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It all felt so big and complicated. But in the end, it was simple really.
Apophis was waiting for his chance to get at Derek. All we had to do was leave the shelter of Ontonagon and all the wards and protections Derek had spent years building.
I ran my fingers over the beautifully crafted leather sheath that held my god knife. Elandra had given it to me, once upon a time. Probably in the hopes that my silly human self with her missing memories would use it to murder the demon who protected me, thus allowing the gods to snatch me right up without contest.
Lucky for me, I’d had morals and a strong intuition that warned me not to trust gods bearing gifts, even then. Instead of indiscriminately stabbing people, I’d asked questions. Imagine that.
Rhys slipped a hand over mine to stop my fidgeting. He was sitting beside me in the back of the armored SUV. Orion was driving, and Derek was riding shotgun, leaving me comfortably squashed between Chike and Rhys in the backseat. We had left Gesa and her pride behind to defend the city, while they continued to scramble to maintain order in their distant clans and kingdoms throughout the country. “Have faith in us,” my vampire said softly, squeezing my hand and leaning in to kiss my temple. “Not a single person in this car is helpless.”
Orion’s bright blue eyes met mine in the rearview, and I registered his surprise at Rhys’s statement before he accelerated, crossing the county line at a speed I’d never experienced in my nice, safe driving history. Hopefully his inhuman reflexes would keep us from dying if he hit a bump.
The plan was to get as far from the city as possible before we ran into Apophis. The idea was to minimize any chance of the city being in danger during the battle to come. I wouldn’t put it past the sleezy, creepy asshole demon to use Derek’s distraction to find a way into Ontonagon and begin slaughtering innocents or some shit.
Chike patted my knee. His long lavender hair was pulled back in a high, severe ponytail that emphasized his sharp features, now that he wasn’t making any attempt to appear human. His black Henley and supple leather pants made him look more serious than usual, like some sort of supernatural spy. He had knives strapped to his waist too, but unlike me, Chike actually knew how to use them. He’d grown up with Gesa and her family, after all. She’d hardly let her adoptive son get by without learning how to kill stuff. I had seen him fight a couple times before. My mer might look small and soft, but he was quick and ruthless. And he had siren magic to help him out. “We’ve got this,” he said, his smooth voice tight.
I covered his hand with my own, lending him the belief he was trying and failing to achieve. “We do.”
Derek turned in his seat to look at me, his dark eyes penetrating, full of his usual commanding confidence. “Troya,” he said firmly. “This is what we’re meant to do. The time is right. The outcome will be favorable.”
I wasn’t the only one who went all tense and weird at the way he said my name, so full of pride and...affection...warmth. I hadn’t really had time to talk to Chike and Rhys about the elephant—or demon—in the room, what with all the saving the world stuff. I shook myself and forced my heart to keep beating as I focused on what Derek was actually saying. I relaxed, letting my faith in him wash over me. He was saying he could sense that things would go well. His intuition, his premonition ability, told him so. And if Dumuzi said we would win, then we would win. I pushed aside any lingering weirdness over the disconnect between the feelings of old Troya and new Troya and focused on the part of me that said we knew him. That we loved him. And that we could never doubt him again. “We will win. Apophis’s head will roll today. And the gods will never influence humans for their own gain ever again.”
I shocked even myself, feeling the golden power roll outward from my being like the tolling of a massive bell, the warm waves of it rippling out into the future and shaping fate.
Derek’s eyes flared red in response and he smiled, slow and wicked, and every bit the demon he was. “That’s my girl.”
I flushed, my cheeks suddenly flaming as I tried really hard not to think about how much I liked that he’d called me that. For fuck’s sake. You have rough sex with a demon one time, and suddenly you’re ready to do anything just to hear him praise you. Messed up, Troy. Really messed up.
“So gross,” Chike muttered under his breath, glancing between me and Derek White with a grimace of disgust. Rhys shushed him by reaching behind me and smacking the mer in the back of the head.
I shook that off and focused on my godspark as Derek turned back around. I had to keep my faith. I couldn’t start doubting anything now. Not when everyone was counting on me. “You’re all amazing,” I said slowly, infusing my words with power. “Every one of you is strong, and powerful, and perfect. And we are all going home in one piece after this.”
I don’t think anyone was surprised when we came upon the blockade. As predicted, Apophis was waiting for us on the main road leading away from the slowly sprawling town of Ontonagon. Orion stopped the car a few hundred feet away. A spray of bullets peppered the front of the SUV, but the protections held. The demons in the front seat were rapidly shedding their human guises as they called forth their demon power. “Are you ready?” Orion said, his voice devoid of emotion and his aura swelling outward.
