Guardian Demon (GUARDIAN SERIES)

by Meljean Brook

  “I preferred it when you had to cling to me,” he said.

  She had to laugh. Gently squeezing his hard biceps, she said, “I’ll still cling. It seems like a waste of your impressively big muscles if I don’t.”

  “A tragic waste.”

  With a swift kiss to her mouth, he vanished. Off to bring in the Guardians and vampires that he’d been assigned to teleport.

  Everyone had already been busy. Head tilting way back, Taylor gazed up at the enormous earthen wall where the warehouse once stood fifty yards away. Holy shit. It stretched all the way across the shipyards—zigzagging here and there around warehouses and buildings. Almost a mile wide and pants-shittingly tall. Taylor couldn’t tell how thick it was, but she was betting that even a dragon wouldn’t be able to punch through that stony mass.

  And if not for Radha’s illusions, there was no way anyone in the city could have missed it. The dark sky stretched above her. They’d lucked out—it was nighttime. Even so, everything beyond and on either side of the wall appeared too dark, and she felt Rosalia’s oppressive Gift against her psychic shields, blacking out everything above and around the portal’s location. Docking basins lay on either side of this stretch of land, but nothing was visible beyond the water in either direction. No Candlestick Park to the south. No city lights to the north.

  So the demons and the dragons couldn’t see the city, Taylor realized. They’d fly out of Chaos, and the only thing visible would be the Guardians ahead of them and the lights across the bay—hopefully drawing them in that direction, like moths to a flame.

  Or just like monsters searching for a populated area to terrorize.

  No noise came from the city, either. She didn’t know which Guardian was doing that, but they’d muffled the sounds. She should have been hearing traffic, the unending cacophony of people living and going and doing, emergency vehicles responding to Icarus’s earthquake and blocking off the area around the supposed gas leak.

  Lucifer had really picked a shitty spot to come through, Taylor thought—a shitty spot for him. If he’d been smarter, Lucifer wouldn’t have chosen a location just because it was where he’d been beaten before. Because if the portal had to be in San Francisco, if this fight had to take place here, there couldn’t have been a better location. Essentially a polluted and radioactive landfill, this area had been undergoing cleanup for years. It looked like a huge permanent construction site, dotted with old warehouses and buildings and heavy equipment. Access to the site was limited; people couldn’t just drive in, sightseeing. And the immediate surrounding area was mostly industrial. Some people would have to be evacuated from their homes, but it wasn’t the hell that it might have been downtown or in any of the other neighborhoods. It was probably why Michael had chosen this location to meet with Lucifer all those years ago, too.

  Smart guy. No wonder she loved him so much.

  She glanced behind her and paused, stunned. Almost two thousand vampires, already gathered and putting on armor, strapping on weapons. Either they must have already been coming into the city in anticipation of this, or Jake and Selah had been bringing them in over the past day.

  Michael appeared in their midst, teleporting in with a group of twenty more vampires—then he was gone. A few seconds later, he brought in another group. His amber gaze caught hers before he disappeared again.

  God. One glance, and her heart was fluttering and leaping. She had it so bad.

  Smiling, she looked toward the wall again. As she watched, Mariko flew up to it, white wings flapping steadily. Her Gift smoothed over Taylor’s shields, and a giant mirror slowly poured down the wall’s rocky face.

  At its base, someone had painted a big red X where the portal would be.

  A thirty-foot-wide pit opened up beneath it like a gaping maw. Taylor didn’t know if it was deep enough to hit molten rock, but she hoped so. Six tall steel poles circled the pit. Even with her Guardian vision, Taylor couldn’t see the spider threads woven between them—that was probably Radha’s doing, casting the illusion that the razor-sharp silk wasn’t there. The demons wouldn’t see it, either, when they flew into Alice’s web.

  A shifting, hairy black mass surrounded the web. Taylor’s stomach shook. Jesus. If she’d thought a giant spider was a nightmare, that was nothing compared to hundreds of eleven-foot babies huddled tightly together, all legs and fangs and bulbous glowing eyes.

