Page 23

The pup trotted back to me and sat on his rump at my side.

Reaching down, I patted the top of his head, being careful of the direction of his quills. “Good boy.”

The ground shook beneath our feet, making all of us gasp.

As it continued to shake, I realized it was footsteps.

“Giant!” I shouted just as the largest demon we had ever seen stepped out of the portal; its head reached almost the top of the portal. It was covered in thick, shaggy, purple fur, had two horns curving down around his face, and a face that looked like a warrior shifted werewolf.

“Is that a werewolf demon?” Mom asked softly.

The pup tilted his head back and howled. All the remaining hellhounds joined the howl.

Wolf howls had always been calls of friends and family, something happy to me, but in this moment, the hair on my nape rose and I felt fear shudder through me.

The giant werewolf-demon lowered his head, looked at everyone, and focused on Mom and I, though I had an awful feeling it was me he was really focused on.

“Mom,” I whispered and swallowed hard, “I think it’s me.”

“I see that, Lily.” She created a portal beneath my feet and I fell through to the other side, right next to Caleb.

“Giant werewolf-demon!” I shouted at him as I gasped for breath since I’d not been prepared for the portal Mom had created and fallen onto my back. “After me, we think.”

Caleb was in a warrior form that combined all of his heritage of dragon, werewolf, mage, elf, and siren. We called it his ultimate form. His eyes glowed silver as he snarled and said, “No one touches my daughter.”

The giant werewolf-demon stepped around the portal, each step making the ground shake, and continued until he saw me.

“Yep, definitely after you,” Kayden said, suddenly behind me.

Tony ran from the other side of the portal.

“About time you showed up,” I grumbled at him.

“I was on the other side of town. Mom told me to come stay near you.”

“That’s after her,” Kayden said and pointed at the giant werewolf-demon.

Tony sighed. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t Mom have sent me to do an easier job?”

“Keeping Lily safe has never been an easy job,” Kayden muttered.

“Hey!” I snapped at them and put my hands on my hips. “I’ve been fine for years without you by my side. Don’t even start.”

The pup ran around from the opposite side and I screamed once again, “Don’t kill the pup!”

Foxfire spun in a circle to keep the sword he’d begun to strike the pup with away.

The pup ran to me, whined, and sat beside me.

“Mom said he’s here to protect me. He sent four hellhounds away from Mom and I, so we believe him.”

Kayden’s lip twitched as he looked at the pup, but he didn’t comment.

Tony just sighed and shook his head again.

Caleb ran at the giant werewolf-demon, sent a bolt of electricity at it, and ran for its legs as it howled in pain.

“Maybe you should help Dad?” I suggested to Tony.

He looked at me and then at the giant werewolf-demon. “Helping to take that down would help protect you.”

“Go,” I urged. “I’d rather you help keep Dad safe.”

He looked at Kayden and said, “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

Kayden bumped fists with him and Tony ran to help Dad.

Nana Jolie squatted by the pup and smiled. “Hello, pup! You’re adorable!”

The pup yipped and let his tongue lull out of his mouth again, wagging his tail so fast it raised a small dust cloud.

My laughter was short-lived as the giant werewolf-demon was taken to his knees by Caleb, Grandpa Nico, Tony and Grandpa Foxfire. The giant werewolf-demon tilted his head back and made an incredibly eerie howl that had everyone taking a step back and all of the shifters, myself included, growling or hissing.

The necklace warmed against my chest again. “Kay, the necklace,” I whispered.

Nana Jolie and he looked at the necklace, brows furrowing.

The next instant, four extremely humanoid demons stepped out of the portal. They had pale skin, long horns atop their heads pointed up and curving slightly backwards, short thick light brown hair, hooved feet, and had extremely muscular bodies, even more muscular than the shapeshifters currently fighting for their lives. They didn’t have any weapons, which worried me. When someone didn’t carry a weapon to a battle, it was normally because they considered their bodies the only weapons they needed. My worry tripled when they started running and their long strides were incredibly fluid.

Kayden stepped forward, growling in his werewolf warrior form. “Move back,” he ordered us.

Nana Jolie shifted into her warrior form, drawing on the connection between her four mates and her, and stepped between Kayden and I. She glanced at the hellhound pup and said, “You better protect her, pup.”

The pup bobbed his head once and got to his feet, puffing up and rattling his spines.

Maya noticed that Kayden was about to face off against four strong-looking demons on his own, squawked to get Grandpa Foxfire’s attention, and flew towards us.

Kayden slammed into the first demon and their battle was incredibly intense, so much so that my eyes were locked on them and didn’t pay attention to the three remaining ones who charged straight towards me.

“Mas!” Kayden bellowed as he exchanged blows with the humanoid demon.

Nana Jolie and Grandpa Foxfire each attacked one of the humanoids and Maya began to fling fire at the last one.

Jumping forward, I began attacking the one Maya was hitting with fire as well, both of us used to coordinating our attacks since it was something we’d practiced for hundreds, possibly thousands, of hours growing up.

