Death of a Demon_An Urban Fantasy Romance Read online

  “You struggle in vain,” the demon cried, throwing his hands up in mock surrender as the warriors closed in on him. “For you shall all die by the darkness of the next eclipse. It has been written.”

  “No one but me decides my fate,” Ashley shot back, wiping the wood splinters off her shoulder and tossing her head.

  She reached for his arm and when he shied away, delivered a swift punch to the kidneys. He wilted and retched again, his eyes burning bright red as he glared up at her.

  Reaching to my belt, I pulled a lengthy piece of rope off my back and tossed it her way. “Here, use this. It’s Luke’s newest invention.”

  Our newest toy was a rope with silver fibers interwoven throughout the threads. Although no thicker than my pinky finger, a demon would have a hard time breaking free. It would come in handy as we hunted down the remaining demonic forces.

  She tied his hands roughly behind his back and marched him to where Gabe sat rubbing his head, and pushed it to its knees. “I believe you weren’t finished.”

  Gabe nodded gratefully to the rest of us, his gaze lingering especially long on mine. A small smile tugged at my lips as I waited for him to scan me over for injuries. Despite the fact that we’d been fighting together for over a year, he’d never lost that protective side of him. I felt grateful for it now more than ever.

  “What are you going to do?”

  The priest had reentered from a door on the altar without Aaron. He wrung his hands, his voice quivering. He eyed the smashed remains of his pulpit, no doubt wondering how he was going to explain that to his congregation.

  “His last rites,” Gabe said in a low voice. He pulled a vile of yellow liquid from his pocket and uncorked it. “It’s very important we do this.”

  “Last rites?” The priest’s jaw dropped. “But wait. We need to perform an exorcism. I have the tools right here.”

  He held up his worn bible and the wooden box. At this distance, I could tell the box was very old, perhaps even from a different millennium. About the length of his forearm, it’d been worn throughout the ages. Unfamiliar faint symbols covered the lid and a latch in the shape of a jagged circle took up one side. Power emanated from the thing—dark and heavy.

  “We’ll take that.” Raquel snatched the box from his hand and tucked it under her arm. “I think this is safer in the hands of the Nephilim.”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but fell silent at the sight of Gabe rubbing droplets of the yellow liquid on the demon’s forehead and hands. The tangy scent of olive oil reached my nostrils. We’d been using it to anoint demons this summer.

  It had been blessed and mixed with a concoction similar to the disgusting drink they’d forced on me when Gabe first brought me to the manor. Luke’s assistants had refined the formula to exorcise demons from the possessed. Sometimes, it worked. Sometimes, it didn’t. But the process was never pretty.

  The demon hissed and squirmed as the skin where Gabe anointed began to sizzle. The priest fell back, his mouth open wide. With a silent prayer, he crossed himself, and snapped his jaw shut.

  “May you find peace,” Gabe said, pressing the symbol of the cross into its forehead. “And may God have mercy on you.”

  “Now, wait...” The priest lunged forward, his arms flailing. “Just you wait.”

  “This is the hard part,” Gabe warned in a low voice. “We have to be ready.”

  The demon glared at him, his eyes glowing. “You’ll be sorry, you...”

  The vile stream of curses that flowed from his mouth were cut short when Gabe forced the rest of the liquid from the vile down the demon’s throat. He sputtered and cursed enough to make even the toughest of sailors blush. None of us stirred. We had become used to this. It was part of the job.

  The demon opened its mouth in a silent scream, its jaw popping out of the socket and dropping down to his chest. Ashley let go of the ropes and backed away as it flopped and struggled. It was as if the two entities inside it were grappling for control. A battle of the utmost importance. Silently, I urged the human soul inside him to fight harder. To overcome his demon. To win.

  Slowly, its face grew waxen and pale. The jerky movements of its body calmed. I squeezed my eyes shut, holding back the tears. He was losing the battle. I’d seen it a dozen times before. The demon was going to claim this body, dragging it to its grave. My heart broke for the man’s family.

  “What’s happening?” The priest looked wildly at each of us.

