Unhallowed Redemption

by Tara Rose

If Konstantin’s heart could still beat, it would have stopped. “But that means he knew you’d be here, too.”

  “And where are Seth and Daniel?” asked Alexei. “The note said he had them.”

  Dagon turned to one of the angels and asked him to find the servants. Then he tossed the statue onto the grass. “That was left here to taunt us. To let us know he’s playing with us still.”

  Konstantin and Alexei exchanged a glance, and Konstantin swore his brother’s skin paled, even though that wasn’t possible in his present form. Understanding dawned in Alexei’s eyes, and Konstantin realized why Vassago had lured them here. He’d never taken the servants. He only wanted to get him and Alexei out of the house.

  That was the ill wind they’d sensed earlier. Vassago had been watching. And then he’d taken Seth and Daniel, but he’d never had any intentions of bringing them to this clearing. This had indeed been a trap.

  But why would Vassago dare to go into the house unless he believed he and Alexei wouldn’t be coming back…

  “Faina…we have to get back to the house. Now.”

  As soon as Konstantin spoke the words, all hell broke loose. Demons appeared in the clearing, and Konstantin had just enough time to hear Dagon call for more angels before he unfurled his enormous wings and wrapped them around both he and Alexei. Konstantin closed his eyes as the three hurtled through time and space.

  * * * *

  A loud, booming noise outside distracted the being. He actually started down the stairs, and Faina blessed her good luck. She blew out the candle and ran for the French doors, pulling them closed behind her. She stepped out onto the balcony and jumped from one to the other, nearly falling each time, tears streaming down her face. Her legs were shaking so badly she could barely walk. Her chest hurt with each breath, but she had to keep going.

  When she reached Konstantin’s room, she glanced out into the hallway. The stench was back, which meant he was up here somewhere, or on the stairs. She heard whimpering and realized it was coming from her, so she tried to slow her breathing and stay calm. She couldn’t think. In her mind, she begged Konstantin and Alexei to hear her. They had to be somewhere. They had to know she was in danger. They’d come to her. They had to.

  She opened doors as quietly as possible, searching for the room they never used. The one that had a staircase leading down to Konstantin’s study. If she could get downstairs, she could get out of the house where others might see her.

  Just as she found it, she heard a guttural roar behind her, and the stench grew stronger. Faina didn’t turn to look over her shoulder. She locked the door from the inside and went down the stairs as fast as she dared to go. Her legs felt like rubber, and she knew if she fell she was dead.

  Overhead, she heard the sound of wood splintering as the door to the bedroom was forced open. How silly of her to think mere locks would stop a demon. Hadn’t she watched Alexei open one with a wave of his hand? This demon certainly could do the same thing. And that’s what he had to be. A demon. What else would smell like that, or be after her in this house?

  She ran out of Konstantin’s study and stood there, frozen, glancing up and down the hallways. She couldn’t remember where she was. She felt deep vibrations coming from the stairwell and wondered why it was bothering with stairs or even walls. The realization that he was most likely toying with her made this even worse. But she had to try. If she could get outside, she could flag down a neighbor or even a stranger passing by. Staying inside the house would mean death. She knew that as certainly as she knew her own name.

  Faina ran toward the direction of the kitchen but quickly realized she’d gone the wrong way. As the stench grew overpowering and the guttural sound filled her head, she realized the back parlor that contained the entrance to one of the passageways was on her left.

  She ran inside and slipped behind the curtain, then felt her way along the wall until she reached the end. He either didn’t know where she was, or once again he was playing a game, because he didn’t follow her inside. By the time she reached the end and peeked out into the foyer, she couldn’t smell or hear the demon.

  But she knew there was no way he was simply gone.

  Now that she had her bearings once again, she sprinted for the kitchen and opened the back door. As she crossed the threshold, the stench overpowered her and a growling sound vibrated directly behind her.

