Carved (The Road to Hell Series, Book 2)

by Brenda K. Davies

  Hawk leaned out the passenger side window beside me and fired his gun at one of the ones diving toward me. Black goo burst from its wings, but it kept coming with its lethal talons extended.

  I waited until the creature was only five feet away from me before releasing a fresh blast of fire. The creature howled but continued its forward momentum. Ducking down, I threw my hands over my head and rolled out of the way as it flew over the top of me. Its scaly, solid wings scraped against my shoulder before it hit the bed of the truck with a twisting wrench of metal. Two of the truck’s wheels lifted off the ground before the vehicle crashed to the earth again. I hadn’t realized there were a few people in the back of the truck until the force of the gargoyle’s impact knocked them over.

  Panic shot through me at the possibility of it going after them, but its yellowish eyes focused on me. It opened its mouth to reveal all of its flesh-eating teeth and the blackness beyond before launching itself off the truck. The gargoyle flew overhead before turning back once again to swoop low across the ground toward me.

  Hawk pulled out another gun and opened fire as flames danced across my fingers once more. The gargoyle’s wings flapped loudly as it sliced through the air before it closed them against its back to hone in on me. I didn’t think there was anything that could throw off its deadly trajectory.

  Another thud of metal sounded behind me and then Kobal leapt down from the back of the truck to land in front of me. Instead of throwing fire, he ran toward the creature and darted to the side at the last second. Grabbing hold of the tip of one of its wings, he snatched the gargoyle back. The pavement dented and cracked when he drove it into the asphalt hard enough to rattle the ground beneath my feet.

  Lifting his foot, he smashed it into the gargoyle’s back, breaking its spine. The creature screeched as Kobal twisted its wing over its back until the wing flapped brokenly in the air. Kobal seized its head and yanking backward, he tore it from the gargoyle’s shoulders. The creature’s non-broken wing beat lazily against the ground before going still.

  Kobal tossed the head aside and jumped over its body. He raced toward me, grasped my arm, and threw his hand in front of Hawk’s gun. “Stop shooting!” he shouted at Hawk a second after Hawk fired another shot.

  “No!” I screamed when a bullet pierced through his palm and blood welled forth, but Kobal never missed a step as he propelled me toward the truck. His amber eyes were bright, his body thrummed with barely contained ferocity. “Kobal—”

  “I’m fine,” he interrupted tersely.

  Hawk was pale as we approached. His gaze focused on the bullet wound in Kobal’s hand. He had to be thinking Kobal was about to kill him, and though I knew it had been an accident, a part of me wanted to kill him for it.

  “Move over!” Kobal barked at him.

  Hawk scrambled away from the door when Kobal opened it and thrust me inside. “What are you doing?” I demanded.

  “Get her out of here!” he commanded Hawk.

  “Kobal… no… I can’t—I won’t leave you,” I stuttered in protest.

  “You promised, whatever I said,” he reminded me before focusing on Hawk. “Get her out of here and don’t look back. Protect her life with yours. If something happens to her, or if she gets away from you, I’ll kill you myself.”

  “Kobal!” I lurched for his arm before he could close the door on me. “No! I’m supposed to help with things like this!”

  “No, you’re supposed to be protected from things like this until we reach the gateway.”

  I opened my mouth to shout more protests at him, but I knew he wouldn’t be swayed. I had promised, and more people were dying while we sat here fighting. “How will we find you?”

  “I’ll be right behind you.” He cupped my cheeks in his large palms and kissed my forehead before pulling away. “Go!” he ordered Hawk. “And don’t look back.”

  Kobal slammed the door on me before I could leap out of it, and Hawk stomped on the gas. “Hold on!” Hawk yelled out the driver’s side window.

  The tires spun on the pavement, squealing as they tried to gain purchase on the battered road. My hands fumbled for the handle above my head when the truck caught on the asphalt and leapt forward. A scream from the back caused me to whip around as I realized who Hawk had been shouting out the window at.

