Ascension of Evil (Battle for Souls Book 3) (7 page)

“Get away from my Dad,” Gabby demanded, her voice filled with authority.

“Not so fast, boy toy. I’ll rip his throat from his neck before you can reach me.” The unmistakable rasp confirmed it was Forras.

Gabby held up her right hand to stop Alexander. “What do you want, Forras?”

“Only to return to your side. After all, we are connected on an…intimate level.”

A growl rolled up Alexander’s windpipe.

“Down, boy,” Forras mocked. “You can try to deny it, but your little bonding failed. Instead, you only succeeded in summoning all the souls that escaped from darkness. We are all here for you, dear, sweet Gabriella.”

The tone of Forras’s voice mocked him to act, but Alexander knew he couldn’t reach him before he murdered Bruce.

Gabby inched closer. “You lie.”

“Do I?”

Gabby cried out and doubled over, holding her side. “It burns.”

Alexander kept his attention focused on Forras, but clutched Gabby’s arm. “What is it?”

“The mark. Forras…he’s…”

Seeing her in pain, hatred shot through Alexander, an emotion he thought he had learned to control. He moved toward Forras, but hesitated. Every time he attacked Forras, something tragic happened.

“Forras, stop,” Bruce ordered. A struggle ensued as Bruce tried to free himself from Forras’s grasp. Gabby raced for her dad. Alexander shot in front of her and grabbed Bruce.

The lights flickered on.

“You always fall for the obvious, don’t you?” Forras stood in human form next to Gabby, stroking her back.

“Gabriella, tell him. We’re connected. Send your lapdog on his way, so we can bond in our own way.” Forras ran his hand suggestively down her arm.

Alexander shoved Bruce to the side.

“No, wait.” Bruce grabbed his wing. “Look.” Gabby lifted her shirt. Forras’s demon mark burned red on her delicate skin.

A demon busted through the front door. Two more came through the kitchen, and another through the hall.

Surrounded.

Forras laughed and held up a hand to stop his minions. “Make a choice, my dear, sweet Gabriella. Should I have them pluck Alexander’s wings and stuff a pillow with them for you? Or have mercy on your father and end his drunken existence now? Your choice.”

Chapter Five

Gabby’s wings shivered beneath her skin and a sting slid down her shoulder blades. Vibrations shook her middle and she doubled over. Pressure released from her ribs as her wings swooshed out to the sides.

Her wings catapulted a lamp to the floor and Forras into the wall. A chair flung across the dining room. One demon was sent back through the front door, tumbling down the front porch steps.

She straightened and fluffed her wings. The lathery feathers rippled. Raw, hypersensitive nerves responded to the faintest breath of air sweeping across the tips. She rotated her body, careful not to take a wall down, and locked gazes with Forras. “No, you choose where I send you next.”

Forras peeled his body from crumbling plaster, sending bits of white debris to the floor.

Her dad raised a shaking hand to his temple and stared with pleading eyes. She knew that look, the sorrow-filled gaze that begged to be forgiven for falling off the wagon again. But now wasn’t the time. Emotions crippled her powers and right now, she needed to focus.

Silence filled the small, crowded room, their panting breaths the only sound.

“No, Satan promised. You’re mine,” Forras snarled.

“There’s your first error, trusting Satan.” Alexander sauntered over to her, with her dad close to his side. “You still think she belongs to you?”

Two other demons closed the circle tight around them. Forras held his hand up. The bloodthirsty creatures growled, but remained where they were, poised to attack at the slightest signal.

A surge of heat seared her abdomen from his mark, but she refused to react.

Alexander touched her fingers with his. “She belongs to us. A warrior of Heaven.”

Belongs
? No, she didn’t. Heaven denied her. Hell tried to kill her. “I belong to no one. I’m a product of all of you.”

Alexander clutched her hand. “Gabby, you can’t be serious.”

She unlaced her fingers and furrowed her wings behind her body. “Call off your dogs, Forras. We need to talk.”

