands…and upon the hideous visage of one of the Princes of Hell.

  “Give it to me!” he roared, holding out a black box the winged demons placed in his clawed hands. Jessie remembered Nate telling her demons couldn’t physically touch relics, but possession of one fed their powers exponentially.

  Her legs quivered, and the skin on her face felt like it was peeling off from the putrescence of his breath. “Not until you let my grandparents and Nate walk into this circle.”

  “They are nothing compared to this relic!”

  Her Gramma screamed, swinging her arms wildly above her head, fending off the winged demons. Jessie’s vision grayed around the edges with lightheadedness. “T-then do as I ask!”

  “Step outside the circle, and I will put them in your place.”

  A trick? She swallowed hard, her face sticky with tears. Something moved in her peripheral vision. She looked at her grandparents, but couldn’t see them anymore with demons landing so close around them.

  “Jessie, no! He is a prince of lies. He’ll kill you and your grandparents the moment you step out of that circle.” Nate staggered to his feet. Oh, God, how could he still live with the amount of damage to his body? Asmodeus snarled at Nate and lifted his clawed hand to send a bolt of electricity at him that lifted him high into the air and impaled him upon the T-bar of a metal cross.

  Jessie’s throat seemed to tear in two as she screamed, her world breaking apart. She flung the gilded frame at Asmodeus who snapped it in the black box as she ran toward her grandparents, flinging holy water at the winged demons. She was nearly to her grandparents when they vanished. She yelled in rage and spun to find her grandparents on their knees in front of Asmodeus. His deep laughter made her gorge rise.

  “So easy to manipulate, like always, Jessica. I like you, though I’d hoped for more of a challenge.”

  “So you pick on elderly mortals? Weak! What would your daddy Satan say if he found out you’re such a coward?”

  The demon opened his mouth, and the sound that erupted, piercing and horrific. She shook her head to clear the pain as a massive white light exploded, and an enormous surge of energy headed her way. She braced herself for impact. When none came, she opened her eyes, catching Asmodeus’s brief look of disbelief before his features contorted in rage to see her grandparents now safely inside the chrism oil circle.

  What?

  Indistinct sounds began to filter in behind the mental block she’d put between her and Nate. Chanting. It grew louder, and then she knew. Nate was using the last of his energy to call upon his Guardian family to help her.

  “Run…grandparents…Jessie….will love you…forever.”

  “No, Nate. You don’t get to save us and then die!”

  Asmodeus reached for the black box. Before he could discover she’d tricked him, she ran. Ran to the man she loved like nothing else mattered. Teeth chattering, arms shaking, she climbed up on the headstone where Nate was impaled on the uppermost cross and looked into his beautiful eyes.

  “G-get…to…circle, please, Jessie.”

  “Let’s bond. Right now, Nate. Show me what to do. What to say.” She’d brought along her grandfather’s buck knife. “You told me it involves blood, right?” He’d also said it involved sex, but hopefully that wasn’t mandatory. She removed the buck knife from the sheath at her side, took a deep breath, and sliced vertically down her forearm. She laid her arm against one of the gaping wounds in his chest. “Tell me what to say,” she whispered. He only blinked vacantly at her. As their blood mingled, her body warmed, chasing away the deep cold that had seemed to come from the inside out. “Fine, I’ll make up my own vows. I choose you, Nathaniel Temple. I love you with all that I am. Take my blood and live.” His color was improving. Yes! “Live to guard us mortals from those who seek to do us harm.”

  In the background, a yell echoed, bouncing around the treetops. Suddenly she was vaulted up in a great whirl as though plucked from the headstone by a giant. A warm white light expanded, peace oozing into her, filling her with joy.

  Then Nate was standing in front of her in the brilliant light. Whole. Gloriously alive. His hands came around her waist, steady and strong. He placed her on the grass and stared at her for a moment before Asmodeus charged them. “I still have the relic!” she gasped.

  “Where is it?” Nate spread his stance and prepared for the assault.

  “In the duffel!”

  “I’ll hold him off while you get into the circle.”

  Asmodeus’ barbed tongue was out as he charged.

  “No, Nate, I can help you!”

  “I know. I know you can. But you need to protect them, Jess. Go, run, and don’t look back!” He didn’t let her respond, but lunged twelve feet into the air, bounced on a tree limb to do an aerial somersault and land behind Asmodeus.

  Jessie ran for the safe circle where Walt cradled Tilly in his lap on the ground. She was almost to them when she felt her muscles seize, a feeling of dread creeping through her chest. But it abruptly ended, sending her sprawling face first into the grass in the safe zone. Her skin beaded with sweat as she rolled to her side and then pushed once more to her feet to hurry to her grandparents.

  She watched the battle between Nate and the Hell Prince as she bent down to feel Tilly’s forehead. She looked at her grandfather. “Is she okay?”

  “She will be.” Walter Jacobs glanced at the demon and Nate, then back at her before glancing down at his wife. He stroked her cheek. “I saw that monster in a water-logged rice field in Korea.”

