Claimed by the Demon Hunter 3 (Guardians of Humanity)

by Harley James

  The forcefield gave way in a sudden weightlessness that sent him head over heels, spinning from the force of his forward assault, into the atmosphere above the famous bridge.

  Then Jinx, Ari, and Kat were in his head, talking at once. His vision darkened, then cleared, a rush of nausea gripping his gut as he reoriented himself to the barrage.

  He spun in midair, then dove down into the flames. The fire was good. His heart swelled, hearing Sydney calling to the conflagration. There you are, my darling. He wrapped himself around her, girding and meshing his energy with her own.

  By God, she was doing it—living amid the fire. But her vigor was dwindling. She turned in his arms, took off her coat and removed the Robe from her body, the strands of her hair the exact shades of the multi-hued fire they were suspended in.

  “Thank God you’re here! I was so desperate to keep the Robe from Baal that I was going to burn it. In fact, I thought if I survived, which I really didn’t think I’d survive, but hello, here I am. Anyway, I thought I’d be stark naked. That no garment could possibly survive the flames. Am I making sense? I’m not, am I? I was so worried about you! And I’m so confused, scared, and sorry I took the Robe. I’ve made everything worse, haven’t I? What are we gonna d—”

  He kissed her lips to stem her rising panic. “The Robe is a timeless, holy object that cannot be destroyed, my love. You were wise to embrace the fire. It will detain Baal so we can figure out how to get out of—”

  An arrow of ice zinged two inches from Spencer’s head. Then dozens more torpedoed through the flaming water, the ice shafts so thick they traveled hundreds of feet before the flames melted them into oblivion.

  Spencer raised his hand, adding another blast of heat to melt the icy weapons faster as he pulled himself and Sydney to the surface of the bubbling, flaming waters.

  Sydney cried out as a dagger-sharp ice torpedo pierced her in the shoulder. Bollocks! She was bleeding, but he didn’t dare come out of the water until he could identify Baal’s location.

  He seized the Robe from her grasp and pressed it against her shoulder, using himself as her shield against the torpedoes. He quickly checked in with the other Guardians since they’d repeatedly asked if he was still alive. Closing his eyes, he went deep into the Guardian frequency and was able to see Jinx standing in a circle of dead demons, Raj in pursuit of two Rephaim, and Neo… getting his ass kicked by a demon in a particularly beautiful human host, his blonde afro streaked red with blood from the huge gash in his head.

  “Jinx, our baby Guardian is in shambles near the beach.” He signed off when he heard the samurai woman laughing. Neo definitely wouldn’t appreciate Jinx’s help because of the many insults that would accompany it. Too damn bad. He brought his attention back to Sydney. “Is it healing?”

  She lifted the Robe from her shoulder, her lips parting. “Incredible. It’s like it was never there.”

  He deflected another razor-tipped torpedo with Jinx’s sword. “Jinx and two other Guardians will be here as soon as they put down the rephaim army on the beach. They’ll take you back—”

  “No! I’m staying with you. If you really meant what you said about being stronger together than apart, don’t send me away. You know how important it is for people to make their own choices.”

  Indeed. It was what had driven both his best and worst behaviors for four hundred years. He frowned. “Fine, but you will keep that robe with you—on you—at all times. This may boil down to hand to hand combat because the only way to send him back is to cut off his head.”

  “We can’t just kill him any old way?”

  “Archdemons—like Archangels—are immortal. The best we can do is send Baal back to Hell. But to do that, we have to decapitate him.” He gripped the xiphos harder. “Try to stay in the background. Let me engage. Your heat should deplete his power somewhat. But do not over-do it. If your energy goes to zero—”

  The water concussed around them. The last thing Spencer did was yell Sydney’s name when a massive thrust of energy vaulted him skyward with enough G force to liquify all the organs in a human body.

  PAIN.

  Unimaginable. Not white hot. Red. Liquid torment rushing to fill her cavities like a water glass shattered on a table. Nowhere for it to go but everywhere at once.

  Consuming.

  Horrific, then...

  Nothing.

  Then...

  A gasp as though breaking out of the surf after being submerged for too long.

