CHAPTER 16
Shazer’s wing tips grazed the edges of the landing pad on the battleship and I was off his back in a flash. The wide eyes of the men on the ship were all I could see at first and I knew I had to get them out of the way. “Back off, all of you. There is a rather large beast that’s going to land. I don’t want interference and I don’t need any of you getting killed by accident.”
I stretched my arms and hands out and wiggled my fingers, feeling for the earth far below the ship. My connection to the ground even this far away was good, and I pulled on the sand buried in the ocean floor leagues below. As far as I knew, I was the only elemental who could do things like this, pull on my power from such a distance from it. A good thing, too, because I had a feeling I was needing everything in me to face this big-ass demon.
“What the ever-loving fuck do you think you’re doing on my ship?” The booming voice of what had to be the captain, or general, I suppose, echoed across to me. But I kept my back to the human and my eyes on the demon that swept toward us and sucked in a sharp breath.
Raven lay limp in its claws and the thing was going to fly right by us.
I couldn’t let that happen. I did the only thing I could think of.
“Demon, I challenge you!” I roared the words, amplifying them with Spirit.
The demon slowed and turned to face me. “Elemental.”
I gave it a mocking bow. “Do you accept the challenge?”
In answer, it roared, adjusted its flight path and headed straight for me.
I lifted a hand and pointed at the creature closing in on us as I spoke over my shoulder. “I’m going to kill that. And then I’m going to leave, and you’re going to let me.”
“We have orders to shoot all supernatural creatures on sight, Captain,” someone else said.
Did they? Well, we were going to see about that. I didn’t have time to deal with the humans and the demon at the same time. But at the first sound of gunfire, I realized that was exactly what I was going to do.
“Peta, Shazer, keep the demon busy a moment.” I flexed my fingers and called the sand from the ocean floor faster to me. Up and up until it was right under the ship. I kept pulling on the earth, kept solidifying it until the ship rocked, listing to the left as I built a sandbar underneath it.
“You’ll stay out of my way,” I glared at the human captain, “or I’ll tear this ship apart like blowing on a dandelion.”
He glared at me, sweat dripping down the sides of his face, fear written in every twitch of his skin. “Stand down, men.”
I could only hope he would hold to it.
Screams and shouts erupted from the humans, but they were the least of my concerns now. At least that was what I thought. Which was stupid, so stupid of me.
The demon beast landed as the ship lurched again under our feet. Sweat rolled down my face from the exertion of pulling on so much sand from so far away and the blast of humid air that surrounded us.
The demon threw Raven at me, his body limp as it hit the deck and rolled several times before it came to a stop. Alive or dead, I couldn’t help him until I had this monster chained or dead himself. I snapped my fingers at it. “Let’s do this.”
The maw opened and shocked me as it spoke. “The witch has unlocked the Veil. I am the Guardian of the Veil. My job is to kill those who would keep it open. You helped him, so you are to die. Then the witch will die.”
“I never wanted it open, but I can’t let you kill him or the witch,” I said. “So maybe you should just go back to where you came from.” I smiled and its eyes narrowed. With one claw-tipped hand, it pointed at Raven.
“That one helped her, gave her a way to break open the Veil.” The demon’s body shimmered and shifted, and for just a moment, it looked like its skin was made of overlapping stones.
Could it be made of earth?
The demon dog stalked toward me. “You would keep the Veil open?”
A sure-fire way to keep him coming at me presented itself.
“Yes.” I moved sideways and the beast followed. On all fours, its hunched, spine-covered back was above my head. Each foot had three large claws like a raptor, and the mouth, well, I’d already seen all the wicked tongues protruding between the jagged teeth.
It tipped its head to one side, seemingly tasting the air. “You have killed demons.”
“Yup.”
I had no idea exactly how I was going to do it without my spear. Damn, Talan, I would blame him for that too. Then again, I was a weapon unto myself. I just had to fully put my faith in my own abilities.
The demon dog opened its mouth, dug its claws into the metal deck of the ship and let out a roar. The tongues snaked toward me, and I threw myself to the side, rolling across the ship, then leapt to my feet once more, only this time as a snow leopard. The shift between one form and another for me was smooth, seamless. I crouched where I was, tail lashing. The power to take down a demon was no small thing. What I didn’t understand was why Raven hadn’t been able to send the demon back to where it belonged. Spirit was the key and Raven had killed demons before.
What was different about this one?
The demon dog barked a laugh. “My friends will join me and then we will see who wins this match, cat.” It shook its large head, and rolled its wide shoulders.
