Shadow Light (Beautiful Beings #3) (16 page)

Concentrating as hard as I could, I spotted them, not only the two I’d seen enter, but four more.  They’d all turned down the hall that led to the auditorium.  Thankfully the lunch hour was over and few students were left wandering the halls.

I turned the corner and found a strong young man pinned back to the wall.  At first I couldn’t see the cause for his odd posture, but then saw the glimmer of a demon; not only a demon, but a beautiful being.  Cast in the disguise of a tall, slim blond with hair that flowed well past her waist, she was an angelic vision of purity.

Exactly the disguise a demon would want.

My crucifix high and ready I hurried to her.  She turned to me, her blue eye wide, innocent and alluring.  For a moment, I thought I might be mistaken, but then she smiled and I saw the sharp little teeth that gave away her true being and her true hunger. 

No sooner had I pulled her off her victim and slayed her that I spotted a young guy, delectably handsome, shoving a girl into the lockers.  His lips were just inches from her lips as she struggled to get free.  When I reached him, I snaked my arm around his neck and pulled him back, then pressed my crucifix to his brow.

With that done, I turned to find four more roaming the halls and looking for fresh meat.  Two of them quickly cornered two young girls who looked positively petrified.  These demons didn’t even bother posing as beautiful beings, but simply approached the girls with their true demonic features. 

One of the girls screamed and tried to run away, but was quickly caught by the smaller demon.

“What in the world are you?” the taller girl asked.

“You dream come true,” the bigger demon snarled.

“Dream on,” the tall girl said as she pulled out a bottle of pepper spray and doused both demons.  They sprinted down the hall, shouting and screeching as they went.  They passed in front of me, but I doubt they even saw me standing there.

For a moment the demons were caught off guard and they stumbled, but when they followed after the girls, I slipped my foot out and tripped one of them then managed to quickly slay him.

Seeing me, the other demon slipped into an empty classroom.  I chased after him, but the room was silent and still.  I rushed to the window to see if he’d slipped out.

I’m losing my sight again, I thought, and in that moment he jumped on my back and I almost lost my balance.  I twirled around, more a reflex of his jump than a planned move, but the effect was positive all the same.  Shoving my back into the wall with as much force as I could, I managed to rid myself of his bulk and slay him.

The moment I ran out of the room I heard a shout coming for down the hall.  In a mad dash for the girls’ bathroom, I held my crucifix up and ready.  How many more could there be?  Had many slipped into the school without my noticing them?

The girls’ bathroom echoed with the cries of several terrified girls, but I could see nothing but several pairs of feet under the stall doors.  As the screams continued to fill the air, I jumped up and climbed over the door.  Lacking grace I threw myself on the demon and slayed him, then quickly bolted out of the stall only to climb in another and another.

Leaning back on the sink I faced the three girls I’d just saved.  Their eyes were wide with wonder and fear.

“Hopefully that’s the last of them,” I muttered and quickly ran out.

I had to get back to the field and close the portal and this would never end.

To my horror, I emerged onto the field to find the portal bigger than ever.  The demons were now monumental in size.

One of them stood out among the rest.  Over two feet taller than the tallest of them, he towered over every demon and made my demon slayers look like second graders.

Chapter 20

Monsters at the Gate

O
sidian.  For years I’d known of this demon, this monster among monster.  I’d long thought he was a myth, a fabrication of the angels to keep demon slayers like me ready for the worst eventuality.  And now, here I was facing him when there was already far too much opposition.

I wanted to weep for the immensity of the task ahead.  In all my years of slaying demons, I’d never had to face such a lopsided battle.  I felt suddenly weak and unable to master the demon slaying tactics I’d spent all my life perfecting.  Could it be that all of these years, all the hard work would end up being for nothing?  Would the demons really win over?

Osidian approached me, a knowing gleam in his eyes.

I refused to show the fear I felt.  If I was going to go down, it would be through a fierce battle, not a feminine screech of terror.  But as he got closer and closer, the true immensity of his size made it clear I would not be able to fight him. 

