“Oh God,” I moaned, “the devil’s listening. He wants you dead, Andre.”
“What’s new?” he said. He rotated to my friends. “Oliver, Leanne, a taxi is coming for you. It’ll drop you off at a nondescript apartment in the city.” He looked down at me. “From here, soulmate, we go it alone.”
The countdown had begun. Now it was a race to save the world.
We’d left Oliver and Leanne back at the ley line, and began sprinting towards Bishopcourt, the place Leanne had foreseen us dying.
Both Andre and I chose to not touch on that topic.
“You know where the quill is?” I said as we ran. It made sense now, why Jericho was so cryptic and so unworried. He left the quill with the one person I was closest to.
“Yes.”
I didn’t bother asking how or where it was. That would only serve to feed the devil more information. Andre would show me, hopefully before it was too late.
It is already too late for him, the devil hissed.
He hadn’t left my mind alone. I could feel him lurking at the back of my eyes, watching, waiting.
We sprinted across the countryside, using our inhuman strength to carry us over fields. By the time we could see Bishopcourt, I could tell we had some big problems on our hands. Angels and demons blanketed the skies. The Politia and dozens upon dozens of other individuals crowded Bishopcourt’s lawn.
“Christo,” Andre swore.
“Was it like this when you left?” I asked.
Andre shook his head. “Many supernaturals had come to our gates, but my men and my coven had held them off.”
Something had obviously changed within a short period of time.
I could see vampires tearing out the throats of humans and demons alike. Demons lashed out at anyone they could, even their own when they got in the way. Angels seemed to focus their attention on the demons, but as I watched, I saw one bring down a vampire. Andre choked back a cry as several other individuals who’d been fighting turned to ash.
We wouldn’t be the only victims the battle claimed tonight.
Stop thinking like that, I chided myself. The future can change. End this quickly enough and no one else has to die.
“The quill’s inside?” I asked. I bit my lip as soon as the words were out. The less I knew, the better.
“We’re going to use a passage you’ve never taken before,” Andre said instead. “Follow me, keep quiet, and try not to attract any attention.”
A.k.a., don’t light up like a Christmas tree.
We ran toward a squat stone fence. Bishopcourt was still a ways away, and from what I could tell, no one had noticed us.
I’ve noticed, consort.
“The devil is still watching,” I said.
Andre began shoving stones away from the wall. “Doesn’t matter.”
Beneath the stones was an old iron door. I could sense the cloaking spells that had long ago been cast, as well as several hexes and a few curses meant for unwelcome intruders.
Andre ripped the door open, the metal screeching as it was forced from its resting spot. I glanced to the battle to see if anyone had noticed, but there were too many beings to account for.
Andre reached for my hand and helped me down into a subterranean passageway. My feet hit the stone floor, and a moment later, Andre’s did as well. He closed the metal hatch as best as he could, and then we were off, my bare feet splashing into puddles.
For Andre’s benefit, I let the siren peek out enough to illuminate where we were going. One of the powers I’d acquired as queen of hell was the ability to see even in absolute dark. Andre, however, even with his night vision, couldn’t see when there were no light sources.
Eventually, we came to the end of the passage. To my dismay, it ended with a wall of brick. If there’d ever been a door here, now it was long gone.
Andre whispered something in what sounded like Romanian, and I felt the release of a spell. He took my hand and pulled me through the wall.
For the merest of moments, I felt like I was trapped under the ground again. But then we stepped out, onto the other side.
I glanced around, my mouth parting in surprise as I took in Andre’s secret library. I studied the wall we’d just come from. It was one of the few areas of the room that was bare of bookshelves or furniture, and now that I could sense magic, I could feel the spell woven into it.
Turning back to the rest of the room, my eyes honed in on the glass case sitting on Andre’s coffee table. In it rested my salvation.
No! The devil’s roar echoed inside me.
I clutched my head. No place to hide from him.
“Soulmate,” Andre said, capturing my hands and lowering them, “if you are ready, use it now.”
I nodded as the last remnants of the devil’s voice died away.
I’d only taken a single step towards the quill when a clap of thunder shook the walls of Bishopcourt.
Andre and I looked at each other.
The devil was here.
Chapter 28
Gabrielle
Andre dashed across the room.
“Where are you going?” Desperation laced my words.
Andre turned to me. He was already at the foot of the stairs that led to his bedroom. “I’m buying you time.”
“Please don’t go.” If he went out there and tried to stop the devil, he could die. The king of the damned was no longer a phantasm; he was a god made into flesh.
In five long strides Andre was across the room, clasping me tight in his arms. He pressed a kiss to my lips.
“I love you. I’ll be all right, soulmate. Use the quill and finish this.”
Andre was being brave. I could be brave too.
I nodded.
Before I had a chance to do anything else, he released me, and in a flash he was gone.
My body went weak with fear.
He’ll be all right. He’ll be all right.
The sooner I ended this, the safer we’d all be.
I dropped to my knees in front of the coffee table and lifted the glass that caged the quill. The sight of it took my breath away. I reached for it, only to hear a growl tear through the hidden tunnel that had led me here.
