Page 5 of Another Underworld (Good To The Last Demon #6)
CHAPTER FIVE
The sun had set, and the moon cast an eerie glow over the room through the bay window. In the past, evenings had been my happy time. My time to chill out and relax. Not anymore. Now? Tonight felt ominous with a side of danger and the promise of pain.
Candy Vargo’s chant as she prepared to excise the death magic was melodic and verged on hypnotic. Abaddon stepped in and sang counterpoint to her melody. His voice was low and Candy’s was high. At Candy’s command, Pandora joined the duo and made it a trio. The language was ancient, but somewhere deep in my soul, I could feel its familiarity. The scene in front of me was a stark reminder that no one in this room was human. Everyone was glowing, including me. Fifi and Cher had been tasked with holding down Dagon and Shiva. I’d been told to stay the fuck out of it—Candy’s words. And if it got too much for me, I was to leave.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
As the chant grew louder, small shimmering funnels of magic swirled around the Keeper of Fate. Her skin glowed a bright gold, and a breeze floated through the room, giving the funnels more power. The curtains danced, and anything that wasn’t bolted down shifted in the wind. Both Shiva and Dagon had fallen into a deep trance that I hoped would prevent them from feeling what was about to happen. They were on the floor side by side where my coffee table usually resided. I wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but my gut told me it would be painful. Getting sliced from sternum to groin was never a good time.
“Abaddon,” Candy Vargo demanded in a voice that boomed through my small bungalow, rattled the windows, shook knick-knacks off my wall, and made me slap my hands over my ears. “Now!”
With the grace of a dancer and the sparest of movement, Abaddon took the dagger from Candy’s hands and sliced each of her palms open. Pandora continued to chant. The wind blew her hair and she looked like the Goddess that she was. The Keeper of Fate’s blood spurted bright red and ran down her arms. Quickly, I backed myself up against the far wall and put both hands over my mouth so I didn’t scream. Half of me wished I’d asked more questions about the procedure, but the bigger half was glad I hadn’t.
The Keeper of Fate’s eyes rolled back in her head and the scream that left her lips was feral. Abaddon held the dagger in front of Candy. She covered the blade with her blood. With each swipe of her hand along the sharp blade, the air in the room grew thicker with magic, making it difficult to breathe. The air left and returned to my lungs in short, sharp gasps.
“NOW,” Candy Vargo bellowed again.
Abaddon guided her glowing body to Dagon first. The sound of the dagger ripping through his skin and the low moan of pain that rumbled from his throat—even unconscious—were ones that would live in my nightmares for years to come. I’d fought bad Demons. I’d decapitated evil Demons. I’d felt very little remorse. It had been them or me. I’d chosen me.
This was very different. I cared about all the people in the room. Watching two of them get gutted was horrifying.
Candy Vargo, pressed her hands together and forced drops of her blood to enter the open chests of Dagon and Shiva. The moment her blood made contact, it hissed and black smoke rose out of the two Demons’ bodies in thin and putrid tendrils. There had been a really good reason for Cher and Fifi to hold them down. The trance, it appeared, didn’t preclude them from feeling what was going on, but I hoped, at the very least, it would keep them from remembering it when it was over.
Dagon and Shiva moaned and grunted, their bodies wriggling as the death magic entangled with Candy’s blood. Quickly, their sounds became gut-wrenching, animalistic, and their bodies convulsed spastically.
My instinct was to stop the madness. But Candy’s words were stuck in my head.
I would stay the fuck out of it.
The bile rose in my throat as Candy Vargo continued to pour her blood into their bodies. Pandora chanted and joined Abaddon by Candy’s side as they held up the Keeper of Fate. It felt like hours, but was more likely minutes when putrid black smoke turned white and everything stopped.
Staring at the carnage in my living room, it looked like nothing had survived the expulsion of the death magic. Not the lifeless-looking Dagon and Shiva. Not even Candy Vargo. The powerful Keeper of Fate had collapsed on top of the Demons as soon as the black thread-like smoke had dissipated. I blew out a long, slow breath as the magic left the room.
I shivered, rubbing my arms, as the air suddenly became lighter. The suffocating magic was completely gone, and I could breathe easily again.
“Are they...” I pursed my lips, bracing myself for bad news.
My mouth dropped open as Dagon wheezed his first inhalation, Shiva’s chest rising and falling as well. The Demons wounds, old and new, began knitting back together with alarming speed.
“Motherfucker,” Candy choked out, crawling off the prone bodies of Dagon and Shiva. Abaddon helped her to her feet. She coughed and hacked for a few seconds, clutching her chest as if she were holding it all in. Her eyes were full of blood, blinding her—a side effect of the magic, probably—and rasped, “Did it work?”
Pandora squatted down and placed a hand on each of the Demons’ chests. “It did.”
Candy Vargo rubbed her eyes, and they went back to normal. “That’s better,” she said. “At least I can see again.” She narrowed an assessing gaze at the two Demons, her eyes shifting back and forth between them. After a few seconds, she threw her head back and barked a laugh as she collapsed, hitting the ground with a thud.
I sprinted over and took her in my arms. “What do you need? What can I do?”
She opened one eye and groaned. “I need to sleep this shit off for a while. You got a guest room?”
“Yep,” I said, helping her back to her feet.
She was bleeding from her hands still, and it smelled of sulfur and rot. “My guestroom is yours for as long as you want,” I told her. “There’s a shower in the ensuite if you want to clean up first.”
She waved off the suggestion. “Gonna need someone to watch over me and the idiots on the floor,” she instructed. “Don’t move those fuckers. They’ll get up when it’s time.” She fumbled her hands over her shirt, her hands shaking badly.
“Who are you looking for?” I asked. “Let me help, okay?”
Candy Vargo shook her head as she managed to pluck the toothpick holder from her pocket, but she dropped it.
I picked it up and opened the box. “How many?” I asked.
“Six,” she replied, her voice weaker than I’d ever heard it.
“Got it.” I put the six toothpicks between her teeth and waited for her to chomp down hard before letting them go. “Who do you want watching over you? Fifi? She’s pretty badass too.”
“Nah.” Candy grimaced as she shifted her weight. “Get my buddy Tim,” she said. “He might seem mild-mannered, but he’s a beast. He’ll protect the three of us until I’m up and at ‘em.”
“On it,” Cher said, whipping out her cell phone. She went to the kitchen to chat with Tim. When she came back, she had another pile of sandwiches. “Tim’s on his way. He’s bringing a casserole.”
Candy Vargo groaned, then said, “I supposed it can’t be helped.”
Great. More company in my small two-bedroom bungalow and...Shit. My bedroom was a torn-up sex den. Where would Tim sleep?
Abaddon, who could apparently read my mind, gave me a wink. “I’ll clean the house.”
I gave him a grateful smile. I might have a shitload on my plate, but expecting Tim, who was coming to help, to sleep on a torn-up bed was rude. Rudeness to people I liked wasn’t in my wheelhouse.
“When shall we leave?” Pandora asked, looking wildly unsure of herself.
I understood the feeling. I had a lot of uncertainty about what we’d come up against once we got to the Darkness, and, unlike Pandora, my castle hadn’t been destroyed, and my name wasn’t a curse. Even so, avoiding our duty wasn’t going to get the job done.
“As soon as Tim gets here, we’re out,” I announced. “Everyone, eat up. We’re going to need our strength and then some.”
No truer words had ever been spoken.