Darkness Wanes (45 page)

Several more demons appeared over the next rise.

“Hold your fire,” Lucas called out. He flashed next to the demons and slashed at their necks. Two went down fast, but the third raked its claws across Lucas’ face.

I gasped, sensing the sharp pain hit him. The hulking creature had made its cuts deep, and blood ran down my husband’s cheek. I raced forward, intending to kill the bastard myself, but Lucas recovered before I reached him. With a battle cry, he swung the sword hard. The demon’s head went flying, and its body tumbled to the ground.

“Lucas!” I cried, skidding to a stop before him.

I lifted a hand toward his face but stopped just short of touching the wounds. His cheekbone and jaw were exposed from the open slashes. There was a primitive look in his eyes I hadn’t seen before, and I could no longer sense his pain. Lucas’ gaze was so cold that it was hard not to look away. He’d succumbed to battle rage, transforming him from the man I loved into a ruthless killer.

“It will heal.” His voice came out rough.

I stood there stunned and not knowing what to do with Lucas in his current state. This wasn’t the best time or place to attempt bringing him out of it, either. Grunting with impatience, he grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the rest of our group.

Yerik tossed a grenade at a couple of creatures coming from the other direction. We ducked down just before it exploded. Demon bits went flying, landing in chunks on the ground. My senses told me they weren’t dead, but they were out of commission for a while.

Lucas left me with the others and flashed to the creatures, finishing them off. I could sense nothing from him except cold, hard rage. We’d fought a few battles together before, but seeing Lucas now I understood how he’d developed his reputation as a ruthless warrior.

He returned, and we raced forward once again, making it a couple of hundred more feet before being bombarded with another set of demons. It seemed as if there was a never-ending tide of them. I noticed several winged creatures coming at us from the sky, too. Though I had three warheads left, I knew I’d never get them all fired in time.

“Micah, I need your help,” I called to him.

When he turned toward me, I pointed at the incoming flying demons. They furiously beat their leathery wings and screeched out a chorus of cawing sounds that irritated my sensitive ears. While Micah shifted from his rifle to his RPG, I shot down the first one.

“Hit the next,” I ordered him. “I’ve got to reload.”

Micah fired the warhead, striking the second creature and sending it plummeting to the ground. Two dozen hulking demons lumbered toward us nearby. The pressure of them on my senses was almost overwhelming, making my head feel like it was being squeezed too tight, but I forced myself to push through the discomfort. Lucas and the others were already working to take the hulking demons out.

I aimed at the last flying creature as it approached from a hundred feet away. The rocket struck its left wing. My target tumbled to the ground, but the strike didn’t kill it. Just over the tall grasses, I caught the demon struggling to get up.

“Dammit.” I ran forward, switching from the RPG to my rifle along the way.

The flying creatures were easier to kill than the hulking ones, so I didn’t need Lucas to help with his sword. I stopped a handful of paces away from where the wounded thing still struggled to get up and fired half a dozen shots into its elongated head. With a weak screech, it slumped to the ground—finally dead.

“Melena!” Micah called out. “Watch your back!”

I turned around, and my heart stopped. Almost a dozen hard-backed creatures that looked like a cross between a tarantula and a cockroach approached me, moving on six legs. They stood about two and a half feet tall, and the breadth of their bodies was about three feet by five feet. I had no doubt in my mind that if they reached me, they’d tear my body apart limb by limb with their oversized mandibles. I set my rifle to automatic and opened fire on them, barraging their front line.

A rise of twittering sounds rose up, and they paused. Beyond them, I caught sight of Lucas and the others fighting off a second mass of them, except they must have been facing at least fifty. Oh, shit. We were so fucked.

The overgrown insects started moving toward me again, and I pulled a grenade from the pouch hanging from my belt. After thumbing off the safety clip, I removed the pin and chucked it at them. Before the first one had exploded, I was already kneeling down and prepping another grenade. Bits of the roach-spiders splattered all around me. They had a horrible rotting stench that left me gagging.

