Guardians (Chosen Trilogy Book 2) (8 page)

“Logan!” Belinda cried.
“
Logan! Your power!
”

I
remembered who I was. The power swelled in my chest, mostly a reaction to my fear of this demon. I saw Natalie crouched at my side, head in her hands and tears rolling down her face. Some kind of protective instinct took over. I was a guardian now, one of the Chosen, and my given power demanded that I step up and be counted.

Tanya and Belinda stood in a kind of frustrated powerlessness. They were warriors, hand
-to-hand fighters, and Beelzebub wasn’t giving them the chance to get in on the action. It was up to Cheyne and me to bring him down.

Beelzebub spun at the top of his flight, swept over in an arc and came again
—arrow straight. The hellfire eyes pinned me. Much too soon I unleashed my steadily mounting energy, shooting everything I had at the plunging beast. It rotated in mid-air, evading the power blast completely. This was no arrogant, conceited beast with mighty delusions and a god complex, this was a superior warrior. It dived under my blast, leaving it to shoot high into the sky and fizzle among the clouds.

Cheyne
fell to her knees, ignoring the approaching monster. She stared at the ground, every ounce of concentration going into the spell she was trying to weave. How she knew where Beelzebub was I don’t know, but she rose at the same time he fell upon her . . . and was wreathed in black flame.

T
he demon struck then recoiled, shrieking. Its jaws snapped together beside her head again and again, like a petulant dog at the end of its leash. Cheyne didn’t even flinch. Fire spat from the thing’s mouth, fizzling against and running off her shield, striking the paving flags and burning there, reflected in the many glass parts of the pyramid.

At another hard stare from Belinda I again thought to gather my power, this time funneling it more carefully.

Beelzebub whipped at Cheyne’s shield with its spiny tail, screaming each time it struck, but making the witch flinch and sweat.

“Can’t
. . . hold . . . much longer, guys.”

Beelzebub roared, pulling away
slightly and spreading its wings. The terrible eyes never blinked, just regarded us with pitiless fury. I saw agonizing death and the lowest depravations in that nightmare glare and assembled all my power. At the last moment, shaking, terrified, I felt a kind of balm fall over me—a calming moment that helped focus my power.

What the hell?

No one could be helping me. Not Belinda, not Tanya or Giles. Not Natalie who wept on her knees, eyes pinned by the demon’s. And certainly not Cheyne, whose strength was waning by the second. The witch had turned pure white, every limb shaking with strain.

But I didn’t have time to wait. Carefully
, I flung my arm toward Beelzebub. A streak of energy blasted straight into his midriff, causing a screaming gyration by the dragon-like creature. It twisted hard, head down, then rotated back up, mouth wide. It appeared stunned.

I wasn’t done yet. Again, with precision, I threw out my other arm, unleashing another flash of power. I tried not to show that my reserves were already depleted. Without Johnny to help this was no longer a bottomless source of energy. I stood tall and strong
; well, as tall and strong as I dared in the face of a hellish demon.

But I had Belinda at my side. And others around me. I was part of a great team.

Beelzebub reeled from my newest attack. The clean, clear fire exploded against his skull, totally obliterating him from sight for a few seconds. Even his hell-spawned screech was lost beneath the sound. Cheyne let her shield drop and stared hopefully.

The demon dropped from the sky.

Not necessarily a good thing.

Belinda pushed us aside. The great beast
crashed against the flagstones, limbs and wings squirming, kicking and flailing as it tried to right itself. The head darted left and right. I stared in utter amazement and admiration as both Belinda and Tanya waded in. Belinda ducked under a kick and hit hard at the thing’s thighs. Tanya struck at its stomach, both women staying well clear of the deadly skull. Once grounded, the demon’s wings were its Achilles heel. They were fragile, thin. Belinda stepped on one of the spines that held them together and crushed hard. Tanya stomped on the skin of the wing itself, breaking right through. Beelzebub shrieked and tried to roll.

I dropped to one knee, exhausted. But even then I could feel the power inside me, needing some kind of release. The feeling unnerved me. Could it fire me up from inside? Immolation didn’t sound like a nice way to go. I wanted to help, but lacked the physical energy. As I knelt there I felt the power diminish.

