demon slayer 05.5 - the tenth dark lord a leaping (5 page)

It was coming.

My palms were slick with sweat and dirt. My wrists still felt weak from being tied up. I had to be ready to throw a star any second. Hard and accurate. A demon didn’t give you a second shot.

Now or never.

I charged the circle, Grandma and Frieda on my heels, as a heavy boom—even louder than the first—blasted from the circle. A wave of dust and rock battered my face. I blinked hard, struggling to get a clear view of what was happening as I rounded the rock. The Dark Lords had fallen back toward the cliff as a demon rose up from the ashes of the fire.

It was a hideous red-eyed beast with a mouth full of jagged teeth as long as daggers. Its claws reached out into the night as it drew its black serpentine body out of the fire. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

It gave off a sound like bones breaking as it drew a second and then a third head out of the fire. And still the body kept coming. At least it hadn’t seen me yet. Or maybe it didn’t see me as a threat—one girl against a beast as long as a semitruck. It drifted over to the cliff, the lower half of his body a maze of smoke and ash. Then I saw back legs in the smoke, claws clutching the white-hot embers.

I needed him out of whatever kind of gateway they had set up in the fire. I had to have him fully in our dimension before I could get a decent shot. Otherwise, he could just zip back into hell, and I might not get another chance at him again. And still that back foot lingered. At least he needed to be out of that fire before he could take a soul.

The demon let out a cackle that I felt down to my bones. “Have you chosen?” His voice was heavy, throaty, like he wasn’t used to speaking. His snout widened as he breathed in our fear.

Bruce stepped forward, his head held high, his back to the cliff. “I’m here.”

Get back!
I wanted to scream it, but I wasn’t about to give up my position.

The demon snarled, displaying a second row of razor-sharp teeth. The upper portion of his body lengthened and drifted over the cliff, towering behind Bruce, and for the first time the biker’s composure wavered. The demon sucked in a breath, its eyes glowing brighter as it licked its lips. Holy hell. It was swallowing Bruce’s fear.

The sick bastard was having fun. And still that back foot lingered. I gripped my switch star tighter. The Dark Lords were focused on the demon. Frieda and Grandma were working their way around the back. The demon was high enough to give me a clear shot.

I could nail it. Hell, I’d better. It could be the only chance I’d get.

Then we’d try and explain everything before the Dark Lords ripped us to bits.

Still the demon’s back foot was a hazy mass, embedded in the fire. I wanted to scream, yell, shove his damned foot out and be done with it.

Patience. It truly sucked.

And then suddenly the rest of the beast slipped free.

One more second.

I gripped my switch star hard. It dug into my skin as I waited, held back, heart thumping in my ears until the haze zipping across the clearing formed a full incantation over the cliff.

Now.

I fired the switch star straight at its chest. Not as sexy as a headshot, but goddamn it, I wanted to nail the bastard. It seared with white-hot heat and struck him dead on.

The demon screamed as the star ripped straight through his heart and came out the other side. I gave a shout of triumph and held out my hand for the switch star to come winging back to me like a boomerang.

The Dark Lords watched in horror. “It’s okay!” I shouted, deftly catching the star. “I already killed Vald!” I’d set them free. I’d saved Frieda’s son. My ears roared with the utter thrill of it as I waited for my final triumph, for the demon to fall or explode, turn to ash.

Instead, it smiled at me.

Oh hell. It wasn’t screaming in pain or begging for mercy. It laughed and shot straight toward me.

Frick. I took cover behind the rock and fired again. And again. My switch stars ripped through his body and still he pressed on, not even hesitating—no, worse: he was growing stronger. He stopped, growing bigger, roaring like an insane beast.

“He’s a soul eater!” Skull hollered, running straight past the demon and tackling me to the ground as the demon loomed over us.

As soon as he saved me, he shoved me back hard. “I’m going to kill you when this is all over.”

I wasn’t so sure he’d get the chance. I’d never seen a soul eater before. Never knew I couldn’t kill one. He was a demon. I should have been able to slay a demon.

But I couldn’t. I’d only pissed him off. And I had no idea what to do next.

Skull and I rolled opposite ways as the demon shoved the immense stone I’d been hiding behind. It slammed into the ground.