The sudden rat-a-tat-tat of a gun going off sent me to the deck of the ship, my belly flat to the ground. The demon bucked and shuddered and then blew the few bullets out of its body with a grunt. “Nice try, humans. I’ll deal with you next.”
I pushed myself to my feet and circled the demon. That was the problem with humans. They thought they could handle the supernatural, and the reality was, they couldn’t. Not unless they wanted to break out their big bombs which would just end up killing us all.
The big bombs… those were coming next. Truth slid through me as Spirit helped me make yet another connection, putting pieces of a complex puzzle together.
The demon didn’t give me a chance to get very far into my musing. The creature leapt, its wide body blocking the sun for a brief flash. The wings that had carried it across the sky were sealed to its sides now. I shot a paw out, and sent a pulse of Spirit through my claws as I slashed them across its wings. The demon’s wings were not fine in their makeup at all, but hard beyond belief and acted like an extra layer of armor. My power slid off it.
That was how it kept Raven away. Its armor was too thick, which meant I needed to find a weak spot.
Worm shit… I dodged the tongues as they reached for me, and spun to the side. The demon slashed through the air where I’d been only a moment before. Irritation flickered over its features. “Damn elementals, always interfering.” It slammed its front foot into the decking of the ship. I stared at the imprint its foot made. That was some serious power to dent the solid steel.
I was going to have to watch that it didn’t get a solid hold on me.
Demon dog stepped out of the hole and leapt at me again. I shot out of the way, but it twisted in midair, following me with its three-pronged talons outstretched. This time I couldn’t dodge it, the thing was too damn fast.
Its claws caught my left leg near my hip. I roared as I twisted and blocked its gaping mouth by shoving my right paw against the bottom of its mouth, slamming its jaw shut.
The power in its body, though, was like wrestling with a literal force of nature. Inch by inch, its bared teeth drew closer and I knew it was only a matter of time before it bit down on me and chewed my face off. This was what I got for helping Raven. Damn it, I was an idiot. I rolled to the side as I scrabbled at its belly with my back feet.
Connected with Spirit—the only way to disperse a demon properly—I tried to force it back through the Veil again.
“Ah, that won’t work with me.” It spat the words through the bared teeth. “I ain’t that kind of demon.”
With a screech, I used the demon’s body weight against it and jerked us to one side. We slammed into the deck and the blow shuddered around us, rippling the steel in a wave.
The claws dug in harder to my arm and my bone snapped, sudden and loud under the pressure.
“Someone help her! She’s just a girl!”
Just a girl?
Rage lit me up at the way they dismissed me because I was a woman. A girl, in their eyes, and therefore unable to protect myself. There was no way I was going down under a demon. I called on the power of the earth hard, yanked it up around the ship and spilled it over the deck so wet sand spread out in a wave.
The demon stared at me and started to laugh. “Wet sand, that’s all you’ve got?”
I shifted into my human form, my broken arm much smaller than the powerful legs of the snow leopard. I slid back from the demon on my ass across the makeshift beach.
“You bet.” I called the sand forward, tightened the molecules until they hardened into glass. Long sharp shards that I sent flying toward the demon’s body. The shattered against him, as if they were nothing. Well, shit on that.
The creature roared with laughter and I bit down against the shooting pains in my upper arm. It stalked toward me. I could only think of one thing.
Spirit could turn the beast into my own creature.
I called the element to me and began to weave it through the demon at a speed I didn’t know I was capable of. Faster and faster, I pushed my own thoughts into the demon’s head, over and over.
“What are you doing?” It growled and shook its head, put one big paw to its forehead.
It growled and the tongues shot out, caught me around the ankles and yanked me forward. Peta’s fear sliced through me.
“Stay back!” I yelled at her. The last thing I wanted was to have her tangled up with whatever I was doing with Spirit.
The demon pulled me toward it, teeth bared. “I’m going to eat your heart,” it snarled.
The only option left was to somehow unravel the thing, to pull its life apart thread by thread.
But could I do that with Spirit?
Raven’s words about not being told how to do things came back to me, so I would attempt the impossible again. I was right under it now, the mouth coming at me. I snapped my good hand up under its jaw once more to buy myself the few seconds I needed. I opened myself to Spirit. Opened myself to the possibility of taking this thing’s life, of pulling it apart molecule by molecule. Its flashing red eyes narrowed as spit dripped onto my face. The push of it against my hand, each second that ticked by brought its teeth that much closer.
“What are you doing?” one of the humans yelled.
“Killing it,” I whispered, as I urged Spirit forward, weaving it through the demon’s body, making my own power part of the skin and flesh that made up the creature, finding the pathways that were the power holding it together.
