Hammer Down: Children of the Undying: Book 2 (33 page)

A medic wouldn’t help. Zel knew enough of wounds and death to understand Aton’s time would be measured in minutes, at best. The demon—his father—was dying. The fondest wish of Zel’s tumultuous adolescence, but watching the life bleed away from the creature that had sired him wasn’t as satisfying as he’d imagined as a youth. No clean, righteous anger burned through him now, just a tangle of guilt and regret.

Perhaps even pain, and that pain drove him to hope. “You said you’d return diminished. It means you’ll come back.”

“Not soon enough.” Aton twisted his hand, fingers clamping around Devi’s wrist, and he slapped his other hand to her shoulder.

Magic exploded in the stairwell. Devi shrieked, the shocked sound quickly turning to a strangled groan of pain. “Aton,
stop
—”

Hope turned to ash in Zel’s mouth. Betrayal hardened his heart. He lunged for his knife, ready to reclaim his childhood fantasies of patricide, but before he could close his fingers around the hilt, Aton released Devi with a wheeze.

It didn’t stop Zel from settling the blade against his father’s throat. “What did you do?”

He panted for breath for several moments before answering. “The torch. Is that not what you call—”

Devi’s sudden gasp cut off his words. “Oh God.”

Zel turned just enough to watch as Devi wiped Aton’s blood from her arm. A rough mark marred her skin, not quite a scar, but not a tattoo either. A brand in the shape of a sunburst, one that almost seemed to glow.

The sight of a demon’s claim on her skin turned betrayal to ice-cold rage. “What did you do?” he asked again, his hand shaking with the restraint it took to keep from driving the knife through Aton’s neck.

“So…impatient.” Aton heaved up, knocking the knife away from his neck and grabbing Zel’s upper arm in an iron grip.

The pain nearly blinded him, but it was a whisper, a drop in the bucket compared to the power that followed. Instinct drove a war cry from Zel’s chest as he slammed his hand around his father’s throat, furious enough to tear the flesh free with his bare fingers.

Two heartbeats and it was over. Pain melted away, and the press of demonic magic with it. Zel ripped away from Aton and dragged Devi with him, unable to trust himself when stillness wreathed his heart where the storm should rage. He was angry—

—but the demon inside understood something he didn’t. It whispered of one thing, so clear it might as well have been audible.
Trust.

Like hell. “Explain. Now.”

“My soldiers.” Aton coughed. “My command is yours now.” He grabbed at Zel’s clothes. “Lead them. Promise me.”

A torch. Power. Shots rang out above, followed by Jai’s roar of challenge, and the immediacy of their danger snapped into focus. How much time had he wasted already? Only minutes, but minutes stretched into days during a battle.

He only needed to know one thing. “They’ll follow me?”

“Both of you.” He smiled, revealing bloodied teeth. “They will follow.”

“Thank you.” More gunfire, from below this time, the direction of the children, and urgency brought Zel to his feet. “We have to—”

But his father’s gaze had gone flat, every bit of cognition and
life
gone. Devi touched Zel’s shoulder. “We have to go.”

It wasn’t death. Not really. Aton would return. Diminished, perhaps, but he would return.

The people trapped below wouldn’t.

He didn’t say anything, just gripped his gun tighter and hopped the stairs, trusting she’d follow. Knowing she’d follow, because any woman wild enough to steal his heart would sooner gut him than sit in quiet safety and wait for him to fight wars on his own.

They made it down the second set of stairs and spilled out into the wide room which his stepfather had long ago remade into a children’s playground. Swings and slides, boxes that could be climbed and crawled into, rope netting on the walls over deeply cushioned platforms—everything that might tire out young bodies.

It was hell for fighting. Too much cover, too many blind angles—their only advantage was the fact that plenty of the halfblood defenders had fought their first play battles among these structures, driven by their own nature. Zel curled his fingers around Devi’s arm and dragged her to the side a second before a bullet embedded itself in the wall behind them. “We’ve got to get to the other side of the room. Can you keep them off my back?”

She nodded as she readied her weapon. “Stay low. I’ll pick them off when they come up to fire.”

Warmth filled him—
trust
, his mind noted absently—but his body had already moved.

