by Angie Fox
His eyes fluttered and he sniffed. "I don't know."
I glanced back at Serena. She'd pulled herself to her knees, glaring at us with red eyes. Gripes! I couldn't squash her and I doubt she'd be willing to disclose the proper dose of power for a knockout blow.
He shivered.
"Come on, Phil."
His blue eyes opened and he looked at me the way I'd always wished my parents would. He cleared his throat and on a rasp, said, "Have I ever told you how proud I am of you?"
My heart squeezed. "Not the time."
Serena slowly rose to her clawlike feet. She took an uneven step forward. "You want your uncle back? You let me go."
Impossible. Serena was too dangerous. Besides, there had to be another way. I had to break her hold on him.
She began to shimmer. "Give me my power or I leave and take him with me."
Holy schniekes.
I didn't want to have to make that choice.
Phil's fingers closed in around my arm, his grip surprisingly strong. "Help me up. Now."
I pulled him to his feet. "Do you have your soul?" I asked, my fingers tracing along his chest, like I could feel it. It seemed like he did. I detected a presence, warm and steady. Still, I had to be sure.
"I have it," Phil said.
He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek before he launched himself into the live wires on the control panel.
"Oh my God! Phil!" His body jerked and sputtered. I dragged him away from the controls, raw electricity shooting up and down my arms. Without my new powers, I had no doubt it would have fried me. Even with them, my limbs burned with shock. I stumbled backward with Phil and we both hit the floor.
Serena cackled. I hit her between her eyes with a jolt of power and rolled my fairy godfather onto his back. I couldn't even see where the current had entered. My fingers danced up and down his neck, searching for a pulse.
I lowered my shaking fingers. My fairy godfather was dead.
Phil didn't have to die to get us out of this. There should have been a better way. He'd already sacrificed himself once to try to save me. How many times did my fairy godfather have to give up his life for me?
Heaven above, he actually looked happy. God, I felt like I'd failed him. I could save the entire West Coast, but I couldn't save my own fairy godfather.
I spent a quiet moment with the man who'd shared my struggles since childhood, the man who'd watched me grow into a demon slayer. He'd trusted me to see this through until the end, bet his life on it. I wouldn't let him down. Worse, I didn't know if he was completely free before he died. Serena could have damned him and I'd never know.
"Where is he?" I demanded.
The power churned inside of me. And I thought the dark mark was bad.
Serena skittered away from me like a locust and hissed, struggling to stand.
I zapped her hard. "Tell me where he is!"
She snarled. "You know he's mine."
Rage bit me to the core. I didn't know if she was telling the truth or not. It didn't matter. She'd never willingly give him back to me and now she was going to die.
I aimed a killer surge at her chest.
She screamed as the blast hit her. The most powerful she-demon to hit the West Coast went up in a shower of blue flame, fighting as her body melted into nothingness. I hit her with a blast to the neck to shut her up. Her head rolled from her body, silent except for the hiss and crackle of the obsidian fire.
The old Lizzie might have felt regret, at least for her suffering as the shell fought and kicked. But I didn't feel the slightest bit of shame. I enjoyed it.
I stood, marveling at how I could have probably flown if I'd wanted. Black energy raged inside me. I swallowed, fighting back the stark terror, doing my best to ignore my pounding heart. Hand to my chest, I felt Serena's hellish force merge with my demon slayer powers, twisting together until I could barely distinguish the difference.
I stood above the smoking pit of acid that had been Serena, her power thrumming from my toenails to my fingertips. And that's when a cold realization struck. Serena might have gotten me after all. I didn't own her energy. It owned me.
Chapter Twenty-eight
"Lizzie!" Pirate's voice echoed down the hallway. "I'm here for you, Lizzie!"
Oh no—what was Pirate doing here?
"Stay away!" I leapt over the remains of the demons and slammed the one and only door to the control room. Fear churned in my stomach. And worse—rage. My new powers screamed for an outlet. I released a fraction of it, enough to break the door lock. Instead the keyhole disappeared and the doorknob melted clean off.