  No one responded.

  “What’s happening?” he demanded again. “Can you save him?”

  “This man is a goner,” Adam answered. There was no venom in his voice, yet, his answer still stung. “He’s dying.”

  The priest began to struggle for breath, his chest rising and falling with desperation. Raquel took him by the arm and led him away. The remainder of us circled tightly around the dying demon, our hands on our weapons until the job was done. We couldn’t be too careful.

  “My master...” the demon croaked. His eyes stared into empty space as he laid prone on his chest. “My Prince.”

  I leaned down to watch the light go from his eyes. Despite the fact that we’d just fought this demon for our lives, we couldn’t forget there was a human soul within. He didn’t deserve to die alone.

  With a surprising burst of speed, his arm reached out and grabbed my wrist in a clammy vice, searing my skin with an unbearable heat. I gasped and fell backwards, landing hard on my rear end. My ears rang as a result of the fall. Shaking my head, I waved off Gabe’s move to help me up. No harm done. By the time I glanced back at the demon, he’d breathed his last and gone rigid.

  Another one dead.

  It was at that moment that an explosive pain filled my head and threw me backwards. Darkness fell on me hard, like the weight of a large boulder. The sound of blood rushing through my ears was deafening.

  Not again. It couldn’t be happening again.

  Chapter Three

  I could feel her there in the darkness with me. Watching, waiting, calculating. An immense feeling of rage, paired with the sour scent of fear, shot toward me. It forced me backwards, until I fumbled for a foothold in the rough corners of my mind. With a strong hold, I straightened and shot back a wave of my own power.

  “We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” I mumbled under my breath.

  She laughed, hollow and harsh.

  “No, seriously. I’m done with this.”

  The pain was still there, right between my eyebrows. I could sense my external body, although it felt miles away, lying on the hard floor of the sanctuary. Hands gripped mine. Another brushed the hair from my face and called my name.

  Gabe. The worry in his voice was heartbreaking.

  “I’ll stop when you concede,” the dark entity growled. Her voice came from all around me.

  I looked up at the emptiness above me. “You’re never going to win.”

  “And I’ll never stop causing you pain,” she hissed. “Face it. You’re growing weaker.”

  Pressing my lips together, I clenched my jaw and my fists. Ever since I’d first made contact with my demon side last year, she’d been growing bolder. It was as if our brief tangles had awoken her to life beyond the dark recesses of my mind. No longer content to watch and listen, she wanted control.

  She wanted me gone.

  “That’s a lie,” I shot back, standing straight. “I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. Here, let me show you.”

  Closing my eyes, I concentrated on a beam of light. Something bright and pure. The kind of thing that would send her running for the dark.

  “Stop it!”

  Panic coursed through our body and I smiled. She couldn’t hide it from me. She hated the light.

  “Stop!”

  A powerful blow hit me in my stomach, sending me toppling backwards head over heels. I looked up to see a dark shape materialize. It was as if someone had taken my shadow on a hot summer afternoon and given it life of its own. Flexing and groaning, it t
owered above me, rage emanating from its feminine shape.

  “You can try and hurt me, but I know the truth.” I pushed myself off and brushed imaginary dirt off my knees. “What hurts me, hurts you. You can’t hide it from me. We share the same body.”

  It shifted, as if lost for words.

  “You won’t gain control, not as long as I’m alive. You can forget about it. And when I find a way to rid myself of your parasitic presence, you can bet you’ll be gone before you can say burn in Hell.”

  I knew I’d gone a step too far when all of sudden my demonic side buzzed with fury. Raw power manifested in front of it, stronger than I’d seen thus far. It boiled and stewed, pouring over me like acid.

  “Agh!” I threw up my hands in defense, managing to shield myself from the worst of it. Still, it burned with an unimaginable pain.

  “Do not underestimate me,” it cried.

  Squinting through the pain, I watched with horror as the dark shadow shimmered and morphed into something solid. Slowly, it grew recognizable features. A straight nose, symmetrical cheeks, flowing dark hair. Something about it made me shiver.

