A Tale of Two Demon Slayers (10 page)

“This way,” he said, shining his beam onto a white rock path that wound away from the cliffs toward a break in the trees at the other side of the house.

The white stone soon gave way to the island soil, rocky and strewn with bits of shell and pumice stone. High trees rose on either side of us, their lean trunks built to sway in the harsh coastal winds.

We walked for several minutes, listening to the buzzing of insects and the tree branches swaying in the night. Abruptly, the trees ended, and we stood in a large clearing. Woodland rose up on all four sides and the moon shone down on the ruins of what looked to be an old church.

I stopped cold. I’d been here before.

This was the place from my vision.

Broken stones had tumbled until only the portions of the walls remained. Dark pink flowers and weeds grew from the crushed limestone benches, and trees had begun to invade the walls.

I’d seen the horror that would happen here.

The stones themselves seemed to glow with a light of their own.

Right now, it was a wildly beautiful place, arresting in its simplicity. But I knew.

“This is the clearing I saw,” I said, my voice hoarse.

Dimitri ran a hand down my back, lingering at the curve of my hip. “I was afraid of that.”

My heart began to pound, readying for battle.

“My family has held this land from the very beginning of time,” he said, as if he were talking about the Holy Grail.

“You have to be kidding,” I said, still trying to believe I was there, on the very spot I’d seen. Granted, I hadn’t caught a lot of detail while I watched myself, my chest torn and bloody, but I knew enough to be very, very scared.

“This is our gathering spot.” Dimitri walked toward the ruins and I followed. The moonlight slid over his back as he moved among the rocks. “The Helios clan is tied to the sun and sky,” he said, “but we are rooted in the earth of our home as well. This is a sacred place.”

I took care on the uneven ground. I could feel the power and the magic. It surrounded us. Important things happened here.

Yet if it was so vital, I couldn’t help wondering why it had been abandoned.

As if he knew what I was thinking, Dimitri said, “This was once an exquisite temple. This section here,” he said, leading me to a section where stones jutted out, fighting the encroachment of a cluster of bushes, “this was the base of a massive tower with a bronze bell that gleamed in the sun.”

He stood looking to the sky. Hundreds of stars shone above us. “I wish I could have seen it.”

“You never did?”

“Drawings. Pictures from the past,” he said, stepping closer, touching the rocks as if they might fall to pieces in his hands. “This building crumbled as my family did. When the curse came all of those years ago, we lost the ability to maintain our magic. This is not merely stone and plaster, but the heart of our family. With the death of my sisters, it would have collapsed to dust.” He paused, deep in thought, and then said almost on a whisper, “Now we have a chance.”

I kissed him on the arm.

He turned to me, his lips brushing mine. Dimitri was so strong, so determined.

“You’re not going to die, Lizzie.” He drew his fingers down my cheek. “You’re going to prosper. Here. With me.”

I wanted to believe that.

“We have a choice,” he said, studying me. “We decide.” He stood tall, gazing over his family lands. “Do you believe this place can be beautiful again?” he whispered.

“Yes,” I said. This man could do anything.

He pulled away slightly, his hands cradling my chin and cheeks. “Why is it so easy for you to believe in me, and not in yourself?”

Heat snaked up my body. I didn’t know. I broke away and almost stumbled against a cool slab of stone that seemed to have weathered the ravages placed upon Dimitri’s family. “What is this?” It lay close to the ground. No weeds grew around it. It looked to be a small altar, whiter than the rest, with a carving of a sixteen-point sun etched into the front.

Dimitri crouched next to me. “This is a
domato
, which means home. We dedicate our power here.”

“So this is the source of your strength?” Here, in the open?

I wasn’t overly familiar with magical families, but that seemed strange even to me.

“No.” The sober weight of the word hung between us. “This is a place of sacrifice. It is also a place of great love. For generations, each member of my family has come here to receive their own portion of our Skye magic. These rocks around us,” he said, standing in the middle of all of them, “these are Skye stones.”

