Unleashed, page 8
Swinging around, I faced Zeke and jabbed my finger at him. “The sorcerer’s out there, Zeke.” He raised his eyebrows, and I sighed. “He’s around the side of the building if you have to check. So you better fight worth half a damn. Or so help me, I’ll murder you myself.”
We’d need every last ounce of strength to get us through this fight and then some.
Del
Forcing myself to the window, I tried to wipe away my tiredness and get my head on straight. I couldn’t keep flying off the handle at every attack. We’d never get Amma back that way.
I counted elemental demons of fire and ice, and I’d also recognized a number of the hired hordes each demon lord had at his disposal. Looking at fear demons like them for too long was supposed to drive humans mad. I bit my lip. I couldn’t risk my mates—mate—getting a good look at any of them. They weren’t all human, but they were probably human enough.
“Jaxon, step back from the window.” Of course, the idiot didn’t move an inch—too busy assessing the threat. “Now!” I snapped, dragging him back with as much force as I could manage. “Those demons down there—the weird-looking ones—don’t look at them, or you won’t think right.”
He frowned. “You mean they can affect my mind just by looking at them? Demons can do that shit?”
“Yeah. They’re a whole level worse than succubi and incubi. They get off on turning people into brain-dead zombies.”
“I should shift,” he murmured. “Wolf brains work differently.”
“Yes,” I said, rubbing his arm.
Turning, I ran over to the kitchen and raided the drawers, looking for weapons for me and Tarzi. We’d use our powers, but there was no guarantee the demon lord wouldn’t have warded his mercenaries against us. I’d never thought protection against my charms was possible before I had seen the sorcerer’s spelled wolves, and if he had access to that kind of rare magic, the demon lord was sure to have the same spells at his disposal. A demon like that wouldn’t allow secrets. Knives. Great, they’d do.
Jaxon shifted into wolf form, then he paced the tiles. Each turn, his eyes went to the window and the doors, but I knew it was more than nerves. He was thinking everything through.
Trying to keep myself busy and give them as much information as I could, I spoke aloud, “These are some of the strongest demons—the first to be called to mercenary work and to the demon lord’s horde. They’re like his on-call muscle.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to think through how the hell we got out of this. Again, I peeked through the blinds. One of the fear demons was crawling up the wall, his sharp, thick nails digging into the brick. Fuck. I wouldn’t get much chance, and I didn’t have much time to make a difference here. If any of those demons got too close to my people . . .
I glanced at Tarzi, begging her for ideas. We couldn’t give up now and go back to Earth. Amma was counting on us.
Tarzi had claimed the nearest chair, her eyes closed. “I can feel you watching me,” she said. “I’m on it. I’m getting into as many minds as I can. If I can shove living nightmares at them, they’ll be off their guard. You’ll have to take out the rest from there. But I won’t have a chance of affecting the fear demons. Nightmares are like a night at the movies for them.”
Whoa. Tarzi was such a pacifist, I’d had no idea she could shove nightmares into people that were still awake. She was way more powerful than I’d ever dared think. The ways she could use that power! But that wasn’t important now. We had to focus on surviving this. And if her abilities still worked, we had a chance.
“Thank you.” I tried to put into my tone how much her helping us—fighting—meant to me.
Looking around at all of us, my heart warmed. My people were rallying around me, ready to do battle with some of the worst demons out there. I smiled at Jaxon, shoving thankfulness down our bond. He’d feel that even in wolf form. He didn’t even know what was coming for us—not really—but he was backing me up. I loved him for that. Even Zeke was still here. I’d been half sure he’d have run off by now.
Speak of the devil—he came up to me. “Is it better to be a wolf or in this form?” he asked.
I quickly stepped back. His eyes were so dark, they almost looked black. He was more than ready to do battle, all of his playfulness and wit evaporated. In that “taking no prisoners” frame of mind, he looked so much like his brother when I first met him—like a force of nature. Despite myself, the thought of the twin brothers fighting together had me hot under the collar. Justice and revenge, fighting side by side. They’d be one hell of a force on the battlefield. Yeah, I’d use that.
