by Raquel Lyon
Any dreams I had that there might be an actual human to strike a bargain with disappeared under his black-eyed stare, but I couldn’t hide my astonishment at his youth from my voice. “You’re the boss?”
“Silence. You will speak only when directed to.”
Cocky little bastard.
His words cut through a dull whirring sound interspersed by a regular mechanical clunk that caught my attention and pulled my gaze along the stone wall to a strange machine sitting in a far corner. A hotchpotch of pipes wound around its exterior and fed into the walls and ceiling.
“I see you admire my father’s greatest achievement,” the boy said. “He gave his life to ensure future generations of our race are no longer slaves to the heat. Such a great mind wasted.” My sight travelled to a wall hanging bearing a man’s face, and I wondered if the image was that of the man himself. I turned back to the boy as he asked with a touch of malice, “Did you kill him?”
“Me? No. I’ve never met the man. Today is my first time here.”
“So you deny being in league with that witch?”
“Witch? What witch?”
“The evil woman whose minions murdered my father.”
“Sorry, mate. You’ve lost me. I don’t know anything about your father or any evil woman.”
The boy’s leg lifted and the toe of his boot jabbed into my chin with a force that sent me flying onto my back. He then pressed a knee into my chest as he crouched over me and sneered. “Liar! You came here from the dark. She sent you here to kill again, didn’t she?”
I wanted to deny the accusation, to shoot his theory in his kick-happy foot by telling him I’d make a pretty pathetic assassin with no weapon and my hands shackled, but the impact of his kick coupled with the lack of oxygen stifling my crushed lungs shot my vocal chords into temporary retreat.
On the edge of my vision, Charlotte’s hand crept towards her boot. Shit. Why the fuck hadn’t I remembered to search there? If memory served, she kept an emergency dagger inside which might have done the trick with my cuffs, but it was small, and I hoped she wasn’t getting any big ideas about using it. The boss man might be practically pubescent, but to take on his three sidekicks by herself, even without them possessing knockout gas, would be insanity. Our only chance of escape was to play nice and plead our innocence. I turned my head and shook it lightly to warn her off. The demon boy noticed, and the weight lifted from my chest as he shifted his focus to her, snatching her hair back and wrenching the newly pulled dagger from her grasp to place it against her neck with inhuman speed.
“My men tell me you were there when my father was killed,” he growled.
“I didn’t know he was your father,” she snapped. “And now I wish I hadn’t bothered helping the rest of them. You’re just as bad as any dark demon.”
I rubbed my throat and cursed Charlotte for adding fuel to the fire as her hair suffered another tug.
“Where is the woman?” the boy bellowed.
“I don’t know!”
A line of red appeared along the knife’s blade. “Tell me!”
Charlotte’s lips twisted to a grimace. “Like he said, we don’t know any woman. But whoever she is, I hope she has every one of you gutted.”
“Are those your last words?” he asked.
Her answer was to spit in his face.
“Char!” The warning shot from my lips as my voice returned, but it was too late. Charlotte had ensured our fate was sealed.
The boy cast her roughly aside and wiped the spittle from his face as he stood up. His foot buried sharply into her side before he waved a hand at the demon who had captured us. “Take them away.”
“You’re done with them, boss?” he asked.
“Yes, yes. They’re of no further use. Kill them.”
Chapter Eighteen
An aroma that was fast rising up my Top 10 Fucking Rank list seeped over me, and I looked up into a pair of familiar bloodshot eyes.
“Gorn, Durg, take them to the holding cell. I’ll fetch the butcher,” he said with a twisted smile.
Charlotte grimaced as she was pulled to her feet and I was dragged up beside her.
“Wait,” I said. “Spare the girl. You can do what you like with me.”
“Oh, we will. We will.” His face closed in on mine—far too close for my liking. I held back a gag as our eyes locked for a second. “But your touching words will not save your woman.”