Thought bled into instinct as he sliced through the first foe. Knives, because the brutal strength of it pleased him, and because the close quarters made it too easy. By the time any enemy could raise a gun, he was on them.

Blood. Screams. Death. Beautiful, wild chaos, and the demon inside drank it down and clamored for more. For once, Zel didn’t fight it. He raged in defense of his family, his people, the children…

Devi. Lover.
Partner
.

With Devi at his back, Zel gave in to the darkness and trusted she’d be the light at the end, guiding him home.

Zel fought like a man possessed, his rage a living, breathing thing. He cut through the soldiers so quickly that Devi barely fired a shot. He would have killed them all by himself, given a chance.

He wanted to kill them all. They’d invaded his home, hurt and threatened his people, and he wanted them dead. Even more, he
needed
it.

The realization rattled Devi, but she stuck close to Zel as he fought. One lucky shot grazed him, slicing a bleeding furrow across his upper arm, but he only fought faster, harder.

A man possessed.

They left devastation in their wake, but the worst was still ahead, a tight tangle of defenders grouped around a thick metal door. Devi caught a glimpse of Tanner before he launched himself over two bodies toward a soldier closing in on a cornered woman. Kate—out of the network and clutching a real knife this time, one slick with blood. A moment later, she stabbed the soldier, an act of desperation rather than skill.

Tanner hit the ground and rolled, moving almost as fast as Zel and the other halfbloods. In a heartbeat, he had the soldier on the ground and had placed his body squarely between Kate and the rest of the room.

Zel cut down one last soldier and spun, wild eyes seeking out another opponent. The stragglers were fleeing as fast as they could, some wounded, others crippled by fear.

Defeated.

Devi pried the knife from Kate’s hand and grasped her shoulders. “Okay?”

She looked a little dazed, but none of the blood streaking her skin and clothes seemed to be hers. “They didn’t get into the nursery. They—” She stumbled and almost fell, but Tanner wrapped an arm around her waist and held her up.

“Hey there.” His voice was easy, soothing. “You did good.”

Devi slid her hand into Zel’s. “Do you want to check on your mother while we clear the stairwell?” It would give him a chance to calm down, regain some sort of composure.

He made it two steps toward the doors before they flew open. Hailey stood there, pale but resolute, a handgun in one hand and a tablet in the other. Her gaze swept the room, lingered briefly on Devi, and jumped to Zel. “We’ve got two dozen demons topside who just laid down their weapons and asked to see their leader.” A pause, and her uncertainty bled into uneasiness. “You?”

Silence. The first curse came from Tanner, low and hoarse. Whispers turned to murmurs as Zel wiped his knife on his pants, sheathed it and held out a hand to Devi—without looking at her.

A shudder wracked her as she realized what his downcast gaze meant. Though he’d stretched out his hand to her, he expected her not to take it.

That it was no judgment of her was the only thing that kept Devi from crying out in pain. Her heart still ached for him, for the fear he carried. For the shame she would do anything to ease.

She wove her fingers through his. “You carry demon blood inside you,” she whispered, “but so do I. So do we all.”

He didn’t understand what she meant—not yet—but he closed his hand around hers, clinging though his face remained impassive. He raised his voice, his gaze fixed on Hailey. “Lorenzo can help you clean things up down here. I’ll deal with the demons.”

Hailey didn’t reply. After a few seconds Zel turned, bringing Devi with him as he started the long walk back through the carnage of the battle.

Topside, they found the cleaning already underway. Jai dragged the bodies of the invaders away from the rubble at the side of the building, never straying too far from Juliet.

Zel led Devi to a courtyard on the western side of the main garage, where the demons Hailey mentioned had congregated. They knelt, bending low to the ground.

Juliet watched them, a blend of curiosity and fascination forming into a frown on her face. “What the hell are they doing?”

It was Jai who answered, voice tight. “Waiting for orders. Hierarchy in a warrior band is enforced by magic. They know when the leader dies, and they’re bound to follow whoever leadership passes to.”

The demon in the front looked up. “The halfblood knows our ways.”

Zel nodded once. “He was raised among demons. Unlike me. I don’t know what leadership entails. All I know is that my people aren’t ready to have demons walk among them.
I’m
not ready.”