“Wolf. You’ll be faster with your beast’s senses, and hopefully, it’ll keep the effects of the fear demons off you. Now, I need you and Jaxon to cover the back door. And no fucking arguing. Take out any disagreements on the demons. We have to protect Tarzi for as long as we can. That means no demons get to her. If she can’t concentrate completely, there’s no way she can pull this off.”
Zeke grunted and started shedding his clothes for the shift. I turned away from the expanse of skin. I couldn’t afford to be distracted.
I left my blade on the kitchen counter as a last resort and tore off my clothes at record speed. I had to hold the front door, and I’d need all of my hellhound strength to do it. I channeled her, remembering the smell of brimstone and the stunning heat of her determination and power. She rose to the surface quickly, bursting out of my skin.
I looked down at my paws, watching the smoke drift up from my newly scorched floor. Good. Hell, I could do with burning even more of the floor if it meant a greater chance of me getting to Amma. My hellhound held onto that thought, and suddenly flames peeped out around my paws. Much better. Now to get through these demons to the sorcerer—preferably before Zeke murdered him.
Like they knew we were ready for them, hands and claws battered at the front door. A similar pounding came from the back. Jaxon and Zeke were almost nose to nose—fighting to hold the door like I’d thought they might—wolves in sync.
The front door rattled in its frame, the wood bending with each heavy knock. The lock wouldn’t hold up long under that assault. A similar noise was coming from the back door now, too. I glanced at Tarzi. She was tucked into a corner between me and the boys. I had to hope we could hold the sorcerer’s army off long enough.
A loud slam behind me and two simultaneous growls told me the back door was open and the boys were fighting. I had to trust my men to hold it because my door was almost done for. I could see daylight between thumps. I winced as the door cracked and braced myself. A few hits more and the front door crashed into the wall, and fire demons rushed in. I cursed. They’d planned well. I couldn’t use my fire very effectively against their kind. Though I was the most fireproof of any of us. So I crashed into them with my teeth.
They crowded me, dozens of them. I did my best to hold them back, using the doorway as a choke point.
I ducked a swinging blade. Fuck. Two squeezed past me, rushing toward Tarzi. She looked so defenseless sitting there, eyes closed. My breath hitched. She had to do something. I couldn’t go to her. We’d be overwhelmed in seconds. And the boys didn’t have time to get to her.
I yipped, trying to warn her. Then I took another bite out of the arm of a fire elemental, ripping his muscle to pieces while I waited to hear anything from those demons or Tarzi. Strangely, I didn’t hear so much as a whimper. Why weren’t they fighting? I shoved my demon back into his friends, stealing enough time to glance over there. The two demons who’d got past me were motionless in front of Tarzi, and her eyes were shut, presumably still doing her thing. Another demon was sneaking toward her from the other side—he’d probably got past the boys. I yipped my warning again, but once the demon was within two feet of Tarzi, her eyes snapped open and she flicked her fingers at him. He was out of this reality in a moment, his eyes twitching side to side, staring into space. I had no doubt that, if I could see their faces, the other two would be the same.
Teeth deep in a fiery demon’s neck, I stared at the defenseless demons. That was power, right there. I’d never known how badass my friend was. Go Tarzi!
Filled with new energy and—if I admitted it to myself—a need to prove I could do as well as my friend, I slashed out at the demons around me, a whirling tornado of claws and teeth. I could afford to get messy if Tarzi could keep a few off her. And like I’d thought, a few demons got past me once I fought more aggressively. Each time, Tarzi downed them like they were nothing more than motes of dust.
I hauled in breath where I could and clung to the fire of my hellhound, willing my limbs to keep moving, to keep fighting. It didn’t matter how heavy they were and how tired I was. I could ignore the cuts and bruises, and I could dodge the bodies at my feet. I had to have faith we’d get through this.
It could’ve been minutes, but it felt like hours before the stream of demons slowed. I glanced down the street. Fear demons still crowded around the sorcerer or had dug into the side of the building, but the other demons had thinned out. Still, I couldn’t slow down. At any moment, the sorcerer could use his fear demons and take out half of us in one go.
