Two steps and I’d be there. With no idea how to deal with the demon. But I could place myself between it and Mory.
I took one step.
Kett was suddenly on the demon’s shoulders, or neck, I couldn’t really distinguish the two. With his feet rooted, he yanked on one of the large horns protruding from the demon’s forehead. It had four. The vampire, who’d so casually broken my mother’s arm earlier, was risking his immortal life for the fledgling. He barely managed to twist the demon’s head, but it was enough.
I reached Mory and tried to yank her away as the demon raised its clawed foot to squash us both. Except its downward stamp landed on Desmond.
The shifter, who had leaped in to stand over Mory and me on the ground, took the blow with a grunt and a deep bend at the knees, but he didn’t collapse. His shredded clothing was covered in Jeremy’s blood. He locked eyes with me, had the audacity to grin, and then transformed into McGrowly.
Mory screamed again. Yeah, seeing a monster boiling out of human skin was pretty scary, but McGrowly was way prettier than the freaking demon.
McGrowly grabbed the demon’s foot, lifted, and twisted. I rolled away with Mory clutched to me.
The demon simply closed its claws around McGrowly, picking him up off the ground. It obviously didn’t need four feet to stand. It tried to bite the shifter in half while Kett continued to grapple with its horn. This impeded it from getting teeth on McGrowly just momentarily enough to save Desmond’s life.
I hauled Mory to her feet — but then had to let go of the teenager to block the knife Sienna had thrust toward the necromancer.
I punched Sienna in the gut while holding her blade at bay with my other hand. She dropped the weapon and grappled with me. She was way stronger than she should have been. More stolen power. I couldn’t reach my own knife, which I must have sheathed in my mad scramble for Mory, though I didn’t remember doing so.
“Grab the knife, Mory!” I yelled as Sienna got her foot behind my knee. She unbalanced me enough that all I could do was hang on to her.
The demon roared — the first sound I’d actually heard from it. McGrowly had punched it in the eye. Its voice made my own eyes water, but then a glance back at Sienna informed me that my tears were probably filled with blood, because that was what was streaming down my sister’s face. The demon’s voice was affecting Sienna as much as it did me. Without the knife, she didn’t have any more protection than the rest of us.
I rolled away from Sienna and gained my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the demon finally claw Kett off its shoulder and fling the vampire fifty feet against the far cave wall.
Sienna flung her pain spell at Mory, who’d been running away with the sacrificial knife. The spell hit the fledgling necromancer hard enough that she fell, but she didn’t drop the blade.
A bright flash of blue light hit the demon and it roared in pain. I looked up, struggling to see through what felt like the bleeding of my brain, to see my mother and Kandy on the ledge.
Scarlett sagged under the stress of the strength of whatever spell she’d thrown. She fell to her knees with her hands still outstretched. Kandy started climbing down the wall, easily finding the handholds I’d been blind to.
“Take the knife to my mother, Mory!” I screamed. Mory scrambled to her feet and ran. Sienna lunged after her. I got a finger-hold on her — when I should have just stabbed her in the back — and her stupid cloak tore.
Then she staggered back, shrieking, her hands coming up to her face. Small cuts appeared around her eyes and across her cheekbones.
“Hello, Rusty,” I said. Sienna shrieked and screamed, in frustration more than pain.
I raised my knife, knowing that Sienna wouldn’t stop any other way. My sister, reeling from the attack of her ghost ex-boyfriend, spun toward me. The blackness of her soul had spread through her veins, all across her face and arms. It was obvious to anyone who laid eyes on her.
Even me.
I aimed for her heart. It might be black, but it still had to pump blood.
My sister locked eyes with me. Her mouth formed a small O.
She had no defense against me. She’d killed Jeremy and Hudson and Rusty and others I didn’t know. She’d tortured Desmond, Kett, Kandy, Mory, and me.
I was going to have to kill her to stop her.
Then the demon took me out at the knees.
