I dragged a hand through my hair. “You'll never make it.”
“No shit.”
The approaching fire demon’s inhuman roar cut through the chamber, adding further urgency to the situation. It sounded like a series of small explosions going off, then a volcano erupting. The walls and ceiling shook. Cracks ran up the walls, fine dust raining down on us.
The fire demon was almost upon us. I knew what I had to do.
“I’ll go first and pull you up. You’ll have to trust me one more time.”
Vittoria nodded. And then she did something that caught me off guard. She handed me the bag with Taske’s contract.
“If I don’t make it, bring this to Taske. Please.”
I couldn’t believe it. Even faced with death, her loyalty was to the man who had saved her from her old life. Didn’t she realize Taske was using her the way he used everyone in his world? People were means to an end to the man—that much I had already learned. Yet, whatever relationship she shared with Taske, it was the closest thing to love she’d experienced in her tragic life. The sudden insight filled me with a deep sadness. But I would honor her wishes.
“You’ll be able to hand him the contract yourself,” I said.
I wished my voice sounded more convincing as I slung Vittoria’s bag over my shoulder and snatched the rope. I gritted my teeth as I angled my way toward the hole in the ceiling. Skulick and I trained together in the mornings—although since his accident, he’d naturally been focused on upper body strength—but I admit that my heart hadn’t been in our workouts lately. I suddenly wished I hadn’t skipped the salmon ladder. Vittoria watched me in grave silence.
I silenced my roaming thoughts and focused on the task at hand. Reality narrowed to a few simple objectives: Reach the hole in the ceiling. Slip through the opening. Pull Vittoria up into the tunnel.
By the time I reached the cratered hole in the ceiling, my face was drenched in sweat. With a last bout of exertion, I pulled myself into the ice tunnel. Freezing air swept over my skin, and I gnashed my teeth. The cold felt like a punch to the face after the chamber below, but the freezing air also gave me a jolt, galvanizing me into motion.
The demon's roars continued to reverberate below, shaking the frozen tunnel walls. A chunk of ice rained down from the ceiling and landed between my booted feet.
When I looked down at Vittoria, I realized I would never be able to pull her up in time. Even though only thirty feet separated us, she seemed so far away. Already lost, I thought.
Wait, was that my thought? I’d made some mistakes in my life and done things I wasn’t proud of, but I’d never left a helpless woman to die.
No, there had to be a way to get her out of there in time.
Fighting back the desperation that threatened to overwhelm me, I turned my focus to one of the snowmobiles parked near the hole.
I thought of Isabel—beautiful, haunted Isabel, with a smile that was wise beyond her years. She could offer the best advice to a friend in need but had been clueless when it came to dealing with her own demons. I had failed to save Isabel from herself. I refused to let history repeat itself. I was a monster hunter. A demon slayer. And the blazing entity roaring towards Vittoria was a demon, goddamnit.
“Do your goddamn job, Raven,” I ground out through gritted teeth.
I removed the grappling hook from the rock where it had found purchase and latched it onto the back of the nearest snowmobile. I looked down at Vittoria, thirty feet below. She had become a statue, rooted with terror.
“Vittoria, grab the other end of the rope!”
She peered up at me. Her fingers tightened around the rope, but her expression held nothing but despair. She didn’t believe I’d save her. The demon was too close.
As the monster’s inhuman blast furnace roar bashed the air again, the steel door buckled and collapsed in on itself, warping and popping under the fiery assault. Any moment now, a river of demonic fire would spill into the chamber and transform it into Hell on Earth.
I turned away from the sizzling door, mouthing a silent prayer for the woman below.
Please God, don’t let me screw this up!
Like a man possessed, I swung my legs onto the snowmobile and cranked up the engine. The vehicle hurtled down the ice tunnel, dragging the rope behind it. In theory, the rope would pull Vittoria up to safety before the demon could incinerate her.
I glanced backward, almost expecting to find the frayed, scorched end of a rope. To my elation, I saw Vittoria shooting out of the hole and being pulled down the ice tunnel by the snowmobile. She clung to the rope for dear life.