A moment later, the wall shuddered as something large rammed into it.
I swiveled just in time to see the wall explode inward, brick and plaster clattering to the ground. A plume of dust rose into the air. As it dissipated, a demon stepped through.
First I saw a large clawed foot. My eyes rose, taking in gray, muscular legs and then wide, wide shoulders. The demon’s face was more beast than man, its huge teeth too big for its jaw, its nose nothing more than two slits, and the pupils of its red eyes horizontal.
It—or rather, he (I was studiously ignoring that part of his anatomy)—growled low in his throat.
Today would not be like yesterday. This creature would not hold me down and bleed me. He’d been sent to deliver me back to hell.
We stared at each other for a second, and then the moment popped like a bubble. I lifted my hand as he dove for me, fangs bared.
I threw my power out at him, sending him careening back out the opening he came through.
My gaze darted about the library. I needed a weapon. Andre had to store some here. This room was, after all, a final defense against enemies. If someone else managed to break in, Andre would have a stash of weapons to defend himself with.
I scanned the walls and shelves, but saw nothing that came close to a lethal instrument.
The demon roared as he got to his feet.
Aw, crap.
I flicked my wrist at a nearby row of books, and using my power, flung them at the demon. He growled and lifted an arm as they smacked into him. With another twist of the wrist I emptied an entire shelf of books, silently apologizing to Andre as some of them exploded into an array of pages.
All I managed to do was piss off a demon and discern that no weapons were hidden behind the books.
I hoped Andre was havi
ng better luck than I was.
Andre
Andre rested a hand on his chair back and waited for the devil in his study. If it was time to end his long life, then he’d do it for Gabrielle. Gladly.
But not without a fight.
Even from here he heard the howling wind rip the front doors open. There were no screams to punctuate the devil’s entrance. Bishopcourt had already emptied itself of its occupants. They’d either fled, or they were now outside, battling for their lives.
Heels clicked against the entryway floor, moving away from where Andre waited until he could barely hear the footfalls. A minute later they returned, making their way towards him. They paused outside the study.
The door crashed open, and the devil stepped inside. The two men stared each other down.
“You can’t have her,” Andre said.
“She’s already mine.”
The devil had a sword sheathed at his waist. He’d come prepared like a mortal might.
The devil clasped his arms behind his back. “Who would’ve known all those centuries ago that it would come to this?” He surveyed the room before his eyes returned to Andre “You’ve made a good life for yourself. Pity it all has to end.”
Andre reached over his shoulders and pulled his swords out. He rolled his wrists, loosening up his arms.
The devil raised an eyebrow but made no move to draw his own weapon. “I granted you not just mercy, Andre; I gave you immortality, a gift other men have died for. Had you lived your mortal life, you would’ve been no one. Your bones would’ve rotted to ashes by now. You wouldn’t have been alive to steal my bond and my mate.”
Andre flared his nostrils. “You stole my father’s soul and damned me with this curse.”
“I didn’t see you regretting my goodwill when you took my queen to bed.” The devil said the words aloofly enough, but an inferno scorched at the back of his eyes. “You are the only reason she rebels, the only reason she fights my will.” The devil’s eyes narrowed. “Can you even fathom how much this angers me? I am Rex Inferna, the king of hell. Legions fall to my feet. Billions fear me; billions more worship me. I am no one’s second choice.”
At that, Ande’s mouth curved into an unpleasant smile. “You are most human’s second choice. That is all you will ever be.”
Now the devil didn’t bother masking the fire blazing in his eyes. He pulled his sword from its scabbard. “The world tilts and changes and yet it comes back to where it all started: you, me, and Old Man Death.”
Gabrielle
The demon grabbed me by the throat and tossed me across the room. I smashed into the coffee table, my body landing on top of the quill’s glass case. It shattered beneath me, and dozens of different shards dug into my back.
I rolled away just as a meaty fist came crashing down, splintering the coffee table where I’d laid not a moment before. I stumbled to my feet, my eyes frantically searching for a weapon. Blood dripped from the nicks on my back. I heard a hiss as at least one drop hit the ground.
Seriously? Can’t a girl catch a break? I thought as another demon began to take shape. This was like fighting a freaking hydra.
Spotting a walking stick in the corner of the room, I called it to me. And then I went Gandalf the Grey on the monster’s ass. I smashed the cane across the demon’s face, whacking him again and again until the staff broke and he collapsed to the ground.
A growl came from behind him as the other demon finished forming. Dropping the remnants of the cane, I ran down an aisle of shelves. I needed a better weapon than a walking stick. Feet pounded at my heels as the demon bore down on me. A hard body slammed into my back, tackling me to the floor.
I fell to all fours, pinned in place by a hulking piece of demonic flesh. If I died now, the world was—pardon my French—so fucked.
Ahead of me, my eyes caught sight of a chest tucked away in a forgotten corner.
Lifting a hand, I levitated it off the ground and catapulted it at the demon holding me down, the one who was giving an evil little laugh now that he had me where he wanted me. The chest beaned him, wood and metal exploding against his flesh. He slumped to the side, half on, half off me.
