The Brightest Embers

CHAPTER THREE

I HAD BRUTUS fly us down from the back of the roof, where there were the least amount of people. Sure, someone would still swear that they saw a woman and a seagull jump from the second story, but no one would believe them. Just like no one would believe that a seagull had carried a woman on its back up through the tower window in the first place. I wasn’t being naive. I’d seen cell phone videos of a demon realm spilling onto a college campus be dismissed as “fake,” let alone eyewitness testimony from hundreds of people be discredited as “mass hysteria.”

The bottom line was, most people refused to believe whatever they didn’t want to believe, and no one wanted to believe in demons, let alone demon realms existing alongside our world. I hadn’t wanted to believe in that, either, and my lineage had caused me to see through demon glamour my whole life. I’d only accepted that I wasn’t suffering from hallucinations, as doctors had long told me, after minions tried to kidnap me. Adrian had saved me, then had taken me to meet a powerful Archon named Zach, who told me I was the last descendant of King David’s line and thus destiny-bound to fight demons with three hallowed weapons.

Even then, I’d still hoped that I was hallucinating. Especially then.

Still, I wasn’t going to push things by having Brutus fly me back to the parking lot in full view of all the spectators there. Instead, we ran with me under the protective canopy of Brutus’s wings. I didn’t hear more gunfire, but the fight might not be over. Brutus and I had taken out one gunman and his henchman. Where was the other shooter?

And where was Adrian? Bullets might not be able to kill him, but they could injure him, and I couldn’t risk him being carried off in an incapacitated state. If there was one person minions wanted to cart off to their demon masters more than me, it was Adrian. He was the last descendant of Judas who’d refused to fulfill his destiny by betraying me unto death.

More people were hiding behind the first couple rows of cars we ran past. They didn’t know I’d taken care of the roof shooter. My heart began to pound when I found a blood trail that started at roughly the same point where Adrian and I had been standing when the first shots were fired. The splatter thickened as it led deeper into the parking lot. That wasn’t my blood or the girl’s blood. We’d been shot on the other side of the parking lot. Please, I found myself thinking. Don’t let Adrian be badly hurt!

I burst around the next row of cars...and skidded to a stop in relief. Adrian had a blond-haired minion pinned beneath him, and while Adrian had a bullet wound hole in his shoulder, he must not be too injured. Not from how he was pounding the stuffing out of the minion he’d tackled.

“You tried to kill Ivy. Why?” I heard Adrian demand between brutal rib punches.

I would’ve thought the “why” was obvious. The minion must’ve thought it was a stupid question, too. He let out a pained laugh and said something in Demonish, which was what I called the strange, harshly beautiful language that demons spoke. Whatever it was, it pissed Adrian off into a whole new level of outrage.

“Fuck you,” he snarled. Then his fist slammed into the minion’s face with such force, it went all the way through to the back of his skull. I winced, both at the instant gore splatter and at the impact as concrete finally stopped his blow. If Adrian’s hand weren’t broken after this, it would be a miracle.

“You murdered him!” a woman screamed, coming out from behind a nearby car. Then with shaking hands, she pulled out a Taser from her purse and pointed it at Adrian.

Brutus let out a warning chuff and squared off on her. He wouldn’t tolerate anyone threatening us, human or otherwise.

Something about the noise he made caused the woman to blanch, as if on an instinctive level she sensed the predator he really was. If she could see Brutus’s real form behind the seagull disguise, she wouldn’t just pale. She’d piss herself.

“No,” I told Brutus, yanking on his harness for emphasis. To the woman, I said, “You’re in shock. He didn’t kill anyone. There’s no one else here but the three of us.”

“There is!” she snapped. “He’s right there—”

She stopped in midsentence when the minion crumbled into ashes before her eyes. Adrian got up, shaking the blood off his right hand while brushing the ashes from his jeans with his left. Soon, the blood on him turned to ashes, too, and all of those dark specks began to slowly blow away in the breeze.

“That’s...that’s not possible,” the woman whispered.

