AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My dearest Sybilia, you’ve returned to me,” he growled, and then yanked his arms apart in a violent motion that did several unexpected things. The first was my demon and my angel were yanked out of me on opposite sides of my body, leaving me feeling light-headed and empty. I didn’t have any misery or happiness. Did most people feel like this all the time? It was so peaceful. The second thing was that demon metal cut through my skin on the edges of my cut arm, zipping it together like you’d see in an early Frankenstein movie. I felt that, and it wasn’t peaceful. The third thing was that the endless flames that were impossible to put out, went out.
“How do I kill the angel without ruining the host or the demon?” he asked me like I’d know, and if I knew, like I’d tell him.
My peace had ended once my impossible flames went out. I was not about to sit around talking when I had a demon to kill before he was unleashed on my city. I pulled myself back together, angel and demon both, then leapt at him, summoning my file as I went. He should have blocked me, but he let me stab him as deeply as I could with my small file. He didn’t fight back, only frowning thoughtfully about how to kill my angel without messing up the delicate host.
I stabbed him again while pressing against his throat in a way that would kill a different creature.
The ring hummed, and the next thing I knew, I was growing dragon scales. The demon reacted to that, standing up and sending me flying back, away from him and hitting the dirt in a rolling rush that took my breath out of me, but I still stumbled to my feet, holding the file like it was a two-handed sword, while wearing dragon scale armor that had kept the demons claws from shredding me like coleslaw. Still felt like I’d been hit by a battering ram, though. Yep, that was a cracked rib and possible internal bleeding. Still, I’d had worse. The demon didn’t look unobtrusive anymore. He crouched on the stone table with one clawed foot through the back of the other demon, who looked understandably miserable.
“Sybilia?” he mouthed at me, looking seriously disappointed.
“I can’t kill her for her blood now, can I?” Jazharad said to the other demon. “Yours will have to do. Any last words?” he asked, trailing a claw down the other demon’s throat so blood spilled, flowing in a swirling circle around the demon. He was going to create the other side of the portal with the demon’s blood.
“Don’t underestimate…” he gurgled.
What could I possibly do to stop Jarzharad? Was it worth the risk? Did it even matter considering how idiotic I apparently was, giving up love and sushi so that I could be alone with my ‘safety?’ If I could be brave enough to face off with a great demon with nothing more than a file, I could face my feelings and deal with vulnerability. Could I really? If I survived this, I would. I would give love with a dragon-vampire a chance.
I took a deep breath, then coughed and hacked violently on the thick ash. Okay, needed a different method to calm my nerves. Forget it. I summoned my book, using the blood on my hands to bring it to me. My book was eager to come or it wouldn’t have worked, not in another dimension, but it was almost easy. I caught the book, then ran, leaping over the containment runes and onto the crowded stone table.
I opened the book and summoned heaven. A sonic boom shook the ground and the stone table, which was now marble veined in heavenly gold. The air swirled with sparkling flakes of ice as the ash transformed to rainbow liquid that floated upwards, transforming everything it touched, stretching out as far as I could see.
“What have you done?” Jazharad gnashed at me, fangs as long as my fingers and much more terrifying than dragon teeth while horns curled out of his head like hair standing on end. He had so many horns.
“How do you kill the angel without killing the demon or the host? You don’t.” I transformed my trusty file back into its original form, an angelic sword that I’d stolen in a moment of weakness that I’d like to blame on my demon. Then I chopped off his head.
It wouldn’t kill him. No, unfortunately, demons weren’t that easy to kill. I shoved his body off the stone table right before the portal to earth opened, sucking me through instead of the demon.
Chapter
Twenty
The succubus came with me, not quite dead, and recovered enough as it swam through the blood on the floor towards the door to gurgle hysterical laughter about underestimating humans.
I slipped on the blood and came down on one knee, which is the only reason I wasn’t caught by the death spell thrown at me by Horace’s brother. What had his name been? Ah, Roger, like his grandnephew. How sweet to name a kid after his great-uncle.
It took me a second to be reoriented to the council’s court. Cross was bound and bleeding on the end, apparently the virgin sacrifice to match mine on the other end of the doorway in hell. First thing first, I threw an unbinding spell at him. I should have saved the trouble because he immediately stood up, smoothing his hand over his throat to stop the bleeding once he’d seen me. Ah. He’d volunteered as a virgin sacrifice, hoping that the demon would bring me with him. Maybe he had confidence that I’d defeat him and come through on my own. No, he was pretty surprised that I was here once he’d identified the dragon-armored warrior as his old ally.
‘What now?’ he asked with a raise of his brows, speaking without words. Did he honestly think that I’d planned this far?
I blocked the knife of the nearest cloak and disarmed him with a twist of the sword, then kicked him back, sliding him over to Cross. Cross lazily bound him and pulled back the hood, revealing the face of the new guard while I was on to the next cloak. Cross would be bored with nothing to do but binding, but he had lost more blood than I had if the state of the floor was any indication. He could take it easy this time.
When the board saw that I was on their side and that Cross was free, they joined in the battle, at least those who hadn’t already been killed or knocked out. There was probably no hope for Jessica’s aunt unless the Scholar felt like turning her. That would just be mean. I smiled slowly as I turned to the last cloak where he was fending off six board members with masterful skill.
He was good. Really, really good. Why had he decided to join Jazharad when he already had so much talent?
I grabbed him from behind, punched his head with a stun rune and then ripped off his cloak and held him against me, my sword lovingly pressed against his throat. “Hi there,” I whispered.
He shuddered so deliciously. “You aren’t a librarian,” he said in a calm voice that belied that shudder.
“I am The Librarian,” I corrected. I didn’t say it loudly, but the whole library quivered and then it shot its broken roots into my heart, wrapping around it along with the feelings I had for the Scholar. Yes. I was definitely, The Librarian, with all the capitalizations.
“You couldn’t have defeated him.”
“No?” I turned him around so I could face him, and then I got to really see his face and it was my turn to shudder. It was the driver of the car, the idiot who had almost killed me. Ah. Not an idiot. “How long have you been working for him?” I asked, poking him slightly with my sword so that a drop of blood rose on his skin.
He frowned down at my sword, then back up at my face, not noticing something insignificant like a drop of blood. “Librarians don’t carry swords of wear dragon scale armor,” he explained in that incredibly obnoxious way of his. I was going to kill him. Finally I’d kill him and it would be as good as sushi. Sushi. I could eat so much sushi.
“How long have you been working for the demon?” I repeated, and that time the blood moved in a rune of telling that would make him scream very loudly.