The pup whined and paced behind me, but strangely did not help attack the humanoid demon. Was it because it was so much more powerful than him?

The humanoid demon grabbed a rock from the ground and threw it at Maya, hitting her and causing her to fall to the ground.

“Maya!” I screamed and ran towards her.

The humanoid demon grabbed me around the waist, flung me over his shoulder, and started running towards the portal.

Mason slammed into the humanoid demon in his human form, knocking us to the ground. I shifted into my full snake form and wrapped around the demon, constricting tighter and tighter as I coiled my body around him.

“You okay?” Mason asked as he stood beside me, looking around our side of the portal’s battle scene.

As if I could speak to him in my snake form while constricting.

The humanoid demon fighting Kayden hit him so hard that he flew at least forty feet away. Free from Kayden’s attacks, he ran at us.

Mason shifted his feet into his raven talons and with a slashing kick, cut into the demon’s chest.

The demon gasped and jumped forward, tackling Mason to the ground and wrestling with him.

The humanoid demon I was trying to kill was surprisingly still alive, still breathing, and none of his bones had broken even though I was using all of my strength.

Glancing over, I hissed at finding Nana Jolie on the ground and Foxfire losing his battle.

The humanoid demon fighting Mason had him on the ground, hands around his throat.

We were losing. This wasn’t good.

What could I do?

I shifted my head so I could speak. “What do you want?” I hissed at the humanoid I was coiled around.

He blinked then in very slow words said, “You. Princess.”

“Me?” I asked.

He nodded.

“If I go, you’ll all leave?” I asked.

He nodded again.

“Prove it,” I said, shifted to my human form, and stepped back from him. He stood, and brushed himself off, then waved towards the portal.

The demon who had been choking Mason let up enough to just keep him pinned.

Looking down at Mason I said, “Remember that second part of our promise? To always protect each other? That’s what I’m doing.”

He tried to shift to break free of the demon, but it continued to use its superior strength to hold him.

As I walked towards the portal, I caught Caleb’s eye as he continued to battle the giant werewolf-demon. He was about to defeat it. I just needed to stall long enough for them to get free to fight these humanoids.

I did not want to go through that portal. No matter how curious I was about what was on the other side and the strange pull I felt.

The rage and power within me were non-responsive. It felt like the necklace was pulsing against my chest, but I couldn’t even raise my hands to try to remove it.

The pup trotted next to me, happy and prancing. Did he know they were going to take me?

One humanoid demon walked in front of me while the other walked behind me.

The giant werewolf-demon fell, officially dead, freeing Caleb and Grandpa Nico turned, focused now on the newest threats.

Just as they moved towards me, a dozen similar humanoid demons ran out to create a wall around us.

Shit.

I tried to run towards them, but the humanoid demon who had been behind me, grabbed me around the waist, pressed his fingers against my neck, and I immediately became paralyzed.

My body went completely limp and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t move. My power remained locked and unusable.

“Dad!” I screamed, my voice somehow working despite the spell.

“Lily!” Caleb, Grandpa Nico, and Mason screamed.

Mom ran around the corner, created a portal beneath the feet of the demon carrying me, to try to send us away, but the demon in front of us grabbed his partner and pulled him away from the portal before we fell. “Give me my daughter!” Mom screamed.

Time seemed to move in slow motion as the demon carrying me ran towards the portal and all of my family tried to battle through the demons to get to me.

Mom and Grandpa Nico teleported right next to me, using spells to incapacitate the demons stealing me.

I fell out of the demon’s arms and rolled on the ground.

Mom stepped over me, created a stone box around us, and said, “I’ve got you, Lily.”

“Can’t move my body,” I whispered.

It was too dark in the box to see her expression.

“We’ll heal whatever’s been done to you. Kara and I will do whatever we can to fix it.”

I believed her, too. They were the best healers in the world.

A voice, one that sounded vaguely familiar whispered in my mind, “ We won’t hurt you. Just accept your destiny. ”

My destiny? What did that mean?

“ Accept your destiny, Goddess. ”

The title made me realize it was the same voice as the one who had told me to accept the shadow power to become a goddess. What did all this mean?

“ It means, you have to come to us .”

Us?

Something smashed into the stone box we were in, completely shattering it and sending Mom flying through the air.

A large male demon wearing battle armor and a helmet that covered his face towered over me, a silver, spiked mace in his hand. He emitted an immense power and alpha aura.

“What do you want?” Caleb demanded as everyone froze, afraid to move with him right over my prone body.

“All will be revealed in good time,” the demon said.

“I love you!” I shouted at my family, friends, and the trio. They might not realize those words were for them, but they were.

Closing my eyes, I prepared for the demon to kill me, to crush my head with the mace.

There was a chaos of movement, growls, battle cries, and roars. It was so loud it blended together in a cacophony of insanity.

The necklace warmed against my chest, so much warmer than had ever happened before.

And then …

Silence.

I opened my eyes and stared at the unfamiliar landscape of burned grasslands and trees before me. A spire in the distance caught my eye and I realized it wasn’t so unfamiliar … it was the demon world.

I was in the demon world.