Scarla’s eyes widened with each name. “You left out Razuel,” she squeaked, her voice reedy, even though the rest of her mimicked a statue.
Even though she’d met him once, Amaya shook her head. “Don’t know him and we don’t have time to find him.”
“How were they caught?” Disbelief torqued Scarla’s voice.
“Demon traps, plus a dimensional pocket to keep Bane inside the mansion. Malphas was captured on the lawn,” Amaya quickly explained.
“Wait,” Sophie interrupted. “How do we know they’re still there, at that mansion? For all we know they’ve escaped and are recovering in the shadows.”
“I wish that were true, but it’s not. They’re not in the shadows.”
“How do you know that? You can’t know that,” Sophie insisted, twisting her fingers in her shirt.
“Because ten minutes ago, they were all carved up and some were in pieces.” Amaya’s voice shook. “Sam, Kush, and Zed were strung up. Rimmon and Chay were nailed to a wall. Daghony and Malphas were gutted. Ioath’s chest was cracked open, and Riél had his skin peeled from his chest and face. Gideon, they took his hands and eyes. Bane, I couldn’t see what they did to him, but I saw the hatchet and I heard it chop through flesh.” Amaya fought not to gag while Sophie ran to the small kitchen at the other end of the room and threw up in the sink.
All the color had drained out of Scarla’s face. “And Gadreel?”
“Chained and nailed to a corner, spears around him. Toothpicks through his eyelids so he couldn’t look away.” A shudder went through Scarla. The same shudder had traveled through Amaya, only ten times worse because she actually saw what she’d just described.
“He got off easy,” Amaya murmured.
“The hell he did,” Scarla snarled and got in Amaya’s face, her blond and black hair escaped from the clip on the top of her head. “You think it’s easy watching your brothers suffer and can’t do anything about it because one touch from any weapon will make you a bigger threat to them? You watch your family destroyed and tell me it’s easy.”
Contrite, Amaya lowered her head. “You’re right.”
“Scars of the mind don’t heal as easily as scars on the flesh.” She threw a furtive glance at Sophie, then spoke with utter focus. “How do you know they’re still there?”
“Because they invited me to return or else they’re going to kill them.”
“I need five minutes.” Scarla headed for the rooms in the back.
“You have two.” Amaya slung the duffle around to her front and then planted her ass on the sofa. She hadn’t noticed where Sophie had wandered off to, and she didn’t care.
The strap on her boot was loose. Amaya shifted the duffle to the space beside her and tightened the strap. That lead to her lifting her sweater and checking each blade strapped to her torso. She wasn’t even gonna try and show up in Siberia without being ready to kill. This was a blitz operation. Everyone would focus on her while Scarla got the UnHallowed free.
And then…whatever happened, happened.
She fished a power bar out of her jacket pocket and devoured it in three bites. The remaining three she stuffed in her back pocket, along with some throwing stars. She picked up her duffle and slung it over her shoulder again. “One minute!”
Scarla hustled back into the common area. Dressed in all black with a sleek, custom-made tactical vest and a black ball cap covering her platinum blond hair, but left the black lower half exposed. She had two guns holstered to her chest with extra clips, the hilt of two short swords peaking above her shoulders, and a number of knives around her hips. Girlfriend was ready to party. “Let’s go.” She slipped on a pair of gloves.
“I’m coming with you.” Sophie skidded to a stop in front of Amaya. She had on black Danskin leggings with a matching spandex top. Her burgundy hair stuffed under a wool ski cap. She looked like she was going to teach a yoga class.
“Oh, no, you are not.” Scarla blocked her.
“Chay and Kush are out there. You need all the help you can get and have no time to get it. I’m it and I’m going.” Sophie patted her chest.
“We’re fighting demons, Sophie, not run-of-the-mill muggers. You’re going to get yourself killed.” Scarla pointed angrily at Sophie.
“And so are you.” Sophie pointed at Scarla.
“Maybe. Maybe not. But you definitely will be dead and I won’t have that on my conscience.”
“That’s not your decision to make!” Sophie shouted.
“Well, I’m making it.” Scarla got in her friend’s face.
