Demon of Vengeance: Chronicles of the Fallen, Book 4 (23 page)

Sebastian glanced up at her, she hadn’t so much as flinched this whole time. Her stare was vacant. And she hadn’t morphed back to human form yet.

Sebastian knew real fear then. What could he do for her? How could he make this right?

“Well, well, well…would you look at that. The great Vengeance, brought to his knees at last.”

A river of ice lanced straight through his veins. Still crouching, Sebastian spun, placing himself directly between his mate and his age old nemesis. Once again, he’d lost track of his surroundings. He was losing his touch.

“Aww,” Ashïek taunted from his perch on the countertop. “Did you honestly think you would get to
keep
the girl? Here’s a news flash, Vengeance. Deep down, you’re still a bad guy. And bad guys don’t get to keep the girls.” He glanced around the room. “So homey, by the way. You’ve turned into a regular old Martha Stewart, haven’t you, Vengeance?” He shook his head and tsked. “Such a waste of talent.”

Before Sebastian could respond, a massive explosion rocked the house, knocking Sebastian on his ass and tipping Phoebe from her chair.

Chapter Twenty

“Ah, that’ll be Dimiezlo. Now there’s a demon who knows how to make an entrance.”

Another explosion, this one much larger than the last, shook the house on its foundation, nearly deafening Sebastian. Something groaned overhead, as if the very roof threatened to come down on their heads. Smoke began to fill the air.

Sebastian shot to his feet and pushed a nearly catatonic Phoebe behind him. Ashïek lobbed a plasma ball as he vaulted from the counter. Sebastian deflected the missile with one of his own. He fired another off in quick succession, clipping Ashïek in the shoulder. All out battle ensued, but they were too evenly matched, and the only thing taking major damage was Sebastian’s house. Wood splintered and caught fire. Appliances exploded. Huge holes were blown in the walls.

Sebastian had to work double-time to keep Phoebe behind him and protected while still keeping Ashïek on the defensive. Another explosion rocked the floor beneath him, and Sebastian lost his footing for a moment, going down on one knee. It was the opening Ashïek had been waiting for. He slammed into Sebastian, sending them both crashing into the living room. Phoebe was knocked through the doorway ahead of them.

Sebastian caught a glimpse of her as she went sailing over the couch a second before Ashïek summoned a sword and slashed it across Sebastian’s chest, cutting deep. Blood sprayed in a wide arc. Sebastian stumbled back with a pained grunt. He summoned his own sword and managed to fend off the next blow. But his wounds weakened him, and now Ashïek stood between Sebastian and Phoebe. Steel clanged against steel as Ashïek advanced, ruthlessly driving Sebastian back, smashing his head against the fireplace mantle.

Phoebe let out a blood curdling cry and leaped onto Ashïek’s back, taking both Ashïek and Sebastian by surprise. She gouged at Ashïek’s face and neck with her small claws, ripping at his hair. She wrapped an arm around his throat and dug her knees into his back.

Ashïek, off balance, staggered back, his arms pinwheeling for a moment. He grappled with Phoebe, but she was fast, and she was fueled by rage. Sebastian, his vision dimmed by the blow to his head and the severe loss of blood, struggled to his feet. He had to get to Phoebe before she got hurt.

With a choked roar, Ashïek reached up and caught a handful of Phoebe’s hair, and jerked her forward. She went somersaulting over his shoulder and landed on her back at his feet. Ashïek lifted his blade high, preparing to plunge it through Phoebe’s chest as she lay there with the breath knocked out of her.

As the blade came down Sebastian dove to cover her. The blade hit one of his wings and deflected, but the poison-dipped point penetrated his back, piercing a lung. Sebastian rolled to the side taking Phoebe with him.

Ashïek charged after them, sword raised for another killing blow. He brought it down, but Sebastian swiftly sealed his wings around them like a cocoon. The blade sent a shower of sparks flying as it connected with Sebastian’s metallic armor-like feathers.

A furious war cry came from the doorway. Sebastian caught sight of Sïnsobar as he swooped inside the room. In that moment, Sebastian thought they were done. Or that he was, at least. He’d battle till his last breath to give his mate a fighting chance. But he was a realist. There was no way he’d be able to take them both on, not while defending his mate, not wounded as he was. He should have called the others for help. Now it was too late.

Sïnsobar lowered his head and hit Ashïek like a freight train. The two went careening into the far wall. Picture frames crashed to the floor and shattered. Flames punched through the ceiling. A loud crack came from upstairs, and the house shuddered.

“Get her out of here,” Sïnsobar yelled.

It took Sebastian a moment to realize the Carpathï was talking to him. And still it made no sense. Why was Sïnsobar helping them?