  Faina screamed.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Alexei watched the scene on their back porch unfold as if it were in slow motion. He and Konstantin were still invisible, thanks to Dagon’s spell, as were the angels with him. But when he saw Faina open the back door and step onto the porch, he longed to make his presence known to her. The only reason he didn’t was because Dagon had told him it was imperative for him and his brother to wait for the right moment. Alexei knew they’d have only one shot to make this work.

  As Dagon materialized mere inches from the porch, a look of utter disbelief and confusion came over Faina’s beautiful face. Vassago rose up behind her as if he’d been hiding in the floorboards, just waiting for her to leave the house.

  He took human form, which was probably a worse sight for her than his demon form. When Vassago wanted his presence to be known, he did it in a big way. Well over six feet tall, with dark, angry eyes, a full head of flowing black hair, and dressed like a biker on a mission from Hell itself.

  Faina turned and screamed again. Alexei started to take human form, but Dagon held up his hand with a look of warning on his face. “Vassago!” Dagon’s voice echoed around the backyard, making Alexei certain the cops would show up any second. No way their neighbors weren’t going to hear or see this. “Let her go. She is not yours.”

  Alexei’s heart broke at the look on Faina’s face. It was a combination of disbelief and complete terror. She looked about to faint any second, and all he wanted to do was hold her. How could they have been so foolish as to walk into Vassago’s trap? Alexei glanced toward Konstantin, whom he could see in their present form. He looked just as conflicted and lost, as well as angry.

  “She belongs to Sargatanas!” Vassago’s voice was equally loud and reverberated off every tree and bush surrounding them.

  Dagon pulled a document out of thin air, and if Alexei hadn’t been so worried over Faina’s well-being right now, he’d have laughed at the display of powers. Fallen angels were such show-offs, even during a serious time such as this. “This proves she belongs to neither you nor Sargatanas! The contract was void before you materialized on these grounds. She was already marked.”

  As if he’d been waiting for his cue, Sargatanas materialized next to Vassago. “It’s too late. Her protectors are dead.” He didn’t take the form of quite as imposing a human as Vassago had done, but Faina was still clearly terrified of him.

  “You and your kind don’t belong here, Dagon.” Sargatanas’s voice wasn’t loud, nor did it bounce off the plants. Rather, it was seductive and oily. He could make any human believe the sky was green and grass was red.

  “Your tricks don’t work on me. She is marked for Alexei and Konstantin Veselov. Their contract with you is void.”

  Sargatanas glanced around, his human face a mask of treachery and vindictiveness. The sneer was more predatory than humorous. “I don’t see the Veselov brothers. You can hardly say I’ve breached a contract with them when they are gone forever and cannot claim their hold on this human.”

  Alexei fought with every ounce of strength he had as Faina moaned and then collapsed into a sitting position on the porch, as if her legs had simply given out. Her eyelids fluttered, and he knew she was close to passing out. He glanced toward Dagon. They had to bring this to a conclusion, and soon.

  She was only human, and right now she thought they’d been destroyed. She couldn’t possibly know that Sargatanas or Vassago couldn’t see them because of Dagon’s spell, or that his statement assumed the demons that he and Vassago had sent to the clearing had indeed destroyed him and Konstantin.

&n
bsp; Sargatanas obviously didn’t yet know that Vassago’s trick hadn’t worked. But Faina wouldn’t know any of that, so she’d take his words to heart right now.

  “And who accomplished that?” asked Dagon. “Your ruse did not work. The servants you tried to use as bait are safe.”

  Sargatanas spread his hands. “Do you see them?”

  “Magda is unconscious but very much alive upstairs, and the two Vassago took are now in a place you can’t touch them.”

  Sargatanas’s smile faltered, but only for a microsecond. Faina’s face registered total confusion now.

  One of Dagon’s angels had found the servants in an abandoned building near the clearing, unconscious but unharmed. Vassago had only used them for bait to trick Alexei and his brother into the clearing, where their minions were supposed to have destroyed them. But Vassago obviously hadn’t counted on Dagon and the other angels rising up to protect two demons.

