The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers (30 page)

I pulled until my wrists stretched nearly out of their sockets and thought,
hoped, prayed I felt one move. This had to work because, frankly, nothing else
had.

However late, I had truly believed Joe would arrive, or Grandma and Dimitri.
Or maybe Phil would find the strength to defeat the demons that held him,
however impossible it seemed. I refused to think Serena would win.

But she did.

"Three hundred." And counting.

The demons rushed me in a wave of sulfur and rot. I could feel their
leathery bodies, see the black shadowy figures surrounding me. Bony hands
grabbed at my hair and clothes. They slipped under my arms, yanked me out of the
floor and straight up.

My toes left the floor as we hurtled straight up into the air.
"Blazes!" Pain lanced through my head as they smacked it up against
the ceiling.

I breathed too close to one of them, inhaling the stench, and the back of my
throat watered. They smacked my head against the ceiling again and my vision
blurred.

"Halt!" ordered a raspy voice as they practically smothered me
with their frigid bodies. "It's human. It can't pass through."

Talons dug into my arms and I cringed at the multitude of icy hands pressing
the top of my head against the concrete ceiling, as if they didn't quite
believe I could be so supernaturally inept. Acidic breath singed the back of my
neck.

My freed wrists ached and cold, dark, freezing air prickled my face as they
rushed me down the hall. My toes never quite touched the floor as we darted
around a corner and up a flight of stairs. So this was it. Serena was strong
enough to kill me and take my power. Most likely, my Uncle Phil was already
dead. They'd drain Dimitri. The Red Skulls would be fighting a losing battle
for their lives.

We burst into the control room and I winced against the glare. A second
power source, most likely a backup generator, had kept the lights blazing and
the control panels lit. Engineers' stations lined three of the four walls, all
the chairs empty, save one. Phil slumped over the control panels, his bulbous
nose at rest next to a flashing orange button.

My fairy godfather wasn't dead. Not yet, anyway. I could feel it.

I wondered if anyone else knew that.

Windows along the fourth wall overlooked a massive sunken room with six
truck-sized generators, each of them silent. Serena watched them, knowing I was
there.

It ticked me off.

It was bad enough to be powerless, weaponless—without her rubbing it
in.

I had to figure out a way to destroy her before the demon army reached six
hundred sixty-six. Because after the gates of hell opened, well, I didn't know
what could stop them.

Five hundred and one.

Triumphant, Serena flipped her pageboy haircut and strolled straight for me.

Son of a mother. I wasn't surprised, but I had a hard time containing the
dread. She wore Dimitri's emerald.

She followed my gaze. "Oh, this old thing?" she said, her
French-tipped nails lingering over the teardrop-shaped stone at the hollow of
her throat. "He's not coming. For all I know, someone else finished him
off. He was quite tasty."

My stomach hitched. I wanted to kill her.

I needed to force my emotions down or I'd never be able to focus. I had a
job to do. Plain and simple. No telling how I'd destroy Serena, recapture the
succubi and save Phil, but I knew I had to try.

Five hundred eighty-two.

A blue bubble formed in Serena's palm, pulsing with a life of its own. Claws
erupted from her fingers and her hands took on their true, skeletal form. I
took an involuntary step backward and into a wall of freezing cold demons. They
shoved me forward and I almost stumbled.

Serena rubbed at the bubble with a taloned finger. "Don't worry,
sweetheart. You won't feel a thing." The bubble grew to the size of a
basketball. "Besides, you scream too much and I'll send you to the third
layer of hell with Max's other slayer."

I stiffened. "
You
took her?"

Serena winked. "Turned her. Same difference, really." Demons
seized my arms. "Now, hold still." Serena gripped the bubble, wound
back like a boxer and slammed it into my chest. Ice tore through my veins and
at the same time I felt like I'd collided with a live electrical wire. Energy
flooded my system and I realized, to my utter horror, that I could use none of
it to move. It was like she'd bug-zapped me into complete paralysis.

Six hundred five.

The energy flowed between us in a frigid blue stream as I felt her searching
inside
me.