Natalie crawled to my side. “Are you all right?”

“I think so.
But damn, that is one scary bastard.”

“Thank God Cheyne was prepared this time.” Natalie’s eyes filled as she said the words, her husband’s death never far from her mind.

I touched her arm. “We will avenge him.”

She sniffed. I whirled as Beelzebub’s scrambling’s grew more frantic, I heard Cheyne shouting something about the artefact.

“
Find it. We must find it to have any chance!
”

Then,
with a burst of horrendous strength, the hierarchy demon surged up like a fiery black dawn, all rage, fire and destruction. Tanya bore the brunt and was hurled off her feet, sprawling against a wall. Belinda fell to her knees but pushed against the fury, still trying to stay up close with the creature.

“Our glorious reign will soon begin
,” it growled, the sound of a thousand knife-blades grating together. “Bow down now and learn your rightful place, pathetic humans!”

I tried to
get up, but the creature flexed its huge wings and started to rise up. The downdraught staggered us all and rattled the glass that covered the pyramid. Nearby parked cars started bleating as their alarms were triggered.

Beelzebub took flight.

I stared up, my eyes filled with powerless despair as it streaked away, deep and insane laughter rumbling from the depths of its belly.

Belinda shook her head. “That’s another artefact lost. If we don’t pull this together, guys, we’re gonna be in a world of hurt.

Literally,
I thought.

Emily Crowe stood tall atop a high outcrop, surveying her kingdom. Around her Death Valley spread in all its archaic splendor, truly a land from ancient times and the one best suited for her task.

Not only that but the final artefact, the one that wo
uld be hardest to procure, lay not far from here.

And she was not alone. Melissa, her trusty sidekick, sat at her feet, staying silent until spoken to. And now, standing on the valley floor a few feet below her
, were two great hierarchy demons—Baal and Belial. They were here to facilitate and help, to make doubly sure everything went to plan. They were here to lend support and add their infinite power to Crowe’s brilliant strategies. They were here to initiate the beginning of hell on earth.

Melissa hugged Crowe’s leg. Crowe kicked her off with a snap of disgust. Baal looked up at her, the black holes that were his eyes swimming with visions. Crowe had already begun her call to arms. Many people were starting to arrive at Death Valley, and they were gathering in groups.

They had brought tents. Camper vans. Coaches. They had come on foot, by car. They were following her call right down to the bare bone. Summoned by dreams of violence, drawn by malicious thoughts of terrible intent, they followed their hearts, ending up in Crowe’s backyard. She remembered all the songs she used to sing, all the verses she had written that had seemed so innocent at the time.

“
Carry me down, by unholy light, let’s quit this town, and visit hell tonight.
”

And more. Chanted back at her by their legions of fans. No doubt some were here right now.

Oh, the corruption a rock band can cause . . .

She laughed. Dozens of people heard her and looked up, faces glowing. Ba
al and Belial had them now, wrapped in their spells, and if any of these people had been harboring second thoughts, if any of them had been a little unsure of why they were here, those thoughts were long gone now. Two hierarchy demons were more than enough to control their minds.

Crowe
gazed across the vista. At the far end of their little site more vehicles were already arriving. At that moment, she saw something new.

“Ah. Good.”

Coming down the hills, threading through crevices and fissures, were the creatures of hell, all summoned to this place. This was the staging area, the place from where the invasion would commence. The creatures would gather in their thousands after entering through the open hellgate.

Small and large, ferocious and sly, dim-witted and clever, they came, held in check by the wills of
Baal and Belial, and even Crowe. She was not without demonic powers—a fact the recently obliterated residents of the trailer park would attest to if they could.

“Guests
,” she said, her voice amplified by her powers. “Welcome to the final venue of the tour that heralds the demise of the humans and the rise to power of a
new
god!”

A ragged cheer went up among the gathering crowd. The more feral supporters started running to the front.

