“Seriously?” Milo was breathless.
He dropped down beside me, his hands on my body, searching for wounds.
I winced at the pain his fingers caused.
“We were wrong,” Jax said in a hard voice. Determined. “It wasn’t heaven. It was him. Her fucking brother. I’m going to make her mortal. Faith, you make the kill.”
“No,” I uttered the word like a prayer. A plea.
But Jax ignored me. As I knew he would.
Across the alley, I saw him then. Four legs. Sleek, black body. A panther with deadly canines. And I watched, helpless, as he sank those canines into Adrik’s throat—and ripped.
Chapter Nineteen
“No!”
Pain tore through me, and I heaved as my insides lurched at the horrific sight of Jax standing over Adrik’s unconscious bleeding body.
Selaphiel dropped to her knees, her entire being focused on her brother.
I still wasn’t sure which of us had screamed.
Hands landed lightly against my shoulder and ribs. Milo was in my ear, whispering words I couldn’t decipher.
My ears roared, my entire existence suspended.
As I lay there, I could see as Faith dropped from the fire escape and closed the distance. Her fangs descended, she bent over Selaphiel and sank her teeth into Selaphiel’s throat.
Selaphiel snarled and shoved at Faith, the blast from the blow sending Faith crashing through the bay door at her back. Dust rose in a cloud that obscured her, and I bit my lip, praying it had been enough.
But Selaphiel climbed to her feet, furious and full of life. Blood dripped down her throat and onto her shirt. But no sign of weakness or vulnerability slowed her down.
When Faith re-emerged, Selaphiel was waiting.
She blasted Faith again, and this time, when my vampire friend fell, she didn’t get up again.
“You thought you could kill me,” Selaphiel screamed, her voice breaking as she whirled on Jax.
He still stood over Adrik, eyeing Selaphiel warily. His face dripped with Adrik’s blood, and I averted my eyes, unable to face the reality of what he’d just done.
With nothing more than a flick of her wrist, she sent Jax flying.
He grunted as he fell and then didn’t move again.
Selaphiel rounded on me and Milo.
“You won’t touch her,” Milo said.
When he moved to stand in front of me, Selaphiel only laughed. Her blast of power sent him onto his back and still managed to knock me sideways. The air whooshed out of me, and stars danced before my eyes.
Failure clogged my senses.
“No,” I choked out.
I couldn’t see past the black dots. And I couldn’t think past the fact that we’d lost.
Wounding Adrik hadn’t weakened Selaphiel. And we’d been wrong about the portal to heaven. About going home. That bitch didn’t care about anything or anyone but herself. And now, Selaphiel would kill us all.
Her twisted smile as she watched me scramble away from her only proved it. The only thing she cared about was pain.
“You’re pathetic,” she said, stalking closer to me; a predator enjoying the moment before its kill. “Thinking you could outwit me. By brains or force. Thinking you were actually smarter or stronger than me. It’s almost funny. If it weren’t so annoying. Pity about Adrik. He always was the best of us.”
“Just. . . fucking . . . kill me,” I wheezed.
“No thanks. With Adrik gone, you’re not worth my time anymore. Besides, it looks like Mother Nature will take care of that for me.”
I didn’t answer.
Blood trickled from my nose.
“Now, where was I?” Selaphiel said. “Ah yes, summoning enough demons to destroy this entire dimension—just in time for me to protect this worthless world from its own fate.” She winked. “Being a savior is such a hard job.”
I stared at her, unable to move but unwilling to give up.
“You can’t conjure a portal on your own,” I said, gritting my teeth through the pain. “And your warlock is dead.”
“Lucky for me, there’s more where he came from.” She turned toward the mouth of the alley and called, “Come on already. I haven’t got all night.”
A figure appeared, hurrying toward us in the darkness.
Something about the set of his shoulders—confident, sly—and the gleam in his eyes, tugged at my awareness. My cloudy brain searched for recognition, but it wasn’t until he reached me that my straining eyesight finally recognized who had come.
“Z.”
The act of uttering his name aloud was like a punch in my gut. A knife twisting inside my broken body.
“Hello, Gem.” His eyes glittered. “So much for no one wanting me, eh?” He smiled broadly, and any remaining shred of hope I’d hung onto shattered.
“You’re working for her.”
“With her,” he corrected. Then he shot Selaphiel a secret smile. “I know a winning team when I see it.”
“Get what we need,” Selaphiel snapped at him.
Z strode forward and knelt in front of me. He reached out and grasped my arm. I tried to yank away, but he was stronger, quicker. Damn Selaphiel’s draining blast.
In a quick motion, he’d squeezed the wound on my arm and collected several drops of my blood in a small vial.
“What are you doing?” I demanded as he rose and backed off.
“Turns out, your death isn’t the only useful thing about your fleeting existence, little shifter.” Selaphiel’s smile was a thing of nightmares. “Your life is equally useful to me. Maybe more so.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Last time we saw each other, the power you possess left quite an impact.” She turned her back on me, adding, “Let’s see what it can do for me now.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, trying to remember. To make sense of her words.
My power?
