Enemy Mine (27 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

S
elena ran toward her house, Nikko right beside her. A man she did not recognize lay sprawled on the granite patio. His eyes were wide open, and even in death the terror in them was palpable. She had seen the look many times. A discarded host.

Selena moved past him to the open back door. She stopped and listened. An eerie silence hung like a death pall around them. The cloying copper scent of blood was strong. The pungent scent of sulfur was stronger.

“Careful, Nikko, we’re not alone,” Selena whispered.

The stones flared around her neck with wicked heat. Carefully, Selena stepped across the threshold and into a warm, sticky substance. Blood.

She moved farther into the kitchen and stopped short. Juju lay just beyond the center island, her neck sliced to her spine. Her face bore the same terrified expression as the stranger’s on the patio.

Instinctively, Selena moved toward her friend, but abruptly stopped. There was nothing she or any other person, mortal or otherwise, could do for her now. Selena shelved her sorrow to a place she would deal with later. Her fury, however, she allowed to gather steam.

She looked toward the doorway leading to the large Florida room off the dining room. Inclining her head toward it, to tell Nikko to follow her, Selena drew her swords and stealthily made her way through it.

Abruptly, she stopped. Balderama’s scent, though faint, whiffed in the heavy air. Her heart pounded furiously against her rib cage. Was it a remnant from before, or had he come for Noslov? Her skin flinched. If he had, then he no longer trusted her, and if he no longer trusted her, the cask could end up in dangerous hands.

Selena turned and handed Nikko one of her swords.

“I smell daemon,” he breathed, shadowing her.

A Hellkeeper—and one with the power to cross water, albeit in a host.

Vetis
.

Trepidation ran neck and neck with excitement. Vetis was the Keeper of the Seventh Hell; only the princes and the king were more powerful. Both his power and the seventh stone were within her grasp!

Here, in her home, waiting for her.

Every sense alert, Selena moved down the short hall and into the Florida room. She cleared it, then moved to the dining room. Clear. As she approached the living room, two heartbeats reverberated around her. One the erratic staccato of a terrified human. The other the arrogant thud of a Hellkeeper.

Her eyes adjusted to the dim light. Her own heart stuttered a beat as her gaze lifted toward the ceiling. Bound and gagged, hanging from the chandelier, his eyes wide with fear, was Noslov. His eyes widened further as he spotted her and Nikko and … something behind them?

“Behind you!” Selena called to Nikko as she catapulted into the room. As she turned in midair, the daemon hurled Nikko straight at her. Nikko’s body slammed into her, the impact sending them both careening through the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the waterway.

They hit the concrete retaining wall, busting through it, then tumbled down the slope into the water.

Selena turned over, pushing Nikko behind her. The stones flared as she rose and faced Vetis.

He was a ghoulish sight. His distorted human face and muscled body were overblown and chunky, like a villainous superhero’s. His deformed fist pointed a glowing, spiked devil sword at her chest. The short, sharp horns protruding from his forehead flared red hot.

Lightning quick, the daemon reached past her and plucked Nikko from the water. “Give me the necklace,” Vetis hissed, hovering above her, careful not to touch the water. His spiked sword dug into Nikko’s neck. Blood dripped in slow, thick rivulets onto Nikko’s shirt.

“Release him, and I may consider it,” Selena bargained.

Vetis hissed in fury, “I will not bargain with you!” He flung Nikko back into the water and brought his sword down on hers, forcing her to spin. He grabbed her by the throat and yanked her up against his chest, her arms dangling. Hissing his sulfur breath against her ear, he jabbed the sharp, serrated tip of his sword into her neck.

The copper scent of her blood, mingled with Nikko’s, wafted around her nostrils. Her vision blurred as violent rage consumed her.

Selena twisted and with her empty left hand grabbed the blade of Vetis’s sword. As she did, she swung her own sword up behind her and into his back. The daemon screeched in rage. But he did not release her. Her hand was cut nearly in half from grabbing his sword, but she dug her own sword deeper into his body like a shish kebab. He screamed in rage and flung her away from him.

With all the fires of Hell burning in his eyes, Vetis contorted his body, realigning it until it was once again whole. Selena looked past him to Nikko, who slowly moved up the slippery embankment.
Thank God
.

In that split second, Vetis struck again. His sword sliced into her shoulder with such excruciating heat, she cried out. He ran her through, pinning her to the ground. He was strong, stronger than any other daemon she had faced. But she could beat him. If she was patient. His human form gave him a distinct advantage over the others with their animal forms. Her left hand was nearly severed in half and no use to her. But it would regenerate. If she lived. He kicked her sword from her right hand; snatching it up, he turned it on her.

“The necklace.”

Selena tried to rise. For her efforts, he impaled her other shoulder with her own sword.
Son of a bitch!

Selena lay staked to the ground, and for the first time in her quest for the stones, she doubted her skills. Fervently, she called to the stones for power. They flared hotter in answer, so hot the scent of her burning flesh assailed her nostrils.

Selena lifted one shoulder high enough so she could grab her sword, and yanked it free from her shoulder. She used her feet to kick up off the ground, and the velocity of her move pulled the daemon sword from the ground. She grabbed it with her damaged hand barely able to wield it. She had no such difficulty with her good right hand. As Vetis had done to her, Selena turned the daemon’s own sword on him.

“You underestimated my power, Vetis.”