I nodded. “Do your thing.”
We were ready for it, so we could work through the stray tendrils of allure that would pull at us as Orion unleashed his incubus call on Apophis’s little army. I would have laughed at the thought of lust as a weapon, if I hadn’t experienced it first-hand. Orion could make it hard to think, hard to move. At the very least, it would make our enemies hesitate. At the best? They’d forget their own names, lay down and expose their throats to offer up their lives for the chance at more of that feeling.
Derek threw open his door and cast a shield over us. “Stay together as much as possible,” he said calmly. “But push on through the vanguard to Apophis. He’s the only target that matters.”
He spared a glance at me while bullets pinged off his shield. He had originally wanted me to stay in the armored car, where my soft human-like butt would be safest. But I couldn’t just sit here while they went out and risked their lives. I reached up and squeezed the amulet that hung from my neck—protection magic from Gesa’s mage lover, Halstad. It would deflect magical attacks and minimize some of the force of physical assaults. “I’ll stay close to you. And if I can’t do that, I’m by Rhys,” I repeated dutifully, lifting my head to stare the demon down.
He nodded, then turned and pulled a massive sword from where he’d stowed it along the floorboard for the drive. Guns wouldn’t do much against a demon. Removing parts of them was apparently the only way to make sure they stayed dead. The one gun we had was strapped to my hip and loaded with some kind of anti-supe ammo Derek said he’d taken from a bunch of human crazies years ago. No one said anything else as we climbed out of the car and strode down the blacktop like a bunch of bad asses.
Apophis stood behind a line of men and women who I vaguely identified as supes based on their auras and the feeling of power coming from them. The chaos demon’s eyes swirled with muddy colors and his power whipped around him, strong and unstable. A pair of humans with automatic rifles were out front of the line, and they kept randomly spraying us with bullets that had no chance of hitting. “Guns are no good against us,” I said firmly, and with power-laced belief. I wasn’t just a passive participant in all this. I was the breath of inspiration, the hand of fate. I was the reason Apophis was going to lose.
“You hide behind weaker beings now, Apophis?” White taunted smoothly, rotating his wrist to give his sword a little twirl. He was wearing his usual ten-thousand-dollar suit, this one in a subdued black and burgundy stripe. But I’d seen him don his armor over the human clothes, a shimmering thing of interwoven magic so fine it settled into his aura like a second skin. We were all wearing something similar, but Derek’s armor was ancient, infused with a sense of purpose that I could feel shimmering in the air around him. It was the magic of a ruler who protected what was his.
“You’re one to talk, Dumuzi,” Apophis snarked, his voice wobbling through several different registers as the chaos inside him rippled through the various disguises he’d worn over the centuries. I was starting to think he hadn’t always been quite this degree of unhinged. Whatever the gods had done to him when they gave him power...it looked like it didn’t mix well with demon physiology. “Look at you, ringed by your little harem of weaklings,” he said, shaking his head and giving a sad tsk. “How the mighty have fallen.”
I laughed. “That’s hilarious, coming from you, you sadistic psychopath.” I placed my hand on my outer thigh, on the hilt of my god knife, looking for courage. Then I pulled on more of my power, feeling it within me like a bottomless well filled with warm golden promise. “You’re nothing but a poor, used up tool, Apophis. You’ve been discarded by the gods. You’ve outlived your usefulness and now you will die.”
That got to him, I knew it did. But he pretended he thought nothing of my words or my ability to make them come true. “Shut your mouth, demicunt!” His long, pale hair waved around him as he levitated slightly, burning up from within from whatever power the gods had loaned him. “Heimdall warned me of your manipulations. I heard all about how you played us both. But you won’t get so lucky again. I have the power of both realms. And it is my sole purpose to cause unrest.” He grinned. “Once you are dead, I will turn this world upside down. All your precious little humans and lesser magical beings will have nowhere to turn. They will convert to the old gods in droves, starting with that pathetic city behind you.” He cackled, completely unhinged. “And I’ll be rewarded. I’ll have free passage between Earth and the god realm, and I’ll live like a god myself. I’ll be untouchable! One of them.”
I rolled my eyes. Did he honestly believe the gods would keep any of their promises? And...was he really going to stand there and monologue?
“Nobody cares,” Chike yelled, his voice full of bored impatience. “Come out here so we can fuck you up.”
