Chapter 46 #3
“I’m not following my father anywhere, least of all to the Underworld,” Gabriel muttered, glancing sideways at me, both of us on the same page.
He had a fully loaded gun, a knife, and I had two blades.
Nico was the deadliest fighter I’d ever seen, but while we could take the guards down, these creatures were a problem.
Because Dante—our secret weapon—had turned into a statue again, chest heaving, fists balled.
“Goodbye, niece.” My uncle dropped his hand, and as one, they charged.
The entire world became a frantic dance of duck, elude, and strike, trying to stay out of range of those slashing claws, while bullets whistled overhead and knives flashed.
After five minutes, we were wearing down.
Nico needed to reload, and every time they attacked, the creatures had no mercy.
The guards hung behind the Ashbound, using them as cover.
Gabriel and I moved fast, but not fast enough to avoid the creature’s slashing claws, and Bruno was a better shot than he looked.
“I’m fucking hit.” Gabriel sounded annoyed, his arm drenched in blood, “Keep your head down, Emberline.”
I nodded, keeping my eye on one of the creatures stalking me, body low, arms held out, teeth gnashing with a click, click, click that sent chills through me. The way they moved was like someone else controlled them, every step halting, heads swiveling like they weren’t even attached.
They avoided Dante as if they were afraid of him, but I wasn’t so lucky. I had two circling me and was so busy keeping my eyes on the bigger one, I didn’t notice the other come up behind me, not until something sharp nicked my shoulder.
Gabriel shoved me aside, taking the brunt of the attack, blood spilling down his chest. Out of the corner of my eye, Nico was fighting a vicious hand-to-hand battle with Bruno, fifty pounds heavier. I raced away from the fight, drawing one of the guards and two Ashbound deeper into the ruins.
This was crazy. Stupid. Suicidal.
My feet pounded over rocky sand as I wove through the foggy silhouettes of broken walls and tumbled towers. I was fast, but those damn creatures didn’t tire. I rounded a pillar and burst back into the clearing, threading through the fighting.
Bruno was down, but the creatures were relentless, both Nico and Gabriel striped with burns and blisters. Hidden behind the ruins, the two soldiers fired into the melee, and sooner or later, they’d find their mark.
I’d lost sight of my uncle. Probably hiding somewhere until this was over, and he could inspect our torn apart bodies, which was looking to be a real possibility.
“Fuck,” Gabriel hissed, stumbling as he took another blow. Because he wasn’t focused on the fight, he was looking…
I followed the direction of his gaze and lost my breath.
Scars lit up my husband’s body like veins of gold through marble, glowing brighter with each ragged breath as Dante’s spine straightened, the air around him warped by consuming heat. When he finally lifted his head and his eyes met mine, they blazed with some ancient and merciless presence.
With an exhale, smoke and sparks curled from his lips, carrying the scent of ash and ruin.
He was breathtaking. Otherworldly. Vengeance taken form.
Where a vampire had been, a creature born of fire rose, and I tried not to whither beneath that creature’s fiery stare. But I sensed a vast hunger, bleeding from his eyes. Not Dante, but whatever was inside him.
All around me, henchmen and Ashbound were scattering, ducking for shelter.
But it was already too late.
Plumes of fire snaked carefully around me, as though I was a rock in a stream, devouring everything in their path. One of Rocco’s unlucky guards exploded into a cloud of ash before he could even scream. An Ashbound was caught mid-stride, flames pouring through its eye sockets, its mouth, its ears.
Dante delivered judgment like a god. Every fiery death was brutal, splitting the creatures apart from the inside out, as if whatever otherworldly power animated them had a life of its own. And the sound they made when they died…
Another shrieking howl filled the air. Agonizing. Shrill. Ear-shattering.
None of the Ashbound rose again. Neither did Rocco’s guards.
“Nico,” Gabriel shouted across the smoke-filled space, pointing at the Basin. “Get that fucking thing out of here.”
With heat still warping the air into shimmering ripples, Nico and the Basin vanished, then there was only me, Gabriel, and Dante, alone among the smoking bodies of our enemies.
“Giovanni’s gone, I assume?” I grabbed Gabriel as he stumbled, slinging his arm over my shoulders. He was bleeding badly, one eye already swollen shut. A chorus of growling howls echoed through the mist-covered ruins.
“We have to move,” I gasped, taking on more of Gabriel’s weight. “They’re getting closer.” One step at a time, I slogged back to shore, Dante bringing up the rear, fire wrapped around him like a living cape.
Those howls were nipping at our heels when we burst out of the mist and waded into the lagoon. The second he hit the water, Dante’s fire extinguished, like a flame snuffed out.
More Ashbound burst out of the fog, and we didn’t look back before we dematerialized.
We’d gotten what we’d come for, but… I looked at my husband, at the absolute desolation on his face.
But this victory had cost us.