Undaunted (4 page)

At that moment, the demon’s huge head snapped up and he snarled. He was dark blue all over with eyes that glowed silver and spikes covering his skin like extra claws curving in all directions. Leaping from the large table where he’d been sitting, Naburus planted his huge, clawed feet and stared at the demon hunters. He was massive, towering over Az by a good two or three feet. Az had been the largest of the hellhounds and he was equally large as a man, but his six and a half feet put him eye level to the demon’s broad chest.

Naburus grabbed his whip from a holster at his hip, uncurled the razor-studded rawhide, and flung his right arm back in preparation for his attack.

Addie’s words echoed in Azrael’s skull. He whipped his sword from the scabbard and continued the motion with a full-powered slashing strike, lunging forward, reaching for the hand holding the whip. Jett rushed in with a loud war cry, sliding low to slice at the thick tendons at the backs of the demon’s knees, while Addie leapt for Naburus’s shoulders, landing between the sharp spikes and curved horns shooting out from the sides of his head. She slashed out, cutting across his thick neck with her short sword.

Jett buried his blade in thick, muscular flesh with a sideways chop behind the knee. The demon’s left leg buckled. Azrael caught Naburus’s right arm with his sword on the downstroke. The demon’s huge, clawed hand, still grasping the whip, dropped to the floor. Black blood sprayed in a wide arc. Spinning to deliver a killing blow, Az looked directly into the demon’s eyes and caught the sharp flash of recognition.

“You!” Naburus bellowed. He reached behind his back with his one good arm and caught Addie in his claws. “You will pay!” He whirled about, holding Addie close against his chest. Her eyes were filled with terror and a horrible resolve, when suddenly, as if he’d never been there at all, Naburus disappeared.

His hand, the whip, and the thick puddles of demon blood disappeared along with him. The sulfuric flames flashed high and bright, and just as quickly went out. The gamekeepers lay on the floor, unconscious. Jett, Locan, and Az glanced about the empty cafeteria.

Naburus and Addie were definitely gone.

Then both demon hunters stared at Az. He expected anger, would have understood their wrath. What he hadn’t expected was Jett’s soft curse and Locan’s sigh. Locan glanced at Jett. “We have to go after her.”

Jett nodded. “We do. I’ve never been to hell. Even as a demon, I was never actually in hell. Locan? You?”

Locan shook his head. “Never. I didn’t rank that high.”

Jett turned to Azrael. “Az? I know hell’s the last place you want to go, but you’re the only one who can show us where to find Addie. Are you willing?”

He stared at Jett, speechless. They wondered if he was going to help them rescue Addie? What kind of jerk did they think he was? Their doubt infuriated him. He wanted to punch Jett, or Locan, or damn it all, maybe he’d just punch the wall. Didn’t they realize that Addie mattered? He was no one. Nothing compared to Addie.

“Am I willing? Hell, yes! She’s there because of me. I can’t believe he took her! She’s an innocent. He’s not supposed to be able to take innocent souls to hell. He shouldn’t have done it. What the fuck is going on?” He shoved his sword back inside the sheath and took a couple of slow, deep breaths. He needed to calm down. Needed to think.

“What about them?” He nodded toward the unconscious gamekeepers.

Jett turned to Locan. “Will they remember?”

“I don’t think so. They were so terrified, I think they’re half convinced they were having a group psychotic experience. I pushed the memories into the pons section of their brains—it’s a primitive part of the brain stem that’s involved in our dreaming. They’ll remember a frightening experience, but each will interpret it according to their own set of memories as an impossible nightmare. I hope.” He glanced away. “Ukopach? We need you.”

The little demon popped out of a computer screen near the food service window. “Is he gone?”

“He is, but the bastard’s got Addie. You and your guys need to help us—can you get the gamekeepers back to their office before they awaken? I know they often sleep there. Maybe they won’t remember this at all.”

Ukopach put his fingers between his lips and whistled. Dozens of little demons flew through the computer screen and quickly surrounded the unconscious gamekeepers, hoisted them overhead and scurried out of the room. Azrael thought of ants carrying their prizes into the nest. Within a couple of minutes, the cafeteria was empty.

Yet he and the guys were just standing here. While Addie was with Naburus.