Apophis’s eyes glowed, but he refused to rise to the taunting and come out from behind his loyal row of meat shields. “Oh, there’ll be fucking alright,” he promised with a leer, his eyes landing on Orion. “Hello again, my little pet. I can’t wait to nail your wings to the floor, so you have to grovel to me for eternity, begging for my dick just so you can keep breathing.”
Orion’s wings made a sharp flapping noise as he snapped them open and closed, but his expression was that eerie blankness he got when he lost himself.
Derek stepped out in front of our little group, blocking Orion from Apophis’s gaze. “You always were nothing but yammering and empty threats, Apophis,” he said in a bored tone. “Orion is no one’s pet.” He waved a hand at Apophis’s assembled followers. “Leave now, or die beside your master.”
I pulled on my power. “If you leave now, we will let you walk away. But if you stay, you are all dead.”
A few glanced nervously at each other, a couple of them laughed. But I knew they were all going to die. Their auras were filled with the same sort of chaotic energy that swirled around Apophis. They were completely under his influence. Maybe some of them were insane even before this, maybe not—but there was no help for them now. And I had just sealed their fate with my proclamation.
I squared my shoulders and embraced my inner avenging goddess. There was no time for weakness or second-guessing now. Derek shrugged his broad shoulders, as if this was all just too dull for him to bear. “Onward, then.”
He paced forward and we all followed, spread out with me behind him and the other three guys ringing me. Chike was behind me with his knives drawn and Orion and Rhys took up spots on either side.
Orion let loose with his power and the humans holding the guns swayed and fell to their knees, their eyes glassy and their automatic weapons tumbling uselessly to the ground. I braced myself against the wave of lust and compulsion, even though it wasn’t nearly as strong when it wasn’t aimed directly at me. A few of the supernatural assholes on Apophis’s side hesitated, their weapons lowering as they fought with themselves. Chike let out a ringing note and even a few of the supes fell over.
Apophis cackled in glee, waving a hand to send out a wash of magic over his people to counter Orion and Chike’s influence. “You think I didn’t anticipate your cheap tricks? How boring.”
The supes shook themselves free of our magic. But by then we were on them. White dropped the shield around us as he smoothly and efficiently decapitated three half-shifted weres of some kind with one swipe of his sword, not even breaking stride. Rhys was a blur as he tossed one of the humans aside like a doll and tore into another supe a second later, fangs flashing and blood spraying, becoming the monster I’d read about in all the old vampire stories, right before my eyes.
Even without his magic advantage, Orion was just as vicious, swiping a long, bloody gash in his opponent’s neck before the man could get in a jab with his knife. I swallowed hard, stepping over bodies and trying to ignore the warm, metallic scent of blood and magic that filled my nostrils. I was a healer. I wasn’t meant to see life destroyed like this—to help destroy it. But we had given them the chance to run. And if Apophis lived, a whole lot more people would die.
I tripped over a dismembered arm and Chike was there, pushing a hand into my lower back, keeping me moving. A half-shifted werewolf rushed us from the side and I yanked my god knife free of its sheath, but Chike beat me to it, letting out a blast of song that brought the poor guy to a halt, bleeding from his ears and eyes, before the siren slit his throat in one quick, ruthless motion.
Blood sprayed across my chest and splattered my cheek. I turned away, feeling distant and numb. Belief. I had to have belief that we were doing the right thing, even if some part of me was screaming in horror at the loss of a couple dozen lives.
Then we were through Apophis’s defenses and standing before the crazy demon himself. There was no more talk, no more taunting. Derek stepped in and swung his sword, aiming for Apophis’s throat in a sure, powerful motion that was stunning in its suddenness and speed. But the chaos demon had more tricks up his sleeve, thanks to the power boost the gods had given him. He dematerialized right before the killing blow, popping back into existence behind Derek to rake his sharp claws across Derek’s back and shoulder, narrowly missing his neck.
Sparks rose up where Derek’s armor sprang to his defense and Apophis jumped back with a hiss, narrowly avoiding the tip of Derek’s sword. “Demon maille? Here? How have you managed to keep the magic alive all these years?”
Clearly, he had underestimated Derek White. Maybe he assumed the other demon had leaned on the power of the gods all those years ago, the way Apophis was now. He didn’t realize that Dumuzi had been a force to reckon with all on his own, without any help from the gods.
Rhys rushed Apophis, claws raking the demon’s throat and his teeth bared as he went in for the kill. But Apophis dematerialized again, avoiding a second attempt at beheading.
