Flame Unleashed (Hell to Pay) (24 page)

“What about all your threats against mortals?”

“Anyone who crosses me is eventually destroyed.”

At a scratch on the rock floor, Ruth coughed, trying to cover the sound.

Did Jerahmeel notice? Sweat cooled on her skin.

“So did you destroy the people who hurt your family?”

A reptilian smile crossed his thin face, and she rubbed her arms, shivering.

“Of course. Once I become the manifestation of Satan, I had no trouble acquiring more employees. In those times, people frequently called out to the heavens for help. I gave each person exactly what he wanted, and in turn, my employees served me well, providing me ample power.”

He stretched his smoking fingers and then curled them into fists. When he rested his hand on the back of the lounge, he unwittingly pointed directly at a shadowed Odie.

Jerahmeel’s ember-red eyes glowed.

“Did I destroy those that hurt my family? Oh, my lovely, yes I did. I annihilated those corrupt inquisitors and the Catholic criminals. My power then was vast. Unfortunately, in recent times, fewer individuals seek divine intervention. My power has waned. But soon, it will be time to revitalize the true faith.”

Odie had crawled to within a few feet of Jerahmeel’s chaise.

Ruth held her breath and struggled not to look in Odie’s direction.

As Odie rose up, blade in his hand, Jerahmeel lifted his head. Ruth froze.

“Ah, ah, my child. You almost had me.”

A twisted smile corrupted his angular features.

Flicking a finger, he blew Odie back into the wall with a blast of lightning.

Odie didn’t move.

“Even in a weakened state, I still have more power than you.” Jerahmeel turned on Ruth and snarled. “This is the thanks I get for everything I have done for you? Ah, but like Barnaby, perhaps this idiot is but another obstacle in my path to possess you. I will simply rid the world of him as well.”

“That makes no sense, my lord! You need Odie to feed you!” She slid away from him.

“You know nothing,” he seethed, his voice now booming off the stone walls. “I would
like
to feed on souls, but I do not require it.”

Holy. Hell.

Massive underestimation.

He pointed a finger at Odie, who writhed in pain on the floor, holding his head. His body contorted as if the muscles would tear apart.

Jumping over the lounge, she leapt in front of Odie and the power smashed into her, knocking the wind out of her lungs.

“No, my lord! You will not do this.”

Pain receded when he dropped his smoking hand.

Jerahmeel panted but stood and walked around the chair. “You cannot stop me. I am the second God of the true faith.”

“You’re his puppet.”

“Lies! Heresy! You’ll see. Together, we’ll rid the world of scourge like this man and the inquisitors. You are mine. I will have you. We will rule the world together, along with our offspring.”

Odie groaned. “Ruth, get out of here.” Then he whispered, “Miscalculated.”

The front of his forehead had a burn mark, like a cigarette had been extinguished there. Only it continued to smoke. His eyes rolled back in his head.

When she turned toward Jerahmeel, he raised his other hand, and she staggered backward like a sledgehammer pounded her chest.

All right. She couldn’t confront him directly. He still had too much power. If Jerahmeel attacked Odie, that assault would sap the pawn of Satan further. But he would destroy Odie in the process. Unless ... could she absorb some of Jerahmeel’s power? Diffuse it again?

Remembering how Hannah had bought time for Dante to kill the minion, Ruth knelt and put her hand on Odie’s head, pretending to check for injuries.

“Stay back!” Jerahmeel howled.

“I’m only making sure your power is indeed destroying him, my lord,” she said.

“Stop lying, you Jezebel. You’re trying to distract me, but it won’t work. I am focused on my goals. You will soon be unfettered by such banal distractions as worldly companions and family.”

Threats motivated her.

White-hot rage, like what she experienced in the hospital, erupted from her mind and spread out until it consumed every inch of her body. That steam whistle started to lacerate her ears again. Good. Let the power build.

Able to touch Odie and make a connection, she slipped her mental self into Odie’s mind. The amount of torture he’d already endured shocked her. Red slices from Jerahmeel’s onslaught steamed on the surface of Odie’s mind. Thankfully, the psychic gashes knitted even as she watched.

Sliding in front of the essence of Odie’s soul, she extended her consciousness, like earlier when she had protected Allie. But this time, she kept the shield light, airy, and wide. Maybe Jerahmeel wouldn’t detect it while she leached some of his power.

