Ronen
Chapter
Thirty-Two
Demons surrounded them—fully transitioned infected Damned.
Horns jutted from half their skulls. Gray skin peeled from their grotesque faces, the ebony veins shooting through their exposed muscle highlighted by the Eternal Forest. They tittered and hissed; some even tried to talk over Rune’s snarls.
She whipped back and forth over the prone pet, trying to protect him and herself from the six advancing infected.
Don’t bite them or take in their blood. In fact, try not to let them touch you, I ordered.
Which made killing them even harder.
A vengeful part of me, still seeking the pet’s blood, wanted to tell Rune to run and let them have him. If only she’d listen, and we didn’t need to eradicate this filth. Or most of them.
Before I lost the element of surprise, I pulled in my shadows, then luscelered and attacked two demons approaching Rune’s back. My blades cleaved through their necks, fast and powerful. Their remains sifted into my blade, and any blood that might’ve fallen was absorbed.
Three of them moved back as one, as if all connected to the same cord. But the fourth stayed put, a familiar gray smoke swelling in his hand.
“Ridigar,” I seethed.
The evidence of his betrayal marked his flesh in a bright red line splitting his dark face. The crimson skin matched the red horns jutting from his white hair and bleeding into his eyes. He was the only infected who still had clarity in his gaze and skin that wasn’t molting.
“Hello, General,” he rasped with a toothy grin. “I knew it wouldn’t take you long to figure it out. But longer than I thought.”
“Where is Cecilee?”
“Dead. A necessary casualty. Couldn’t control her. We’re not keen on exposure.”
Damnit.
“Who is we?” I demanded.
Ridigar shook his head. “You’ll never figure it out. But ask a different question. Maybe I’ll enlighten you.”
“Why betray us?”
“Oh.” He laughed, the sound grating on my ears. “This one’s fun. We’re going to be the next rulers of Hell.”
A sharp piece of ice formed in his smokeless hand.
My ears rang as I stared at Lucifer and Lucille’s power displayed in his palm.
Rune let out a fierce growl.
I twisted to find two new infected going for the pet’s neck. I smashed my boot into the face of the one on the right, throwing it back. Rune latched onto the infected’s collar on the left, dragging him off the pet before his teeth could puncture.
I sliced my blade through the infected’s neck, then moved to Rune. My blades sang through the air. Its head toppled for a second, turned to dust, then vanished.
Rune sent one sharp pulse of warning—shield.
I threw up a shadow barrier just as Ridigar’s toxic smoke enveloped us.
My vision turned thermal.
Ridigar and the other demons’ cold signatures were barely visible, disrupted by the particles surrounding them. They all but disappeared when his smoke lightly probed my shadows, seeking a way to slip in. He knew he couldn’t, hence the little effort he exerted.
We were safe from his noxious air.
For now.
“It’s funny. Normally, I’d be running by now, scared your shadows would take my blood and make me your servant. But they haven’t touched me yet. Any of us, in fact. I wonder why that is, General?”
His cocky tone had me gritting my teeth and readying my swords.
Ridigar crept up to the dense darkness separating us, his dull blue body becoming more visible.
In my infrared vision, his veins glowed green, warm and alive with blood that wasn’t his.
The dark icicle pressed against his wrist. Bright green, almost yellow blood gathered at the puncture site, pooling and dripping onto the ground.
The grass that had been a vibrant yellow turned dark blue, then black with every additional drop.
I controlled what my shadows absorbed by altering their density. Knowing what Ridigar planned to do shouldn’t concern me, but after the sight in the Eternal Forest and witnessing what he’d just done to the ground, I doubted my abilities.
“Did you happen to discover the secret about their second experiment?”
Get ready to hold your breath, Rune.
Worry pulsed through our bond, along with disapproval.
I am not risking our lives for the pet. What else would you have me do? I snapped.
We had no other option. At least if his smoke engulfed us, it’d buy us a few minutes to kill him.
Rune flanked the pet’s side, and I covered hers.
“Wonder how much praise I’d get for taking out Hell’s untouchable general. Maybe they’d promote me to Hell’s new king.”
Ridigar raised his wrist, I dropped my shadows, and a gray cloud swarmed us—thick and cloying.
I swung my swords toward his neck as my infrared vision distorted, slicing through the air. His blue signature faded in the smoke. I tried to follow, searching through the haze and wasting precious time.
I thought they’d attack, or at least go after the pet.
They targeted him before.