I wobbled as I was spun around by the shoulders, then pushed forward by my guard. I caught a look that I could only interpret as ‘thanks for trying’ in Charlotte’s eyes before she screamed at her demon “Get your slimy hands off me!” and shrugged him away.
A plan for escape would have been good at that moment, either mine or Charlotte’s; any would have done. But I had nothing, and Charlotte had lost our last remaining weapon. I’d noticed the boss boy admiring it as he’d headed back in the direction of the door his lackey was now entering. What we needed was something to take its place, and quick. With our opponents reduced to a one-on-one situation, now was our best chance to make a run for it.
I scouted the room as we crossed it in the hope of gaining a flash of inspiration, and then it came to me.
Nudging Charlotte in the back, I whispered, “Hold your breath.”
Then, with one swift movement, I ducked from my captor, hightailed it for the pipe box, and with more effort than my human muscles were used to, ripped a section away from its bolts.
A loud hiss accompanied the cloud of steam that shot from its end as I aimed it at the demon who’d been too slow to catch me. His hands shot to his face, and he screamed in agony. And before he had time to retaliate, I yanked the pipe fully from its connection and whacked him around the head with it. He hit the deck hard, and I whirled around to check on Charlotte, but I needn’t have worried.
She had her man in an armlock with her neckerchief stuffed into his mouth. I took aim and smashed the pipe into his face. He crumpled in her arms, and she let him fall to the floor before wiping her hands on her pants as if his whole body had been smeared with the same pus that oozed from his face.
“Nice work,” she said. “Now what?”
“Now we get out of here before their mates return.”
She glanced at the fallen demons as one let out a groan. “We’ll never make it.”
“Yes, we will.” I kicked the demon’s head to keep him down on my way to the wall, and when I reached it, I yanked down the wall hanging. “Give me a hand,” I said, throwing it over the bodies.
It didn’t take long to roll the guards in the hanging and secure the ends with the decorative rope tassels adorning it, but it was time we couldn’t afford.
I picked up the pipe. “Let’s go.”
“Where to?” Charlotte asked. “We know that door leads underground and”—her gaze moved to the doorway the others had entered—“that one has more trouble behind it.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But if it does, we’ll handle it.”
We managed precisely four steps before the door opened again and stopped us in our tracks.
The boss boy was the first to come through, curiously still clutching Charlotte’s knife. He was followed by a familiar face and one other, decidedly smoother one—larger, too, to match the hulking body behind it. The boy took in the sausage bundle on the floor.
“How…?” He faltered for barely a second before growling, “You’ll pay for that.”
“Oh, yeah? Planning on killing us twice, are you?” I said derisively.
His lip curled. “You will die slowly and extremely painfully.”
Not if I could help it.
My smelly friend took a step forward, mouth open, and I was about to pull in a breath as a hand slammed into his chest.
“You seem to have forgotten that I am in the room, Raxos,” the boss said. “Stand down. Let Kazil handle it.”
I guessed Kazil was the big guy’s name when he drew up his shoulders, and I had to cock a brow at his showbo
ating. He was already a good foot taller and wider than me, and there really wasn’t any need for him to show off. I let out a huff. Big guys. They always thought they had the edge. It was almost a shame their bulk made them slow. I enjoyed a fight far better when faced with a more equal opponent. I readied the pipe. This dude was going down.
A grin spread across his big face, and his unusually large eyes bulged as they homed in on me. I was about to grin back, but my mouth froze at the sight of his fingers transforming into a strange assortment of knives. Okay, that was new. Now I understood the butcher part, and maybe Marty Feldman and Edward freaking Scissorhands’ lovechild was a more worthy opponent than I’d anticipated.
I leaned in to Charlotte and rubbed my hand across my mouth. “Leave the big guy to me. Why don’t you see if you can get your property back?”
She nodded her understanding and darted for the boss.
Whether he’d expected us to run in the opposite direction or back into a corner, cowering, or make some other yellow-bellied move, like apologise or surrender, I don’t know. But from the astonishment that filled his eyes, it was clear he hadn’t expected to be rushed by a raging, militant woman.
