Chapter 20 #3
She threw a white portal box open behind us then flung her hands backwards, sending everyone flying towards it.
But the fallen angels were fast. And they’d been expecting us so they were ready.
Asmodeus thrust his arms forward and demons emerged from the shadows and rushed through Tegan’s open portal into Eden.
The sound of Kendall and Kylie screaming would haunt me.
It happened so fast. Tegan had literally thrown us back through her portal and yet his demons beat us there. It was pandemonium. Everyone was shouting and screaming. There were demons everywhere and they all had wings so the Holy Ground issue wasn’t an issue at all.
I flicked my wrists to summon my creepy crawlies. They answered immediately. “Protect the school! Protect the house!”
Spirits rushed towards the school, making a barrier line between the demons and the unsuspecting students still in bed.
Other spirits raced into the house but there was too much screaming happening.
Despite all my insistence that I wasn’t going to run, I dug my heels into the ground and sprinted as fast as my little legs could take me.
Tennessee leapt off the front porch with Michael’s sword gripped in his hand.
“No!” Papaw Frost shouted over my shoulder a split second before his black smoke shot by me. “Back!”
His magic wrapped around Tenn and he vanished before his feet had ever touched the ground.
Squishy the fire doggo chased several demons out the front door.
A giant moth-looking demon with four wings crashed through the front windows and landed on the porch.
Bentley hopped out the broken window and slammed with lava-covered hands into the demon’s side. It hissed then melted into goo.
I was just trying to make it to the girls, they were too little for this.
Too inexperienced. And Constance was pregnant.
I raced through the front door, which was now hanging by one hinge, and found Constance and the girls ducked behind the dining room table which had been tossed onto its side.
Daniel stood in front of the table with a gnarly sword that did not match his tortoiseshell glasses.
He was trying to fight the demons off, slicing left and right without delivering a single kill.
There was a roar like a train behind me.
I glanced back and cursed. A dozen demons barrelled through the front wall, sending dust and rubble everywhere.
I dove for the ground and because it was Holy Ground none of their feet even touched me as they charged over me…
straight for the most innocent little family.
Daniel’s eyes went wide with fear. His jaw dropped.
Constance crouched behind the table with a sword in hand, looking green in the skin, with the girls crying at her back.
Light flashed from her forearm and my heart stopped.
Her XI Justice Mark jumped off of her arm, floated in the air like little neon signs, and then landed on Daniel’s forearm.
They both gasped and looked at each other’s arms. Constance’s Mark was gray. Daniel’s was black.
“CRYSTAL WALL!” I screamed.
Daniel’s eyes widened but he threw his hands up and screamed and a wall of black obsidian crystal shot up from between the hardwood floors behind him and went straight to the ceiling. Constance and the girls were barricaded behind it.
He turned wide eyes to me and thrust his hands out like he was Spider-man. Razor sharp crystals of every color fired like bullets into oncoming demons. Finally, the house fell silent but the carnage outside was growing louder. Daniel leapt forward and dragged me to my feet.
I waved him on. “Go, go, go!”
He didn’t hesitate, he bolted right out the now open wall and into the chaos.
His crystal bullets had excellent precision and zero mercy.
I hated how weak the Unseelies had made me.
My mangled hands didn’t work for shit now.
All I could manage was to summon the dead but my once endless connection to the dead was now very, very limited.
I hurried out to his side then pointed behind us. “Seal the house!”
Daniel spun and threw his hands up to the sky. Another black obsidian wall sealed the house in, replacing the wall the demons had knocked down.
“TEGAN!” Papaw Frost shouted. “CLOSE IT!”
She needed to close the portal. It was strange she hadn’t, it was very unlike her. We all turned to look for her at the same time. And then there was screaming. Asmodeus held Tegan off the ground by her throat. She kicked her legs and dug her nails into his arm yet he didn’t budge.
“TEGAN!”
We were all screaming her name and racing towards her, abandoning all of our defense against the demons. Her skin was turning blue.
