Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
“Dom, so good of you to find me,” the creature known as Leviathan said.
Dom had never been so close to a demon this powerful in the past. The effect of his voice was visceral.
It grated at the same time as it mesmerized.
In his accent and diction, which was no longer masked as “Ian,” Leviathan projected a power far beyond that of previous demons Dom had met.
Yet, this was still just another demon. This was an evil he needed to cast from this world and back to the underworld where it belonged.
“Do I call you Ian? Or do you prefer Leviathan?”
It disappeared.
No sign of Evie outside the abandoned church. He sensed her nearby.
He traced her to a dimly lit room on a second floor.
She’d been secured to a chair and seemed relatively unharmed.
A check for auras detected the Lanzo boys arriving.
He needed to trust the technology Flynn had attached to his inner shirt, which was some sort of tracking device, and the earpiece that allowed Efrem to hear everything.
The demon manifested a dark blade out of thin air and pressed it to Evie’s throat. “I always liked the name ‘Prince of Darkness’.”
“Bit of a mouthful.” Dom made no quick movements. His job wasn’t to eliminate this creature. He needed to distract it until the minion demons outside were eliminated by the Lanzo brothers. “What happened to my brother? Did he conjure you?”
“That neurotic prick wouldn’t have had the balls.”
Weight lifted off him. At least his brother hadn’t crossed the line into darkness. He may have gotten killed by it, though. He forced emotion out of his voice to ask, “Is he dead?”
The demon took on a strange expression, but didn’t answer.
Maybe Marick wasn’t dead. Dom’s heart lurched. “Where is he?”
“Maybe he’s dead. Maybe he’s not,” it said cryptically.
He’d ponder the whereabouts of Marik later. “What’s the purpose of this drama?”
The demon tracked the knife along Evie’s neck.
She didn’t crane away. “He thinks I fear death. He also thinks you will dance for him over fear of my death. He’s been misled.”
The demon gripped her hair to yank her neck backward and force eye contact with her. “Be quiet.”
Her lips broke into a smile. “He thinks you’re obsessed with me.
” A low chuckle came out of her. “Thinks we’re even lovers.
Come on, Prince of Darkness.” She lowered her tone.
“That is a mouthful, Your Highness.” Then said louder, “How could you think someone like Dom would vow celibacy and then chuck it aside for a spicy piece like me?”
Dom stilled and batted down his emotions. He carefully shielded his thoughts while he worked through possibilities. The demon knew nothing precise about them, it seemed. That meant Dojin had remained true to his word not to divulge the reality of what he felt for Evie. That mage had known.
“Tell me, Evie,” the demon demanded. “Why did he follow you around like a lapdog for over a century?”
“The Fates told him to do it. He’s not my lapdog. He’s theirs.”
She was masterful. Dom would give her that.
In a blink, all Evie’s bindings disappeared. The demon yanked her to stand. “Then he won’t care if I cut out your heart.”
The demon plunged his knife directly into her chest.
Dom lunged forward to catch her when the demon pushed her toward him, but in doing so, gave the demon an opening. It cried out its triumph as it rammed a second blade through Dom’s chest.
He ignored the burning blade, which must’ve missed his heart by centimeters. He clawed to pull away Evie’s clothes. There was no blood, no wound…there was only a tattoo of the Madonna grinning at him. It had protected her. Good.
He pulled the knife from his own chest, but burning pain remained. Poison.
The door blasted open so hard, the wood shattered off its hinges when it hit the wall.
Efrem stepped inside with a bag over one shoulder and a shotgun aimed at Leviathan. He shot.
Dom didn’t pay attention as he gathered Evie to him.
“Perfect.” The demon laughed as the bullets bounced off him. “Now, my dear, will you please do the honors?”
Cora entered from the now doorless entry. She held up a piece of parchment.
“Let’s get this curse done the right way,” the demon said.
Dom yelled, “Cora, don’t—”
The demon snapped a finger. “Silence from all but her, please.”
Dom tried to speak but found his voice absent.
“With these words so written by the Darkness Prince will this blood bind.” With a hand in the air in a universal “pause” sign, the witch whipped around. “All is frozen. Unwind it as we practiced.”
A small girl with curly black hair peeked around Efrem. Time had been frozen for all around them except Cora, Dom, and this child, who emitted a strong mage magic.
Bands and lines of magic turned colors of blue and gold where they almost reached him, Evie, and Efrem. The little girl danced around the bands, untangling this one and tangling that one.
She returned to stand behind Cora. “It’s done. He’ll be in the middle of the pentagram.”
“Get behind me. Stay still.” Once the girl was hidden behind her, Cora closed her fist. “Bind and return to whence you came, never to emerge from your home.” A pentagram lit the floor in orange light around Leviathan.
“What did you do?” The demon’s form shuddered. “I trusted you.” It pushed to move, but was trapped in the center of the light.
Cora clucked. “You trusted a witch when you were messing with her family. Bad decision.”
Evie hovered over Dom. “Don’t you dare die, not when this is about to get good. If you can, heal yourself. Don’t freak out about this next part.” She yelled to Efrem, “Fight or die time, love.”
