Key of Solomon: Relic Defender, Book 1 (4 page)

His mind spun with the implication of the demon’s presence. High Caste demons did not leave the Under Realm often, but when they did, chaos and death, human death, followed. For the High demon to be present now, in close proximity, could only mean Beliel knew where to find the Defender. His jaw clenched. He’d hoped for more time to work with her before she had to deal with Beliel or one of his deadly allies.

“She is a delicious piece of mortal flesh isn’t she, my brother”?
As if a mere thought of his name commanded his attention, Beliel’s dark, hell-crusted voice slithered into Mikos’ mind.

“Hiding behind a mortal, hell-spawn?”
he snarled.

A guttural bark of derisive laughter, then, “
Better a hell-spawn than an archangel’s slave.”

“At least I don’t have to act through another.”

A hiss sounded, the grating sound reverberating through Mikos’ skull. A brief smile of satisfaction twitched his lips. He’d made the oily bastard angry.

“You will lose,”
Beliel snapped in a harsh, raw voice.
“I will have the woman, and she will lead me to King Solomon’s Key
.
”

“Are you an Oracle now?”

“I do not need a soothsayer to tell me of my destiny. I have the pretender’s Vessel. Soon I’ll have the Key. Then I’ll take the spirits’ power as mine. Nothing can stop me. Not Lucifer, not Heaven and certainly not a cowardly traitor.”

He paused but before Mikos could form a reply, Beliel continued.
“Why did you turn your back on us, brother? For these humans? They are nothing to us. Less than nothing. Cattle, really.”

“They are Yahweh’s children.”

“Bah. His pets. We were his children. Before he turned us aside for these pitiful creations.”
His mind voice rose on the last word. When he paused, Mikos could almost hear the intake of breath as the demon fought for control over his emotions.
“No matter,”
Beliel continued.
“Think hard, my brother, about what side you are on. About the choice you’ve made.”

Before Mikos could respond, a feminine shriek and outburst from nearby tore his attention from Beliel. More laughter, low and dark, flowed around him before the bastard’s nasty chuckle faded.

Mikos’ heart thumped. Fires of Hell, had the demon distracted him so he could send someone after the woman? He jerked his head to stare at the stage. Under the undulating lights, the empty space taunted him.

He yanked to his feet, the chair crashing to the floor. Ignoring the startled yells of the human males at the table who’d seen an empty chair violently topple, his eyes swept over the crowd then latched onto the woman.

Chin high, she stood in the midst of wide-eyed men taunting her with crude language and gestures. Her dark hair, tumbling carelessly down her back, glittered like black pearls under the flashing lights. A modern day Joan of Arc standing before her accusers. Mikos’ fingers clamped on the table, the urge to rip the men to shreds surged until he thought his chest would burst. The wood splintered under his grasp.

Hell fire. Spinning away from the table, he pushed through the crowd. Astounded at the violent emotions raging through him, he took several deep breaths as he shoved and jerked away the human barriers between him and the woman. It had been a long time since he’d felt such extremes in emotions, yet, twice this night, he’d felt both forbidden passion and the craving to harm a human. Neither one boded well for him.

Curses fell from his mouth as he made his way to the woman. Now that he’d found her, he’d not lose her to a pack of lust-heated mortal men. Or a hell-birthed demon.

Chapter Three

“To fly, we have to have resistance.”

Maya Ying Lin

At the same moment Lexi settled into a defensive square stance, she caught a glimpse of lead bouncer Gary’s red head bobbing her way. About damn time.

Out of the corner of her eye, another movement in the crowd snatched her attention from everything but the dark man coming toward her. Like freaking Moses parting the Red Sea, the object of her previous ogling moved through the leering and aggressive men as if they weren’t even there. A glowering mask of scalding fury narrowed his eyes and drew his lips into a tight line. The rage had such a tangible presence she wondered how the mob didn’t sense the intense emotion.

“Oh, shit,” she breathed. Her heart jolted and her pulse pounded.

Looking beyond the anger that clawed at her nerves, she saw something else. Something impossible. Something that had to be a trick of the lights. An illusion. The silver glow saturating his eyes, increasing in brilliance until she couldn’t focus on anything except the incandescent flash, couldn’t be real. Alarm skittered along her spine, an icy sensation she felt freezing in her veins.