I ran for the big guy with possible ways to take him out racing through my head. He swiped a bladed hand at my face as I reached striking distance, but I dodged and ducked under it, then swung the pipe across his knees as we met. Shit! He was as solid as a statue. I spun around behind him, geared up for another attack, in time to spot Charlotte reaching the boss boy before he had time to react.
Her hair flew out behind her as she dropped down on one hand and slid past him, snatching her knife with the other. Nice move, babe!
Distracted by a claw of blades slashing out at me again, I blocked them with the pipe and missed seeing Charlotte get to her feet. But as metal clanged on metal, a devil roar filled the air, and I glanced over to see Charlotte bury her knife between the boss boy’s shoulder blades. I would have loved to have seen him fall, but I was a bit too busy deflecting shit loads of murderous blows. I knew he had, though. The remaining demon’s outrage at his master’s death was pretty vocal, and I couldn’t allow that mouth of his to change from his initial fury to carrying out the threat he was issuing—that with the boss now dead, he no longer needed to exercise caution and there was nothing to stop him from killing us.
He had to be dead meat before that happened.
Swiftly backing towards Pus Face Smelly Mouth, I lured the big guy over. In the corner of my eye, Charlotte had already withdrawn her weapon from her victim and taken up stance. I only had time for one shot as Pus Face sucked in a breath.
As I got within touching distance of him, I winked at Charlotte and lowered the pipe. Her strike was as speedy as the knife demon’s. Pus Face jolted back to dodge Charlotte’s aim at the very second I ducked from the daggers flying towards me. Just as I intended, they slashed across an altogether different neck, almost severing Pus Face’s head.
Yellow goo spouted from the wound in his throat, and his foul odour intensified as I swivelled and yanked his feet from under him. He face planted the floor, and with a loud grunt accompanying a sickening crack, Charlotte buried her knife into the back of his skull to finish him off.
The ground shook as a deafening bellow diverted our attention back to our one remaining opponent, who bent to swipe low with another strike aimed at both of us. We rolled in opposite directions to avoid the blades, but a slight miscalculation on my part brought a dagger tip too close to avoid, and it sliced across my cheek.
Pain shot up behind my eyes. I felt across the cut and my fingertips came away bloody, but I’d no time to wallow in the loss of my good looks. The door to the tunnel opened, and more demons poured into the room at the same time as the urn-flanked door also flew wide to a more amiable sight. I’d never been more pleased, or more puzzled, to see a row of Assembly badges in my life.
I didn’t know where to look as my gaze alternated between Charlotte fending off multiple attacks from the big guy, the Assembly men standing there with Travers shimmering above them, and the new batch of demons streaming into the chamber. More demons I could understand; they’d either heard the ruckus or arrived early for a dinner they’d never eat. But how the hell had the Assembly known where we were?
“It appears we’ve arrived just in time, men,” Yanis said. “Action stations!”
I shook my confusion away. My question could wait. Far too many demonic mouths were opening, and that meant only one thing.
Chapter Nineteen
With mere seconds to warn the Assembly about the demons’ secret weapon, all that erupted from my mouth was a rather undignified grunt.
Not that it mattered.
If I’d needed any more proof that Yanis was indeed no Supe but actually a high-powered warlock who had somehow wheedled his way into the Assembly’s ranks, I got it. His arm shot out as the poisonous green cloud billowed forth, and with a flick of his hand, the gas suddenly halted, backed up, and retreated into each demon’s mouth. Every one of them staggered back clutching their throats with shock.
Magic made everything appear so easy.
But what really jammed my fur was that the two men standing on either side of Yanis began to transform. However powerful the captain of this show was, he clearly needed werewolf sidekicks to assist with some of the dirty work. I ached to be one of them. My wolf roared inside, angry at missing out on the action, when the other two wolves sprang towards the temporarily incapacitated demons, and shouts of anguish echoed around the walls.