  Sydney blinked and rolled to her side to retch, sand clinging to her lips and the side of her face, gritty in her eyes.

  “Sydney, answer me!”

  Inhale. Exhale. “Here.” All she could manage. Feeling Spencer’s relief, then a tensing. Baal was even stronger than she’d imagined, to have erupted both of them from their fiery blanket like that.

  She wiped her mouth, pushing up to her hands and knees. A crack and sizzle drew her eyes up to where the archdemon was engaged with her soul mate, his body riddled with blade-tipped ice daggers.

  She staggered to her feet, pushing aside the pain that seemed to be riding every muscle in her body. As she lifted her hands to throw fire at Baal, a hissing from behind. She swung around, palms blazing without pausing to look at what or who she was blasting—

  Nooooo! Oh God, Tiana, no, pleeeease!

  Her sister flew back fifty feet, her body landing in a heap of lifeless limbs. Sydney sobbed as she ran, then fell to her knees, and pulled Tiana’s limp body to her chest. As she rocked, she wept, and the pre-dawn sky belched black snow.

  Chapter 41

  Spencer gritted his teeth as the xiphos severed Baal’s left arm and dark purple blood spurted in a crescent, solidifying into beetles as they clattered with a million hollow clicks upon the Golden Gate Bridge. Spencer called upon the still-flaming waters to wrap around Baal so he could get in position for the decapitation, but the archdemon launched up from the tower where they’d engaged, disappearing into the infernal icy, black snow that wouldn’t quit.

  “Jinx, are you manufacturing this damned blizzard?”

  “No,” came her reply. “It’s gotta be Baal.”

  Marvelous. “Come out of hiding, you soul-sucking slag!” Spencer hollered into the frigid, twisting winds. This needed to end. “Sydney? I don’t have eyes on Baal. Where are you?”

  Crying.

  His heart hammered in his chest. He closed his eyes and followed the path through the ether that led to his soul mate. She was down on the beach cradling a woman, surrounded by demons.

  “Please help her!” she cried, looking up at his approach, seemingly unconcerned about the dozen or so demons she was holding off with only a thin wall of fire.

  The woman in her arms had long limbs and long black hair. The rich, dark skin exposed by her melted clothes was now largely covered in angry burn blisters. God’s bones. It was Tiana.

  He couldn’t tell if her sister was actually dead, but the pain on Sydney’s face gutted him. With a furious yell, he sliced through a row of demons with the xiphos. He spun to swing at another cluster when a cloud of hissing insects flew between him and Sydney, converging into an enormous beetle-monster with a mandible of three rows of razor-sharp teeth.

  Spencer gasped, momentarily transfixed at the impossible sight until the archdemon-monster threw back its head, releasing a terrible peal.

  “Brothers and little sister, we are in dire straits here!”

  Spencer sent the SOS to the other three Guardians in the immediate vicinity, praying for instant backup as he whipped the xiphos with all his might at the monster, lunging directly after his weapon to recover it for the beheading. But the demon beetle bellowed again, exploding in a cloud of purple before Spencer could re-swing the archangel’s blade.

  Spencer spun around to charge at Baal, who had reformed into his human host and was pulling a now-moaning Tiana out of Sydney’s arms. “Sydney, the Robe. Use it on Baal!”

  Sydney glanced up at him across the way, the trus
t in her eyes healing some of the ugliness in his soul. She nodded and immediately pressed the Robe against her sister’s cheek.

  That’s not what I meant! Spencer thought, not understanding what Sydney was doing until Tiana’s body spasmed and jerked like a puppet on the string of a mad marionette.

  She was possessed!

  Her head tipped back, her mouth opening to spew black smoke which vanished into the murky snow.

  Sydney spun around to shove the Robe in Baal’s face. The archdemon vibrated as though electrocuted, then shrieked with a fury that shook the earth and made the Bridge groan as he shot away from them.

  Sydney cried as she bent down over her sister, wrapping the Holy Robe around Tiana’s wounds. Spencer sped to their side and leaned down to kiss Sydney’s hair.

  “That was one part bloody brilliant and two parts reckless, my darling,” he said, then switched to their intimate frequency, not wanting to alarm her wide-eyed sister more than she already appeared to be. “If I were human, I would swear you’d knocked a decade off my life.”