With a groan, he rolled over and wrapped his arm around Phoebe’s waist. She was just beginning to push up on all fours, though she swayed drunkenly to the side. Blood dripped from her nose.

The last thing Sebastian saw of his home was Ashïek and Sïnsobar grappling and crashing around the living room. He wrapped his arms and his wings around Phoebe and used the last of his strength to shimmer them away.

Sebastian couldn’t control the landing. He’d lost too much blood. His vision was already winking in and out. His grip on Phoebe was tenuous at best, his hands slick with his own blood. When they landed, they landed hard. He went skidding across the marble floor, and Phoebe bounced out of his arms.

He tried to speak, tried to call out for help, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was a spray of blood. He was seeing completely in shades of gray now. He recognized the room, the foyer of Gideon’s plantation. He’d managed to get that right, at least. His breath left him in a pained whoosh as he tried to rise. He couldn’t even lift his head off the floor. Pounding footsteps came rushing near. Then again, maybe those were the last of his heartbeats.

He gradually became aware of someone crouching over him.

Phoebe. My Phoebe. My fierce mate.

She hovered over him, growling low in her throat. A plasma ball crackling over her open palm, threatening the two dark shadows that entered the room at a run. The brightness of plasma balls in the distance drew his focus.

“What the hell,” Xander’s deep rasp echoed throughout the room, ringing in his ears.

“Is that what I think it is?” Gideon demanded.

“A fucking demoness,” Xander growled.

“Sebastian, man, can you hear me?” Gideon called.

Sebastian tried to respond. More blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth and he began coughing. Christ, he was hacking up a lung here, drowning for sure.

He turned his throbbing head, blinked woozily. His sideways view of the scene made him want to laugh. Xander and Gideon hovered at the edge of the room, regarding Phoebe like some kind of miracle. Or a deadly force of nature.

Hell, she does kind of look like it, doesn’t she?

God, he was getting delirious.

“Wait,” he managed to croak. More bloody coughing ensued. Finally, when he finished hacking, he stretched out his hand, gaining everyone’s attention.

Blackness was creeping steadily around the edges of his vision now, and he knew he didn’t have much time left.

“My…mate…” he rasped, “Phoebe…safe…”

It was all he could get out before the darkness claimed him.

Phoebe crouched protectively over Sebastian as the two demons extinguished the plasma balls in their hands and slowly straightened at Sebastian’s words. Phoebe glanced down. When she realized Sebastian had lost consciousness, she gave a little cry and dropped to her knees beside him. She immediately reached for his face.

“Sebastian! Sebastian, wake up!”

He was still breathing, but just barely. A pool of crimson was beginning to form beneath him, slowly spreading across the marble floor. Oh, dear lord, he was losing so much blood. She pressed her hands to his chest, hard. But the gash was just too long to cover and, feeling helpless, she began to sob.

The tall blond demon dropped down beside her. Instinct had her hissing a warning at him.

“It’s okay,” he said in a low, calm voice. He held his empty hands up to her. “We’re friends. Let us help.”

A thick white towel appeared out of nowhere, and the blond demon pressed it to the wound on Sebastian’s chest. The towel went completely red in minutes.

“Move on back now,” the blond instructed with a heavy southern accent. “You have to let us see what needs to be done here.”

Phoebe fell back on her heels and then scooted back as the other demon joined them. He wore his hair in a buzz cut, but he had a dark five o’clock shadow. He looked like GI Joe…with flame red eyes.

GI Joe and the blond demon exchanged glances.

“It’s deep,” GI Joe said, his voice rough as sandpaper.

“Gonna have to cauterize it,” the blond one said. He glanced over his shoulder. “Call Niklas.”

Phoebe looked around, only then realizing there were two women standing in the doorway. One of the women, a tall, leggy, model-type jerked a phone from her pocket and began dialing.

Phoebe looked back to Sebastian. She couldn’t take it, couldn’t stand seeing him like this. She moved around the blond and knelt at her mate’s head. She stroked his cheeks, smoothed his hair from his face. And her tears poured.

“Don’t bring him round just yet, sweetheart,” the blond demon instructed. “Trust me, he ain’t gonna wanna be awake for this.”

A new wave of energy shimmered into the room, and Phoebe instantly went back on guard.

“It’s okay,” the blond one said. “He’s one of us.”

The newcomer flew to Sebastian’s side and dropped to his knees beside GI Joe. “Sweet heaven,” he whispered.

“He should have begun healing already, but he’s not. Must have been poison on the blade. We gotta cauterize this wound. Now. You’re gonna have to help hold him down.”