“Kinda needing some help over here, guys!” Charlotte yelled.
My head shot round as she ducked under a strike from the big guy that resulted in a bunch of blades lodging into the wall, and then quickly being yanked back out as the knife demon turned on her again.
I shouted over to Yanis and held up my wrists. “Any chance you have a key for these?”
He answered with a flick of his wrist, and the locks sprang open. I shrugged. Sweet. That would do, too. The heavy iron clanged to the floor, and the relief was immense.
Immediately my power surged, my face healed, and my strength returned. I bolted to Charlotte’s side in seconds, transforming as I went. And when I reached the sparring couple, it took no effort at all to grab the big guy from behind, heave him above my head, and send him flying across the room.
Metal clanged on stone as his back slammed against the wall. I let out a triumphant roar—Christ, that felt good—but it caught in my throat when he slid to the ground, then immediately rose. What was this dude… a freaking robot? Fury contorted his face to an even uglier mask as his bulbous feet stomped towards me. One of them blindly squashed a severed demon’s head that had rolled from where a wolf stood over the rest of the body with yellow goo dripping from its fangs.
The wolf caught my eye, then cocked a muzzle at the advancing big guy, hinting at a two-pronged attack.
Yeah, mate, I hear ya.
We allowed the demon a few more steps before jumping over his head and then simultaneously springing back to each land on a shoulder. The demon’s arms flailed as I wrapped my jaws around one side of his neck. My partner wrapped his around the other, but the skin we were trying to penetrate might as well have been made of granite. The big guy had more chance of parting me from my head with the cut of a blade than I had of getting a good bite in. There had to be another way.
Leaving my partner to battle on, I leapt free of the thrashing blades and landed next to one of the stone urns. Anything was worth a shot. I lifted it high, and with a flying leap brought it down on the demon’s huge head.
The impact echoed around the chamber as the big guy fell forward with a thud that shook the ground. It seemed I’d found the dude’s weak spot. But doubting the urn’s efficiency, I kept a wary eye on him as the other wolf regained his feet. He joined me in my vigil until Yanis appeared at our side and held his palm over the demon’s prostrate form.
A soft glow shone from under Yanis’s hand,
and he chanted some words. Before my eyes, the demon’s blades melted and twisted until they formed a kind of bizarre metal structure that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a posh art gallery somewhere. As I regained my breath and allowed my human form to return, I admit I was mesmerised by the process, until Yanis snapped back his hand and turned to survey the scene.
“Good job, men. It appears we have everything under control now.” He watched the last of the demons succumb to capture as Charlotte bounded over, panting and wiping the sweat from her brow.
“I thought we were done for then,” she said to Yanis. “Thanks for responding to the alert. A minute later and we’d have been dead.”
“Alert? What alert?” I asked. “Just how and when did you have the chance to send out an alert? I’ve been with you the whole time.”
Charlotte held up her hand and shook it, but I was none the wiser.
“This isn’t school,” I said. “You don’t have to raise your hand for permission to speak.”
“No, dumbass. It’s my ring.”
Yanis turned to me. “You would have been fitted with one, too, when you returned for your final instructions,” he said, “had your appointment not been unexpectedly cancelled.”
I studied the oversized copper band dotted with multicoloured stones and had half a mind to thank the hellhound for saving my fashion dignity. “No worries. It’s not my style anyway. So, are you saying that’s some kind of transmitter?”
“That… and a tracking device,” Charlotte said. “How else do you think they’re here?”
Wondering how it worked, I narrowed my eyes at the ring and a sudden thought hit me. “You were twisting that thing before you took me prisoner. Admit it. You called for them long before we got into trouble, didn’t you?”
Her lids lowered. “I didn’t trust you.”
Yanis’s nostrils flared with an angry intake of breath. “Is that why you sent out the signal, Miss Green? Not because of the foetor demons, but because of Mr Lovell? I should have you reprimanded for wasting my time, young lady. We thought there’d been a breakthrough on the case.”
