Faith (Soul Savers Book 7) (43 page)

My ears rang with
grunts, yells, roars, and the clanging of weapons. The odors of baby
powder, sulfur, iron, and blood wafted in the air. Lightning streaked
webs across the clouds above, thunder rolled overhead, and fat
snowflakes glowed orange like embers as they fell. My breath came out
in icy puffs in front of me. Faint little streaks slipped through
Dorian’s lips, too.

I landed near the rim
of the pit and laid him out of the way of the warriors, then soared
high into the sky to gain a view of the battle. For as far as I could
see in every direction, Angels clashed with Demons in the air. On the
ground, more Angels helped the Normans and Amadis who fought Daemoni
and Demons with human bodies. Thousands of dead and injured lay
scattered about the Earth. Black, silver, and crimson stained the
snow as weapons, claws, and fangs sliced through flesh and blood
spurted.

I tried to find my
team, my mother, and my grandmother, but it was impossible in the
bedlam. To add to it, several figures shot out of the pit.

The faeries came first,
including Bree, Stacey, Debbie, Baby Cakes, Lisa, and Jessica. I
dipped down closer as more flew out after them, followed by all kinds
of supposedly mythical creatures, some whom I wasn’t sure
should have been freed. I dropped back down to Dorian’s side in
case something tried to attack him, and each time a figure emerged, I
held my breath, waiting for Tristan. My chest began to tighten as I
thought about him being left behind last time, unable to fight his
Demons.
He defeated them. They no longer have power over him.
I tried to calm myself, but not until he came through the flames did
I finally believe it.

Tristan rose from the
pit, along with Lucas. They fought each other on a fiery tentacle so
fat, it looked like a snake or eel. When the thing lifted itself
higher and twisted, it exposed what looked like a yellow blazing eye
in the orange and red magma. And I swore it searched for me, because
as soon as its gaze landed on me, it zipped in my direction. Tristan
and Lucas flew up in the air when it did, and they continued their
hand-to-hand combat.

The snake’s flame
of a tongue lashed out at me, and I flattened myself over Dorian's
body, keeping us protected with my wings. When it pulled back, I
jumped up and shot an electric charge at it, but the power had no
effect. This was a beast from Hell. My sword and guns were gone,
taken when I’d been captured, leaving me with my hidden dagger
and knife—both too short to reach the snake’s head
without my skin getting burned. I had my wings, but I couldn’t
leave Dorian, unconscious and helpless.

The fiery serpent
charged at me again. I rose up just high enough to pull it away from
Dorian, my wings hard and lifted, ready to slice into the thing.
Tristan saw it charging my way, though, and abandoned his fight with
Lucas. He flew over the snake, banked into a turn with his wing
angled down, and severed it in half. At the same time, a green light
streaked toward us, slammed into the fiery pieces, and they
disintegrated into black smoke that wisped downward, into the flames.
On the far side of the pit stood Owen.

I lowered to the ground
to check on Dorian when someone’s power blasted into me,
knocking me sideways. As I tried to catch my balance, Lucas landed
nearby, his hands out toward me, and wave after wave of power slammed
into me like knives blazing with Hellfire. Burning cold sliced into
my flesh, oozed into my blood and bones. I lifted my wings to block
it and shot Amadis power back at him, but he was so strong, so dark.

Since he had no use for
Dorian anymore, I took the chance and launched myself upward, drawing
him away from my son. As expected, Lucas tried to follow, lifting
himself several feet above the ground, his power still blasting at
me. Until a white and black streak knocked into him, tackling him to
the ground. Vanessa’s fists pummeled Lucas’s face several
times and then her head dove down before he threw her off of him with
his power. He launched himself into the air, blood pouring out of the
side of his head. Vanessa spit Lucas’s ear to the ground. I
soared after our sperm donor.

His power pushed back
at me, a force that slowed me down as I flew against the resistance.
Two Angels swooped at him, long swords out—no, not Angels,
exactly, but Mom and Rina. Each of their blades glinted in the light
of the fire as they swung toward him, carving a bloody X into Lucas’s
chest. He lurched backward before hanging in midair, his expression
wild and confused as his power stopped blasting at me. His red eyes
filled with flames when they found Mom and Rina who hovered above me
now. He yelled something unintelligible as he tried to lift his hands
toward them, but I could feel their power storming down at him.

