A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(74)

Demonic.

He raced to Dad’s side as a scream tore from his throat. It held an otherworldly echo, and in that moment, I knew his transformation had been complete. The human Lukas Scott was officially dead. Just in time, too. Because Lukas Scott, the demon? He was a huge helping of badass, and as badly timed as it was, I found the whole thing hot as hell.

Two hounds leaped at Mom and me. She shoved me backward and stumbled away as they sailed between us. Recovering quickly, they hit the ground and came at us, one zeroing in on her, and the other on me.

I adjusted my grip on Lukas’s knife and couldn’t help smiling. “Dad’s super selfish. He wanted to have all the fun himself.”

Mom’s shoulders shook in a silent laugh as she yanked an arrow tipped with quartz powder from the quill on her back. She widened her stance and held it at the ready.

“Take your mother and go.” Dad roared as he downed another hound. Their numbers were increasing, and the horizon was full of even more. They were coming fast.

“You can’t possibly expect us to leave you,” Mom snapped. “We—” The nearest one leaped at her. The arrow hit her hound right between the eyes. On impact, the thing howled and convulsed, and a moment later burst into flames like one of the best Fourth of July shows you could imagine.

“They will follow.” Dad whirled on her as the hound in his grasp hit the floor, dead. “They will follow us across and overtake us. Lukas and I are stronger here. We can hold them off while you do what you need to with the box.”

Another hound lunged for Mom, but Dad dived for it, knocking it aside. I tried not to cringe as he gripped a handful of its flesh by the neck and yanked, tearing its throat out.

“Once Lucifer sees that you’ve retrapped our enemy, he will call them off.” Dad turned to me. His gaze was intense and left no room for argument. “For the last time, go!”

That time I didn’t argue. I grabbed the box, then Mom, and shadowed us back home.

I’d been in a rush and hadn’t paid attention to my shadow, landing us on top of my desk. My arms flailed as I took a step, only to catch the edge and lose my footing, sending me and the box crashing to the floor. Mom was luckier. She caught herself in time, hopping down gracefully.

“Ma, please don’t be pissed at me.” I climbed to my feet and picked up the box. “You always tell me I’m not seeing the bigger picture. Well, Dad was right. They would have followed us. I didn’t wanna leave them any more than you did, but—”

She was in front of me in a second. Pulling me into a hug, she whispered, “I know, baby girl. I know. I’m proud of you. You made the right choice. The hard one.” She pulled away. “The one I couldn’t make.”

Despite the situation, I was totally beaming. I knew Mom was proud of me, but hearing her say it trumped everything.

“Come on,” she said, taking the box. With a nod toward the clock above the door, she sighed. “Let’s see if Cassidy can pull this off.”

…

The sun was about to rise by the time we got to the Archway. Cassidy was waiting for us, wearing her usual scowl and tapping her foot impatiently. “Took your time,” she snapped. “I suppose it’s not a big deal, since it’s not your daughter’s life on the line.”

If Cassidy didn’t watch her step, she wouldn’t make it out of this clearing alive—only it would be Mom, not Gressil, who did her in.

Always the pillar of restraint, Mom ignored the barb and asked, “How did you make out on finding a method to retrap him?”

The witch nodded and tapped her head. “I found the spell. We’re weaker, but with Kendra’s help, our combined magic should be enough to do the trick.”

Mom wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure? This will go down fast. How will Kendra know what to do?”

“She won’t need to do anything. I simply need to use her energy to fuel what little magic I have,” was Cassidy’s reply.

“That’s awesome, and as long as we can get him to hand Kendra over first, it’ll work, but what are you trapping him in?” I looked around the clearing. It didn’t seem that she’d brought anything with her. But I didn’t know squat about magic. I’d seen Kendra do plenty in recent weeks without physical supplies.

She blinked twice. “The prison is strong enough to hold a Prince of Hell. If I put him in there, too, he’ll never be freed accidentally again. Where is the box?” she asked with an icy tone.

“It’s safe,” Mom said. “I wasn’t going to take any chances until I was sure you’d come through on your end.”

Cassidy’s face turned a bright shade of scarlet. “You’re playing a dangerous game with my daughter’s life, Klaire. If anything happens and Gressil—”

“No!” Mom shouted. Craps. To call the demon, we had to simply speak his name.

True to his promise, he appeared in a thick puff of purple smoke. “You Darkers do live on the edge, don’t you? You almost missed your window.”

“Where’s Kendra?” He was alone and that worried me. This wasn’t going to work without her. We had no intention of handing over the box, and without her to help trap him, this was going to head south pretty damn fast.

He crooked a finger and turned to Mom. “My item, if you will?”