“You will fight in a knock-out tournament. Aegis versus the lords and bitch-queens of hell. The winner—” a shrug, “—if it is one of you. Gets to go free.”
“How do we know that?” Eliza asked.
The Devil shrugged again. “I am a man of my word.”
Ken gawped. Was that humor? Or a bare-faced lie? It had been said with the same tone and commitment used by clever liars all over the world.
“Can we use our weapons?” he asked.
“Whatever you came here with.”
Ken tried not to reveal an ounce of emotion. His sword—the so-called Lionheart blade—had once killed the Devil. Soon, it would be back in his hands.
The Devil stepped down from his throne. “Let the games begin.”
*
Lilith fought against weariness, longing and terrible guilt. Her new friends had been captured, and even now might be dead or being tormented. Her clever lifeline out of this place had been severed. Now, alone, she found herself yet again struggling through the desolation and decay up toward the surface.
The artefact was secure in her belt. This thing had so much meaning for the humans, so much significance. It had been the tone in Ken’s voice that had resolved her mind, not to mention the look of desperation on his face.
She would take it to Miami and seek out Aegis, and then she would disappear. And hope that Aegis defeated her . . . her father.
How could she think that way? That creature, that form of ultimate evil, surely couldn’t be her father. Why hadn’t he tried to corrupt her? To force her into his evil ways? What was his agenda?
Lilith knew only one thing for certain. She could never see her mother again. To save and help the ones we love, she thought, we sacrifice our own needs, our own desires. We fuel theirs.
Well, she could not be close, but she could help in the only way she knew how—by keeping her distance. But maybe . . . if Aegis won the day . . .
Maybe.
Lilith crawled and crept upward, through all the hells. The constant fear of Samael hung over her like a guillotine. If the ongoing changes in direction had any plus side, though, it was that they would throw the demon king off her track.
Miami sounded good. She’d always wanted to go there.
But still, the schemes and plans of her father, the ploys and intrigues he used to manipulate and influence all living things, crawled like a parasitic warning into the base of her skull, scuttling on spindly legs, warning her that even this was part of his diabolical plan.
TWENTY SEVEN
I tried to wipe the weariness from my eyes. When that failed, I grabbed a mug of strong coffee. No, scratch that, we were back in Orlando. It was more like a bucket of coffee.
I was seated on one of the comfy chairs arrayed around the lobby. Beside me sat Leah Aldridge. We had landed a couple of hours ago.
Curious, she’d been quizzing me about everything that had happened so far. I’d tried to go through it all, leaving nothing out. This girl deserved the hard, bleak truth. A glass of water and a thick chocolate milkshake sat on the table before her. Watching the struggle between water and shake, between Leah and Kinkade, made me feel sorry for the hurt we’d inflicted upon her.
“I apologize for the gargoyle,” I said. “I really don’t think we knew how hard it would be for you.”
Leah made a face. “Well, at least I know now. Been bugging me for a while, this strange change in me. Bed this guy, bed that guy. Eat peanut butter. Try Marmite. Jeez, I even had strong feelings for Behati Prinsloo once.”
I tried to look shocked. “Really?”
“Yeah. Who the hell do I sue for damages?”
“Umm. Well, I—”
“Ha. Don’t worry. Just kidding around. It’s been kinda fun, to be honest. Had me a few parties I might never have risked. Tried . . . different foods. Everything. Gotta ask though—when’s he coming out?”
I tried to gauge what was behind her startlingly blue eyes. I couldn’t. “Seriously, you should talk to Giles. Or Cheyne. I’m just the muscle.”
“Yeah?”
The sudden attention unnerved me. I let my eyes drop. “Well, not really. I still don’t know what the hell I’m actually doing.”
Leah laughed, a happy sound that made me smile. “Been like that my whole life. Each day as it comes, right?”
“I guess.”
My own life had been much more regimented; necessarily so after Raychel left and Lucy required a single-parent upbringing. But it had been worth it—every single second.
