Drowning In The Dark: #4 The Veil Series (20 page)

He chuckled and slammed me on the shoulder in some sort of macho display of affection. “Says the lil’ firecracker with a hole in her side. I got a new scar. A crazy kid once told me scars are like armor. Get your lazy ass out of bed. We need you.”

Someone had patched me up while I was out. Bandages hugged my chest. They’d pumped me full of painkillers that would burn out of my veins the moment I called the fire. Without the healing properties of my demon, I wouldn’t have made it off the battlefield. Judging from the supply of body bags, many wouldn’t. “Shit, Ryder,” I groaned. “Adam has Dawn.”

“I know. With her help, he’s sweeping the demons back. Guess she’s making up for the people she killed.”

I sat up in a makeshift cot and waited for my head to stop spinning. The sounds of battle still boomed outside the tent. “He’s going after Stefan.”

Ryder’s lips twisted. “We got a city full of demons and netherworld scenery popping up all over the place. Stefan’s on his own.”

“He was your friend, Ryder. He still is. You were right. He’s still Stefan. He got me out of trouble tonight. Without him, I’d be on the side of the demons right now, probably laying waste to all of you. I could have killed him. I almost did, but he showed me what I needed to see. He’s Stefan. He’s back. And Adam’s going to kill him. You can’t let that happen.
We
can’t let that happen.”

Ryder closed his eyes and rubbed a hand across his forehead. He glanced at the people around us as they busied themselves with the wounded. “Muse, I can’t stop Adam. You know why. My kid…”

“So you’re going to let a good man—a friend—die? Can you live with that?”

His scowl burned when he settled it on me. “Fuck. No. I can’t.”

“Good, neither can I. Get me to the front line.”

He ground his teeth, twitching a muscle in his cheek. “We’ve got Humvees if you can get us through the lessers.”

I shoved to my feet, grimacing as my stomach pitched. “Not a problem. I’m the freakin’ Mother of Destruction. Those bitches will get in line or die.” I wobbled, and Ryder grabbed my arm to steady me.

He grinned. “Let’s go raise your kinda hell.”

E
very bump
, dip, or ditch the Humvee trundled over just about rattled my teeth out of skull. The field was littered with half-buried debris. Jaw clenched against the throbbing pain, I clung onto the light rack over the Humvee’s flatbed and directed sharp, mental jabs at anything lesser, combusting them on sight. I was back in my demon skin and feeling better for it. As we drew closer to what had once been a shoreline and was now a battlefront, the number of demons surged, but they weren’t attacking us. They swarmed around the three blazing demon-figures ahead: Akil in his true form as Mammon, Jerry as the devastating demon king, and Stefan, the Winter King. Holy hell. If the fact Stefan wasn’t trying to kill Akil was miracle enough, they appeared to be fighting as a united effort, seeing off the wave of demons spilling through the gaping maw of the netherworld. Fire and ice flashed blue and red, while Jerry’s chaos tendrils plucked demons from the sea of creatures and flung them back into the netherworld. As Ryder drove the Humvee closer, I could just about make out Wrath’s hideous bulk among the lessers. Stefan launched a barrage of ice at the ex-prince, freezing him mid-motion.

I thumped the roof, and Ryder pulled the Humvee to a halt. I jumped down as Ryder unloaded a collection of guns from inside the cab. He seemed comfortable packing enough heat to start—or stop—a war. He handed Stefan’s gun to me.

I arched the equivalent of a demon eyebrow and wiggled clawed fingers. “Trust me. Hellfire trumps fifty caliber bullets.”

He snorted and tucked the gun into his belt. “Your loss.”

There was no sign of Adam or Dawn, but they had to be here. The lessers weren’t capable of stopping Dawn. I wasn’t convinced anything was capable of stopping her. Chaos lapped against my skin, surging from the netherworld. Even if we did manage to battle back the demons, how would we keep them out? With the veil down, they could cross over as easily as crossing the street.

