Rocked by Love (Gargoyles Series)

by Christine Warren

  Kees and Dag would stick with the Demon she was really trying not to think about. With the other Wardens currently helping on the opposite side of the huge auditorium, that left Kylie to deal with the portal.

  Easy-peasy, right?

  Wynn had told her that while the nocturni mage would need to cast a spell that opened the portal and continue to channel energy to hold it open for a while, after a certain amount of time, it could stabilize sufficiently to remain for an unknown duration. Which meant that even if she took out the caster, the portal might remain open even after he was out of the picture. Double trouble. Always fun.

  Oh, well. Sometimes it was better to just swallow the medicine and worry about the aftertaste later.

  Rising into a low crouch, Kylie took aim at the back of the casting nocturni’s head and let ’er rip.

  She knew none of the spells the others had taught her had enough juice to stymie one of the Order’s most powerful magic users, but once again she found the code in the spells she did have to work with and tweaked. This time, she didn’t bother with finesse, just grabbed, twisted, and plunked in her own addition and then sent the energy winging through space.

  The little ping of green light hit the robed figure on the back of his hooded head and then exploded like a firework. Unlike a firework, however, these trails of sparkling light expanded outward and fused together to form a bubble just the way Ella had described. Or almost the way Ella had described. The bubble that Kylie created enveloped both the nocturni and his portal to hell, and it didn’t take the emerging creatures long to recognize there was only one food source available inside the magical trap.

  Kylie looked away when blood splattered the inside of the bubble like water on a windshield at the car wash.

  She looked around and saw Fil headed her way at a jog. The blonde looked bruised and bloody but intact and Kylie had never been so happy to see anyone.

  “Ella’s down, but okay,” Kylie said, the minute she thought Fil could hear. “I cut off the portal for the moment, but I don’t know how long my bubble will last, and I don’t know if I can close the portal myself. That is one spell I do not want to try tinkering with. If I take down my spell, do you think you can blast the portal closed?”

  Fil nodded, already turning her attention to the problem at hand. “Yeah, I’m with you. That was some nice work, though, Koyote. Very innovative. On the count of three.”

  They ran through the numbers aloud, and on three, Kylie reached out, grabbed her magic, and yanked, flinging it down into the earth. Sort of like pulling the tablecloth off a table and hoping the place settings stayed where they were. In the same instant, Fil threw a bolt of bright light at the portal. It hit with a shower of sparks, and then the whole thing collapsed in on itself like a dying star. Minus the black hole, which was kind of the point.

  She flashed Kylie a cheeky grin. “Hey, Wynn was right. Practice makes perfect!”

  “Duck!”

  That was all Kylie had time to say before the two creatures released from the bubble came flying at them like ravening wolves on tasty-looking elk. Once again, Kylie went the old-fashioned route. She lifted another chair and swung for the fences, knocking the first creature into the second and sending them both skittering across the concrete floor. An instant later, a huge shadow passed over them and Spar dove on top of the monsters, grabbing them in his enormous talons and literally ripping them to shreds.

  Kylie had to look away, but next to her, she heard Fil heave an exaggerated sigh.

  “My hero,” the blonde teased, then yelped out a muffled laugh as her Guardian dragged her close for a brief fierce kiss before wading back into the fray.

  “Oh, get a room,” Kylie mumbled.

  “Oh, we will. Just remember you said that. After all, we’re staying with you.”

  Kylie rolled her eyes and tugged her friend’s arm. “We need to either get Ella back on her feet, or find someplace safe to stash her. She’s over here.”

  The pale brunette was already stirring when they reached her side, and Kylie heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe the tide was finally turning in their favor.

  “Don’t sit up!” Fil warned as Ella began to stir. “You’re lying under a chair, and the last thing you need is to give yourself a concussion.”

  “I think I already have one.” Ella groaned, lifting a hand to her head and wincing. “Concrete is really hard.”

  “We’ve still got stuff to do, Ellabella. How are you doing? Can you stand?”

