Hunt the Darkness (Order of the Blade Book 11)

by Stephanie Rowe

  “It doesn’t feel nice,” he growled, “so drop the subject.”

  Her eyebrows went up. “It doesn’t feel nice to say I’m your woman?”

  “No.” He glared at her, still climbing fast. “It pisses me off to be thinking about some asshole making the moves on you when there are demons hunting us. We’re in the middle of a battle zone, and I’m thinking about sex. This is why I was celibate for so long. So I could focus. Jesus.”

  She grinned. “I think about sex all the time, and I’ve managed to stay alive, so it’s not the end of the world.”

  She looked so amused and pleased that some of his irritation faded. “You’re crazy, woman.”

  Her smile widened. “Thanks.” Her gaze flicked past him, and she wrinkled her nose. “I finally meet a guy who noticed I’m more than boobs, and I don’t even get a chance to tease him about it. Life is just so unfair.”

  Gabe actually found himself chuckling as he followed her gaze and glanced over his shoulder at the ground below. He narrowed his gaze when he saw the demons were only two hundred feet below them, and moving quickly. He and Maria were still too far from the top. At the speed the demons were ascending, there was no way they were going to reach the top before the demons were upon them.

  He was damn good with his weapons, but demons were tricky, especially in that many numbers, and the stakes were much higher now that he had a sheva to protect. He wasn’t used to going into battle without his team, and he didn’t like this situation. This was why the Order needed to be rebuilt. There was no way he should have had to make this trip alone. His team should have been all over getting Dante back…not that it mattered. Right now, they had to deal with the situation, not waste time whining over shit that couldn’t be changed.

  He glanced at Maria, who was climbing again, the muscles in her legs flexing as she raced up the cliff, moving fast…but not fast enough. Shit. Vlad? You nearby? He shared his location with the warrior.

  Vlad responded almost immediately. Sophie says we’re about twenty minutes from there. Why?

  We got trouble. Gabe dug deeper, channeling more strength into his muscles. He began to gain on Maria, but the demons were still gaining on him.

  We’re coming. We’ll be there in twenty.

  Make it two, or we’re all fucked. The demons were now only a hundred and fifty feet behind. Their muscles were cut and hard, their gazes fixed on him and Maria. They looked like men, in their leather pants and boots, but their eyes were black pits of hunger, devoid of humanity, devoid of emotions. They weren’t like rogue Calydons, who were enraged. These were like automatons, predators caught in the thrall of the hunt, focused on nothing else but their prey.

  He glanced at the top of the cliff, quickly calculating if they could make it.

  They couldn’t.

  He was going to have to fight. Keep going, Maria. I’ll hold them off.

  She stopped immediately and looked down at him. What? No! Keep going, Gabe.

  Fuck, Maria. Keep moving!

  Not until you do.

  We won’t make it. You get to the top, and fight from there. He hauled himself up another ten feet, onto a ledge that was less than five inches deep, and a foot wide. He braced himself on it, his back against the cliff, then called out his weapons. The crack and flash of black light ignited the darkness, and he felt the mountain shudder under the force of it.

  He immediately hurled both weapons, in a one-two hit that decapitated the two lead demons. They fell off the cliff with screams of agony while he recalled his weapons. They hurtled back to him with blinding speed, and the moment he caught them, he threw them again. He lined up his shots this time, and one of his swords cut through three demons in a row—

  Until the fourth one caught it, snatching it out of the air.

  Fuck. He tried to call it back, but the demon’s fist closed around it, his body jerking as he fought the axe’s attempts to return to Gabe.

  His other hook sword slammed back into his hand just as the lead demon reached Gabe. He swung hard, slamming his blade into the demon’s chest as another one leaped up onto the ledge. They swarmed him like locusts, biting, slicing, and clawing. He swung hard and fast, moving with lightning efficiency, but there were too many, too fast. They moved like Calydons, every bit as fast, agile, and deadly, except their only weapons were their claws, their teeth, the sheer force of their strength—

  A demon slammed its claws around Gabe’s throat and slammed him up against the wall. Gabe swung hard with his hook sword, slicing through the demon’s torso, but it didn’t move. Its eyes darkened and it pressed its claws into Gabe’s chest. Jesus. It was going to tear his heart out! Gabe struck again, but the demon didn’t seem to feel it. He couldn’t get the angle to decapitate it, and nothing else seemed to be slowing it down. The other demons surged past him, heading after Maria.