“Bitch.” Its teeth snapped the word before it jerked its head from me.
I slammed Spirit into it as hard as I could, desperation stealing any caution I might have left in my heart. The demon’s body jerked once, its red eyes fading to a dull gray, then closing as it slid to its knees, its wide and scaled chest pressing against my legs. My power curled through it, bringing its power and will under my control. Something I had never done, something that I hadn’t planned.
“Mistress, what have you need of? I live to serve.” The demon dog blinked up at me, its eyes wide and begging.
Shaking, I pushed myself back a few feet. “Shit.” Shit indeed, what exactly had I done?
Peta raced to my side. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But we have more than one problem.”
I twisted where I sat to see four winged beasts sweeping down across the deck. Stone skin, wide leathery wings, rocks for teeth. I let out a sigh. “Gargoyles, really?”
“We are here for that one.” The lead gargoyle pointed at the still figure of Raven.
“I can’t let you take him.” I pushed slowly to my feet, clutching my broken arm.
“Mistress, I can destroy them for you.” The demon dog whined softly. “Please let me destroy them for you.”
The gargoyles spread out, and I knew no matter how good the demon dog was, at least one would get by him.
A part of me blabbered that I should be terrified, that I was about to use a demon to kill other creatures. The rest of me was too tired and hurt to care.
“Do it.”
The demon dog rushed the gargoyles and managed to snag two at once.
The other two split their defense.
One came for me the other went straight to Raven.
I didn’t have time for this shit. I held my ground and sent my connection through the sand to wrap up the gargoyle. The sand hardened around its legs, forcing it to stop.
“Lark!” Peta’s warning gave me enough time to refocus on the gargoyle in front of me.
I got my good hand up and slammed it into the gargoyle’s chest, softening the stone so I could reach through it. But I was still holding on tightly to Spirit without realizing it and the connection brought me information I’d not expected.
Unlike the demon, the gargoyle was created, not born; made, not brought to life by love but by hatred and death. It froze where it was with my hand stuck elbow-deep in its chest.
I could almost taste the power that had made the gargoyle in the back of my throat, acrid and rotten, heavy and full of tingling pain I didn’t understand at first because it was so familiar to me, and yet I was sure I’d never dealt with it before. I was sure there had never been a… no… I blinked and found the gargoyle’s life source and his creator.
Viv had made this gargoyle. A vision spilled over me in a flash that went with the power I was undoing, a flash that I knew took only a few seconds even though it played out far longer in my mind. There was no doubt it was Vivica as she leaned over the pile of rocks and brought them to life, imbibed them with her Spirit and handed them over to Samara, knowing Samara would use them to go after Raven.
I plucked at the connections and saw the booby trap inside the gargoyle only a second before it went off. I was not fast enough with my arm so far within it. The gargoyle burst apart, its body and life force blasting through the air, which sent me flying with it. My broken arm flopped at the wrong angle and I screamed as I hit the deck, cradling the snapped limb to my body. A bad break didn’t even begin to cover what had happened. If anyone had a knife, they could cut off my arm without having to slice through any bone at all. I shuddered as I lay on the wet sand and stared up at the sky, darkness and stars floating across my eyes as I struggled to stay conscious.
“Peta, is Raven alive?”
“I don’t know,” she said as she pushed her face against mine, her strength and energy flowing through me. “The other gargoyles are dead too. At least that demon dog could do that much. But more are coming, Lark. A whole damn flock of them.”
A flock of gargoyles. This day could not get more difficult.
I drew a breath and allowed her energy to me, using it to fix my broken arm. Set, and partially healed, at least it wouldn’t end up being lopped off by accident. “Shazer, is Raven alive?” He was closer to Raven than the two of us, and he dropped his nose to sniff the blue-black hair.
“Hurt, but alive.”
I didn’t even look at him. Eight more gargoyles approached from the edge of the landing deck. The demon dog stood between us and them, but again I knew it couldn’t take them all, and it would only take one slipping through to snag Raven.
Shit sticks.
One of the human men ran forward. “Ma’am, is there anything we can do to help?”
I stared at him, his nondescript brown eyes and hair, and felt a swell of emotion. He’d seen the gargoyles and the demon and the power in both creatures. Yet, still he wanted to help. This was the courage that others spoke of when it came to the humans. I shook my head. “Stay out of my way. You can’t kill these things.”
There was a shimmer of light off to my right and I spun as Talan emerged as though he’d stepped out of thin air. The human men backed away farther. I knew why.
Talan was, to say the least, pissed.
“Unless you’re going to help me deal with these, you can just back the hell off.” I pointed a finger at him and then swept my hand to the gargoyles advancing.