Holding my breath, I stood and discovered I’d taken out several of the creatures. I picked a spot with the greatest number of them clustered together and tossed the second grenade, ducking as soon as it sailed through the air. A few seconds later the ground shook. More insect body parts rained down.

I swiped away a chunk that landed on my arm. There were only three of the buggers left, but they were closing in on me fast. They’d also gotten smarter and spread apart from each other. I zeroed in on the closest one, firing my weapon. It didn’t appear fazed in the least. The initial bullets ricocheted off its outer shell, but when I nailed it in the mouth, it jerked to a halt. I fired a couple more rounds at its gaping mandible. The creature weaved back and forth, then slumped to the ground dead.

The next closest demon insect reached within a dozen feet of me. It scuttled sideways so I couldn’t get a good shot at its mouth. Sensing the other one approaching from my right, I dashed forward. The side-scuttling creature started to turn toward me, but I kicked it with all my might, upending it onto its back. Six hairy little legs wiggled about as it tried to right itself. The belly on it appeared a lot softer than the hard shell on its back, so I fired into its stomach, riddling it with bullet holes until I had no rounds left. Greenish ooze poured from the fissures I’d created, and the creature’s legs stopped moving.

A twittering sound came from next to me. Before I could turn, something bit into my leg. I screamed as powerful jaws tore into the sinew of my right thigh. Using the buttstock of my rifle, I banged at its head. The creature dug in deeper, seeming unbothered by my blood and almost cut into my bone. I took one of my throwing knives and stabbed at its eyes. The demon bug jerked away from me, its twittering reaching a high pitch. Tossing the knife to the ground, I reached for my .45 Sig Sauer. It wasn’t my favorite weapon to use at a distance, but it would do in a pinch for an enemy this close.

I shoved the barrel into the creature’s mouth and fired several rounds. It made a strange wheezing sound before dropping to the ground. I checked my thigh and found it had left deep teeth marks that bled profusely, but otherwise the damage wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined. It just felt like part of my thigh had been ripped off.

Hobbling around, I caught sight of the men finishing the last twenty or so of their opponents. Lucas hacked and slashed his way through the bugs with a vengeance, blood and gore covering him. There was something very cold and calculated about his movements. Before each demon he killed even had a chance to slump to the ground, he’d already moved onto the next. In the few seconds I watched, he killed five of them.

His sword didn’t appear to have nearly the trouble my bullets did penetrating their shells. I was beginning to wish I’d negotiated for some of that ore in Purgatory. Then I could have gotten one of the nerou with blacksmithing skills to forge a blade for me.

Yerik and Micah shot at the demon bugs closest to them. By the looks of the men, they’d been bitten a few times during the battle. I’d heard successive explosions earlier, but they must have run out of grenades. I caught sight of Kerbasi in the sky, his gray wings flapping heavily as he hacked the limbs off of a flying creature. At least he’d taken charge of killing those while I was busy.

Another ten demon bugs approached. Clutching my bleeding thigh, I limped in that direction. I still had a few grenades left at my disposal. Once I got close enough, I targeted a cluster of them far enough from Lucas that he wouldn’t get hit with the shrapnel. I sent the grenade flying and ducked. It exploded a couple of seconds later. A piece of bug guts landed in my hair, and I yanked it out. If I ever invaded Hell again, I’d wear a helmet and long sleeves. Then again, it was really hot in here, and that might have made me more miserable.

With half the skittering creatures gone, the men made short work of the rest. Lucas flashed over to me, his eyes glowing golden. He took one look at my wound, tossed his sword to Micah, and picked me up.

“Put me down,” I ordered.

He ignored me. My husband was in a different place now where I didn’t know how to reach him. His face—at least, the part that wasn’t still shredded open—was a hard mask. Everyone was wounded now, but they had no trouble keeping up with Lucas’ brisk pace. He led us toward the mega stone structure. We’d gotten close enough the glamour no longer concealed it. A couple more demons got in our way, but Micah leaped ahead to dispatch them. When we reached the entrance, Lucas finally set me down.