  Sydney’s lips wobbled as she continued to stroke Tiana’s hair. “It’s a good thing you’re not human, then.”

  After a moment, she gently lifted the Robe high enough to show Spencer that Tiana’s burn blisters were completely healed. She shifted from her knees to her butt in the sand, her head bowing, her shoulders curving forward as she released a heavy breath and rubbed her eyes.

  Tiana sat up and leaned forward to move into Sydney’s raised arms. “What’s going on?” She shivered, glancing at the Robe that had bunched up in her lap. “And what’s with this thing?”

  “It’s a holy object that can protect us,” Sydney said. “I’ll tell you everything later. For now, we need to get you out of here. You’ve been through a horrible ordeal.”

  Spencer ran ever widening circles around the two women, sending his senses out to feel for Baal’s trail. The Robe had definitely hurt him, but for how long was anyone’s guess. He returned to crouch down next to the Ashby sisters.

  “You know how they always tell you not to engage with bullies?” At Sydney’s nod, he continued, “it’s the same with rephaim and the nephilim. Do not engage with either of the power demons unless you have no other choice. Got it?”

  She nodded again. Tiana’s eyes rounded.

  “I think I wanna go home now,” she said, shakily. “Fo’ real.”

  Sydney hugged her sister, speaking in low tones as Ari—Katherine’s tall Viking—reached out to Spencer. “We’ve dealt with the nephilim in the area, but the rephaim scattered. Are you still at the Bridge?”

  From the northeast, an explosion shot blue and orange flames skyward.

  “Glad you’ve arrived, Grimm. Yes, I’m still here, along with your scattered bringers of chaos.” Spencer rolled his shoulders, stoking his fire element at a cellular level. “Your presence is much appreciated. Now let’s go kick some ass.”

  Chapter 42

  Sydney thanked the Robe for casting out her sister’s demon, promising to go to mass three times a week for the rest of her life if her whole family made it out of this alive. She lifted the holy garment from Tiana’s lap. “Here. Put this on. It will protect you while I help Spencer.”

  WHOOSH! With a deafening rush of wings, blunt talons plucked the Robe from Sydney’s grasp.

  She stared at her bare hands, unblinking, a mass wave of disbelief white-washing her consciousness until Tiana’s slack-jawed, eyes-wide-as-saucers facial expression knocked her back into reality.

  “What? Noooo! Come back!” Sydney hollered so loud her vocal chords burned as she sprinted down the beach after the enormous condor. But it was too late. The massive bird flew up and away, disappearing into the sky made unnaturally dark by Baal’s black snow. “Oh my God.” She dropped to her knees in the sand, curling down, covering her face with her forearms.

  What had she done?

  “I lost the Robe…to a bird!” Her admission was a whisper.

  Spencer made no response from wherever he’d gone. Instead the Earth and sands recoiled as multiple explosions rocked up and down the beach and blew large sections of the Bridge into the sky. Galvanized steel cables undulated snakelike through the dissipating fog and snow, car-sized hunks of concrete and twisted orange metal twirling in their midst.

  As unreal as it was to witness—seriously, it was the stuff of nightmares for someone from the Bay Area—it was easier to see now. Was Baal weakening, his fog and snow slackening?

  She thought she heard sirens in the distance. She scrambled to her feet and ran to where Tiana stood staring in the direction the condor had flown away. She pulled her sister along, making their way to the beach parking lot, away from the worst of the fighting.

  Sydney scanned the parking lot until she spied an older-body, gold Honda Accord with copious amounts of rust. Jackpot. Older cars were easier to hotwire.

  Even better, when she got to it, she found it unlocked.

  Sydney crouched down under the steering wheel, pulling off the plastic panel under the steering column to expose the ignition cylinder and the wires running to it. She found the battery and starter wires, cutting the power wires from the cylinder with a careful, laser-thin stream of fire from her fingertip. She stripped the ends and connected them by twisting them together to provide power to the car’s electrical systems. Then she cut the starter wires with her self-generated laser, touching them together gingerly to start the car.

