Guardian Demon (GUARDIAN SERIES) (59 page)

Taylor looked up and, for a long second, couldn’t understand anything she was seeing. Then it hit her.

“Holy fuck.”

It was all she could manage. Her fingers squeezed Selah’s shoulder in a desperate grip and she stared, her heart thundering.

She’d never fought in a war. But she’d been in a few shoot-outs, and she could remember the fear and adrenaline and confusion—and the strange, detached sense of looking at herself from outside and yet hyperaware of everything at the same time. She’d always imagined that a battle was something like that, except more prolonged, more terrifying, multiplied by a thousand times.

But aside from movies and photographs, she’d never really had a sense of the scope of a battlefield. She knew it must be even bigger than she imagined, no matter the actual size, just as the foyer of a drug dealer’s house could seem huge and cramped, all at once.

So in some ways, maybe the battlefield here was the same as a battlefield on Earth. But Taylor still couldn’t wrap her head around it. Not all at once.

She focused on the fighting closest to them. Not
close
. Taylor didn’t know the distance, but she and Selah hovered eight or nine hundred yards above the ground and the nearest demons seemed at least ten times farther away. Maybe four or five miles.

Demon corpses littered the red sand. Amid the bodies, more demons and humans fought with swords and spears. Scavenging hellhounds roamed the battlefield, tearing into the living and the dead. Winged corpses rained down in a continuous, bloody shower.

In the air above them, more demons fought halflings with leathery wings. Taylor didn’t know how many. Tens of thousands of them. Maybe a hundred thousand. She couldn’t begin to estimate the area they covered.

But that was only the periphery of the battle. And beyond them . . .

She couldn’t even process it. A tower—but not Lucifer’s marble tower. A gargantuan column made up of swarming demons, flying with barely any space between them. The tower rose into the crimson sky, far higher than she and Selah were hovering, the entire column twisting and undulating like a tentacle made of living flesh. It expanded toward the bottom, where most of the fighting was concentrated—with dead demons piled up at the base.

Taylor finally found her voice. “How many demons is that?”

“About thirty million,” Selah said quietly. “They’re over the frozen field.”

Taylor couldn’t see anything of the wasteland through the bodies. “They’re surrounding Lucifer’s tower?”

“Yes.”

So that wasn’t a solid column of demons. Lucifer’s throne formed the not-so-gooey center.

Though it might be gooey soon. Swallowing hard, Taylor let her gaze rest on the enormous spiders at the tower’s base. Three of them, with bulging abdomens and dripping fangs, nightmares come to life. Taylor couldn’t even grasp the magnitude. Jake had said the spiders’ legs were a mile long, but they were dwarfed by the massive column of demons.

One of those thick, segmented legs swiped through the undulating mass, like a kid kicking a sand castle, flinging thousands of demons like grains of sand. It didn’t even seem to make a dent in the side of the tower. More demons fell as lightning struck the column in brilliant flashes. Cracks of thunder joined the roar.

Tearing her gaze away from the spectacle, Taylor saw Jake and Alice hovering nearby. Controlling the spiders, the lightning.

Selah squeezed her hand. “Are you steady?”

“Yes.” Outwardly, anyway.

“Be safe, then.”

Selah vanished. Wings flapping, Taylor made her way awkwardly to Alice’s side and pulled up to hover beside her.

“Taylor.” Sorrow lining her sharp features, Alice quickly glanced at Taylor before returning her attention to the spiders. “We’ve heard about your partner. I am so very sorry.”

And even though she’d been empty, the tears came easily again. Blinking them away, Taylor nodded. “Thank you.” But she couldn’t even deal with that now. It was too much, and if she thought of Joe, she’d crack all over again. “What are the demons doing? Guarding the throne so that Anaria’s army can’t get to Lucifer?”

“We don’t think so. We think Lucifer is within the hurricane, performing the ritual to break open the frozen field.”

Inside the twisting tower of demons? “Where?”

“We don’t know. The demons are packed so tightly, no one can teleport inside. Michael, Anaria, and Khavi fought their way in. They’re searching for Lucifer together.”

Fought their way into
that
? “When?”

“About an hour ago. They had little choice.” Alice’s lips pinched. “We’ve been trying to clear the demons away, but there are simply too many. Every time we slay one, another falls into its place.”