“What’s happening? Where is she?” Emersyn shrieked in a panic. She was throwing flames left and right at anything that moved. Several of our own Coven-members had to dodge her fire. “Which way? TEGAN?”
Son of a bitch. She’s gonna burn everything.
The only people capable of containing Emersyn’s flames weren’t here.
Bettina and Deacon were both down. Tegan was busy trying to breathe.
Papaw Frost and sent Tenn somewhere. I flicked my wrists to summon my creepy crawlies but it just kept flickering out like a candle wick in a breeze.
“PAPAW FROST!”
He growled and black smoke shot over my head that slammed into Emersyn’s flames and sent them soaring into the morning sky. Devon’s astral projections rushed to her daughter like a small army of her own but Asmodeus just flicked them all away.
Then he turned and with one hand fired those horrifying neon green magic bullets, the same ones that killed half a dozen of us in the battle with king fuckface.
If not for Riah we would’ve lost them all in the blink of an eye.
Dad flew across the field in his tiny dragon form, dodging the green bullets by tucking his wings in.
He roared and shot fire into Asmodeus’ face but that seemed to just piss him off.
He’d turned his focus on trying to hit dad yet hadn’t loosened his grip on Tegan’s throat at all.
“NO!” I screamed as my whole body locked up in panic. “DAD!”
But Mamaw leapt in front of him and threw up her arms so the long draped sleeves of the black cloak absorbed all of his bullets.
Papaw Frost growled. Mamaw Franks sent a neon blue tidal wave rolling across the courtyard.
Papaw Frost’s black smoke swirled in my peripheral vision, I couldn’t take my eyes off my father dancing through those murder bullets.
Tennessee lunged out of the black smoke with Michael’s sword already in his hand.
He didn’t hesitate a fraction of a second, he just raised the sword and fired blazing white-hot Heavenly magic straight into Asmodeus’ free hand.
He bellowed and staggered back, his right hand covered in white flames.
Tenn fired another shot that hit Asmodeus’ other arm, right in the elbow, forcing his hand to release its grip on Tegan’s throat.
She dropped to the ground in a lump.
Tenn fired another shot of Heavenly magic straight into Asmodeus’ chest. Papaw Frost’s black smoke swallowed Tenn whole again.
Tenn’s screaming echoed through the air.
Asmodeus roared, his body on Heavenly fire in three places.
Soneillon dove head-first through Tegan’s still open portal.
Mamaw Franks blasted Azazel in the face with her pink magic hard enough that he flew backwards into the portal.
Reuelle slid to a stop behind her soulmate and grabbed him by the hair at the exact same moment Tegan finally pushed onto all fours.
Asmodeus swung his long leg in the air, revealing a sharp point of a blade sticking out from the toe.
A hidden dagger. We all watched in horrifying slow motion as that blade swung in a perfect arc right for Tegan.
A dark cloud wrapped around the fallen angel’s face.
Thiago jumped up between him and Tegan and shoved her out of the way — just as Asmodeus’ shoe blade sliced through Thiago’s throat.
Blood sprayed like a hose as Thiago dropped to the ground.
Reuelle yanked her soulmate through the portal and it closed behind them.
There were no more demons. No more fallen angels.
Just us … and Thiago bleeding out. Tegan screamed and dove for him, swatting his hands away so she could shove her own against his wound.
We were all racing for him as if there was anything we could do.
Thiago’s soul glowed a bright blue around his body, ready to leave this realm.
I slid in beside Tegan and dropped to my knees then slammed my hands into Thiago’s chest. “Bad soul. Stay soul.”
Thiago’s bright eyes were wide in panic.
His arms and legs flailed around. He gasped for breath as tears pooled in his eyes.
Blood pooled in Tegan’s hands so thick I couldn’t even see her fingers.
Royce dropped down beside me, taking his boyfriend’s face in his hands.
He couldn’t speak but I knew he was mouthing words to him.