“So what’s next?” Leah reached for the water, then quickly grabbed the shake. Before she knew it, the glass was to her lips and she was drinking, shaking her head a little ruefully. “Bastard.”
I managed not to apologize yet again. “Well, we have two artefacts. That leaves five. They have one. Our other team is chasing another. Two are in hell, hopefully being acquired by Ken Hamilton and his team.”
“And the seventh?”
“Nobody knows. We think they’re leaving the last one till near ceremony time to make it easier.”
“But without all seven artefacts they can’t complete the ceremony.”
I made an unhappy noise. “We don’t know. Maybe if they only acquire three artefacts, they can open only three hellgates. We’re researching the whole thing.”
“Three hellgates,” Leah gulped. “Would be enough.”
“Maybe.”
Giles and Cheyne appeared then, stepping out of the elevator. Giles had a determined look plastered across his face and walked toward the seated Leah without acknowledging me.
“Kinkade,” he said. “We need to talk.”
Leah blinked at him. “So how does that work?”
Giles huffed a bit and straightened his tie. “Kinkade?”
“What do you want?”
I started in shock. The voice was the same, the eyes were the same, but I had the distinct impression that two pairs of eyes now studied me, Leah’s bright blue ones and, behind them, an ancient set of much darker, much wiser ones.
“We need you,” Giles said. “Back in the gargoyle statues. The location of the seventh artefact and final ceremony is crucial. It could mean the difference between victory and annihilation. We need your help.”
“I do not wish to leave this paradise.”
“I understand. But the needs of the human race and the world in which you thrive are far, far greater than your own.”
A moment’s silence, then Kinkade said, “What is to be my reward? It should outmatch even this.”
I frowned. Was that even possible? Could he inhabit two at the same time? The entire flock of Angels?
Giles pretty much snapped his hand off. “Done. Now let the girl go and return to your ancient post. Communicate in the same way as before. And please, Kinkade, we are quickly running out of time.”
With no discernible act the gargoyle departed. My only clue was the sudden calm that inhabited Leah’s face, the relief.
“Is that it? Is he gone?”
“Easy to depart,” Cheyne muttered. “Not so easy to install. But, yes, he is gone.”
The supermodel stared at us. “So I’m free?”
“Yes. Free to do as you please.”
“Drink the water,” I said with a twinkle. “Not the shake.”
She did. Her lips curled down. “But now I have a taste for sugar.”
“You’ll get over it.”
Leah faced me. “Everything you said—it’s all true?”
Giles gasped. “You told her?”
I nodded. “Sure. Why shouldn’t she know the truth? You guys practically whored her out without her knowledge. She deserves a little honesty.”
Leah frowned. “Thanks. But less with the ‘whoring’, okay?”
“Sorry.” My hundredth apology.
“I want to stay,” she said. “I want to help. The model tour’s over. That demon guy ruined it. Look,” she brandished her cell, “it’s all over Twitter. The company I work for i
sn’t promoting anything else until this demon business is sorted out. So,” she said. “It’s actually in my interest to help you guys.”
Giles glared at me. I glared back, unrepentant. “Fine,” he said. “She’s your responsibility, Logan. But, please, stay safe.”
My responsibility. Oh dear. I wondered what Belinda was going to say.
*
I showed Leah to her room and wondered how on earth she was going to fit in. The optimist in me corroborated the fact that when one Chosen died another took their place. Maybe Leah could be our backup, our substitute. But crap, that meant someone had to die.
Life wasn’t normal anymore. Never would be.
I entered the room I shared with Belinda to find her asleep on the bed, half a glass of wine still clutched precariously in one hand. I leaned over and was about to kiss the top of her head when a loud bellow practically shattered all the windows. The frames rattled and the glass shook. My head jerked up, adrenalin firing. Though we were on the fifth floor I sensed something standing right outside my window.
A month or so ago the notion would have put me in a straightjacket.
Today, I knew it was hell’s outlandish version of a T-Rex.
Quickly I woke Belinda, taking care not to venture near the windows. She came awake and the creature roared again, sending her stiff with fear. Something huge brushed against the side of our building, rattling the very foundations. I watched the entire room rock.