"Oh you are a fun one." Her perfectly arched brows knit. "I
felt you take the mark," she muttered. "Now where did you put
it?"

Sweet happy puppies! She must need the mark to get a grip on my power. And
I'd gotten rid of it. My knees sagged in relief as the demons at my sides
shoved me forward, upward, closer to Serena.

I'd thought I wanted that extra edge, hoped like heck I hadn't needed it.
Max's other slayer must have thought the same thing. But while she'd kept her
mark, I'd shed Serena's leash.

Now what was I going to do about it?

I swallowed hard, gathered my strength as Serena's power prickled inside me.
I knew I had one shot. One. Before I lost the element of surprise.

It was a classic maneuver, like old J. Bennett used to do at the Springdale
Country Club pool. He'd reach up, ask you for a hand out of the deep end and
then—whammo—he'd yank you in, flip-flops and all.

If he could do it, I could try. Problem was, for this plan to work, for me
to seize all her power, I had to free all mine. I had to open myself up to her
completely.

Sacrifice yourself.

I didn't know what her dark power would do to me. Jaws clenched, I served up
everything I had and laid it bare. I'd never felt more raw or vulnerable. To my
shock, I felt Phil join me. His presence felt like a warm hand on my back. A
steady hum surged through my body as he mingled his life force with mine.

Please let this work
. I surrounded her energy as it searched me,
and braced myself as I chose the precise moment to attack.

Now or never.

I took a deep breath, shot both hands through the blue stream connecting us
and grabbed her power at the base of her white minidress. She shrieked as my
fingers closed around it. Yeah, well she was going to do a lot worse than that.
I kicked her backward and yanked her power into me.

Serena gasped and tried to pull away. I pulled harder, but she'd already
started to fall. Wet, red energy flooded my limbs, filling me up. Her sopping
power streamed through my fingers and out onto the floor. The more of her power
I had, the more I could get until it surged into me. Serena's claws dug into my
arms. Ha! They didn't even make a scratch. She couldn't hurt me anymore, and
there was nothing she could do. She'd already plunged headfirst into my trap.

It felt amazing.

She stumbled backward as I went back for more, sopping up the remnants until
I'd drained her. Then I flung off her measly blue current and shoved her shell
of a body to the floor. Strength rushed through me until I was almost giddy
with it, drunk on power.

I spun and faced the demons behind me. They'd backed away, but not far
enough. I thrust my hands out like Tasers and incinerated them on the spot. No
switch stars required.

Good gravy, I could get used to this.

Ohhh, and if I wasn't mistaken, I had a mental map of every demon from here
to Panama City. Make that Quito. I could see them, like fire ants scurrying
around the mound. And lucky for me, it turned out I could zap them mentally. I
squashed the first two, marveling at how I could decide for them not to exist
and—whammo. It was almost fun. But I didn't have time to indulge myself.

Nope, I might have been Lizzie the all-powerful, but I was also Lizzie the
efficient. I torched the six hundred five in Las Vegas, then exterminated them
in waves from here down to the Andes Mountains and out into California, until
they were no more than hissing stains on the ground, or in one case, oozing
down a circular staircase. Talk about a grand entrance for the ultimate demon
slayer. Like a well-aimed can of Raid up into Canada and sweeping the United
States until I hit ocean on every front.

To make sure they'd never come back, I incinerated the portal. I had no
trouble finding it now—a burning hole between our world and theirs. I
could see why a chilly demon would have a hard time passing through. I fried it
until it was no more than a churning mass of burnt embers, and to make it even
better than before, wrapped it in a double layer of protection so nothing could
dig itself out.

I turned to the demon at my feet. Serena had shed the rest of her glamour. A
leathery thing lay in place of the petite brunette. Hair sprouted in wiry
clumps from her chin and blackened skull. Her cadaver-like hands scratched
feebly at the industrial linoleum. I drove my hand forward to finish her and
with a rush of shock, yanked my shot at the last minute.

Phil was still attached to Serena.

My wayward power surge zapped a gaping hole in one of the monitoring panels.
Sparks zipped across the engineers' board along the left wall. I raced for
Phil, lifting him off the panel as live wires crackled and the whole thing
started to smoke.