Az struggled to control his fury. It wasn’t working. He whipped around and glared at Locan and Jett. “We need to go. Addie needs us.” Angry and afraid, shaking so badly he could barely stand, Az was afraid he’d explode. Through gritted teeth he managed—almost—not to shout. “Why aren’t you guys hurrying? Naburus could be doing anything to Addie. He’s a demon—one of the worst. He’s got her. Doesn’t that even matter to you two?”

Jett grasped Azrael’s shoulder, and something about the strength and heat of the man’s fingers digging into his shoulder steadied him as nothing else might have. Nothing but getting Addie back safely. “Addie’s tough,” he said. “She knows the score. We have to check everything here first. It’s part of our code as demon hunters, cleaning up our messes in Earth’s dimension. No evidence of our existence can remain.” He took another quick look around the now pristine cafeteria. “Locan? You ready.”

“I am.” Locan stepped to Azrael’s right. Jett grabbed his left hand and Az’s first thought was that they were hanging on to him so he wouldn’t take a swing at either one, but Locan’s gaze was steady, his voice calm yet focused. “We can get you there, Az, but you’re the one giving directions. I want you to picture the place where you think we should land. Hopefully behind something to give us a minute to orient ourselves.”

Az took a deep breath, calmed himself as much as he could, and nodded. “Near Charon’s boathouse. There’s a stone building at the edge of the River Styx. I imagine Naburus has taken Addie to his quarters. Same side of the river, not far from the crossing. The air reeks of sulfur and the stench will burn your eyes at first. The heat is more mental than real—the flames appear to burn, but they throw no real heat. Not unless you’re meant to burn. The rules are fairly strict, in spite of Naburus. Charon, for all his bad press, isn’t a bad sort. He knows me only as a hellhound, but he was always good to me.”

Jett squeezed his hand. “Once we get Addie home, we’re going to see about getting you added to the team.”

Locan nodded. “You’re a good guy, Az, and damned effective with that sword. Remember, you have to fight Naburus. He knows who you are now. I felt his recognition, and the bastard wants you back. That’s why he took Addie.”

Az nodded. “I know. And if that’s the only choice, don’t hesitate. My life for hers. I go willingly if there’s no other way.”

Jett leaned around him and grinned at Locan. “He doesn’t know us very well, does he.”

Locan added, “Nope. Obviously not. Az, there’s always a way. Let’s go.”

Chapter 4

If she’d been thinking clearly, Addie figured she’d be scared half to death. The world about her still spun in puke-inducing circles, and the stench of sulfur was so strong her eyes watered, which didn’t help the visuals a bit. She vaguely recalled slicing into Naburus’s neck with her short sword, and then nothing. Absolutely nothing until she’d come awake, spinning inside her head while her body lay on the rocky shore of an underground river.

And if the visuals weren’t awful enough, the cacophony reverberating off the walls had the same effect as fingernails across a blackboard. It took her a few moments to realize she was hearing the screams of the damned—the howls of lost souls forever condemned to hell.

But that noise was coming from across the river. There was another sound close by. One even more terrifying than the cries of the damned. Breathing. Slow, deep, steady breathing, accompanied by absolutely foul breath that almost made the sulfur smell good.

Blinking slowly, Addie held perfectly still, somewhat anchored by the hard ground beneath her and the fact she still held her short sword in her hand. She tightened her grasp and slowly turned her head.

Blue claws attached to huge blue feet dug into the rocky ground not six inches from her nose. Swallowing back the bile that rose in her throat, she looked up—and up. Past scaled legs—he was obviously favoring his left—and knees covered in spikes. Past thick, overly muscled thighs ringed in claw-like spikes, and darkened leather covering what had to be the demon’s sex. His body was almost square, so muscular and overdeveloped, so covered in armor-like spikes, that he looked like something out of an old Marvel comic.

He stood with one huge, meaty fist planted firmly on his left hip. His right arm ended midway past his elbow. Black blood had congealed at the stump, but as she watched he leaned over and picked up the bloodied wrist and hand lying at his feet and stuck the raw ends together. He snarled. After a few seconds, he opened and closed the freshly reattached hand, testing the use of his fingers. Then he grabbed his razor-studded whip off the ground and jammed it into a holster at his hip.

His left leg straightened. Obviously the tendons Jett severed were healing as quickly as the hand Azrael had amputated. This was not looking good. Throwing caution to the wind, Addie looked up. All the way up.