His jaw twitched and he held his hand out, palm facing the gargoyles. Nothing happened and he frowned.
I couldn’t help the smirk. “Not so strong as you think, huh? You’ve got to get close and pull apart the threads that created them.”
“That is impossible,” he snapped.
I didn’t have a choice. We had to stop them. Because for the first time in a very long time, I didn’t want Raven to die. He was my brother and despite all the damage he’d done… I was beginning to see just how he’d been trying to help in his own twisted way.
The first gargoyle slipped around the demon dog. “I have no argument with you,” it grumbled, its eyes on my brother.
“Family is family, even when they’re dicks.” I reached out and clamped a hand around its forearm as I worked Spirit over the beast’s body, knowing I would probably be injured in the blast again.
As the gargoyle fell apart under my hand, I finally understood… finally grasped what Talan, Raven, and even Cassava had been doing, what they’d been willing to risk. They’d lost those they loved, their souls, and minds in Cassava’s case, and even their place in the world of the elementals. Talan had lost his family. Raven had lost his connection to his children.
All to save us.
To teach me.
My throat tightened, and I didn’t move from where I stood but waited for the gargoyles to come to me. One after another, they tried to pass me and I tore them apart, simply and quickly, now that I knew there was a booby trap waiting inside each of them. I dismantled them like pulling apart strands of bread dough, stretching them out farther and farther until they snapped and released. Even so, by the end I was left shaking, drenched in sweat, a pile of rocks and sand at my feet. The demon dog panted not far from me with all its tongues stretched out, as if it was a dog indeed.
“Mistress.” The dog bowed its head to me. “What need have you that I could fill?”
Talan sucked in a sharp breath. “What the hell?”
The men around us cheered suddenly, startling me out of the fog my body and mind hovered in. I pushed the demon aside and moved on autopilot, going to Raven’s side. I dropped into a crouch and put a hand to his chest. I sent a pulse of Spirit through him, not healing him so much as waking him. He groaned and sat up so quickly, he ended up on his side, puking his guts out.
“What happened?” he finally asked after a few minutes.
I had no time to answer because Talan was at our sides, yanking us upward.
“You two are children, and what you don’t seem to understand is that the gargoyles were only one problem out here on the ocean.”
It was a good thing he’d grabbed my uninjured arm or I would have been on my knees, puking next to Raven.
He was not being gentle and I wanted to smack him, but even with the energy that Peta had given me, I couldn’t seem to get myself together. A fog had rolled over my mind. Raven helped me to stand. “Talan. She destroyed creations of Viv.”
“And look what it’s done to her,” Talan countered. “She’s a complete mess!”
I wanted to explain I understood what they were trying to do, but I couldn’t form the words. I knew that should scare me, but it didn’t.
Talan spun and put a hand to the demon dog. “Can you track?”
It tipped its head to one side. “I can find anything. It is my purpose.”
“Then go after Vivica and kill her.”
“That is for my mistress to decide.” Again, it bowed its head to me.
“Order it, Lark,” Talan bit the words out.
I opened my mouth but no words came, so I nodded at the demon dog. That seemed to be enough.
Call me cautious, but I doubted Viv would be killed by the demon. But maybe the beast would slow her down.
Raven bent and lifted me over his shoulder. The world was gone for a moment, then back again. We were bobbing along in a boat. A boat? Why not with Shazer? Of course, the Pegasus probably couldn’t take three people. Then there was the demon dog. What about him? Had I sent him somewhere? And it was a him, not an it. Peta butted her face against mine. “Your thoughts are scattered, Lark, pull them together.”
I drew in a big breath and sat up carefully. My thoughts danced and jigged around the last hour, and slowly I did get them in order, at least until I felt more like myself. I dangled a hand over the edge of the small boat and scooped up water, splashed it over my face. The water helped in erasing the last of my confusion.
“I’m okay,” I said.
“You are not okay!” snapped Talan. He seemed more flustered than usual and I didn’t understand why. I must have whispered “why.”
“Why?” He spat the word back at me. “We have been trying to keep you and Raven away from Viv for the last fifty years and what do you do? You go and tangle with some of her creations and pull them APART!” He roared the last word and I flinched.
“Would’ve you had me leave Raven to die?”
“I’d have you run. You did the impossible, Lark. THE IMPOSSIBLE.” He was breathing hard, his hair and eyes wild like he was truly scared. Maybe I should have been more afraid, but I couldn’t pull up any fear at all.
“Talan, she is going to find us eventually,” I said.
“I wanted to train you so you aren’t such a damn sitting duck.”
