Ascension (11 page)

She crouched and sliced the air but the flying thing pulled up out of her reach, careened around the room, flew by Gabriel and retreated back into the shadows.

The two big-headed demons were ugly, but this thing was an abomination. Belinda had called it a banshee. Its body was lithe and supple and its nudity revealed female breasts and a smooth slit between its legs. That is where its beauty ended. The skin was pale gray and the eyes black and hollow. Only two small holes marked the center of its face where a nose should have been. Its mouth gaped open expelling the horrible screams that managed to breach the fingers in his ears. It had long slender legs but in place of arms, leathery wings protruded from its upper body.

The thing cried out again and swooped in for another attack.

Belinda could only use one hand, but she spun and jumped as the banshee drew close. This time she managed to cut its left wing. It screamed again and headed for the ceiling.

He saw now, how Belinda had gained such muscular legs. She’d held her half-crouched position, jumped several feet from the ground and showed no signs of tiring.

His focus was so intent on his fiancée that he missed the shadow that moved over him until the thing landed in front of his face. He stood up and watched as it transformed from a horrible creature into a woman.

She was slim as a girl on the brink of womanhood and her red hair flowed as if caught by wind in spite of the fact that they were indoors. Still completely naked, she stepped closer. Her face was a perfect heart with a button nose and rose, red lips. She spoke to him, but his fingers were still in his ears. She reached out one perfectly human hand in his direction.

He knew he shouldn’t remove his hand from his ear. He remembered someone telling him not to, but he struggled, wanting to take the hand of the beautiful woman in front of him.

Color flashed from the right.

He blinked and shook himself from the trance that had kept him focused on the woman-banshee. Somehow, he’d forgotten what he was there for. He’d lost track of who he was, and almost succumbed to taking the hand of the thing before him. He clutched his ears tighter just as the banshee’s mouth opened and her scream emerged.

Belinda rushed in from the right, still holding her left ear, with a white handkerchief stuck in her right. She sliced through the slim neck of the beautiful woman.

The banshee’s cry was cut short.

Silence descended. The banshee crumpled to the wet floor, a pile of gray flesh and wings. Any resemblance to the red-haired beauty was gone.

Belinda was in front of him. She touched his hands and pulled them away from his ears. “Banshees are shape shifters. They can turn into anything but often choose the form of women since they can charm a man into letting his guard down.

“I nearly took the hand of that creature.”

“It was not your fault. She had you in a trance.”

“She did not affect you?”

“Only men are susceptible to their alluring nature but the sound of their cry can kill anyone or leave the victim in perpetual madness.”

His head was spinning. None of this was possible. It was insane.

Belinda said, “In their human form, it takes a trained demon hunter to pick them out. The eyes are black and they prefer the dark. They rarely enter society in daylight. “

Gabriel looked at the dead banshee. It had returned to its hideous winged form. Pain seared across his forehead to his temples.
It is all too much.

She used the handkerchief to clean banshee blood off her sword then tossed the cloth to the floor.

“Will you not need that again?” he asked.

“There’s never more than one banshee. They do not care for each other. The same as women, I guess. They dislike the competition for a man’s affections.” Belinda grinned.

Reece joined them. “When the banshees started appearing is when the Company realized that we needed to employ women. Men are useless in a battle with them. It is a nasty way to die too.”

Gabriel’s brain began to process information again. There was no sense trying to deny that all of this was real. He had seen it for himself. Demons were in London and Belinda was a demon hunter. Not only that, she was rather magnificent at the job. Pride swelled in his chest. “And they can kill with the noise they make?”

Belinda said, “The sound. The banshee’s cry. It will turn your head inside out. If it does not kill you, you will lose your mind and wind up in an asylum. Nasty creatures.”

“Did you know she would be here?” Gabriel asked.

“No, but I’m prepared for them all the time.”

She turned away and she and Reece moved deeper into the building. Gabriel took her arm and turned her. “I have many questions, Bella.”