She spoke to Odie within his mind, like she’d done with Barnaby. “
Pretend you’re dying
.”

Even his mind’s voice had the sultry Cajun accent she loved.

“
Not hard to pretend. But thank you for taking away some of the pain
.”

“
I don’t know how long I can hold him
.”

Jerahmeel’s forehead creased in concentration. Odie groaned and clutched his head with a rictus of pain that appeared one step from death. Jerahmeel pulled his lips back into an eerie grin.

“
How much longer? I’m not healed yet
,” Odie sent.

“
Another minute, maybe. Then what?
”

“
We take him. He’ll be at his weakest. Any longer and someone’s going to give in and get a kill, powering up his batteries. The instinct to kill has gotten bad.
”

Like a shield dissipating a blowtorch flame, she absorbed all the fiery anger pounding against Odie. Her own mind wavered as the pain grew. She had to hold on long enough to give Odie a chance to attack.

“Have you had enough?” Jerahmeel asked. The glowing finger dimmed and smoke trickled off the tip.

“Never.” Odie flew to his feet.

Ruth wanted to help, but she couldn’t make her legs move. Her head throbbed, but at least the hellfire had stopped.

Jerahmeel raised his hand again, but only a tendril of smoke came out. He gripped the back of the chaise, his bony knuckles turning white.

“This is impossible. Where are my kills? What happened to my powers?”

“We abstained,” Odie said with a pained smile. “You know, like a religious fast, very good for the soul, don’t you think?”

“Damn you.”

“Too late, you beat me to it, my Lord of Pestilence.”

Odie whipped his knife out of the sheath and plunged it into Jerahmeel’s gut. The mountain around them rumbled and creaked as the knife drank its fill.

Instead of crumpling to the ground, though, Jerahmeel began to get stronger, like a snake eating its own tail. He wrapped his long fingers around Odie’s arm and pulled the knife back. It was almost entirely out of his body.

“Ruth, quickly!” Lines creased in Odie’s face as he struggled to hold the knife inside of Jerahmeel.

Her limbs had turned to rubber. Trying to stand and failing, she did the next best thing. Hitching up the blood-red satin dress, she dragged herself over to the men. She pulled her own knife out and stabbed Jerahmeel in the back of his knee, buckling it and bringing him down him to the floor.

As he fell forward, she plunged the knife into his upper back, pushing until she felt a pulse thumping against the blade. Funny, she never considered that he had a heart.

“My Ruth, I wanted to rule with you.”

His fingers glowed brighter, becoming stronger as his own life fed the knife. Smoke poured out of his hands.

No.
They couldn’t fail. Her stolen life, stolen family, fear, death all created an explosive mixture that propelled her to shove the knife in harder.

What a waste. Jerahmeel had taken everything from her. She’d only just met her family, and now he intended to kill them all, too.

As she turned the knife, he hissed. But he couldn’t move. For now.

She leaned forward and studied the face of the Lord of Evil. Needed to watch, to know if he could be destroyed, or if she needed to brace for her annihilation.

“You can’t succeed! I’m one with the true God, Satan. His power will always inhabit this Earth. Even if you destroy me, you’ll fail.”

Did he speak the truth, or were these the words of a desperate being? Would there be further punishment for the Indebted? For their families? As her resolve wavered, her grip on the knife loosened.

Jerahmeel lunged, his clawing, sizzling fingers outstretched.

Aimed at Odie.

Odie. The man who had helped her reconnect to the real world, who had peeled away the layers to find the real Ruth, a woman worthy of giving and receiving passion. Worthy of someone’s care.

Jerahmeel planted one foot then the other beneath him.

His hands continued to reach for Odie.

Jerahmeel rose to his feet.

The knife she’d sunk in Jerahmeel’s back began to glow red and burn her hands.

As Jerahmeel stood, he pulled up Ruth, still holding the handle. Despite the firm grip she refused to relinquish, he took one heavy step, then another, toward Odie, and success slipped away as each movement became stronger than the last.

He was getting more powerful.

How?

The siren scream in her head started up again, canceling out Odie’s yells, the cracks of the mountain around them, her own harsh wheezing.

