THE GODDESS KALI SMILED AT the mention of her name, and Alexa could see that her teeth were black and pointed like needles. It was the most horrendous face she had ever seen. It was the face of a monster, the face of a nightmare made of flesh.
A cold shiver licked Alexa’s spine, and she took a careful step back into Milo’s hard chest. The blue mist slowly dissipated, and Alexa saw that Ryan and the other angels had escaped down the hallway.
“I thought she was just a myth?” said Alexa under her breath.
“All myths are true,” answered Milo.
“Not all of them, surely?”
“All of them.”
Alexa stole a glance at Milo. His tone had been flat, final, as though everyone knew that pagan gods and other supernatural myths and legends were true, and that she was the idiot who still didn’t believe. Looking at the terrifying, blue-skinned creature now, she believed.
“Kali,” said Milo, taking a careful step forward. “You are as beautiful and terrifying as I remember,” he purred. “Who’s the lucky guy?” Milo smiled and gestured to the severed head.
Kali smiled proudly and stared lovingly at the head.
“My latest husband,” said the goddess in a heavy accent.
Her voice was the like the wails of a thousand women, and it sent a jolt of fear and anger through Alexa. Clearly, this goddess was also a psychopath.
“What brings you here, Dark Mother? Or should I say, how did you get here?” inquired Milo. “As queen of the Mada and Preta demons, and one who bathes in the blood of demons, your place is in the Netherworld. Not here.”
He drew his swords and held one in each hand. He stood legs apart, and from the tension in his shoulders, Alexa knew this was no ordinary foe.
“Why are you here, Kali?” said Milo again. “This isn’t your fight.”
“Hades compelled me,” said the goddess, as though this was the most natural thing in the world.
“Really?” questioned Milo. “I thought the two of you hated one another…that business of who was in charge of the River Styx. I heard the two of you were always at each other’s throats.”
“Yes, it’s true. I never cared for him or any of the other pagan gods. But he was the worst. Too pompous.”
As she spoke, her body swayed sensuously from her head to her toes, like a snake. When her hips gyrated, her skirt of dismembered arms slapped against each other. It was a belly dance from hell.
Kali continued to talk about Hades.
“He thought he presided over all the demons and over death. All the while, he surrounded himself with demon whores and accumulated gold, silver, and precious stones. But he was wrong,” she said with barely controlled anger. “I am in charge. I am the mother of darkness, and of all the devils. I am Kali, the Dark Mother, the goddess of Death.”
The goddess’ grin widened, and Alexa noticed that her skin was smeared with blood.
“So, how can he compel you if you hate him?” inquired Milo.
Alexa could see that Milo was trying to negotiate with Kali, but she wasn’t sure it would work.
Kali lifted the severed head and brought it close to her face, examining it like one might examine a pretty flower. “Because we made a bargain. He gives me what I want, and in return I help him.”
“With what?”
The goddess stuck out her tongue at him, it was meaty and black and plagued with boils. “I don’t kiss and tell, pretty angel. But if you must know something—know that I will kill you.”
Her arms twirled in an exotic dance as she spoke, and her silver blades glimmered and caught the moonlight that spilled down from the tall windows. Her feet glided over the smooth floors as she moved forward again.
“I’m going to kill all of you and taste the blood of the angels on my tongue.”
“It’s the promise of the skin thing, isn’t it?” said Milo, nodding.
The goddess stiffened, and her eyes narrowed. “What do you know of it?”
“Plenty,” said Milo. “When the demon goddess Parvati shed her dark skin, you were created from it. And you hated her for it. It’s why you killed her all those years ago. It was kind of sick to kill your own mother, don’t you think?”
Kali’s face contorted with rage. “You know nothing of the struggles I have faced.”
“I know that you’ve been trying to reverse the process. You’ve been trying to shed your own skin to become The Fair One.”
The goddess was the opposite of fair, and Alexa wondered if even Hades’ magic could change her.
“You’re helping Hades because you want to be hot?” asked Alexa. She wondered if the goddess would keep all four of her arms.
The goddess frowned and looked over to Alexa for the first time. Her eyes were cold and full of ancient malice.
“You believe that Hades could help you?” continued Milo. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the guy’s only a pagan god, just like you. He can’t perform miracles. He’s tricked you, just as he’s tricked my fellow angels. Hades is a liar.”
“Enough!” Kali glared at Milo, but he merely shrugged and smiled with his typical arrogance.
But then Milo pressed Kali some more.
“What does Hades want? Why did you come here, Kali? Why this place when you could have gone anywhere around the world? Does this have something to do with The Crowns of the World? Do you know why Hades killed them all?”
Kali’s glare turned into a haughty grin. “I’ve told you. I’m here to kill you.”
She paused and then pointed her three daggers at Alexa. “Especially this one. Yes. Hades hates this one. Probably too much of a prude. What’s the matter, darling? Did you say no to the god?”
She laughed, a sick wet laugh and made a rude gesture with her body.
“That’s disgusting,” said Alexa. “I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life.”
She started to look away, but then Kali rubbed the bloody severed head of her husband against her face and body until she was covered in new blood. She held out the head and chanted in a language Alexa couldn’t understand. The air around her moved, and the blue mist swirled and rose until it brushed her knees.
And from the mist rose a headless demon. It was humanoid and had the same black-blue skin as the goddess. It was thick and muscled but carried no weapons. Alexa could see that long, sharp talons sprouted from its fingers. But while Kali had four arms, this creature only had two. It was very male and completely naked, like Kali, but for a short skirt of severed legs.
“Why are they naked?” protested Alexa, trying not to look below the creature’s waist. “Are there no clothes in the Netherworld? Come on!”