No, no, no.
I folded my arms over my chest and swallowed hard, trying not to panic. So I wouldn't be leaving this room for a while. At least no one else could get in. Not until I could get a handle on this.
"What the hell?" Dimitri pounded on the door.
"You're alive." Relief flooded me, followed by a stinging fear. Holy smokes—was I about to fry everyone I loved?
"Lizzie!" Dimitri hollered, rattling the door down to its hinges. "What's wrong?"
Thank heaven, he sounded like his old self again.
My entire body shaking, I battled the urge to rip the door open and show him exactly what was wrong with me.
"I'm compromised," I said, opting for the shorter version of I took on demon powers and now I might kill you… and my little dog too.
Dimitri let out a string of curse words while Pirate scratched frantically on the other side of the door.
"What'd they do to you?"
I could practically feel his green eyes boring through the door.
"Nothing." I did it to them. "I took Serena's power," I said, eyes widening as my fingertips began to glow blue. "All of it."
I was answered in the worst possible way—by silence.
Oh no. I couldn't do this by myself.
Who was I kidding? I had to do this by myself.
"I think it's getting worse," I told him. My hands took on a horrible, tingling pallor. Blue bubbles erupted from each of my fingertips. "Holy shit!"
"What?" Dimitri demanded, smashing into the other side of the door. He ground something against it. "Pirate, go get Gertie. She's casting wards down by the intake room."
Sure, they didn't want any more demons down here, but… "Grandma's wards won't find me, will they?" I'd seen her weave them before—she used a trajectory that would fling the lesser evils straight back to hell. Of course it didn't work on demons, but I had no idea what Grandma's wards would do to me. I couldn't get pitched into hell on the back swing, not like this.
"Lizzie, you're not evil."
I needed to hear that. Even if I wasn't sure I believed it.
"Stand back," Dimitri commanded.
Shaking, I did what he asked. The blue bubbles on my fingertips grew to the size of softballs. Okay, screw the idea of not needing help. "Hurry!"
The entire door fell from its hinges and smacked into the floor in front of me.
Dimitri burst into the room, bronze sword in hand. The poor man still hadn't found time to replace his shirt. He swallowed hard when he saw me. He ripped the protective rags off of his wrists and clutched my head in his hands.
"Steady, Lizzie," he said, his fingers mashing into my hair and his breath warm against my face. I couldn't look at him. My hands, they were getting worse.
He began speaking to me in an ancient language, or maybe it was Greek. His words took on a lilting, almost hypnotic tone. I didn't know it if it was what he was saying, or how he said it, but I felt a calm invade my body. I gasped for breath. God, it felt good to have him here.
"That's it," he said, running his fingers through my hair.
I fought it. I'm not sure if some part of me wanted the power or the anger, but I couldn't let it go. "I think she might have taken Phil with her."
His breath hitched, but his stream of comfort remained unbroken. "I'm not going to lie to you. Your fairy godfather may be gone forever."
>
Tears clouded my vision.
He made me look at him. The tiny lines around his eyes crinkled as he seemed to see me straight down to my soul. "It was his choice," he said, tracing his thumb over my lower jaw, "he's a fighter, Lizzie, like you. Phil made it possible for you to be standing here right now. Now it's up to you to take what he's given you. Ask yourself, Lizzie. What are you going to do with his gift?"
I knew what I should say, but I didn't want to say it. "I don't know."
His eyes refused to leave mine. "Accept what I'm offering you."
I could barely find my voice. "What is this? Magic?"
He guided a stray lock of hair from my forehead and tucked it behind my ear. "Some would call it that. I prefer to think of it as a reminder."
The tears flowed freely now. I looked into his beautiful face, so full of love and understanding. I felt his warm hands, steady on my shoulders and I knew what I had to do. I closed my eyes and in my mind's eye, I saw my black anger, my hostility, the frustration I felt at my complete and utter failure to save the one person in my life who'd always been there for me. I took it and merged it with the blackness that was Serena's power. But it was too heavy. And it didn't want to leave.