I felt myself frown. The jagged gray rocks littering the ground didn’t look anything like the beautiful aquamarine stone Dimitri kept locked in his office. The portion of his mother’s Skye stone had appeared as flawless as an uncut jewel. It was a wedge of power and possibility. These were just…rocks. Dirty ones.

Dimitri chose a stone and hefted it in his hand. “I should say that these will become Skye stones,” he said, placing the rock on the altar. “When a female member of my family reaches the age of six, she comes to this place. In the past, generations of our clan would gather and watch as the Argillos would choose a stone.” He paused. “Roughly translated,
argillos
is clay, something to be molded and perfected, turned into something more than it is. You understand?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

Satisfied, he continued. “The Argillos chooses a plain stone like the ones you see here.” He gestured to the ground and I picked up a stone. It was rough and heavy
in my hand, an ordinary piece of rock. “At the altar, the Argillos takes this rough ingredient and imbues it with part of who she is.” He wrapped his hands in mine, closing them as best as they would fit around the stone. “She infuses it with her love and power and dedication to her family. It is no longer a mere stone, but a beautiful relic of the power inside each one of us.”

I opened my hands. “The rock changes too?” Mine sure hadn’t.

“It becomes a Skye stone, clear as cut glass. Almost impossible to break. It is strong and whole like the one who creates it.”

“But this place, this altar, almost feels alive. If each stone is connected to one person…”

“As I said, this is also a place of sacrifice.” He stood for a moment in front of the stone slab, his back to me. “When the curse came to my family, each of the women of my line was stricken down by the demon Vald on the twenty-eighth day after their twenty-eighth birthday. The first, Danae, refused to be taken with what little of her power she had left. She feared the demon would use it to grow stronger. So she came here on her twenty-eighth birthday.”

Dimitri bent his head, as if in prayer. “Usually, the stones are used as conductors, a way to focus the magic within. But that day, Danae infused her Skye stone with every bit of her remaining magic. Then she embedded it into the rock of this altar.” He brushed his fingers over the softly glowing stone. “The others did the same. Generations of women giving back their strength and their love. This is a very powerful place.”

“They gave away their magic.” I couldn’t imagine choosing to face death completely unarmed.

“They did it for the good of their husbands and their children,” Dimitri said quietly.

He turned. “This is where things changed for me. It happened on the day my sisters came to place their magic back into the altar. It would have been the end of our clan—of the two women I loved most in this world. I said no.” He took two steps toward me, towering over me. “I had been looking for a slayer. I was close. I couldn’t let the last remaining members of my family—my own sisters—die. So I used my protective magic to find you.” My stomach churned at the thought as he continued. “I drew out a thread of you in order to determine your location. I had to find you,” he rumbled. “You must understand that.”

I shook my head. “I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.”

He gave a sharp laugh. “I don’t know if that’s true. Lizzie, I—” He looked to the sky. “I didn’t know you,” he said, almost to himself.

Then to me, his eyes blazing green like they did when he’d lost the veil of nice society, he said, “I didn’t set out to hurt you.”

I believed him, but I knew it wasn’t the whole truth.

He stood, his shoulders rigid, and admitted it. “At that point, I would have done anything, sacrificed anyone to save the last of my family.”

The crazy thing was, I understood. Dimitri didn’t fight for power or glory, he fought for the people he loved most.

That’s how it began. The question was, where did it end?

“And what about now?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Never. I can’t believe you even have to ask.” He took me in his arms, his touch grazing my cheek. “You know I love you. We
will
find those who stole the link to you. I’d do anything and everything to save you, the same way I saved my sisters.”

“I don’t need you to save me.” Help me, yes. But so far, I was the one who had solved problems for myself.

He studied me, running his hands up my arms, my shoulders, my neck. He traced his fingers along the sensitive spot right behind my ear. I felt the warmth of his touch ease through my veins.