“Downstairs,” Belinda whispered. “Now.”
We vacated the room and headed for the elevators. Several other people were already there, and I even noticed a few tourists. I’d thought the hotel had been cleared of anyone except Aegis personnel, but I guess you can never keep a persistent tourist down.
“You should probably stay in your rooms,” I said to a hairy guy with a long-lens camera swinging around his neck and a mobile clutched in one hand.
“You kidding? I gotta take some pics for the kids.”
“This isn’t Universal, dude. Or the Jurassic Park ride.”
“Nah.” The guy grinned bravely. “It’s way better.”
I turned away, wishing I could truss him up and leave him in one of the halls. Maybe I could. But before I could act on a plan the elevator dinged and we all piled out onto the ground floor. Cheyne and Giles were at the far end of the lobby, noses pressed to the glass. Tanya was just emerging from another elevator and Natalie was hovering at the back.
I ran forward. “What have we got?”
“Big legs,” Giles muttered. “Bloody big legs.”
I looked over his shoulder. The guy was spot on. Massive, mottled legs the size of old trees were planted in the car park. The splayed toes flexed aggressively, the sharpened talons digging chunks out of the asphalt surface. Another gigantic bellow and we all flinched away. That terrifying sound was etched into our race-memory, a built-in terror alert passed down from caveman days. Guaranteed to practically stop the heart.
I closed my eyes when Giles looked at me. Shit, this is worse than facing Gorgoth.
To their eternal credit the whole group stayed with me as I first cracked open and then exited the front doors. The parking lot before me was a mass of churned-up asphalt and wrecked cars. The more I inched forward, the better view I had of the creature. Not a pretty sight, but an intimidating one. The dark varicolored skin of its legs stretched all the way to a light brown underbelly. Its sides were knotty and armored, the scales protecting it like they did the hide of a stegosaurus. Arms hung down at irregular intervals from its sides, six in all, arms that appeared to twist in every direction and were capped by talons, blunt battering rams and a thick, wriggling tentacle appendage. As I watched the battering-ram arm struck the side of our building, sending a thick wave of masonry crashing down to the ground. Transfixed, I continued to look up, and up, until I saw its monstrous skull.
Paralyzed, I forgot even to breathe.
A jaw crowded with racks of teeth, each one shelved and individually hinged so they could slide and tilt, dripped acidic saliva like a mountain waterfall. A ridged nose like the side of a ragged cliff. Blazing eyes overshadowed by colossal brows, crags so big that men could scale them with pitons and ropes. As I watched, the small, piercing eyes pinned me like a laser beam.
It bellowed, the saliva blasting down at us; a hurricane of wind and rain. Its legs shuffled, grinding up the surface. Faster than I could imagine, its great jaw shot toward us, teeth sliding apart and extending.
I backpedalled without thinking, unleashing power I didn’t even know I’d stored up. Maybe it was from Natalie, but the small surge we managed impacted with the beast’s nose, making it flinch.
Sort of.
I mean, imagine a megaton pile of evil flesh and bone stop and shrug. That’s closer to the truth. In any event we slammed back into the hotel as the jaw came at us again. Slashing down and striking at the pavement; teeth chewing up the paving flags and gnashing at the dirt beneath. Rubble smashed the windows, bombarding the room around us. I saw the brief wink of evil red eyes and then the jaws were gone again, rising up to the skies.
A roar of bloodlust and carnage rent the air.
“We can’t fight that,” I said unsteadily.
“We can and we must,” Belinda said. “It dies now. It is pure carnivore, Logan. It can’t be left alive to feed on the innocent.”
“Damn and bollocks.”
I shook myself. Again we ran to the doors and slipped through, just in time to almost get trodden on. The creature was turning. Its left foot destroyed the parking lot just a few feet ahead of us as it smashed down, the ground rupturing, the heel sinking. We halted as best we could, knocked off balance. Tanya hit the ground, but jack-knifed her body straight back up. Already I was filling my inner body with force; the expanding power. I felt Natalie join with me, tentatively at first, but then growing stronger, more confident.