Transfixed by the wreck heading for her, Lexi stared. The dark figure of the man, big and commanding, closed the distance. Even with rage stiffening his shoulders, he carried himself with nonchalant grace. An oddly primitive warning sounded in her brain. She licked her lips.

The flicker of motion from behind him tore her from her absorption with his glowing eyes and powerful body. Black wings unfurled over his shoulders and back. Not only one pair. Two pair, one larger, the feathers more defined, and a smaller, more delicate-looking set just below the larger pair, stretched up and out. Like him, the wings did not appear fully solid, yet she saw them.

Didn’t she?

Lexi closed her lids. No way was she seeing this. She opened her eyes and flicked her gaze in his direction again. Nope. Nothing wrong with her vision. Or her imagination. If she had a Bible in front of her, and believed in that sort of thing, she’d raise her right hand and swear she’d seen four freaking wings, complete with shimmering black feathers, spring from behind his back.

Someone jostled her. The crowd’s level of aggravation had escalated. Time to protect her own ass before someone handed it to her.

A few well-placed jabs and not so well placed, but effective, heel kicks, cleared a circle around her and Sam. Lexi closed her fingers around Sam’s wrist, spun the woman around and shoved her through the crowd and further away from the jerk and his friends.

To Lexi’s right, Gary waded into the churning melee, grabbed men by the scruff of their necks and tossed them to the side. Despite the urgency of the situation, a smile twitched her lips. Ah, brute strength in poetic action.

What a pity he didn’t get the chance to toss the jerk who stumbled over Gary’s feet and tipped forward. The jerk’s lowered head homed in on her midsection then yanked upright.

Sonofabitch. She backpedaled, and her eyes widened. “Shit,” she sputtered. She hadn’t moved fast enough. The top of the bastard’s head crashed into her chin. Her head snapped back. She’d have fallen on her ass except for the presence of the chair she fell against. Tears filled her eyes. A throb began at the back of her jaws and extended into her ears.

Those cartoons where stars spun around a character’s head? What a bunch of bullshit. Instead of stars, she got blinding pain that shot through her jaw and ground her teeth together.

Her first instinct was to smack the shit out of the jerk. Instead of the reciprocating hurt she wanted to inflict, she settled for glaring at him and singing the air with a satisfying spat of swearing.

“Ah, Christ, I’m sorry, Lex.”

Gary hovered near her shoulder, practically wringing his hands like a damsel in distress. Disregarding his soulful brown eyes and his way-too-damn-late apology, Lexi gazed over the heads of the rapidly dissipating audience. Her mysterious, dark hottie was gone.

Except… The spot where he once stood remained empty. As if he continued to occupy the space, the absence of his body creating a vacuum.

Who was he? Even more, what was he and what the hell was with those, er, wings?

“What the fuck is going on here?” A familiar strident tone, bell-ringing loud and obnoxious, beat like a clapper against her head. “Just do your damn job and get these fuckin’ assholes outta here.”

Ah, there he was. Her dream of a boss, Howard. Tall, stick-thin, all angles and edges, he waved his arms at two boys in blue standing beside him at the bar. Every once in a while, he shot her a threatening look. The pencil eyebrows narrowing over small eyes weren’t pretty. It wasn’t kind.

It was downright frightening.

“Lexi, you okay? Do I need to call for a doctor?” Gary asked, hovering at her side.

She held a warm spot in her heart, as much as she could manage for anyone, for the big bouncer. Aside from his solid, thick form, he reminded her of the scarecrow from the
Wizard of Oz
. Well, except for the straw stuffing. Oh, and the missing brain. For all his size, there was something gangly and endearingly clumsy about him.

“I’m good, thanks. Nothing a couple of aspirin and sleep can’t handle.”

She tossed him an easy smile that faded at the stabbing reminder of the beating her jaw had just taken and then pivoted. The only thing on her mind was getting the hell out of the club.

“Lexi, wait a minute.”

Sighing, she stopped and turned. With an apologetic expression thinning his mouth, Gary held out a white business card. “I almost forgot. A guy gave this to me. Said to make sure I handed it right to you.”