They were waiting us out.
We had minutes. They had all the time in the world to hide until we collapsed.
I luscelered toward where I thought Ridigar’s signature had faded, only to find more smoke.
Lucille’s panic drove through my chest.
Either she woke to the pet missing, or she could feel his pain.
Fuck.
I luscelered again and again.
Seconds ticked by.
Pressure squeezed my lungs, and a cold sweat beaded down my neck. I could feel the painful strain from Rune reaching a point of no return.
Rune, don’t!
I followed our connection back to her.
She inhaled and choked on the smoke.
I shut out the pain in her lungs, seconds away from taking my own breath.
Rune collapsed.
Fuck!
Desperate, on the brink of sending my shadows spearing in every direction, someone coughed, and a hand grabbed my ankle.
My sword whipped toward the source, the tip stopping right at the pet’s colorfully warm signature.
He continued to gasp and cough, and his body quickly transitioned from orange to red to white.
“Shield,” he wheezed, releasing me.
I surrounded me and Rune in thick shadows, enclosing some of the smoke with us.
Then white flames burst around my shadows, pushing outward. The sphere hit the hazy particles and… disappeared.
The pet inhaled, sudden and sharp.
Before I sank to my knees, I released our coverage. Ridigar’s smoke fell out, scattering like harmless fog across the ground, and blistering heat sent my uniform into a sharp cooling descent.
I coughed and took in a lungful of semi-fresh air.
Three blue forms luscelered from behind the trees as the pet’s flames searched and destroyed. Two lit up like supernovas, ceasing to exist. The other fled, becoming a speck of color before vanishing into the trees.
Unfortunately, I had a feeling it wasn’t Ridigar who died.
My feet twitched with the urge to follow. This was my chance.
Then Ridigar’s words slithered into my head.
We’re not keen on exposure.
No, they weren’t.
They went to great lengths to hide, which meant they probably had security measures in place if we followed, and they had a specific purpose for risking exposure now.
I glanced at the pet.
They wanted him dead.
Why?
And how did they know we’d be here?
I switched to my normal vision and resheathed one of my swords.
You okay? I asked Rune as she lay on the ground panting.
She sent me confirmation. Her lungs still burned, but she’d be fine.
Good. Keep your eyes peeled for lingering threats.
But I was certain Ridigar wouldn’t be back.
He had just witnessed the first angel ever to destroy his smoke. He no longer had the upper hand.
And that just made the pet ten times more valuable.
I grabbed him by his uniform, lifted him, and slammed him against the closest tree, pressing my blade against his neck.
Blood and skin sizzled on the dark steel as he coughed.
“Why?” I seethed. “Why save us when you could’ve gotten the end you wanted?”
“Lucille.”
I stared at the male who sexually manipulated my cordistella. Who did horrendous things because of a rune placed on him, created by my feather. Who had just as rotten a soul as mine.
“Why do you keep getting up?” I pressed.
He paused, meeting my knowing gaze with one that was broken.
“Her,” he uttered so softly it nearly faded from his tongue.
“She’s what we call your spark. Your one thing. In all intents and purposes, disregarding your bond, she’s keeping you breathing.”
Something white flickered in my peripheral vision.
Shocked awe flooded my connection with Rune, a feeling I’d never felt from my Soulhound.
I whipped my head to the side.
My sword lowered with my disbelief.
His skeletal body shifted, staring me dead in the eye with the same irises as the pet. They challenged me, daring me to question his choice.
The biggest unbound male Soulhound I had ever seen picked the pet as his soul-bind.
The universe—or maybe even Gabriel—had to be playing a sick joke on me.
That was the only explanation for what sat in front of Rune, towering over her.
I’d read every book possible on Soulhounds when Rune showed up in my life. They searched for hundreds of years to find a worthy soul. They didn’t care about power, prestige, or personality. They only cared about the essence that made us, that drove our thoughts, our actions—who we were at our core.
Somehow, Soulhounds could sense it.
And for whatever reason, one found the pet deserving.
I tilted my head toward the lightening sky.
Why, Gabriel? What do they see that I don’t?
And I swore I heard his voice slither through my mind in his solemn, consoling timbre.
What Rune saw in you. This is his second chance at life, Ronen. You were forgiven for worse. Will you really deny him the same, just because you fear he might be better than you?
I wanted to bellow into my mind that he was wrong. I didn’t fear that the pet was better than me. But it was a lie, and I didn’t know how to come to terms with that.