Praise Jesus and all the baby angels in heaven, a dozen different weapons scattered out of the remains.
Sliding out from under the demon’s deadweight, I lunged for the sword closest to me. In one smooth movement I’d unsheathed it, and in the next I brought it down upon the demon’s neck. His head didn’t have time to roll before he turned to smoke and ash.
I was stalking towards demon number two when I heard the clash of swords in the distance.
And they were getting closer.
Andre
“Doesn’t this feel familiar?” the devil said. He and Andre began circling each other. “Only then you had a pitchfork.”
The devil disappeared. In the next instant Andre felt a boot at his back. It had been a long time since anyone had caught him off-guard. The devil shoved him forward.
Andre didn’t fall, but as he caught himself, the devil twisted his wrist and snatched one of the swords right out from under him.
“Like taking candy from a baby,” the devil said, testing the weapon out in his hand. “And I’d heard so many tales of your skill with a sword.” He backed towards the door, sheathing the sword he’d come with now that he had Andre’s.
Andre followed him, chafing at how easily the devil divested him of one of his weapons. “Wrong sword, Lucifer,” Andre said. “Ask Gabrielle. She can tell you all about my skill with my sword.”
The devil gave a wordless shout, swinging Andre’s stolen weapon at him. Andre smiled as he parried the blow. He’d wanted to get under the devil’s skin, and he’d succeeded.
They fought their way out of Andre’s study. Steel clinked and sparked as their weapons collided with unnatural force. They were blurs, moving down the hall as they traded blows. There was no mistaking where the devil was leading him. Andre’s room got closer and closer, until they were passing through the door. His heart skittered as he caught a whiff of sulfur and the remnants of his soulmate’s blood.
The distraction nearly cost him.
The devil’s stolen sword arced over Andre’s head, ready to split him right down the middle. At the last second he blocked the blow.
Their swords locked. “What a disappointment you would’ve been to your father,” the devil said, “whoring and killing your way through the centuries. Tell me, do you think he would’ve traded his soul for your life if he’d known what you’d do with it?”
Andre slid the devil’s blade away and kicked him in the chest, sending the dark god sliding to the entrance of Andre’s secret library. “You’re going to have to do better than that, Lucifer,” Andre said.
“Andre?”
His blood froze as he heard his soulmate’s call. The devil was between them. Andre wasn’t fool enough to think that she’d already used the quill. If she had, it would be unlikely that he and the devil would still be fighting. And positioned as they all were, Satan could kill her now and their one chance at salvation would evanesce.
The devil seemed to realize this. He smiled at Andre and disappeared.
Andre ran for the doorway, his body doused in fear. It had all been one elaborate trap. The devil wanted Andre to watch his soulmate die, along with the last of his hope and that of the world’s.
Andre stood at the top of the stairs when the devil appeared in front of him, dropping the sword he stole to wrap a hand around the back of Andre’s neck. And then the devil’s other sword was in his hand.
With a hard thrust, he shoved it into Andre’s chest. The blade parted skin and pierced Andre’s heart, exiting through his back.
Andre’s mouth opened, but no words came out. He touched the wooden blade that impaled him and knew he’d indeed been tricked. Only, it wasn’t Gabrielle who would die, and it wasn’t him that would be forced to watch.
The devil clutched him close. “Feel that, vampire? That is dea
th.” He pulled the sword out, the blade making a wet, slick sound. “It won’t be fast, but it will give you enough time to think about what exactly waits for you on the other side.”
Gabrielle
I dropped my sword after the second demon dissipated into smoke and ash. My breaths came in great heaves. The clash of swords grew louder, until it was right above me.
I scrambled through the debris, searching for the quill. Before I came upon it, I heard a familiar voice.
“… to do better than that.”
“Andre?” I called.
Another sinisterly familiar presence tugged at my heart. The devil had already consumed so much of it that I hadn’t noticed that throb of his closeness. He was right up there with Andre.
I couldn’t think about that.
I began turning over the ruins of the coffee table and tossing aside scattered books, my heart pattering like rain on a rooftop.
There.
It shimmered amongst the debris, not a single vane of the feather out of place. It had survived the fight.
Just as my fingers closed in on it, my back arched and pain seized my heart. I clasped the skin over it, gasping for breath. My first thought was that it was my body’s reaction to touching a holy object. Then I heard the devil’s voice and the slick slide of a blade leaving flesh.
My pulse pounded in my ears.
I smelled the blood before I saw it.
Borrowed blood.
Oh God, no.
A moment later a body tumbled down the spiral staircase that led into the library. My knees weakened. “Andre.” I ran, stumbling over my own feet in my haste to get to him.
“Soulmate,” he said. I’d heard that voice say many things in anger, in love, in sadness, in agony. Never had I heard it so weak.
I wound an arm underneath his shoulders. He clutched his chest as I dragged him to the couch. Blood sluggishly seeped between his fingers.
“Why isn’t it healing?” I asked, my voice rising with panic. I had his torso propped on my lap.