Fallen Angel of Mine (46 page)

The Templar commander stared at the
screen, disbelief clearly written on his face. When Vadaemos
blurted the truth about Daelissa being the Divinity, Thomas's eyes
turned to stone but he continued to watch. I hadn't stopped
recording even when all hell broke loose as evidenced by all the
screaming and rumbling noises threatening to rupture the phone's
inadequate speaker. The phone ran out of storage space somewhere
around the time we were sprinting for Pokito's backpack, though
most of the action wasn't visible since I'd jammed the thing back
into my pocket before running crowd-surfing the cherubs.

Thomas's hand blurred so fast, I never
saw it coming. He jerked me into the parking lot and made a hand
signal. His Templars formed a circle around the two of us. He
walked to one of his men and pulled a sword from the scabbard on
his back. Tossed it at me. I caught it out of reflex. It was a
long, thin blade, similar to a katana. I was decent with a sword
thanks to years of fencing lessons, but I was nothing compared to
Elyssa, and had a feeling I'd be less than nothing compared to this
man.

Stacey and Ryland appeared from the
darkness in human form. Curtis, Pokito, Bella, and the others
grabbed their staffs and formed a line outside the circle of
Templars.

"Let him go," Bella shouted, her voice
sounding thin and strained. "Or we will free him
ourselves."

"Is he too cowardly to fight for
himself?" Thomas said. "I'll give him a warrior's death which is
more than this spawn deserves."

Elyssa rushed toward the circle but two
Templars grabbed her by either arm and held her fast.

"Let him go!" she shouted. "He hasn't
done anything wrong!"

My mind flashed back to the first time
I'd met Elyssa's parents. It had gone almost as well as this,
except a sword fight hadn't been part of the deal.

"He's not evil," Ryland said, his tone
gruff but pleading. "Dammit, Thomas, take a step back and look at
what you're doing. This kid is a hero. He apprehended the most
wanted criminal in the Overworld and you're ready to kill
him."

"He's part of it, Ryland," Thomas said.
"Surely you've sniffed the truth, haven't you? Or has he affected
even your ability to find lies?"

I was about to add my own two cents to
the subject when Thomas attacked. I flailed with the sword, barely
able to fend him off. He sliced the back of my sword hand and left
a cut on my cheek. I knew he'd only meant to injure me, not kill me
outright. He wanted to enjoy this. I could already tell I wasn't
going to enjoy a bit of it.

Before I could recover from his first
attack, he kicked my legs from underneath me and slashed my leg. I
rolled away, wincing at the pain. My wounds were already healing,
but the loss of blood and energy would take its toll. On the other
hand, he was pissing me off. If he triggered my inner demon and
caused me to spawn, it would be bad for everyone.

Again he attacked, his sword blurring
so fast I couldn't be sure if I was blocking most of his attacks,
or if my body was covered in cuts. Something deep inside me growled
and awoke in its cave.

For once, I didn't resist. I let the
demonic force crawl from the hole I usually stuffed it in and let
it free. Pure instinct overcame me. It didn't make me any better
with the sword, but my eyes seemed more focused. My ears seemed to
hear a little better. And the blur of Thomas's swings dropped from
hyper-speed into real time. I ducked, weaved, and rolled away from
his strikes. Even with my new focus, he nicked me a couple of
times. But I was making him work for it. Judging from the way he
bared his teeth, it made him hate me even more.

An ear-splitting yowl broke through my
concentration. Thomas's gaze flicked toward the source. Monstrous
cats—moggies—stalked from the shadows behind Stacey as she morphed
into a black panther. Ryland melted into wolf form. The Templars
holding the circle tight pulled their blades and tensed. Things
were about to get real.

Thomas backed off to assess the fluid
situation, his back toward the hotel. I was glad for the respite,
brief as it might be. I glanced at the room where Vadaemos was held
and noticed the door was shut again. Meghan and Adam must have
shoved the cot with the prisoner back inside. A flash of blonde
hair appeared in the window and I thought it might be Meghan—but
no—she stood outside with Adam, staff out and guarding the door
while my friends encroached on Thomas's people.