“You are strong, Lizzie,” he said, drawing me closer, his lips brushing my forehead. “Believe in that,” he whispered against my cheek, his lips tracing across my skin in what was almost a kiss. “I do.”

He slipped a hand behind my neck and lowered his mouth to mine.

Mmm…the man knew how to take his time. He kissed me slowly. Gently. For all my faults and fears, despite my imperfections and the way I tended to turn his life upside down, this man wanted me. He showed me with every taste, every touch.

He took my mouth, my lower lip, my mouth again with a stark desire that drove slivers of pleasure through me.

I closed my eyes and leaned into him, savoring the heat of his chest, running my hands along the hard lines of his back, embracing this man who had stood alone far too long. I could never get over how large he was, how potent. He was rock-hard steel and strength. He tried to hold it
in check, but anyone could see the power thrumming underneath. I ran my hands along his waist, down his thighs.

I could feel how much he wanted me.

He loosened my ponytail, tossing the band into the grass as his fingers wove through my hair, sending a shiver from my scalp to my toes. This man knew me so well.

Knew how to love me.

He kissed me and touched me until my pulse pounded and my blood surged through my veins. I kissed him back with everything I had to give, pushing, demanding, willing him to take it all and then some.

With a moan he wrenched himself away. “Here,” he murmured, his voice thick with desire.

Dimitri led me away from the ruined temple into the soft grass beyond.

My body ached for him, and that tiny part of me—the wild child, the bad girl, the one who didn’t like things all neat and organized and perfect—sighed with pleasure.

I’d always wanted to make love in a field under the stars. And now, here—with this man—it would be perfect.

“Lizzie.” He slipped the strap of my pink sundress off my shoulder, kissing my bare collarbone. Then he eased away the second strap.

He looked up at me, eyes glittering with desire.

“Dimitri—” I barely had time to ease away from a stray stone before he was on top of me, over me. The weight of him pressed me into the soft earth.

He fitted himself to me. We rocked together as his mouth devoured mine. I kissed him with abandon, relishing the pleasure of this man, this moment.

But still I wanted more.

I grazed a hand down his body and found the hard length of him.

He leapt, groaning. “Lizzie,” he began, his voice low and husky.

“Hmm?” I whispered as he stilled my hand.

He throbbed with excitement. I could feel it as I touched my tongue to the salt on his neck.

“Wait,” he gasped.

He was hard and ready, almost to the edge. I could feel it.

“I’m not a patient woman,” I whispered in his ear.

I was near panting and he wanted to take it slow.

“I’m trying to make this last,” he said, sounding like he was almost in pain.

“Good luck.”

He slid his hands up my calves, massaging them, running the rough pads of his fingers over my breasts, down my stomach, sending shots of pleasure though places I didn’t even know could feel that good. He worked his hands up the backs of my legs, over my knees, under my dress and higher still.

I dug my fingers into the curve of his back, urging him on as he slid my underwear aside. I heard myself moan as he swept his hands under my hips and entered me.

He dove into me hard, possessing. His power, his presence, was overwhelming. This place, this man, it seemed as though everything I’d done had led me to this moment.

I reveled in him, matched his pace, wound my legs around his hips and pulled him even deeper, until we came together in the ultimate fusion of body and soul.

Afterward, he held me for a long time as we lay in the soft grass and watched the stars.

“I can’t believe we did this,” I said, tracing the outline of his chest. “Here.”

He chuckled. “I can’t think of anything more life affirming.”

“Mmm…you could call it that.” I found myself enjoying the quiet camaraderie. “Magical too.”

Dimitri kissed me on the head. “This is a place of old power, a site of great importance that we call the Callidora.”

My stomach clenched. Heart pounding, I remembered the prophecy.

She will be lost at the Callidora, the first time in joy, the second time in death.

Sweet heavens. I bolted upright. “It’s coming true already.”

Dimitri leaned back on his elbows, a few stray twigs in his hair giving him the wild-man look. “Haven’t you listened to anything I said?”