“Like I said, you’re in shock from the shooting,” I went on. “The mind plays tricks on people when that happens. Go home, be with your family and don’t think about this again.”

More people were starting to peek around the cars they’d been hiding behind. It wouldn’t be long before an ambulance showed up, which would be good for the wounded girl, but the police would soon follow, and that was a hassle we didn’t need.

Adrian knew it, too. “Time to go,” he said, taking my arm. Then he stopped, cursing when he saw my leg. “You’ve been hit.”

“Flesh wound,” I said, which was true, although it didn’t help with how much it hurt.

Adrian picked me up. “There’s manna in the van,” he said, striding away from the onlookers. “We’ll get you fixed up on the way to the hotel.”

We’d parked the van at the back of the lot, where a big tree had shaded it from the sunlight Brutus hated so much. One look at it, though, and I knew we wouldn’t be leaving in that.

“Brutus killed it, too,” I said, sighing at the missing side door and the long, rending claw marks. No way were we getting our security deposit back.

Adrian set me down and pulled our duffel bag out of the ruined van, then emptied the glove box of our paperwork.

“Brutus can fly us back,” he told me, taking the small plastic bag out of the duffel bag. It looked like it contained crumpled-up sugar cookies, but the substance that Adrian smeared on my leg wasn’t baked goods. It was the famed bread of heaven that had sustained the Israelites for over forty years in the desert. Only, manna was good for a lot more than food. It could also heal anything except for a mortal wound.

I cast a dubious look at the not-quite-dark sky. “That’s a lot of exposure. Why risk it when we can take a cab?”

“We need to get back before dark,” he said, picking me up and carrying me even though the manna would heal me in another few moments. Brutus easily kept pace with Adrian’s rapid strides, his big head swiveling around to check for danger.

“What’s the rush? We don’t have to worry about being outside after dark anymore. There are no more demons in our world, remember?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he responded, his pace increasing. “It’s possible some of them managed to stay behind here.”

“What?” I burst out. “How? You told me demons couldn’t stand our realm for long. It’s been over four weeks since the gateways slammed shut, so any demons stranded on our side should be dead by now!”

“Not if they’re on cursed earth,” he countered, heading for a cluster of trees. “You remember the demon I trapped beneath that old chapel? I cursed the ground he was on so he could stand being in our realm, even beneath a church. Demons had advance warning that you were going after Moses’s staff, and they knew it could close the gateways. Some of them could’ve cursed sections of ground in this world as safe places in case you succeeded, which you did.”

This was the first I was hearing about the possibility of demons still being in our world. Why hadn’t he told me before?

I didn’t have a chance to ask that, let alone any of the other questions that sprang to mind. Adrian hoisted me onto Brutus’s back with a muttered “Damn, sun’s almost down.” Then he jumped behind me, grabbing the reins and shouting, “Tarate!”

The gargoyle took off, leaving the Mother See’s complex of buildings, churches and museums below us. The sky stretched out in front of us, the few remaining dusky shades of sunset darkening into the bluish-black haze of night.

I told myself it looked nothing like when a demon realm swallowed a place in our world, and mostly, I was right. Still, I couldn’t shake my feeling of foreboding as the darkness spread until it snuffed out the last remains of the light. Something bad was coming with that darkness, I could feel it.

And if Adrian was right, that something might be demons.

CHAPTER FOUR

OUR HOTEL HAD been more than thirty minutes away by car. By air, it took less than fifteen. Adrian used the GPS on his smartwatch to find it, since you couldn’t see street signs from this height, then had Brutus land on the hotel’s roof. That allowed us more privacy for our unusual arrival. Even though there were other buildings around, most people didn’t spend their evenings staring up at the night sky.

“Did you try Jasmine and Costa again?” Adrian asked as one hard kick broke the lock on the roof’s only door.

“Yes. Still no answer.”

I tried to control my rising fear. Maybe they’d gone out on a date. My sister and Costa thought we didn’t know that they’d started seeing each other, but we did. We were just waiting for them to admit it to us.