  “Your mind tricks won’t work on me, Dagon. The Veselov brothers are gone. What you have done with the servants is of no consequence to me. It wasn’t them I was after. The contract is a moot point, and the human girl is now mine.”

  Dagon smiled, and if Alexei had been able to fear him, he would have. The gesture was both triumphant and sinister at the same time. He hardly dared to believe this had worked. They’d tricked both Sargatanas and Vassago. It was too much to believe.

  But it wasn’t over yet.

  Dagon snapped his fingers, and the spell on him and Konstantin lifted.

  * * * *

  Faina cried out as she watched Konstantin and Alexei materialize next to the tall, golden-haired man she now understood to be Dagon, the fallen angel who had helped them both. They weren’t gone, as Sargatanas had said. They weren’t dead, or destroyed, or whatever happens to supernatural beings who were already dead. They were here, in their own backyard. How was all this possible?

  She didn’t understand anything she’d seen or heard in the past hour. What was real, and what was fantasy? Had she dreamed this entire week?

  Everything started to spin, but she fought to hold on. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to cross the porch toward them, but her legs wouldn’t move. Whatever the two foul demons had done to her wasn’t letting up.

  She gazed at Konstantin and Alexei in turn, willing them to be real. “You’re alive…you’re all right…”

  “They won’t be for long, my sweet.” Sargatanas’s breath was putrid, and his voice was slick with triumph and confidence in her ear. She flinched and he laughed. The sound evoked images of torture, rape, and imprisonment, so she let her gaze fall once again on Konstantin’s and Alexei’s faces.

  They loved her. They were all right. And she loved them. Nothing else mattered. Their eyes told her to hang on a while longer and everything would be all right. She believed them. She had to because there was nothing else to keep her from staying conscious right now.

  “You have no hold on her,” said Sargatanas. “The contract is unbreakable.”

  “The contract is void,” said Alexei. “You and Vassago broke it when you came onto the grounds.”

  Sargatanas swept his arm in a wide arc. “And who is here to speak for you? A human girl? It’s over. I demand you honor the terms of our contract and sacrifice her.”

  “We’ll do no such thing,” said Konstantin. “We demand you release her and leave this place, never to return.”

  Sargatanas’s laugh echoed in her head, like a death knell. “On what grounds?”

  Dagon handed him the document. When he took it, Faina swore she saw him flinch, as if touching it burned him. But how was that possible? “What trickery is this? She was marked by a Lidérc, not by these two.”

  “But when they entered her in their human form they marked her in place of the Lidérc’s claim. You know the old magick laws as well as I do, demon. The Lidérc relinquished his claim on her when he didn’t return. But you didn’t know this existed, did you?”

  “Trickery!”

  “You know it’s not. You can’t even hold it. It burns your demon flesh, proving it’s real. There is old magick even demons have no power over. Go on. Read it again. And then tell me by what logic you can possibly refute it.”

  Sargatanas shook his head several times. Faina watched, fascinated. She’d always assumed that supernatural beings knew everything. Apparently that wasn’t true, because this nasty demon was bewildered and angry by the document Dagon had handed him.

  “The Veselov brothers have now taken that claim,” said Dagon, “and what has been done to her by both of them cannot be undone. You and Vassago voided the contract when you came onto these grounds, but it was a moot point. They marked her as their own three days ago.”

  Although Faina still had trouble processing all of this right now, she watched the change come over Vassago and Sargatanas’s faces and knew that Alexei and Konstantin had won. But her legs still wouldn’t move, and she had no idea how two demons in human form and a fallen angel were going to overpower these two foul creatures. She sensed their strength. It was ancient and powerful.

  Sargatanas tried to crumple the contract, but he cried out in obvious pain and dropped it on the ground. It smoothed itself out, just like a piece of paper would do in a cartoon, and then Faina watched in disbelief as it simply floated back into Dagon’s hand. She’d waited her entire life to see things like this in person, but now that she was in the middle of it, it was surreal. And it was far more frightening than she’d ever imagined it would be. All she wanted to do was fall into Alexei’s and Konstantin’s arms.

