Chapter 6 #2
“Yes, I do. Lift the Veil like you did at your office. I need to see what I’m fighting.”
His hand slapped over her forehead. Oh, God, he was right.
Just the sight of it turned her stomach.
Its eyes glowed red, like the embers of hell.
Its skin was a bit like the Elemental’s, only earth brown and mottled like water-stained leather.
Its nails were like something out of a Freddy Krueger movie.
Books rained down on it. Though they fell right through its body, it flinched in pain and looked up. One of those Elementals sat atop the shelf, its heart-shaped face tight with anger as it pushed down more books.
The demon reached toward the creature, its arms stretching like rubber.
The Elemental tried to duck away, but those arms looped around it and brought it down to the demon’s level.
The Elemental screamed and then fell silent as the demon tore its head off with teeth as sharp and long as its claws.
The demon dropped its body and focused on them again.
The Elemental had been trying to help! Outrage filled her, and she tore out of Cyn’s grasp, only to lose sight of the demon that, in a moment of insanity, she thought she could make pay.
Something clamped onto her sides, two hands, she guessed by the claws that dug into her.
A rush of heat washed against her side as she tried to pry those hands off her.
Suddenly the hands released her and something came between her and the demon.
Something big, black. With scales. Spines that fanned back over its head. And fangs like a saber-toothed tiger.
The room spun as she staggered back and held onto the edge of a bookcase for support. Cyntag no longer stood there. What was there stole her breath away.
A dragon. A friggin’ dragon.
“Get farther back, Ruby.”
Cyntag’s voice came from the dragon. Had it eaten him? His pants lay in a heap, his shirt tattered on the floor.
Maybe it had.
Blue spikes studded the dragon’s spine between two wings tucked against its back.
It spun around, eyeing something behind her.
She could only stare at the beast, larger than a horse.
The dim light shimmered across its scales as it moved.
It lunged forward, expelling sinuous black smoke.
She saw the outline of the demon in the smoke, its long arms snaking toward the Dragon’s muzzle.
The dragon thrashed its head back and forth, knocking into the rows of shelves and sending them crashing down. She was leaning against one of them, so she snapped out of her terror and moved before she went down with it.
She felt the creepy heat again, the breath she’d been feeling since leaving Mon’s house. That thing had been with her the whole time. Fear and revulsion rolled through her. The dragon’s head lunged toward her, freezing her as glistening fangs came close.
Though terror should have claimed her as the dark blue eyes of the beast held her gaze, she felt a longing ache. The Dragon Prince.
It turned, its teeth snapping at the demon that was now obviously near its tail.
That tail whipped around, knocking a cart several yards away and scattering the books it had contained.
The dragon snapped at the demon that must be climbing up its back by the way the spines were bending.
If only she could see the damned thing. The dragon threw itself at another shelving unit, obviously trying to dislodge it.
Suddenly, the beast’s head pulled back at a painful angle.
Do something!
Where was her gun? She couldn’t see it among the piles of books.
Frantically she started digging through them, gratefully wrapping her fingers over the cool metal.
She aimed just above the dragon. The demon felt the books when the poor creature dropped them.
How about a bullet? She jerked with the release, holding strong.
The bullet hit the wall a short distance away.
Something sucked the air from her lungs, like a vacuum hose shoved down her throat. She dropped to her knees, gasping and clawing at her throat. What was the demon doing to her? Not strangling her, because she couldn’t feel its hands.
The dragon bumped her, throwing her to the side and ending the horrible asphyxiation.
She struggled to her hands and knees, hearing the sounds of battle just out of sight.
Then the roar of an explosion. A puff of black smoke rose to the ceiling.
Her ears rang in the sudden silence. Who had won? Or, gawd, had they both combusted?
She could barely move, her body a pile of rubber. She crawled around the piles toward the source of that disturbing smoke. The silence was deafening, filled with fear about who—or what—stood on the other side.
Cyntag stepped into view, wearing his white pants and holding the tattered shirt. “We have to get out of here.”