  It was like looking at a mirror with a dark tint. My face stared back at me, a triumphant smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Evil glinted in my eyes, a tinge of red blinking deep within the irises. I recoiled from the sight and fell backwards, hitting the ground hard.

  “How did you...?”

  She’d never been able to take such a form before now. Whenever we’d faced off, she’d appear in her dark form, faceless and insubstantial. Fear birthed in my gut, shooting into my limbs.

  “I grow stronger.” She flexed her bicep, staring at the way the muscles contracted. “It is only a matter of time. Prepare yourself, angel warrior. Your days are numbered.”

  Bright lights blinded me as I fluttered my eyelids. I struggled against the hands holding me down, grunting my frustration. It took a few more seconds for me to realize I was staring up at the top of a church. Wooden beams crisscrossed the ceiling and fans dotted above. I turned my head to look into a pair of concerned green eyes staring down at me.

  “Gabe!” Giving up my struggle, I threw myself into his arms. My body trembled as the remnants of fear and adrenaline pulsated through my muscles.

  “You were out for almost ten minutes,” he said, clasping me tight to his chest. I could hear his heart racing. “The episodes are getting longer.”

  I swallowed hard. He was right. They used to knock me out for seconds, at the most. But lately, they were getting stronger and more violent. Last time, I fell and cracked a rib on a cement sidewalk. That injury was still healing.

  “She’s getting stronger.” Pulling away enough to look in his eyes, I breathed with control to keep the tears at bay. The last thing I needed to do right now was cry. “She has a form now. A carbon copy of my own. I don’t know what else she can do. She says it’s only a matter of time before she’s stronger than me.”

  “She lies.” His hand gripped the back of my hair. Rage flashed in his eyes as he worked his jaw. “She says those things to create doubt in your heart. Don’t listen.”

  I nodded, hoping he was right. If there was one thing we knew, demons thrived on deceit. Still, the best lies always carried a bit of truth within them. I wondered how much of what she said was valid.

  “Are you alright?” Ashley kneeled next to me. She’d sheathed her deadly weapons. “You took a hard fall.”

  “Didn’t break another rib, did you?” Raquel eyed me anxiously over Ashley’s head.

  She’d become a little over-protective this year. Part of me thought it was because she felt so guilty about letting me get away with escaping into the woods last fall to fight demons on my own. She felt like she should’ve protected me better. Of course, it could also be because she took after her uncle—my father. He would’ve wrapped me in bubble wrap if I let him.

  “Nothing’s broken.”

  I flexed my muscles one at a time, just to be sure. Yep, all good.

  The faint sound of crying drew my attention. Only ten feet away, the young priest we’d met clutched the lifeless body of a man to his chest. He wept over his face, tears falling onto the ashen skin. My eyes watered at the sight, my throat constricting. This never got any easier.

  “What are we going to do with him?” I asked.

  Letting humans into the confidence of the Nephilim way of life was tricky. We only told them as much as they needed to know. Most wouldn’t be able to handle the knowledge of the world around them.

  Humankind liked to remain in the dark. The dark was comforting and familiar. It hid the sight of beasts prowling, just outside of range, ready to devour the soft flesh of man. They would go mad if they knew the truth about this world and the next.

  “I’ll handle it,” Ashley said, giving me a knowing look and then leading the priest by the arm to the nearby door. She had a way with instilling awe and fear in the hearts of men. She could convince him to remain quiet.

  “I suppose we need to get back to the manor,” Raquel said, tossing a dagger in the air and catching it with ease. “When Uncle Luke’s done visiting the European branch, he’s bringing the new researchers home. I can’t wait to check out the new gadgets. We have to get first dibs.”

  I’d completely forgotten about my father’s trip halfway across the world. With the disastrous run-in with Sophia and Oscar last year, who’d tried to have me executed, the Europeans were desperate to repair relations. Luke had spent half of the summer flying back and forth, drafting new Nephilim legislation and meeting with the head honchos.