“Wait here with Brutus,” Adrian said curtly. “I’ll be back in ten minutes. Any sign of danger, have him fly you away.”

“No way,” I snapped. “If a demon is somehow here, I’m not leaving you, Jasmine and Costa alone to deal with it.”

“If one is, you’re in the most danger,” he shot back. “If nothing’s wrong, you only waste ten minutes up here while I make sure that Costa and Jasmine are ignoring their phones because they’re too busy having fun.”

“But I’m the only one who has this,” I said, pointing at the slingshot embedded in my right arm. “This can kill demons, so I’m going with you. End of discussion.”

His features hardened in a way that said he wasn’t listening. I started to shove past him, but he pushed me back and said a word in Demonish I’d never heard before.

Brutus snatched me around the waist and pulled me back against him. His arms crossed around my midsection when I tried to wrest away, and pounding against them was as effective as trying to chop down trees with my bare hands.

“Ten minutes,” Adrian said over my furious demands to be released. “If I’m not back by then, leave.”

With that, he disappeared into the staircase. I continued my struggles while cursing both Adrian and Brutus. The gargoyle whined as if in apology, but his unbreakable grip didn’t loosen. After a few minutes, I realized that all my struggles were doing was giving me a nice set of bruises.

Still, I wasn’t about to give up. I was destiny-bound to save people, dammit! Not to stand by and let others do the fighting for me. Brutus apparently couldn’t be berated into releasing me, but maybe there was another way.

“Who’s a good boy?” I suddenly asked, ceasing my struggles.

Brutus’s whine changed, sounding less sorry and more hopeful. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I also felt his back end start to shift from side to side. Over the past couple months, I’d found out that Brutus loved being praised, to the point where when he got lots of it, he fluttered his wings and shook his butt as if he were wagging an invisible tail. Sometimes, he did both things with such fervor, he nearly knocked himself over. Watching a huge, right-out-of-your-nightmares gargoyle do that was hilarious, yet now it might also be exactly what I needed.

“Whooooo’s a gooooooood boyyyy?” I said again, elongating my vowels and increasing my pitch to a baby-talk voice.

I definitely felt a wag this time, and his wings began to inch up as if he were a peacock about to display its feathers. I increased my compliments, telling Brutus that he was the cutest, smartest gargoyle who ever lived. That got me more butt-shakes and wing-fluffs, but not enough to do what I needed.

“You know what I’m going to do?” I crooned, adding in bribes. “I’m going to give you five, no, six, no, seven, yes, seven big pot roasts tonight! Because you’re the bestest, most beautiful Brutus, yes you are, yes you are!”

His whole body began to shake with joyous anticipation. He might not understand tons of English, but he knew the words pot roast. It was his favorite raw meat. His wings began to flutter frantically and his butt wagged so hard, he almost knocked himself off his feet. Most important, his grip loosened.

I slithered beneath his arms and ran for the door as fast as I could. Brutus lunged, but it was too late. His overly delighted state had distracted him, costing him precious seconds, so his talons ended up grasping only air as he tried to grab me. The narrow space in the stairwell was too small for his wide body to fit through.

“Sorry, boy!” I called out as I ran down the staircase.

His betrayed-sounding howl chased after me, making me feel guilty, but I’d make this up to Brutus later. Now I had to make sure that Adrian, Jasmine and Costa were okay. Our rooms were on the fifth floor, only three floors down from where I was. It shouldn’t take me long to get to them—

Pain erupted in my right hand. Then the braided brown rope of my tattoo began to change color, lightening to a beautiful golden shade. Seeing it, my heart began to pound.

Only one thing in the world caused my supernatural tattoo to change color and burn like it had suddenly caught fire, and that was the close proximity of a demon.

CHAPTER FIVE

I GRABBED THE glowing etching and pulled. More pain shot through me, but I came away with a loop of rope as the ancient tattoo became as real as the danger I was in. I kept pulling, ignoring the increasing pain. By the time I reached the fifth floor, my whole arm throbbed, yet the entire length of the famed sling that David had used to slay the giant Goliath was now a real, tangible weapon.