Baying erupted from above, from the
roof of the motel. I looked up and into glowing eyes, yellow
against a pitch-black canvas dotted with stars. Black teeth
glistened and dark tongues lolled. Hellhounds.

Things were about to get even
realer.

Six of the huge hounds, bristling and
reeking of sulfur, stood atop the motel. They pounced, plowing into
the nearest people who happened to be Meghan and Adam. Thankfully,
one of them threw up a barrier and sent the first creature reeling.
A flash of silver caught my eye and I dodged back in time to avoid
Thomas's blade.

"Are you crazy?" I shouted above the
barking, howling, screaming, and yowling. "We're under
attack!"

"I see multiple enemies, boy, and
you're one of them. These hellhounds are no doubt more of your
minions come to fight." Thomas feinted. Spun. Delivered a kick to
my stomach. It propelled me into the backs of the Templars on the
other side of the circle. They were focused on threats outside the
circle, not in and I sent them sprawling.

Elyssa wrestled free from her captors
with a back flip and a double-kneed kick to their groins. She
jerked me to my feet, pulling her own sword free and jumping
between me and her father.

"What are you doing?" Thomas said in
the commanding voice of someone who thrived under battlefield
pressure.

"This," she said, and held out my
phone. "Watch."

Stacey and Ryland, working with Meghan
and Adam, corralled the hellhounds with the help of the moggies.
The giant mutant cats hissed and clawed at the hounds while Meghan
and Adam pushed a magical barrier against the enemy flanks. It was
only a matter of time before they'd contain the
hellhounds.

Thomas snatched the phone from Elyssa
and glared at it. Even with the fray in the background, I could, if
only barely, make out the audio.

"This is Elyssa Borathen. I am of sound
mind. You may think I'm crazy, but I'm not. Elyssa, hopefully
you've found this. The story I'm about to tell you may seem insane,
but it's true. Your father wiped your mind not because you did
anything wrong, but because he couldn't control you. Because he
couldn't stop you from falling in love."

Thomas stared for a moment longer
before his eyes looked up and met Elyssa's. I saw the cocksure
pride wilt away until another emotion was plain in his features.
Shame.

The blinds in the window of Vadaemos's
room vanished, revealing a woman. Lustrous blonde hair shimmered
above icy blue eyes and a beautiful fair face. It had to be
Daelissa. Holy crap, what in the world was she doing
here?

A deep roar overwhelmed the sounds of
battle and even the hellhounds paused, ears pricked toward this new
sound. The brick front of the motel room housing Vadaemos exploded,
sending dust and people flying away as a massive demonic form
charged from within. He'd manifested, all the way this time. Blue
skin stretched tight across thick, corded muscles. A scaled tail,
thick as my arm, whipped behind him. Blue flames flickered in the
pitch black of his eyes, and dark horns nearly three feet long
spiraled up from his forehead. His demonic form added to his
already generous height, reaching seven or eight feet tall.
Black-clawed feet tore at the pavement. Cruelly barbed fists
clenched, knuckles cracking like fireworks. Vadaemos reared back
his head and roared into the night sky.

The hellhounds broke free of their
containment and formed up around their master. He charged. Meghan
lay in a heap of rubble. Adam stood woozily. I flashed toward them,
scooping up Meghan and knocking Adam aside as Vadaemos's clawed
hand swiped where they'd been. A moggy leapt atop the blue demon,
clawing and biting, its bulky form causing the spawn to stagger
under the weight. Vadaemos's tail whipped up, curled around the
moggy's neck, and squeezed tight. The huge cat went limp. A sick
wet pop sounded and the moggy's head separated from its
shoulders.

Stacey, still in panther form, roared
and attacked. Ryland went in alongside her. But hellhounds dodged
into their path, forcing a fight. I grabbed the sword I'd dropped
and sped for Vadaemos, no real plan in my head except to bring him
down any way possible. A black form smashed into my chest and black
teeth drooled inches from my throat. The hellhound snapped at my
exposed neck. I gripped it by its muzzle just in time, my hands
wrapping around the dark disgusting flesh, and squeezed it shut. A
blue streak flew past me and slammed into Thomas Borathen. He flew
backward, rolling gracefully and landing on his feet. I saw Elyssa
fighting two more dark shapes behind him.

