Angel's Power (9 page)

“Demons. There are demons in the
castle,” Ariel said, still unmoving. She could taste them.

“Get dressed.”

Her jeans hit her on the shoulder.
She glared at him, but Suriel was buckling a sheath and knife to his forearm
and didn’t notice.

“We need to warn my brother,” she
said.

He finished tightening the straps.
“I’ll go get him. You get dressed.” He glanced at her. “Bring some knives.”

She nodded sharply. “Be careful.”

He grinned and brought his hands
up. Sparks flitted between his fingers. “Careful is for cowards.”

She strode over to him and grabbed
his hands. The sparks jumped to her. She yanked his head down and kissed him
fiercely. “Leave some demons for me.”

****

Suriel banged on Gabriel’s door,
hoping to God he and Raphael were dressed. He did
not
want to see his
Alpha and little brother naked in their bed. Some things just can’t be unseen
and that was an image he didn’t need in his head.

The door swung open. Gabriel glared
at him, hair sleep-mussed. “What?” Thankfully he was wearing jeans.

Suriel said one word. “Demons.”

Gabriel face went from irritated to
intent. “Where?”

“I’m not sure. We think somewhere
in the castle.” He shook his head, frustrated.

“We?”

Suriel knew they didn’t have the
time for him to gently break the news of his mating to Gabriel. “Your sister
and I. We—”

“You mated,” Raphael said, opening
the door wider. He smiled widely. “It’s about time.”

Suriel looked from Gabriel to
Raphael. Honesty was probably the best option at this point. He took a deep
breath. “Yes. But it’s more than that. She shares my power.”

Gabriel frowned. “Shares?”

Raphael’s eyebrows went up. “That’s
why your power was always so unstable.”

Suriel nodded. “Exactly.”

“My sister is a sorceress?” Gabriel
didn’t sound surprised.

“Yes.”

“Okay, let me get my blades,” Gabriel
said, backing into his room. He didn’t bother to shut the door.

Suriel wondered why he’d thought
Gabriel would be shocked. He shook his head, glad the man was his Alpha and not
his enemy.

“I’m ready,” Ariel called, jogging
down the hall. She had two blades strapped to her arms and another on her
thigh. “Here.” She shoved a long, leather wrapped scabbard at Suriel. “This is
yours.”

He automatically took it from her,
though he’d never seen the weapon before in his life.

“It’s yours. I stopped at the vault
on the way,” Ariel said.

He frowned. “You shouldn’t have
gone there alone.”

She shrugged. “It’s on this floor, between
our rooms. I had to hunt for the key in my purse. That’s what took me so long.”

Suriel let her explanation slide.
“How is this my sword?” He lifted it. The weight felt incredibly balanced.

“It’s the sorcerer’s sword.” She
pointed at him. “That’s you.”

“You’re every much the sorcerer I
am.”

She laughed. “In power, yes. In
size? Not so much. That thing is almost as long as I am.”

Suriel had to smile. She had a
point. He began unraveling the leather belt from scabbard. The leather was old,
but still pliable. The scabbard was nothing special, just hardened leather. The
hilt of the blade was wrapped with silver wire. It would make an excellent
grip.

“Put it on. Hurry.” Ariel began
helping him with it.

He understood her urgency. The cold
was no longer a bolt here and there. It was a wind. A freeze slipping up
through the stones of the castle.

“The demon is in the basement,” he
said, suddenly sure.

Ariel strapped the belt around his
waist and cinched it tightly. “Yeah. I feel it too.” She looked into the room.
“Gabriel, hurry the hell up.”

“I’m here.” Gabriel and Raphael
were ready, blades strapped to their arms and legs. They’d all learned their
lesson last time: one can never have too many weapons.

“It’s a pity we can’t just blow it
up,” Raphael said as they ran down the hall.

“Yeah, well, heat is a demon’s best
friend,” Ariel retorted.