Raven sat up between us. “You think she’s a sitting duck? Come off it, Talan. You want to be the one to train her so you can say that you trained the Destroyer. You want to go down in history with her. But the reality is, you can’t keep her under lock and key. She will always find a way to freedom. Be her mentor, but follow where she leads. Not the other way around.”
I could have hugged him. But I settled for a grateful look sent his way.
Talan shook his head again. “Damn you two. All these years, all this work flushed down the proverbial drain.”
He seemed to be at a loss, so I helped him out. “You created this monster I am, this wild and independent elemental who bows to no one, and now you’re surprised I won’t just let you run my life and dictate my future?”
Raven laughed. “Shit.”
Above us, Shazer circled, his tail flicking and his ears pinned to his head. No doubt being left behind had irritated him. I was surprised he didn’t try to take a shit on Talan.
I leaned forward as I lifted a hand and pointed at the Pegasus. “Shazer is taking us to Viv, and that’s assuming the demon dog doesn’t do her some damage, or hopefully kill her. Come with us, Talan. Maybe we can stop this before it goes any further if we work together.”
His jaw twitched and danced as we bobbed along in the water. We were being propelled by Raven’s connection to the ocean, the lines of blue on his arm clear and bright. I looked over my shoulder, a sudden prickling along the back of my neck making me twitch. I leaned over the edge of the boat and stared into the water. Three dark shapes shot past us and I jerked back.
“What is that?” I stared at the trajectory of the shapes that were moving far too fast for any creature. Far too fast for anything I’d ever encountered. The warship behind us. The dark shapes in the water below.
“Talan.”
“Yeah, this is going to be bad,” he breathed.
“Raven, can you help me move the ship?” I stood and Raven stood with me.
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll block the torpedoes; you move the ship.” I grabbed his hand and opened myself to Spirit. “See if this helps.” It was all I could think of doing. Maybe a boost of power would give him enough to move the boat, as I tapped into the earth to try and block the torpedoes.
“Holy shit,” he hissed the words and then lifted his other hand. The ocean bucked upward in something that looked like an instant tidal wave. There was no warning, no precursor, just water bursting upward in a wall that lifted the ship off the sand pile I’d created that had held the ship in place as a perfect sitting duck.
The wave moved forward, shoving the massive ship ahead of it as I pushed upward with the sand bar I’d placed under the hull. My heart beat wildly as I fed my power into Raven, pushing for all I was worth while simultaneously moving the earth around, doing all I could to block the oncoming explosives.
“Enough, Lark, I can’t hold that much.” He was breathless, and I wanted nothing more than to take the reins of his power and do what had to be done. Because he hadn’t moved the ship enough. I let go of his hand and called the sand up again, tried to block the torpedoes.
I felt them pass through the loose sand. I couldn’t bring it together fast enough to even slow them down.
The bottom of the warship’s hull took the first impact. There was a muted boom and the ship shuddered. The men screamed and then another boom, and another. All three torpedoes had hit their target.
“Guided missile systems,” Talan said softly as the ship in front of us cracked and began a slow descent into the ocean. “The humans aren’t just after us, they are after one another.”
There was no thought to what I was going to do, but as I took a step toward the edge of the boat, Talan put his hand on my arm as if he’d read my mind. “The best way to help them is to stop Viv and this war. These men were on their way to face Finley and the Deep. Their deaths were already written.”
“You want me to let them drown? Let them disappear into the depths?” I jerked away from him and he let out a sigh.
“Yes, it is a kinder fate than what is coming for them.”
But the thing was, I couldn’t get the face of the human man out of my mind, the one with the brown eyes who’d been willing to help me even though he was obviously outclassed. He’d offered when no one else had. That deserved an effort on our part to save lives.
I dove into the water and Peta leapt in after me. I felt her bond and knew at least I would never be alone, no matter the decisions I made.
I popped up through the surface of the water, took a breath and kept moving forward. Behind me there was another splash and in seconds Raven caught up to me.
“Why are you helping?” I asked as we headed toward the ship.
“Because you’re right. You never know when someone might need us, and might in turn be the key to changing the world.”
“That’s not what I said.” I kept swimming as we talked, mostly to keep my mind from disappearing into memories and the feeling of jaws on my legs, the feeling of not being able to breathe and air being so very, very close even while the water filled my body. My jaw twitched.
Another splash behind us. “I’m surprised Talan is coming along,” I said.
“I am not in the water, and I suggest you two idiots get out,” Talan called. “You cannot save these humans. Stop being childish.”
I spun in the water and Peta kitty-paddled beside me. “Lark?”
“Yes?”
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
Damn it, so did I.