  “Give me a hand and let’s see.”

  They each gave her one, first sliding the chairs that had concealed her out of the way to make room. Then they grasped the woman from either side and swung her to her feet. Ella swayed for a moment, then smiled wanly and gave them a thumbs-up. “All systems are go. Go slowly, but go.”

  “Good,” Kylie said grimly, “because Fil was right. We do still have a lot to do.”

  She nodded toward the front of the room where the two Guardians and the Demon on stage had been joined by a slightly battered and wholly defiant witch. A witch who currently knelt at the Hierophant/Demon’s feet with a pissed-off expression on her face and a short, sharp knife to her throat.

  Chapter Nineteen

  A finstere cholem auf dein kopf und auf dein hent und fiss.

  A dark dream on your head, hands, and feet.

  Dag had approached the Corruptor with rage and with caution. The one he could not help, but the other he had to work hard to remember.

  Every instinct he possessed wanted him to throw himself on the vile Demon and rend it limb from limb, but he recognized the impossibility of victory. The body of the Hierophant was simply the host for Nazgahchuhl, not the Demon itself. Destroying the host would merely inconvenience the Demon, and with all the death already filling the hall, that action might provide the last bit of strength needed to return the Demon to its natural form.

  Knowing this, he forced himself to stay back, to give the Demon a wide berth even as his claws stretched and ached to feel the tearing of muscle from bone. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kees approaching as well. The other Guardian moved in from the opposite side, keeping the Demon in front of and between them as they closed the distance across the stage.

  Dag did not fool himself that the Corruptor didn’t feel his presence, didn’t know down to the last inch where each Guardian in the room stood or flew at that very moment. It knew Dag and Kees approached from the sides; it knew Spar and Knox waded through the bodies on the floor of the auditorium while battling the evil creatures that had poured through the portal, the nocturnis had managed to open.

  It knew where the Wardens stood, knew how fiercely they fought to vanquish the cult’s magic users and turn the tide of the battle. It knew about Kylie.

  “Yes, Guardian, I know all sorts of interesting things,” the Demon purred, its voice reverberating in a range a human could never have achieved. The host’s vocal cords would never be the same. Not that it mattered; no human could survive the taint of hosting one of the Seven for more than a moment. “I know you and your brothers think you can win this little war of ours, so of course I know that you have found these females you call mates.”

  It laughed, a sound that scraped against bone and tooth, pinging against exposed nerve. “Poor fools. Do you not see that the thing you so value is your greatest weakness?”

  “Weakness?” Kees hissed, baring his fangs. “Our Wardens are standing against your precious servants and fighting the battle we all know we will win. You cannot triumph, Demon, not while the Light exists.”

  “Oh, your precious Light is already growing dim,” the Demon said dismissively. “In the end we will devour it, just as we will devour this pitiful little world and every soul in it.”

  It lifted its head, stretching the human neck to unnatural lengths, then closing its eyes and sniffing the air like a pig scenting truffles. “Mm, so many tasty, tasty souls, falling like a banquet before me. I must remember to thank my servants for the
feast.”

  Suddenly its eyes snapped open and its head whipped around to stare at Kees with a malevolent smile. “Though what was that you said about your Wardens ‘standing,’ Guardian? Because I think that if you’ll care to look, you’ll see one of them very much off her precious little feet.”

  Kees looked immediately to the floor, his black eyes searching for the petite form of his mate. Dag looked as well. His gaze flitted over Fil, her pale hair easy to spot in the crowd, and he thought he saw Wynn as well, but the glimpse was fleeting. He told himself not to worry because his gaze failed to find Kyle; she was so tiny, she could easily become lost among all the taller and larger humans. And Ella might be a bit larger, but her sweet, unremarkable looks could also get lost in the chaos below.

  Kees growled, and Dag turned to glare at him. “Calm yourself, brother. You know better than to listen to a filthy, lying Demon. Your mate will be well. They will all be well.”

  “Such optimism, Guardian,” the Demon taunted. “Are you so certain your own little female is not one of the souls that already fills my belly?”

