Park growled with rage and tightened his talons around the throat of the dark-haired man with the glowing red eyes. The cave wall loomed ahead of them.
He swung his arm back and smashed the thief violently into the rock.
The man grunted, blood staining his lips. His sword fell from his grasp and clattered to the ground some ten feet below where they hovered in the air.
Park fisted his right hand and aimed it at the man’s heart. The thief raised his shield and blocked the strike a second before it reached his chest.
Fury burned through Park.
How dare they?! How dare they try to keep us from opening the Gate?!
He could feel his master’s approach slowing in the transdimensional space where the demons moved, the leader of their organization evidently detecting that all was not right at his final destination.
They’re ruining it! They’re ruining it all!
“Die!” Park roared.
He reached clawed talons under the shield and pierced the man’s gut all the way through to his back.
Smokey stiffened. He turned his heads, his golden eyes finding the two shapes at the rear of the cave. He snarled, thick flecks of acid drool dripping from his jowls and burning the bodies of the dead demons he stood upon.
Artemus felt the jolt as if the demon’s fist had punched through his own body. He gasped, heat flaring through his abdomen, his shocked gaze focusing on the fiendish form of Park and the limp frame of Drake, heedless of the demons attacking him.
His skin prickled as the pressure inside the cave dropped.
Something was coming. Something evil.
Serena’s ears popped. She cast aside the decapitated skull of the blonde demon, leapt down from the headless torso a second before it thudded to the ground, and turned. Her eyes widened. Something that felt very much like fear grabbed hold of her heart.
Park had Drake in his grip where they hovered above the uppermost tiers of the gallery at the back of the cave. The demon’s hand was embedded deep inside the unconscious thief’s body.
Night fell around Serena. Vertical, crimson lines flashed into existence in the shadows boiling above the battlefield. Her stomach plummeted when she saw the creatures that emerged from them.
Tom swore where he stood fifteen feet to her left.
“Hey, you never said they had wings!” he yelled a second before one of the new arrivals snatched him up in wicked talons and lifted him into the air.
Fire consumed him. It roared inside his very being, a torrent of red flames that burned him to the core. Yet, despite the blazing inferno engulfing his body and the agonizing pain searing his every sense, Drake could only perceive darkness around him. A darkness so profound it was as if he had gone blind.
He was dimly aware that Park had impaled him with his clawed fist. And at the back of his mind, so distant he could barely make it out, he could feel Smokey and Artemus’s anger. Drake blinked blood out of his eyes.
I’m dying. A shocking sense of relief flashed through him at the thought. Finally. I will have my peace.
Something moved in the shadows in front of him. A shape appeared out of the gloom. Drake stared, his heartbeat a thunderous drumming that drowned out all sound.
The demon stopped a few feet away and watched him with a cold expression. You are weak. Let me lend you my strength.
Drake shuddered, bile rising in his throat as he fought the corrupt energy pushing against the barriers of his mind. “Never!”
The demon smiled at his vehement reply, his red eyes glowing wickedly. Your defenses will fall. You will accept me. And you will become what you were meant to be.
Surprise jolted through Drake at the demon’s words. “What do you mean—?”
He stopped and blinked when he saw movement behind the creature.
A low growl escaped the demon. He turned to watch the ethereal shape emerging out of the darkness, his fiendish features radiating hate.
The woman was tall and willowy, her slender form hidden by a gauzy white dress, the long hair wrapping around her body so pale it glowed and cast a faint, golden halo around her.
Her eyes were the light of the stars themselves.
She came silently toward them, her movements graceful, her expression peaceful.
The demon took a step back, his disgust plain to see. The woman walked past him with nary a glance and stopped in front of Drake.
Drake took a shaky breath as the fires burning inside him started to abate.
It is not yet time for you to die, child.
He startled at the sweet, melodious voice ringing in his ears. The woman placed her hand over his heart. A feeling very much like love washed over him in a strong, warm wave.
She leaned in until her lips were close to his right ear. You will have to embrace his strength.
Drake stiffened, knowing she meant the demon.
But do not fear. For I am with you too.
Light bloomed around the woman’s hand. She pushed her fingers straight through his rib cage until she had a hold of his heart.
Drake’s eyes flared. He tipped his head back and screamed at the unholy power erupting inside him. The marks on his back quivered, as if caught in a storm.
They unfurled with a clap of thunder.
Something boomed and flashed in the darkness. A point of light somewhere at the back of the cave. Artemus clenched his teeth where he crouched under the dozens of demons pummeling him with their fists. He fired into the milling crowd, his skin and hair coated with the ashes of the creatures he had killed.
Too many! There are too many of them!
Park blinked when something pierced his back and sheared open the front of his chest. One moment he was holding the dark-haired thief in his hand, the next the man had disappeared from his grip.
What—?
Black blood bubbled out of his mouth as the weapon that had impaled him was wrenched from his flesh. He clasped the gaping wound in his rib cage and twisted in the air, shocked that there was something in this world that had managed to hurt him. He froze at the sight that met his eyes.
Black wings rose from the back of the thief’s body. He was poised motionless in the air a few feet away, the color of his new appendages matching the armor that covered his frame like a second skin. He raised his chin and met Park’s shocked gaze.
Park’s stomach lurched.
The man’s face had hardened into a fearsome mask and his eyes shone with a fiery light that was both crimson and gold. Tiny flames danced on the tips of his fingers.
Park drew a sharp breath when he saw the sword in the man’s right hand. It was the one he had dropped earlier, when Park had attacked him. Except it looked different. His heart thumped painfully in his chest.
Though he had only ever seen it in the treasured, archaic scripts owned by the organization, he recognized the blade instantly.
The broadsword was nearly as tall as the thief himself and made of a black metal that did not belong in this world, its edges wicked serrations that flickered with the orange glow of a smoldering fire.
Park’s gaze gravitated to the large, dark shield engraved with glimmering cryptic runes now covering the man’s left arm.
It’s him!
He gazed wildly at the being he had been erroneously trying to kill, conscious of the grave mistake he had been about to commit. “You are Samy—”
The dark angel stabbed him through the heart.
Park gasped as the blade ripped his flesh asunder. A tortured grunt left his throat, his demonic form shuddering violently before shrinking to his human frame once more.
He gazed imploringly at the being who had delivered the fatal blow.
“But why?” he mumbled, choking on blood.
The angel’s expressionless face blurred as blackness started encroaching on Park’s vision.
His last breath left him in a near silent wheeze.