Amaya stepped between the two women and faced Scarla. “Sophie’s right. If she wants to come then she comes. Frankly, we can use her as a distraction so you and I can kick some ass.” She spun and faced Sophie, got all up in her grill. “You need to be unfuckable. If you can’t rise to the occasion, then you need to stay the hell home. A crutch we don’t need. So step up or sit down.”
Sophie yanked two short swords off the wall and stepped up.
Amaya couldn’t help but smile. “You understand, there will be blood. Possibly yours. Still want to come?”
Mouth grim, one nod is all Sophie gave.
“All right. Let’s get this shit show on the road.”
“Not without me.” Dina rounded the corner of the hallway, clutched in her hand, an empyreal sword.
Amaya had no idea she was here and it didn’t matter. She sliced her head to the side. “You had a Darkling inside of you.”
“Had.”
“Where we’re going probably doesn’t have any windows for you to take a header into the sunlight. Once infected, it may make you susceptible to it happening again. I won’t take the risk.” Even if Dina could wield an empyreal sword. Just because she had it didn’t mean it responded to her.
“My husband—”
“Your husband! Scarla’s father, brother, uncles! Sophie’s friends! And my man!” Man-UnHallowed! What-the-fuck-ever! He is mine! “We’re wasting time while they may be dying.” Amaya had enough of the arguing.
Dina pounded her chest. “I am the best chance you have of success! I was a captain in the Celestial Army!”
“And now, you’re a liability.” Scarla picked a side and moved to stand beside Amaya.
Dina’s face screwed into a vicious snarl. “Because I’m human? Guess what. So is she.” She pointed at Sophie. “At least I have skills! Skills acquired after thousands of years of training, which neither of you comes remotely close to.”
Scarla shrugged. “Yeah, but we trust her more than we trust you. Let’s go.”
Amaya wasted no more time. She snatched the power out of the air and formed a dimensional pocket large enough for the three of them.
Dina jumped in front of Amaya. “I get that you and Scarla trust Sophie more than you trust me, but that’s not the point. You’re using Sophie as a distraction. Where one distraction will work, two would be better.”
Scarla threw up her hands, clearly frustrated with Dina and Sophie. “What you two don’t get is you’re probably going to your deaths. That leaves me explaining to Gideon and Chay how I let you two die!”
“Enough of this!” Amaya rotated her duffle bag to the front of her body and unzipped it. “While we’re bickering, sunrise is approaching Siberia; and I just know the Spaun are going to use that against our men. The arguing is over. This is my mission. You do what I say, when I say, without argument. Agree or get left behind.”
“Okay.”
“Alright!”
“Fine.”
The women replied in discontent.
Amaya eyed each woman, measuring their commitment. She needed them, but she also needed them not to be headstrong idiots, especially Scarla. Convinced they were at least in the same chapter if not on the same page, she removed two bottles from her duffle, uncorked both, and doused Dina’s and Sophie’s hair, face, and clothing.
Both women sputtered while Scarla jumped back from the stray drops that burned the back of her bare hand. “What is that
?” she asked.
Amaya turned to the dimensional pocket waiting behind them. “Holy water. Now, everyone shut up and get inside.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Taige studied the numbers ticking by with increasing anticipation. A lot of damn numbers. “When will the transfer be complete?”
Aiden sat at the computer desk, hunched over the keyboard, tapping away. Two thirty-two inch displays showed the transactions. His pinstripe suit pristine, his tie as straight as when he knotted it fourteen hours ago—the consummate professional.
Taige’s bank account moved from the low six figures into the high nine. This was Aiden’s true value and Taige never appreciated it more. He patted Aiden’s shoulder. A tactic he learned from Malphas. Praise in small doses goes further than continuous commendation. Malphas doled praise out in such minuscule amounts, most recipients never noticed.
“I finished the money transfer hours ago. I’m in the process of transferring the funds into multiple accounts. Routing through several black box servers to protect our identity.”
He squeezed Aiden’s shoulder and took a mental snapshot of all the account numbers. “Soon we won’t have to hide.”