“I’m your GI cocktail, your Lidocaine. Follow me, listen to me, your anesthetic to world issues. I will bring you a
new world!
Hell.” She smiled. “It’s already here!”

More shouting, cheering
, and now even prostrations from the people in front. Baal and Belial moved among the worshippers, laying their hands on the necks of the men and women. Crowe shuddered as she realized what power those demons held, how they could snap each person’s neck in a millisecond, and just how much she envied and desired that power.

“Our time is at hand. Soon, all the crosses will be inverted. The clergymen ousted for their sly sins. The churches will come crumbling down! A burning pyre of
priests will light up the skies, day and night. We will warm our hands over their ashes. My people, my friends, follow me down and never look back. Follow me down and reignite the rage in your soul.
Follow me down and get your fuckin’ evil on!
”

Like the rock star she was
, Emily Crowe raised her hands and basked in the glow of adoration. Melissa crawled at her feet. Her fans—her
subjects
—screamed in joy. The great hierarchy demons stretched impossible smiles across their almost-human faces, teeth glittering.

The show was about to start.

Ken felt the weariness set in. After the skirmish at the grand bazaar the little group had wasted no time escaping from the fifth circle of hell and heading down to the fourth. Constant trudging wore them all down, even the Ubers. Felicia explained that it wasn’t necessarily tiredness that assailed them, more the lack of stimulation and, for her at least, the constant knowledge that every single step led her further from choice and freedom.

Lilith showed no signs of tiredness. She seemed happy to part of the group, expectant and a little excited even, but harbored that terrible fear that her demon guard would eventually find her. The fear blighted her every thought, her every cheery moment. It always came back to the fear.

Ken put one foot in front of the other. The fourth circle of hell was a fearful land. A cloying dark was lit only by blinking lights in the sky that looked unnervingly like the eyes of crocodiles. Barren wasteland surrounded them. A stinking, snaking stream crisscrossed their path, its waters a heady poison.

And unseen things slithered in the dark, always present.

Ken spoke only once, his voice not much higher than a whisper. “Y’know, one thing has surprised me from the start. Nothing has
attacked
us yet. And we’re in hell. Does that not seem a bit odd to you?”

Lilith said, “Dementia attacked us.”

“Well, yeah, but she’s the wild card. The crazy. What I’m saying is that not one of hell’s creatures has sniffed us out or made a challenge. It’s . . . weird, though not unwelcome.”

“I
’ve been thinking the same for many miles,” Eliza surprisingly agreed with him. “And I do not think it’s because you travel with three powerful vampires.”

Ken tried not to sound sarcastic when he said, “Oh, really?”

“No. It could be that we are compromised and our destination is known and somebody or something
wants
us to get through. Or,” she paused, “something else entirely.” She glanced at Lilith.

Ken saw it. “How did you get
through safely?” he asked her.

“I don’t know
,” she said quickly. “But I have lived here for . . . a long time.” She shrugged. “Maybe I just smell like they do now.”

Felicia wrinkled her nose. “Believe me, you don’t.”

“Well, maybe it’s something else then. A kind of radiation. They sense that I am one of them and they leave me alone. I can’t explain it any better than that.”

Eliza looked thoughtful, as if she was about to say
, “I could,” but then thought better of it and strode ahead. Ken guessed she was happy that they’d made it this far unmolested and didn’t want to upset the status quo. Even after the commotion in the grand bazaar, all the creatures that had collected to watch had just drifted away.

Uncanny.

Now they paused at the threshold of the fourth and third hells. Lilith stepped up to lead the way. As before she’d brought them to a rarely traveled path. A crevice between closely set stepped hillsides fell away steeply and vanished into blackness. An uneven, irregular stairway had been hewn into the hillside, vanishing into the pit.

Lilith started down.
“Watch your footing.”

Ken knew to heed her warning. So far he
’d almost fallen headlong on every one of these godforsaken staircases, much to Felicia’s amusement. The sure-footed wolf never lost her stride, let alone her balance on any surface. Ken couldn’t match her poise, which surprised him no end since he was the one who’d practically been raised on a surfboard. But never mind; he picked his way carefully down the jagged steps, sometimes having to leap between them as they seemed to have been cut for someone about ten feet tall.