“We—” The demon hesitated, his reticence clear. “We cannot leave. Not until Aton returns to reclaim our fealty.”

“And how long will that be?”

A longer pause this time. “Several months. We are not reborn with the speed or power we once were. We are diminished, and no longer safe in this world. Not without the secrets of the Templars.” The demon looked to Devi. “You hold those secrets.”

She nodded. “Maybe not in the way you think, but yes. I have spoken with the guardian and accessed the archives.”

Zel eased closer, until she was pressed against his side. A united front. “Until he returns, we need to work together. If she can access the archives, she can answer your questions. What can you offer in return?”

One glance around to his comrades, and the demon squared his shoulders. “We’re warriors. We can offer protection. More time on the surface.”

“You’ll fight for us, against demons?”

A nod.

Zel’s hand fell to Devi’s back, a soft touch that he seemed to need. His voice sounded calmer when he spoke again. “The camp where we found you, can you make it your base? We’ll all need time to adjust.”

He inclined his head again. “As you command.”

“Then that’s what I command. Patrol as you see fit, but not within our perimeter. In a few days’ time, we’ll meet again and make more permanent arrangements.”

At once, the demons rose together, turned, and fell into a neat formation as they marched away. Devi stood, shivering as adrenaline began to fade, and the import of what had happened slammed into her.

They’d repelled an attack from the city. Zel’s father had died.

She wasn’t human.

The hand at her back slid to her hip in a strong, steadying grip. “You died on me, Devi.”

She managed a weak smile. “I didn’t mean to.”

Zel turned her and dragged her up against his body, up onto her toes until his lips almost touched hers. “Don’t do it again,” he whispered before kissing her, oblivious to the growing crowd of onlookers.

The sheer relief of it was unfathomable, and Devi clung to him. “There’s so much I have to tell you.”

“Soon,” he promised. “We have a lot of work to do first.”

And then, as if he didn’t care at all, he kissed her again.

Work would wait, and so would the explanations. For now, they’d pick up the pieces, celebrate life and victory—two things so intertwined nothing could separate them.

Just like her and Zel.

Chapter Twenty-Five

It took three days to clean up Rochester.

Three days was longer than it
should
have taken, but twenty-four hours passed before the soldiers truly believed they could move about topside without worrying about a demon attack. Though Zel’s new allies had obligingly made themselves scarce, their presence was felt in the absence of other predators. Whatever they were doing in their camp, they were keeping the other demons away.

For the first time in decades, the people of Rochester walked under the sun without fear, and that miracle alone seemed to have bought him endless forgiveness. He’d never been more popular.

And he’d never been busier. Zel leaned back in his chair and let the voices of his new council flow over him as so much noise. Idle chatter, a productive meeting winding down into plans for the evening’s celebration. Drake, Lorenzo, Marci, Hailey, Jai…and, at his right, Devi, her voice a soothing balm to his weary spirit.

Tonight, they’d celebrate. Above ground, for the first time, and she’d be at his side. Maybe he’d even find the words tonight to tell her how much he needed her.

How much he loved her.

Hailey’s booted foot drove into his leg. “Are you ignoring us again? Devi was telling us about the undying and the celestials.”

“I’ve already heard it,” he retorted, trying to sound annoyed instead of pleased. The ache in his shin proved that Hailey was finally regaining her strength. “I do sleep with the woman, you know.”

“Braggart.” Lorenzo snorted. “Why don’t you save us all some time and repetition and get it tattooed on your forehead?”

So maybe he was a little more pleased then he should be. He turned to Marci, who had seemed unusually subdued. Hard to imagine how much had changed in the short time since he’d spoken to her in the network. She and Gabe had come home to an entirely different Rochester, with demons patrolling the skies and craftsmen hard at work above ground.

She hadn’t gotten much of a chance to rest, either. “How’s the work going with the server?” Zel asked. “Trip said you and Cache were going to try to integrate it with our network this morning.”

“It might take a few more days,” she admitted. “We’ll need to set up some firewalls, make sure the AI is contained.”

“What about getting access for more of the summoners? Whatever that test was, can’t they just do what Devi and Cache did?”