  Jessie brought her attention back to her grandfather. “What? During the war?”

  Walt nodded. “That barbed tongue has haunted me nearly as much as the sounds of men suffering all around me and the bodies of the dead stacked like timber.”

  Oh God. The horrors of war. She touched her grandfather’s shoulder. “What was it doing?”

  “After one of the fire fights, I peeked out from the foxhole we were in and there he was…laughing. Stabbing that tongue into fallen men.” Walt shuddered. “But then I saw someone—I never knew or understood who or what it was—he somehow slowed it down. I don’t think you can kill it, but it appears you can make it go away until it figures out how to come back.”

  “What did they do?”

  “Doused it with holy water and put a rosary around its neck while saying the Our Father.”

  She nodded, then leaned in
to kiss both her grandparents’s cheeks. When she made to stand, Walt grabbed her arm. “Tilly has had many dreams about this. You…and that man you exchanged blood with.”

  “She did?” Please let them be good dreams.

  “Most of the situations in them made her afraid, but she always said the way the man looked at you gave her peace. I can see now that she was right.” He pulled a rosary out of Tilly’s pocket and put it in Jessie’s hand. “I wish that I had the physical strength to help, but I will be praying. And take whatever is glowing in that bag.”

  Yes, the Veil. How could she use it to neutralize Asmodeus? Would it weaken him enough to send him back to Hell?

  The earth started rumbling, making gravel bounce on the road. Jessie glanced to the tree where Nate had a large limb wrapped around the Prince’s scaly chest. The wind picked up. When Asmodeus opened his mouth to howl, mounds of grass spewed dirt and the winged demons surged toward Nate.

  Jessie grabbed the holy water to spread a fresh, tight circle around her grandparents, then ran toward Nate. The element of surprise on her side, her first holy water spray set fire to three of the winged creatures.

  Unfortunately, there were still three more.

  The flames shooting off the burning demons combined with their inhuman shrieking gave Jessie her first true impression of Hell. The three demons flapped their wings to get airborne and out of range of her dwindling supply of holy water. She thrust the glass bottle above her. “Stay back!” Get to Nate. Pour this on the Prince.

  Then she’d press the Veil to his face.

  Maybe.

  No, it would work. She could do this. The unharmed demons’ wings fanned the flames of the other three shriveling devils, causing the temperature to soar. Asmodeus roared and two of the demons dove at Nate, raking at his shoulders and scalp with their taloned feet. Almost there. They’d do this together. Together they were strong.

  Invincible. Good always won in the end.

  Please let me be right. She ran as the demons dove for another attack on Nate. Power poured from Nate’s hands to the tree on the right, snapping a massive branch, causing it to take down one of the demons.

  Only two left.

  And Asmodeus.

  Blood ran down Nate’s back and into his eyes. She could feel him tremble with growing fatigue at holding Asmodeus captive against the tree. He couldn’t hold on to him much longer, especially with the winged demons battering him.

  “I’m coming, my love.”

  Nate turned around to look at her. Reached out his hand. “Jessie! Come!”

  He couldn’t see the demon arcing toward him. Couldn’t see Asmodeus’s awful barbed tongue surging out to pierce him.

  She reached into her duffel and withdrew the ancient, glowing Veil, its power singing through her body. She thrust it into Nate’s outstretched hand. “End him!”

  The moment it transferred to his fingers, the power vanished from her body. She sagged to her knees. The bottle of holy water rolled several feet away, but she was transfixed by the glow of the Veil. Nate yelled for her to wrap her arms around him, but she couldn’t move.

  So tired.

  End this.

  She wanted to go home. With Nate. Her eyes fluttered, then opened as a dark shadow passed over her. She staggered to her feet. Nate leapt at Asmodeus, the Veil outstretched in front of him like a shield.

  Asmodeus opened his bloody mouth and shot his barbed tongue like an arrow a moment before Nate wrestled the Prince to the ground and wrapped the Veil around his face.

  Bright burning fire slammed Jessie in the chest, knocking her back ten feet. She gasped, the grisly sound of Asmodeus’s defeat mitigating the horror that was dawning upon her. She tried to get away from the pain that was crashing through her, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t lift her arms. The only thing she felt…

  A gurgling wetness.

  And peace that her people were safe.

  Her eyes blurred. Her chin dropped, her neck too tired to hold her head up any longer.

  She blinked down at her chest where Asmodeus’s tongue skewered her to a tree.

  A sound born of desperation and grief ripped through the night sky, creating shock waves in blue, green, and gold. Nate’s voice—so beautiful even in pain.

  “Everything about you. Beautiful.”

  His hands gentle as could be as he took the knife from her sheath and freed her from her mortification. His face above her as he laid her in the grass. Weeping. She tried to stretch out her hand, wanting to caress his face, but no.