“Need help?” Felicia offered her middle finger.

Ken pulled a face at her. Milo laughed, a great burbling grunt, and bounded ahead. As they descended, the darkness intensified, leaving them with a world of pitch black in front of their faces. Again, the vampires and the lycan could see fairly well in the dark and Lilith appeared to have no problem. Which left Ken.

“You humans
,” Milo grumbled. “Have you no uses at all? No skills? I’m amazed you can even breathe without help.”

Ken placed his hand on Felicia’s shoulder, trusting the wolf to lead him. Down they went, surrounded by absolute silence. The absence of everything that could tweak Ken’s senses scared him. It felt like being in limbo, a forever land of non-existence. Even his footfalls made no apparent sound.

At last they made the third hell. A cool breeze wafted around their bodies and a faint starshine illuminated the land. Lilith reminded them that the second grand bazaar sat a few hours journey away and that they should replenish their stocks of food and water. Ken worried about who they might encounter there.

A howl split the silence. A pattering of great paws moved toward them. Ken clutched at his sword and moved so that the entire group had a person at their backs. In another moment a pair of silvery eyes pierced the blackness ahead, surveying them with cold detachment. The real unnerving thing for Ken was that the eyes hung at a level above his own head.

That meant the beast they belonged to was . . .

Don’t even go there.

They waited. Presently, other sounds were heard and more eyes split the dark. The snuffling of huge nostrils made Ken’s hair stand on end. After a few more minutes the eyes gradually melted away as the beasts retreated.

Lilith sighed. “The way is clear.”

Eliza gazed at her, then moved off. The group clearly had some kind of free pass, though why hadn’t yet become apparent. Lilith pointed out a path and the drudgery continued for another few hours. It was only when Ken found himself able to admire Felicia’s rear view in profile that he realized they were climbing a long-drawn-out hill toward a summit where much of the sky starshine seemed happy to play. Atop the hill sat a crumbling ruin, an archaic testament to the realm that had once existed here, eons ago, the decayed outline of which still showed that it had once been a great castle.

“Oh, wow
,” Ken said. “A familiar place to rest. At last. Who would’ve known castles still existed all the way down here?”

Felicia huffed a little
at the shabby structure. “Not much left to rest in, surfer boy.”

“I don’t need much
,” Ken said. “Never did. Wherever I lay my hat . . . and all that.”

By the time they reached the summit the light was positively vivid. The ancient stones glared dismally, the ground around them rotten with a slow-eating poison. A single arch remained and beyond it the remnants of walls, which Ken quickly climbed toward.

He found himself in a courtyard, broken steps to left and right that had once led to high walls. Toward the back of the rough square sat another half-arch that led simply to a jumble of broken down wall. By the time the others joined him, Ken had surveyed the area.

“Nothing to see
,” he said. “No shelter. But at least firm ground to spend the night.”

“Humans
,” Milo muttered.

Then Felicia’s nostrils flared. “W
hoa. I just—”

She looked up, high up, at the remnants of the highest wall. “I didn’t catch the scent because they’re up high but
—” her voice grew hard. “That is not good.”

Ken squinted. “Don’t worry. We have a free pass. Remember?”

Then Lilith began to cry. “Oh no. I’m sorry. So sorry . . .”

The figure sprang into mid-air, soaring through the sky and landing hard, on two feet. Concrete cracked under his boots, shards shooting to left and right. He went down to one knee, but kept his head level, so that he could stare at his new foes.

“That’s Samael,” Lilith moaned. “My guardian. An angel of death. He’s one of the seven kings of hell, and the worst after Lucifer himself. When I was younger, eight powerful demons tried to kill me. He murdered them all without breaking sweat.”

Eliza shot her a glance. “Why? Who the hell are you?”

Samael twitched. Everyone’s attention shifted. The demon rose, an odd vision in top hat, coat tails and combat boots, twirling a brass-headed cane and carrying a short sword. The tight smile he gave them couldn’t quite stop the tips of terrible fangs slipping over bloodless lips.

