Chaos Rises: A Veil World Urban Fantasy (22 page)

T
he road
outside the high school was choked with vehicles and crowds of people placing bets, drinking, and getting high. I wove unnoticed among them and jogged up the steps, passing a group who had a
vitiosus
on a chain. The lesser strained against its leash and snapped at anything in biting distance. These people were flirting with death. Any one of the lessers chained in the back of their vans would tear its way through this crowd in seconds. I didn’t understand why they’d take the risk for a few hours of excitement. Had they learned nothing from the Fall?

Putting demons in cages and on leashes and calling them pets, did it somehow lessen them? Turn demons from the stuff of nightmares to tame objects under human control? Whatever the thinking behind it, trying to control demons was a mistake. I had one inside of me. She too had strained like that lesser on its leash. But without PC34A and after the ascension, she was free, and I could feel her reaching, learning, listening with every heartbeat, every step, every thought. I was on borrowed time. But it would be okay, once I had Del, once we were somewhere—anywhere—else.

Bloodlust perfumed the air inside the theatre, mixing with the smells of human bodies, demons, and violence. The noise was worse, a great skull-numbing swell of human cheering and demon snarls. Sweat chilled the back of my neck and demon urges distracted me as I pushed into the throngs of people. I dragged the hot, thick air between my teeth and tried to focus on my goal.
Get to Allard.

One of the demons inside the cage fell. The crowd erupted, but even their shouts couldn’t drown out the wet sounds of flesh tearing, of the beast’s belly being ripped open.
Netherworld
sounds.

I fell against the back of a chair and stayed there, blocking out the noise, the smells, filling my head with the memory of Del’s hand around mine, letting his words find their way to me in the madness. It would be okay once we were together again.

The cheers and hoots finally petered out, and the sounds of one demon devouring another faded. I lifted my head and rubbed a hand down my neck, sweeping off the sweat. An announcer gave the crowd a ten-minute warning to get their bets in for the next fight, but the words slid off me, lost inside the pounding in my head. All I really wanted to do was drop the human act and spread my wings. My claws would make quick work of a few of these idiots, and my teeth would do in the next few. It would be over quickly, but there was always the street outside and then the city. They’d all fall at my feet.
Pitiful humans.

“Gem.” Allard’s heavy hand fell on my shoulder. His fingers dug in as he pulled me upright and around into his arms. I stiffened to push him away, but his embrace tightened.

“Sshh…” he purred.

His element coiled close, tucking me in tight, and for a few disorientating seconds, all I could smell, hear and taste, was demon.

“This must be difficult,” he said.

I knotted his shirt in my hand, not caring that my nails scored his chest. “What did you do to me?”

“I gave you power. More power than you could ever achieve on your own. But it will take time to adjust.”

“I don’t understand.” I tucked my head in, listening to the heavy beat of his demon heart. The urges to take, kill, own, fight withdrew, one ragged breath at a time, but they didn’t go far. They simmered around the edges of my thoughts. Allard’s grip might turn deadly at any moment. He could crush the life out of me, and yet… To be held, to have the madness fall away and my thoughts my own again—the relief was intoxicating.

“A Dark Court has never existed this side of the veil. We are the first.” He sighed into my hair. “I wasn’t sure it would work. Even after all this time, I wasn’t sure…” He leaned back, clasped my face in his smooth hands, and smiled. “We rule.”

Rule? I frowned and pushed against his chest. Surprisingly, he released me. His easy smile spoke volumes. Would he be so smug if he learned how the Prince of Pride had manipulated him?

The crowd flowed around us, more people spilling in to see the next fight and watch demons tear strips from each other. I sneered at them and then quickly clamped my lips together. Allard just smiled at me. He tucked a hand into his pants pocket and looked me over, dark eyebrows raised. I suddenly wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him, slap him, maybe punch him too. Those were human reactions. But the icy sensations spilling through my veins promised the next level of violence.

“The next fight is about to begin.” He brushed by me to walk behind the chairs, along the back of the theatre.

“You had a prince in the basement.” I followed him. “Is that what you were trying to do, make us like the netherworld’s princes?” I raised my voice. The crowd’s collective chatter grew louder.

“The prince was the door, the
coronam
and associated stones, the keys. I’ll admit the ascension didn’t go quite as I’d planned. There are some side effects I hadn’t counted on—” He jogged down an aisle toward an empty row of chairs.

