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Charlotine held out her hand. “Repel!”
Her voice shook the clearing as a crackle of flame lit up the night. Gulakah froze in his tracks, a look of rage on his face as the crazy snakes on his head writhed furiously. Then the flame blasted through the air, framing him with a halo of brilliant light as thunder cracked the air. Gulakah let out a roar and, in a single blink of an eye, vanished. Charlotine didn’t hesitate but leaped out of the circle and raced for the cave.
“Come on. We have to get inside and take care of the gate before he comes back!”
Following on her heels, I charged into the cavern. Smoky, Shade, and Vanzir flanked us, ready to meet the degas and bhouts who poured out of the entrance. Smoky jumped in front and read from one of the scrolls as Vanzir set off his supersonic screech machine.
A loud piercing wail broke through the night as a torrential rain began to pour, and several of the degas screamed and cowered back. The raindrops seemed to act like an acid on their skin. One, who got caught behind us and the opening, writhed on the ground, screaming as the water ate into his skin, steaming with every place it touched the gray, wrinkled flesh.
As we pushed our way into the passage, Shade going first, I chafed at not being on the fighting end of things. I didn’t like being a bodyguard—I’d rather be in there kicking the shit out of the demons—but Charlotine reached back and grabbed my wrist, as if she’d read my mind.
“Stay with me! I need you.”
“I’m here.” We drove our way through the narrow passage that was lit from within the central cavern ahead. Two degas were crowding into the passage, and the nearest shrieked as Shade slammed his fist through the creature’s chest. How the fuck he managed that, I couldn’t see, but the demon fell to the floor and Shade kicked him aside and moved forward to the other, who, apparently, had not learned from his comrade and suffered the same fate.
We broke into the main chamber, stumbling through the rough-hewn opening. Two huge standing stones were lit up like a Yule tree, covered with fiery runes that ran up one stone, over the crosspiece, and down the other, like some demonic copy of Stonehenge.
The cave was teeming with demons. A mass of swirling energy filled the room as bhouts poured through the Demon Gate. I stared at the monolithic structure, dread filling every bone in my body. How many hundreds of the spirits had already come through?
Charlotine yanked me forward with her as Smoky, Vanzir, and Shade went to work on the degas. Smoky’s nails lengthened into talons and he set to ripping through them, leaving a trail of bloody, eviscerated demons behind him. Vanzir held out his hands and the neon feelers came twisting out, latching hold of several of the creatures, who writhed, unable to break away, as he triumphantly fed. A haze of purple fire emanated out from Shade, forming a mist around him to engulf an invisible enemy. I only hoped it was the bhouts and not something else that had come through, as well.
As screams and groans filled the air, Charlotine and I approached the Demon Gate. She stared up at it, the first look of uncertainty on her face that I’d seen from her.
Frantically, she shook her head. “This is huge. I don’t know if I can do it. I’ll try, but this…this isn’t just any Demon Gate.”
“Holy crap. If we can’t destroy it, what the fuck do we do?”
“I don’t know. But the number of spirits pouring through this gate is legion. Hundreds must have come through. If we break the gate, we break the control that Gulakah has over them. But that’s a big if…”
I frantically tried to figure out how much time we had left before he could come back. “We have to move quickly and then get the fuck out of here.”
Just then, one of the degas came racing in, directly aiming for Charlotine. I jumped between her and it and rammed my fist into its face. The damned thing was hard as a brick wall, but I was stronger than brick and managed to smash its face. It dropped where it stood, and I gave it a nasty kick for good measure.
Turning back, I saw that Charlotine had her hands against the left pillar of the gate, and she was moaning as she pressed against one of the runes. The flicker of fire swirled around her, and I realized she was attempting to infuse it with her own energy. Another demon was on her tail and I intercepted again, throwing it back against a third that was headed our way. The two began marching in on me again, and I kicked one in the face as I slammed the other to the ground.
Behind me, Charlotine screamed and I turned to see her vibrating, holding on to the massive stones as they began to quake.
“Get out of there!”
“I can’t! If I do, I’ll break the spell and it won’t work.” She held on, her face a mask of pain and fear as cracks began to appear through the stonework, racing up the monolithic structure like veins popping out on skin.
I glanced at the others—they were being inundated by the demons. Where all the demons were coming from, I couldn’t tell, but the degas were swarming them and the swirl of energy around Shade snapped and crackled, as if he were a bug zapper killing mosquitoes.
A great creaking began to reverberate through the chamber, and I turned back. The monolith was breaking up; the runes were flickering and going out as the stonework crumbled into massive boulders, tumbling down around Charlotine.
“No! Charlotine!” I tried to dart forward, but the rumble of the rock slide drove me back.
“Get out of here! Go!” She shook her head at me, holding on, her magic disrupting the Demon Gate, turning it into an avalanche of stone and dust.
At that moment, a sound from the front of the cave made us all turn. Gulakah was entering the cave—the spell had dissipated. He jerked his head to stare at Charlotine and the breaking Demon Gate, and with a roar, he charged toward her. I started to throw myself in front of him, but suddenly Smoky was there, pulling me aside, Vanzir beside him.
Gulakah reached Charlotine and I screamed again, trying to break free from Smoky’s grasp.
“You can’t stop him—he’ll kill you if you do.” Smoky held me fast, his voice both terrible and terrified. “We can’t help her.”
“Go, please, don’t make my sacrifice for nothing!” Charlotine’s scream echoed through the chamber, caught in the fury of the tumbling stones as the Demon Gate crashed around her. Gulakah stopped, unable to reach her because of the rock slide, but he stared at her and his eyes began to glow, and there was a horrific blast of energy as the entire gate went up in flames, taking Charlotine with it.
Smoky grabbed Vanzir with his other arm, and the next thing I knew, we were in the Ionyc Seas, the ripple of energy sending me into a tailspin. It wasn’t the same as going through a portal, and it affected me in different ways because I was a vampire. The mist rippled around us, and I could say nothing, do nothing, save for press against Smoky and Vanzir as the dragon protected us from the mist-shrouded currents of energy.