A feminine scream caused panic to bolt through me. That sounded like Jasmine. I burst through the door leading to the fifth floor. As I ran down the hallway, I saw a large mirror propped against the wall. It hadn’t been there before, and since demons used mirrors as portals for travel, its presence was ominous.

In the short moment that I was distracted, a door opened and a guy pushed his room service cart right in front of me. I was running too fast to avoid it, and I hit it hard enough to knock it over. It fell with a crash, yet I barely registered that, or the startled yelp the hotel guest made. Something more important caught my eye.

The vase on the cart had been filled with decorative glass rocks, and those rocks were now scattered across the floor.

I snatched up as many as I could, not caring that I slashed my hands on the broken plates in my haste. I stuffed most of the rocks into my pockets, but I put one in the notch on my sling.

New crashing sounds and fresh screams turned my blood to ice. I ran toward the racket, wincing at how the other tattoo running along the length of my body now felt like it was burning, too. Moses’s staff, the second hallowed weapon that had melded into my flesh, must react to the presence of demons, too, yet I had no idea if it would manifest like the sling did. This was the first time I’d been near demons since I’d wielded it to close the gates between their realm and mine.

Adrian crashed through the wall about thirty feet ahead, grappling with someone whose long mass of reddish-black hair hid her face. I started to spin my sling. The unknown woman had to be a demon. A human or minion wouldn’t be able to take the punch he slammed into her, let alone to reciprocate with a block that knocked Adrian off his feet. She immediately jumped onto him, and I glimpsed a smile through her wild tangle of hair. Why did the demon look as if she were enjoying his fierce, bucking attempts to dislodge her...?

“Sonofabitch!” I spat, recognizing her.

I’d met this particular demon only once, but she was hard to forget, and that had more to do with how she’d been Adrian’s longtime girlfriend than it did with her looks. Some demons looked like normal people. Some appeared animalistic, right down to the cliché horns and hooves, and some, like Obsidiana, were so beautiful that it actually hurt a little to look at them.

“Get off him, you bitch!” I shouted.

She finally noticed me, and Obsidiana shot me a single, malevolent glare before jumping off Adrian. He seemed as surprised by her instant compliance as I was, but he leapt up just as fast, going right for her throat. He’d ripped it out the last time they’d fought, yet Obsidiana must’ve remembered that.

She dodged him with lightning-like swiftness, using his momentum to spin him into the wall. It dented from how hard he hit it, and before I could release the stone from my rapidly spinning sling, she had Adrian in front of her like a shield. Her blood-red nails shot out to the length of knives, and she jabbed them into Adrian’s throat.

“One more step, Davidian, and I rip out his jugular,” she said in a purr, her distinctive accent the same as Adrian’s.

I tried not to think about everything else they had in common. She’d been Adrian’s lover for longer than I’d been alive, and I wasn’t too proud to admit that I was ragingly jealous of her. But not enough to risk Adrian’s life. I lowered the sling and didn’t move. Obsidiana raked her topaz-colored gaze over me, taking me in from head to feet.

“Is this the real you?” she asked, arching a brow.

“In the flesh,” I said, arching my brow right back at her.

The other times Obsidiana had seen me, I’d been disguised by Archon glamour. I wasn’t now, and as her expression turned contemptuous, you’d think I had morphed into a dead mouse that some alley cat had dropped at her feet. Well, screw her. As I’d told her once, beauty faded, but Evil Bitch was forever.

“I can’t believe you left me for that,” she finally said to Adrian. “Honestly, darling, you’re punishing yourself.”

I wanted to flip her off with both hands, but I didn’t dare. If Obsidiana had harnessed enough dark energy to curse the ground in order to stay in our realm, she was a lot more powerful than I’d initially given her credit for. That made her even more dangerous to Adrian.