Hunter sent a wave of golden magic over us all to try and calm us but all it did was make Thiago stop flailing. His body began to tremble.
“Hang on, Thiago. Just hang on, we’ll get you help,” Tenn said with a rough, thick voice. He gripped Thiago’s other hand with both of his. “Someone get Katherine—”
“Call Riah!” Warner shouted from behind me.
Tegan shook her head. “I can’t hold this much longer—”
“Katherine! MYRTLE!”
I shook my head. “They can’t help him,” I heard myself say.
Tears slid from the corners of Thiago’s eyes onto the grass beneath him.
He knew what I did. There was no fixing this.
Even if Riah was sitting beside us right that moment he wouldn’t have been able to fix it.
His healing had limitations. I’d become super obsessed with how his magic worked after he’d healed us in the past but that knowledge robbed me of hope.
Thiago would already be dead if not for Tegan holding his blood in his body.
“Everest.” Tegan whimpered. “One of you angels. Someone tell me we can save him.”
“We can’t,” I heard myself whisper. “His soul is ready.”
Mamaw Franks let out a ragged sigh. “She’s right. Thiago, I’m so sorry. There’s no magic from Earth or Heaven that can fix this—”
“Everest,” Braison whispered in a rush. “Everest, can you—”
“Maybe.” Papaw Frost dropped to his knees on the other side of Tegan, pushing Tenn a little out of the way. He leaned over Thiago, inspecting the gnarly gaping wound in his throat. He cursed. “Thiago, I can’t promise it’ll work but it’s the only chance you have to survive—”
“What?” Thiago breathed.
“I can try and turn you. That’s what I did for Braison.”
“Vampire?” His words were barely audible. His soul was glowing brighter by the second.
“Hurry,” I whispered.
“Thiago, would you like me to turn you into a vampire?” Papaw Frost’s voice was calm and steady. He was truly going to let him decide.
“Let him, Thiago. It’s worth it. I promise, it’s not bad at all,” Braison said in a rush.
Thiago’s blue eyes held Papaw Frost’s. His nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. “Turn me,” he croaked.
Papaw Frost lunged forward and sank his double set of fangs into Thiago’s throat.
His blue eyes widened. Braison and Malik rushed over and took his hands from Royce and Tenn.
Thiago’s back arched and then his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
Black smoke burst from within his open neck wound like a broken dam.
It billowed out and down to the grass, coiling around Thiago’s body.
The smoke covered every inch of his skin, then seeped into his body.
Thiago’s skin was naturally a deeply tanned, soft brown color, but as soon as that smoke got inside of him, every single one of his veins turned jet black from head to toe.
Papaw Frost waved his hand and the rest of us slid back a few feet, except for Braison and Malik.
They squeezed his hands so tight their knuckles turned white.
They whispered things to him, I couldn’t make it out but I felt their supportive auras.
Thiago curled onto his side and wretched.
The wound had stopped bleeding. In fact, the wound was gone.
His muscles flexed and pulsed. A loud growl ripped through his chest then between his clenched teeth.
The black veins glowed a bright, neon-red.
Thiago threw his head back and gasped.
Pearly white fangs filled his open mouth.
The glowing red veins faded away, leaving behind a rich, vibrant light-brown shade to his skin that had not quite been there before.
The muscles in his arms, shoulders, and neck were visible tighter as if Michelangelo himself had just been working on him with a chisel.
For a moment, Thiago just breathed deep, ragged breaths.
His chest was rising and falling rapidly.
His long wavy hair had been a nice brown before but now the strands looked like milk chocolate.
Braison and Malik had not released their grip on his hands. Royce’s voice had not returned but I didn’t need ears to hear the pain in cries. He was trembling in Henley’s arms. Tenn was now on the other side of me, holding a still gasping Tegan against his chest.
Then Thiago opened his eyes and my heart skipped beats. His pretty light blue eyes now looked like ice . . . and rimmed with red.