I frowned. Why hadn’t he done that already? He’d know that as well as me, wouldn’t he? Or had the demon lord kept him in the dark? I glanced at the flashy trinket tied around his wrist. It was identical to the one Tarzi had described, and it pulsed with demonic energy. So that was how he used the artifact’s power back on the mountain. And if he didn’t have demon blood, maybe he really didn’t know what he controlled. But even so, demons were a bloodthirsty lot. Why hold back so many of them? This didn’t feel right.
With a brief break in attackers, I turned to find my twins. Zeke had a demon pinned, his teeth worrying at his collarbone, the demon’s neck half torn out. Jaxon was slashing through throats and organs efficiently, keeping the main force from swarming the door.
I turned back to burn a hole through an ice elemental with a sharp spike of hellfire.
A creak behind me made me flinch, but Tarzi’s voice a moment later soothed my worry. She was ready.
Seconds later, all the demons but the horde of fear demons dropped to the ground with the same unseeing, petrified stare as the demons she’d first downed.
I nodded to Tarzi, grinning as much as a hellhound could. We had the best friends. I wished I could tell her I owed her, but her tired smile told me she already knew how I felt.
She plucked a blade from the ground and joined me fighting the demons at the front door, slaughtering several demons trapped within her nightmares. But we hadn’t been at that long when Jaxon called for us.
I rushed over to them, my heart in my mouth, terrified one of them could be bleeding out, only to see the demons—those that could still move—retreating. They rushed to the sorcerer and kept moving through the streets until they were out of sight.
I changed back to human form. I needed my voice for this. I nudged Tarzi’s leg and nodded to the sleepers. “Can you move them, or do we need to kill them all?” I knew they’d been hired to kill us, but it didn’t feel right murdering them all while they stood there like mannequins.
Tarzi gutted one of the last demons still fighting. “I can move them.” Her hands dripped with blood as she directed the sleepers inside my house to their feet, out the door, and after the rest of their brethren. Only the sorcerer and the fear demons remained.
I met his eyes across the space between us and flinched when I felt someone coming up behind me. Zeke brushed against my side as he took his place at the doorway, and his fur bristled as he growled, his teeth dripping with saliva and blood. He snapped his teeth at the sorcerer in an obvious message.
Jaxon rubbed against my other side, but I drew away from them both. Their eyes may be on the sorcerer for now, but those fear demons were still a threat.
I drew all my energy inwards, preparing to use every last ounce of that wonderful morning with my mates as ammunition. Collecting it all felt like stretching an elastic band, further and further. I’d need to push this as far as I could. Fear demons weren’t impervious to hellfire. I just had to create a wall large enough to encircle the whole house. Breathing deeply, I worked on creating a mental image of a fire, encircling us, rippling up the walls without burning them, and encapsulating us in a dome. Breathing in and out, I focused that energy into the world and felt the sharp snap as the energy shot out of me.
I opened my eyes, watching as the fire burst out the front door and rippled out in both directions. It was both beautiful and terrifying that I held that much power inside of me.
I whimpered as I felt its draw on my power and the fire kept coming and coming, needing more fuel to fully encircle the house. I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. My mental image faltered a few times as my energy flagged. The mental concentration needed to hold all this together was intense. I stared at the fragment of the dome I could see, using it as a visual aid to back up my intentions. This was a whole lot bigger than lassoing the sorcerer.
Gritting my teeth, I saw movement through the hellfire wall. A few demons ran past the sorcerer, on fire. One rolled, but hellfire wasn’t put out by mere dirt. The sorcerer saved a few of his demons and walked around the building, perhaps checking how consistent my trap was, but then he cursed and stalked off after his burning demons. He was leaving. My fire faltered. I had to go after him!