“Of course I did.” I was in control of what happened to me. I could choose where to go, how to act. “And then you said ‘Callidora.’ ”

One word and I was back on a collision course with destiny.

I stood, straightening my dress and brushing the dried grass from my arms and legs. I still ached from where he’d entered me.

Dimitri rose as well, not even bothering to cover himself. “Are you going to believe me or something you read in a dead woman’s journal?”

Oh, so Alana was dead too. It didn’t seem like people lived too long around here.

“I’m going back to the house.” I turned to leave, stumbling over a section of buried ruins and more than one ugly rock/future Skye stone. I didn’t even bother with the Maglite as I made my way over the uneven ground. I’d be much safer after I left the Callidora.

A small animal skittered into the underbrush as I found the trail. The air was thick with insect calls and the earthy
scent of thick trees and scrub. Dimitri joined me, tugging on his jeans as he caught up. He didn’t say anything as we walked. Worse, his belt hung open and he’d left his top two buttons undone.

He held the Maglite near his waist. In the reflected glow, I could see his well-muscled stomach and the narrow strip of hair that trailed from his navel all the way down to the promised land.

Some might have thought it was sexy. And it was. Except the whole situation had me on edge. Well, that and the fact that a part of me wanted to button those pants all the way. Leaving anything half-done drove me a little bonkers.

“Talk to me,” he said.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, but no more advice about what I should do. I have to work this out my own way.”

He nodded. “Of course.” I knew what this was costing him, which made me appreciate the company even more.

I wanted to learn more about the threat against me. Perhaps then I could do something about it. I had a feeling I could gain even more from Alana’s journal, if I could only pinpoint how else to use it.

“Was Amara’s mother powerful?” I asked.

Rocks crunched under my sandals. Dimitri had taken a keen interest in the path ahead of us. His flashlight bobbed over the trail. “From what I’ve heard,” he said, the words coming slow, “Amara’s mother had a gift.”

“I see.” It made sense. These things were often passed down, and Amara had sure known enough to get out of the way of those imps.

“Lizzie,” he said, as if he knew where my mind was going. “A threat has no power. Things have been trying
to kill us from the first moment I met you. Remember that mercenary water nymph? What about the angry werewolves? The sex-crazed she-demons?”

“Not to mention the hellhounds.”

“And yesterday’s imps. We could have died many times over and we didn’t.”

Okay, he had a point. Still, it was as though all of the pieces were coming together. “What if this is the time they get us?”

“What if it’s not?” he demanded.

I shook my head, wishing I could explain. My demon slayer senses might not be going off, but there was a palpable danger around us. I couldn’t quite picture what was going to happen next. We didn’t have enough information. But I knew it was going to be big—and bad for me.

Dimitri, in true male fashion, wanted everything to be black-and-white. If it hadn’t been obvious from the way he walked, shoulders back, head raised, I could just as easily have heard it in the way he ground out each and every word. “I don’t believe in prophecies,” he said. “I believe in free will.” He stepped in front of me and I nearly ran straight into him. He stood looking down at me, a thunderstorm of determination. “If I’d listened to prophecies, my sisters would be dead. They were fated to die and I did something about it.”

“You don’t believe at all.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“The danger in any kind of oracle is when we make it our only possibility. It’s not. Our fate is in our hands, Lizzie. Not in someone else’s.” He took me by the chin. “You of all people should know that.”

Frankly, I didn’t know what to think. Dimitri
had
changed his family’s fate. He’d stood up for his sisters when no one else could, and he’d been willing to go to hell and back to do it. I admired his courage. I was darned glad to have him on my side now, but at least he’d had an enemy to fight. He knew he needed a slayer to defeat Vald, and he’d found me. I, on the other hand, didn’t know what I was up against or where the danger would come from.

I was about to tell him when a powerful dread hit me. I reached for my switch stars.

It was coming from directly above us. The black sky shimmered with stars.

I screamed as a searing pain tore through me, forcing me to my knees.