“Your shapeshifting ability affects more than just your own body,” Z said. “But hey, the good news is she doesn’t have to kill you in order for you to become the sacrifice needed to open the true portal she desires.”
His grin made me want to punch him in the balls if he had any.
“Let’s get on with it, warlock,” Selaphiel said. “Come.”
They both strode away from me without a backward glance. When they stepped inside the ritual circle, my stomach sank.
There was no stopping her now.
Not with Adrik bleeding and Jax gone. And fucking Z.
If I made it out of this alley tonight, I was going to kill him for this. And if I didn’t, I’d haunt his soul from the other side until the day he died.
Chapter Twenty
Z’s voice rang out clearly against the silence.
Blood calls to blood.
Creature to creature.
I close this world beyond worlds,
Death be its teacher.
Z’s incantation was different than the one he’d given me. A deliberate move, I could only assume as I struggled to fit the pieces into place. Had he already aligned himself with Selaphiel when I’d gone to him? Or had that come after? Once he’d learned what we were doing. Did it really matter now?
A portal formed, this one much different from the one I’d conjured earlier. Black, sulfurous smoke poured from it.
Selaphiel’s face lit up like a kid at Christmas, and she stopped eyeballing me like her biggest regret was not clawing my eyes out before this part of her plan began to unfold. Instead, she stared into the portal like a twelve-year-old zoned out on YouTubers playing Minecraft.
“At last,” she whispered to herself. And then, louder, into the void of the portal itself, “Eris, general of the underland of the fifth realm, I summon thee.”
Selaphiel’s words sent a ripple of unease down my spine.
A few seconds later, something emerged from the inky depths of the portal’s surface.
A monster, larger and more grotesque than any I�
��d ever seen, stood before Selaphiel.
“Master, I am your servant.” He bowed his head, deferring to Selaphiel, which only seemed to please her more.
“Bring your legions,” she told him. “This world is yours for the taking.”
“We are ready.”
Behind him, I could see the outlines of more like him.
An army.
A demon army.
Shit.
I tried to get up only to fall back again when my muscles gave out. A groan sounded, and I looked over to see Milo stirring.
“Run,” I pleaded softly, hoping our Bluetooth connection still held strong. “She can’t be stopped. Get out while you can.”
Milo looked over, his eyes wide, and I knew he’d heard me. “Clearly, you’ve hit your head one too many times, Gem Hawkins, to think I’d ever leave you behind.”
“She won,” I whispered. “She’s going to summon every demon that exists inside that portal. And I don’t have the strength to fight them all off myself.”
“Now, Cora!” Gran’s voice rang out loud and unhinged—and way too damn excited, considering the circumstances.
Selaphiel looked up, toward the noise, just as a large web fell from the sky and coated her ethereal body.
“What is this?” Selaphiel hissed as she struggled against the webbing, but with every move, it only clung to her harder. She spun, stumbling out of the ritual circle as she fought against the netting. She lifted a hand and pressed her palm to the webbing, her body spasming, but no power came.
“It’s called a motherfucking booby trap,” Gran called, clearly enjoying herself.
Selaphiel’s expression contorted in rage. “You think your silly magic tricks can hold me?” she hissed. “Warlock, free me.”
“I’m not sure what that is,” Z said uncertainly. “But it’s not dark magic.”
“Do something,” she ordered.
Z raised an arm and pointed at Selaphiel. He uttered a few incoherent words, but nothing happened. He dropped his arm. “Sorry. It’s not my wheelhouse, lady. I don’t think there’s anything I can do.”
“Useless,” she hissed, desperation making her movements jerky as she continued to try to free herself.
Wind kicked up, and a figure descended from above, its form strangely wide until it touched down and suddenly broke in two. Hurriedly, they came forward, into the light. I blinked and saw Raphziel—and my mother.
“Mom?” I croaked.
“Darling.” My mother rushed toward me.
“Watch out,” I warned her, but she brushed past Selaphiel without a second glance.
Raphziel hung back, glancing at the state of the alley and its inhabitants. He watched Selaphiel carefully, but she only continued to struggle against the webbing clinging to her, sealing itself against her skin.
“Mom, what did you do?” I asked.
“You know I can’t resist a good home defense system.”
“Mom, Selaphiel’s not some cat burglar. She’s a Nephilim.”
She shrugged. “Seems to be working well enough.”
I couldn’t argue.
Unbelievable as it seemed, Selaphiel had been rendered powerless by my mother’s booby trap.
“How is this possible?” I asked.
Raphziel strode up.
“I give it five minutes. Six tops,” he said. “Before my ability combined with your mother’s little trick gives out. What’s the plan?”
I blinked at him, stunned.
“Uh, listen, these demons are leaking out faster than I can send them back inside.” Z’s voice cut through my shocked silence, and we all looked over to see him hunched over inside the rituals circle.
Just past where he stood, demons were sliding out of the black portal. They took one look at the Nephilim crowding the alley and sprinted for the street.
“Stop them,” Raphziel ordered though I had no idea who he was speaking to. Considering no one in this alley was about to take orders from him—even if they had been conscious.
But it wasn’t my little pack of fugitive friends that responded.