"Let me in," Dimitri said.
I could feel his unwavering presence in front of me and it took everything I had not to wrap myself up in it like a warm blanket.
"Lizzie." He folded my hands in his. •
What? "No." I wasn't about to tangle him in this. It was my mistake and I'd fix it.
"I'm part demon slayer, Lizzie. And a big believer in fate."
Oh my word, his things happen for a reason speech flooded my mind. I couldn't believe how he'd actually forgiven me for tainting his pure griffin blood and now I was equally speechless that he'd take on vengeful black power with me.
I rested my forehead on his shoulder "It's—" I began, desperate for his help, terrified that if I let it loose, it would consume him in front of me.
"I know." Fingers on my chin, he guided me up to him and kissed me, warm and deep. The intimacy of that one kiss shocked me. I let it flow over me, opening myself completely for the second time that night. I shivered as some of the awful, heavy burden flowed from me into him. He took a sharp breath when it hit him. I almost panicked. I instinctively tried to pull back, but he clutched my hands and squeezed.
"Together, now," he whispered against my lips before kissing me long and hard.
I let him in. As his power surged into me, and mine into him, I let him see all of me—the good, the bad, everything. I was exhausted from hiding, from fighting, from doing everything on my own. I let go of the need to keep control, and from the one thought that had terrified me from the start—that if he saw everything, he might not want me anymore.
He savored me, pushed me, blanketed me and comforted me in ways I'd never imagined. If we got through this, please let us survive this, I didn't want to be alone anymore.
"Ready?" he whispered, hot against my ear.
Goose bumps shivered down my arms. "Yes." As long as I had Dimitri, I'd be ready for anything.
We used the power like an immense blowtorch. I visualized it as clear as if we stood at the edge of hell itself. We harnessed the power of Serena, countless succubi and the whole of the energy generated tonight and aimed it straight at the gates of hell, incinerating countless demons and subdemons on the surface layer. Then we did our best to seal the whole thing from the outside. Let the locusts dig their way out. I poured out my entire arsenal until I'd spent everything.
Dimitri held back. His eyes glowed green, then orange.
Oh no. I couldn't handle it if he'd corrupted himself. "What are you doing?" I demanded.
He fired backward into the dam. "I'm opening up a pathway for the ghosts," he said, groaning with the effort.
Dang it, he shouldn't have tried to do that on his own. "I thought ghosts had to go to the light."
"That's one way," he said, releasing a breath that I hadn't even realized he was holding. He blinked a few times, recovering, as his eyes went from orange to a rich chocolate brown. "It's usually the only choice. But you had a trace of Phil's goodness in that mass of power. I used it to open up a pathway to help them." He gazed down at me, so warm and sure. "After all, if one of your preschoolers was afraid to take on a flight of stairs, would you wait until they found the courage, or would you carry them?"
Like he carried me—the sheer relief of knowing I wasn't alone was almost enough to make me want to curl up on the floor and sleep for a year. Instead, I drew even closer to the man who'd saved me in more ways than one.
I used my thumb to swipe away a trickle of sweat on his neck, marveling that he'd stuck with me—that he'd chosen me—through everything. "How do you know so much?" I asked.
He pulled me close. "Stick with me and you'll find out."
I held him, running my hands down his back. Pain shot down my fingertips and I noticed for the first time that they throbbed. I swallowed hard and risked a glance. My hands were whole again, except for raw sores on the ends of my fingers.
Before I could even think of what to say, Dimitri lowered his mouth to mine and I stopped trying to think. I sank into him and savored his warmth and his goodness.
The man had saved me in more ways than one.
He pulled back slightly, long before I was ready to let him go. "Now about that emerald," he whispered.
We found it under a chair near the control board. I dragged it out and glowed with relief when I felt the heat of the green stone against my fingers. It shone with life and energy.
Dimitri took it and placed it in the center of my palm. "I offer you the protection of the Helios clan, freely given, freely taken."
Its energy whispered to me. The familiar warmth rested against my skin where it belonged.