“Lizzie!” Dimitri caught me before my face hit the ground. I dug my fingers into his sides as fire burned me from the inside.

Lightning ripped across the sky, and thunder boomed. I held tight to Dimitri, fighting through the pain.

“Theoi!”
Dimitri dove sideways with me as lightning struck the ground to our right.

The resounding boom nearly deafened me. I clutched him with everything I had as energy raced down my arms. It hurt to breathe.

“I’ve got you.” Dimitri grated, surrounding me, a rock in the storm. I pressed my cheek against him and gave in to it.

It took everything I had to simply survive.

I don’t know how long I held on to him before the horror began to fade. I braced myself against him and pushed my sweat-soaked hair out of my eyes.

“Lizzie?”

I swallowed, trying to find my voice.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

Dimitri didn’t say anything. He just held me as we watched a pea green vapor leach across the sky. It advanced like an invading army, obliterating everything in its path.

An empty chill bled through me. I couldn’t stop shaking.

Dimitri rested his chin on my shoulder. “I’m not going to let anything get you,” he said.

I pressed even closer to him. “I think it already has.”

We sat that way for heaven knows how long as the sky melted into brownish green sludge. It blocked the stars and the moon, throwing us into an eerie darkness. Worse. Even as I regained some of my strength, I felt something shift inside me.

“They used it,” I said, the enormity of it burning in my chest. “They used that piece of me.”

Dimitri gripped me tighter. “I know.”

I pushed away from him before he could start blaming himself again. We didn’t need introspection. We needed action. If only my body would cooperate.

Legs wobbly, I stood and placed a shaking hand on my switch stars.

I had to do
something
.

It was as if I was about to tip over the edge into the abyss and was powerless to stop it. I had to wait, stomach churning, head light. My enemies had struck and there was still no one to fight.

My fingers dug into the switch star at my belt and it took all I had not to fling it into the nearest tree.

Fight me, you miserable cowards. Fight me!

As if in answer to my prayer—or my worst nightmare—my senses zeroed in on the path directly in front of us.

“What is it?” Dimitri asked.

He tried to step in front of me. With more determination than strength, I stood next to him instead.

“Don’t know,” I whispered, shaking my head. Even when I wasn’t trying to recover my strength, my new powers had been somewhat unpredictable in the woods. I tended to home in on angry badgers and blood-thirsty mosquitoes as often as purely evil entities, but this felt like controlled evil.

I took a deep breath, feeling more like myself.

“Let’s get it,” I said, forcing my legs to work. I didn’t like going in weak, but we needed to figure out what had just happened, and our best chance would be to attack when it was fresh.

“What do you see?” Dimitri asked as we took off through the woods.

I couldn’t even tell him. But I envisioned it like a dot in my mind. It was malice in the flesh, like nothing I’d ever felt before. And it was off the trail to our right.

“This way,” I said, storming through the underbrush. Brush and sticks slashed at my feet and legs.

I could hear Dimitri behind me. He hadn’t pulled out the light, and I sure didn’t need it. I knew where I was going.

“There!” I pointed to a large evergreen tree to our right, shadowy and almost completely dark.

Dimitri shone the Maglite on the fleeing form of a woman.

“Amara?” I yelled.

“Too short,” Dimitri said as we both took off after her.

He was right. Amara stood at least a head taller, and she had long black hair. This dark-haired woman had hers clipped to her shoulders.

Dimitri quickly outpaced me, his light bouncing through the woods and catching the woman. Even as she ran, I felt her rage—like that of a startled beast.

I didn’t know what would happen if she turned around. Would she talk? Would she attack?

Would I have to shoot?

She tore through the woods like she was born to it. Dimitri too. His griffin nature made him faster, more agile. I could hold my own thanks to my demon slayer mojo.

But what did she have?

“Lizzie,” Dimitri stopped dead. “Do you see her?”

I reached out with my senses, past him, around us.