  Queasy, she tore her gaze away from them, up to the sky. Many of the Guardians were already in formation above the spiders. Most were clad in armor, but few had their weapons out yet. No need to, when they could bring swords and crossbows out of their hammerspaces in less than a second.

  Nearer to the ground, Alice hovered about ten feet in the air with Radha, Nicholas, Rosalia, and Icarus—the special teams who would disorient and crush the demons. Behind them stood the second line of defense, which would catch any wyrmwolves or demons that made it past the spiders. Savi and Colin waited next to Lilith, Hugh, and Sir Pup.

  Taylor grinned and called across the twenty yards separating them. “Hey, Lilith!”

  The other woman turned, her dark brows arched. Savi looked over her shoulder and started toward her.

  Taylor grinned at Savi, then called to Lilith again. “I figured out what those symbols were!”

  Lilith narrowed her eyes. Probably wondering why she sounded so cheery, considering what the symbols meant.

  “And I fixed him!” Taylor shouted.

  The other woman stared at her. Taylor couldn’t read her expression. “You fixed him?”

  “Yeah! He’s all better now!”

  In response, Lilith glanced at Hugh—apparently thinking that Taylor must be lying. Hugh had been studying her, too. Now he returned Lilith’s look with a relieved smile and a nod.

  Lilith’s lips pursed and her gaze met Taylor’s again. “You fucking Guardians. Next you’ll all be shooting rainbows out of your ass.”

  “We already do! That’s why we wear pants—so we can walk undetected amongst you mortals!”

  “That would actually be awesome.” Laughing, Savi joined Taylor and caught her up in a quick hug. “You could be like Care Bears. You all just drop trou and give the special Guardian stare.”

  God, she wished. She returned Savi’s hug, stepped back to look at her. Just a skirt and shirt. “No armor? No swords?”

  “I’m going hairy. Are you ready for this?”

  Taylor glanced at the big red X and tried to pretend her heart wasn’t thumping out of her chest. “I think so,” she said. “You?”

  “Not really.” She glanced over her shoulder—not at Colin, Taylor realized, though her husband still stood by Lilith and Hugh. Savi was looking at the mirrors.

  “What are you seeing?”

  “It’s easier to show you,” Savi said.

  Taylor cracked open her psychic shields, and the image filled her vision—looking up at Lucifer as if he were kneeling on the mirror and writing symbols on it. Behind him hovered a phalanx of demons, six abreast . . . on their backs, the bottoms of their taloned feet pointed toward her.

  She shook her head. “What in the world?”

  “The perspective is different,” Savi said. “Lucifer’s making their portal on the ground. Ours is upright, like a door. So even though I’m looking at the mirrors, it’s like we’re under them.”

  That made sense. And now that she’d oriented herself, Taylor could take in the rest of the image in the mirror . . . the thousands of demons. The dragons flying beneath a frozen sky. More demons herding wyrmwolves that were tearing chunks of flesh from each other, spilling blood across the ground—spreading across the mirror.

  Okay. Maybe Taylor wasn’t so ready, either. She was grateful when Savi stopped projecting.

  When her vision cleared, Jake had appeared beside them, but he must have seen what Savi was showing her—and he must have read the uncertainty on Taylor’s face.

  “It’s actually not as bad as it looks,” he told her. “The portal isn’t tha
t wide. It’ll be like they’re coming through a tunnel. There might be thousands of demons on the other side, but they’ve got one hell of a bottleneck to get through first. We’ll pick them off on this side.”

  She glanced at the Guardians waiting above—and remembered the small mountain of demon corpses in Hell. “So we’re not going to see much action back here, are we?”

  “I doubt it. But we’ll make sure you’re ready for what you do get.”

  “Okay. How much time, do you think?”

  “Colin’s watching. He’s going to let us know when Lucifer starts killing something.”

  The final stage of the ritual. Taylor nodded.

  “He’ll probably take his time killing it,” Jake added. “Because, you know. Demons like doing that.”

  “I know,” Taylor said, and they both looked over at Savi—who was hugging Colin’s nephew. Jake had brought Geoff and Maggie when he’d teleported in, Taylor realized.

