The Deadliest Bite (26 page)

“And yet…” Raoul cocked his head. He came forward and yanked off the black blanket that covered both the bed and the creature’s lower half, and we al jumped back. It wasn’t sitting on a bed at al . It was dangling. Impaled on a spike that reached down into a fog that writhed with tortured souls.

The creature’s smile turned ghastly as blood wel ed up from its throat and coated its teeth. And that was the easiest sight to handle. Because its spike didn’t stand alone. In the space the bed should’ve taken up, standing as if in a cavern created from another universe, more posts carved to evil points at their tips rose from a surface that smel ed like a slowly burning landfil . Every post was stuck through a body. And every single body twitched or moaned in its turn, assuring us that no creature who rode a roughly hewn spear had been blessed with death.

Final y I found my voice. And the knowledge that had been scratching at my brain for the past few minutes. “Kyphas? Is that you? We thought…” I glanced at Vayl. “We were sure you’d died.” Even without her lips, the demon whose beauty had once raised a desire in me that had made me grateful I liked guys managed a sneer. “Since when have you played pretty with your words, Jasmine?” She compounded the insult by pronouncing my name as only Vayl did,
Yaz-mee-na
, hoping, I was sure, that the next time he whispered it in my ear, my shiver would be as far from one of ecstasy as it was possible to get.

She said, “Speak it plain, or by al that’s evil I wil break my vow and suffer torments stacked on those I’ve already brought on myself just for the satisfaction of seeing you pout.” I briefly considered shooting her through the head. The only reason I decided against it was that it would only cause her more pain. Instead I said, “Miles and I saw you sucked through that planar door.” Bergman had hugged against my back the moment he realized we were facing the demon who’d nearly dragged him into hel with her. I could literal y feel him nod in agreement. I went on. “We also saw Vayl and Astral jump through to fight you. And when they came back, al they brought with them was your severed hands.”

“What? You mean these?” She raised her arms and the material fel back.

“Jeeezus,” whispered Bergman, who’d never felt the need to cal on any deities in person until this moment and who, I was pretty sure, had been raised Jewish. I would’ve joined him, but I was too busy watching al my inner girls fal to their knees in panicked prayer.

Even now, three weeks later, Kyphas’s wrists were stil leaking black gouts of blood and gore.

But they didn’t end in stumps as we’d expected. The same vil ain who’d burned her face into an unrecognizable mask and shoved her on a stick like some sick puppeteer had welded a three-headed hydra to each of her wrists. Each head was taking turns sinking its fangs into her wounds, causing her to shake like a malaria victim as it drank its fil .

“What happened to you?” Vayl asked, his shoulders tightening into steel plates at the sight of Kyphas’s snakes. “You are the daughter of a Lord of Hel . Where is your father? Why did he al ow this?”

“I gave up my heartstone,” she said. “Or have you forgotten? Leonard has turned his back on me.”

“Oh, don’t act like it was some great act of charity,” I snapped, using my resentment to cover my horror at her pain and my surprise at her lineage. Her father was the Lord of Black Magic and Sorcery. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t tried to pul some strings to give her at least some relief. “You were trying to turn Cole into a demon. If you hadn’t given your heartstone to us he’d be trol ing Satan’s playground for cute babes to skin alive even as we speak.”

“I broke the Second Law,” Kyphas informed me.

Even though I’d never warmed to Kyphas, I was beginning to believe she real y had wrapped her arms around this fate for Cole’s sake. Demons took al kinds of crap for letting souls slip through their fingers, but they never experienced true punishments for the failure, because it was so hard to snag them in the first place. Only when someone like Cole was al owed to escape on purpose, breaking Satan’s Second Law, did demons burn. Which meant she’d acted out of real love. Damn.

I cleared my throat. “How long…” I couldn’t finish, couldn’t imagine the pain she must be enduring.

She said, “I am to be punished for the next half-century for my crime. And yet my vow supersedes even my jailer’s power. So I’ve come to give you the last bit of help that I’m required to.”

“How did you know we were coming?” I asked, knowing that as soon as she fulfil ed her vow she’d disappear again. And that even this smal break was helping her push back the agony.