  A man standing in the back tumbled over the side of the truck and bounced across the pavement. I hadn’t realized there were still people in the back of the truck, and Hawk seemed not to care about their safety as he didn’t ease on the gas.

  The woman and man still in the truck fell back, bouncing over the supplies before crashing into the tailgate. The man flipped over the back of the truck, but somehow managed to grasp hold of the tailgate at the last second. Only his knuckles and fingers gripping over the edge were visible. I feared his legs and feet bounced over the ground behind us.

  The woman lurched toward him and grabbed his wrist. I heaved a breath of relief when his head popped up over the back of the truck. Then a leg swung over the tailgate and the woman managed to help pull him back into the truck bed.

  “Don’t do it!” Hawk snapped when my hand fell on the door handle.

  “They need our help against those things!”

  “I don’t know what you are, but I do know you shoot fire, came from where humans reside, not demons, and this mission wasn’t organized until you arrived. It’s been made clear to us throughout our training for this journey that your life is the most vital part of this mission, and I will do whatever it takes to fulfill my duty.”

  Gone was the hunched-over man who’d spent most of yesterday trying to avoid touching the two of us. In his place was a soldier. He glanced at me, his indigo eyes remorseless. “He’ll kill me if you get out of this truck, and personally, I like my head where it is. It’s a pretty good-looking head.”

  My hand fell off the handle. I couldn’t argue with his statement, and I couldn’t live with myself if Kobal killed him because of me. I spun in my seat to take in the carnage behind us. I bit back the bile rising in my throat when I saw the arms and legs scattered across the road. Intestines and blood splattered the earth, torn from the bellies of humans and gargoyles alike. The blood was almost technicolor against the burnt-out gray and black city.

  As I watched, more fire erupted into the air, lighting the creatures diving toward Kobal and the others who had grouped together to present a united front against their attackers. I had no idea how many humans were still alive, but I didn’t hear gunshots peppering the air with the same frequency they had in the beginning.

  From the corner of my eye, I spotted something coming down the road. My eyes widened on Corson, with his head bent and his arms and legs pumping as he raced toward us far faster than I’d ever considered possible. He easily closed the distance between us to run beside the truck. Over his shoulder, I spotted two gargoyles breaking away from the others in pursuit of the truck.

  “Don’t slow down!” Corson shouted when Hawk eased on the gas.

  Hawk pushed back down on the accelerator as Corson ran beside us for a good fifteen feet before grabbing the side of the truck and vaulting into the back. I fumbled with the window in the middle of the glass behind me as the two gargoyles dove for Corson. The demon with the blue feathers dangling from his ears let out a roar of fury. I gawked at the claws that burst from the backs of his hands. Over a foot long, white talons shone as Corson ducked low and slashed upward at a gargoyle soaring above him.

  I shoved the window open just as black goo and intestines splashed over Corson and into my face. Recoiling, I frantically wiped at the warm splatters coating my lips and lashes. The gutted gargoyle crashed into the road before us. It bounced over the pavement before coming to a stop ten feet directly in front of us.

  Hawk swerved the truck to avoid hitting the easily hundred-pound creature, which was the size of a German Shepherd. Unprepared for the motion, I fell against his side as the tires squealed in protest on the pavement. The three in t
he back cried out when they were thrust against the side. The woman almost toppled out, but Corson grasped her wrist and jerked her back. Somehow, he managed to avoid slicing her flesh open with his lethal claws. Corson shoved her against the cab of the truck before turning to face the remaining gargoyle coming at us.

  I pushed myself off of Hawk and turned back to the window as the city vanished from view. The sides of the road narrowed in on us; boulders crowded against the sides of the vehicle as we steadily climbed higher.

  “What are you doing?” Hawk demanded when my fingers curled around the edge of the sliding window.

  “Helping,” I replied.

  I shoved myself through the window, kicking my feet as I squirmed to pull myself into the bed of the truck. I fell into the back, landing on a pack of bottled water that bit into my ribs. The woman ducked and came up firing her gun when the gargoyle dove at her, not making the mistake of going at Corson as the other one had.