  “I love you, Jessie. You can’t leave me, goddammit!” His tears falling to her forehead as he turned his face skyward and screamed as the darkness grew.

  “No, Nate. I.

  Love.

  Y—”

  Chapter 36

  Nate cradled Jessie in one arm and shook out the glowing Veil. “Jessie. Stay with me.”

  Her eyes fluttered open and a faint smile creased her lips before she coughed, sending blood oozing out her nose, ears, and corner of her lips. No! He wouldn’t let her die! Not after they’d defeated Asmodeus. Soon after he’d wrapped the Veil around the demonic prince and sent him back to Hell, the barbed tongue had vanished, but the damage it had done to her was unspeakable.

  He positioned her more carefully between his legs, and placed the Veil over the grizzly hole in her chest. This will work. It will. I believe. I do. Good always conquered evil. It had to. She would therefore live.

  Or he would lose his mind.

  Her heartbeat. Slow. He felt it. Ebbing. A quaver shook his frame.

  Her voice in his head.

  I.

  Love.

  Y—

  His hands pushed down harder on the Veil, heating it, trying to fuse it to her devastated flesh, but…

  What? His heart stopped with the sudden absence of her essence.

  His gaze flew to her face. “Jessie?” Her beautiful eyes. Her vibrancy gone, now empty, staring beyond into the endless night.

  The earth trembled beneath him, rolling outward beneath his thighs as a great crescendo of anguish exploded through his being. His whole body shook as he threw his head back and roared. The pain, the pain.

  Vast. Dark. Cold.

  Absolute.

  He gathered her broken form to his heart. His throat, chest, neck—all brittle, filled with a thousand razor blades. He kissed her lips, pushing all his life energy at her. He sliced his throat and let his blood pour down to mingle with hers.

  He rocked her in his arms and cried as all the grass died and the leaves withered and fell from the trees. Headstones heaved from the ground and the branches moaned and sighed and snapped though the wind had stopped. The ground shook, gravel from the road like dice in a cup, translating his dangerous rush of emotion.

  “Alexios!” He bellowed at the universe. Where was their leader? “Please, brother, come. I so desperately need you.”

  Nate breathed in her scent, the coils of her hair silky against his face, her grandparents’ weeping echoing his own.

  A large white owl swooped over him, its throaty hoot and soft whoosh of wings making him shiver for lost dreams. For so many other wonders he’d never share with her.

  The owl hooted softly once more and landed on the heaving ground in front of Nate. The ground instantly calmed as the owl morphed in a flash of white into a tall man with long dark hair, a black goatee, and slashing eyebrows over enigmatic brown eyes. Nate’s heart kick-started in his chest, and he hurried to his feet with Jessie in his arms. The figure in front of him crackled with power. Nate reached out to discover if his energy was light or dark, but this energy was different from anything he’d ever encountered before. He gathered Jessie’s inert form closer to his body. Maybe he should fight to the death himself. He had a strong feeling he wouldn’t last long in battle with one such as this. “If you are here for a fight, be warned, I have nothing more to lose.”

  “I come in peace, Guardian. You need not fear me. I am Archangel Raphae
l. Alexios heard your plea, sent word to Michael, and so, I am here in your time of need.”

  Raphael’s bass voice held notes of timelessness that reverberated with sacrifice and…something else. Something more human perhaps.

  Nate’s throat worked as he went down on one knee. He’d heard stories of this one. The healer archangel. Nate had known Alexios had been trained by the soldier Archangel Michael, but he’d had no idea that Alexios was so important to the archangels that they’d heed his calls for aid. “Healer. Please, I beseech you to aid my compar.”

  Raphael’s dark eyes bored into Nate’s, probing for what, he had no idea. But he had no more walls. Jessie had brought them all down with her love. She’d shown him what it meant when love was freely given. It was the most beautiful gift of all.

  “You would take an imperfect human as your mate?”

  “She is more pure than I could ever hope to be.”

  Raphael was silent for a time. “She cannot be as you. She was good in her lifetime.”

  Unlike the Guardians. “All the more reason to bring her back. The world needs her goodness.”

  “You would bring her back to fight horrors when even now she is enjoying all the gifts of the Afterlife as befits one of her character?”

  Nate opened his mouth, then closed it. Hell yes, bring her back! he wanted to shout. He wanted to be selfish. He wanted to think she’d fight to come back, that fighting evil at his side was worth giving up the…whatever good stuff happened after you died.

  But…the archangel’s question posed an impossible dilemma.

  Nate’s heart broke all over again. He turned away from the healer’s stare and then squeezed Jessie, pressing his lips to her cold ones. She deserved more than anything he could give her. He wouldn’t bring her back to feel more pain.

  “Are you sure about that? You will be forever alone without her.” It was a dark voice crawling through his mind and firing up his anger. “I can bring her back. I can, and…I will.”

  A command. Nate glanced quickly around him, but the echoing voice wasn’t coming from anything with physical form. He turned back to Raphael. The archangel hadn’t moved.