Forras swung, his arm transforming to a stump in an instant. He stopped inches from her face, but she refused to flinch.

“You did this to me.” Saliva flew from between Forras’ snarled lips.

Their fight from a year ago flashed in her memory. She’d never thought to see him again after that night.

“We did many things to each other.” Her mom had warned her that they needed Forras to fight for them, but how could she convince him? How could she trust him?

A thud sounded behind her and she glanced back to see Grace standing at the front door. The demon that had been tossed across the front lawn lunged, but Sammy landed in between them. Another thud out back indicated Boon had also arrived.

Grace folded her wings and stepped through the doorway. “Is there a problem, Forras?”

Forras didn’t answer. His eyes flickered with something besides hatred and evil, a barely perceptible hint of compassion, or love perhaps. The orange glow ebbed as a greenish hue pulsed twice before the glow returned and his expression twisted back to demonic rage. “This doesn’t concern you.”

Grace straightened her pale pink button up shirt and removed a leaf from her hair. “But it does. You sent minions to my home.”

His eyebrows furrowed, before returning his hateful gaze to Gabby. “No, she did. She and her lapdog summoned all of the freed souls to Kemp. Now, they’re hunting down the Chosen One.”

There had to be something she could use to convince him to fight on the right side. “But you didn’t come to kill me. Did you?” Gabby chose her words carefully.

“No, but I came to kill the rest of you.” Forras hunched down then lunged, transforming in mid-air as he rammed Alexander.

The two remaining monsters surrounded her dad. Gabby lifted the gun, but the hilt and trigger melted in her hand. Fire erupted in her heart. It surged down her right arm. Crimson flames shot from her palm and engulfed one of the coyote-like creature’s heads. It howled and rolled back. Undaunted, the other one clenched his jagged teeth into her dad’s shoulder. He yelped, but pressed his thumb into its eye. It flung him to the floor, and she tried to summon another blast, but only steam rose from her fingers.

In their struggle, Alexander and Forras smashed into the coffee table, breaking it to splinters. Grace picked up one of the legs and swung it at two creatures trying to shove through the front door. Sammy shot up into the air and out of sight.

Two steps brought Gabby to her dad. She slammed her heel against the demon’s jaw. It thrashed, but didn’t release its bite. Blood ran down his shoulder, saturating his sleeve. No, he wouldn’t go out this way.

Growls, cracking glass, ripping material, and angry curses rang through the small house. Another creature dove at her. She arched backward. Pressing her palms to the beast’s back, she flipped over him. The moment her feet thudded against the floor, she grabbed the gun. Forras roared and lunged at her. She bolted over another demon. Two more joined the fight through the front door, Grace struggling to fend them off with her table leg. Gripping the gun’s barrel, she slammed deformed hilt into the monster’s head. Still, it didn’t let go of her dad.

Claws wrapped around her leg. She punted the offending demon. Focusing back on the one attached to her dad, she beat it on the temple repeatedly with the gun until the creature released its iron grip.

Howls split the air as more creatures spilled into the room through the smashed window.

We need to get out of here.
“Dad!” She yanked him a few feet from the demon’s grasp, but it clawed across the floor and snagged his pant leg. She clutched the back of his shirt and planted her foot against the wall of the kitchen to pull him free.

From her peripheral vision, she saw white light shoot past. She squeezed her eyes shut, but it still blinded her.

Scuffles ensued around her, followed by a crash so loud she was sure a wall had been knocked down.

We have his mate. He will fight for her,
Her mom’s soft voice whispered in her mind.

The light faded to green dots, popping in erratic patterns. She blinked and discovered the living room wall had been reduced to a pile of rubble and wood paneling. Alexander swung high, but Forras ducked and jumped to the other side of the debris.

“Forras! I know where you will find your one true love,” Gabby yelled, but Forras didn’t respond. He grabbed Alexander’s wing, scratching it with his one good claw.