God bless America.

We had to figure this out. Fast. I didn't want Serena melting into the
floorboards with my uncle in tow. And I wasn't sure how the succubi had managed
to keep everyone official out of Hoover Dam, but I didn't expect to have the
same kind of luck. No way I could explain the blown-out turbines or the
scorched control board or the fried demon holes in the floor.

With Serena damaged, I could feel Phil's strength building.

"Hey," I held his head in my hands and brushed his thinning gray
comb-over out of his eyes. "I need you to think. She's got you. Is there a
way to pull away from a succubus?"

His eyes fluttered and he sniffed. "I don't know."

I glanced back at Serena. She'd pulled herself to her knees, glaring at us
with red eyes. Gripes! I couldn't squash her and I doubt she'd be willing to
disclose the proper dose of power for a knockout blow.

He shivered.

"Come on, Phil."

His blue eyes opened and he looked at me the way I'd always wished my
parents would. He cleared his throat and on a rasp, said, "Have I ever
told you how proud I am of you?"

My heart squeezed. "Not the time."

Serena slowly rose to her clawlike feet. She took an uneven step forward.
"You want your uncle back? You let me go."

Impossible. Serena was too dangerous. Besides, there had to be another way.
I had to break her hold on him.

She began to shimmer. "Give me my power or I leave and take him with
me."

Holy schniekes.

I didn't want to have to make that choice.

Phil's fingers closed in around my arm, his grip surprisingly strong.
"Help me up. Now."

I pulled him to his feet. "Do you have your soul?" I asked, my
fingers tracing along his chest, like I could feel it. It seemed like he did. I
detected a presence, warm and steady. Still, I had to be sure.

"I have it," Phil said.

He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek before he launched himself into
the live wires on the control panel.

"Oh my God! Phil!" His body jerked and sputtered. I dragged him
away from the controls, raw electricity shooting up and down my arms. Without
my new powers, I had no doubt it would have fried me. Even with them, my limbs
burned with shock. I stumbled backward with Phil and we both hit the floor.

Serena cackled. I hit her between her eyes with a jolt of power and rolled
my fairy godfather onto his back. I couldn't even see where the current had
entered. My fingers danced up and down his neck, searching for a pulse.

I lowered my shaking fingers. My fairy godfather was dead.

Phil didn't have to die to get us out of this. There should have been a
better way. He'd already sacrificed himself once to try to save me. How many
times did my fairy godfather have to give up his life for me?

Heaven above, he actually looked happy. God, I felt like I'd failed him. I
could save the entire West Coast, but I couldn't save my own fairy godfather.

I spent a quiet moment with the man who'd shared my struggles since
childhood, the man who'd watched me grow into a demon slayer. He'd trusted me
to see this through until the end, bet his life on it. I wouldn't let him down.
Worse, I didn't know if he was completely free before he died. Serena could
have damned him and I'd never know.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

The power churned inside of me. And I thought the dark mark was bad.

Serena skittered away from me like a locust and hissed, struggling to stand.

I zapped her hard. "Tell me where he is!"

She snarled. "You know he's mine."

Rage bit me to the core. I didn't know if she was telling the truth or not.
It didn't matter. She'd never willingly give him back to me and now she was
going to die.

I aimed a killer surge at her chest.

She screamed as the blast hit her. The most powerful she-demon to hit the West
Coast went up in a shower of blue flame, fighting as her body melted into
nothingness. I hit her with a blast to the neck to shut her up. Her head rolled
from her body, silent except for the hiss and crackle of the obsidian fire.

The old Lizzie might have felt regret, at least for her suffering as the
shell fought and kicked. But I didn't feel the slightest bit of shame. I
enjoyed it.

I stood, marveling at how I could have probably flown if I'd wanted. Black
energy raged inside me. I swallowed, fighting back the stark terror, doing my
best to ignore my pounding heart. Hand to my chest, I felt Serena's hellish
force merge with my demon slayer powers, twisting together until I could barely
distinguish the difference.