  Shit! He glanced up, his gut clenching when he saw her surrounded by demons, fighting desperately. Blood was pouring from her shoulder, and her cheek, but she was heavily armed, fighting with impressive skill that would have kicked ass in any other situation. There were just too many demons, and the fact they were hanging on the side of a cliff meant both he and Maria had only one arm free to fight with. “Hey!” he shouted, trying to draw their attention. “Come after me, you dumb fucks—”

  At that moment, one of the demons hit her hard, slamming his fist into the side of her head.

  She swayed, and then fell, free-falling straight down toward him.

  “Maria!” With a roar of fury, Gabe hurled the nearest demon aside and lunged forward. “Grab my hand!”

  She shook her head, as if to clear it, then reached out as she dropped past. They grabbed each other, and he braced himself as he jerked her to a stop. “Come on, babe.” He hauled her up onto his ledge. She flashed a grin at him, but the demons were on them before they could recover.

  Gabe struck hard and fast with his weapon, as she did the same with hers, but he knew they were outmatched. They wouldn’t last three minutes, let alone twenty. There simply wasn’t enough maneuvering room, and the demons were so much more agile on the cliff.

  “Look!” Maria suddenly shouted, pointing across the darkened sky. Swooping across the sky was a demon, its black, feathered wings flapping slowly as it raced toward them.

  He recognized it instantly. It was her brother, the bastard who’d tried to kill them when they’d first arrived. Son of a bitch. They didn’t have time to deal with an overprotective brother right now.

  Maria threw her arms around Gabe’s neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Jump,” she shouted. “Jump!”

  It was a thousand foot drop onto solid rock, with demons swarming below them. It was suicide.

  A demon slammed its claw into his back, and he stumbled, almost losing his grip on the cliff.

  Gabe. Trust me. Jump. Maria tightened her arms and legs around him, no longer fighting the demons. Just holding onto him.

  He didn’t have his team with him. He didn’t even have a partner. All he had was Maria, and they were outmatched.

  This was her world. The one she’d survived in for centuries.

  Swearing, he wrapped his arms around her. I will be incredibly pissed if we die.

  We won’t.

  Okay. He tightened his grip on her…and jumped.

  Chapter 33

  The moment they emerged from the passageway between the cliffs, Sophie could hear the sounds of battle. The scent of sulfur burned her nose, and she knew the demons were close. Fear leapt through her as a sudden wave of heat hit her. The warmth was coming through the rock wall in front of them, and she recognized it as the dark energy that demons sometimes exuded during intense battles. “They’re on the other side of that! Maria!” She broke into a run, sprinting alongside the base of the cliff, panic hammering at her.

  “Shit, Soph.” Vlad hissed. “Keep quiet! We don’t want to alert the demons we’re here.”

  She ignored him, scrambling over the rocks. “It wil
l take us twenty minutes to get around it. Hurry!” They were so close, and yet she couldn’t get through. “Run!” She scrambled over the rocks. Urgency coursed through her, and sweat was beading on her forehead. “What did Gabe say? Are they still alive?”

  “Yeah. He said they need us now.” Vlad was moving swiftly, keeping pace with her easily as they raced down the narrow path winding along the cliff side.

  “Dammit! I knew we shouldn’t have split up.” Panic was hammering at her chest. “What if something happens to her? What if—”

  Vlad caught her arm and spun her around toward him. “Hey.”

  “Let me go!” She tried to get free. “We don’t have time—”

  He ignored her. “Listen to me, Soph. You can’t help them if you’re panicking. You have to keep your head clear.”

  She grabbed his fingers, trying to pry his immovable hand off her arm. “Let me go! We don’t have time for some meditative moment to get me in touch with my inner self. Maria is being attacked by demons!”

  Vlad was infuriatingly calm. “Maria’s half demon, and Gabe’s a Calydon. Together, they’re absolute badasses.”

