Page 44 of Between Bloode and Death (Between the Shadows #5)

CHAPTER

FORTY-THREE

Arriving at the bazaar, Val found several dead shifters while others fought demons more at home in Irkalla than Seattle.

A dark mist covered the ground, weaving in between shops and making the entire area feel more like the underworld.

“Talon?” Aisha, where is Talon?

Back near the bar.

Val and Grizz hurried to find him battling several galla demons, as if possessed himself.

Jekyll and Hyde fought back as well while Misty fired a gun with some effectiveness at the demons nearby. The place was crawling with them.

She looked around but didn’t see Ti-gí, the creature Rolf had killed when in Irkalla. Not surprised one of Nergal’s minions hadn’t stayed dead, she did her best to reanimate the deceased around her to fight the demons crawling closer.

The final battle with Vladimir wasn’t supposed to happen like this. She and Talon would bait him with Val, draw him to the demon house where no one but Val, the shifters, and her dead army would be waiting, then slam him with some major death magic.

She’d drawn the spell circles and enchanted the house and the grounds in preparation. A fight at the bazaar didn’t help her much, because her forces lay too far away to be of assistance.

Vladimir had been searching for her for decades. But she’d never been in one place long enough for him to find her. Any time she’d found a place where she could gobble up knowledge, she’d camouflaged herself.

Khent had the right of it that she hadn’t been trained by necromancers. Val had been trained by magir with skill in magic. Witches, mages, even low-moral sorcerers and warlocks. No magic too dirty or disdained to be used by Val.

She couldn’t afford to have the same standards as those asshole MEC agents. Not when everyone always wanted to kill her.

Except for Khent and Talon. And the shifters, she had to admit. Though not comfortable with her, they’d never turned her over for the rewards still offered for information on her kind.

All of them were outcasts of some sort, bonding together under Talon’s odd notion of leadership.

He shoved a wolf shifter aside and took a slash from a demon laughing its head off.

Val directed her energy to a dead lycan near it and used it to crush the demon, laughing no longer.

Talon spotted her, nodded, and dragged his friends to safety, stashing them in the Ribald Unicorn. Good. That place had more bolt holes and hideaways than any other place they’d ever been.

Magir raced around the bazaar, most trying to find shelter while not being devoured by demons that didn’t belong in this plane.

She sincerely hoped that after their big battle with Vladimir, Talon might find peace and love again while running the bar. Of all the towns they’d hidden in, the city seemed the one place he’d been content. Or the best at faking happiness, anyway.

Studying her surroundings, she felt an eerie silence descend, broken up only by the occasional demonic laughter or scream of pain and terror.

What’s your game, Vladimir?

Was it even Vladimir, though? She saw no sign of him, or of Nergal’s pet hero.

Grizz stayed by her side, annihilating anything that tried to get too close to Val.

“I sense something powerful coming,” he growled.

“Great.” After a moment, she sighed. “I do too.”

She revived several more deceased magir and swayed, feeling the strain. What Khent had said earlier made sense, because Val did feel a drain after holding so many dead, giving small pieces of herself away. She’d been extremely tired just a few days ago, though time with Khent had rejuvenated her.

“Grizz, stand ready. I need to do something.”

“Yes, Val.” He grew larger and more solid, feeling incredibly strong as he radiated protection, his wings out, his claws and fangs bared.

She closed her eyes and looked within herself. Unlike the other times she’d focused on her magic, this time she felt something lodged inside her. A piece of Khent lingered, dark with power and an intense longing. A need to protect, an echo of love.

Staring in awe at this fragment of her powerful reaper, Val cradled his affection close, missing the outwardly icy predator.

Yet inside, she saw the wonder of a male curious about everything.

A scholar at heart, he wanted nothing more than to understand and find acceptance from those he cared about, no matter what he’d said.

He cared about his sire. About his new kin, even Hecate and Mormo, to an extent, which he tried to ignore. But Val… He cared deeply about her in a way different from his pets, his companions, even his father.

She fit him, a piece of the puzzle he’d been searching for his entire life. A murky sense of warning from a long-forgotten goddess shimmered and vanished, not Val’s to know.

But that piece of Khent promised life and pleasure and peace, made with bloode and a flash of the black wings of Imy-Mut.

“Val, you’re needed.” Grizz’s voice came from far away.

Val wanted to study those wings, seeing the creature attached to them with Khent’s dark eyes staring out at her. But Grizz wouldn’t interrupt her unless he had to.

She reluctantly swam out of her innermost self, back up to the hell around them, battles of demons and ghosts fighting the dead and magir still trying to escape.

And there, the large hero Ti-gí. He studied her, his head tilted to one side. Then he smiled. “Ah, Valentine Darkmore. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Ti-gí’s body began to decay, turning to bloody mush as she watched.

“Weak,” he said, garbled, before his face detonated, spattering the street that disappeared under the growing murk of fog.

She took a step back, alarmed, because even for the dead, the power radiating from his demise felt cloying.

A ball of light appeared and grew.

Grizz took a step in its direction.

“Grizz?”

“I sense a brother.”

“Brother?”

Val watched as the light slowly dimmed and grew into a large gray form. Before she knew it, a gargoyle as large as Grizz had taken shape. It didn’t feel alive, yet she knew the power inside it.

“Nergal?”

“In the flesh,” came his amused answer, his voice impossibly deep. “Or should I say, in the stone?” He laughed, and the demons around him grew shrill, enraged, and attacked with more vigor.

A screaming eagle dove for several, taking them in bloody talons before ripping them apart. Talon at her back. Near him, two large bears continued to battle to save fellow magir. A few wolves and a tiger raced past her, helping as well.

Talon’s pack—her pack too, she guessed—hadn’t bailed when they could have. Hell, when they should have.

Aisha, protect them as best you can.

Yes, Val.

Focusing once more on Nergal, she put a hand on Grizz to steady herself. “What do you want, great Lord of the Underworld?”

He flapped his massive wings. “Why, your heart, dear one. It beats for me, you know.”

“My…what?”

“You, Valentine. You are my stone, my treasure. And I want you back. Right now.”

He rushed her and would have taken her had Grizz not stopped him. So fast and lethal, Nergal brushed the tip of a clawed hand against her before Grizz knocked him aside.

“Get him, Grizz,” she ordered. “You can do it!”

“Yes, Val.” He laughed with joy, the gargoyle who’d given his life freely to protect, to fulfill her purpose.

Val released her hold on him, giving him back the freedom he’d more than earned.

She didn’t feel any less weighted down by all the dead she controlled.

She should have.

Before she could figure out why Grizz’s presence, or lack thereof, had no effect on her death magic, a scream shook her.

Talon was in trouble.

She rushed toward the sound, not seeing the danger until it was too late.