“Then tell me what you’ve found out, and I will decide—eeep!” she shrieked as he shoved her behind him. “What the heck, Nik?” A trickle of sulfur burned her nose. Oh, shit. Her heart tripped, her gaze bouncing between the dingy open area where the tunnels split in two directions, searching for the smelly degenerates.
A chittering shattered the eerie silence. But these were no cockroaches. The acrid stench of rotten eggs clogged the dank air. Smoggy shapes quivered up from the ground, and several skeletal demons took on humanoid form, their sunken holes for eyes glinting red in the gloom.
“Go,” Nik barked at her. “Get topside now!”
Shadow snatched her iron dagger from her boot. Yeah, she could fight, but she wasn’t at her strongest due to her broken feeding. Still, she hesitated, torn at leaving him to singlehandedly face the horde.
Darn it. She pivoted and bolted into the fetid tunnel, flung a glance over her shoulder, and stalled. A smoky swirl distorted the dank air, and an ebony sword appeared in Nik’s hand, strange symbols glowing briefly on the dark metal.
Shadow blinked in astonishment. Heck, she shouldn’t be surprised. The guy could kill giant-ass red demons with ice spears he’d summoned out of thin air. Of course, he could summon a kickass weapon too.
The chittering demons rushed him, and the crazy man charged. She wanted to run back and help, but he was immortal. She, not so much. Besides, she’d be a liability right now. Ugh. She spun around and took off, rounding the bend in the tunnel.
As she neared the first maintenance hole leading to the surface, the single light on the tunnel wall flickered and died. She grasped the rusty ladder—
A palm slammed over her mouth from behind, a hint of sulfur clogging her nose.
Her heart in her throat, she lashed out at the demon with her dagger. He twisted her wrist. Her blade fell. Pain morphed into fury, and she elbowed the lowlife hard in the belly then kicked his ankle. He grunted, and his grip tightened brutally on her jaw.
Niiiiiik! she screamed in her mind. A futile gesture. The only ability she possessed since her change five years ago was her improved senses, not telepathy, but terror pressed down on her, and instinct was all she had left.
“Our leader awaits you,” the demon hissed in her ear.
The air around her spun as they flashed then reappeared again, God only knew where. Shadow stumbled, trying to find her footing, but her woozy head didn’t appreciate the sudden re-emergence.
More rugged stone walls surrounded her, along with massive moss-covered pillars. The plinking sounds of water crowded her ears. The granite in the underground bedrock groaned and creaked, and a slab of stone rolled open. The jerkwads shoved her into darkness. The dense, sulfuric stench burned her nose—as if this was a direct hole to Hell.
She coughed, bile clogging her throat, struggling to see.
Streaks of fire suddenly flared in the dark walls, casting a gloomy light and revealing a massive, muggy cavern.
“Wh-what is this place?” she croaked.
“Hell,” one of the dumbasses snickered.
The air in the pitch-black corner flickered. Shadow reared back, but the two fleabags grabbed her arms, digging their fingers into her flesh, keeping her there. As a smoky shape churned, her heart crashed against her ribcage like a wrecking ball, fear constricting her very being at the sheer malevolence enclosing her.
A lean demon emerged in humanoid form. “Finally,” he growled, dropping the man he held in his black clawed fingers like a rag doll.
Sporting coppery-dark skin and a shock of white hair cut in a short mohawk, he dressed like a man of leisure in black pants and an open-collared shirt, but his dark energy scoured Shadow’s psyche like metal bristles. Anemic yellow eyes fixed on her with a malevolent stare that had her knees trembling.
“Tolvi,” she rasped.
“If you insist on a name.”
Her first mistake was thinking this gang leader would also be human—oh, shit. The truth seized her by the throat. Somehow, he’d learned of her abilities. She must have fed off one of his minions. It was the only thing that made sense. Since last winter, his thugs had run her down a few times, but she’d always managed to escape them until now.
“What do you want?” she demanded, struggling not to show fear. “For me to give you ease?”
Oh, God, please say no.
“I know all about you stealing demon energy.” He flicked her offer away with a bony finger and strolled closer. “Now why would a human require my genus’ dark energy, hmm?” He picked up a lock of her hair. “You intrigue me, human, and I like anomalies…”
That was why he had his shitheads gunning her? Because she was an anomaly? Asshole.
His heavy eyebrows drew together, then his thin nostrils flared. He grabbed her by the nape and pressed his nose to her neck. A sudden roar erupted, nearly shattering Shadow’s sensitive eardrums. “I smell him on you. Where is the fragmen stercore?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about—”
In a move too fast to see, he lashed out, his talon’s shredding her turtleneck halfway down her front. Shocked, Shadow wheezed at the hit, then the stinging burn flared over her right breast. Christ, she bit her lip, stifling her cry as she grabbed her torn top.
“That’s for lying. What is this?” Tolvi snagged her wrists to her back in a painful hold, his pallid gaze fixed on her exposed chest. He raked a talon on her flesh, alongside her nodes.
Oh, God… She choked back an anguished scream. Her breath caught on another wave of pain as he tried to dig out the middle node. Please, make him stop.
“By the flamin’ pits of Gehenna, they’ve become a part of you!” His eyes literally blazed, streaks of flame shooting out. “I will kill him…” Shadow barely heard Tolvi’s ranting, consumed in pain. Bits floated to her. “Mongrel thinks he can claim what is mine…mistaken…the power…mine.”
One word registered. Power? Her nodes?
She would have laughed if she could. They were damn parasites and killing her.
Mongrel? No, not the Guardian—Nate?
Dammit, Nate, what did you take from this psycho?
“Bring your maker to me, human. You have two days.” He stepped back, licking his bloodied talon.
So this asshole could kill him? Never.
Tolvi smiled as if he knew her thoughts. His eyes morphing into black holes, he hauled the fallen man off the floor, and the guy moaned, his head flopping back.
“Tian?” Her fingers tightened on her top. She recognized him, one of the homeless, and Eddi’s friend.
A flash of his hand, and Tolvi sliced the man’s carotid with a talon. Blood spurted like a fountain. He dropped the convulsing body. “He’s only the beginning. If you don’t do as I decree, then The Refuge you hide in will cease to exist after I unleash my minions.”
“My lord,” one of the fleabags who abducted her rumbled. “She had a Guardian of this realm with her earlier. They’re bad news for our kind…”
Anemic yellow eyes narrowed. “If any of them come sniffing around here, then I will find those you care about and take my time in making them wish for death…”
An image flashed through her mind. It was as if she’d fallen into the depths of a hell that spoke of endless agony…of fire. Scorching heat flashed through her mind. Eternal darkness, figures strung up, the horror in their screams reverberating inside her skull as skeletal entities fed on their flesh—