She smiled. “You will likely have even more by the time we’re done here tonight.”

He nodded and released her.

They approached a stairway down and Reece took the lead. It was dark and the stench increased as they made their way down. Gabriel pulled his knife from his boot while his eyes adjusted to the lack of light. A hint of a lantern’s light filtered up from the space below.

The room was smaller than the one above. Water and scum flooded the floor and more water seeped from the ceiling. It was as if he’d stumbled into a swamp. At the far end, a group of demons chanted in synchrony. The words were foreign and incomprehensible, but they were so intent on their chanting they didn’t notice the trio’s approach.

“They do not know we’re here,” Gabriel whispered.

Reece answered, “They know. They just do not care. Whatever it is they are chanting for is more important.”

The raised platform was empty. Had there been something there and the ruckus with the banshee had caused it to flee? Could it have been this master that they were seeking?

Demons knelt in the mucky water and chanted. The malleus’s deep voices rumbled. There were twice as many of a smaller demon, which could pass for human, as they were slighter than a man. They were thin limbed with scaly skin and high-pitched voices. Had this been what he had seen Belinda kill the other night?

Reece walked off to the left and circled around in front of the group. He jumped up on the platform. The chanting stopped. “Hoy there, you lot. Time to break up this little party. Now, you can tell us where to find the master or we can kill you all. Your choice.”

“I wish he would not do this,” Belinda said.

One of the malleus demons roared and rushed the platform followed by two of the scaly creatures.

Reece pulled a pistol and shot Big Head, but smaller ones were on him too fast. He pulled his sword and Gabriel watched. Foxjohn was a competent swordsman.

“Hey!” Belinda called into the crowd of demons. Standing with her back to the adjacent wall, she was trying to draw some of them away from Reece. Her plan worked and six demons, including two big ones, descended on her.

Gabriel ran toward her, but something fell on his back. The high-pitched wail set his ears aching. Strong arms wrapped around his neck. It was lighter than a human. He pried its arms away from his throat and it scratched and clawed at his head. Gabriel ripped it from his back and tossed the creature across the room.

It landed with a splash and sprang up again.

He pulled his gun and shot.

The thing was too swift and his bullet missed its mark. It came at him with its arms raised.

Gabriel lunged forward with his blade. It was not a proper sword, but it did the job.

The demon’s eyes widened before it slipped off the blade and onto the watery floor.

He sliced through two more before grappling with one of the big heads. Its skin was tougher, and though he cut it several times, it continued to fight.

“The throat, the eyes or the groin,” Reece called from across the room.

Gabriel sliced the demon between the legs. Blood as black as coal poured from the wound. It stared down at its body before it collapsed in a heavy splash.

Reece materialized next to him. “Very nicely done. You’re well trained.”

“Thank you.”

Across the room, atop a malleus corpse, Belinda stood cutting and slicing with her sword and dirk. Three demons lay dead.

Gabriel moved toward her. A hand on his shoulder held him back.

“Just watch her for a minute, my lord.”

It went against his instincts to see his woman in danger and not rush in to help. However, when he did as Reece suggested he saw the splendor of Belinda in battle.

Her weapons were extensions of her arms, cutting through the air as if they performed some morbid ballet. She cut the arm off one demon while another attacked her from behind. Before he reached her, she spun in the air and caught him under the chin. The demon clutched its throat and stumbled toward Gabriel and Reece.

Reece jumped forward and took hold of the demon. He pulled a rope from inside his vest and tied the wrists of the creature behind its back.

The demon hissed and spit.

Gabriel continued to watch Belinda as she cut the leg off the last demon then whirled around and stabbed the other in the eye.

It dropped with a resounding thud.

“Close your mouth, my lord.”

Gabriel did. “I think you might call me Gabriel at this point.”