“Then why does the evil feel cold?”
Gabriel asked, leading the way.

“It’s the kind of cold that starts
out hot, then crosses over into the absence of heat. Heat is life and energy.
Cold is the infinite nothing,” Suriel explained.

“That makes no damn sense,” Raphael
said, shoving open the door to the back steps. “Like most of what you say,
brother.”

Suriel cuffed him on the back of
the head. “Just because you don’t understand doesn’t make it any less true.”

Raphael flashed him a grin and then
they were running down the stairs. Suriel brought up the rear, hoping that he
and Gabriel would be able to keep their mates safe. When he caught Ariel giving
him a look, he knew she’d read his thoughts. He smiled sheepishly at her and
she let it pass. He’d pay for it later, though.

“Shit!” Gabriel exclaimed drawing
up short just before the landing that led to the sub levels of the castle.
Suriel agreed. Black ice barred their way, covering the arched doorway with
twisted ropes of cold evil.

“We can break it,” Ariel said.

Suriel was already moving forward,
hands raised. When Ariel put her hands on his shoulders, the power they carried
surged, flickering out to the barrier. He concentrated, secretly thrilled at
how easily the energy flowed now that he’d accepted Ariel. Always before he’d
had to fight to make it work.

“It’s going to come down all at
once,” she said, warning her brother and Raphael.

“Do it,” Gabriel commanded her,
naked blade out and forward.

Suriel exhaled and felt Ariel
breathe with him. The power sparked down his skin and hit the ice. It exploded
as the energy touched it. Shards sharp as broken glass rained over them. They
melted as they struck their skin. Dirty rivulets trickled down Ariel’s face.
Suriel wiped her cheeks gently and she turned her face up to him, eyes luminous
as stars.

“No time for kisses. Let’s go,”
Gabriel ordered, pushing forward. The stairs leading down were unlit and slick.

“I don’t like this,” Ariel said.

Suriel agreed. “It feels like a
trap.” He paused halfway down the stairs.

Raphael tugged on Gabriel’s shoulder.
“Hang on.”

“What?” Gabriel turned, eyes
impatient.

Suriel leaped forward, shoving his
Alpha aside as the black beyond them suddenly coalesced into scales.

“Shit!” Ariel slid under his arm,
cursing. She stabbed it in the side, but it disappeared like smoke. Suriel
unsheathed his sword, waiting. When the dark moved again, he was ready.

“There!” Ariel cried and he moved,
slashing.

The demon screamed, and suddenly
there were more. Two, three of them, coming down from above.

“Damn,” Raphael muttered, crouching
beside Gabriel.

“God is with us,” the Alpha said, a
determined look on his face.

Suriel nodded, slashing again.
Ariel defended his back as he worked. When he felt power rise, he realized that
she was feeding it to him. His sword began to glow.

“Can you share it with your brother
and mine?” he asked, slashing again. Fighting the unseeable was not easy, but
he’d die before he gave up.

“Yes, as long as you can hold this
place,” she replied, slipping a little on the stairs. “Fighting here is a bad
idea.”

“No choice,” Suriel said, stabbing
hard. The demon squealed and he twisted the blade. It didn’t vanish this time,
so he knew he’d done some damage.

Ariel was holding onto his jeans,
moving as he moved. He felt her draw on the power. Suddenly, Gabriel and
Raphael’s weapons flared white-hot, and their fight with the other smoke demons
began to turn in their favor.

“Whatever you’re doing, keep it
up,” Gabriel yelled, slashing with both hands now. Thick, black blood splashed
the stairwell, making the stones even slipperier. Raphael almost went down, but
Suriel managed to grab him. His brother smiled his thanks and turned back to
protecting Gabriel’s back. The dark was thick enough that it was difficult to
maneuver around each other.

“We need light!” Suriel yelled,
hoping Ariel could manage something. He was too busy slashing at the
still-dangerous demon to think clearly enough to help.