He threw her a gun. She checked it. “You didn’t load it with the pink cartridges. It didn’t work before because you used the gray ones. That’s for humans. The pink is for demons.”
He tossed her a pink bandolier from which she quickly loaded the shot gun.
She glanced up at the four demons crawling along the walls. Minor demons, but still dangerous. She called out, “Lyra, be a dear and get the one up there to your right. Are you loaded with the pink ones?”
The little girl aimed her shotgun with a deftness that spoke of much practice. She fired at the demon and reloaded.
“Bit off center. Get it in the head, darling,” Evie advised before she shot twice in quick succession to blast two other demons crawling along the walls.
Efrem proceeded to shoot the others, reloading quickly. Demons crawled out of the corners like ants.
“I got it, Mom!” The little girl fist pumped. She had placed a solid head shot in the one she’d been assigned.
“Excellent work, darling. Keep going.”
Dom’s world skidded to a halt. Mom?
His vision clouded. He couldn’t breathe to the point he almost toppled over.
The girl had dark curly hair, kind of like his mother. She looked about five or six, which would put her… No. He gripped his chest to sit up. “Tell me she’s not—”
Evie pushed him to the ground. “Not now. You focus on healing your chest. I’ve got this.” She shot Leviathan several times, but her hits did nothing.
The four Lanzo brothers appeared.
“It won’t die from the bullets,” Evie announced.
“I don’t think I can banish something like that,” Roman said. “I’ll try.” He muttered words in Latin and threw water and herbs at Leviathan.
The demon laughed. It struggled inside its bond of the pentagram.
“What are we supposed to do with it?” Evie asked. “Anyone have a suggestion?”
Headshakes all around.
Dom shrugged.
“Hurry up,” Cora advised. “I can’t hold him much longer.”
Evie whispered something to herself, which sounded like she was speaking to her own tattoo.
“You better figure out something fast,” Cora groaned. Her hands shook. “He’s weakening the lines.”
“I know someone who can help,” the little girl said.
“Now isn’t the time for rainbows and glitter,” Roman grumped. “Why are you here?”
“Quit being a jerk.” The child punched him in the thigh. “I shot a demon.”
“Just one?” Roman asked sarcastically.
“I can phone a friend,” the child offered.
“Like who?” Roman taunted. “Maybe God?”
“This isn’t his thing to deal with, but I could phone him if you’d like.” She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Give me a phone. I know who can take care of this.”
Roman put a smartphone in her hands. “Impress me, squirt.”
“Don’t call me that.” She put the phone to her ear after dialing.
“I found what you lost.” There was silence.
“He tried to kill my mom. I don’t like him.
You will come take it back or you can’t come to tea with us anymore.
” Another silence. “Fine. Both of you this week at four, but this time you have to bring the food. It must be good food. Nothing burnt.” She handed the phone back to Roman while the room stared at her.
“He said he’d be here as soon as he could. ”
“Who was that?” Roman asked.
In strolled a being with wavy, shoulder-length brown hair with streaks of white and teal.
His jeans had Spanish stencil designs in spirals of white up and down both legs, which barely showed beneath a flowy brown silk coat tied with a loose belt at the waist. The coat V’d deeply over his naked chest to show a mishmash of tattoos that glowed red and yellow as if backlit.
Silver rings adorned most of his fingers.
The newcomer clapped his hands together in a way that showed off his manicured nails that were painted a dark brown.
“Ah, the chosen guardians and their communicator.” His gaze shot to the child, to whom he gave a small head nod.
Then he stalked toward the demon. “Levi, what am I going to do with you? Disappearing for what? Almost ninety years?”
Leviathan sputtered, “I can explain, my Lord. Please…don’t—”
“You expect mercy?” He chuckled a low dark sound that resounded in Dom’s gut.
He found himself holding his breath to avoid notice from this creature.
“If you wanted that, you should have let me in on your little plan to eradicate a bunch of nonhumans. They are not ours to play with. In case you forgot our doctrine, you can do whatever you want with humans, but these creatures are regulated by other forces. For special idiots like you who forget the rules and defy me…” He pushed his long hair away from his face and waved at the pentagram entrapping the demon.
He walked into the center of it and grabbed Leviathan by the neck.
“For forcing me to come up here where it’s so bloody cold, you will learn the meaning of misery. ”
“Let these lycans destroy me. Just…not you. Please, they can do whatever they want to me.”
“You’re returning with me. I’m going to have my dog eat your wings off every day for the next millennia, after which you’ll be cast into the fire pit. We’ll make bets on how loud you’ll scream. When we bore of that, maybe I’ll let them choose different animals to chew you to pieces every day.”
“No,” it choked out. “Please.”
“How we’ve longed for new sport.” He threw his head back and laughed. He snapped his fingers. Leviathan disappeared. As he strolled out of the room, he pointed at Lyra.
Before he spoke, she threw her shoulders back and snapped, “Teacakes. If you forget again, I won’t allow you over anymore.”
“I’ll bring them. Make sure He comes. We weren’t done with our discussion.” He strolled out the door.
“Who was that?” Roman whispered.
“Lucifer,” Evie announced. “It appears your sister invites genuine deities to tea every week. You better be nice to her. She’ll have God to tea as well this week, it seems.”