Demons (Darkness #4)(54)

I toiled as fast as I could, working at it, feeling my energy suck out of my body, knowing it was down to the last.

Three more strings. I had to disentangle three more.

Jonas screamed. His body crumpled at the demon’s feet.

“Oh no!” I cried, working faster. Almost done. Two more strings.

A bear bellowed, two huge arms spreading out behind the demon and then clamping down, hugging it brutally, trapping the wings to its body. A mountain lion limped around to the front of it—Ann! Her back leg was tucked protectively into her body, the bone sticking out at the knee.

Sweat dripped into my eye. My breath roared in my ears. My limbs felt like useless weights. So tired. I was so tired.

Stefan hit a knee, pulling me closer. “Almost there, baby. Hang on.”

Spikes of pain were flaring now, all of us holding too much magic without the energy reserves to support it.

“One more,” I said, my voice nothing more than a hoarse release of breath.

The demon twisted around and stuck its claws in Tim’s furry stomach. It ripped upward. Tim bellowed, trying to hold on as the claws went in a second time.

“No, Tim!” I cried, struggling to keep going. His large furry body collapsed to the ground.

Choking through tears, I kept working—the spell was laid now, the finish line in view.

The demon faltered. Its life line was weakening, but it was so powerful. So, so much power.

The cry of a mountain lion cut through the night, Ann now the only thing in the way.

“Run, Ann!” I yelled. It came out as a hoarse whisper.

My vision blurred and clouded as I pinched apart the last thread. Energy rushed out to disintegrate the last of the spell. Ann sailed through the air.

We didn’t have enough energy to banish that final spell. It wouldn’t be enough.

Ann was braced, teeth ready, ready to give her life.

“No, please,” I begged. Stefan fell to two knees, not able to keep standing.

We didn’t have enough.

Panicked, gasping, I snatched at that weak blood link. Focused on it. And then tugged with everything I had, trying to make the bridge between us bigger through sheer will alone. Begging for more. Begging not for my life, but Stefan’s, and Toa’s, and Ann’s—begging for just a bit more energy so I could wipe out this demon once and for all.

Faint and hurting, I felt him, struggling to get up. He didn’t have much left, but he recognized who I was and what I was asking.

Sweet, pure energy bled through our link. Dominicous, my dad, had come to my aid.

Hot tears stung my face as the energy was sapped back out again, fulfilling the spell’s requirements. Unraveling what Andris had constructed.

I looked up just as Ann’s body leapt for the demon.

“No, Ann!” I screamed. “I’ve done it. No!”

Ann’s body fell onto the demon, her teeth sinking into its neck. It screeched, reaching up with bloody claws, jabbing into her jugular.

“No!” I yelled again.

Andris screamed, a blood-curdling wail of pain, cut short. Wings flapped like holey ship sales in front of us, until finally, finally the terrible creature imploded. It winked out, a wash of sludge and slime coating Ann as she fell to her side.

“We did it,” Toa panted. “We did it.”

Chapter 16

I woke up to filtered light through the window, the sun just sinking below the horizon. My alarm clock shrilled a second later. I gave it a good slap and sat up. Then groaned.

“Still sore?” Stefan asked, turning on his side to regard me.

I traced his big shoulder muscle and smiled. “A bit. Literally all I did was stand around and work some magic, but it feels like I ran to the moon and back. It’s been a week—I feel like I should be healed by now.”

I slunk out of bed and ambled toward the big bay window at the side of the room. I pushed aside the heavy curtain, enjoying the beautiful oranges and pinks that lit up the sky. “I’ve always loved sunsets.”

“Hmm.” Stefan climbed out of bed and closed the distance between us, snaking his arms around my middle. He kissed my cheek and stared out with me, savoring the moment.

“What’s on the agenda today?” I asked softly, sinking into his brawny embrace.

“Check in with the wounded, mourn the loss of those that didn’t make it, and dinner. With me.”

I turned my head so I could rest my face against his. “I need to check in with the Mata, too.”

Stefan remained silent. It had been only one week since that demon tore through our world, but it was long enough for Stefan to start to come to grips with his past. The biggest problem had been reassessing the shifters.

Not one of the Mata had fled. Not a single one. They fought bravely right alongside our clan. Because of that, Stefan no longer grumbled when I went to visit, or snarled when they came here, but old haunts took a while to dissipate. The best he could do right now was keep his silence. And he did. Baby steps.

His lips trailed up my neck until he captured my lips. He deepened the kiss, spicy and wild. When he backed off I was breathless.

“Did I mention dinner would be served in a hot tub? And we’d be naked?” he asked in his deep rumble.

“Or…eat, and then have sex in the tub.”

He chuckled and released me. “Fair enough.”