  Shoving myself up, I held onto the window to brace myself before rising to my feet. Corson glanced over at me as the gargoyle turned and came back at us. The creature opened its awful black pit of a mouth and shrieked. Fire slid across my fingertips. It wasn’t as powerful as it had been before, and I realized my demon ability to throw fire tired out far faster than my angelic ability to harvest and wield life did, but flames still danced over my flesh.

  Corson stepped to the side as the gargoyle dove at us. It meant to take out the truck, I realized when it shifted course and aimed for the back tires. It would flip us completely if it succeeded in hitting us.

  The flames blazed across my flesh as I raised my hands and let the fire have its way. It erupted from me in a short burst, but it was enough to hit the creature and knock it off course. The gargoyle screamed as fire licked over its body and it plowed into the rock walls lining the sides of the road. The rock walls exploded from the impact. I threw my arms over my head to shield myself as bits of debris pelted the truck and us. Shards of broken rock sliced across my arms, spilling my blood.

  I dared to chance a glance when a sound like thunder erupted through the air. Even with our growing distance from where the gargoyle had hit, I could feel the earth quaking beneath the truck as the gargoyle’s impact caused some of the surrounding rocks and boulders to break free of the mountain. It appeared as though they slid toward the earth in slow motion at first, before tumbling faster and crashing against each other in an immense cloud of rolling dust.

  I could only stand and gawk at the rockslide as more and more fell. My heart sank when some of the dust cleared to reveal the pile of boulders blocking the roadway behind us. “No!” I shouted.

  Lifting my head to the sky, my knees wobbled when I spotted the flames and smoke rising high on the horizon from the city we’d left behind. “Kobal,” I whispered.

  “He’ll be fine. They’ll find a way around the rocks,” Corson said. Kneeling down, he leaned through the window to speak with Hawk. “Keep driving and don’t stop for anything.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Kobal

  Bending, I gripped the undercarriage of a pickup truck and heaved it upward, flinging it away from me. Metal bent and twisted, and glass shattered as the roof of the truck folded in on itself when it rolled side over side. It tumbled toward the building, crushing four gargoyles beneath its punishing weight. Supplies spilled out all over the street. Water bottles, clothes, and food scattered everywhere as humans scrambled to get out of the way of the flying debris.

  Another gargoyle landed to the right of me, running forward on its back legs before falling to all fours and bounding across the roadway like a dog. Bale raced forward, grabbed it by its tail,

  and whipped it around. She bashed it off the roadway, breaking its bones and pulverizing its head before spinning in a rapid circle and releasing the limp body. The gargoyle soared through the air and crashed through the glass of another building with a resonating bang.

  More gunfire erupted, cutting down two more gargoyles and splattering them over the road. I glanced over the blood and death surrounding us before focusing on the two remaining gargoyles. They leapt between the buildings, bounding back and forth as they avoided the bullets the humans fired at them.

  I flexed my hands, my skin pulling across where Hawk had shot me, but the wound was almost healed already. A strengthening due to my bond with River, I realized. I’d always healed faster than the other demons, but not this fast.

  “Hold your fire!” I shouted as the gargoyles perched in a crouched position at the top of one of the buildings.

  Their mustard-colored eyes watched us; their fangs were bared as their tails twitched in the air behind them. We couldn’t leave without destroying them; they would only pursue us and draw unnecessary attention to us if we did. We had to kill them and do it quickly.

  I’d sent River out of here to keep her safe, but I’d be damned if I remained separated from her for long. Right now, there were far too many dangers out there for her to be without me.

  No matter how much I would have preferred to go with her, I couldn’t. These things had to be destroyed and as many human lives preserved as possible. I was the biggest weapon we had against the gargoyles, and turning my back on the humans now would almost ensure a mutiny.

  Corson would keep her safe. Usually, he was easygoing and fun for the humans to be around, but when pushed, he could be almost as lethal and ruthless as me. It was why I’d sent him with her over any of the others.