And so Michael was somewhere inside that massive tower, surrounded by thirty million demons. “Has anyone seen him since he went in?”

“No.”

Helpless terror gripped her heart. Hovering over the crimson sands, Taylor stared at the writhing column in the distance, desperately seeking some sign of him. Nothing. Just demons and more demons.

And Guardians. Taylor finally spotted them in the air on the far side of the battlefield, near the base of the tower—two dozen Guardians fought in four formations of six warriors each, leaving no side unguarded. In the nearest formation, Mariko’s crossbow bolts flew easily through her thick glass shield, which blocked any demon’s attack. Icarus fought beside her, and though his Gift to control soil and stone was useless here, he plowed through the demons with a pair of swords. Above them, armor protected Radha’s usually naked form. Her blue-skinned beauty wouldn’t distract demons as it would humans, but she must have been forcing her illusions through the demons’ mental shields, anyway. Almost every demon that came at her began fighting the air instead, as if battling an invisible monster—and allowing Radha to slip up and slay them with a single blow.

Each formation looked like a tiny speck of flashing steel and white feathers against the crimson tower of demons, but the mountain of corpses growing beneath the Guardians proved how deadly and efficient their training had made them.

The same wasn’t true of the human and halfling army fighting closer to Taylor. They fought with almost no skill—but it hardly mattered. They weren’t being hurt. The demons’ weapons slid through their bodies as if they were insubstantial, while the humans’ and halflings’ swords hacked demon flesh from bone . . . when they struck a lucky blow. The demons blocked almost every strike to their hearts, steel ringing against steel, and dealt a thousand hits to their human enemies for every ten in return. But not one of those thousand hits damaged the soldiers in Anaria’s army—and just one slice through the heart would kill a demon.

Taylor watched a demon’s blade swipe harmlessly through a human’s neck . . . much as, in the cavern where they’d found Savi and Colin, Irena’s knife had passed harmlessly through a demon’s glowing threads.

If she looked at the humans and halflings with her Gift, Taylor would have wagered that she wouldn’t see anything
but
threads. Just souls, taking on the form of flesh in Hell.

Just as Michael’s soul had once taken the form of an indestructible dragon.

Taylor wished he was indestructible now. Even with all of his humanity ripped away, even though he’d terrified and hurt her.

Better that than dead.

Jake suddenly jumped in front of her. Face tight, eyes glistening, he said, “We heard about Joe. Is it true?”

Unable to speak, Taylor nodded.

Grief collapsed his rigid features. Roughly, he whispered, “God damn those fucking bastards.”

Then he was gone again, furiously throwing lightning across the sky.

Throat thick, Taylor watched him. “Does he ever run out of juice?”

“No.” With her bony arms hugging her middle, Alice shook her head. “He’s more powerful than he should be. I am, as well. The first time we were here, touching these spiders with my Gift made me ill. That is no longer true.”

“Why?”

“Belial’s wings, I think.”

Because when Alice and Jake had been trapped in Hell, Belial had cut off Jake’s wings. Michael, demanding restitution, had taken two of the demon’s six wings as payment. Now Alice and Jake each carried one in their hammerspace—but Belial’s wings weren’t just any wings. The demon’s form resembled an angel’s, and power shimmered through his very flesh.

Alice’s Gift pulsed, like creepy fingers on the back of Taylor’s neck. Miles away, a giant spider tipped its ass into the air and spewed strands of silk over the tower of demons. Her stomach roiling, Taylor watched as the spider began reeling in the threads. Hundreds—maybe thousands—of demons were glued to the orange silk, struggling to free themselves from the sticky strands, ripping away limbs and wings in their desperation.

Unable to watch, Taylor looked to Alice. “Where is Belial now? In the tower with Michael, Khavi, and Anaria?”

When Alice shook her head, the disjointed movement made Taylor’s skin crawl again. She liked the other Guardian, but seeing the effect of Alice’s connection to the spiders was almost as unsettling as the spiders themselves.

“Michael and Khavi don’t trust Belial at their backs,” Alice said. “So the demon is leading an attack on the other side of the frozen field. You’ll know when he is visible.”