He didn’t seem to share my concern. He laughed, a low, vicious sound. “I hadn’t met Ivy when I left you, Obsidiana. I did it because I was happier alone than I had been with you.”

Ooh, burn! I thought, but still said nothing. Hell hath no fury like a demoness scorned. Didn’t Adrian realize that?

“I remember you being happy,” she said, her voice deepening into a seductive caress. “Many, many times.”

I stiffened, and from her smirk, she’d caught it even though she acted as if Adrian had her full attention.

“Too many times to count,” she continued, her other hand starting to play with his hair. “You hurl cruel words at me now, benhoven, but your cruelty only confirms the whispers I’ve heard. The man I love is still inside you. That is why I risked so much to see you. The little Davidian tried to turn you into something you are not, but she failed.” Obsidiana shot another hostile glance my way. “She just doesn’t know how badly she failed yet—”

Adrian grabbed her wrists, yanking them forward and bending over at the same time. The force he used flipped her over his head as if he were a professional wrestler. I let out a horrified gasp at the instant spurt of blood as her nails tore into his throat. Then I couldn’t see anything through her dark mass of hair and the tangle of limbs as he landed on top of her.

CHAPTER SIX

“ADRIAN!” I SHOUTED, running over to them.

Obsidiana screamed as my sling touched her, but I couldn’t even relish her pain. I was too frantic as a red gush flowed from Adrian’s throat. I tried to stem that flow, but unbelievably, Adrian shoved me away. Obsidiana lunged at me as much as she could while trapped under his body. Her daggerlike nails raked over my stomach, cutting through my clothes and into my flesh, then Adrian grabbed her by the throat and pulled. Hard.

Her body went limp, but blood didn’t gush out. Her jugular vein wasn’t in her throat. Demon physiology was different. Adrian had just ripped out her version of a heart, yet that would render her only temporarily unconscious. Not kill her the way her attack on his throat might kill him.

“Adrian, stop!” I cried, flinging myself at him when it was obvious that he intended to keep tearing at Obsidiana.

He swayed, then looked down at the curtain of red streaming from his neck as if only now realizing that it was there. I kicked Obsidiana’s limp body aside and set down my sling, then covered that gushing wound with my hands. I couldn’t risk touching Adrian with the sling. He was half-demon, so when it was tangible like this, it would hurt him, too, and he was already too injured as it was.

“Lie back,” I said, panic rising at how much blood he’d lost. “Don’t move—it’ll make it worse. Stay very still.”

“Oh, shit!” a male voice said, then Costa, our best friend, came out of a nearby hotel room.

Some part of me was glad to see that Costa was okay, but I was too worried about Adrian to feel any real relief. “Where’s Adrian’s bag?” I said urgently. “He brought it with him, and it has manna in it. Bring it to me. Now!”

I couldn’t get up to get it. If I didn’t keep pressure on Adrian’s neck, he’d bleed out right in front of me. With all the blood he’d lost, he still might. I tried not to burst into tears as I kept attempting to stem that horrible, pulsating flow. Don’t die, Adrian, please! I can’t lose you now!

Costa left, and I was vaguely aware of him cursing and overturning things in the nearby room. I also noticed that the fire safety sprinklers had activated, because water pelted me from seemingly all directions, yet I didn’t move to wipe it away even when it hit me in the eyes. I kept all my attention on Adrian as I tried to close the gaping wound in his throat.

“You’re going to be okay,” I told him, smiling so he didn’t know that I was terrified. Don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die! I mentally screamed. You can’t! I love you too much!

“Ivy!” My sister knelt next to me. “What can I do?”

As if on autopilot, I answered, “Smash the mirror in the hallway.” Otherwise, more powerful demons could use it to get here.

Jasmine ran off, and I heard the sound of glass breaking moments later. Then, so faintly I almost missed it, I heard Adrian’s voice.

“Have to...kill her, Ivy.”

I couldn’t believe Adrian could talk with his throat half ripped out, and I tried not to panic at how more blood spurted through my fingers from his efforts.