  “But the demons outnumber them—”

  He nodded. “I know. So, we need to focus. Twenty minutes is going to be too late.”

  Her heart seemed to freeze in her chest. “What?”

  “We have about two minutes.” He pointed at the cliff. “Get us through it.”

  “Get us through the rock wall?” She stared at him. “But—”

  Vlad raised his brows. “Do you happen to know anyone else who can take us through rocks?”

  “Shut up. Of course I can do it, but I can’t go through solid rock quickly. It would take us forever, and I don’t even know if I can trust myself with rock right now—”

  “So, what could you do?” His voice was steady, calming her just enough to realize the enormity of the situation. Maria was in trouble, and needed help. Twenty minutes would be too late. Was Vlad right? Was there something she could do?

  “Could you widen a passageway that was already there?” he asked. “Would that be faster?”

  “Yes, but there’s no passage. It’s solid.” Even as she said it, however, she spun around to face the rocks, scanning them quickly for any kind of crack. Her heart sank. “Nothing.”

  Vlad pointed at the ground. “Isn’t that hell hound droppings?”

  She looked down. “Yes—” She spun toward the cliff again, her nose burning from the scent of sulfur from the battle. “They travel through cracks in the rock. There has to be something here.”

  In unison, she and Vlad raced to the wall. They both set their hands on it and began running their palms over the rock. It felt impenetrable, but she knew it couldn’t be. There had to be a sliver, a crack, something tiny that she could slide into—

  Then she felt it, a cool wind that brushed over her fingertips. “Here!” She pressed her hands to the crack, pouring her energy into the rock. It began to shift immediately, the molecules drifting to the side to widen the passageway—

  “What the hell is that?”

  The sudden tension in Vlad’s voice made her turn. She followed his gaze, and she saw a dark shadow racing across the sky. A winged demon. Fear knifed through her. “A demon. Only a few of them have wings.” Her heart began to pound as it headed right toward them.

  Its wings were massive, flapping in a slow, unhurried rhythm that propelled it forward with blinding speed. It was in full beast form, with no human features at all. Just a scaled body and face, like a dragon born from hell itself. It was still too far away to see the details, but its horns were more curved than most, and the sheer size of its body was apparent. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “It could be Lucien.”

  “Lucien? Fuck.” Vlad grasped her arm and jerked her back against the cliff. “Stay still,” he said. “I’ll divert his attention.” He pointed his finger to the other side of the lava fields.

  The approaching winged beast swung to the right, hovering as it stared in the direction that Vlad had just pointed to. The moment it went still, she was able to see it clearly, and she knew. There was no mistaking the shape of its horns and the sheer size of its body. “It’s him,” she whispered, stunned. “It’s Lucien. He never comes down to the lava fields. Ever. Why is he here?”

  Vlad grabbed her and shoved her behind a rocky outcropping. “Stay low.” He crouched beside her, his index finger still extended, as he tried to direct Lucien’s attention away from them with his magic.

  For a long moment, Lucien hovered in place, searching the far cliffs. “It’s working,” she whispered.

  But even as she said it, Lucien turned his head and looked directly toward them.

  Sophie sucked in her breath, flattening herself against the rock. Her fingers dug into the rock, and she wanted to dissolve into it, even at the risk of losing herself in it, but to transform the rock required a burst of energy, which Lucien would be looking for. It would bring him right toward her, not to mention the problem of being stuck in it. Fear hammered at her. “We don’t have any weapons.”

  Vlad crouched down beside her, and she felt a pulse of energy from him as he began to amass his power. “He’s made of living matter,” he whispered. “I should have been able to hold him, but he broke through it too easily—”

  There was a victorious roar, and suddenly Lucien landed in front of them, hitting the ground so hard that the rocky ledge shuddered beneath him.

  Sophie yelped and scrambled to her feet. Vlad leapt up, grabbed her wrist, and thrust her behind the rock, back out onto the ledge they’d just been on. He followed quickly, keeping his body between her and Lucien as they scrambled to get out in the open.