His face was the thing of nightmares. Long, sharp horns curved out of each side of his jaw. Not tusks—there was no room for tusks inside a mouth filled with long, sharp teeth. Another set of horns curved upward from behind the demon’s pointed ears, and two more grew directly from the top of his head.

She’d never seen anything like it. Not a creature as well-armed, as big, or as intelligent as Naburus obviously was. He watched her watching him, his silvery eyes narrowing to mere slits of ice against his dark blue skin.

His voice rumbled up out of his chest like rolling thunder. “You have my hellhound. I want him back.”

Slowly, Addie stood, and even as tall as she was, she barely reached the middle of his broad chest. “No one has Azrael. He is his own man, and he stays with us by choice. He should not have been yours. You were promised the soul of Marcus Junius Brutus upon his death, and yet you took the living soul of a nameless man who was but a cook in the senator’s residence. He does not belong in hell.”

“It was an honest trade. He is mine. You will return him.”

He sounded calm, reasonable, even. Too calm. Shivers stole down Addie’s spine and set her radar on high alert. Something was wrong. She glanced at the River Styx. A boatman waited at the shore watching them with obvious interest. She was almost positive it was Charon. When he caught her looking his way, he dipped his head in salute, smiled, and then actually winked at her. Somehow, that bit of humanity in this place settled her nerves.

She glanced around, paying closer attention to her surroundings. They were in a huge cavern hewn from black stone. Light flickered and it was as Az had described it—flames without heat lighting the darkness, and yet the screams of agony echoing off the walls were the sounds of souls burning in flames. This had to be the incoming side of the river, the place where souls waited to be ferried across into hell. The place where Azrael would bring the ones he’d been sent to collect.

It came to her, then. This was as far as the demon could bring her. He couldn’t send her into hell because it was not within his power to do so. Just as he’d not been able to send Azrael’s soul to hell. Azrael didn’t belong there. His was a good soul and he’d been an honorable man in life. He didn’t belong to Naburus.

In fact, Naburus couldn’t bring Azrael back to hell at all. Not without Az’s agreement. Neither of them belonged here. Not Az, not Addie. She straightened her spine and folded her arms across her chest. “Where is the soul of Marcus Junius Brutus?”

The demon glanced away. She heard him growl. “Brutus is none of your business.”

“Ah, but I think he is.”

Addie? It’s Jett. We’re here, hiding behind the boathouse. What should we do?

Crap. How she kept her eyes on Naburus and a bit of a smile on her lips was something she’d never figure out, but she sent a mental scream to Jett.
Get out of here now! And take Azrael with you. Hurry. Don’t let Naburus know you’re here. I’ll meet you at home as soon as you’re gone.

Will do.

She loved the way the guys followed her orders without question. They disappeared from her mind as quickly as they’d entered, just in time. Naburus raised his head and sniffed the air. “Where is he? I smell him. He’s come back under his own power.” He rubbed his clawed hands together, sniffing in all directions. “Azrael is mine.”

“No, Naburus. He’s mine. I claim Azrael—hellhound, centurion, cook. I claim his soul, his heart and his mind. I charge you with stealing an innocent soul and ask for a reckoning, as Charon is my witness.”

Naburus screamed and reached for her. Addie thought herself home, and the walls of hell faded from view. Her last sight was of Charon, raising his hand in salute, and then she was back in her own home, in her own kitchen, with her very own guys. She’d returned
between
.

Jett, Locan . . . and Azrael? She glanced from one to the other and wondered just how this was going to play out.

* * *

Addie was back! Az didn’t even think. He simply grabbed her up in his arms, hugged her close against his chest and burst into tears. She hugged him back and then carefully pried his arms from around her waist and stepped back, but at least she held on to his hands.

He felt like a damned fool as he sniffed and wiped his streaming eyes off on his shoulder. It took him a moment before he felt he could speak coherently. “I didn’t think he would let you go. How did you get away from him?”

“He can’t hold me, Az. I’m not one of the damned, and neither are you. When he took you into hell, he was wrong, but since you never left, he could say that you stayed willingly even though he was able to control the hound. That’s why I was so scared when you three came after me.” She glanced up into the eyes of both her guys. “I love you so much. You took a huge risk coming into hell because you made yourselves vulnerable to Naburus’s control. I’ll never forget that. Thank you.”