  Pushing up from the floorboards, she guided Tiana into the driver’s seat, leaning down to stare intently into her dark eyes. “Get your butt to Laura’s. She’ll know how to turn this rust-bucket off. Then you two grab all the table salt she has in her house and lay it down along all the windowsills and in front of all the doors like a thick line of coke. Don’t open any door and windows until you hear from me. Got it?”

  “Swear to God girl, this is crazy.”

  Sydney’s heart throbbed. “No, swear to me you’ll do all that, Tiana. Just like I said.”

  “Come with me,” Tiana begged.

  Sydney shook her head rapidly. “I can’t. Spencer needs me.” And I have to atone for losing the mother-effing holy relic that’s as old as Jesus. “I love you, T.” She gave her sister a quick hug, then backed away from the car. “Now get out of here. And don’t stop for anything.”

  She chewed on her lower lip as she watched the Honda sputter and backfire in three deafening pops that shot fire out the tailpipe as it moved toward the parking lot exit.

  Tiana slammed on the breaks and stuck her head out the window, looking back at Sydney with storm clouds on her face. “This ride is gonna slay me faster than that beetle monster!”

  Sydney bore down on an inappropriate fit of laughter as she ran through the car’s possible issues: an exhaust leak, air injection system diverter valve problem, messed up engine timing, an improperly adjusted carburetor, a damaged catalytic converter, or a clogged fuel filter?

  Nothing that wouldn’t get Tiana where she needed to be. Hopefully.

  “It’s only an emission system malfunction—nothing serious. I’ll fix the owner’s car for free when it gets you where you need to be.” She waved her hand vigorously. “Now get out of here!”

  “‘Aight, but if this car blows me up, Imma come for you in the afterlife, sis.” Tiana blew her a kiss, ducked her head back in the car, and backfired her way out of the parking lot.

  Alone again, Sydney ran from the parking lot, passing Battery Chamberlin, the artillery unit of The Presidio. She ducked into the cluster of trees south of the sand ladder when she felt Spencer’s energy rising and falling as he battled the dark ones.

  She couldn’t see him, so she wanted to reach out to assure herself he was okay, but she was afraid to distract him. What could she do to help? She didn’t even have the Robe anymore.

  A great wind shuddered through the tree boughs as her gaze snagged on a gleaming sword beside a bush. Jinx’s or Spencer’s xiphos?

  She ran to pick it u
p as three Guardians dropped from the sky and began attacking the rephaim that flanked Baal, who knelt on the sand close to the surf, straddling a thrashing body. Her glance went over the archdemon’s shoulder.

  Spencer!

  Baal held him down, pressing another Guardian sword into the right quadrant of his chest.

  No! Sydney ran toward them, gripping the xiphos in both hands. Spencer rolled, then twisted supersonically fast, using his powerful legs to shove Baal backwards with a burst of raw power.

  The archdemon’s arms flailed in the air as he lost footing. Falling back toward Sydney. Time unfurled unnaturally slow. Old words, suffused with hair-raising evil, winging through the atmosphere along with the buzzing of a million flies. I am Beelzebub! The sound of rage. And buzzing. Low. Insane.

  Terrifying as he fell.

  Falling. Buzzing. A swarm.

  The Fallen.

  An infinity of milliseconds later…IMPACT with the sword Sydney held.

  She staggered back as Beelzebub’s true demonic form revealed itself. Tall, arcing black horns pushing violently from a purplish-red, skeletal face. Wide eye sockets, gleaming red in the centers. Body of black bones, so many more than human, layer upon layer of razor-edged, sooty bones, flaring out into long, paper-thin columns at his back like the wings of a desiccated flying insect.

  Hands with long-fingered claws and spurs tore fruitlessly at the air. The searing pain in Sydney’s ears from the archdemon’s bellow merged with the burningburningburning in her hands from the acid that poured from his bones.

  A sliver of time that continued endless until she was pulled from beneath his writhing form. Neo shoved her into Jinx’s embrace as Raj and Ari hurled a volley of Molotov cocktails to stun the archdemon.

  Spencer—so bloody she couldn’t see a single intact patch of skin on him—withdrew the xiphos from Baal’s back, moving so fast she couldn’t even blink before the sword sang through the air, cleaving Baal’s horned head from his body.