  Taylor caught Maggie’s eye. “You’re in my line?”

  “Looks like.”

  Good. Maggie could shoot the wings off a fly. Demon wings would be easier to hit.

  “What size ammo are you using in your pistol?” Jake asked.

  “I’ve got forty-caliber Smith.”

  “Then I’ve got something better.” He handed over a box of bullets. “Ash is out there distributing these to any vampire who is a decent shot. They’re exploding hollow-points filled with hellhound venom. It doesn’t matter where you hit the demons—that venom will paralyze them and drop them out the sky. Then you just hack their heads off.”

  “Marry me,” Taylor said.

  Jake grinned and made kissy noises, then looked to Maggie. While he asked about her ammunition, Drifter swooped in with Charlie in his arms and dropped her off with a warm kiss before joining the Guardians hovering above.

  Though obviously nervous, the vampire managed to smile at Taylor. “So we’re the ‘can’t fight with a sword, can’t fly’ team, right?”

  “No.” Jake popped over to Charlie’s side, handed her an AK-47. “You’re the team with the toys.”

  Taylor’s brows shot up. “You’ve got assault rifles?”

  “Oh, do I ever.” A line of crates thumped onto the ground behind them. “There’s not quite enough for every vampire, but you can spread them around to anyone who wants more firepower or who didn’t bring their own weapons. You’ve got extra magazines, too. No hollow-points, but they’re all laced with venom.” He glanced at Charlie. “All you have to do is point and shoot. Try not to hit any Guardians, but if you do”—he shrugged—“venom doesn’t affect us. The bullets just hurt a lot.”

  The vampire gave him a look. “I remember how much they hurt.”

  Taylor ripped open the top of a crate and took in the number of rifles. “Holy shit. How long have you been preparing for this, Jake?”

  With an abashed expression, he ran his hand over his head. “Pretty much from the second I came back from Hell four years ago. I wanted to be able to take out an army by myself. So I’ve been stockpiling. Oh! And I can’t vanish them into my hammerspace, so you’ll have to grab armor from the pile over there.”

  She looked to where he was pointing and recognized the pile. Vampires stood around it, pulling pairs of gleaming blue-green disks over their heads. Wires connected the front plate to the back plate, hanging over their shoulders like a sandwich board. “Are those the dragon scales?”

  “Courtesy of Irena and Alice,” Jake confirmed. “It’s nothing fancy, because it’s too hard to cut the scales, but it should protect your heart from the front and back. So just watch your neck and your sides.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Yep.” Jake nodded. “Anything else, give me a shout.”

  He vanished.

  Ash landed beside Taylor and folded her leathery wings at her back. “I’ve given out the ammunition. Do you want me to start handing out the rifles?”

  Taylor nodded. “That would be great. Are you going to use one?”

  The halfling demon shook her head, and a sawed-off shotgun popped into her hand. “I’ve got my boomstick.”

  “That works,” Taylor said, then glanced over as Maggie handed Geoff an AK-47. She couldn’t stop her laugh. “Seriously?”

  Geoff’s blind eyes found hers with unerring accuracy. “Seriously,” he said.

  “Whose eyes do you look through?”

  “Any demon who is coming at me. If he’s looking down the barrel of my gun, I know it’s time to pull the trigger.”

  That worked, too. Preparing her own weapon, Taylor called in her extra clips and began exchanging her bullets for Jake’s. She looked up when a flutter of wings alerted her to Irena’s approach.

  The Guardian landed in front of her. “My knife?”

  “I have it.” Bringing the dragon blade out of her hammerspace, Taylor gave it over. “Thank you.”

  “Did you heal him?”

  “Yes,” Taylor said, then found herself yanked into Irena’s hard embrace.

  “Thank you, you reckless fool.” Irena drew back, her eyes glowing green. “Be safe.”

  “I will.”

  She’d only been gone a moment when Michael appeared in front of Taylor wearing his armor, eyes obsidian and black wings arching high over his head.

  Without a word, his firm mouth captured hers and he kissed her, long and hard. Her heart full, Taylor clung to him, then made herself draw back.

