devil 02 - tween a devil and his hard place (40 page)

She went down under the demons and their ’goyles and the last thing I saw was a bloody leg flailing around.

I ran toward the pile of demons, forgetting for a moment about the fire-breathing monster a few feet away.

Emo threw a wall of power up between me and the spiky demon just before it could turn me into a Tweener toasty. I screamed thanks to him over my shoulder and blasted the nearest ’goyle in the pile.

He flew up into the air when my power hit him and landed about ten feet away with a fist-sized hole smoldering from the middle of his chest.

Hmmm. I guess I was running on a pretty strong cocktail of adrenaline.

I blasted the nearest demon and then finished off the rest of them that were covering the angel. She looked up at me from a blood-covered face and tried to smile.

The holes in her chest and arms and throat were frightening.

I didn’t think, I just reacted. Kneeling down beside her I put my hands on the largest wound first and focused my power into her body.

She jerked and her green eyes widened as my power coursed through her body, searching for damage and repairing it in a not-so-gentle way. I moved to her shoulder next, which was ripped so deeply the arm was almost dislocated from her slender body.

Emo’s shout from behind me had me jerking around without even standing up and I shot everything I had into a tree-sized demon and his pet gargoyle that was about to take a bite out of me.

They didn’t go down with smoldering holes. They went down in smoking pieces.

I turned back around and the angel was trying to get to her feet.

I helped her stand. “Why aren’t there more of you? You need help.”

She shrugged. “We expected Myra to be here by now, your father said she’d bring help.”

My heart sped up at this. “My father? He’s here now?”

She nodded, pushing a wave of chestnut curls off her now wound-free shoulder. Then she placed a soft hand on my cheek and gave me an angelic peck on my forehead. “Go with His blessing and under His care, Astra Q Phelps. And…” She brushed a tear off her cheek. “Thanks, for saving me.”

I squinted at her, feeling embarrassed. Mostly I just blew stuff up. I wasn’t used to dealing with mushy feelings like gratitude.

I wasn’t sure I liked it.

I stuttered something incoherent at her and turned away to find Emo battling the fire demon. I added a good-sized jolt of my power to his. The demon screamed that eardrum-shattering scream and I refocused my power to its mouth. The horrifying noise cut off immediately and he went down.

He exploded into fire as he died.

Emo ran to me. “Do you think it had time to call more?”

I shrugged. “If he did we’ll just have to deal with them.” I looked around. “Where the hell’s Dialle?”

“Right behind you.”

I swung around. “Holy shit! Why are you always sneaking up on me?”

He shrugged and grinned, looking tall, dark and yummy. “I don’t sneak, Astra. You’re just always distracted by some sort of calamity.”

I shrugged. He had a point.

“I have to find my father, he’s here somewhere. Can you take care of them?” I motioned toward the witches, who were busily cooking up mischief around the altar. “They’ve already called one of those fire demons and I think they’re trying to summon up another one.”

Dialle motioned to Gerch.

“Don’t kill them,” I told the blocky devil. He cracked his wide craggy lips and saluted me. “Yes, my princess.” And he turned away.

“Don’t call me that, dammit!” I screamed after him.

He either didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me. I was betting on the latter.

I turned back around and found myself mere inches from Dialle. He dragged my body fully against his and slanted his head so his lips could consume mine completely.

I struggled for a second or two and then felt myself getting pulled into it, completely forgetting whatever sense of urgency I’d been laboring under since arriving in the clearing.

Emo yelled out and Dialle jerked his lips from mine and shot a powerful jolt over my shoulder. Something behind me screeched.

I blasted a gargoyle behind Dialle and it flew backward and took out a demon. The two of them went down and the angel I’d just saved finished them off.

She gave me a thumbs up.

Dialle and I grinned at each other.

“I insist on a date later.”

I nodded. “As soon as we finish saving the world.”

He nodded and raised both hands over my shoulders. Two more screams erupted behind me and something slimy and dense hit the back of my leg.

I turned and looked down. “Shit! Why do they always bleed on my boots?”