She got to her feet, scooping up her gun with shaking fingers. “You’re a… were a…” She rubbed her forehead. “I’ve gone bonkers like my grandfather.” Her legs could barely hold her up.
Cyntag took her hand and led her through the wreckage, commenting on neither of her statements.
She glanced back to where the Elemental had died. “Is it there? The creature who died?”
He paused. “Yes. Its body will fade away.” He tugged her out the broken back door to where an old black Thunderbird was parked at an angle.
“Are you all right to drive?” he asked. “You need to follow me back to the dojo. We have a lot to cover and not a lot of time to do it.”
“I can drive. I’m crazy, not handicapped.”
“You’re not crazy. You’re just part of the Hidden.”
* * *
Smoke curled up from his untouched cigar as Purcell watched the demon he’d summoned get crushed.
Through a scry orb, Purcell had watched Ruby go to Valeron’s dojo and then storm out a short time later.
Valeron had followed and sabotaged the perfect kill opportunity.
Now Purcell watched the Dragon snatch up the orb.
The window through which he could watch snapped closed, leaving him in the dark room.
Valeron was still protecting Ruby. It baffled Purcell that someone would put their life on the line for a stranger. He would not even do it for someone he knew well. Taking risks for a god was a different matter, of course.
That Fallon, Deuce god of nature, had approached Purcell for assistance was both humbling and gratifying.
Most Deuces brave or desperate enough to appeal to a god had to perform a ceremony with magick-infused driftwood.
In this case, a god needed him. It still awed him, even after all these years.
Last time, he had failed because of Justin, but he would not let Fallon down again.
Fallon had opened the portal to the Dark Side and made the proper introductions.
He had then left the door open so Purcell could access it on his own if it became necessary.
That door, like a holographic image floating in his living room, was unnerving.
Purcell detested having to use it again, but demons were a weapon that could not be traced back to him.
Like the scry orb, the portal was round and hovered a few feet away from him.
The Demon Master appeared in the window.
If Purcell passed him on the sidewalk, he might think the Master a surfer.
His blond hair looked windblown, his skin tanned, eyes a brilliant blue.
Purcell didn’t know if it was a facade or if he was a different sort of demon altogether. He had no interest in asking.
“You’re back,” the Master said, sounding none too enthused.
“Indeed. The demon failed, losing its life to a Dragon. I’m afraid I’m in need of more.”
The Master showed no sadness at the loss. “How many?”
“Three, maybe four, just to be certain. They seem to be easily defeated by this particular Dragon.”
Purcell suffered the Master’s silence for several long moments. Finally he said, “I shall see what is available. And willing.”
A dark shadow moved behind the Master, and a scream like nothing Purcell had ever heard pierced the air just before the window closed.
Purcell knew little about the Dark Side, only that it was in a plane of existence similar to where the gods were trapped.
Most Deuces did not have the courage, nor the connections, to contact the plane populated by demons and other creatures Purcell had only glimpsed in the background.
It was, as the name implied, dark and flat, the way the landscape appeared during a full moon.
Demons sometimes escaped the Dark Side on their own and roamed the Earthly plane, but most were controlled by the Master. Those that got out of control were imprisoned.
The window opened again. Several dark faces lurked behind the Master, their silhouettes etched against the grim landscape.
“I have four that are willing to do your bidding for some bloodlust sport. One is a harbinger.”
“It will work into my plan actually.”
“Do you agree to the Three Tenets?”
“Yes,” Purcell said. They were his responsibility, and he would pay the price should they expose the Hidden. He would supervise them and send them back or terminate them if they broke out of his control. And third, he accepted the danger inherent in dealing with demons.
This was the part he despised. The demons scrambled through the window, their clawed feet scratching on the wood floor as they gathered in front of him, their temporary master.
The harbinger had taken the appearance of a homeless old man.
The others looked as terrifying as the first one he’d taken custody of.
“I have two targets, both Dragon.” He summoned the illusion of Cyntag’s and Ruby’s faces. “He is a powerful Obsidian. The girl is not as strong. Easy target, if she’s not with Cyntag.”
One demon narrowed his red eyes at the image of Cyntag. “He is the one who took out Sed?”