The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers (29 page)

I didn't need to sacrifice who I was. I needed to let go of the temptation
to be something I wasn't.

I let go.

With a blaze of power that sent goose bumps up my arm, my hand absorbed the
mark like it had never been there. I stared at my palm, amazed, unwilling to
believe I'd actually gotten rid of it. I felt whole, grounded. Good gravy. I
felt like myself again. Relief erupted in me, followed by the sheer joy of
having my life back again. Dimitri was right. I could do this with the power I
had.

And that's when things went to hell.

Serena's fiery red eyes caught mine. Holy Hades—she could see me. I
stared at the demon, my unmarked hand, the demon. Shock darted across her
features before she grabbed me by the soul.

I tumbled through cold, wet air. Winds crashed into me from every direction.
My lungs screamed as they fought to breathe. I couldn't see up, down. The whole
time, Serena's fingers dug into my chest, pulled me through the freezing,
churning void. I grabbed for my switch stars, but couldn't get a handle on them
in the whirlwind.

Warm air smacked me in the face like a wave as I crash-landed on something
cold and hard. I gasped for breath, planted my numb fingers on the slick
surface and fought to get my bearings. My head swam, my neck burned and my
mouth tasted like I'd been chewing tinfoil.

White boots strolled into my line of vision. "I'll give you one
thing," said a voice dripping with sex. "Your family is certainly
original."

Serena.

I struggled to stand, did a bad impression of a baby deer and flopped butt
first back onto the floor. Yeah, well the she-demon had made a big mistake. I
dug for a switch star, ready to end this debacle for good when I came up empty.
My chest constricted. My utility belt was gone.

Serena shot out a laugh. "Oh please, I'm certainly not going to suck
you through the eleventh dimension so you can put a switch star through my
forehead."

I shoved my tangled hair aside and peered up at her. Serena had tossed my
utility belt over her shoulder, a single claw looped through the buckle. The
roughened black talons crackled under leathery skin. She'd hidden the rest of
her demonic nature behind her petite body and Barbara Feldon good looks.

She seemed relaxed, too relaxed, for a demon standing in an art deco hallway
under Hoover Dam. "Good to see you didn't blow town." She tilted her
head, showing off a long neck. "When I stopped sensing you, well, let's
say I was ready to send out an entire army." Her predatory smile told me
she wasn't kidding.

I flexed my hand, wishing I had something to zap her with. Amazing. I'd
given up the dark mark as easily as I'd gotten it. Both times had been a
disaster. I planted my hands on the floor in front of me, gathering strength.

Rage churned inside me. She didn't think I could fight back. If I wanted the
dark mark, I'd bet I could have it again. I could shove her, push her, destroy
her. My strength surged just thinking about it.

I made a running leap for her, snagged the belt and went for my switch
stars. Holy Hades! The belt was empty. I dug through the pockets. Everything
was gone—even the creature who lived in the back.

Serena crushed me to the floor. I was too shocked to scream when my left
hand sunk into the pink marble. H-e-double-hockey-sticks. I grabbed for the
belt with my free hand, only to watch in horror as both of my hands sank up to
the wrists.

Serena's two-way phone crackled and beeped, echoing down the hall.
"Hell Fire Three reporting."

"Go ahead," Serena said.

"Lover boy is blowing out the turbines. Zarro is on stage." She
talked like she was reading from a to-do list, like she wasn't about to unleash
hell on Earth. "Do you have the demon slayer secured?"

She grinned, showing very un-Barbara Feldon-like double row of jagged teeth.
"Affirmative."

"We'll commence as soon as the turbines blow."

"Thanks, babe," Serena chirped sweetly.

"What?" I struggled to stand. The end, the concert, the demolition
of the power system—that was supposed to happen tomorrow night. Even
then, I didn't know how we were going to stop it, but now? I needed more time.
And how could they possibly move up a complete takeover of the North American
airwaves?

"You can't," I insisted. Because, they couldn't, they simply
couldn't. "It's impossible to move up a concert by a day."

Her brows knit. "This is Saturday," she shoved me with her toe.
"Your fault," she added, as I lunged back at her.