  “I am certain,” Dag snarled. “Her power is such that it would catch in your accursed gullet and choke you, filth of Darkness.”

  “Ooh, that flavorful, is she? Maybe I’ll save her for dessert, then. I could even let you watch while I suck her body dry.”

  Kees thundered, “Shut your mouth, Demon scum. My brother is right. Our Wardens are too much for you or any of the loathsome pit crawlers called the Seven to deal with. In fact, if I were you, I would turn my attention away from baiting the ones who will destroy me and fix on the depletion of my forces by the little females you choose to dismiss.”

  For a moment, the Demon’s smile slipped and his gaze flew to the floor of the auditorium.

  Dag had heard a shift in the chaotic noise of battle, but he stood angled too far away from the floor to see what had happened. Kees had a much better view and had begun to appear grimly satisfied.

  “I believe I see your little Warden, brother,” Kees said, satisfaction ringing in his voice. “And I believe she has just managed to ensure that no more demonic scum will be joining us for this morning’s festivities.”

  Dag felt a surge of relief and renewed purpose. He knew his Kylie was strong and more powerful than she believed, and he couldn’t wait to rub her nose in the evidence.

  For a moment rage and disbelief flashed in the Demon’s stolen eyes, but it was quickly masked behind another taunting smile. “Oh, don’t worry, Guardians. The fun isn’t over. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, if you will. In fact, let me show you one of them.”

  Lifting its fingers to its lips, the demon whistled shrilly. All at once, the chaos in the room went silent, like a television turning off. A glance showed that every remaining living human in the room had frozen like a statue where they stood. A moment later, Dag heard the sound of wings cutting through the silence. Not Guardian wings, but something smaller and faster, something that stirred the air with the scent of old blood and rotted meat. Just as the smell registered, a thump shook the stage to his right and a snarling, cursing witch appeared at the Demon’s feet. Immediately, it grabbed her by the hair and hauled her close, and a small dagger appeared in the hand pressed to her throat.

  Kees immediately leaped high and dragged the winged minion out of the air, snapping its spine and tearing its heart from its chest with his bare fangs. As it dissolved into ash at his feet, he roared his displeasure into the Corruptor’s laughing face.

  “Tsk-tsk,” the Demon chided. “That temper could get you into trouble one of these days, Guardian. You wouldn’t want that, now would you?” The hand at Wynn’s throat shifted and a thin line of red appeared, drops of blood welling to the surface.

  “UNHAND MY MATE!”

  The thunderous roar shook the stage and rattled the lights in the rigging. Knox swooped in from above like death, covering the distance from the back of the auditorium in two beats of his powerful wings. He landed on the edge of the stage in a crouch and let out another cry so loud and so fierce that even Dag felt the need to bow to his fury.

  “Careful, Guardian,” the Demon said, smile tightening and eyes flashing red. Its hand pressed tighter to Wynn’s throat. “Make me nervous and I might just slip. No one wants any accidents.”

  “I’m fine, big guy,” Wynn reassured her mate. Her voice shook, not with fear, but with anger. “Don’t worry about me. Just stick to the plan.”

  The Demon chuckled. “Oh-ho, there’s a plan, is there? That just sounds so precious. Would anyone care to enlighten me on the details?”

  “There really aren’t that many.”

  Dag’s heart stopped in his chest as his tiny mate climbed up on the stage at Knox’s side and stood facing the ultimate corruption of Nazgahchuhl with nothing but a few feet of space separating them.

  Kylie stood as she always did, with her head high and her shoulders back, looking like nothing so much as a bored college student facing off against an arrogant professor. He wanted to grab her and kiss her and tell her how proud she made him; then he wanted to turn her over his knee and beat the stuffing out of her for putting herself in danger and scaring millennia off his life.

  “Not that many details, I mean,” Kylie continued. “Mostly it was just a matter of come here, kick your ass, then go home and eat babka.”