“You broke the deal.” It sent another huge stone crashing to the ground. “Now I consume you all.” With a mighty wave of power, it thrust all of us down hard onto the ground, like dolls. Harsh winds howled through the clearing, choking us. The breath left my lungs, and for a second I thought it had stolen my very soul.

Oh my God. I didn’t know how to beat this thing. I’d failed. I’d killed the Dark Lords’ entire coven, and now their secret would fall into the hands of the enemy.

I pushed myself up to my knees, trying to stand, to think of some way to end this evil, some way to save my friends, the Dark Lords, and myself. One thing was for sure: if we didn’t do something quick, we were all going to die.

“Hey,” Bruce called. He stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the canyon. The wind tore at his hair and at his black motorcycle jacket. He raised his hands to the sides. “Why don’t you just take what you came for?” Then he turned and jumped off the cliff.

CHAPTER SIX

The soul eater dove for him, its jaws open as it snatched him out of the air and bit down. A blazing white light enveloped them both. The demon hovered, absorbing the energy into itself, devouring Bruce’s very soul, until the hideous beast glowed from the inside out.

Frieda screamed.

I attacked.

It was a pure sacrifice, an honest one, and I wasn’t about to let it go to waste if there was a chance in hell that I could end that soul-sucking monster. My switch star tore through its chest, ripping away skin and muscle, burying into its heart. The demon shrieked. I hit it again.

Ingesting the pure sacrifice had weakened it for a moment. I hit it again and again. Light blazed from the rips in its skin. And I saw it as clear as I’d seen anything in my life—Bruce’s soul, like a trapped bird, fluttering under the now-translucent skin of the monster’s neck. His was still pink, fresh. But there were others. I could see them as well, dozens of quivering souls. The older ones glowed with white-hot fire.

The soul eater faltered, loosening its grip on Bruce’s lifeless body, as its claws shriveled, its neck bowed, and parts of it began flaking away. The souls broke free, turning to streaks of pure white light as they shot for the heavens. Free.

“Bruce!” Frieda screamed, running for the edge of the cliff as the last of the demon fell to ash. She watched his body plummet into the canyon.

His soul hovered near her left shoulder, but she didn’t see. She didn’t know.

For a second I thought she was next. “Get back!” I hollered, running for her.

Flappy the dragon swooped down. For once the dragon was sleek, perfect, or maybe it just seemed that way as he softly caught Bruce’s body.

“He has him!” Frieda clutched my arm as she jumped up and down.

Thank God. “Get him up here,” I hollered as the white-and-gray-splotched dragon shot up out of the canyon.

We backed away to clear a space. That’s when I saw the rest of the biker witches mixed in with the Dark Lords behind us.

A shirtless Dimitri pushed past them and crushed me against his chest. “What the hell just happened?”

I sank into his warmth. “It wasn’t as bad as it looked.”

“Liar,” he said as Flappy landed next to us with a clumsy thump.

He broke from me to take Bruce’s body from the dragon. Frieda and I helped him lay it onto the ground. I checked for injuries while Dimitri began CPR. But the truth of it was we were doing this for Frieda, not the burly biker on the ground in front of us. Bruce was already gone. Or at least he would be soon.

I ran my hands over his chest and found bite marks. The demon hadn’t pierced the skin. No, it had done far worse.

“He’s going to be okay,” Frieda said as if she could make it true by believing in it enough.

I glanced up at the soul over her left shoulder. “Bruce,” I warned.

He may not want to return. Hell, I didn’t even know if he could. “Now,” I warned him. It had to be terrifying for a soul to be ripped from its body. It had to be disorienting and confusing and about a hundred other things, but I didn’t want Bruce trapped between the living and the dead. “You are brave,” I said to him. Ordered him. “You are strong. We want you here, if you have a choice.”

The soul glowed brighter.

Maybe it was too late. Maybe he didn’t know how to return—or couldn’t. “It’s okay if you can’t do it.” We didn’t want him lingering, trapped. He’d already given up so much. “Tell him it’s okay to go, Frieda.”

“What?” She tore her eyes from his body to plead with me.

I was so sorry. This wasn’t how I’d wanted it to end. “Tell him, Frieda.” If Bruce needed to leave in peace, we had to give him that opportunity. It wasn’t for us to decide.