  At the same time, he’d beefed up Westward Manor’s nearly nonexistent research team, pulling human and Nephilim researchers from all over the world to develop new tech for us. It was time we moved into the twenty-first century, he’d argued to the board. There was no reason not to morph new and old tech together to defend our world from demon spawn. If the casualties of last summer hadn’t convinced them, I wasn’t sure what would.

  Luckily, Luke had been given free reign of the project. But that meant more time away from home. I couldn’t wait to see him again.

  “We’ve got one more stop to make before heading back to the Manor,” Gabe said, glancing at the phone in his hand. “A potential demon in a town just sixty miles from here. It burned down a church and scared some of the locals. Could be our guy.”

  “Let’s go.” I pushed myself up, my heartbeat returning to normal. We could analyze today’s events later. Right now, we had a mission.

  “Tell me you’re not allowing her on another hunt.” The annoyingly grating sound of Adam’s voice caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up straight. “Not after this.”

  “I’m fine,” I shot back, clenching the muscles in my jaw. No one got to bench me.

  “Fine?” He swept his gaze up and down my body. “Fine? You just collapsed in the middle of a demonic extraction. Next time, it could be during the middle of a fight. You’re a liability.”

  My lips formed a snarl as Gabe’s arm reached out to stop me from advancing forward.

  “This is my team,” Gabe said, his voice steady. “If you have any concerns with how I run it, you can voice them at a later time.”

  “Later doesn’t work for me.” Adam crossed his arms in front of his sculpted chest. A cocky grin formed on his face. “And I don’t think Luke would appreciate hearing how you risked his daughter’s life when she’s so obviously in need of rest.”

  Ashley and Raquel glanced back and forth between us as Adam and I stared each other down. He’d used his wild card in this argument and he knew it. Luke had been Gabe’s mentor long before I came into the picture. He worshiped my father and followed his every command. There was no way he’d risk his anger, not when it came to the safety of his daughter. It was a struggle just to get Gabe to loosen the reins on me once in a while. Add in the will of my father, and I was sunk.

  “Maybe he’s right,” Gabe said in a low voice from the corner of his mouth.
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  I sighed and rolled my eyes. Just what I had expected.

  “Fine. Bench me.” I glared at Adam, wishing my gaze could burn a hole through his thick skull. “Thanks a lot.”

  “Hey, I’m just looking out for you.” He threw his hands up in surrender, a lopsided grin on his lips. “That’s what friends do.”

  Turning on my heel to walk away, I wrapped my hands around my waist and fumed. Some friend he was. Since I’d met Adam, he’d tried to kill me, pull his brother and me apart, and managed to annoy me in every way possible. If that was his idea of friendship, then he had more problems than he knew.

  The sound of footsteps following me brought an unbidden smile to my face. A familiar hand pressed against my side, pulling me into his muscular chest. The scent of dark woods and spice filled my nose as Gabe leaned down to whisper in my ear.

  “I love you.”

  His warm breath tingled against my neck, sending shivers down my spine. I welcomed the feeling, closing my eyes to soak it in. Warmth flooded my gut as his hand slowly descended to my hip. But we couldn’t stay that was for long. Too soon, his touch was gone and he left to finish with the business of the priest. I remained alone at the back of the church, worry flooding back into my heart.

  What if my demon was right? What if she really was getting stronger? There was only so long I could hold out before she took over everything. Would I become a prisoner in my own body?

  Or would she kill me first?

  Chapter Four

  My feet thread the familiar path through Westward Manor to Luke’s office, the wooden box we’d confiscated from the priest tucked under my arm. Down elaborate hallways with heavy tapestries, intricately carved wood paneling, and artistic interpretations of angelic figures.

  Once in a while, I liked to slow my pace and study those angels. Most of them featured winged cherubs with chubby cheeks and golden ringlets. But that was far from the image of an angel I had in my mind. Part angel, part human, my Nephilim family were warriors of the fiercest kind. Some of them appeared so beautiful, they were hard to look at. I couldn’t imagine what a real angel looked like. It would be a fearsome thing to behold.