A silent wave of energy rolled over me, knocking me back against the truck. My demon surged forward, straining against my control. Ryder asked me if I was okay, but all of my attention drilled down on the looming presence emerging from the netherworld. The remaining princes were here. A haze rippled, obscuring my vision, but I saw enough. Two came out of the netherworld as though their battle was already won. They bristled with blades, huge, demon, winged, and terrifying. I’d expected my father to be with them. I’d only seen him once, years ago, before I’d found Boston. I might not recognize him, but I’d recognize his power because it felt like my own. But he wasn’t there. What was he waiting for? A sea of black rose up behind the two princes. Demons. Fear chilled my superheated flesh. We were all going to die. Their numbers were too vast, and they just kept on coming.

Jerry roared with enough force to liquefy the earth beneath my feet. I fought not to drop to my knees and cringe. His voice had held power when he’d been constrained in human form. Now it was a reckoning all of its own. Ryder slumped back against the Humvee, his legs buckling. He clung onto the hood, eyes scrunched closed, head bowed against the pain. I had to get to the front. If I could stand, I could fight. I needed to be with Stefan and Akil. I could help stop the wave. I had to do this. I could do this. Destruction. Theirs.

Dawn’s unique, acidic darkness flooded across my back, over my wing, wove around my shoulders, and plunged down my front. I had a moment to think,
oh shit,
before she yanked me back, clean off my feet, and held me suspended in a crushing darkness.

“You left me.”

Despite the noise of battle, I heard her small, wretched voice as clearly as if she’d stood right next to me and whispered in my ear. Dawn. I couldn’t stop her. It would be wrong to stop her. She was doing the right thing. She could stop the demons. I twisted, trying to find purchase, but couldn’t see, couldn’t think. Fire rushed to my aid, spilling from my body, but all it did was tangle with the liquid black eels of power knotting around me. The moment her power began to unmake me, screams poured free. Needles plucked at my flesh. They hooked in, twisted, and pulled out parts of me. She would rip me to shreds in seconds, and all I could think was,
why?
My element surged, a blinding visceral heat, but with no focus, all it did was throb. Dawn’s power sought my soul and found it occupied. Akil’s heat blasted over me, white hot and cleansing. I dropped like a stone. My cheekbone cracked against the solidified lava field, adding to the symphony of pain already riding my body. I reached for Akil, knowing he was close. His heat embraced me, gathered me in its cocoon, and held me.

Mammon’s midnight-black eyes held me rigid for a few seconds. He held out a hand and plucked me off my back, planting me on my feet. I shot him a sideways glance. His lips drew back, crescent teeth glinting, and I swear I saw something of Akil’s expression on the beastly face of the Prince of Hell. His energy fed mine—the soul-lock at work—and for a moment, I lost myself in him. The battle raged, the princes moved ever closer, the lesser demons caterwauled, howled and tore into their kin, and at the eye of the storm, my mind was calm.

Dawn’s power struck lightning fast and lashed Mammon across the chest. He staggered, flung open his wings, and gathered his power. Heat rushed from beneath my feet. I might have been enough. For any other demon, it would have been, but Dawn wasn’t any other demon. She threw her arm up, parted her little inky fingers, and fixed her red eyes on Mammon. Elemental demons are forged from chaos. Dawn was chaos, all wrapped up in a little girl’s body. She didn’t even have to get close. Thrusting her hand out, she clenched her fingers closed. Mammon shuddered and fell to a knee.

No.
This couldn’t happen. “Dawn…” I called my power, but Mammon tugged it back, needing it more.

Dawn’s demon face virtually mirrored her human one. She looked human, if not for the purple-black skin and countless writhing tendrils of power snapping about her. Her flat expression and cold eyes told me: she would kill Mammon. She was the only one who could.