Hell and damnation. Had I really been hurtling through that pathway for
nearly a day?

Serena sighed. "I'd have been up there twenty-one hours ago if I hadn't
been busy dragging your stubborn butt through the eleventh dimension. Broke a
nail too." She flexed her talons. "Oh wait," she said, as it
grew back, long and sharp. "One problem down. One to go."

I struggled against whatever hold she had on me. I used every ounce of my
demon slayer mojo, but my hands didn't budge.

"You stay put. I'll come get you when it's time for the end of the
world."

I stiffened.

"Kidding," she added. "That'll take at least another week.
I'll come get you once we ax North America, give or take Panama."

"Panama is in Central America," I said, my voice raising two
octaves at the end. Call it the natural response of a teacher, or more likely,
the only thing my brain could grasp at that moment. I felt bad enough about
Phil and Dimitri. I couldn't be responsible for the end of North America. And
Central America. And… oh geez. How many billions of people were we
talking about?

Damn the creature, she beamed—proud of what she was about to do.
"You stay here," she said, stepping past me, her ankle sideswiping my
nose on her way down the hall. "Oh, who am I kidding? Where else are you
going to go?"

"What are you going to do to Phil?" Not that there'd be much of a
world left for him, but there were worse things to take than someone's life.

She barked out a laugh. "Phil's soul is mine as soon as the turbines
shut down. Phil is a pain in the ass. Always resisting." She surveyed me,
cold and calculating, as if wondering if there was more to me than what she
saw. "The guy almost threw himself over the dam when I told him I needed
him to lure you here."

Phil was bait?

The pieces fell together with gut-wrenching clarity. I'd been so proud. So
determined to be some great demon slayer—so convinced this whole thing
had been about everyone needing my help. It was never about the kick-butt demon
slayer blazing into town to ride to the rescue of good ol' Phil. He'd been
trying to save
me
.

Shock froze my brain. "You needed him to sabotage the dam," I
said, almost to myself.

"Oh come on. Axing a dam is nothing compared to capturing demon slayer
power. We need six hundred sixty-six she-demons—and you—in order to
open the gates of Hell."

My jaw locked as I stared at her, not wanting to comprehend.

It really was about my power. Dimitri hadn't needed to flee Vegas. I did.

"And now I'll take this little number." I winced as she ripped
Dimitri's protective necklace from my throat. He'd used it to find me before.
Now if he tracked the necklace, he'd find… her.

"Pretty," she said, twirling it around her finger. "And it'd
be almost impossible to remove if your big lug of a griffin wasn't almost dry.
Pity. He was tasty." She sighed, remembering, before turning her icy blue
eyes back on me. "I'll be back for your power soon."

I battled to free my hands as Serena's boots clattered down the hallway and
up a metal staircase. I had to get out of here. At least my friends would have
missed me by now. And Dimitri. I cringed to think of what he was going through
right now. They wouldn't know what had happened to me—or where on Earth
or in the underworld to look.

Meanwhile, there was no way to stop the concert or the blackout—not in
the next twenty minutes. Phil was completely brainwashed and overloading the
turbine timing systems, blowing power to the dam. And Serena, well, she was
about to get everything she wanted.

I yanked at my hands until my wrists screamed in protest.

"Mother fudrucker!"

Dimitri should be in Greece right now—putting his family back
together. He worked his whole life to do that. Instead, he'd put it off to help
me. I'd rewarded him by muddying his pure griffin blood, serving him up as a
snack for the demons, stealing all of his energy and now—failing at the
one thing we'd sacrificed everything to do.

Sure, he'd come willingly, but that almost made it worse. I loved his
loyalty and his courage and—dang—everything about him. He was like
the light of a smoldering fire, warm and affirming. The man I wanted with me
when things got rough, or to simply curl up with at the end of a long day. But
I had to wonder if he'd have been better off if he'd never met me.

It was my fault. Dimitri, Phil, everyone had trusted me to do the right
thing and I'd let them down. I buried my face in the black T-shirt he'd given
me and inhaled his rich, warm scent, wishing I could see him one last time.