One by one, silhouettes appeared from the street, blocking the demons’ escape. Their faces were impossible to make out. But their fighting stances. The outline of their military-issue knives—
“Is that the SSF?” I croaked.
“It is,” Raphziel said as calmly as if this were nothing more than a training exercise. “Cora, we should go before the fighting reaches us.”
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
My mom ran a hand over my hair, gently enough it didn’t make me wince in pain. “Raph made me promise I could help if I got out of the way before I was in real danger.”
I shot him a look.
“Letting her go all Spider-man on Selaphiel wasn’t real danger?”
“I’ve done what I can. You’re welcome,” he said simply, and then he was whisking my mother back to the sky.
“What the actual fuck,” Milo said, sliding closer to me now. I could see the bone protruding from his ankle where it’d broken when he’d fallen.
“Mi,” I said.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said, clasping my hand in his. “And look. It’s not over yet.”
He gestured to the demons still climbing from the portal, and the growing contingent of agents pushing into the alley to fight them off.
“Your friend is right.” Z rushed up and dropped down beside me. “It’s not over. But it can be. I need your help. Can you walk?”
When he reached for my arm, I shrank back. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to help you,” he said with all the cockiness I’d come to loathe.
“You’re helping her,” I said, pointing to where the webbing had rooted Selaphiel into a standstill. She continued to fight against it, but without the luxury of her power, she was defenseless.
“It was a trick, okay?” Z huffed. “The Nephilim and I made a deal.”
“Adrik?”
My eyes darted to where Adrik’s body still lay broken and unmoving near the rubble where Jax—
I couldn’t think about that now.
“No, the other one. Az-something.”
“Azrael made a deal with you?” I asked.
“What kind of deal?” Milo asked.
“Ugh. We do not have time for this,” Z said, urgent now. “That web will only hold for a few more minutes.”
“What can we do?” Milo asked, clearly past the shock I was still fighting.
“Give me your hand.”
Z grabbed Milo’s hand and whispered a phrase I didn’t recognize. Milo exhaled.
“Better?” Z asked.
“Much.”
The bone hadn’t moved but the tension in Milo’s expression had eased.
Z looked at me again.
“Gem, let him help,” Milo said.
Z didn’t wait for my permission before grabbing my arm. His lips moved as he uttered some incantation, and then warmth surged into me.
The pain and brain fog began to ease.
“Better?” Z asked.
I nodded.
“I’m still going to murder you when this is over,” I told him.
There was no trace of humor in his eyes as he said, “I’m counting on it. Now, move your ass.”
He pulled me to my feet and helped me into the ritual circle. Milo limped behind us. “We’ll be safe in here.”
“Now what?” I asked. “What’s your plan?”
“Well, contrary to what McGuire wanted to believe, it looks like killing her ass is out,” Z said. “So, I vote we move to Plan B.”
“What’s Plan B?”
His confidence wavered. “Well, it had a lot to do with that other Nephilim she took down. So, actually, Plan C.”
“Which is?” I pressed.
“I was sort of hoping you’d tell me.”
I groaned.
“Look, I’m a hired gun,” Z said defensively. “I don’t know how to kill a Nephilim.”
Milo’s tone was laced with defeat as he said, “I don’t think we can.”
The clash of weapons punctuated his words—and the sinking feeling in my gut. Milo was right. We’d tried everything. Killing Selaphiel wasn’t going to work. If I tried to fight her now, I’d only invite my own death.
Jophiel’s words rang in my ears.
He’d told me I had “rest” coming, and I just prayed that rest wasn’t about to come in the form of, you know, dying. Even if Adrik hadn’t gotten up yet. And even if the rest of my friends still lay unmoving, thanks to Selaphiel’s power of destruction.
I scanned the space, noting the demons coming from the portal had slowed. In the meantime, the door to whatever world it led to remained open.
“I have an idea.”
When I moved to step outside the circle, Z pulled me back.
“You’re only safe inside the circle,” he warned. “It’s the best I can do, considering the circumstances.”
I glanced at Selaphiel. She’d managed to break through a section of webbing.
“We don’t have much time left,” I said.
“Gem,” Z began, but another voice interrupted him.
“Don’t you backtalk my granddaughter anymore, you slippery bedroom sausage.”
Gran buzzed right past me and slammed into Z’s face right between the eyes.
“Ow,” he muttered.
“Gran!” Relief poured through me. Underneath it, grief remained as I thought of the friends I’d lost tonight. But seeing her alive gave me hope.
“You didn’t think that pasty bitch got to me, did you?” Gran said.
“That really fucking hurt,” Z muttered, still rubbing at the spot where she’d beaned him.
I couldn’t help it, I smiled.
“I think we’re down to seconds now,” Milo said, and my smile fell away as I noticed Selaphiel had nearly broken free of the webbed booby trap.
It was now or never.
“Gran, do you think you can bean her like you did Z?” I asked, my feet inching closer and closer to the circle’s edge.
Whatever numbing spell Z had given me was working. And now, every part of me itched to take Selaphiel down myself. But I had to be smart.
“Damn right, I can.”
Death's Door (Supernatural Security Force Book 3) Page 18