Ariel lifted her hand and abruptly,
light streamed from a ball of sparks stuck to the ceiling.

“Dear God, thank you,” Raphael murmured,
lunging forward. Now that they could see, the demons lost their edge. Within
moments, they were dead and melting into a black sludge at their feet.

“There may be more,” Gabriel said,
breathing heavily.

“There’s a portal. Down there.”
Suriel pointed. “We need to seal it.”

“I can feel it too, like a splinter
stuck in the foot of our castle,” Ariel said.

“So poetic,” Gabriel teased.

She flashed him a smile. “Yes,
well. I have my moments.”

“Can you bring the light?” Raphael
asked.

“Yes.” She looked up and the sparks
bobbed down.

“It looks like a sparkler,” Raphael
said, grinning at her.

She laughed. “That’s where I got
the idea.”

“We need to move,” Suriel said,
staring past them. More cold rolled up the stairs. He shivered. He couldn’t see
a damn thing, but the sensation was unmistakable.

“How will we seal it?” Ariel asked
as they began to head down once more, Gabriel again in the lead.

“If Gabriel and Raphael can keep
the demons off our backs, you and I can probably seal it.” He didn’t say that
they could just as easily die in the process. He didn’t want her to know. He
didn’t want to lose her. He gripped the sword tighter and forced himself to
keep going. God help them.

She frowned. “I really wish I’d had
time for a cookie before we fought the minions of darkness. I’m starving.”

Suriel stared at her, then laughed.
How did she do that? Just when death seemed a terrible and sure thing, she
managed to make him smile. “I love you, Ariel.”

She touched his arm. “I love you
too.”

Chapter Seven

Ariel followed her brother down
into the basement. At the bottom of the steps where they usually kept old boxes
and furniture to once side of the larger space, something blurred the view. She
rubbed her face, wondering if she’d gotten some of the ice in her eyes, but it
didn’t help. She detached some sparks from her light and sent it closer. When
it neared the blur, it elongated and disappeared, like light falling into a
black hole.

“What the hell is that?” Raphael
asked, moving closer.

Gabriel grabbed him. “No, don’t.
That’s the portal.”

“There’s nothing there,” Ariel
said, sending another spark over. This time she slowed it down right where she
thought the blur began. It held its form for a moment, and then the portal
caught it. She watched it stretch away from her and disappear into nothing.
Losing pieces of the energy felt like someone shocked her finger. “How are we
going to close something we can’t even see?”

Suriel edged closer, brushing off
her hand when she grabbed his arm. “I won’t get too close,” he murmured, sword
out in front of him.

She bit her cheek, knowing he
wouldn’t appreciate her stopping him. He held the sword at shoulder height,
edge slightly to the left as he turned his body, making as small a target as
possible.

It was a good thing he was ready.
The blur shimmered, and a demon coalesced right in front of him, like smoke spitting
out of a chimney. Ariel gasped as she stared at it. It was huge. The head
scraped the vaulted ceiling so that it had to crouch over. Its eyes glowed a
sick red. Scales dribbled down its body like hardened lava, irregular and ugly.
Horribly, there was something familiar about it.

Not missing a step, Suriel lunged,
stabbing it in the right eye. The demon shrieked, claw-tipped arms rising. A
long, serpentine tail lashed around. Gabriel slashed at it, Raphael hitting it a
moment later. The mouth opened, snapping at Suriel. Before it could reach him,
Ariel gathered her wits and shot sparks at it, aiming for the good eye. It
groaned and Suriel swept the sword out and back down, cutting the demon across
its chest. Red flesh shone wetly between the scales. The scent of ash filled
the room.

“Dear God, it’s Samael,” Gabriel
suddenly said, knife dripping wetly.

“What?” Ariel glanced at her
brother. He couldn’t be serious?

As soon as Gabriel said the name,
however, the demon went unnaturally still.

Suriel backed up slowly. “His soul
was taken when Gabriel defeated him.”