She pointed down at one of the women writhing beneath her, the snakes on her right wrist coiling up her arm at the sudden movement. “Lesia is a prophet. Ironical y, the more they burn her, the clearer her visions become. Which is why I know that my beloved has crept through the attic access in the bathroom and is waiting just outside the door for your signal.” She sighed. Then she said, loud enough for her voice to carry across the room, “Cole. Mercy or revenge. Either way you think of it, your bul ets can’t kil me.”

The bathroom door swung open and Cole stepped in. He regarded Kyphas for a long time, his face so stil that none of us could figure out what emotions were moving behind his clear blue eyes.

Final y he said, “Tel Jasmine why you came and then go back to hel where you belong, Kyphas.

We’l fol ow you when the time’s right.”

He glanced at my belt, where the Rocenz hung heavier than ever. When he looked back at Kyphas some silent communication passed between them, because they both nodded and, despite her immense suffering, she seemed almost… relieved.

She nodded to me. “That lovely piece of artwork you carry in your pocket is obviously incomplete.”

I nearly put my hand against the hanky-wrapped skin, but kept it steady under the butt of my gun instead. “I noticed.”

“The rest is stil on the cowboy, Zel Culver. He’l come if you cal him. Stand by the gate, give it your blood, knock three times, and shout his ful name.”

“Thank you, Kyphas,” Vayl said. “Your promise to us is fulfil ed.” She barely acknowledged his words. Her eyes, the only bright and shining parts of her soul left unshattered, kept a steady watch on Cole. “You look fine,” she said. “I’m glad of that.” He nodded. “My friends brought me back.” His stare, ful of dark memories and nightmares, wouldn’t give her an inch. This was the Cole that stayed hidden, the man I knew least and liked best.

“I’l never forgive you for what you did. You should know that.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

What she said made perfect sense. She should feel apologetic for what she’d done to Cole, even if she had paid in skin and blood. But the prickling between my shoulders told me she wasn’t talking about Marrakech. I spun around as Aaron shrieked. Miles, stil hanging at my shoulders like a badly organized backpack, hampered my movements and my line of sight. For a second al I could see were two blurs leaping through the doorway.

“Vayl!” I yel ed, relying on my Spirit Eye to guide me until the rest of my senses could come into play. “Hel spawn!”

Bergman ducked, I thought to get out of my way until I realized he was rol ing up his jeans.

Hoping whatever he’d built into his boots wasn’t another one of his unreliable prototypes, I triggered the holy water strapped to my wrist, fil ing my palm with an attack-ready syringe even as I knocked the first demon back with a barrage of gunfire that wouldn’t kil it in this world. But judging by the squeal, it hurt a lot more than beanbags. That, and the flying steel from Vayl’s shotgun as wel as Cole’s rifle, gave me a few seconds to assess our situation.

As I’d thought, we only faced two opponents, but they were a couple of the baddest fighters hel had ever puked forth. Cal ed
Ichoks
by those who’d encountered them and survived, these creatures could throw so much nasty into one blow it felt like you were facing five wel -trained enemies. Part of that was because they were ambidextrous, wielding their katanas equal y wel with either hand and with such speed that people were left staring at the stumps of arms and the gaping wounds from which their intestines had begun to snake out without even having felt the blows.
Ichoks
could also deal a potential y fatal strike with what I cal ed their spit glands. Located in a specialized pouch tucked inside the lining of their bloated, gil covered cheeks, the glands could be emptied with force, usual y into an opponent’s eyes. Blindness was the first result, after which the
Ichok
could finish you off at its leisure. But if something distracted it, you’d eventual y die from the poison as it worked its way through your system, paralyzing major organs along the way.

They preferred to fight in a crouch, which left a much smal er target to aim for. And, like most hel spawn, they came shielded, though their armor was easy to see, even to Unsensitized eyes like Bergman’s.