I ran toward her, even as I felt something inside, some new part of me, shatter. My legs buckled, I stumbled, but my momentum carried me forward, lengthening my stride. I leapt over bodies and debris, pummeling the uneven ground.
No, no.
“Dawn, stop…” Akil’s presence—the infusion—spluttered. I dared not look back. I’d seen her tear Leviathan apart. I knew what sight would greet me. She’d unmake Mammon as she had the Prince of Envy, and there was no coming back from that.

Closer. Just a few more strides. A whip of black acid snapped across my body. Pain burned across my torso. I yanked on the fire, but still Akil held it back. His presence hammered hard and fast, thrashing like a trapped animal. I glanced back and saw exactly what I’d feared. A miasmic cloud of pulsating darkness interlaced with threads of fire. I couldn’t even see his flesh inside the heaving darkness.

Another tendril lashed me. I stumbled, twisted, and lunged, slamming into the little girl who would be an immortal killer. She hissed and spat, raked her nails down my face, and then plunged her power into me. “Dawn…” I pinned her down as her chaos burrowed beneath my skin. “Please… please don’t do this.” Chaos tore through me, yanking my head back and wrenching a scream free. A cresting wave of fire purged her touch. I wasn’t entirely sure where it came from, but I took it while I could and drowned her in flame. She screamed and thrashed, but only when I felt her tendrils recoil, did I release her. I scrambled off, eager to get away, and then searched for Mammon. Fire licked across my skin. I staggered and quivered, the way one might to shake off an insect, but the flames clawed higher—outside of my control—not mine. In one blinding lunge, the liquid flame both smothered and consumed me. I couldn’t do anything but let it ride me and knew without understanding that this was wrong. It wasn’t meant to happen like this. The tingly spiciness on my lips, the cinnamon smell, the bite of cloves. Warm, comforting, familiar. It was inside me, everywhere. It was the scent of Akil’s death.

I
snapped
my head up and peered through flames. Mammon’s remains stained the lava field. Blood, bone, flesh, nothing larger than a fist. He was dead. The immortal chaos demon who had saved my sorry ass more times than I could count was gone. The suave, sly, manipulating sonofabitch I loved to hate would not be coming back. Not from this. He wouldn’t be saving me again. He wouldn’t be smiling at me, chastising me, protecting me, testing me. It was over. Heat bubbled beneath my skin and slid like oil from my flesh. A strangled roar deafened me. I registered that the ravaging bellow was mine, but it didn’t sound like any howl I could make. Not even demons produced such a terrible battle cry. My roar thundered, tumbling into the sounds of battle, casting a net of silence in its wake. I straightened, slid my gaze left and right, seeing but not seeing. Demons cowered around me. Even the netherworld itself seemed to recoil, withdrawing a little from Boston. The princes faltered. I saw them caught in a battle of the elements with Jerry holding the reins of control. My vision quivered, as though resetting, and I saw the souls belonging to an army not of this world, shining demons souls. I knew, without any shred of doubt, that I could funnel the power of two worlds and snuff out every single one.

Liquid heat dripped from my fingers. I skewered two fleeing figures, Dawn and Adam, and latched onto the heat of their fragile human lives. Dawn summoned her demon. Chaos reared up behind her in a wave of inky darkness. I’d start with her. Adam would be next. Then I’d kill them all. Every. Last. Demon.

Chaos snapped toward me and would have plowed into me had Stefan not intercepted it. Ice-white and razor sharp, he managed to deflect much of Dawn’s power, but not all. Her element tore through him and kept on coming. Ice exploded. The world went white.

I screamed a bellow of rage and released my cresting element, devouring the lives of countless demons in seconds. The maddening ecstasy of power over life and death sundered my mind. A tsunami of blistering heat answered my command and washed the battlefield clear. I swept them all away. The blast of heat leveled what remained of the park and reduced nearby buildings to ash. Fire burned so hot it ignited the air. With each entity that died, my hungry smile grew.
Yes, this was what we were made for. Glorious, breathless, insane destruction.