  Vassago roared and lunged for her, but before he touched her the entire yard filled with bright, golden light that had her shielding her eyes and the two demons next to her crying out again, as if the light burned them. Dozens of fallen angels surrounded Dagon, Alexei, and Konstantin, then spread out in a semicircle that flanked her, Sargatanas, and Vassago.

  “It’s over,” said Dagon. “And here are the required witnesses. Release her and be banished forthwith from these grounds, and from this city, for eternity.” His voice resonated in her head as though he’d shouted, but she knew he hadn’t. Still, the words had a powerful effect on the two demons, who no longer looked as tall or menacing as they had a moment ago.

  Sargatanas reached for her, and as his arm wrapped around her neck, she tried to scream in agony, but nothing came out. The searing pain was overshadowed by a rush of light and soothing coolness, enveloping her in a cocoon that, while she couldn’t see, had the same effect as if someone had tossed a blanket over her head that she instinctively knew would protect her from all evil for the rest of her life.

  So many things happened in the space of a few short seconds that Faina had trouble processing any of them. A roaring noise, louder than any jet plane she’d ever heard, filled the space around them. It then dissipated so quickly she wondered if she’d imagined it.

  The pain on her skin was gone, replaced by coolness and warmth at the same time. She felt more protected and cherished in that single second than she had her entire life. Someone carried her, and when she dared to open her eyes again, she was in one of the parlors inside Konstantin’s and Alexei’s house.

  Dagon and the angels were in the room, but they were no longer glowing. They watched her carefully, as if unsure she was all right. She sat up and glanced around for Konstantin and Alexei, finally spotting them. They were changed. She saw it right away. It was nothing she could put her finger on, but she knew they were.

  Konstantin spoke first. “It’s all right, Faina. You’re safe now. They’re gone forever.”

  She sat up and melted into his embrace, sensing the change in him. As she pulled away to look into his eyes, she breathed in his scent and realized the underlying smell of sulfur that she’d grown so used to around them was gone. And it wasn’t her imagination. “You’re human.”

  He smiled. “I know. We both are.”

  Alexei sat on the other side of her and stroked her face. His touch still sen
t shivers up and down her spine, but she saw the change in him as well. “How do you feel? Are you all right?”

  “We feel alive,” said Alexei. His voice shook, and it was filled with reverence. “Flesh and bone. My heart beats.” He took her hand and held it against his chest. She gasped in delight as she realized that was the first time she’d felt it in either of them. “We won, Faina. It’s over. Vassago and Sargatanas are banished from New Orleans, and they can never touch us again. They can never touch you. And we’re human again.”

  She cried and laughed at the same time as they each picked her up and twirled her around. The fallen angels around them cheered and clapped, and when Faina spotted the servants, including Magda, she cried all over again. “They’re all right? All of them?”

  “All of them,” said Konstantin. “It’s truly over, and now we can be with you in every sense of the word. For the rest of our mortal lives.”

  “And that’s our cue,” said Dagon. He shook hands with Konstantin and Alexei. “If you need me, you can still contact me. But I doubt you will now.”

  “We can’t thank you enough for what you did,” said Alexei.

  Dagon nodded once, and then he held out his arms and embraced Faina. She breathed in the scent of ginger and honeysuckle, wondering what the nuns in her former school would say if she told them she now knew what both a demon and an angel smelled like. “You take care of them, little lady.”

  “I will. Thank you so much.” It seemed horribly inadequate, but they were the only words she had.

  He released the embrace, and then he was gone, along with the others. She turned toward Konstantin and Alexei, feeling a bit lost and confused. “No one is ever going to believe this.”

  Konstantin took her into his arms and kissed her, and Faina melted into his warmth. Becoming human hadn’t dimmed his skills. When he released her mouth, he whispered in her ear. “And I will still make love to you like a runaway freight train, my sweetheart. I promise you that.”