A thin, bronze chain snaked from the tip of the teardrop and circled my wrist. "I accept." My body ached from exhaustion, not to mention sheer relief. Still, I couldn't help but grin. "Freely."
Something hard loosened inside of me as the chain wound up my arm and circled my chest, until the emerald hung from my neck, where it belonged.
"What did you do to me before?" I asked him.
He kissed me on the forehead. "I helped you find your strength. You had it all along, Lizzie. We all do. It's just sometimes we forget."
"Yeah," I said, leaning against the rock that was Dimitri, "I was a little stressed out."
"That's why I'll always be here."
He was right. I could always lean on Dimitri. He brought out the best in me, whether we were reclaiming my soul, or walking along a moonlit path with gargoyles circling overhead. He was mine again. And he was whole.
I found my empty utility belt in a pile of filth that was probably a demon about twenty minutes before. My switch stars were nearby, along with the powders and crystals I kept in the pouches attached to the belt. I was in the middle of capturing an entire pile of sandy pink granules when a tiny creature screeched from under a small mountain of ash.
Soot flying, he burst from the wreckage, a furless hamster-type creature. I started to reach for him until I saw he had fangs and black dinosaur-type spikes along his back. "What the… ?" He shrieked and, as fast as his scrabbly legs would take him, made a beeline for the back pouch of my utility belt.
The creature burrowed into the belt, his rear end wriggling until there was no more of him to be seen.
"Mystery solved," Dimitri said.
I glanced up at him. "Hardly." I gathered up the last few crystals. I'd tackle my powers before worrying about the mysterious creature that lived in the back of my utility belt.
"You should call him Harry," Dimitri said, giving me a hand and helping me up.
"Why not?" I said, feeling the little guy settle himself in. It was better than Fang.
I talked Dimitri into taking back his shirt before we headed up the main elevator. He carried Phil as the doors closed and the car jerked to a start. I held Phil's soft, wide
hand as the scent of cinnamon filled the small space. Through my exhaustion, I tried to memorize this moment the best that I could. It might be the last time I saw Phil. There was no telling what fairies, or half fairies, did for funerals.
As for how I'd tell Grandma, I didn't know. My emotions were too raw. I squeezed his hand hard and hoped I'd find the words. I could hardly believe it myself that he was gone.
The elevator opened up into an art deco foyer that led to the outside. Finally, we could get Phil out of this place. I forced myself back into warrior mode, just in case. With a deep breath and switch stars at the ready, I pushed through a set of brass doors.
I about fell backward as Pirate flung himself into my arms, licking everywhere he could reach, which would have been really bad had we been under attack.
"Dang, Lizzie. I leave to get a Twinkie and you disappear on me."
Relief surged through me. "Are you okay, sweetie?" Hands shaking, I inspected my wriggling dog by the light of a hovering Skeep. "Meko? What's going on out here?"
The Hoover Dam backed up to Lake Mead and towered over the river on the other side. Witches lined the sweeping highway at its crest, their Harleys at the ready behind them.
The Skeep dipped and glowed brighter. "Many apologies. I'm Tiko, an associate of Meko. We've been called here to fetch supplies for your rescue."
Harleys crisscrossed the bridge every which way, their supernaturally bright front lights cutting through the night in every direction.
Grandma barreled out of the shadows, a Smucker's jar in each hand. "God damn it, Lizzie. You scared the crap out of me! Oh good. Dimitri. We need you to fly up and—" She screeched to a halt when she saw Dimitri holding Phil's limp body. "Oh no."
"Grandma, I didn't mean—" This was not how I wanted her to find out.
"What?" Frieda asked, seconds behind Grandma. She stopped when she saw. "Oh dang, girl. I am so sorry."
Grandma took Phil's hand and for once, she had nothing to say.
"He sacrificed himself for me," I told her, taking comfort against a bit of unwashed dog.
Grandma nodded, her eyes reddening. "I'd like a moment," she said, hoarse. Frieda brought us a blanket and we laid Phil right inside the doors. My heart broke a little when the doors clicked closed behind her. I should have done more.