∞
When I came to, Desmond was half dead. Kett, whose eyes were as blood red as the demon’s, didn’t look much better.
I was lying over the demon’s spiked tail. My lungs and organs were definitely punctured in multiple places. They had to be. Not that I could see spikes sticking through me or anything, but it was damn difficult to move. Or breathe.
The demon had twisted around to track Mory and the sacrificial knife, managing to skewer me on its tail. Nice. It was currently clawing at the protective circle Scarlett had managed to erect around herself and Mory on the edge of the ledge. I couldn’t see Kandy, but I gathered she’d piggybacked the fledgling necromancer up the cliff wall to get her to safety, and to get the knife to my mother.
Which was great, except that even from my very low vantage point, I could see my mother slumped in the circle she’d raised. Her magic was ebbing with every clawed hit the demon unleashed. The knife, still slick with Jeremy’s blood, was clutched in Mory’s hands. Mory … who was a necromancer, not a witch, and therefore had no idea how to command or banish a demon with the magical object she held.
We were totally losing. Badly. If the demon got the knife, no mortal could ever command it, ever. Never again. The humans of the west coast of Oregon, and then the state, and then the entire country were about to be in for a major shock. Most of them would think the devil had risen to walk the earth, and they wouldn’t be half wrong.
I lifted myself off the bony spikes of the demon’s tail. I tried to not think about the bits of lung and liver and kidney I left behind. Also, I didn’t bother wondering why I was still alive, because it was fairly obvious that it wasn’t going to last.
I stumbled a couple of steps and fell, noting that Desmond and Kett were both prone by the wall that contained the portal.
The demon clawed at my mother’s protective circle again. Scarlett’s magic dimmed further.
“Hey, asshole,” I gurgled around the blood that poured out of my mouth. “I’ve got a pretty knife all covered in blood too.” I dragged myself to my feet. The demon didn’t even spare me a glance. It raised a clawed hand and hit Scarlett’s ward again. The magic cracked. Another blow and it would be gone, and my mother dead along with it. Then Mory.
“Wait a second,” I said, looking down at my knife. “I was wrong about the blood part. Let me fix that.”
Then I cut off the demon’s tail.
Well, I got a quarter of it at least.
The demon roared — God, I hated that sound — and turned to backhand me across the cavern. It hurt like my heart might have exploded in my chest, but it conveniently placed me right next to Desmond and Kett. Also, I still had my knife.
Unfortunately, as the demon whirled to face us, none of us were on our feet. I could clearly see Sienna climbing the wall behind the demon. She was about twenty feet below Scarlett and Mory.
Shit.
The demon raised itself on its haunches. In this position, its head scraped the cavern ceiling.
Yeah, scary. Except it got confused, and then distracted, by the magical light spells hanging all around its head.
I laughed. Yeah, insane. But why not? I was certain I was dying, because the pain of my punctured back, lungs, and organs was easing as a warmth spread through me.
Who knew death would be so warm?
The wounds on my back healed. The warmth was spreading through me from the cavern wall.
“The portal,” I said. As if it had been waiting for me to acknowledge it, the portal opened behind me in a flood of golden light.
The demon shrieked. The walls of the cavern shook with its pain, but the sound was nothing to me now.
Buoyed by the golden magic, I stood. Desmond and Kett, both still severely wounded, struggled to stand beside me. Even though it meant sheathing my knife, I assisted them.
I had the beginning of a thought … one I knew better than to think all the way through.
I laced my fingers through Kett’s and Desmond’s.
“Hey asshole. How’s the tail?” I yelled as I took a step back. “Bet it hurts. Like this hurts. Why don’t you try to stop me?”
The demon hated the golden magic of the portal, but right now, I was betting it hated me and the missing chunk of its tail more.
I had no idea how the portal worked, but I was guessing it didn’t just lead back to the bakery basement in Vancouver — unless I wanted it to — because it was active. Active enough that it had drawn Blackwell’s attention. The sorcerer could feel its magic but not open it. I was also guessing, given the presence of the stone altar, that Blackwell had tried many spells here to no avail. At least not until Sienna had come through.