“Don’t talk,” I urged him before yelling, “Where’s the fucking manna, Costa?”

Adrian grabbed my wrist, his grip surprisingly strong. “Kill...’er,” he repeated, jerking his head toward Obsidiana.

His movement sent another spurt of blood free. Now a strange wind began to blow my hair back, but I paid it no mind as I put more pressure on Adrian’s neck.

“As soon as you’re healed,” I promised him.

Adrian grabbed his neck, blood making his hands slick enough to slide beneath mine despite the pressure I’d been applying. With his throat in a tighter grip than I’d dared, he stared at me, his sapphire-colored gaze seeming to burn.

“Now.”

Didn’t he know he was inches from death himself? Yes, Obsidiana would wake in an hour or so, but until then, she wasn’t a threat.

Or was she? She’d been strong enough to survive on this side of the realms when the gateways had sealed. Maybe Adrian knew she’d wake a lot sooner than I expected her to.

“As soon as you get the manna,” I said. I refused to endanger Adrian’s life by killing Obsidiana now, even if it meant that waiting would endanger mine. I’d take that risk.

Adrian made a frustrated sound and tried to get up. I pushed him back, gasping, “Don’t!” in horror. He only gestured angrily at Obsidiana. Kill her now! that wave demanded.

Costa finally came out of the hotel room, a heap of manna in his hand. I was so relieved; I couldn’t tell if I started crying or if it was the water from the sprinklers.

“Move,” he ordered, pushing me and Adrian’s hands away.

I watched Costa smear the manna over Adrian’s throat and found myself praying. That odd wind increased, until between that and the sprinklers increasing until they jetted out like fire hydrants, it was getting hard to see. If Adrian’s injury was fatal, the manna would do nothing because it didn’t work on mortal wounds. If he’d lost too much blood while waiting for Costa to find the manna, I’d have to watch him die.

The clump of manna over his throat immediately turned crimson, the flow of blood turning from paste into freely running liquid. I was shaking so hard, it felt like the whole hotel was shaking along with me.

“Ivy,” Adrian whispered, his voice fainter as that merciless red flow continued down his throat. “Please...kill her.”

Adrian couldn’t be dying...but if he was and this was his final wish, I wouldn’t fail him. The last thing he’d see was me killing the bitch who had done this to him.

I stood up and looked around almost blindly for the sling. Then my shaking hands caused me to miss it twice before I grabbed it. “I love you,” I told Adrian, tears choking my voice.

I spun the sling as I kicked Obsidiana’s body a safe distance away from Adrian, then I hurled the glass stone it contained at her. Even with my vision blurry and my whole body shaking, the stone hit her right in the chest.

Her body burst into ashes as if I’d thrown a dozen supernatural grenades at her. The instant cloud of embers was caught by that strong breeze and rolled over us like a fog, coating me, Adrian and Costa in its dark wake.

For a moment, I stood there, not looking away from the ashes wetly falling to the carpet. I’d faced a realm full of demons and minions determined to kill me, yet I had never been more afraid than I was now. What if I turned around and saw that the manna hadn’t worked? How could I bear it if the last seconds I’d spent with Adrian were the final ones we’d ever get?

I tried to breathe, but my chest ached too much. The wind picked up and the sprinklers began shooting out as if trying to douse a five-alarm fire. Please don’t let this be the end. Please, please, please!

“Ivy.”

A sob escaped me when I heard Adrian’s voice. I whirled, my paralysis vanishing. I fell to my knees next to him, an incoherent sound escaping me as I saw him brush the remains of another clump of manna from his now-healed throat. Then hard arms pulled me to him, his lips found mine and I kissed him until I couldn’t breathe for a different reason this time.

When he finally lifted his head, he was smiling. “I love you, too,” he murmured. “More than you will ever know.”

“I’m glad I get the chance to find out,” I said, so overcome I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

I thought a shadow crossed his features, but it must be remains of the wet ashes. “One day, you might.”