“No.” Her voice was shaking. “I need him here. He’s my baby.”

Whether by sheer will or by fate, Bruce’s soul flickered, before diving straight for his body. His body gasped, his eyes flying open as he sucked in one gulping breath and then another. Frieda pounced on him. Dimitri fell back, and I stood, stunned. I hoped we’d truly given him a choice. I didn’t know how these things worked.

“He’s alive!” Frieda sobbed.

The Dark Lords whooped and hollered, closing in on us as Bruce lay on the ground, his head cradled in his mother’s lap.

“And we’re free,” Skull said, slapping me on the back. “Free!” he yelled as the Dark Lords let out a rousing cheer. He gripped me by the shoulder, dragging me around to face him. “You have no idea what you saved back there,” he said, his voice choked with emotion.

Actually, I did.

“Congratulations,” I said. They were chosen for something big, and I had no doubt they’d handle it with the same dignity and integrity as they’d used to stick together for ten years under a demon.

Frieda was smiling and crying at the same time. “Fuck, people. Don’t you think it’s about time one of you called an ambulance?”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Bruce spent the night in the hospital. The doctors claimed they could find nothing wrong with him save for some strange bruising on his chest. He, however, claimed a near-death experience and said that dying wasn’t near as frightening as listening to me ramble when I tried to guide him toward the light.

Smart ass.

As we left the hospital, Skull patted Ant Eater on the butt and invited us back to the biker lodge for the following night. Once Bruce was out, they were throwing a party to celebrate brotherhood and to honor one of the greatest gifts of all—freedom.

So that is how we arrived once again at the rounded red door to the decrepit resort. Dimitri looked particularly hot in jeans and a black T-shirt. It was more casual than the button-down he’d worn to our party, but then again, when with bikers…Plus, I knew how his arms looked in that T-shirt. And if I played my cards right, I’d get to see them—and a lot more—later.

I held Dimitri’s hand as we walked up the chipped stone steps past the concrete totems. This time I could feel none of the darkness and malice that we’d detected the first time we’d come this way. It was simply a cabin in the high desert filled with biker witch ex-boyfriends.

Heaven help us
.

I glanced back at Ant Eater, who had bought a very low-cut red-sequined sweater for the occasion. “Got your Camouflage Spell?” I asked.

She arched her brows but couldn’t quite pull off the innocent look. Go figure. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I could warn Ant Eater that Skull was onto her, but that would ruin the fun.

Skull opened the door before we could. He was dressed the same as he had been when we’d first met him, only the lines on his face had smoothed and he looked rested, at ease. “Come on around the back,” he said, closing the door behind him.

He slapped Ant Eater on the butt as he passed. They fell into an easy stride, and we followed them around toward the back of the lodge.

“I smell barbeque,” Pirate said, rubbing up against my leg before taking off in front of us. His fur was cold and wet. Once again he’d found a patch of snow to roll in.

We rounded the corner and saw the makings of an outdoor party. Closest to the lodge, there was a long table filled with trays of food. They uncovered barbeque and potato salad and pickles. Cake and chicken wings and those little smokies in sauce. More Dark Lords were dragging chairs into circles just beyond that and tapping a keg next to the broken ski lift.

Frieda broke away from us, running up to hug Bruce, who abandoned his keg-tapping duties and hugged her back. Flappy the snaggle-toothed dragon sat just beyond the circles of chairs on a pile of couch cushions, his tongue lolling.

Skull grinned like he’d invented the entire concept of fun. “We had to have it outside, see,” he said as a couple of Dark Lords hauled a metal wash bucket out in front of the dragon. “Couldn’t leave Flappy out.”

“He’s getting so big,” Pirate said like a proud parent.

I reached down and picked up my dog, ignoring his wet paws. “Your dragon really saved the day,” I said, scratching him on the head.

He leaned closer so I could get a better angle. “Good thing I taught Flappy how to play fetch.”

Ah, yes. That was an important pet skill.

The biker with the braided beard connected a plug into a socket, and Alice Cooper started singing “Santa Claws Is Coming to Town.”

Pirate jumped out of my arms to go see Flappy. Meanwhile, the Red Skulls rushed the keg and the Dark Lords.