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Movement pulled my attention back to the woods and a chill lit up the area, pressing down on me. I moved away from my father, closer to Naomi. A solid line of demons stepped into view, stopping at the salt line I poured.
The next wave of assailants took up their posts, side by side with a legion of hellhounds. Naomi actually stepped back at the numbers and I felt her fear. It blended with my own and one look at Steve and his family revealed they were in the same place we were.
Terror gripped every one of us and we spread out on the shoreline far enough away from the woods to be safe, for the moment. Steve took the left side and I took the right. CJ stood dead center. Jennifer, Tom and Raven stood a step behind, relying on us to provide a solid wall of defense. I glanced down at Naomi and pointed for her to join them. She hissed at me, but obeyed my silent command to move back.
Angels flanked us, providing a solid line between the innocent’s behind us and the demon horde. My heart scrambled in my chest, pumping a beat that nearly seized my lungs and I traded a glance with CJ. He swallowed and curled his hands around his revolver, aiming it at the closest demon.
The air sparked with tension and when the demons blocking the path parted, I knew we were in for a nasty battle. Lucifer stepped inside the ring, swiping a clean path through the salt I had laid down and he wasn’t alone.
He dragged a beautiful blonde woman forward, tossing her at his feet in front of him. When she raised her bruised face, Steve cursed under his breath and the gun moved from the line of demons to Lucifer.
Lucifer just grinned at the assembly and his black wings fluttered as he cracked his fingers. His gazed moved over the crowd of angels. “What have we here?” he said, scanning the line until his gaze landed on Gabriel and Michael. He tilted his head in contemplation and then his gaze moved back to Steve.
“This lovely police officer was particularly useful,” he said, meeting Steve’s glare and waving his hand in the woman’s direction.
Her gaze bounced from the demons surrounding us to the angels in line, landing on the tiger behind me, then they jumped to Steve.
“What the fuck?” she whispered and Steve offered her a half laugh.
“I told you not to go to the house,” he said and I knew exactly who this was. The abrasive FBI agent Steve had spoken to on the phone. Sarah. Lucifer reached for the woman, grabbing a handful of her hair.
“Let go of me, asshole,” Sarah snapped, swatting at his hand. While her voice was defiant and full of moxie, her eyes held a soul-crushing fear that I knew all too well.
He pulled her to her feet, bringing her close to him. Her elbow connected with his stomach and he chuckled in her ear.
“I like my women feisty,” he purred in her ear, keeping his gaze locked on Steve’s. This primer was just the beginning of his dance and I knew the woman was doomed.
We were all doomed.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said running a sharp nail lightly down her arm. “I’ll let you and your family go, along with this lovely officer, if you leave us to settle our differences,” he said nodding toward Naomi and me, negotiating a deal that would seal me in my grave.
I didn’t move, but I made a point of recounting this beasts broken promises. The moment they stepped outside this cove, the hellhounds would tear them to bits.
“That includes leaving the angel and his son,” Lucifer clarified, his gaze landing on Ty, narrowing into a hateful expression that I was used to receiving.
Steve’s jaw clenched and his gaze dropped to Sarah.
“Do your magic and get me out of this,” Sarah said, the panic reaching her voice as Steve’s head shook back and forth.
His entire being shook and the frustration and anger pulsing in his veins drifted over me.
“You bastard,” I whispered and Lucifer sent a chilling smile in my direction.
“I can’t do that,” Steve said and I glanced at him. Jennifer’s hand rested on his shoulder and her forehead rested between his shoulder blades, her form shaking with silent sobs; and pain flashed in my chest.
I should have never let Naomi talk me into coming to Maine. We should have run across the globe and then these pure souls wouldn’t have to sacrifice those they loved for me.
CJ slid a glare in my direction and the mental reprimand resounded in my head like one of those obnoxious air horns. Stop the fucking pity party.
I winced at the volume and my gaze dropped to the ground, returning to the woman struggling in Lucifer’s grasp.
Lucifer’s hand ripped the shirt open, revealing a modest sports bra and he tilted his head, smiling as his fingernails dimpled the skin over her heart. “Last chance,” he said.
“I’m sorry, Sarah,” Steve said, his eyes filled with tears and his lips pressed together.
Sarah’s scream shattered the night, followed by the report of a gun. Smoke drifted from the end of Steve’s revolver and I stared at it before turning toward the deafening silence.
Lucifer’s fingers were buried knuckle deep in Sarah’s chest, but that’s not what silenced her scream. The neat bullet hole between her eyes had sent her to heaven before Lucifer could rip her heart out.
I turned back toward Steve and his arms lowered. His chin dropped to his chest, and his breath hitched once. With a violent shake of his head, his tear-stained glare landed on Lucifer and the gun rose back in place.
“Get the fuck off my property,” he said with a growl.
“As soon as I have my whore,” he said.
Steve pulled the trigger again, but this time nothing happened until he moved the aim to the demon closest to Lucifer and then the gun jumped to life, expelling another round. The shot as true as the one that took Sarah’s life and the first demon fell.
Lucifer yanked his hand from Sarah’s flesh and tossed her next to the dead demon. He licked his fingers and scowled, glaring at Steve. The minute he stepped forward, Ty interceded, blocking the devil’s path.
That hateful glare reappeared and Lucifer snapped his fingers, Christopher Ryan appeared in the center of the clearing, bleeding and on his knees, his screams filling the silent woods, echoing on the dark lake and the hellhounds tasked with ripping him to shreds continued their attack.
This time, Ty moved; his face filled with a wrath I had only seen once before and my gaze drifted to Michal. CJ took a step toward his father, pulling my attention back to the spectacle before us. Both Steve and I grabbed an arm, keeping him from entering the violent scene in front of us. This was the primer to the war and I knew it was just an appetizer meant to drive the hounds in line into a frenzy, preparing them for attack.
“You can’t stop it,” I said when CJ tried to rip out of my grasp.
He turned a pleading gaze in my direction when the first hellhound turned on Ty.
I knew the pain in his gaze. I knew the need to stop the inevitable, and I also knew the futility of any action against what had already been set into motion.
What I didn’t expect was for Ty to rip a hellhound in two with his bare hands and from the expression on Lucifer’s face, neither did he.
Ty grabbed Chris around the waist and launched toward the heavens, pulling his brother out of range of the hellhounds, into the single beacon of light, disappearing from view before Lucifer could yank him back to the earth.
Lucifer’s furious gaze dropped from the sky to me, then moved to CJ. His face crinkled and he roared his aggravation, squeezing a fist in front of him, sending out the command to burst the boy’s heart. I stepped into the flow of power aimed at Ty’s son, deflecting it with a mental wall. Three of the demons next to Lucifer burst, exploding in balls of flame.
The surprise of the back-to-back events stunned everyone, and nothing moved until a streak of lightning flared and Ty landed on one knee in the center of the clearing like Thor arriving for battle. His wings smoldered, sending tendrils of smoke into the air, but when he lifted his head, his fury filled the space and he stood, shifting into battle stance.
“You’ve cheated me for the last time,” Lucifer growled and pointed at Ty.
“Game on, you bastard,” Ty said and leveled the glare I had seen in Steve’s mind. The one that was responsible for dubbing the man as the Angel of Death while he was alive, and it evoked a tremor, a chill that bit at my heels and spread like a four-alarm fire.
Naomi hissed behind me and the spell that held me in place broke. I remembered the gun in my hand and raised it, aiming at the closest hellhound. I squeezed the trigger and the report of gunfire shattered the stillness, breaking the stalemate between good and evil.