Belinda walked over. She dripped with perspiration, but with her color high and hair askew, she looked radiant. Was this the girl he’d thought of each night while in France? She was the reason he had stayed alive, yet this was not the same woman. In spite of that realization, he vibrated with desire for her.

Belinda was quite pleased to have had Thor there to drive her back while the men saw to the disgusting creature in the other carriage. They had never interrogated a demon before and she doubted it could come to any good.

The trebox demon was spitting and cursing by the time they returned to the office.

Company heads had demanded they try, so they would try.

She followed behind while the men dragged the demon down the stairs to office. He stank of death and stale water. It made Belinda’s stomach roil.

Jamie lashed the demon to a chair and was rewarded with bile being spit in his face. The Scot punched the trebox in the face. Its head twisted sharply.

Gabriel leaned against the back wall while she stayed near the door.

Reece started asking questions, but the trebox only cursed in reply.

When the beating began, Belinda made her way out. She expected to hear the door slam down behind her, but when it didn’t she knew Gabriel had followed her out.

He touched her arm. “Are you all right, Bella?”

She tried to smile, but she was sure she hadn’t managed it. “Fine. I guess I have no stomach for interrogation.”

His hand rested comfortably on her waist just at the curve of her hip. It was an intimate touch and she leaned into his touch.

“It is one thing to fight a battle where your life is threatened, but to beat a man or even a demon to gain information takes a different kind of disposition,” Gabriel said.

“You fought well. No hesitation. That’s good.”

“Thank you. I am a soldier.”

“Yes, but I have seen the most hardened soldiers fold when faced with demons. Their minds cannot process what their eyes are seeing. You were shocked, but you adapted.”

He nodded.

“I’m going home, Gabriel. I can do nothing here tonight. It is not likely that they will gain any information from the trebox. Demons would rather die than betray the master.”

“Trebox, is that what they’re called?”

“Yes. The small scaly demons are trebox and the big slimy ones are malleus.”

“Are there others?” he asked.

She shrugged. “The banshees are the only other confirmed species. We do not know what the master is and there are rumors of other types but we’ve not seen them.”

She walked back to the door and stomped with her boot.

The door opened revealing Ben. He was a young man, with bright eyes and brown hair poking out from under his cap. He’d been with them for over a year, but he was not yet ready to fight. Ben helped with weapons and the security of the office and ran messages.

Belinda said, “I’m going home. Tell Reece, will you?”

“Sure thing, Belinda.”

She walked down the alleyway. After ten steps or so she listened for the sound of someone following. She stopped and turned.

Gabriel watched her from the door of the office.

“Are you staying here, Gabriel?”

He cocked his head to one side. “I do not know, Bella. Am I?”

Oh, how she loved that he was still a gentleman, even after what they’d been through. She walked the ten steps back to him. “Gabriel, will you come home with me?”

The reward for her boldness was a smile that women would die for. Dozens of times, women of the
ton
had told her how lucky she was to have secured the love of a man such as Gabriel Thurston. He was not only wealthy but lovely to look at. She had been coy with those women, but now as he doled out his best smile just for her, she was just a little smitten.

He offered his arm, and she took it while they started down the alley toward Thor and the unmarked carriage.

Thor leaned casually against his hack. His arms remained folded over his barrel chest until they drew close, then he stood up straight pulled down the steps and opened the door.

Belinda liked the driver all the more for his quick adaptability. Gabriel had chosen his associate well.

The carriage jerked forward as they made their way across London.

“Why did you join these people, Bella?” He asked the question softly and there was tenderness in his expression. She detected no accusation or censure in his tone or manner.

In the days after she’d been rescued, Reece had come to her and asked if she might be interested in learning how to fight to protect herself and the people of England from what had nearly killed her. “I told you already. Lillian and Reece saved me.”

“I do not think that is why you joined them.”

She took a deep breath. There was comfort in another person knowing her so well, and it was also a burden. She could keep few secrets from Gabriel. “I am not going to stop, Gabriel.”