Chapter 25
“Aiden.” It was the only two syllables I could muster.
Beleth’s jaw expanded, unhinging until he transformed into nightmare fuel. The fire rippling along my arms did nothing to slow him. I needed one of those flaring moments, but as his nails threatened to penetrate the suit, I couldn’t focus.
The darkness enveloped my head. I refused to close my eyes.
If I was going to die, I’d see it to the end.
Even in death, I’d be a stubborn jerk. The demon’s tongue slithered along my neck, a dry crusty sensation that would haunt me for the next ten seconds of my life.
It sounded as if the beast was inhaling, sucking in air as if gasping for breath, but I couldn’t feel the air moving, just the sensual touch of its tongue.
The ear-piercing scream wasn’t mine. The world spun about. Light, I could see the sky again. The pressure along my chest vanished. Beleth wasn’t holding me as I spun through the air. My senses returned, and I had a moment to taste the salty air.
“Shrieker?”
The teenager leaned into the force of his powers.
The air rippled, his abilities sending heroes and demons along to their knees.
With his back against a car, he braced for the immensity of his own powers.
Beleth slammed into a truck, pushed into its frame.
Its growls were almost inaudible by comparison. Shrieker had pinned the beast.
Having turned traitor, the teenager was the last person I expected to join in the fight.
Had he taken me up on my offer? I imagined heroes spent their days saving those without powers, protecting them from evil outside their control.
It had never dawned on me I might actually sway the destiny of somebody on the other team.
Shrieker fell to his knees. The kid had to inhale eventually, and after that demonstration, I didn’t know if he had a whisper left in him.
Beleth’s roared loud enough to break through my fuzzy hearing.
He tore away from the truck, reaching back, digging his claws into the car and hurling it at the kid.
“No.” It wasn’t begging. It was a simple fact. Beleth would not end the kid. The flames wrapped about my body before pouring out of my palms. The truck changed directions, hurled through the hole.
Beleth charged at the kid, determined to make him pay. I wasn’t about to let the kid be a sacrifice because of me. It was time to end this battle and save Vanguard City.
I landed between the demon and Shrieker. Holding up my hands, I could see through my limbs. I was no longer surrounded by the inferno. I had become the inferno.
A wall of fire sprung up from the ground. Beleth struck it, his nails piercing the barrier, tearing it open as if it were paper. With each step toward the beast, he grew smaller. No, it wasn’t the demon shrinking—I was growing. Even the suit wrapped around my fiery form tightened.
Beleth was a symptom of the cause. But it was the man housed inside his body that had created this problem. I could trade blows all day with this demon, but eventually he’d overpower me, and I’d serve as a meal. There weren’t enough Shrieker’s in Vanguard to protect it.
The wall of fire reshaped, turning into a pair of fists.
Instead of restraining the beast, I imagined it tearing through Beleth’s chest. I shoved my own hands forward, controlling the phantom limbs remotely.
I wanted at the villain inside. Milky flesh rose to the surface and I could see a shoulder, then the neck.
With a growl, I tore open Beleth’s chest, revealing a trapped William.
Beleth struggled, threatening to break free from my grasp.
I couldn’t hold him and free William. Aiden’s words echoed in the back of my head.
I had stepped up to the plate and become the hero.
But that adorable journalist had been right.
We couldn’t do this alone. The admission was difficult, but I was a single man.
I couldn’t do this alone.
“The necklace, Shrieker,” I growled. “It’s time to be a hero.”
I couldn’t hear a response, not a confirmation or the sucking in of oxygen. I heard the high pitch squeal. A single, short, punctuated yelp from the kid. He had exhausted his talents saving me.
The green amulet shattered.
Beleth howled. He no longer tore at the shield. The circle of magic pulled at the demons covering the bridge. One by one, it sucked them into the portal, returned to whatever hell they had been summoned. Beleth fell to the pavement, determined to claw his way to freedom.
It was mere seconds before only Beleth remained. I grunted, suddenly aware of the pain coursing through my body. I should have slumped to the ground and called it a day. Being a hero meant doing the right thing, not the easy thing.
I jumped into the air, landing on Beleth’s back.
Kneeling, I reached back before driving my fist into the creature’s shoulder.
The demon had turned into an almost dense liquid, bits pulling free from his body and sucked into the portal.
Fishing around inside the beast, I found what I was looking for.
With a yank, I jerked William’s limp form free.
Rolling off Beleth, I tossed William to the side. I had to save him, not be gentle with the creep. With a wave, I watched as Beleth lost the battle with the circle, pulled into the depths of Hell. The portal vanished, and it left me unconvinced that the fight was over, that we had won.
Then the cheering started.
Bruised eardrums made it almost impossible to hear. I rolled over to see Hellcat standing in front of me, a hand held out. The fire vanished as I clutched her forearm. I ignored the circle and instead focused on the heroes of Vanguard. Men and women were thrusting their fists in the air.
She shouted at me. “You did this!”
But the victory was short-lived as they returned to those unable to stand. As if the curse had been lifted, those that could fly rose into the air. Holding their fallen comrades, they flew toward Vanguard. A blur of red flew down the street as Zipper helped usher the wounded to hospitals.
The heroes of Vanguard City had returned.
My chest swelled, filled with pride. I might have led the charge, but this wasn’t a victory of one. As Shrieker hobbled to my side, I patted the kid on the shoulder. They would remember this moment as the moment Vanguard’s heroes proved it wasn’t powers that made a hero.
“So, my training,” Shrieker shouted. The kid stuck a finger in his ear, wiggling it about. He held his nose and puffed his cheeks as he tried to speed up recovering his hearing. “When do we start?”
I held his shoulder as I watched the best of mankind do what they do best. For the first time, I finally understood what it meant to be a hero. I could already hear Griffin’s voice in my ear as I ate humble pie and changed my opinion about superheroes.
“We already have, kid.” With a step forward, I stumbled. Hellcat held me upright, putting my arm over her shoulder. With a nod, I smiled at my designated mentor. “We already have…”