She was close. “She’s—” I nearly screamed when she rushed toward me from the left. I drew a switch star, ready to use it, shocked as anything when she tagged me on the shoulder and ran.

Her touch stopped me cold. I recognized the burning power of it, knew it like a forgotten memento or a memory I couldn’t quite place.

And then she was gone.

“I don’t feel her anymore,” I told Dimitri as he halted at my side.

“What do you mean?” he asked, out of breath.

“She’s gone,” I said, shocked to the core.

“How is that possible?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

Dimitri, bless his heart, didn’t ask again. We made a
thorough search of the area and found nothing. When we finally admitted to ourselves that we’d lost her, Dimitri took my hand and led us back to the trail, where we walked in silence.

She couldn’t just disappear. No immediate threat had ever dropped off my radar before.

I didn’t understand it.

She couldn’t go from enraged to benign that quickly. Something had to have happened when she touched me.

Pinpointing that moment of change both comforted me and terrified me.

Whoever that woman was, she’d been using my magic. I knew it in my bones.

I stopped dead. “She’s the one who stole that part of me.”

Dimitri’s features hardened. “We’ll find her.”

“We’d better.” We didn’t have a choice.

“Lizzie.” Dimitri touched my arm. “Are you sensing anything right now?”

I stopped cold. “No.”

“Well, I hear something.”

Dimitri tensed for battle. He flicked off the Maglite and reached for the knife at the back of his belt.

The woods rose thick and menacing on both sides of us. There wasn’t even anything to duck behind. We stood firm, side by side, welcoming the fight.

I held steady, waiting for my emerald to change, hoping it could give me some indication of what we were about to face. It lay flat against my chest.

A beam of light streaked across the trees in front of us. At least it was human.

I hoped.

The switch star in my hand spun and hummed.

Voices filtered down the path. “Are you going to tell her?” a feminine voice asked.

“No,” a male answered. “And you won’t either.”

We waited with our light off and weapons drawn.

Both flashlights trained on us. At the same time, Dimitri blinded them with his light.

“Hold up!” I yelled.

It was Amara and Talos, squinting against the glare.

My limbs tingled with released tension while my heart pinched with disappointment.

Dimitri lowered his high beam. “What are you two doing out here?”

With the dark-haired thief on the loose. Right after the sky turned green.

Amara slapped a delicate hand to her chest. “Dimitri!” Perspiration dampened her cheeks and hairline, and uncertainty rolled off her in waves. “You scared me to death.” She gave a brittle laugh. “We were just checking up on some of the Skye magic your sisters used earlier.”

Right.

“You know what that is?” I asked, pointing to the sickeningly green sky.

Talos all but shivered. “Yes, it means someone is working some scary fucking magic against us.”

“Would you happen to know who?” Dimitri stepped closer.

Talos shook his head. “No. Isn’t that what your demon slayer is supposed to do?”

“While you’re doing what?” Sneaking around in the woods. I didn’t trust either one of them.

Talos stiffened. “I’m trying to keep this entire place
from crumbling around us. Look, Dimitri. You know your sisters aren’t strong right now.”

“What’s your point?” Dimitri grumbled.

“Talos has been helping them improve,” Amara said. “Slowly. But something bad happened tonight while we were out trying to help Lizzie.”

Everyone’s eyes settled on me.

Talos sighed. “Before tonight, I’d encouraged your sisters to hold back, to let their powers return gradually. Tonight they tried to use the full force of their magic and discovered they’re growing weaker instead of stronger.”

“Why didn’t they come to me with this?” Dimitri demanded.

“They were devastated.” Talos ran a hand through his hair. “And quite unreasonable. Why women think they can solve their problems with near hysterics is beyond me.”

“We decided to see what we could learn,” Amara said, effectively cutting off her brother. “Their magic is indeed weaker than we expected. In fact, we’re detecting some irregular pathways in the energy guarding the estate.”

That was exactly what we didn’t need. “Are you fixing it?” I asked. Those energies were the only thing keeping my stolen magic in this dimension.