“Yes!” Aiden stopped tapping to look up and grin in Taige’s face. Adoration glowed from his perfect features. Whether from Taige’s praise or the accomplishment of hacking Malphas’s accounts, Taige didn’t waste his time guessing.
“We open the Cruor, free our Lords, empty Hell, and rule this world.” Aiden returned to tapping his keyboard.
Taige studied the back of Aiden’s head, wondering how someone so gifted in the technical arts could be so handicapped by blind loyalty. Was his Demoni Lord more superior than the rest of the sadistic, maniacal, obsessive, bloodthirsty lot? From what Taige remembered, the Lords were as interchangeable as underwear, or plain potatoes versus white rice. Same color. Same basic flavor. Different textures, yet palatable all the same.
All were evil—not a deficiency in his book. All wanted to rule and eliminate all rivals. They’d tried to kill each other multiple times. The war between the Lords raged since the beginning of time. It would continue to rage if they ever left Hell, destroying everything desirable about this world.
His world. Malphas hadn’t been totally wrong.
“How shall we lure an archangel into a trap to siphon their essence?” Aiden interrupted Taige’s thoughts.
“I have an idea, but…it’s not just an archangel. It’s Malphas also,” Taige hedged, gaining Aiden’s full attention. “Before Vegas, last I saw Malphas was at the farm where the Cruor was. Where the female and UnHallowed live.”
“The angel, Malphas, and the UnHallowed are working together. My spies have seen them working in concert with each other. Somehow, they’ve come to a mutual agreement,” Aiden spat. “The UnHallowed and Malphas I can understand, how an angel came to join their unholy union escapes me.”
It escaped Taige also, though he would keep that to himself. Unraveling the secret of her mysterious transformation, and using it, would be to his advantage and no one else. “You knew they were working together and said nothing?” The fact that this wasn’t news to him, he also kept to himself.
Aiden rotated in his office chair. Spine stiff, back straightened from its hunched slouch, Aiden sat taller in his chair and nailed Taige with a determined glare he’d never previously shown. “I am saying something now. I hope you realize we are equal partners in this endeavor. I have done just as much as you to further our cause, if not more, and will not be treated as a subordinate. I’ve earned that right.”
And the peacock finally shows his feathers. “I concur. We are partners in this and shall be forever. None of our success would have been possible without you.” Taige shook Aiden’s hand, instead of offering a vein.
If Aiden took notice, he kept it to himself. “I didn’t keep it from you by design. I wanted to track their movements and bring you something definitive, as I did when I planted the coin that lead them to this house and their capture.”
Which he waited until the last moment to tell me.
“We have them, all of them.” Glee returned to Aiden’s face.
“We don’t have the angel, but I’m certain she will be on her way.” Especially if she had protective instincts toward the UnHallowed that had twice rescued her. “Then we shall drain her again and see what the results are.”
“Perhaps we should try her blood on the second Cruor?” Aiden cocked his head at an angle, lost in thought. The laptop chiming preceded Taige’s response, saving him from having to agree with Aiden yet again. “Ah! As of this moment, Malphas is a pauper.” He clapped, proud of his achievement.
Taige studied the screen once more. He took mental note of all the account numbers and transaction IDs. He locked the information away as Aiden said, “Now, what was the address of that property you were interested in?”
“Yes. That property…”
~~~~~
Quietly, the four women crested the ridge overlooking the mansion. Next to Scarla, Sophie panted. The two-mile sprint from where they’d exited the dimensional pocket had winded her. Dina, former Captain in the Celestial Army, seemed fine. Scarla hadn’t broken a sweat.
“I’m good. Getting my second wind,” Sophie rasped between breaths.
Amaya took the time to pass her a water bottle as she freed a power bar from her pocket. She offered up half to the ladies. Only Dina accepted.
Someone’s phone chimed. Amaya cocked her head to the side and glared at each woman. “Really!” she hissed. “Do I need to tell you to turn your phones off!”
“Sorry,” Sophie whispered. “It’s my affirmation app. It sends me positive messages every day.”