“I said I know where you can find—”

“Gabby!” Dad yelled.

She dropped to the ground and swung her leg out in time to swipe the demon’s legs. His mouth still dripped with her dad’s blood. If she didn’t do something soon, the entire house would be demolished, and her dad and the others would be dead.

“Boon, grab Alex! Stop him from fighting Forras.”

Boon dodged a blow and shot her a quizzical look.

“Just do it!” she ordered.

Boon nodded, wrapped his raven wing around the demon he was fighting then flung him across the room, over Alexander and Forras, and onto the front lawn.

Smoke wafted from one of the curtains framing the front window. Her hands glowed down by her sides, and she focused on keeping control. All the aggression in the room fed her demonic blood, and she could easily erupt. She couldn’t chance it, not with her dad by her side.

Boon wrestled Alexander to the ground and Forras let out a menacing chuckle.

“Back to our side again?”

Boon’s nostrils flared with disgust. “Never.”

Gabby jumped over her dad and landed next to Forras. She placed a hand on his smoky-grey shoulder. “I’ll go with you.”

Forras shot her a sideways glance then returned his attention to Alexander.

“If you call off your friends here, I’ll go with you. Alone.”

Alexander struggled to free himself from Boon. “Let me go,” he snarled. “Gabby, don’t! We can win this fight.” His pupils widened with terror, but she ignored them. Now wasn’t the time to worry about how Alexander would feel about her decision. It was time for her to be a leader. “No. He’ll turn you—”

“I guess you weren’t man enough for her.” Forras remained in a fighting stance, but didn’t attack.

Boon struggled to keep Alexander secure. Sammy flew past the window and slammed into another demon. Grace was pinned to the ground, but thrust the creature off her and rammed it into another one.

Her dad struggled to stand, but fell with a thud. They wouldn’t make it, not all of them. And she couldn’t bear to lose any of them.

Gabby cleared her throat and squared her shoulders. “Do we have a deal?”

“No tricks.” Forras pinned his heated gaze on Alexander. “Anyone follows and I’ll send her straight to Hell.” He held up his deformed stump. “You try anything, and I’ll summon the hundreds of demons in and around Kemp to dismember your father, one organ at a time.”

****

Alexander twisted and bucked. Boon crashed to the ground, pulling Alexander down on top of him.

“Let me go!”

Stunned, Alexander watched as Gabby faded into the dark night with Forras by her side.

He clawed at the linoleum floor of the entryway, struggling to rescue her from the demon that had nearly sent her to darkness forever.

As they were swallowed up by the night, Boon’s arms slid from his chest. Grey creatures still remained in the shadows of the trees, watching them. They followed Forras’s commands, remaining to guard them, but kept their distance until he ordered otherwise.

The hatred that once drove his every action rippled through his body. He turned on Boon and thrust his hands into his chest.

Boon stumbled back. “I was just following orders.”

Sammy flew between them. Grace stumbled over some boards, kneeling beside him.

“How could you? How could you guys let her go?” His hands shook. “We’ve got to find her.” He pivoted to the front porch and dozens of red eyes flickered in the moonlight.

Sammy slid her hand into Boon’s. “We’re not going anywhere. You heard Forras. Do you want to risk Gabby? Besides, aren’t you forgetting something?”

Alexander turned from the enlarged doorway and saw Bruce sprawled on the floor of the living room, surrounded by debris and rubble. The scent of blood filled the air. Alexander pulled his wings in and navigated the piles of wreckage over to Bruce. Kneeling, he pressed his palm to Bruce’s shoulder. “Bruce, I’m sorry. I’ve gotcha.” Soothing energy rolled down his arms to his fingertips, sating the fire within him. His mind was still engrossed with how to save Gabby, but his body relaxed.

“Gabby. She…”

Alexander redirected his attention and calmed Bruce. “Don’t worry. I’ll get her back.” And he would, too. Nothing would stop him from sending Forras back to Hell, where he should have gone in the first place.