The hellhound's muzzle pressed hard
against my hands, slick from drool and sweat. I wouldn't be able to
hold this monster back for long. I twisted its head, trying to
break the neck, but on my back, I didn't have the leverage
necessary. My attacker tried another tactic, twisting and turning
its head to wrench it free. The moment that happened, it was
bye-bye Justin. The venom in its bite alone might be enough to kill
me unless demon spawn had built-in immunity.

Its head snapped back. My hands slipped
free. It lunged. I threw up my arms in desperation the way I'd seen
attack dog trainers do. Except they'd been wearing protective gear
and I had nothing. My arms butted against the hound's neck. Teeth
snapped shut less than an inch from my nose.

I was really wishing I'd watched The
Dog Whisperer a few times because any inside knowledge would come
in handy right about now. Desperation fueled my adrenalin rush,
surging through my blood. The hound snapped again and a tooth
nicked my nose. It felt like someone had injected acid into my
flesh. I'd been through serious pain before, ironically, while
donating my blood to save Stacey from a hellhound bite. Otherwise,
the pain in my nose might have overwhelmed me. Instead, it made me
angry. Furious.

A hot red tide swelled in my chest. My
survival instinct roared into high gear. And I felt the change
struggling to overcome me. I turned my head to the right to avoid
another snap of the jaws in time to see Vadaemos grab Thomas
Borathen by the sword arm and slam him to the ground. Elyssa
screamed. But the two hellhounds attacking her were relentless and
she couldn't break free to help.

More hellhounds appeared behind her. I
shouted her name, barely paying attention to the attacker on my
chest. The new hellhounds charged—right past her and tore into the
ones she was fighting. Flaming red hair blurred past and smacked
into Vadaemos before he could pound Thomas into the ground
again.

Kassallandra?

Vadaemos hardly flinched, though it was
clear the fierce redhead had put everything into her attack. His
backhand caught her solidly in the face, tossing her like a limp
doll through the air, hair blazing like a meteorite behind her
until she tumbled to the ground, rolled, and lay still.

My shout of anger turned into a
roar—deep, guttural, and animalistic. My muscles pressed hard
against my clothes, tearing and shredding, unable to contain the
beast any longer. Agony stabbed through my forehead. The hellhound
whimpered. Tried to back away, but my big blue hands flashed to its
throat, clenched it and held it fast. Pain burned through my mouth
as my teeth sharpened and extended. My clothes stretched and tore
as the demon came out to play.

Xhe jakini!
I shouted. Or at least it sounded like that. My
voice was deep, guttural. It reminded me eerily of the time I'd
somehow spoken to the green demon that had killed Meghan's
mother.

I leapt to my feet, hellhound dangling
from my hand, and squeezed its neck. Bones cracked and the creature
went limp. I threw the body at the group of hellhounds still
attacking Stacey and Ryland. It slammed into one and sent it
yelping and skidding across the asphalt.

Kill. Devour.

The imperative of the monster I'd
become was clear. Just like the last time I'd manifested into demon
form, my intellect rode in the back seat, unable to steer the baser
instincts of this hellish vessel. I could see everything perfectly.
Feel everything. But my mind seemed detached, unable to enforce
anything I tried to impose on it.

I lumbered toward Stacey and Ryland,
the bloodlust making no distinction between friend and enemy. All
were fair game. All would be devoured. This hunger knew no limits.
My clawed fingers snatched at the black panther, but Stacey blurred
to the side. Instead, my hand connected with one of the
hellhounds.

Kill.

The hound yelped and bit my arm. Bluish
blood welled from the puncture. I roared and slammed the hound to
the ground. Picked it up and smashed it again. It was dead. But
rage controlled the beast I'd become. It kicked the body, sending
it flying into Ryland's flank. He flipped end over end, unable to
dodge thanks to the other hellhounds attacking him.