“No!” Phoebe yelled, moving forward aggressively. He was wounded bad enough as it was. They weren’t going to burn him too.

“Darlin’, if we don’t, he’ll bleed out.”

She looked up at him uncertainly.

“It’ll be okay,” the newcomer assured her. His ice blue eyes bore into hers. Then he looked over her shoulder at someone behind her. “Maggie?”

The blond one immediately stiffened. “No way.”

“Shhh, Gideon,” a short curvaceous woman said as she moved into the room. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”

A wave of warmth washed over Phoebe. She felt like she was suddenly floating on a cloud, with not a care in the world. Only that couldn’t be right, because Sebastian was hurt. Badly hurt. Maybe even dying.

She frowned, blinking furiously. Sebastian. She had to help him.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder. And the warm, fuzzy feeling intensified, wrapping around her, holding though she tried her damnedest to shake it.

“You need to hurry,” Maggie instructed. Though her voice was pitched low and easy, it held an unmistakable note of strain. “She’s very strong. And she fears for her mate. I don’t know how long I can hold her.”

Phoebe let two sets of soft, gentle hands ease her back, away from the three men working feverishly over Sebastian. She watched as they tore his shirt off. And she barely flinched when they maneuvered him around, pinning wings and arms to the ground at his sides.

Then the blond straddled Sebastian’s waist. Phoebe went up on her knees. She shook her head, resisting the fuzzy cocoon. They’d hurt him. They weren’t being careful enough. She made to move closer, but soft hands held her back. A cool, smooth hand came up to press against her forehead.

Phoebe dropped back on her butt. The room all but spun. She felt…drunk.

Whoa. What a buzz.

The short woman—
Maggie, yeah, that was her name
—Maggie knelt directly in front of her, blocking her view. But there was something wrong. Maggie had a thin trickle of blood seeping from her nose. Blood…

Sebastian. Where was he? He was bleeding too. She needed to help him.

“I’m losing her,” Maggie said as she dropped to her own butt and wobbled to the side.

Phoebe glanced over and frowned. The blond demon was straddling Sebastian. And his hands were glowing. She blinked. Refocused. No. Those were fire balls…no, plasma balls, she corrected. He was burning Sebastian’s chest.

And Sebastian was fighting, teeth gritted, flailing against the floor as the other two held him down.

Phoebe exploded into motion. She hit GI Joe like a tank. They went rolling across the floor and she smashed an elbow into his face. Just like that, she was on her feet, charging back into the fray. A well-placed fist sent the blond one sailing before she turned her wrath on Blue Eyes.

“Son of a…grab her!” someone yelled.

“I can’t. She’s moving too fast,” came the reply.

A muffled grunt met her ears as she slammed into GI Joe once more. Why wouldn’t he just stay the hell down? She darted away before he could get a grip on her, and then she wheeled around looking for Blue Eyes. Or Blondie. They were both going down for hurting her mate that way.

“Phoebe,” Sebastian whispered.

Phoebe froze. And then she flew back to his side, the others forgotten.

“Don’t…they were…helping…”

“But—”

“Trust them…safe now…”

His eyes fluttered closed, and he was out again. She glanced to his chest. The long gash had been sealed closed and all that was left was a long strip of bright pink, blistered flesh.”

Blue Eyes approached cautiously. “He’s going to be okay.”

She flicked a glance to his split lip, caught a glimpse of GI Joe’s swollen eye. She refused to feel bad. But then she saw the blond demon hovering over the woman—Maggie—as he held a tissue to her nose and glared holes through Phoebe’s hide. Now she felt guilty.

Phoebe glanced down at the hands cradling Sebastian’s ash colored face. Crimson hands with little black claws. She sat back on her heels, hard, and she held them up, staring at them, shocked. Disgusted.

“Help me,” she whispered, her eyes welled with tears as she looked around the room. “I don’t know how to change back,” she admitted her shame aloud. And then she dropped her head and sobbed. “I can’t…I don’t know how.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

Gentle hands cupped her shoulders. She looked up into kind brown eyes and a beautiful smile filled with empathy. “We’re here to help. Everything’s going to be all right now.”

Phoebe blinked. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

The woman’s smile grew. “I know. There now.”

She enfolded Phoebe in a careful embrace and rubbed slow circles on her back. At length, she pulled back and patted Phoebe’s cheek.

“I’m Carly,” she said. “And that is my mate, Niklas.” She pointed to Blue Eyes. Then she pointed out each one of the others in the room, tagging each with a name. GI Joe was Xander. The scowl on his face made her look away, until the beautiful woman Carly called Kyanna moved into his arms and poked him in the ribs.

“Pleased to meet you,” he growled, though he didn’t sound happy about it at all.