I took the opportunity
and sped toward him. He laughed at first, then smirked, which was
followed by a cry to his people for help. Nobody came. Except
Vanessa, who sprang up and grabbed him from behind, pulling him to
the ground. And Tristan, who paralyzed his body. I stopped several
feet in front of this man who was supposed to be my father, pausing
only for a second to relish in the terror shining in his eyes.

Then I whipped my right
wing out.

The feathers’
edges swept across his throat.

A sound like “no”
gurgled through the gash.

Then his head rolled
off his shoulders and toppled, blood spurting from the stump of his
neck like a fountain. Snowflakes descended into his empty, icy eyes
and gaping mouth.

And everything around
us fell still.

The fighting ceased.
Battle cries silenced. Nobody moved so much as a finger. Everyone
simply stared at Lucas’s beheaded corpse.

The fountain of crimson
ceased as shards of bright blue light flared from his body. They
twisted together and grew into tentacle-like forms and curved upward
and high above the gruesome form that had once been a man. The light
gathered together, spiraling into a glowing ball that pulsed out a
beat as it grew.

The blackest of all
magic soared over my head, sending an eerie tingle down my spine. The
ball of light absorbed it, expanded and brightened.

It throbbed one more
time.

Then it whizzed toward
Dorian.

“No!” I
dropped to my son’s side.

But I couldn’t
stop it. The ball circled around me and plunged into his body, and a
moment later, he gasped awake, clawing at his chest. My head snapped
up toward Mom and Rina.

“His
soul
?”
I shrieked. “Did Lucas’s soul just possess Dorian?”

Mom’s blade
plunged into Lucas’s torso again. She twisted it around, and
then yanked it out. On the silver tip was a white gauzy substance,
thin and smoky—like Kali’s soul when I’d removed it
from her physical body.

“No, not his
soul.” Mom flicked the essence into the fiery pit.

The edges of the
sinkhole instantly began closing in. The flames dimmed and lowered.
Vanessa flung Lucas’s body into it, and Tristan picked up his
head by the hair and tossed it in, too. My sperm donor, body and
soul, disappeared into Hell. As if being sucked down by a vacuum,
thousands of evil souls in their Demon forms sailed into the pit,
screeching in protest. The fire immediately extinguished, and the
ground closed up.

“What was it?”
I asked desperately as I turned back toward my son, my hands flitting
over him, checking him for injuries. Specks of dried blood clung to
his neck, but that was all.

He rolled away from me
and pushed himself to his feet, drew in a deep breath, and glanced
around. His resemblance to Tristan still blew me away.

“He has Lucas’s
power now,” a cloaked figure from the side of the pit hissed.
One of the Ancients. “Which means he has ours.”

My poor heart stopped
once again. “He … he has the power of Lucas
and
the Ancients? What does that mean?”

In answer, the
remainder of the Daemoni roared in some kind of evil cheer. And then
they attacked again. The fighting resumed.

Magic spells and powers
shot from the Ancients toward Tristan and me. We both flew at them,
swooping by them, but when we thought we’d severed their heads
with our wings, they disappeared into black smoke.
Cowards
, I
thought as I swept around to view the battle.

Although they were
severely outnumbered with the Angels helping the Amadis and the
Normans, the remaining Daemoni fought with renewed vigor. More blood
spilled. More bodies crumpled to the ground. I opened my mind,
sharing the enemies’ thoughts with our allies, while I used my
own powers. Tristan paralyzed several until the Angels or Amadis
could defeat them. Then his next thought came to me, and I had to
stop him.

No
. I shook my
head, and he restrained his deadliest power.
Enough have died
already. There’s only one person who can stop this.

Tristan nodded, and
together, we dropped down to Dorian, landing on each side of him.

“Dorian, you can
end this,” I said. “You have Lucas’s power. You
have control over them now. Right?”

He turned his head to
look down at me, and my stomach dropped at the glow in his eyes,
making me gasp.