She heard nothing but that wail, a cyclone of hell in her head, spinning louder and louder.

A rivulet of deep red blood flowed from Jerahmeel’s smiling mouth. However, tall and larger now, he raised a glowing fingertip and pointed it at Odie.

Fire burst from Odie’s chest, but he didn’t let go of his knife. With a guttural moan, his lips thinned to white lines, and he jammed the blade back into Jerahmeel’s gut and then angled the blade upward.

She concentrated until she could hear Odie over the shrill noise beating against her skull.

“That’s for Ada and Vivienne, you monster.” He choked.

“You can’t win. I will endure.” Jerahmeel’s shriek echoed through the cavern.

Ruth’s hands trembled with effort to keep the knife lodged in his back, fighting the blade’s impulse to fly out of Jerahmeel’s body.

Holy hell, he wasn’t dying.

Steam rose from of every inch of Jerahmeel as his howls joined the sound in her head and pierced her eardrums. His demonic laugh raked over her as surely as his clawed hands.

“Give up now, and I’ll kill this man quickly. Otherwise, it could take decades for him to die.”

Odie’s green eyes widened as he stared up at Jerahmeel.

Ruth couldn’t see all of Jerahmeel’s face, but she could see reflections of embers in Odie’s horrified expression. He huffed against the hole burning its way through his torso. Oh God, he couldn’t heal fast enough.

“I’m well versed in the language of persuasion,
mademoiselle
,” Jerahmeel howled at the ceiling, shaking stone. “First this man, then those two useless relatives of yours, then that delicious baby! Look what pain you have brought down on your loved ones. Your fault.”

White-hot fear roared in an inferno of rage. Her head would splinter into pieces unless she released the fury.

No more death. No more torment.

She twisted her knife deeper and sent all of her power down her arm, spearing into his back.

He shuddered.

“Again.” Odie gasped.

With a yell that came from a world other than this one, she released the critical pressure of that steam whistle in her head. Odie grimaced as her yell split into audible and mental resonances, but she couldn’t control the explosion of power.

She screamed and shoved every last bit of her gift into Jerahmeel.

And twisted the knife again.

Deep inside of Jerahmeel’s torso, the two blades brushed by each other. A blinding spark of clear light exploded out of Jerahmeel’s chest. Pain lanced up her arm, and she almost dropped the weapon.

The hole opening in Odie’s ribcage had receded. Either he healed faster or it burned slower now.

He gritted his teeth. “Do that again. Touch blades.”

“God, it hurts.”

“It hurts him more. Do it!” Odie said. “Your power is the key.”

“Fools! You’ll be destroyed,” Jerahmeel screamed. “You have no idea what will happen.”

Odie squinted at Jerahmeel. “You don’t know either, do you?”

With a sick calm, Jerahmeel twisted his head unnaturally far around and pinned her with an evil glare, almost as if memorizing her face. “You kill me, and I will unleash every ounce of Satan’s evil onto your family. I vow this to you.”

“Ruth, don’t listen to him.”

She no longer cared if he destroyed her. There wasn’t much left.
Just a newfound family
, a small voice whispered in her mind.

And Odie.

Whom Jerahmeel now tried to annihilate.

Another wave of screaming anger flooded her vision, her mind, her limbs. Sound blended into an indistinct whirlwind as the well of power rose up again inside her body. This time, she wouldn’t check it, but release every ounce, bleed her power dry, no matter how much it hurt.

The confident smirk on Odie’s face wavered as Jerahmeel leaned forward again.

No.

No more destruction.

Barnaby was correct. Her power was the key.

Squaring herself to stand directly behind Jerahmeel, she avoided his hands flailing backward to reach her. She turned her head to the side, couldn’t watch. Shoving the blade in further within his chest, it grated against Odie’s knife with a shriek of metal on metal that set her teeth on edge.

The moment of solid contact exploded like a supernova. Light poured out of the center of Jerahmeel’s body as beams spilled from his eyes, his nose, his ears, and his mouth. Even while she squinted, the brightness blasted through her eyelids.

Shaking beneath her feet and between the two knives increased.

He was vibrating apart between their two knives. A desperate scream rattled the walls of the cave. Hers? After a hard pop in her right ear, hot liquid dripped down her jaw. Her eardrum had ruptured. Couldn’t care less.