Kali gave a short laugh and then hurled the bloody head at Alexa.
The head hit Alexa on the side of her neck with a wet thump. She jumped back. The head hit the floor and rolled over to her feet. And then through the mass of wet black hair, it opened its eyes and looked at her.
“Oh god, no—”
Kali screamed like a banshee and threw herself at Milo in a blur of blue, black, and silver. Now that she was freed of her husband’s head, she slashed at him wildly with all three of her blades and Milo did his best to parry her blows. She was ruthless and deadly. She seemed to have been made for fluid and deadly speed.
Something else moved in the corner of Alexa’s eye—
The demon she had just beheaded leaned forward suddenly. It turned and moved towards Alexa, as though it had caught her scent. Slowly, it lifted one clumsy leg and swung it forward, rested for a moment, then swung the other a little past the first. Its lumbering, rolling motion made the hairs on the back of Alexa’s neck rise. She had no idea how it knew where to find her without its head. The demon made its way towards her relentlessly, slow at first and then faster. It seemed to have an urgency about it as it lunged suddenly.
Alexa fell back and stared at it, dumbfounded. The demon reached down, grabbed the severed head, and screwed it on to its neck like a cap on a bottle. It looked at Alexa and grinned. Its black eyes were wide and intelligent. And with his head back on, he was much bigger and taller than Milo.
The demon flexed his muscles like a bodybuilder, and then it leapt at her.
She barely had time to jump out of the way of its beefy hands and sharp talons. The demon was incredibly fast.
It laughed and came at her again.
Alexa gripped her dagger as the demon charged toward her. She swung her blade in a powerful arc, and the need to kill surged through her irresistibly. Nothing else mattered. These demons needed to die.
She didn’t try to direct the track of her blade, but simply allowed her desire to kill to focus the power of her swing instinctively. The blade whistled through the air and exploded through the demon’s head and shoulder. The air erupted in a putrid spray of hot blood that nearly blinded her. The demon’s head and part of its shoulder tumbled to the ground again, and it collapsed onto the blood-soaked stone.
But as soon as the demon’s body had hit the floor, it picked up the severed part of its shoulder and head and reattached them to the rest of its body. Alexa watched horrified as the demon’s skin stitched itself back together.
It stood up and smiled at the fear and confusion on her face. Alexa had never heard of a demon that could mend itself. She looked down at her dagger and cursed. Maybe if she’d had a soul blade from Horizon, it would have stayed down.
The demon laughed, and Alexa screamed. “Milo! How do I kill this thing?”
Milo looked in her direction just as Kali attacked him again. One of her swords sliced into his side, and light poured from his wound as he stumbled back.
Kali sprang at him again.
While Milo managed to swing his swords to deflect her attack, Kali was faster. She spun and slipped away from him. He countered her strikes, and she his. He evaded attacks that should have killed him, and she thwarted his attacks and deflected his blades with equal skill.
Milo faltered, and Alexa could see the panic in his eyes.
Kali laughed and came at him harder and faster.
Alexa felt a rush of panic. The goddess was going to kill him.
Suddenly the male demon howled, made an impossible leap, and landed on her before she had a chance to turn it aside. She was thrown to the ground and had to cover her face with her hands to prevent it from tearing her eyes out. The demon crushed her, but she wrapped her legs around its chest and managed to flip it over. She slipped out of his grasp and slashed her sword across the demon’s back. Blood exploded onto her chest and into her mouth, but the creature spun around and knocked the blade from her hand with a powerful blow to her arm.
Alexa winced in pain as a bone in her arm broke.
The demon charged, and she saw the snarl of its fangs and its malicious glare as she shuffled backwards, slipped on the wet floor, and fell.
The demon was on top of her in a flash. She raised her good arm and tried to push it off, but it was like trying to push off a car. The demon was too strong, too heavy, and too fast. It wrapped its hands around her neck and squeezed until Alexa’s vision blurred in a frenzy of black and red spots. She thought she heard someone call out her name, but maybe she was imagining it because she was about to die. Her head swung forward and then exploded with pain as it hit the hard floor.
The demon howled and grunted as it smashed her head repeatedly against the floor. She felt her life force fading away. It was going to kill her…
But Alexa refused to die.
Her nerves tingled, and a pounding came from somewhere deep inside her chest. It was as if her soul itself was in agony.
But then she managed to make out a white mist that surged up behind the demon. It shifted over to her left and assumed the shape of a man. It hovered next to her, and she could see right through him. He frowned sadly as he looked down at her, and she thought his face looked familiar.
The demon squeezed her neck harder, and the cold empty feeling of death crept into her like icy rain.
But then the ghost seemed to throw itself into her. She arched her back as a stream of warmth rose from her chest and spread throughout her body. The coldness of death vanished completely and the darkness inside her was replaced with brilliant white light.
Power surged through her, and white light exploded from her hands and body in a blinding flash that filled the hall. The white light hit the demon’s face, and it stumbled back in terror. The demon thrashed desperately as the light burned its skin like acid and entered it like water into a sponge. Then the demon burst apart in a bloodless shower of blue crystals and ash.
Kali’s eyes were wild when she saw the pile of ash that was left of her demon husband. She screamed, and the windows in the hall exploded and showered her with shards of glass. She turned towards Alexa with death in her eyes.
But then her face changed as if she had been shocked. She looked down and saw two silver swords poking through her chest.
Milo yanked his swords free and stepped back.
Kali’s daggers fell with loud clanks. She cursed Alexa, and then her body turned to stone and exploded in a cloud of blue ash.
The Hindu goddess of death was no more.