I killed the snowmobile's engine and jumped off the vehicle, rushing toward her. I knelt and took her hand in mine just as a column of fire shot from the hole in the ice tunnel. The fire demon wasn’t willing to relent just yet. We had to get to the surface. I didn’t know how far the dark power of the devil's bank reached, but I knew we stood a better chance in an open space than within these tunnels.
As I pulled her to her feet, Vittoria winced with pain. Mouthing an apology, I dragged her toward the snowmobile. She hobbled along, moving as fast as she could.
Waves of roiling flames leapt through the opening in the tunnel floor, licking the frozen walls. Flames swelled as they melted the surrounding ice.
We both mounted the snowmobile and Vittoria wrapped her arms around me. My turn to be in the driver’s seat.
“Hold on tight!” I yelled as I put the snowmobile in drive and gunned the throttle.
We shot up slopes and down steep inclines, around winding corners and more than once nearly ran head-on into an unexpected wall. All the while, behind us roared a ferocious plume of hungry hellfire. It relentlessly tore after us, gaining fast. We were not going to make it!
I felt Vittoria rummaging through her bag with her good hand. She was pulling what looked like explosives from her satchel. The charges had been meant to knock down doors inside the bank, but I guessed Vittoria hoped it would help her shut one instead. She was going to collapse the tunnel behind us.
Displaying zero hesitation, she set the timer on one of the devices and hurled it toward the fiery creature. The bomb sliced through the air and landed in the ice tunnel. A beat later, it went off. An explosion ripped through the tunnel, rattling our snowmobile. It rained snow and rock as a wall of ice caved in, sealing the tunnel behind us.
Unfortunately, the explosion barely slowed down our inhuman pursuer.
Steam filled the air as the fire demon sizzled through the ice wall. Still, Vittoria’s maneuver had bought us precious seconds.
I’d take what we could get at this point.
The snowmobile screamed down the last stretch of tunnel, glimmering starlight visible in the opening right up ahead. A grin lit up my face as we barreled out of the ice cave and blasted down the snowy mountain slope.
I swapped a quick look with Vittoria. I couldn’t quite believe it, but somehow, we had made it.
We shot over the frozen landscape on our snowmobile, the stars glittering above us. I never saw stars in the Cursed City; too much smog in the air. I took a deep breath of crisp air. The horrors of the bank suddenly seemed far away, part of another reality.
The engine finally sputtered out and the snowmobile slowed. It belched and coughed. It must’ve gotten damaged during the chase through the ice tunnel, or maybe it was simply out of gas. This was my first snowmobile ride, so what did I know?
I dismounted, my boots sinking into the deep snow. I turned back to the ice cave’s opening. It had become a gateway to hell.
Vittoria was looking at the tightly rolled scroll in her hand. It appeared the billionaire would be able to beat his pact.
All these lives so you can save your sorry ass, I thought grimly. It didn’t seem right that Taske’s soul should be spared when the currency was the blood of others.
Vittoria must’ve felt it was a fair price. A smile stole across her face as she held the document tight to her body. She was about to
return it to the bag when a sudden gust of wind blasted across the icy mountain.
The wind caught the paper, prying it lose from Vittoria’s grip and sent it flying into the air.
A cry of grief forced its way from her lips. Before I could stop her, Vittoria ran after the Faustian pact. She vanished up a slope and into the darkness beyond.
“Vittoria, wait!”
She didn’t slow down, deaf to my pleas. Oblivious to her wounded arm, which had started bleeding again, obsessed with retrieving the document before it disappeared for good in the night. She grew smaller and smaller, a tiny dot in a blinding, endless plane of white.
I ran after her, but exhaustion rapidly caught up with me.
I slowed down. “Vittoria!” I yelled with all my strength. “VITTORIA!!”
My voice echoed across the icy landscape, but she never responded. The darkness had swallowed her.
I wrapped my arms tightly around myself as I trudged determinedly through the snow after her.
An even deeper chill settled into my frozen bones as Vittoria’s scream suddenly pierced the night. I picked up my pace, and in the process almost went over a steep cliff.