Even if he didn’t fight me back at all, there was no way I could get closer enough to him to push my crucifix to his black, leathery skin.  A scream began to form at the back of my throat, despite my willingness to remain strong.

I needed help; Asher or Brax or Moore… help me.

But my shout was a silent prayer that went nowhere.  Osidian continued his approach, unhurried, unworried and rather pleased with himself.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Lux.”

“And I you.”

We stared at each other, sizing each other up, analyzing each other.

“Let’s see if all I’ve heard, all I’ve been warned about has been true,” he said with a challenging sneer.

“Not so fast.”

Stunned, I turned to find John standing several feet behind me.

“How…?” The question that begged to be asked stuck on my lips.  It didn’t matter now how or why he was here.  The important thing is that he was.

“Osidian has eluded me for far too long,” he said with a wink.  He turned to Osidian.  “Haven’t you?”

“This isn’t quite your end of the jungle, John.  Don’t you have a Franciscan monk to save somewhere?”

“I do believe it is you who is playing in the wrong end of the jungle, Osidian.  Though I may have been stationed elsewhere for all these years, this is a battle that I have always sworn to win.  Added to that is the very prey you’ve chosen to pursue.”  John gave me a knowing glance, causing Osidian to frown.

“Yes, Osidian,” John went on.  “This is my daughter, Lux.  You didn’t really think I’d just sit back in Italy while you opened the portal here and made a shriveled crisp out of her, did you?”

“The truth is I didn’t really think about you one way of the other.  The portal is open, John. Despite all your little teachings and all your precise planning, it’s open.  Neither you nor Gordon nor Markus could stop it.  And that Dr. Kingsley… if anything he was always your weakest link.  You're better off without him.”

“When the world is rid of your kind, Osidian, I’ll be better off.”  John pounced on Osidian with surprising force.

I fell back and watched as the two masters battled it out, each giving back what the other offered.  Just when I thought John was a goner, he’d rebound and send Osidian reeling back.  And just when I thought the fight was finally over and Osidian was about to turn to dust, he pushed John back and was ready for another round.

I knew this was the only opportunity I was going to get to close the portal.  I reached for the jugs of Holy Water and turned to the ever widening portal.  As I pulled off the cap of the jugs, I heard and even felt the cry that came from Osidian.  My attempts to close the portal had rendered him all the more ferocious and savage.

With a quick and uncompromising swipe of his claws he sent John flying back into the wall.  His eyes remained wide with horror for a moment then he slumped down to the ground.

I wanted to cry out, but there was no time.  Osidian descended on me like a wolf onto a sick fawn.  All he needed was a quick flick of his finger and he’d rid me of my crucifix.  I was helpless and he knew it.

With the jug of Holy Water still in my hands, I splashed some into my palm and tried to spray Osidian, but he just snickered at my feeble attempt.

“And to think you're John’s daughter,” he said with a condescending sneer.  “I would have thought he’d raised you smarter than that.  I would have thought he’d trained you better than that.  Turns out you're no better than all the simpleton demon slayers who do well with the light stuff, but can’t deal with the real demons who threaten to take over.”

With those wise words, he slashed his claws out at me, cutting through the skin of my shoulder.  I didn’t even have time to utter a cry of pain before another lashing came.  I stood up and blocked the next punch he threw at me, but its force made me fall to the ground. He was immediately on me, while I brought my legs in to hurl all my strength against him, sending him back where he knocked  jugs of Holy Water to the ground.  On hearing the wail of pain and horror from surrounding demons, I knew the jugs were spilling in the right direction.  They were spilling Holy Water directly into the portal.

Osidian was not done with me, and he got up with a fury and rushed me with a speed I’ve never seen a demon possessed before. “You have slained many of us since you were just a mere babe. Now it is time for you to pay,” he snarled, his eyes turning red. Osidian’s claws ripped through my jacket and sliced the skin of my arm, but I still managed to kick over the few remaining jugs on the ground.  The cries of fury and rage rose into the air as the flow of demons dwindled down to nothing and the demons left out on the field were soon to be trapped with no way of returning from where they’d come. I stumbled up and tried pouring more holy water around the portal.  With my last strength and breath, it was the only way to close the portal off. Moore and Brax couldn’t do it, and Asher was too far from the portal.  I did not have much time.