Zeke placed his hand on my shoulder. He’d already changed back to human form and slung on his jeans, which made me breathe a little heavier. My concentration and the dome flickered. I was naked, and he was practically naked. Having him stand so close was doing me no good, especially after expending this much energy. He looked like a meal. Still, my eyes roved over his muscled chest and, not wanting to be left out, my hellhound was pleased to tell me how he looked too, her tongue lolling out her mouth like a pup. I shook her off and dropped the fire. The sorcerer had already run out of sight, but I had to find him, find out where Amma was before he got too far.
“I know where she is,” Zeke said.
I stilled, his words taking some time to get through my tired, sluggish brain. He knew where Amma was. Our pack. Was he lying? We didn’t think so. But what would we have to do to get him to help us find her? He wouldn’t give up her location for nothing.
“How could you possibly know where she is?” Jaxon snarled.
I put up my hand, stopping his diatribe in its tracks. “None of that. Let him speak before you yell over him.” Bossing people about didn’t always get good results, and that went double for Zeke.
Zeke inclined his head. “Thank you, Del.” He glanced behind him at the smattering of downed demons. “One of them let something slip when I was chewing on him. Amma’s supposed to be at one of the demon lord’s compounds.”
Jaxon scoffed. “We know that already. How did you talk to him anyway? I didn’t see you shift.”
“It wasn’t a conversation. He was begging for his life.”
“Then maybe you should’ve shifted. You still didn’t get anything good.”
Zeke rolled his hand side to side. “How many of his compounds are over an hour from town and surrounded by sand?”
“Tarzi?” I turned to her; eyebrows raised. She’d know more about how the lords worked than me. Some of her family had worked jobs for them in the past.
She frowned and put up a finger. Then she resettled herself in her chair and went back into her concentrated trance. Ten minutes later, she was back and smiling. “I talked to my cousin. He said only one compound is likely. It’s got a reputation for being somewhere people disappear.”
“Great.” I winced. “Well, good news, I suppose. How do we get there? How do we get in?”
Tarzi sighed. “I tried to convince him to meet us, help us get in, but he said it’s a death trap if you’re not invited. We’d do better waiting for them to move Amma.”
I gritted my teeth and clenched my hands. “No. Who knows what that bastard is doing to her? You heard him talk about succubi being on his staff. She’s just a kid. I can’t leave her in a demon lord’s possession.” And screw the risks.
But shit, Tarzi had already gone against her nature today. Maybe that’s why she was cautioning me. “Tarzi, you’ve done a lot for me already—for all of us. And you’re probably pretty spent after using all that power today. If you wanted to sit this one out, I wouldn’t blame you.”
Tarzi crossed her arms and glared at me. “Del, you’re my best friend, but you’re a complete idiot. Amma was in my care when they took her. There’s no way I’m sitting this one out.” She looked me up and down. “And no offense, but you’re looking worse for wear, too.” She opened her arms. “We need to find somewhere safe and take at least the night to regroup and . . . regain some energy.” She raised her eyebrows, looking between me and Jaxon. “Don’t tell me you’re not running on empty after those fireworks, honey. It’s like you put us in the center of a damn volcano.”
I waved off her concerns. “So, I should just what? Find somewhere to stay for the night and fuck my mate while who knows what is happening to Amma? I mean, they have to be even more pissed now we’ve pushed them back from here.” I shook my head. “That’s mad, and you know it.”
Jaxon cleared his throat and put his arm around my shoulders. “Del, what she’s saying makes a lot of sense. We’ve thrown ourselves into this headfirst so far, and look where it’s got us.”
“We have a location now!” I bit my lip, my inner fire wanting to get out and destroy the people holding Amma, but sense was slowing trickling in, too. Even Zeke had called us reckless for running in against the demon lord—Zeke! He was one of the most reckless people around. I looked at the three of them, and all were watching me like I was a grenade about to go off. Jaxon, the bastard, was even edging in front of the doorway like he expected me to make a run for it. I was totally outnumbered. “Maybe you’re right. It’s my sister. I’m always thinking about her wellbeing first, but . . . we’re beat.” And as my fire and anger retreated with my beast and my adrenaline from the fight, I realized how deep the fatigue went—energy and body.