Dina rolled her eyes and pressed her lips together. Scarla looked at the ground, the sky, the trees. Amaya was the only one to look Sophie in the eye as she turned the phone off.
“All right. This is where we part company.” Amaya shucked the duffle off her shoulder and unzipped it. “Bullets and blades, all dipped in holy water. So take your pick,” she whispered, jamming clips into two Desert Eagles, and then placed one in the holster in the small of her back, the other in the hip hugger holster. Everything else she hid beneath her sweater. She took a vial of holy water out and stuck it in her sock.
“That’s all you’re taking?” Sophie’s shocked voice broke the quiet.
Amaya lifted her sweater, showing the rows of blades and throwing stars lining her chest and back. “Sophie and Dina, divide the holy water between you two.” She studied Sophie for a moment. “Maybe you should take the majority of them, Sophie. Dina can probably hold her own, you need extra help.”
“Gee, thanks for the compliment.” She rolled her eyes and stuffed her pockets with the vials. She picked up a gun.
“You know how to use that?” Dina asked.
“Umm. Yeah. I-I remember my father taught me and my brother.” Sophie rubbed her forehead.
Scarla squeezed Sophie’s shoulder. “Hey, maybe you should stay here.” She reached for the gun. Sophie pushed Scarla’s hand away and tucked the weapon into a holster on the spare tactical vest Scarla had provided.
Amaya pulled two boxes of salt, then a Mason jar filled with gasoline, inside of a larger Mason jar filled with holy water and iron shavings, out of the bag. A wick was threaded through a small hole in the lid. “Light it and throw. Find the lighters at the bottom of the bag, along with a few bigger bombs. Those I’d throw and shoot. As a last resort, salt. It may give you time to get away from Darklings. I’m not certain about Spaun.” She considered having them drink holy water but had no idea how it would affect Dina, formerly an angel and a Darkling pod person; and Sophie, a human with a questionable link to the UnHallowed. Scarla didn’t have a holy water option.
“What now?” Gingerly, Sophie stored Mason jars into the spare pockets of her vest.
“We’re balls deep, ladies. How’s that for ‘What now?’” Scarla muttered and grabbed an extra gun to accompany the two und
er her arms and on her hips.
Dina pointed to the right. “Scarla and Sophie, head in that direction. In ten minutes, kill everything. Amaya and I will wait ‘til all attention is on you two, then Amaya will attack their rear while I free the men.”
Great plan. Amaya turned her gaze back to the house. She willed her wings to appear and took to the skies.
“What the hell are you doing?” Dina hissed.
“Stick to your plan, Dina. It’s a good one. It’s just not mine.” Someone shouted something. Amaya ignored it and kept going. She weaved through trees and stopped inside the tree line.
The scene facing her was daunting: A half mile of nothing but wraithlike Darklings and other things mingling, merging, and separating in a rippling, inky sea. Hazk-horned centipede demons that slithered and burrowed underground. Ghouls that were just teeth and claws and hair. Ifirts that would gnaw on your bones and keep you alive to enjoy it. The knowledge came to her in a rush.
The noise level approached deafening. So strange when Darklings never made a sound during their encounters with her. Now, their excitement polluted the air, whether for the coming battle or the future snack, she couldn’t tell. The battle they would get. The snack…
Some of these creatures had lived amongst humans, blending in. Neighbors, co-workers, friends, spouses, undetected. How many had she bumped into? Sat next to on the bus? Ate next to in a restaurant? Shared a smile? A joke? Touched in passing or intimately? How many?
Amaya yanked her spiraling thoughts away from the abyss and duck taped herself together. Breakdown later when time was a luxury, not working to defeat her.
She refocused on the legion of demons. Every few yards a pasty colored Spaun appeared to be in command. She counted twenty, each leading three hundred plus demons.
A sane person would be afraid. Good thing fear wasn’t an emotion she’d learned during all those sessions with Braile. She took the first step, heard the dry grass crackle under her feet.
Heads swiveled, eyes seemed to latch onto her. The chirping, chittering noise they spoke, ended. Now she understood how loud silence could be.
Only You (UnHallowed Series Book 3) Page 15