  His lips lingered against hers. “Be safe,” he said softly.

  I love you, Andromeda Taylor.

  “I love you, too,” she whispered. “Be careful.”

  Michael nodded, then vanished. He reappeared among the Guardians hovering in the sky, with Khavi beside him.

  When Taylor lowered her gaze again, she found Savi staring at her, mouth hanging open.

  “Really, Andy? You? Him?” Her friend waved a wild hand toward Michael. “And not a single word about it to me?”

  Widening her eyes, hoping she looked totally innocent, Taylor said, “What? You were really busy being kidnapped by demons and getting your house blown up.”

  “And that stopped you from sending a text? ‘Hey, Savi. Your house exploded and I’m banging the Doyen. Kthxbai.’”

  Taylor was grinning too hard to respond. Banging the Doyen. Yes, she absolutely was.

  “Savitri,” Colin called softly.

  Taylor’s heart thumped. Savi’s smile faded.

  The final stage of the ritual had begun. She hugged Savi hard, then watched her sprint back to the second line, where Colin stood with his swords ready. He bent his head to kiss her before a ripple moved under Savi’s skin and her body seemed to explode into her hellhound form.

  Only one head. Still really freaking big.

  Jake shouted for everyone to be prepared, and suddenly there were a lot of kisses going around, a lot of nervous murmurs behind her. Even though almost everyone was shielded, Taylor could sense the flood of fear leaking through, sour and sharp.

  Taylor looked up into the sky. Michael glanced down, held her gaze.

  This probably wasn’t the best moment to admit that she was terrified. But she had time for a text.

  We’re pretty freaked back here. Can you sing courage at us or something? Like you did in my head at the beach?

  Quickly, she pressed send, then realized Michael might not even have his phone on him.

  Maybe he hadn’t. But he’d been watching her, so he held it now. She saw him glance down at the message.

  Her phone vibrated a second later. If there’s one thing I’m certain of, Andromeda, it’s that you all have more than enough of your own.

  Which sounded like he wouldn’t sing anything, but by the time she finished reading the message a hush was falling over the assembled vampires and Guardians and humans, and Michael hovered in front of the mirrored wall, his eyes no longer obsidian, but glowing a warm amber.

  And he wouldn’t need to sing a note, Taylor thought. Just looking at him filled
her with so much hope—an ancient warrior in battle-roughened armor, his powerful body framed by dark wings. When he spoke, his voice carried across the shipyards, but the beautiful harmony was quiet, as if he were standing next to Taylor instead of fifty yards away.

  “Within minutes, a portal will open to the Chaos realm, and Lucifer and his demons will invade our home. Be prepared for Lucifer to fill your hearts with hate and fear. You will want to turn against your fellow warriors, your friends, your loved ones—and against yourselves. His power is great, as is his strength. Because of that, he believes we all will break before him . . . and he is dead wrong.” Michael paused, and when he spoke again, his voice swelled and deepened. “For eight thousand years, I have walked among you. There is no pain, no terror, no hate that I have not witnessed humanity endure. There is no horror that Lucifer can dream of that you and your fathers and mothers have not already faced and defeated, and you did not break. Tonight you have demonstrated humanity’s strength and courage again, simply by coming here to face him now. It doesn’t matter why you fight. To protect yourselves. To protect those you love. To protect your freedom or your homes or your money. Whatever your reason, you are here despite your fear. That is something Lucifer could never do. If for one moment Lucifer could conceive that he might be beaten, if he felt a moment of fear, he would flee this place and cower on his throne. But you have come despite the risk and proved yourselves stronger than he could ever be. And because of your courage, because of your strength, Lucifer will soon find himself in a position that he could never conceive—because he will be beaten.”

  A chorus of agreement sounded from the Guardians overhead. Encouraging murmurs rose from behind her, growing stronger as Michael continued.

  “Lucifer believes we will fall before him.” His voice rose over the din and he lifted his sword high. “But we will not fall!”

  Around Taylor, shouts rang out and steel rattled as swords were drawn and raised into the air. Up ahead, Sir Pup tipped back his three heads and howled.