  Fire continued to lick around my wrists as I watched the gargoyles. They didn’t speak, but I could sense them communicating with each other, plotting their next move. Turning the hounds lose would do no good. They were ruthless, but they couldn’t fly or scale the remains of a skyscraper, and I didn’t want the humans to know I was capable of releasing the hounds yet either.

  “What are we going to do?” Bale asked.

  “Tear them to shreds,” I replied, “but I don’t think they’re going to volunteer to come down here and let us have at them.”

  Morax stepped forward and craned his head back to gaze at the gargoyles. “No, they’re going to wait us out and follow us afterward.”

  “I’ll burn them down,” I said. “Be ready for them when I do.”

  Shax cracked his knuckles. “We will.”

  Stepping over the broken glass, body parts, and gargoyle remains littering the street, I kept my eyes on the two creatures perched on the windowsill a good seventy feet above me. Saliva dripped down their chins to plop onto the ground in goopy splatters. My upper lip curled in disgust as I walked into the building and moved around the pieces of jagged metal littering the floor.

  The clicking of the gargoyles’ claws on the steel beams above drew my attention to their shadows moving toward what remained of the top of the building. The rusted metal that had collapsed into the center of the building stood in odd angles around the floor now covered in moss. Creatures, most likely mice and rats, scampered away from me to hide beneath the rubble.

  Turning, I tilted my head back to look for the gargoyles who had moved another ten feet higher. They sniffed at the air before one of them crept cautiously over the side and halfway down an intact pane of glass. It didn’t come any closer, afraid of the fire around my hands and wrists.

  The other one perched on top of the steel, its claws curving around as it scraped back and forth to create a loud screeching noise. From outside, I heard a few humans cry out from the sound. My teeth ground together as I willed them to come closer to me so I could put an end to this and get back to River.

  Normally, they may have sat up there until the end of time, willing to wait all of us out until we died. However, my flesh was the one they’d love to tear into the most, and I was counting on that to lure them both into coming closer. While I may not have been the original varcolac demon to lock the gargoyles behind their seal, I had made sure they stayed locked away.

  I waited until the other one took another step toward me before shooting a wall of fire
up the inside of the building toward them. The remaining glass from the windows blasted outward before falling to the ground in a crescendo that drowned out the startled cries of the humans. The first gargoyle leapt back before the fire could reach it and jumped to the safety of the higher levels with its partner.

  “Son of a bitch,” I snarled, keeping my flames focused on the bracings holding the remains of the building up.

  Beneath the wall of fire, the steel glowed an orange-yellow color as it heated. The bracings holding the war-torn building together sagged as the metal bent downward. The gargoyles leapt back when the wall sagged beneath their feet.

  They scrambled out the window and bolted down the front of the building when it began to give way beneath the punishing heat of the flames. Their sticky palms allowed them to stay ahead of the flow of debris as the building rolled over itself while collapsing toward the street. The rumbling sound of it grew until it reverberated in my ears and echoed throughout the city.

  I reined the flames back in when gunfire erupted outside again. Rushing forward, I leapt over the rubble lining the floor as the building gave way faster beneath the weight of the collapsing steel beams. I ducked, throwing myself forward when the wall rushed toward the doorway, threatening to block the exit.

  Raising my arms, flames shot upward to knock aside the debris looking to bury me beneath its crushing weight. I rolled through the doorway as the building fell with a thunderous crash that shook the earth.

  Leaping to my feet, I jumped over a pickup as one of the gargoyles dove at Verin, knocking her over the fountain. Morax bellowed with rage, rushing forward and leaping onto the gargoyle’s back when it landed beside her. Pulling his hand back, Morax drove his fist through the back of the creature’s head and jerked his arm back, ripping the tongue out the back of the gargoyle’s skull.

  Around me, the remaining humans stumbled back, revolted by the thrashing creature. Morax seized its head and twisted its neck with a violent jerk. It fell forward, collapsing into the fountain as Verin shoved herself to her feet. Morax grabbed hold of her and drew her against his chest to hold her close.