I made it almost completely through the rest of the portal perimeter when I felt a sharp burning pain suddenly hit me like a block of brick. It was so intense, I dropped the holy water jug I was holding and crumbled to the ground.

I felt something wet and warm drip down my clothes and could barely see it was red.  Blood. My own.

Suddenly, I couldn’t hear anything, and my vision became fainter and fainter. 

“Lux!” a male’s voice called.  It was Moore, and he was running to me, his face looking so worried.  Asher was right behind him.

Then I saw it, but I couldn’t scream. I had no voice. It felt numb, paralyzed. Osidian was behind Moore, and as the portal was closing, I saw Moore desperately trying to get to me, but he was stopped.  Osidian had grabbed hold of him, and before the portal could close, Osidian pushed Moore in.

“Lux, I love you!” Moore cried, his face looking shocked with what was happening.

Tears were streaming down my face along with my blood, making my shirt wet with blood and tears.  I couldn’t breathe.  I couldn’t cry out that I loved him too.

Asher was trying to grab Moore’s hand, but it was too late, and Asher couldn’t get pulled in.  As he turned away from the portal, another hand reached out to grab Moore’s.  It was Brax’s hand.

Brax looked over at me, his face grim, but determined.  He held onto Moore’s hand with all his strength. It wasn’t enough, and he was falling into the portal with Moore.  Asher leaped onto Brax’s legs, trying to anchor him and keep him from falling in further, but Asher was being pulled in, too. 

I was slowly fading. As I clung to the remaining threads of consciousness that remained, I was distantly aware of John finally bringing Osidian to his knees. As the portal closed, John took out a flask of holy water and shoved it into Osidian’s mouth, causing the demon to burst into flames. I wanted to smile, to celebrate the victory, but one look from John’s face, and I knew something was terribly wrong.

That was when I reached up and felt my neck. My throat had been ripped out, and I was dying.

Epilogue

C
onsciousness came back in tiny wavelets, letting me hear the goings on around me, but not allowing me to respond.  It was a frustrating no man’s land.  But even more frustrating than my intermittent consciousness was my shattering sense of defeat. In all my life I’d never felt so powerless. We closed the portal and John killed Osidian, but something felt different. There was pain and an overall feeling of heaviness surrounding me.

Through the grief and pain, I heard Asher mumbling as he wept.  He called out my name, though I couldn’t make out what he was saying.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, finally sounding coherent and intelligible.  “I tried, Lux.  I really did.  I wanted nothing more than to save you; to save all of them.  And now it’s all lost.  What am I going to do now?”

I felt his hand over mine, his fingers wrapping around mine and crushing them in a grip that was painful.  “I know I’ve never been the best of friends with Moore or Brax, but you have to believe me.  I would have done anything to save them.  It just happened so fast… too fast.  They were swept into the portal.  The force was too strong.”

My heart wanted to console him, to tell him everything would be all right, but that same heart ached for the immensity of my loss.  Brax and Moore…

Tears streamed down my cheek.

“But worst of all,” Asher went on, “Is losing you.  I don’t know how I can live with the knowledge that I failed you.”

My lips parted and I spoke the words of reassurance and tranquility, but no sound came out.  Though I could see his fingers still wrapped around my hand, I could not feel his touch; his warmth.  I rose, thinking my subconscious being had taken over, but as I continued to rise, high enough to look down and see Asher kneeling before my limp and bloodied corpse, I knew this was more than a mere loss of consciousness.

I’m here, Asher, I wanted to say, but the words still refused to sound.

A rush of wind blew through my hair and a trail of sparkling dust wafted through the air.  The scent of sugar and sweetness tempted my nostrils and suddenly I was carried to another world.

“My dearest, Lux.”

The sound of any voice should have alarmed me, but I was soothed and calmed.

“Yes, Lothario.”  This time my voice resonated loud and strong.