  Lucien followed them, his clawed feet digging into the rock. His face was dark with fury, his claws extended, his horns curving back from his head. Up close, she realized that his face still had remnants of his human form, just enough that she could make out the same cheekbones, the same eyes, the same forehead, almost as if his human face had been transplanted directly into the beast’s visage, merging the two together. The effect was terrifying. “You ran from me.” He didn’t even look at Vlad. His entire focus was on Sophie.

  Dear God. What chance did they have? They could never fight him. “Lucien—”

  “She is mine.” Vlad stepped in front of Lucien, his hands flexing by his sides. His face was stoic, and power radiated off him so fiercely she could see the air undulating.

  “Yours?” Lucien turned his attention to Vlad. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Her husband.”

  Her husband. The words were so possessive, spoken like a man who would never, ever relinquish his woman. She’d thought it would scare her, but it didn’t. It made strength pour through her, as if she could feed upon Vlad’s power and make it her own.

  Lucien shrugged. “I don’t care.” He dismissed Vlad, and raked his gaze over Sophie. “You made a bargain, Sophie. You cannot walk away.” He held out his clawed hand. “You will come to me now.”

  His command seemed to thunder through her head, and Sophie gasped, pressing her fingers to her forehead, fighting against the sudden compulsion to walk toward him. “He’s doing something to me, Vlad,” she whispered. “I can’t—” She took a step toward the demon.

  Vlad’s hand clamped around her wrist, jerking her to a stop. “You made a deal with him?”

  “Yes, to save Maria, but I didn’t mean it.” She tugged against his grip, trying to get free, trying to get to Lucien. Dear God. What kind of power did he have over her? “Vlad—”

  He jerked her against his side, and locked his arm around her waist. “Mine.” He shot the single word at Lucien, no longer bothering with an explanation.

  Lucien, however, was staring at Sophie, shock on his face. “You’re holding form.”

  Too late, Sophie realized that she’d just revealed herself. She was pressed up against Vlad, touching from shoulder to hip, and she was staying corporeal. “It’s because he’s n
ot a demon,” she snapped, forcing bravado and hostility into her voice.

  “You fucking bitch.” Lucien lunged across the ledge, his claws outstretched—

  Vlad pointed his finger and Lucien was thrown backwards, slamming into the cliff. He roared with fury, twisting violently as he fought to get free of Vlad’s hold. The cliff cracked, and pebbles began to roll down, showering over the ledge. “I can’t hold him,” Vlad muttered, sweat beading on his temple. “He’s strong as hell. Can you bring the rocks down on him? Bury him?”

  Sophie glanced up at the rocky cliff. “I’ll try.” Fear flickered through her at the thought of connecting with the rock, but she shoved it aside. She had no time to be afraid. She raced over to the wall and placed her bare hands on the rock. The moment she made contact with it, she felt the call of the minerals, trying to drag her into it. Without Vlad to anchor her, she felt herself tumbling into the rock, trying to hide from Lucien, the way she’d dissolved so many times in the past. Panicked, she jerked her hands off the wall.

  “Soph! I can’t hold him! Bury him!” Vlad’s voice was tight, and she glanced over at him. He was down on his knees, his palm outstretched toward Lucien, who was still pinned against the cliff above her head. Lucien was struggling violently, crashing against the cliff and sending rock fragments down upon them as he fought.

  “I can’t! The rock is trying to take me!”

  “You can do it.” Vlad’s muscles were visibly shaking with the effort of containing Lucien’s power. “You don’t need to run away anymore, Soph. Do it.”

  “I—” She glanced up at Lucien again, fear hammering at her. He was a terrifying beast, so powerful and strong that she knew she had no chance against him. No chance to fight. No chance to run. No chance to survive him.

  “Sophie! Now!”

  Vlad’s voice ripped through her, and she jerked her gaze off Lucien. She focused on the rock wall. “I can do this,” she whispered to herself. “I can do this.” She took a deep breath and set her hands on the rock again. Instantly, she began to dissolve, merging with the rock. “No, dammit!” She jerked her hands off again, sweat beading down her back. She needed to manipulate the rock, not dissolve into it, but she couldn’t. All her body would let her do was hide.