“Will you need the sword?” Micah asked me.

“No.” I shook my head. Despite my pain, I could sense the individuals inside. There were more tortured souls in there than I could count, about a dozen mid and high-level demons, and one former archangel. “Ariel isn’t too far. I think I can work us around the few guards in the way. Besides, you’re gonna need the sword to hold this position.”

Yerik looked at Kerbasi. “You know what you need to do?”

The guardian flashed his teeth. “Of course.”

I knew what they meant. The one hitch to our plans was that Ariel wouldn’t be able to pass through the ward. Kerbasi might be able to cross, but he couldn’t alter the spell any more than I could. We’d have to take one of the demon guards inside hostage and force him to help. But if anyone could convince a denizen of this place to do our bidding, it would be the guardian.

Lucas took hold of my arm. “You will be careful.”

“I will,” I promised, trying not to react to the harshness in his voice. There was still no sign of my loving husband inside, but his instincts to protect his mate hadn’t gone away.

“Do not take long.” He let go of my arm.

Micah gave me a sympathetic look. “This is another side of him, but it will pass once the danger is over.”

I started to nod, but then I caught sight of a fresh wave of demons heading toward us. I handed Micah one of the two grenades I had left. “Make good use of this.”

He took it. “Trust me. I will.”

Without another word, Kerbasi and I stepped up to the entrance. It was nothing except a black hole. I sensed no demons near it, but they probably assumed they had nothing to worry about. It wasn’t like sensors and Purgatory guardians invaded all that often.

We pushed through the blackness—the oppressive sensation of the ward gave me chills—and entered what could only be described as an icy prison. The stone walls and floors were frozen solid. I rubbed at my bare arms, and my breath fogged as I exhaled.

Kerbasi and I had to choose our steps carefully as we made our way down a narrow corridor. Just before we reached the end where it opened into a large cell block full of moaning and screaming individuals, I detected a guard coming our way. As much as it pained me to hear their cries, at least the noise they created covered up any sounds we made.

I held up a hand and whispered, “One coming from the right.”

“Should we keep him alive?” the guardian asked.

“No. We’ll grab someone on the way out.” I didn’t want to have to drag anyone with us on the way to rescuing Ariel.

Kerbasi waited until the guard came within a few feet of us. He grabbed the demon by the neck and slammed it into the ground. I took a good look at its body and realized that other than its skin being ghastly pale and its eyes red, it appeared human. This was a much higher level demon than the ones we’d encountered outside, though not as strong as the guardian. Kerbasi pressed his hands into the guard’s chest and smote him. It was the equivalent of sending electrical charges through the demon’s body.

The pale creature twisted and flailed, but could not break free. As its eyes began to melt, the acrid scent of burning flesh reached my nose. Kerbasi didn’t seem bothered by the stench, but I had to take a step back and clutch my stomach. After a minute, the demon slumped—its life force winking out of existence.

“Could you have done that to the ones outside?” I asked. It wasn’t the most pleasant or efficient way to take the demons down, but I was surprised he’d waited until now to try it.

Kerbasi rose to his feet and wiped his hands on his pants. “Yes, but it requires a lot of power. I was saving my strength for whatever we encountered in here.”

As much as I hated to admit it, I was glad the guardian had come with me. His body was covered in partially healed wounds, but his injuries appeared to have only sapped part of his strength. I, on the other hand, felt every bit of my blood loss. The punctures on my thigh were making it difficult to walk. As long as I could brace myself along the walls, though, I could keep moving. We had a mission, and I wouldn’t allow anything to stop me from completing it.

“Ariel is up one level. We’re going to have to find some stairs,” I informed him.

The guardian’s silver eyes swirled. “When we transported souls here, the portal from Purgatory led directly to this place. I know where to go.”