“What’s that chest plate made of?” he whispered to me as I reloaded. “It looks like…” Knowing he’d never be able to finish the sentence, I did it for him. “Skul s, Miles, those are human skul s. The top, cap part, to be exact. Hundreds of them cut to fit into neat little rows and linked together with bits of silver chain. What a great Hal oween costume that would make, huh?” He caught my bitterness and seemed about to respond, but he couldn’t look away from the armor. “Al those people,” he whispered.

“If you don’t want to become one of them, you need to give me a little more room,” I told him.

He backed off, moving to stand next to Aaron, who’d tipped an armchair over in the corner and hustled Jack and Astral behind it.

Beside me Vayl had also reloaded and gone another round, blowing his
Ichok
back into the wal .

But even before that his most effective weapon had already swung into ful motion. In fact, the second the demons had entered the room I felt Vayl’s power working at my hands, which were cold enough that I worried they wouldn’t squeeze the trigger in time. And in my nose, which had begun to run. Even in my breath, which poofed out gray and frost-laden. I realized this might be the biggest storm Vayl had ever cal ed.

I glanced at Miles and Aaron. “You might want to bundle up.”

Already their teeth were beginning to chatter. Stil , Bergman kept struggling with his boot. I couldn’t see the hilt of a knife, so what the hel ? “Did Vayl have to be a Wraith?” he complained. “I hear
lethryls
are a lot warmer.”

“They also require a lot more blood to heat up the place, which usual y means a couple of ful -

time suppliers working the entourage angle. Do you want to be some
lethryl
’s bitch?”

“Point taken.” He gave up on the boot. “I’m freezing. And my VEB is stuck. Feel free to start without me.”

Wondering what a VEB was and if I should’ve taken out insurance against being disintegrated by one, I emptied my clip into Cole’s
Ichok
. Its armor had kept its chest from turning to dog food, although blood trickled down its arms and legs in a steady stream, and our combined rounds had thrown it to its knees. But stil it was roaring and spitting, warning us that soon we’d be wishing for more powerful weapons.

I reached for the sword Raoul had lent me. As I pul ed it, I realized my Spirit Guide was not waiting patiently for us to finish with the long-range fighting so he could wade in with his own weapon. He was standing just outside the door, ful y engaged with a third
Ichok
who stood at least a head tal er than the two we were holding off. His blade arched and slashed so quickly it was just a blur, but so were the
Ichok
’s weapons, and I swal owed a spurt of fear as I saw that his uniform was ripped in several places where blood had darkened it to black.

Then, like the warning had been ripped from the middle of her chest, Kyphas cried, “Watch out, Cole!” and I had to turn back to our fight.

He’d had to throw himself to the floor to avoid a spit-patch of poison that now dripped from the wal behind him. Worse yet, the blows from our bul ets had begun to ping off the skul s of the
Ichoks
, as if the armor had
learned
how to deflect them in the time we’d been shooting.

Cole’s hel spawn had risen and begun to twirl its double katanas like saw blades, and al he had was a now-ineffective sniper rifle and a sheathed sword that he’d never be able to compete with in a fair fight.

By now my blade was in hand as I stood beside him. “Draw steel,” I ordered, although I didn’t hold out much hope for our survival.

Next to us Vayl had centered the cold of the grave he’d never entered on the hel spawn whose realm was ful of the burning dead. In one massive cloud of air that looked like a perfect coil, Vayl surrounded the
Ichok
with tiny, razor-sharp shards of sleet. And then he drove them into it. The boom of sound that accompanied the strike shook the floor, making us al stagger backward as Vayl’s opponent shattered into a mil ion pieces.

Cole and I pressed our advantage, swinging our blades at our unbalanced adversary as he leaned toward the wal . Unfortunately he recovered quickly, and soon we were both on the defensive, fighting for our lives against blades that seemed to be everywhere at once. Of course, this was giving Vayl a chance to move around behind the creature, but given the speed of this attack nothing was going to save us in time.

I glanced over my shoulder at Raoul. Nope, he couldn’t wade in beside us, because his hands were ful as wel .

Then I saw Dave and Cassandra running down the hal . Dave had drawn his knife. The sheen of its blade matched the edge of steel in his eyes, making me glad I was fighting on his side. Suddenly I felt sorry for the
Ichok
who was about to die. But only a little.