I'd lose my lover, my fairy godfather, my life and everything else that
lived and breathed. All because I'd thought I could do this on my own.

Now who was going to save me?

"Joe!" I hollered with all of my strength. My voice echoed down
the pitch-black hallway. "Joe!"

I didn't know exactly where I was inside the sixty million tons of concrete
that made up Hoover Dam, but I knew Joe wasn't going anywhere.

Neither was I, if Serena got her way. My stomach roiled at the thought.

"Joe!" I yelled, over and over again until I grew hoarse. I felt
the demons clamoring with excitement. With every pleading, desperate word, I
yanked at my hands until my wrists screamed in protest and my back nearly gave
out.

"Joe. I. Need. You. Now. Joe. I. Need—"

The magical world lurched as the fluorescent lights above me sputtered and
died. Blackness chilled me. An orange emergency beacon pitched an oasis of
light at the far end of the hall and my concrete tomb grew much, much too
silent. I braced myself, knowing this was the intake of breath before the
scream.

Maybe Serena's plan wouldn't work. Maybe America wasn't watching Ricardo
Zarro or everyone was at dinner or it wasn't really true what they said about
blackouts. Maybe not enough people would make love, or the succubi would fail
to harness the carnal energy or… The temperature of the room plummeted at
least twenty degrees.

Succubi. I felt their power grow. I closed my eyes and could almost
see
it. The back of my throat constricted as hordes of succubi pounded on the walls
deep below the old prison. My stomach felt hollow. The iron weakened. The
demons raged. And I knew it was only a matter of time.

Didn't mean we wouldn't go down fighting.

"Joe!" I started to panic. Where was he? Ghosts traveled fast.

Twenty demons burst through the portal at once and the shock of it almost
took the breath out of me.

"Joe!"

My stomach flip-flopped as the demons swarmed. They piled on top of each
other, through each other. At least forty more made it though. I could hardly
count them all.

God, what was happening to Dimitri?

I'd failed tonight. Dots hovered in front of my eyes as I stared at the dark
marble floor in front of me. Sweat trickled down my spine as I racked my brain
for something, anything to do.

No one came.

They were coming fast. "A hundred and twelve!"

Maybe, if I tried hard enough, I could reach Phil. Never mind that it had
barely worked before Serena married Phil, took over his free will and tasked
him with an integral part of her plan for world domination. It was better than
counting the demons flooding through the portal.

Sweat tickled between my eyes. I cocked my head and wiped my forehead on my
shoulder. Cripes. I still wore Dimitri's T-shirt. His musky scent
short-circuited my brain and drilled warmth straight through me.

I had to do this—for him and for everybody. I closed my eyes and
pictured my fairy godfather.

"Phil?" I called, pleaded really. I focused every ounce of
strength and concentration into finding him. Maybe I could break through.

"Phil." I clenched my jaw and willed him to answer. Through the
soupy, murky distance between our minds, I scrambled for him. I ached for him.
Last time, I'd found him in a hurry. This time, I couldn't locate a trace of my
quirky, funny, teddy bear of a guardian. The man who'd fought to protect me had
disappeared from the astral plane as if he'd never existed.

I braced myself as Max's demons broke free in a rush of bodies, tumbling,
clawing, lashing out at whatever they could reach. They roiled toward the city,
fracturing off along the way. The bitter taste of sulfur practically choked me.

Add the demons from the portal and we had one hundred eighty. Make that one
hundred eighty-eight. No way I could recapture that many demons, or stop the
destruction.

No more
. I couldn't watch. I forced my eyes open. I had to get
away, even if it meant taking comfort in a deserted, dimly lit hallway. But I
should have known it wouldn't be that easy. This place had changed too.

Yellow vapor clouded the light from the sconces and the stench of sulfur lingered.
I could see my breath in front of me, as the hellish smog wound through my
lungs. I renewed my battle against the forces that kept my hands pinned in the
floor, now icy with the power of Hades. I couldn't feel my hands any longer,
but I knew I had to get out of there.

Now.

Fear surged through me. It was survival at its most basic. Because they were
coming for me next.