Beheading was the best way to ensure he was dead for good. That was why we all carried blades or claws. My gun had a small chance of slowing him down, since it was loaded with illegal anti-supe rounds that had been confiscated from a group of human supe hunters by Gesa and White years ago. I knew the basics of how to handle a gun, thanks to my best friend the bounty hunter, but I wasn’t a sharpshooter. I was saving the rounds, just in case Apophis ever held still long enough for them to be of any use.
The chaos demon didn’t immediately reappear, and we all glanced around warily. There was a sudden flash and he appeared just long enough to send a ball of crackling blue magic right at our group. Derek stepped in and absorbed the brunt of it, grunting, then shaking his arms and hands like he was shaking off water droplets. “Your magic is stronger than his, Dumuzi,” I whispered, giving the words a push with my power. “He thinks he’s a god because he’s managed to gather a few followers. But you have a whole city devoted to you. You gain loyalty and power from everyone you protect, and it is always growing.” I knew it was already true, even as I attempted to breathe it into being. His people weren’t just possessions—they were the lifespark that kept him going.
I’d be frozen in awe at the realization, if we weren’t in the middle of an epic show-down with Crazypants McGee.
Derek swiveled his head around and canted it to the side, as if he was listening to something the rest of us couldn’t hear. He tensed and brought up his free hand to launch a red ball of his own magic at the empty space to his right. Apophis appeared there, smoke rising off him as he hissed and patted at his singed shirt.
The chaos demon’s eyes were even more feral. He was pissed off that Derek had found a way around his little tricks. I smiled smugly. Yeah, I was the reason Derek could suddenly sense Apophis even when the asshole wasn’t visible. I did that. Me.
Apophis’s eyes zeroed in on me and he grinned. He feinted toward me, then spun at the last minute, knowing the guys would all move to protect me. He whipped out his arm, slamming the blade of the sword that had just appeared in his grip right into Rhys’s stomach. I screamed as Apophis yanked the blade free and spun toward Chike before Derek could reach him. The mer was quick, but not nearly as fast as the vampire, and even Rhys hadn’t been able to get out of the way in time.
“No!” I shouted, throwing my hand out, putting my power behind the word, all my intent behind stopping him from hurting Chike. Something blue flashed in my peripheral vision and the world sped up again. The tip of one of Orion’s pretty bat wings lay twitching on the ground at my feet, severed from his body as he darted in front of Chike. Apophis’s sword was stuck through the incubus’s side as Orion curled around the mer. Blood poured from the wound when Apophis yanked his arm back, pulling the blade free with a scraping sound that I felt in my soul.
“Fucking useless,” he muttered lifting a foot to kick Orion out of the way. “Move, you worthless fucktoy.”
Derek’s sword point appeared from the middle of Apophis’s chest and the demon let out an irritated sound before popping out of existence again.
“Stop playing games, Apophis,” Derek demanded, his deep voice cracking with anger and power. “You wanted me. Here I am.” He held his arms out wide. “And yet you hide and attack targets with no hopes of defending themselves, like the coward you are!”
Apophis’s unhinged laughter filled the air, echoing from everywhere and nowhere all at once. “Me? I think it’s you who hides behind weaker beings, Dumuzi.”
I pulled the god knife from its sheath, knowing what he was about to do, but I was a second too slow. A strong arm wrapped around my neck and pulled me back against a hard chest as long, silky hair blew over my shoulder and across my face, shifting from platinum, through red, brown, and black, then to platinum again. “All this fuss over one squishy little half-human,” he purred.
“Touching her was a mistake,” Derek promised, “and it will be the last one you make.”
I struggled, but I couldn’t get words out through my crushed throat. I still pulled on my power and sent it out with Derek’s words, willing them to be true. I tried to twist out of Apophis’s inhuman grip, lashing at his arm with the god blade. His skin sizzled and burned where the tip of the blade brushed it, but he knocked the weapon away with a stinging slap that made my whole hand go numb before he nearly lifted me off my feet by my neck. The glowing blade tumbled out of my hand and fell to the ground. It might as well be a million miles away.
“Let her go,” Rhys hissed. Panting, he held a hand over his gut while the bleeding slowed and his flesh knitted back together. “And we’ll kill you quick instead of taking you apart bit by fucking bit.”
I shuddered. He’d do it. He would absolutely rip pieces off Apophis, and how had I never really believed him when he said he was a monster? I was starting to think it was only for me that any of them really behaved.
My power rose up in me, wanting a place to go, wanting to follow through on my desires and my absolute conviction. This was the end of Apophis. And my guys could draw all the blood they wanted. It wouldn’t make them less in my eyes.