Nikko rose up behind the daemon and ran him through from behind, the blade slicing at an angle near his heart. The daemon screamed in rage. He grabbed the sword protruding from his chest and pulled it through. And once again he was armed.

“As you underestimated mine.” He propelled backward, slammed Nikko into the ground, then grabbed him up by his shirt and flung him toward the house. Nikko’s body flew like a missile toward the stucco, but he used his power to slow his velocity, barely touching the wall. Red eyes glaring, fangs bared, Nikko turned on the daemon.

“As you underestimated mine,” Nikko taunted, hovering just above the ground.

Nikko moved in behind Vetis. The daemon’s eyes burned an unholy crimson.

Selena stalked from the front. She struck, slicing another angled cut into his chest on the opposite side of the wound Nikko had inflicted. She yanked the sword back and struck a third time. Half of the pentagram was cast.

Vetis shrieked in rage, grabbing his chest with one hand, thrusting his sword with the other.

Selena pushed him back toward the water. Nikko lunged at the daemon, hitting him hard in the chest. As they tumbled to the ground, Selena struck again, this time from behind, slicing another angled cut around the daemon’s heart.

Four!

He shot up into the air, furious flames contrailing behind him.

“You have no host to aid your retreat, Vetis,” Selena said, standing stalwart beneath where he hovered. “And no legions to carry you.” She smiled and beckoned him with her sword. “Come, take your chances with me, my lord. I will carry you home.”

Vetis belched great balls of fire at her. Easily, Selena deflected them. “Is that all you have left, Keeper of the Seventh Hell? Surely you can dig deeper than that.”

“The daemon kingdom is afire with word of your father’s quest for your daughter. Unite with me and together we will slay him.”

“Why unite with you when I can kill him myself?”

“Only with the seventh stone do you have a chance, slayer.”

She smiled. “I’d say my chances are pretty good.” She cocked her head sideways. “Yours, on the other hand, not so good.”

“If you defy our king, he will not rest until you and all your loved ones burn in his private Hell!”

“Your king will have to answer to the Order first!”

“As will you! Unite with me, and we can have it all!”

“That you bargain with me now, Vetis, tells me you are weak. I give you a choice: fall upon your sword or I will cut your heart out myself.”

“I can save your daughter!”

Selena calmed the storm in her heart.

“She is in no danger,” Nikko said, stepping closer. His eyes met Selena’s, urging her to remain calm.

Vetis hissed his putrid sulfur breath. “No mortal is safe from Paymon. His disciples are ruthless and determined. They will find her if they have not already. He will demand the stones for her life.”

“With the seventh stone, I will kill him.”

Vetis screeched and flew past her in through the shattered window. Noslov’s muffled screams followed.

“He took possession of Noslov!” Nikko said, running for the house.

Just as they entered, Noslov dropped to the floor. He turned his icy eyes on them both.

Selena didn’t hesitate. She tossed her sword to Nikko and leapt into Noslov’s head.

As she did, Vetis leapt past her and—

Nikko!

It happened so fast Nikko could not get to Selena’s body before Vetis took possession of it. The daemon didn’t leave his physical body behind as Selena did when she took possession of a body. These Hellkeepers completely vaporized, making it more difficult to gain the advantage.

The daemon who now controlled Selena’s body laughed and pirouetted around Nikko, stroking the necklace. Terror he had never experienced before shook violently inside Nikko. He would not raise a sword against her. But if he did not—

“Come to me, vampire,” Vetis hissed, the words coming from Selena’s lips. “Come to me now and I will kill you quickly.”

Noslov slammed into Selena, sending her body careening into the carved alabaster mantel. She lay stunned. Nikko rushed to her, but Noslov shoved him away.

“Do not touch the host,” Noslov warned. He grabbed Selena’s sword and raised it above her. Nikko kicked it from his hand. Noslov turned and hissed, “Let me kill him!”

Nikko stared at Noslov, stunned. He spoke with Selena’s voice. The daemon was in Selena’s body, she in Noslov’s. But if she killed her own body, would her soul wither and die with it?

Selena’s body grabbed the sword from where it had fallen, but Noslov kicked it from her hand. Nikko tackled her body and, not knowing any other way to keep the daemon from fighting back, sank his fangs into her neck.

The daemon screamed and struggled. Noslov’s body crumpled to the floor beside him, and Nikko watched Selena’s vapor swirl around her head, then dive into her open mouth.

Nikko released her body and waited, praying it would be Vetis who emerged next. He had both swords in his hands ready to carve the final two cuts for the pentagram.

“I know your secrets!” Vetis’s voice screeched from Selena’s mouth. “I am the tempter of the holy. I will corrupt the priest and take the child for my disciple!”

“The Hell you will!” Selena shouted from deep within her.

Vetis’s agonizing screams reverberated.

“I cast you from me, by all that is holy, I cast you from me!” Selena’s righteous voice chanted.

Vetis screeched. Small wisps of vapor puffed from Selena’s mouth.

“Begone from me, daemon!” she commanded. A long, thick orange vapor rushed from her parted lips. Although Selena had rejoined with her earthly body, it lay motionless on the floor.

The vapor began to solidify. Nikko impaled the torso on each side of the heart so that the six angles of the pentagram were cast. Vetis screeched, thrusting against the swords, grabbing them and trying to pull them from his body. Nikko stood over him, pushing all of his body weight into the hilts, holding the blades secure.