Had Blackwell actually been in the cavern that night when Sienna had come through the portal, guided by my own hand? Or had Sienna simply happened upon the sorcerer in Portland, and seeing him as a powerful ally, told him her story?
The demon snagged me with its claws around my rib cage before I could take a second step back. I couldn’t fight it and still hold on to Desmond and Kett. I somehow managed another step. I was crazy strong in the golden light. Impossibly strong. I took a third step.
I had to hope that Kandy was okay enough to get Mory to safety. I had to hope that Scarlett could protect them both from Sienna if I could take the demon out of the game.
“In my pocket,” I cried to Desmond on my left as I continued to pull them all back into the portal. The demon hissed and shrieked as the golden magic reached out through me, wrapping itself around the creature’s head and shoulders.
Desmond dug into the pocket of my jeans, after checking the hoody pocket and coming up with zilch. He came out with a handful of the jade stones imbued with the skinwalker magic. Their binding magic, to be specific.
I pulled the demon back another step. I could feel blood streaming where its claws were puncturing my ribs and back, but no pain.
Somewhere safe … take us somewhere safe … somewhere that can contain the demon … I chanted it in my head, hoping the portal could hear my thoughts.
I took another step back. Beside me, Kett fell to his knees. He wasn’t having a good time in the golden light. I worried I might actually be killing him rather than saving his life.
A flurry of movement behind the demon on the cliff edge drew my attention. Sienna was somehow holding Scarlett and Kandy at bay with her fireblood spell while wrestling Mory for the knife. Damn it.
The demon loosened its claws. I could feel them retracting.
“Now!” I cried. “Throw, now!”
Desmond used the last of his strength to throw the jade stones into the demon’s shrieking mouth. Then he also fell beside me.
“Eat that, asshole!” I screamed.
The demon stopped shrieking and fell forward onto me. I had hoped that the lining of its throat wasn’t as invulnerable to magic as its hide.
Sienna screamed in frustration. Then, grabbing Mory and the knife, she turned and yanked the fledgling necromancer with her through the cavern wall. Kandy leaped after them, but hit solid rock. Another hidden passageway, probably keyed to Sienna and Blackwell.
With my legs being crushed by the demon and the rest of me floating in magic, I couldn’t do anything but wrap my arms around Desmond and Kett and try to visualize the power of the portal pulling us through. I had to get the demon away from Sienna now that she had the knife.
“Take me somewhere safe,” I said.
Then I was lost in the sea of golden magic.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I woke with my cheek pressed against a pure white marble floor and a demon’s chin resting across my legs.
Blinking, I tried to lift my head, but I couldn’t see anything, except gold, gold, gold. Then, a few blinks later, this resolved itself into golden pillars, golden-carved reliefs, and gold-crusted inlays in carved sandstone walls. Everything was very Asian … yet not.
I groaned and tried to move my legs. They worked, but the knocked-out demon was crazy heavy. It huffed a spurt of smoke at me when I kicked it in the snout. So not out — just bound from within. Its bloody eyes tracked my movement as I stumbled to my feet.
I was in the middle of an empty round room, its finishings bordering on gaudy with a dose of Greek temple.
Nine doors, each decorated with a different theme I didn’t have time to decrypt, led from the circular room, as well as two open archways. Eleven exits. That was good.
The demon lay halfway through one of the doors. The magic of the portal swallowed its body from the shoulders down.
Desmond was trapped under one of the demon’s forearms. I freed him, dragging him as far away as possible, but I was too uncertain of where I was and what was going on to just toss him through one of the doors or archways. I wasn’t completely sure he was alive, either. But I ignored that part.
I couldn’t see Kett. Not until the demon pushed back with one of his smart car-sized clawed feet and shook its head to scream at me with utter rage. Kett had been crushed underneath its chest. I was glad to note that my brain no longer bled from the demon’s roar.