Before he could
respond, a body soared through the air toward us and landed not too
far away. She immediately jumped up, shaking her blond hair out of
her face—Lesley. Alys’s vampire friend who’d been
so close to choosing conversion. She charged back the way she came,
but Vanessa was faster. In a blink, Vanessa held Lesley’s heart
in her hand. Was her soul still safe? What had she chosen in the end?
I would never know.

“Dorian, do
something,” I begged.

Two more bodies flew at
us. Met the ground in front of us with successive thuds, both face
down in the snow. Both blondes … and instantly recognizable.

“NO!” I
screamed as I lunged at them.

Two were-cats, a
cheetah and a jaguar, leapt at us, pushing me away before landing at
Dorian’s feet. They crouched and bowed, then instantly
transformed into their naked, human forms—Cruz and Rene.

“We brought you a
gift, master,” Cruz purred as Rene spit something bloody and
tubular out of her mouth.

Dorian knelt down and
turned the smaller body over at the same time I moved the other. My
breath whooshed out of me, and my hand slammed over my mouth.

“No,” I
wailed as I dropped to my knees. “No, no, NO!”

I gathered Charlotte
into my arms, rocking and holding her, pushing her hair out of her
face. Her sapphire blue eyes held no more light. No more life. Next
to me, Dorian studied Heather, a chunk of her throat and trachea
ripped out.

“Dorian, stop
this!” I cried. “Stop it now!”

His jaw muscle twitched
as he clenched his teeth while staring at Heather’s face and
her bloody, battered, lifeless body. His eyes, still hard, narrowed
as he stroked a finger over her cheek, blinked once, and then turned
them onto Cruz and Rene. They both fell to all fours, their heads
down. Dorian ignored them as he rose to his full height, nearly as
tall as his father standing next to him.

Tristan clamped his
hand on Dorian’s shoulder. “Do the right thing, son.”

A growl rumbled in
Dorian’s throat and his nostrils flared as he glanced down at
Tristan’s hand, and then squared his shoulders, effectively
shrugging his father off.

“It’s over,
my children.” Dorian’s voice was no louder than normal,
but reverberated across the valley with unprecedented power. The
endearment sent a shiver down my spine. “Stand down!”

The fighting stopped as
suddenly as it had before, but the Daemoni, several thousand
remaining on their feet compared to the hundreds of thousands before,
only stood there, staring at Dorian.

“Who is with me?”
Dorian asked with a command to his voice I’d never heard
before. All of the Daemoni dropped to a knee. “Then come.”

My hand grabbed at his
leg. “Where? Where are you going?”

He turned those hard
eyes on me, a glint of red glowing in them. “Away from you.”

My eyes widened. “
What?
No! It’s okay. If there’s hope, we can convert them. You
can convince them, can’t you? They’ll listen to you! They
can become Amadis. Like you, Dorian. You’re still Amadis. You
still belong with Dad and me.”

“No, I’m
not. I’m nothing like you. These are my people now, and I
belong with them.” His voice raised a notch. “
I
must take care of them. Not
you
.”

He spat the last word
out as though it offended him.

“Dorian—”

The red in his eyes
glared brighter, and his voice came out in a near roar. “Stop
trying to control me! I am not your baby anymore!”

I flinched, and a
heartbeat passed between us as we gazed at each other, his eyes
glowing with the power swirling within him now. More power than any
of us could possibly comprehend. And not the good kind. The kind that
was intoxicating, difficult to deny, too easy to embrace …
which Dorian’s mind showed he was doing now—embracing it.
His body delighted in the energy charging through it.

I shook my head. “No,
Dorian. Please don’t do this. Be stronger than this.”

“Don’t
worry,
mother
. I’m stronger than you could possibly
imagine.”

A small smirk crossed
his face before he broke the lock of our eyes, turned away from me,
and lifted his arms into the air. The wind gusted up, circling and
whipping around us. The Daemoni corpses disintegrated into ash,
picked up by the wind. The gusts lifted the bloodstained snow into a
tornado that spun around us, blasting ice crystals into my face and
eyes. Just as suddenly as Dorian had created it, the snow-tornado
disappeared, along with the Daemoni.

And so had my son.