I reared back from the yawning abyss. About fifty feet below, I could just make out the outline of a human form in the brilliant moonlight. Poor Vittoria. The evil nested within this mountain had used her devotion to Taske to lure her to her death.
I barely knew the dead woman. She had felt more like an echo of another woman to me than a person in her own right. A ghost. Nevertheless, a terrible emptiness gripped me, and I bit back torrents of sadness.
“Some people are beyond saving,” a familiar voice behind me said.
I turned to face Cyon. He stood, unaffected by the cold, in his stylish black suit and tie. “If she’d survived the day, her own demons would have consumed her before long. Drugs. Alcohol. A bad relationship. Something or somebody would’ve done her in. I’ve seen her type many times before. Hell is full of lost souls like her.”
Fury exploded in me, and I flung myself at Cyon. Instead of tackling the demon, I merely passed through thin air, the figure dispersing like smoke.
“We don’t have to be enemies, Raven,” Cyon said, now standing three feet behind me.
How? How could the demon be here on this mountain?
There was no possible explanation, unless…
And then horrific understanding flooded my mind. Cyon was here because the demon was… inside of me. Had been all along. Ever since I first set him free from his prison in the junkyard back in the Cursed City. For the last month, Cyon had hijacked a ride inside of me, a silent passenger.
A parasite.
My stomach sank. The world went fuzzy around the edges. It couldn’t be. The Seal of Solomon on my finger protected me from demonic possession. At least it was supposed to. Plus, the wards at the loft would have ignited the moment I set foot into our base.
The answers to my question would have to wait as a violent rumble shook the whole mountain. Below the jagged promontory, I saw the snow shift. With horror, I realized the mountain was absorbing Vitoria’s body as if it was a living creature feasting on a meal. One moment, her sprawled, broken form was there; the next it had been replaced with a perfect plane of white.
The ice under me shook. Fissures formed in the snow. The air crackled with impending danger.
Chunks of ice broke away, revealing a swirling vortex of darkness beneath the ice’s buckling surface. At the center of the hellish maelstrom, a creature made of living flame appeared.
The fifteen-foot fire beast exploded from the icy abyss that had opened on the mountain’s surface. As the demon soared, its flaming form melted every part of the mountain it touched. Rearing to its full height, it formed into the shape of a giant, seven-foot tall man again. Flames licked the night air and roasted my face, the smell of fire thick in my lungs.
Inside the demon’s brilliant yellow center, I made out a leering mouth and evil, blinking eyes. This creature was the guardian of the devil’s bank, and it was eager to punish me for my impudence.
“Don’t be afraid. You have a weapon that can defeat this creature,” Cyon reminded me, sounding almost bored. “It’s called the Demon Slayer for a reason.”
A strange calm filled me as I drew the sword. The fire monster immediately backed away at the sight of the magical blade.
Hope flared inside of me. Could I scare it off?
No such luck, as a fiery paw came smashing down on me. I ducked, moving with an athletic grace that wasn’t quite human anymore. Cyon’s demonic power was enhancing my attacks. Now that the demon had revealed himself to me, he didn’t have to hold back any longer.
Fire cut across my face. My mind and body switched into high gear as I brought up the sword and slashed at the creature made of living flame. To my surprise, the sword ignited with an electric blue light as it contacted the demon and cleanly separated a fiery arm from its torso as if it was made of flesh and blood. The severed limb tumbled through the air, its fire dying down as the limb evaporated.
Whoa, I thought as I stared at the sword in my hands. Demon Slayer, indeed.
The fire demon came in for another attack. Flames singed my facial hair, but I didn’t care. The sword in my hand hummed with power, and I felt unbeatable as I launched at the monster.
All around me, the snow melted. As I lunged forward, I lost my footing, skidded and hit the ground hard. During my fall, I loosened my grip on the sword and immediately the snow seemed to leap at the blade as if hoping to whisk it from me. Remembering all too well how the mountain had devoured Vittoria’s lifeless form, I tightened my hold on the sword’s hilt, the steel already slick with ice.