It was obviously still fighting off the skinwalker binding magic, because it had a difficult time following me as I tried to dart underneath its legs and chest to grab Kett. I missed the vampire but also managed to avoid being chomped in half as I spun away and pulled my knife out.
At the edge of my peripheral vision, I saw Kett roll away until he lay crumpled by one of the gold pillars. The demon didn’t appear to care. But it was pretty pissed when I hacked off one of its toes … well, claws. It shrieked again and raised its foot to obliterate me.
Someone bellowed, his booming voice cracking mid-note, behind me. I pivoted away from the demon foot crashing down over me, glancing back.
A boy, maybe twelve years old or so, was charging through one of the archways. He was armed with a broad sword that had to be almost as long as he was tall and wider than his arm. Not a child’s sword. It looked like actual gold, which had to be heavy as hell.
Wait a second — child’s sword? Who gave children swords?
“No!” I screamed, trying to block the dark-haired, insane prepubescent from getting himself killed. But the boy neatly slipped around me, jumped on the demon’s foot as it connected to the ground at my back, then sprung off the foot onto the demon’s opposite knee.
With another bellow, the boy then launched off the demon’s knee and attempted to lop its head off. He managed to hack away a horn, which seriously pissed the demon off. But since his sword was only half as long as the diameter of the demon’s neck, I suspected that the boy had been aiming high.
The dark-haired boy hadn’t really planned out his landing when he leaped. And unfortunately, the demon was shaking off the binding magic a lot quicker than I had hoped. The boy tumbled to the ground at the demon’s feet and was caught in a head-crunching, spine-breaking side swat.
The boy flew across the room, hitting a golden pillar on the far side with a sickening thud. The pillar trembled, which was the first hint of damage I’d actually seen the room take.
The boy dropped straight to the marble floor and didn’t move.
I saw red. I flung myself at the demon, whose attention was still on the boy. I executed the same series of moves he had, avoiding the demon’s massive maw as it followed my diagonal course. But instead of trying to lop anything off, I thrust my knife through the demon’s left eye. Right up to my elbow.
The demon shuddered underneath me — I was perched on its scaled shoulder. Black blood boiled up from the wounded
eye, literally burning the skin off my arm. Still, wrapping my free hand around its nearest horn as a counterpoint, I shoved my knife in deeper and deeper. I twirled my wrist in an attempt to scramble its brain, but I was almost blacking out from the intense pain.
The demon finally fell forward. And I fell with it.
One of the doors opened behind me, hitting me with a flood of magic. I wrenched my arm and knife from the demon’s eye, half-fell/half-rolled to my side, pivoted, and managed to make it to my knees.
A big blond man stepped through the door. His power — the magic akin to that of the portal — hit me like a sledgehammer to the heart. Which was a good thing because it felt like it had stopped beating.
Oddly, if I’d had a moment to think about it, I would have noticed that his magic tasted of spicy chocolate. But not jalapeño spicy. Spicy like … like … Chinese food.
I swung my knife forward to defend myself. I could see the bones of my right arm. My mind screamed with alarm at this reveal, even as my body followed through to protect myself from this newest threat.
Time sped up so quickly — he was that fast — that my mind seemed to slow it for comprehension purposes.
The golden tanned god-of-a-man pulled a broad-bladed gold sword out of thin air — reminiscent of the boy’s weapon, but impossibly larger, its pommel encrusted with jewels and pearls. Yes, just out of the air. Not magically sheathed, just out of the air. The absolute power of the sword, an intensely contained replication of the man’s magic, made my eyes water. At least I hoped it was water, because in a completely different way than when the demon shrieked, it felt like my brain was bleeding … or maybe dissolving was the better descriptor.
The blond god was looming over me before I even managed to gain my feet, so I reached up to parry his overhand blow while still on one knee.
Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic Page 25