“Lilith
,” it said. “I have been searching for you.”

Ken watched the girl cower. His protective instincts immediately kicked in. “How about you leave her alone?”

Samael regarded him with pitiless eyes. Ken shuddered despite his bravado. Looking into those depths of despair was like looking at your own ritualistic murder.

The vampires, despite their dislike and indifference to every race except their own, formed ranks before Lilith. Samael assessed them.

“Have you come to take her?”

Eliza frowned. “Don’t you know who we are? Why we’re here?”

“Sadly, it does not matter.”

Milo puffed himself up. “Oh no? And why’s that?”

Samael stayed still. “Those that would stand against me soon wish they hadn’t.”

Ken tried to stop another shudder running through him. The demon spoke so matter-of-factly, so without
bluster, that his words rang a clear and true note. It begged not only the question:
Who was he guarding her from?
But, more importantly:
Who was he guarding her for?

“You gamble much?” He sought to divert attention, moving closer. His gut told him only a fast, direct attack would pay any dividends today.

“I play chess,” the demon said. “A little poker.”

Ken drifted in. “Fancy a wager?”

“Come one step closer and I will snap your neck.”

“All right. You let us go and we’ll make you a deal.”

“Do you seriously wish to bargain with a demon like me? A king of hell? Do you want to sell your soul so badly?” The demon tipped its black top hat.

“I’m selling nothing
,” Ken said. “I’m offering to spare your life.”

This time Samael did a double-take. “On what possible grounds could you
—”

Even before the third word was out of his mouth, Ken struck. The vampires backed him to the hilt. Ken brought the sword around in a wide arc, making the swing big and bold and everything the demon could see. This filled the beast’s vision and gave the vampires time to flit around to the sides.

Samael twisted impossibly under the swing, back bent in half, then rotated and jabbed with the short sword. Milo ran into it, but got lucky and saw the blade pass between his legs. Eliza hit Samael hard from the other side and, shockingly, found herself bouncing off the rock-hard figure. Shock blazed from her gaze, so much that Ken guessed this had never happened to her before. Then Mai leaped for Samael’s head, judging it unfeasible that the demon could attend to three vampires at once. The decision cost her her life. It was that simple. Samael employed reactions faster than lightning to flick his sword hand around and slice it directly across the vampire’s neck as she leaped at him.

Ken gaped as the blade tore into Mai.
Without even a single utterance she crashed to the ground, unmoving, the only advantage to her death being that she landed atop the demon’s sword.

Eliza
jumped in again, this time enfolding Samael in her arms. Milo pummeled his chest. Ken tried to find an opening. Felicia waited in the background, trying to pick her moment.

Samael hurled Eliza away, the great vampire yelling in surprise. On
earth she was implacable, unstoppable. Down here, she was nothing but a baby at arms.

Milo hit with
a force that should have felled a tree, but found his fist stopped by the palm of the demon’s hand. If Samael had a flaw it was that he liked the violence and the slaughter—
no shock there,
Ken thought—and sought to draw out this bout rather than end it quickly. Milo’s next thunderous blow was caught by the demon and used to flip the vampire over onto his back. He landed with a crash and a squeal.

Ken gave the vampire a chance by swinging his blade toward Samael. In one split second the sword was in flight, in the next it was stopped and held between his opponent’s hands.

The creature had caught the sharpened metal between his palms.

Ken gaped. He saw agony and death on the very near horizon. Samael was grinning at him, an unbeatable opponent taking the time to savor his terrible victory.

And what was to come next.

Then
Ken saw a wisp of smoke and heard a faint hiss. He locked onto the blade of the sword where it was gripped between the demon’s hands. Sure enough, faint smoke was rising, curling away from the metal. Samael’s face turned instantly from a victory snarl to a pained grimace and he tried to jump away.

The sword went with him, dragging Ken off his feet. The metal was
stuck
to the demon’s hands. Samael howled. Ken tried to stay close and hold on to the hilt. His body was jerked from side to side.

Eliza rose to her knees. Milo thundered in a like a freight train. Felicia began the switch from woman to wolf.