Apophis was so focused on Derek. He always had been, though, hadn’t he? It was an obsession that was going to get him killed. “It’s the little ones,” I managed to wheeze. The little ones you have to worry about. The weak ones. The quiet ones. The seemingly harmless ones that everyone always overlooks.
Apophis grunted in surprise and his hold on me loosened. I managed to get my feet on the ground and twist out of his grip. He kept one hand tangled in my hair, but I could move well enough to scrabble for my gun. My eyes darted to the side as he yanked on my hair, not letting go even as he batted Chike away and twisted to yank each of the mer’s long, wicked knives out of his kidneys. I didn’t let myself look to see if Chike was okay. I had to focus. “It will work,” I muttered to myself, lacing power through my words.
“Shut up!” Apophis yanked me back around to face him, his eyes still on Derek White. “I don’t care what the gods say about wanting her alive, drop your sword and kneel or I snap her fucking neck!”
I couldn’t see Derek, but I could imagine the calm, confident smirk on his face as his sword clattered to the pavement and he easily knelt in front of his enemy. Then I yanked my arm up, jammed the gun between me and Asshat McCrazypants, and pulled the trigger. Apophis’s body jerked and his wild eyes widened in surprise as he suddenly looked at me. I wasn’t a great shot. But I didn’t have to be when he was this close. I kept pulling the trigger, over and over until it clicked on an empty chamber.
The Demon shoved me away and I landed on my ass on the ground, the wind knocked out of me. “You little bitch!” he shouted, wheezing as his magic burned off whatever was in those bullets. “That fucking stung!”
He narrowed his eyes at me in a way that promised retribution. The bullets, even if enchanted, wouldn’t slow him down long. But it was good enough. It was only a distraction, after all. “Losing your head is going to hurt way more,” I said, power flowing from me like a fountain.
His eyes darted up as he realized he hadn’t been watching Derek. The Demon lord had stood, but he never even lifted his sword. He didn’t have to. This kill wasn’t his to make. The godknife hissed and smoked as it slid across Apophis’s throat, cutting deep, like a hot knife through butter. Orion wrapped one arm around Apophis’s waist in a sick parody of a lover’s embrace, holding the other man still as he finished removing his head from his body.
“Sleep well, pet,” the incubus whispered in the other man’s ear—right before the light in Apophis’s eyes dimmed and his head rolled off his shoulders.
His body fell to the ground at Orion’s feet and I crab walked awkwardly away from the carnage so I could get up without putting my hands in a puddle of demon blood. Orion stood there, his blue eyes glowing furiously, his aura hungry and desperate from the healing he’d had to do, but he was still as stone.
Derek stepped in front of his frozen secretary as I pushed myself to my feet. Orion looked up at him and blinked, the enchanted knife falling from his hand. “He’s gone?”
Derek nodded, his eyes glued to Orion’s. “Yes.”
Then the shaking started. I reached out for Orion’s aura with my own as the trembling rippled through his body. “I killed him,” the incubus whispered, as if he was trying to convince himself that had actually happened.
Derek didn’t speak again, but he reached for his secretary, pulling him in against his broad chest and sliding a hand up to grip the back of his neck to hold Orion’s face against Derek’s shoulder.
I wanted to help. I wanted to stop the pain and shock. But...some wounds were like an abscess—they had to be drained to heal. Orion raised his hands to grip the sides of Derek’s suit jacket as a muffled sob escaped him, and I turned away. He needed this moment. They both did.
I shuffled over to where Rhys was kneeling by Chike. The siren had a split lip and a bruise along one side of his cheek, but he looked okay otherwise. I ran my senses over both of them, finding Chike a little sore, and Rhys a little hungry. “Do you need blood?” I said as I stood over them.
Rhys lifted his glowing eyes to mine, then flicked a glance at toward the demons behind me. “It can wait a bit. I think we all just need to go home.”
I met his eyes and nodded. We did. And he didn’t need to say which home. It hardly mattered, as long as we were all together.
I paused and tilted my face up toward the sky, drawing on every last ounce of my power. “The gods have no power here,” I whispered. “The humans and supes of the mortal plane will know and trust in their own worth, and that is all they ever need.” The echoing wash of power that rippled out from me made my knees weak and my vision blurry.
I breathed in deep, my eyes still closed, and thought I heard the echoing laughter of three women—one young, one middle-aged, and one old—and the soft sound of thread slipping over a wooden loom.