“It was Del, wasn’t it?”

Allard stopped at the row of chairs but didn’t take a seat. Instead, he stood tall, admiring the theatre below. “Delta’s element held some surprises.”

I smiled as I stopped on the step beside him. “Chaos is like that.”

Allard’s teeth flashed white behind a sudden smile. “Remarkable really, how he’s been able to maintain his sanity for so long. Chaos demons are exceptionally rare. Did the Institute know what they were creating in him?”

I remembered the tests, the trials, the maze, and facing my brother—staring into the eyes of pure chaos. “No.”

“They should have destroyed him.”

Perhaps
. But the Institute would never have destroyed what could have potentially been their greatest weapon against the demons. They didn’t yet know that chaos can’t be controlled.

“I’m grateful they didn’t.”

“You’re keeping him in the basement?”

“Where he’ll stay.” Allard’s smile tugged down at the corners. “Your brother is too dangerous to be free.”

“My brother was fine until you took him.”

Allard’s gaze dropped to my hands. I unclenched them. “Really Gem, what do you think you can do? I’m not going to create a Dark Court—bring demons into power—without ensuring that power is mine. Attack me, and you attack yourself. We’re linked, all of us. You can’t have a court without sacrifice.” He wet his lips and stepped in close. “I can taste your lust for vengeance, but hurt me
Gamma
, and you’ll be hurting yourself and your brother. The court is our strength and our weakness. Some of us are longer lived than others. Consider your mortality before striking at me.” He held my gaze, waiting for my challenge or denial.

My heart hammered. “Are you saying if you die, I die?”

“No.” He smiled, clearly humoring my ignorance. “I’m saying, half blood, that I’m an ascended demon. Ascension comes with privileges. I can’t die, whereas you’ll always be a half blood.”

He
couldn’t
die? I tried to keep my expression flat and any sign of my surprise off my face, but he still half-smiled back at me. Was he truly immortal? Or just lying? I swallowed, realizing I really didn’t care either way. Immortal or just tough to kill, what difference did it make? Him, his schemes, the court, even the prince—I didn’t care about any of it. All I wanted was my brother beside me and the world to leave us alone. “Let me take Del away. You’ll never see us again.”

The next fight was announced, and a cheering wave rose up from the hundreds crammed inside the theatre.

Allard’s easy smile was back, but where his blunt human teeth should be, light licked across vicious fangs. “Delta can never be free.” He turned away and faced the cage, comfortable enough to believe I wasn’t about to plunge an ice dagger into his back. I might have, just to see if I could hurt him. I’d known he was powerful, but
immortal
? Van was right. I couldn’t hurt him alone. But I would be getting Del and soon, if the hoots and hollers from the crowd were anything to go by.

Torrent stood shirtless inside the cage, not in demon form—not yet. Harsh spotlights highlighted the scars crisscrossing his chest. He turned slowly, and that light rippled over the frozen lashes gouged into his back. Arms out, he smiled the way he had when he’d faced Joseph on the pier, and the crowd went nuts. Whether they thought he was a suicidal human or a higher demon, it didn’t matter. They wanted blood, and they were about to get it.

The cage-side heavies dragged in a hissing
scorsi
at the end of their handling poles. The
scorsi
launched its stinger overhead and snapped its single pincer at anything it could lock its sights on. As soon as it got a look at Torrent in the cage, the beast hunkered down, squatting on its six legs. The heavies manually heaved the lesser into the cage. The door slammed closed. The cage rattled. And Torrent started circling.

Allard’s lips were parted, just a little. I wasn’t even sure if he even blinked. He soaked in the sight of Torrent as if the crowd, the noise, didn’t exist.

Lust. The Court wasn’t Allard’s only weakness. When it came to Torrent, Allard was entirely too predictable.

The
scorsi
chittered a loud, nervous sound that tugged on my demon instincts to pounce.
Scorsis
could make quick work of me. One strike of its stinger and I’d be out for hours, then sick for at least a day. I’d always done my utmost to avoid them, but now, watching Torrent bait the creature, my fingers twitched, and blood pounded through my veins. I
wanted
to be in that cage, right there beside him, fighting demons as I had in the maze.