King Dialle sauntered up with a royal she-devil on each arm. He looked like he was attending a ball, all spiffy and elegant. Around him chaos reigned but you’d never know it to look at him.

I grinned. “Your Highness.”

He lowered his head a fraction to acknowledge my greeting. “Mx. Phelps. I see you have things well in hand.”

We all looked around together. It was definitely a soap opera moment.

My gaze took in the piles of dead demons, gargoyles, ghouls and goblins and various dark disgustables I hadn’t even noticed were present. Here and there an angelic robe shimmered from a crumpled pile and my heart jumped in my chest.

Power jolts fired past us, blasting chunks out of trees and nearby rocks.

I watched one jolt land in the middle of the chanting witches, narrowly missing one of my Dialle’s guards as they jerked the witches, one by one, from the circle and knocked them unconscious with rock-like fists.

High above our heads a black dragon fought a red dragon with blasts of fire and ripping claws and teeth.

And sprinkled amidst the mess, fairies darted here and there, hitting their prey so fast the victims didn’t even notice they’d been hit until the fairy was long gone and the blood started flowing from the mangled flesh the fairy magic left behind.

The air was filled with the sound of screaming and growling and blood-curdling shrieks and smelled a bit like a butcher shop.

“I have a little work to do yet,” I told the king.

He nodded.

A ghoul grabbed one of the king’s lovely ladies on her slender, silk-clad shoulder and she raised an elbow, drove it into the ghoul’s throat and then blasted him into pieces when he let go of her to grab his crushed throat.

I spit ghoul dust out of my mouth and turned to find Emo.

He was standing in the middle of a growing pile of carnage. He caught me looking at him and nodded, grinning widely. Then he raised a finger and blew on the tip.

I laughed. “Come on, pal. We need to find my father.” Then I turned to my Dialle. “You coming?”

“Try to keep me from your side, my princess.”

“I said don’t call me that.” I swung away in a fit of temper and stalked through the bedlam toward the spot in the distance where light exploded in powerful bursts high above the ground. As we moved away from the clearing, the only light in the night came from the fireworks above our heads.

Looking up I realized this was where the real battle was being fought. Compared to this the other stuff was just a skirmish.

In the sky and on the ground angel fought angel. I saw my father in the sky, one black and singed-looking wing making it hard for him to stay above the ground. He hung in the air in a lopsided way, favoring the burnt wing.

Still he held his light before him and it was a thing to behold, though it wavered a bit at the edges.

My gaze swung to the place, high above my head, where my mother stood with a shimmering chain on her wrist and Enoch, looking despondent and beaten, crouched before her and, with arms and huge wings spread around him, emitted a wall of light and heat that reached from him to my father, beating against my father’s light and, as I watched I saw, fraying it at the edges.

I knew that Enoch’s formidable power was being supplemented by my mother, who was incredibly powerful in her own right.

I decided there was only one way to help my father and I really didn’t want to do it.

I looked at Emo. “I have to take her on.”

He shook his head. “Not by yourself.”

My eyes found his and he read what I would do there before I could do it. “No, Astra!”

He knew me so well.

My voice came out in a choked whisper, I wasn’t sure he even heard me. “Take care of yourself, Emo.”

Dialle grabbed for me but I winked away, praying as I drifted through time and space that I wouldn’t end up in a tree or something worse—like something that moved and had big teeth.

I landed on the cliff behind my mother and immediately felt the pounding heat of Enoch’s power. My skin broke out in moisture immediately. I felt as if I was standing in the middle of a fire.

Leaning forward I looked down to where I’d left Emo and Dialle. They were pounding on the bubble of power I’d wrapped around them.

As I watched a huge gargoyle flung itself at the bubble and bounced off, landing hard on the ground at their feet and shaking its head as if stunned.

Emo lifted a finger and made a nice hole in the center of the ’goyle’s head. Then turned to look up at the cliff where I stood, shaking his head.

I grinned. I thought it was a pretty nice piece of work, magic out but no magic in. They were safe and effective at the same time.