  Nazgahchuhl turned his attention to Kylie, and Dag rumbled a warning. He couldn’t help it. It escaped without his permission, but at least he maintained enough control not to leap at the Demon’s throat, thus jeopardizing Wynn’s life.

  “So you’re the little thing my servants were trying so hard to find,” the Demon mused, tilting his head as he gazed at her. “I can see how they overlooked you. You’re quite insignificant, aren’t you?”

  “Short jokes? Really?” Kylie scoffed, which made Dag twitch. “You’re, like, as old as time, and the best you can come up with are short jokes?” Kylie looked at her mate and jerked a thumb in the Demon’s direction. “Is this thing for real?”

  “I can assure you I am very real,” the Demon hissed, leaning forward over Wynn’s captive head to glare at the Warden. “If you don’t believe me, I’m certain your friends can share with you a few of my greatest achievements.”

  While everyone concentrated on the conversation between the Demon and Kylie, Dag became aware of more movement. From the floor of the auditorium, Fil approached with Spar by her side. They climbed onto the stage between Kees and Knox, providing the last pieces in a wall of opposition to Nazgahchuhl and his plans.

  The Demon saw them—everyone saw them—but its reaction was not what Dag had expected. Instead of growing more tense in the face of the combined power of four Guardians and three Wardens, the Demon smiled and seemed almost to relax.

  “Well, now, I see the gang is finally all here,” it said, sounding almost cheerful. “Excellent.”

  Once again, Kylie’s mouth took off. “What? You were waiting to ask for our autographs?”

  Fil snorted and this time the Demon just smiled.

  “Oh, no, nothing like that,” it said dismissively. “But now I have the chance to tell you all how much I appreciate your kind assistance.”

  Dag’s gut clenched as he realized something was very, very wrong.

  “Assistance?” Kylie demanded, fisting her hands in the front pockets of her jeans. “You think we helped you out today?” She looked at Dag. “He’s a meshugener.”

  “Oh, no, I can assure you I am quite sane,” the Demon practically purred. “Quite intelligent, too. I had to be in order to plan out this little distraction so convincingly.”

  “Distraction,” Dag snarled. He had a bad, bad feeling.

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ll read all about it in the news, but I really couldn’t have done it without you.”

  Kylie shook her head. “Zayn vort zol zayn a brik, volt ikh moyre gehat aribertsugeyn. If his word were a bridge, I’d be afraid to cross it,” she muttered. “You’re trying to
tell us that you didn’t really set this up and attempt to massacre all of these people because you wanted to. You just thought it would keep us busy while you did something more important. You couldn’t have just sent us to the movies?”

  “I never said this little event wasn’t fun,” the Demon taunted. “And delicious.” It licked its lips, and Kylie made gagging noises. “I’m merely saying that this is not the only city in the world, and that death tastes sweet all over.” It gave a sigh of pleasure that raised growls from all four Guardians. “But enough chitchat. I’m afraid I must be going.”

  Dag tensed at the statement and leaped, forgetting the knife at Wynn’s throat, forgetting the poor odds, forgetting everything but the need to seize the Demon before it could escape.

  He was too late.

  They all were. The Guardians crashed together in the spot where Nazgahchuhl had stood, nothing there but an empty space and an extremely ticked-off witch who told them all in no uncertain terms to get their fat asses off her.

  Knox scooped her up in his arms and cradled her to his chest, crooning reassurances at her until she slapped him upside the head and demanded to be set back on her feet.

  “I’m fine,” she insisted, loudly, as the others gathered around in concern. “The scratch on my neck doesn’t even need a bandage, and that flying monkey barely dropped me six feet. Quit worrying. About me, anyway. If anyone wants to worry about what the Demon meant by his psychotic little spiel, I’d be happy to join you.”

  Suddenly a scream rang out from the middle of the auditorium floor, and Dag turned to see that the spell the Demon had cast to freeze everyone in place had ended as abruptly as the creature had disappeared. Instantly, he and the other Guardians shifted to human and looked to their mates.