I unleashed the blast, straight at the creature’s ribs. The spear of force impacted hard, exploding with a dazzling light that fizzed off in all directions like fireworks. A snort and a roar blasted forth, the leg buckled, and the body swayed; an unstable skyscraper.
We hadn’t thought this through.
“Shit!”
As the T-Rex leaned over we broke the other way, all sprinting as fast as we could. As I ran, I heard a pounding sound and turned to see the tourist with the big camera jogging along at my side.
“Forget the kids!” he shouted. “This mother’s going on my blog!
I turned away and fixed on the T-Rex as it lumbered around in a slow-motion collapse.
It leaned, it tipped, it yelled like thunder, but the laws of physics still stymied it. With all its weight on its left, the enormous monster was only going one way. I pulled up to watch, already drawing on more power.
The behemoth toppled . . . straight into the side of the hotel. Windows exploded and walls collapsed. Concrete shattered. The whole side of the hotel caved in, destroyed: crashing, crunching and smashing in upon itself and falling in a wave of debris toward the ground. Steel joints exploded under pressure. Iron girders warped.
But it didn’t collapse, and the T-Rex caught itself. With a violent push that dislodged even more wreckage, it thrust off the shattered walls and came back onto two legs. By the violent shakes of its head, we knew it was searching for us.
“Ready?” I shouted.
Cheyne chanted and Natalie affirmed. I readied the biggest blast I could unleash when a new sound crashed the party, ruining my concentration. It was the craziest sound—the throaty chug of a big V-8 engine, the rumble of wide tires and the cheering of young voices.
“Hellhound go!”
“Take down the bad boy!”
“Eat it, Rex!”
Across the least destroyed part of the lot came a black Dodge Ram, fully loaded, with red flames painted down its side. Standing in the back were three people: a guy with an eyepatch, a woman with pigtails, and a man wearing reflector sunglasses. Driving the mechani
cal beast was a black-haired woman, arms covered in tattoos and with the stereo turned up to the max—Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water pumped out so loud it rattled the windshield.
It caught the T-Rex’s attention immediately. Maybe it wasn’t a Purple fan. It swung its gigantic head around and started to run. Shockingly quick, the T-Rex and the Dodge Ram barreled toward each other at speed, both bellowing, both taking this battle of the titans to the last level.
“What the—?” I readied the power.
“Wait.” Belinda’s hand stopped me. “They must know what they’re doing.”
“The very car they’re driving,” Giles stated. “Would say otherwise.”
Belinda flicked her old mentor’s ear. “Better than your British Transit,” she said.
The two enemies came together. The T-Rex dipped its head as it ran, jaws widening as if to scoop up the black insect that dared challenge it. The occupants of the Ram acted as one. Tattooed girl stomped on the brakes and swerved. Eyepatch guy fired a harpoon from a contraption mounted to the Ram’s roll-bar. Pigtail woman let loose with a salvo of heavy-caliber machine gun fire. Sunglasses guy fired a second harpoon.
I stared in awe. Both harpoons slammed into the creature’s underbelly, delving into the softer skin there and puncturing with a great whooshing sound. The ammunition fired straight and true at the thing’s eyes, destroying its vision as it tried to turn its head. The vehicle swerved to its right, almost scraping the monster’s lumpy foot as both harpoons were quickly disengaged from the truck and left embedded in the beast.
For good measure I unleashed my pent-up power, striking it a good one around the skull. It bellowed, it raged, but it did fall, the collapse shaking the entire lot and the buildings around like a powerful earthquake. And it fell hard, as all big things do. Its head smashed into the ground with incredible force, teeth broken and flying off like spears. I watched as the Ram came around again, this time pulling up close to its head and firing point blank with the big gun into its eyes and brain. The head twitched, the arms gyrated, but the bulk of the beast did not stir. After a few minutes the new guys started cheering.
Giles was already walking over. “You there!” he called as if talking to someone who’d just grabbed a ball from his garden. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The Chosen Trilogy Boxset Page 39