Prince Dialle didn’t look like he appreciated my efforts.

Go figure. I shrugged and turned to the problem at hand.

My mother.

Ish!

She hadn’t noticed my arrival but I suspected my father had because he seemed to be redoubling his efforts to get at Enoch. His light grew until it started pushing Enoch’s back but he strained visibly with the effort.

I studied the shimmering chain between my mother and Enoch carefully. My sensing power told me it was made completely of dark magic.

I knew from my studies that the chain could only be broken by the one who’d created it. Either on purpose or through that creature’s death.

I was betting Danika Phelps wasn’t going to release one of the Big House’s most powerful angels on purpose and I couldn’t even bend my mind around the other option. So I was really hoping there was a loophole in the rule.

As I studied the chain I became aware of a change in the air around me and I glanced down to see an empty spot where I’d left the boys.

“Shit!” I murmured and swung around.

Two devilishly handsome faces with devilishly scowling faces greeted me.

I shrugged at them and grinned.

Okay, so I’d have help.

I didn’t want to admit to myself how relieved I was.

Unfortunately their arrival did
not
go unnoticed.

My mother turned and gave a jolt of surprise.

“Astra? What is the meaning of this?”

I stepped forward, counting on Enoch being too busy to help her with us. “Mother, stop this ridiculous play for power right now and release Enoch. You are way out of line on this.”

She smiled, slowly and sadly. “So I guess you’ve made your choice. You’ll side with him over me?” She glanced toward my father with a curled lip.

I shook my head at her. “How can you do this, Mother? He loves you. He’s always loved you. It’s been his downfall many times over.”

She waved a hand in disgust. “He is weak and simple, tied to the divine goal like a sacrificial goat. He disgusts me.”

The words were cruel and cold but I saw the lie of them in her eyes. She did love my father and I suspected that if she could find another way around it she would not kill him at all.

But getting what she wanted was more important to her than anything.

I saw Enoch move and looked at him. His face was pale and sadness filled his chocolate colored eyes. I saw in those eyes that he would change the current situation if he could.

He’d been duped by a beautiful and cruelly evil woman. Just as my father had all those years ago.

“I’m sorry, Astra. I have no choice. I must kill him.” His voice was husky with unshed tears and strained by weariness.

I stared hard at him for a beat and then shook my head. “You do have one choice, Enoch.”

He jumped as the meaning of my words became clear and turned away in shame.

My mother understood what I’d meant too.

I read her intention in her midnight eyes and lifted a hand to stop her. My power arrow hit an invisible wall and she laughed.

She raised a hand and my legs buckled beneath me. I hit the ground and was immediately consumed by pain. My entire body felt as if it were being shot through with a thousand volts of electricity and set on fire at the same time. I was pretty sure my skin was being ripped off my body a little at a time and my organs were melting into my body.

I screamed in pain, my body clenching uncontrollably on the cold, rocky ground.

Beyond the bone-melting pain, I was vaguely aware of the sound of shouting and of power shooting around me in a seemingly uncontrolled way.

I heard a scream of pain and felt someone hit the ground close to me.

But the Big Guy help me I couldn’t look, I couldn’t help whoever it was. I was melting on the spot and my body was quickly plunging toward unconsciousness in self defense.

Something cool and soft lay across my cheek and I forced my eyes open and turned my head, screaming at the pain it caused.

I nearly cried out with a different kind of pain.

Like midnight silk, long black hair mixed with mine upon the ground. Seeing it lying there, a memory sharp and sweet returned to me. Tangled strands of red and black on a stark white pillow, deep within the ground in the land of the fairies.

Roiling toward unconsciousness, my body clenched with pain, my mind screamed the word my lips couldn’t voice.

It couldn’t be. My Dialle couldn’t be lying dead beside me. It was finally too much. I dropped into a blessed fog of release.

Chapter Twenty-Five

No Rest for the Weary

Alas our lady tries to find, sweet succor from the pain,

But friends are still in need of her and call her back again.