Because the demon’s body shone like a beacon—like an angel, and no other demon could shape-shift to appear the same. The “angels” that the sentinels had pretended to be when they’d taken Joe hadn’t looked like Belial. They’d looked like Guardians.

Was that what Joe had seen in his final moments? Someone who’d seemed like a friend, who might have given him hope before he’d realized the truth and the sentinels had ripped that hope away?

Eyes burning again, Taylor forced herself to stop imagining Joe’s fear before the grief and pain crushed her. She couldn’t do this now. She had to focus.

And she had a job to do.

Retrieving her notepad from her hammerspace, she looked to Alice again. “You’ve been studying the symbols with Khavi.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what these mean?”

Alice glanced at the sketch. Her mouth drew into a flat, tight line. Her pale blue gaze shot up to meet Taylor’s.

“You
do
know,” Taylor said, her heart tumbling over with dread and hope.

She didn’t want to know what the symbols meant.

But she
had
to find out.

“I only knew the symbols themselves before this morning. Mind, flesh, soul.” Her bony finger pointed to each one. “The symbol that connects them means ‘to bind.’ I did not know what they all meant in this arrangement, however, until I saw them earlier today.”

“On Michael’s back?”

“Yes. So I asked Khavi about them.”

“Did she tell you?”

“Yes. It’s a spell that temporarily binds a soul to a body, even if the resonance doesn’t match.”

“Temporarily?”
Oh, God. “Does that mean what I think it does?”

Her features pinched with worry and grief, Alice nodded. “Jake and I did not know what to say to the other Guardians—or even if we should. Michael must know, yet he has decided not to tell anyone.”

Including the woman he’d taken to bed. But Taylor pushed that pain away; it had no place here. “Can Michael be heal—”

A thunderous
CRACK!
boomed through the realm, pounding through her chest and knocking Taylor off balance. Wildly, she swung her wings. Alice grabbed her hand, helped her steady.

Taylor’s gaze flew to Jake. Had that been his Gift? Was his lightning
that
powerful? But the Guardian stared across the battlefield, horror tightening his face. He jumped back to Alice’s side.

A terrible rumbling filled Taylor’s ears. She looked toward the crimson tower. The left side appeared to be collapsing, as if the ground had dropped out from beneath the demons, leaving an enormous hole in the base, and those above were tumbling over each other to fill the empty spots.

Alice’s fingers tightened on hers. Everyone fighting on the battlefield was stopping, turning to look.

Where was Michael?

Her gaze frantically searched the toppling tower. The base of the column suddenly swelled and burst, demons scattering into the sky. Taylor’s heart stuttered. She’d seen demons flee like that before—when the frozen field had cracked and Michael’s dragon had broken free of the ice.

Fire exploded from the left side of the crimson tower, jetting white-hot flares like lashes of a burning whip. Demons dropped from the sky like meteorites, bodies aflame. A ravenous roar battered Taylor’s ears. Biting back a scream, she slapped her palms to the sides of her head and watched in terror as the dragon erupted from the undulating mass, scales flashing blue-green, enormous jaws belching fire before swooping to devour the falling demons.

“Oh, dear heavens,” Alice whispered.

Jake vanished—and returned a moment later with six Guardians. He vanished and returned again. Getting their friends out of the dragon’s way.

Dread penetrated Taylor’s shock and terror. Because the appearance of the dragon could only mean one thing: Lucifer had broken through to Chaos. Now nothing stood between the demon and Earth.

Nothing except the Guardians.

Light streaked across the sky toward the dragon, wielding a sword of flame. Belial. Squinting, Taylor turned her head aside, trying to track the demon’s flight from the corner of her eye—but he was so fast, and so bright. She only saw the trail of light and the burst of flame, then the dragon was falling, the thick neck flopping end over end as it flew in an arc away from the enormous scaly form. Belial had cut off its head.

The dragon’s body slammed to the ground. An expanding wave of humans and demons stumbled as the impact hit them like a bomb blast.

Alice’s power skittered up Taylor’s spine. Shuddering, she watched the spider nearest to the dragon scuttle on giant segmented legs toward the body and roll it up in glowing threads. Behind the spider, the undulating column no longer formed a tight mass, but still held the same rough shape. Taylor scanned the tower, desperately hoping to see one familiar form.