Page 49 of Commanding Flame and Shield
“Who?” The black-eyed man retorted slyly. As I studied him, I realized his skin was paper thin, like a corpse that had already sat for too much time. The energy pulsing from him was icy cold, like the crawlers. I listened intently and realized what the others must have noticed the moment they entered. He had no heartbeat. The host had long since left its vessel.
And he knew something.
In one swift motion, Aren launched himself over the bar and pinned the man to the wall with his forearm.
“Where are they?!” He roared again, this time inches from the demon’s cold face.
“Something wicked this way comes,” the thing spat.
“No shit,” Alec snarled.
Alvara stepped forward, her head inclined to the side, more animal than human. A soft smile turned the corner of those sensuous lips. The confidence in the demon spilled away, leaving its onyx eyes darting between us. I could feel the surge, the wave of power that grew in her chest before it lashed for the now trembling demon. Could feel her phantom hands pry into its mind as she honed in. Those emerald eyes were a pair of trained daggers, focus unwavering. An annoyed sigh. There was more than what the demon currently feared revealing. More she needed from him. She stepped forward to press her hand to its head. Her eyes went fuzzy and far away for a moment. When she stepped back, she nodded at Aren, and held an image of a tall, black-cloaked figure in her mind with a crown of thorns, paper thin skin stretched over skeletal hands, a gaunt skull, and eyes that were all pupils.
“Fuck,” Aren growled the word through gritted teeth. He heaved a great breath. “Second hierarchy.”
The demon smirked and then started to laugh, the sound sick and distorted over his crushed windpipe. Despite the information that would likely be his death sentence, that taunt returned to his eyes.
“Too late, half blood.”
And with his final jeer, Aren snapped its neck. An effortless twist of his arm. As the shadow lifted from the body, Aren slashed his blessed blade through the mist. It crackled like electricity and vanished into smoke.
For all their jokes and wagers, the coven moved with unparalleled precision, their executions swift, reminding me that at their core, they were as much a cadre as they were family. Ally could have destroyed entire flocks of demons alone, and Lana and Ansel were nearly as lethal. Aren was like a God among them. Never a scratch. Never a sliced piece of clothing or blood on his skin. Half the time, the demons would surrender to their fate when they laid their eyes on him. I gathered that he was known among them. After sixteen hundred years, it would be hard for them to miss the hulking warrior that offered only swift justice.
But our dozens of missions brought us nothing. Only more vanquished demons, and the repeated image of the second hierarchy demon with a crown of thorns and skeletal face. And the ice it seemed to put through all our veins.
As the days passed without any new answers, determination reached into my soul. As did a peculiar knowing. Without fully understanding why, I approached Ally in the common area. Her energy was frantic. It infected anyone within a good fifty-foot radius. Which is why the common area had been nearly deserted for the weeks since we came back to the news. She was bent over the island, studying a mess of maps and pins, brow furrowed. Her long hair was pulled into a braid that had grown loose, and dark tendrils reached down around her cheeks. I didn’t think she’d slept in days and knew she hadn’t eaten. Aren sat in the armchair closest to her, unyielding stone, eyes firmly closed. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest revealed that he was alive.
Neither of them reacted as I came in the room, like perturbed statues carved out of snowy granite. I watched her for a moment. Her pupils had grown to dominate her eyes in the low light of the lounge, and it gave her focus an eerie lethality I was growing used to. It would be worth a great deal of caution to never be on the wrong side of the fire burning in her soul. Vigilantly, I closed the gap and stood beside her. Her body gave off a manic static, like being elbow to elbow with a thundercloud.
“Ally, I can’t explain it, but I think we need to search the hospital again.” Her eyes darted to me, and then back to the map, where red pins marked the places we had scoured. Each hospital in Chicago had been searched by teams of trained hunters, and no one had felt a thread. But there was something in my gut that said we needed to be there. Now. Me. Alvara. Fae. As she read my mind, her lips parted, and I felt her push around my subconscious for a moment before she turned her face to the side.
“Aphaea,” her hushed call rang like the final gong in a summons to battle. The air seemed to charge with the same finality I’d felt from her. Electric and unyielding. The energy around her swelled, and Fae and Alec appeared by her side, eyes immediately focused on her intently. Without a word, or palpable thought, they each reached out to firmly grip her shoulder. Aren rose, face stoic, and did the same. She turned to me, eyes lethal, and held out a hand, gloved in leather.
“Take us there.”
I didn’t even have a name for the hospital. But I focused on the room in my mind, and we flew through space until the energy stopped twisting, and our boots landed with a clap on white tile floors.
The room was empty, as I’d somehow known it would be. Phantom sirens rang in my mind, ears buzzing with dozens of voices, words and diagnoses I didn’t understand, and I realized Ally had removed her pendant in the same motion of her landing. Her walls were down. And her mind was louder than usual as she sorted through all the chaos around us. We’d arrived in the basement, in some sort of storage room, and the sounds of the hospital seemed to reverberate down to her there. She pressed her hands into the wall, as though she was bracing to move it back a few feet.
Fae stood by her side, and she inhaled as deeply as she could, finding no trace of our comrades.
But Ally didn’t move as she sorted through the thousands of voices, and a chill climbed up my spine. She could sense…something. Something that wasn’t right.
“The demon?” Aren’s booming voice sliced above the babble with a fierce finality to it. Ally closed her eyes, and a low growl rumbled in her chest.
Yes. He’s here. Many demons. Strong ones.
She held the image of the tall, cloaked figure in her mind with its signature crown of thorns. Its eyes that were still all pupils had grown somehow darker. And he washere. She couldfeelhim.
“Fuck,” Aren growled.
Ally gave a slow, ominous nod.
“We should call the others,” Aren said, his words heavy with a weight that set the hair on my skin on end.
“Call. But we cannot wait. There is no time,” her words escaped in a rush of breath. The image in her mind was horrifying.
Blood. So much blood. A girl with dark eyes, wide cheekbones and black hair was slain or sleeping at the feet of a giant, drenched in still more blood. She laid in a pool of the dark liquid, her face a ghastly pallor. The giant stared unseeingly forward, eyes as black as the demons’. He was ghostly pale and too perfect. One of ours.