Lexi took the proffered card and flipped it over. Several times. She frowned. No writing or pictures covered the stark, white surface. Only an expanse of nothing on both sides of the card. “Is this a joke?” she asked. “Who gave it to you?”

Gary shrugged. “Dunno. Never seen him before. He had the weirdest eyes though. Kinda swirly.”

Heh. Swirly. What a night, um, correction, day this was turning out to be. While dancing at the club was never boring, it had never had quite this much excitement. As Gary hinted at—weirdness.

“Thanks, Gary. See you later.”

He nodded, and Lexi headed backstage.

Mikos stared at the woman until she disappeared into the shadows behind the stage. Blood pulsed through his veins, feeding the heat of anger that remained even after her safety had been assured. A few more steps and he’d have been at her side and the human males crowding her would have suffered. Maybe even died. The battle fury’s hunger required a release. It was all he could do to keep a tight lock on its violence.

After another final glance at the wall of dark beyond the lights, Mikos moved unseen through the crowd until he stood outside. He jabbed his hands into the pockets of his jacket and, ignoring the grime, settled against the side of brick-walled building, his back to the alley. Now, he waited.

Scurrying sounds came from around him. The scritch of tiny claws over gravel, an occasional high-pitched argument erupting into a screeching battle between rodent and feline. Rot mixed with urine and all overlaid by a hint of desperation, infused the air. So much misery packed the human realm. Unfortunately, a large part of the suffering came from the selfish actions of his kind. A bitter taste that lingered at the back of his mind. In his soul.

He frowned, hitching his shoulders to shake off the thought. This was not the time to travel to the past. Only sadness waited for him there.

The question was how to best approach the woman? From what he’d discovered, she had a sharp mind and deeply observant eyes. A barrier the strength of a steel wall around her, impenetrable to anyone who came near. She didn’t trust anyone and had no friends.

This mortal female was…utterly fascinating. And potentially problematic.

Mikos blew out a breath and shifted again. The irony of his situation didn’t escape him. He, one of the Fallen, chosen as the woman’s mentor. Fallen, who by their very nature, didn’t play well with mortals.

He rubbed the back of his hand across his chin and slanted a scowl at the heavens. “You couldn’t have sent me against a legion of demons instead?” he muttered.

Damnation. He had little enough time to gain the woman’s trust. In fact, he had to do what promised to be an arduous and frustrating task within thirty mortal days. Until Samhain, when the barrier between the mortal and spiritual realms was at its thinnest. Beliel would use that powerful time and the magic of the Key to take the power of seventy-two deadly spirits. What the bastard planned to do with their power wasn’t clear.

A slight puff of air lifted Mikos’s hair, the ends dancing against his neck. He gathered his power about him, and in the same moment, caught the distinctive and piquant earth scent of something familiar. Something distinctly unthreatening. A small figure with pale gray skin and approximately three feet in height, blinked into view, hovering at eye level.

Agrigorockie, Rocky as he preferred to called, bent his head in a nod. “Master,” he said, the guttural hiss of the word sounding like the roll of rubber tires on gravel. A third tier demon, one of the lower castes, Rocky had attached himself to Mikos from about the same time he’d arrived in Hell. Since then, he’d been unable to shake the imp.

“The Slayer needs to talk to you,” Rocky continued.

Mikos growled, a low rumble that started in his chest and expanded into his throat. “The Slayer can kiss my ass.”

“That’s what I told him.” Rocky’s sharp teeth flashed white in the deep gray. “He said that while he anticipated and appreciated the generous offer, he was not so inclined, however, he still wants to talk. Face to face. Said it was important. Life or death stuff.”

Mikos growled again and shot him a threatening look. The shapeshifter took too much enjoyment in relaying the Slayer’s words.

Rocky held up his hands and zipped back, still hovering effortlessly. “Okay, okay. Gotcha.” He waited barely a breath before the words tumbled from his mouth, “so, what do I tell him?” His tone suggested he’d rather bathe in the River Styx’s forgetful waters than go back and tell the Slayer Mikos wasn’t coming.

Mikos hesitated. He did not like the idea of leaving the woman alone. Especially not with Beliel near. He cast out his senses. For now, the taint of hell-spawn was gone. Despite his feelings or concern, one did not ignore the Slayer. He would not have contacted Mikos unless it was truly a matter of life or death.