The moon shone down over the empty glade, highlighting the burned grass patches and other parts. She lifted her gaze to the swirling rubble suspended in the air. Beneath the cold, pale light, the Narakas continued swirling and coalescing together into one, a tangle of arms, legs, heads, trees, and branches, all fusing into a spiraling heap.
Bastards!
A ragged cry tore free, and she flung out her arms, wanting it all destroyed. A wave of power rushed out. Pain exploded in her back. A boom resonated, and the spiraling column of fused demons and trees detonated, raining to the ground in clumps of wet ashes. Souls rushed out in a ball of searing black energy.
“Amazing,” a distant murmur swept through her mind. “A human…with that power, in that form…”
Mam-fucking-mon!
A massive dark shape leaped out from the woods and into the dark souls coasting toward the ground. Jaws snapping, the hellhound swallowed the flickering souls, then it stood there, like a small mountain. Watching her.
“Pithiussss, veni.” The words drifted in the night as if coming from the creature.
Michael appeared at her side, gently grasped her arm, easing her away. “C’mon. I’ll take you to the castle.”
She lifted her flat stare to him and found his cold eyes nailed on the hellhound. “No.”
Pithiussss, veni, the words rushed through her mind in demand now.
“Pithius—”
“No, don’t!” Michael yelled at her.
“—veni,” she finished, pulling free of his hold.
“You tied a hellbeast to you,” he rasped.
Like she cared.
The enormous hellhound prowled over. A low, deadly growl rumbled in its thick chest, a warning to stay clear.
Michael didn’t move, his fingers clenching around his sword. The Guardians hung back, arms tensing at their sides as if about to summon their weapons.
“Don’t touch him,” she snarled.
The hound’s huge head butted her biceps, eyes like burning coals watching them all with an unwavering stare.
Wrapping her arms around her shuddering body, Shadow stalked off into the forest.
Something heavy attached to her back dragged behind her, hitting the branches. More pain bled along her spine and in her shoulder blades, but it didn’t make an impact, shrouded in her agony as she was. The hellbeast prowled alongside her.
“Dammit. One of you go with her,” Michael snapped. “The rest come with me, let’s find the bastard.”
Ely appeared on her other side in a flash. “Shadow, withdraw your wings.”
Wings? Her mind too numb to question Ely as to why she would have wings now, Shadow automatically drew the heavy appendages closed, and the weight on her spine disappeared.
She had to get out of there—
Her entire body wavered and became air. She dematerialized to the city, back to the underground. In her molecular form, her senses heightened even more, and she latched onto the fading taint of the demon she would decimate for killing her mate.
Shadow coasted toward the place Tolvi—no, fucking Mammon—now inhabited.
Several demons in human glamour guarded the lair. As she took form in front of one, she rammed her obsidian dagger into his chest. A shriek ricocheted. She spun around, ducking another coming at her. Ely reformed in a flash, spinning a long black staff with deadly spear points at both ends. She attacked, sending the demon screeching backward. Blood flowed.
The stocky demon grabbed her arm and smirked, his eyes like bleeding moons. “The dark lord will be pleased—”
“We’ll see about that.” Shadow kneed him in the groin. He reared back, squealing.
More demons rushed her. She leaped back, but one seized her by her long hair. Teeth gritted, blade palmed, she twisted and lopped it off.
The demon tripped back, eyes widening at having her locks in his hand. She flung her dagger, embedding it in his sternum.
Her obsidian summoned, she raced across the pitted surface, leaped onto a fallen pillar as two demons rushed her, and propelled herself forward, cannonballing over their heads. She sliced one across the carotid as she landed on her feet. The other spun toward her, and she hurled her blade straight into his throat.
Four more demons emerged from the gloom in their true form—gray, wrinkled, leathery bodies, skeletal faces, and sunken holes for eyes.
“Female,” one hissed. “Our lord awaitsss.”
“Too scared to face me?” she sneered and let her resummoned weapon fly.
The demon roared and lashed out. Shadow ducked, his clawed fist slammed her shoulder, and she fell. It stood over her, like a decaying cadaver—
A chilling growl erupted.
The demon turned. An enormous shape leaped through the dank air, crashing through the hellscums like dominoes. The hellhound snatched the demon near her by his midriff and crunched down with its razor fangs, shaking him. Arms and legs flew in different directions. The remaining curs split, disappearing into the oppressive, fetid air.
Breathing hard, Shadow rolled to her feet and tried to sniff them out…but their stench had faded.
The hellhound prowled close by her as she strode to the wall, determined to break through into their lair. She ran her fingers over the stone’s rough surface for an indentation to a hidden door, for anything…and nothing Frustration grew. Dammit, it had to be here.
“So many demons guard this place, and I feel the wards, so where the heck is the entryway?” Ely muttered, lowering her hands from the rough surface and flexing her fingers.
The hellhound butted its enormous head against Shadow’s shoulder. She gave the beast a rub on its huge muzzle and seamlessly dematerialized, searching the rest of the underground for another way into the lair.
Hours later, she coasted back to the three intersecting tunnels and reformed. The hellhound chuffed and gently batted her arm once more. Pithius. Go.
Then she understood. Pithius. Its name.
Her throat still too raw, she simply touched the lupine face.
Its fiery eyes remained fixed on her for a moment, then it dissipated into black smog and vanished.
“That creature does seem to like you,” Ely said, coming closer now. “Tearing that demon apart.”
Shadow didn’t respond as she bypassed the familiar stinky tunnels. The odor of sewer so strong, it made her eyes water, and bile rushed up her throat. As she approached The Refuge, all appeared quiet, the homeless asleep.
In the basement she’d once called home, Shadow stepped into her place through the broken entrance, the door hanging by one hinge. Nothing had remained of her things or Eddi’s. She didn’t care. She lowered to the dirty floor and leaned against the grimy wall, staring at the other side of the room. Memories of Nik sitting there, watching her, and of her taunting him after she’d brought him down, and then him kissing her filled her thoughts.
Now he was gone.
She’d never see him again.
Never feel his arms around her.
Never see that wicked light in his eyes or hear his tormenting teasing. Or taste his heated kisses.
Cracks splintered her numbed heart, pain sweeping through her in a tidal wave. Tears fell. She drew her knees up, lowered her head, and sobbed for her dead love.
“Shadow?” Ely said softly, her fingers gently sweeping her short damp hair away from her face. “I know nothing I say will bring him back. But I’m so sorry, and I’m here for you, for anything you need.”