The
scorsi
slunk low, its pincer up and wide, trying to beef up its size. Its stinger swayed hypnotically above its body. And Torrent bled every last moment of tension from the crowd, smiling all the while.

Allard slid a sideways look over me, checking for my reaction. I let a small smile slip through.

“Did you know?” he asked.

“He said he wanted to stretch his wings…”

The
scorsi
struck, launching its stinger at Torrent’s chest. A strike at his heart might kill him, but I’d seen him fight, seen him move. He reacted lightning fast, threw back a right hook, and smacked his fist into the barbed stinger, sending the strike veering off and startling the
scorsi
enough for the lesser to scuttle backward. It was a foolish move. He’d have been better to grab the stinger and rip it off, but Torrent wasn’t going for the kill. He was
playing
.

The crowd roared. The
scorsi
scuttled in and snapped at Torrent’s legs, but he skipped back, way out of reach, veering around the lesser, causing the beast to whirl. The pair of them used the full width of the cage, circling fast and kicking up dust in their wake.

Damn, he was good. But then, what had I expected? If he was truly netherworld born, fighting a
scorsi
was a fact of life. He could probably dance with a lesser all night.

The stinger punched outward again. Torrent twisted at the hips, snagged the
scorsi’s
tail in his left hand, and ripped the barb off with his right. I spilled enough demon into my vision to see the hypnotic swirl of greens and blues in his eyes, his power rising but held in check. The
scorsi
squealed a high-pitched alarm. In the netherworld, that shriek would have its companions rushing in. Here, all it did was push the crowd to their feet.

Torrent tossed the barb aside, but as he did, the
scorsi
twitched and snapped its razor-sharp pincers close to Torrent’s neck. Too close. The pincer snagged Torrent’s shoulder, slicing open a gash. He recoiled, but the pain slowed him down, and he stumbled. The
scorsi
lunged for his legs. I heard Allard’s sharp intake of breath and felt my heart leap into my throat. But Torrent was done screwing around. From one step to the next, his wings snapped open—vast, shimmering gray sails that filled the cage. Horns rolled over his skull, flicking up at their ends. Gloriously demon, he spun and punched the barbed tip of his right wing through the
scorsi’s
carapace, skewering it to the cage floor. Blood bubbled. The lesser screamed. Its pincers snapped, and its blunt tail lashed, but the span of Torrent’s wings kept it way out of reach.

The demon in me salivated and pushed to be free, to get down there and challenge Torrent, force him to fight and a whole load of other things too. And my demon wasn’t the only one out of her mind. Allard stood wide-eyed, jaw clenched, his element rippling unchecked around him. The veil could have opened right above his head, and he wouldn’t have noticed.

Warmth lapped at my back. Fire.

Van was here, right on cue.

I freed the
armatae
-demon spike, clenched it in my right hand, and stabbed the shaft deep into Allard’s back. His element burst outward at the same time as his demon form tore from his human vessel. I had a second to flush ice through my veins and fling up my armor before Allard’s backhanded strike flung me against a wall. Ice shattered instead of my skull. I watched through blurred vision, saw him rise up in all of his white-marbled glory. I had a second to wonder if maybe the
armatae
poison didn’t work on ascended bastards like him before he stumbled, reaching out a hand to steady himself. His wings briefly flapped, scattering litter. He tried to find his balance and then dropped to a knee, shaking the floor.

The crowd’s screams erupted into panic. None of them expected to find demons among them, and certainly not one as vast and devastating as Allard. As the people scattered, Van emerged from the chaos, heat haze rippling about her wingless demon form. I quickly scanned the chaos for any sign of Torrent, but the fighting cage was empty.

Allard reached behind his shoulder and yanked the barbed shaft free. His deep rumbling breaths had turned to strained rasps. He regarded the shaft with a snarl, settled those all-black eyes on me, and crumbled the poisoned spine in his hand, turning it to dust. “You think this will prevent me from ripping you apart, Gamma?”

I climbed to my feet and shook myself free of loose ice. Van stood to my right, a silent smile curving her blood-red lips. “No.” I rolled my shoulders, settling into my demon skin. “But it has slowed you down.
Armatae
poison can be quite deadly. But since you’re immortal, I guess we’ll have to settle for some disorientation and loss of motor functions. Right about now, I figure the poison is starting to pump around those big-ass veins of yours.”