Minutes passed, maybe just seconds. I blinked back to myself with the sounds of tumbling buildings and creaking metal. A blast pattern radiated out from my body as far as I could see. Anything flammable had simply vanished. The remains swirled in lazy dirt devils. Anything metal had warped and twisted, melted beyond recognition.

The huge netherworld scar still gaped, but it was empty. Thousands of demons gone. Nearby buildings flattened. The people? I wobbled to my feet and clutched Stefan’s coat tightly in trembling hands. People were moving. There was life in the blast zone. By some miracle, I’d targeted only demons.

Where was Stefan? I turned on the spot and saw soot-covered faces, but none I recognized. Where was Akil? I had to find him. My feet carried me forward, but my mind bumbled. Horror skimmed the surface of my thoughts. I had to find Stefan… Akil, I needed to find Akil. They were here. I’d seen them. They had to be here. My element reached ahead of me, searching. Akil.

“Muse…”

Ryder. I blinked. Cool silent tears slid down my cheeks. “Where are they?”

Covered from head to toe in ash, Ryder coughed a few times and shook a hand through his hair, sending up a cloud of dust. He gripped my arm and marched me beside him.

“Where are we going?”

“You can’t be here. Once everyone realizes what went down, you’re gonna be demon
numero uno
.”

One foot in front of the other.
I smelled Stefan’s cool iciness in his coat. I hugged it closer. “Where’s Stefan?”

Ryder glanced back. “He got in the way of Dawn’s attack on you. After that, the whole world went white.”

Was he dead? No, no, he couldn’t be. Not after everything we’d been through. He was here. He had to be here. I stopped and searched the shocked and haunted faces around us. “He’s here. I just... I need to find him.”

Ryder grabbed my arm and pulled me along.

“Dawn?” I muttered. “Did I kill her?”

Ryder cut me a look. “I don’t know.” His grimace said no.

“Akil?”

Ryder stopped short. The twist of his lips almost looked like anger, but no, it was pain. Heartfelt pain. “She tore him apart like she did the Prince of Envy.”

“No.” I frowned. “No, that’s not right.” Snatching my arm from Ryder’s grip, I scowled at him. “No. Akil isn’t dead. He doesn’t get to die. He’s here.” Reeling, I scanned the carnage, searching for Akil’s distinctive outline. He’d be there because he was always there. He’d always been there. For me.

I staggered forward, stumbled over burned remains, and the tears fell. I knew, but I couldn’t believe.

“Muse...” I heard the truth in Ryder’s tone, felt it in my bones, in my flesh, in my heart.

“He can’t be dead, Ryder. He can’t.” I reached down and turned over warped metal, shoved aside scorched demon skulls. Embers sizzled against my hands, but I didn’t care. Akil was here. He was…

Ryder snatched at my ash-covered hands and yanked me upright to face him. His grip tightened around my wrists. I pulled, but he held firm. “Muse, goddamnit, stop. He’s gone.”

I had to get away. I had to find Akil. I pulled and kicked, half-mad. Akil needed me. Ryder yanked me into his arms and trapped me against his chest. “He’s gone,” he breathed, cradling my head into his shoulder. “He’s gone.”

The truth shattered my strength.

Gone.

No more true lies. No more fire-touched embraces. No more Akil. A ragged breath hitched in my throat, and I collapsed inside Ryder’s embrace. “We need to get out of here.” With his help, I moved forward. One foot in front of the other. Always moving on. If I stopped, I’d stop for good. Partial bones crunched beneath my boot. Clouds of ash puffed into the air. I made it another two feet before doubling over and throwing up.

“They’re coming.” Ryder placed a hand on my shoulder, fingers gripping deep.

The sound of vehicles growling to life carried across the blast zone: the Institute, or what was left of them. If they came, they’d capture me. I could barely light a match, let alone fight off the enforcers. “Get me out of here, Ryder, now.”