I let out a roar and mustered every ounce of strength within me. Frustration mixing with anger, I thrust the sword into the fiery beast’s head. For a split second, flames enveloped me.
The flames died with the demon. A final violent rumble shook the mountain, and I was once again alone in the icy wilderness.
Well, almost alone.
Cyon loomed before me, a smile touching his lips.
“Well done. I believe this might be the beginning of beautiful friendship.”
I glared at him.
“Well, let’s call it a partnership.”
“Get out,” I growled.
“Believe me, there is nothing I’d rather do than leave your body, Raven. But until I find another, more suitable host, you will have to do.”
“How did you manage to possess me?”
The demon shrugged, nonchalant. “I assume you’re talking your little protective ring. Remember how it broke down the wards keeping me imprisoned? Stepping into the circle at the junkyard drained its power and allowed me to breach your defenses.”
I swallowed hard and remembered all the dead, hideously mauled guard dogs back at the junkyard. I almost threw up. I realized I must have been the one who had slaughtered the dogs. Cyon had used me to kill them. Why had he relinquished control after that? After all, demons generally didn’t let their hosts call the shots, unless…
Another realization hit me. The ring was keeping Cyon at bay even now, reducing his power within me. As the Seal of Solomon’s power had returned, it had tempered the demon’s influence. This wasn’t a true possession. Cyon had merely traded one prison for another. The Seal of Solomon prevented him from fully taking control of me. I was still in charge—for the most part. Only when I was asleep or my guard was down could Cyon take the driver’s seat and manifest himself. That explained the sporadic nature of his appearances.
“I see you finally understand.”
All I understood was that a demon was inside of me, and I needed to exorcise the inhuman bastard as quickly as possible. “What game are you playing?” I said, my voice shaking with rage.
“We have a common enemy, Raven. And now we have the weapon to destroy him.”
I studied the glowing sword in my hand. Demon Slayer. This blade could kill Morgal, the arch-demon who had m
urdered my parents.
I stared at Cyon. He wasn’t standing five feet away from me but was actually inside of my mind. The thought made me want to claw at my skull, to physically rip him out.
“This heist was never about some silly contract.”
I swallowed hard. “It was you who told Taske where he could find the contract,” I said. “You tricked him.”
“Not really. Had Vittoria been a little luckier, he might’ve gotten what he wanted. I personally couldn’t care less what happens to the old man’s soul.”
“Then why involve him at all?”
I needed someone to bankroll this break-in. Someone with the means to get around the bank’s earthly obstacles.”
The pieces were coming together. “You told him he needed me.”
Cyon nodded. “Only someone touched by darkness could get past the bank’s security system. That wasn’t a lie. I needed both of you get to the sword.”
“So you had him kidnap me.”
“It was the only way.” He leaned closer and added, “I doubt you would’ve come along on your own if I’d merely asked nicely.”
Another thought occurred to me. “I bet you provided him with the serpent key too, didn’t you?”
“Didn’t it seem at all familiar? I found it locked away inside your charming warehouse. In fact, it was the key that inspired me to go after the sword in the first place. Funny to think that all of this was made possible by your partner’s little collection.”
Another buried memory surfaced, previously suppressed by Cyon. In the memory, I saw myself removing the serpent-shaped key from the vault at the loft. What else had the demon made me do while I was asleep?
“Your partner ought to trust you a little more. If he had explained all those horrible objects to you, you might not get caught with your pants down so often. Perhaps it’s time you considered a new partnership.”
Never make a deal with a demon. That was the first lesson in Monster Hunter 101. Demons were masters at figuring out the thing you wanted most and then offering it to you for a price that seemed like a great bargain. Cyon and I both wanted to take down Morgal. With his help, I might be able to do it and get justice for my parents. And then what? I had a feeling that Cyon was after Morgal’s throne. Revenge and power, that’s what was driving this creature. And I had become Cyon’s pawn in a high-stakes game against Hell itself.
Shadow Detective Supernatural Dark Urban Fantasy Series: Books 4-6 (Shadow Detective Boxset Book 2) Page 11
