bedeviled & beyond 06 - bedeviled & befouled (23 page)

Her tail came up and snapped sideways, barely missing Crisanne. But the other halfling had been ready for the attack. She leapt into the air and landed several feet away, barely missing a beat in her efforts to hold the breech open.

Snow swirled over us and frost had begun to form along the ground.

Nestrada’s movements had slowed but the constant thrashing was keeping her body warm enough to avoid tightening up.

I shot another jolt of power into the spot at the back of her head where I suspected her important parts had to be. She reared up, screaming, and shot a dual stream of black liquid from her tusks.

The venom hit the icy ground and sizzled, burning its way past the ice and rock.

Nestrada gave a final, desperate thrash that sent me flying over her head and then crashed to the ground and went still.

I rolled as I hit the ground and landed on my feet, turning to look at the monster.

Her long form was locked in immobility, the bottom half draped over the edge of the hole. Her tiny wings seemed frozen in mid-flutter, standing upright from her body, and her bright-blue gaze stared straight ahead, rigid and blank. Snow swirled over her form, settling in a lacy blanket.

I glanced at Crisanne. She was on her knees, looking as if she was about to collapse onto her face. “We need to keep it open until I’m sure Dialle is safe,” I told her.

“You’d better hurry then, bitch. This isn’t easy.”

I ran toward the rocky steps cut into the mountainside and started down, praying we weren’t too late. Halfway down I saw movement and lifted my hand, letting an illuminating ball of energy dance in my palm.

Gerch was half carrying Dialle up the mountainside. They slipped on the ice-covered steps, nearly falling to their knees, but Gerch caught them with a hand on the rocky wall before they fell.

Dialle was covered in blood, his silky, dark hair crusty with it, but he looked up at me and smiled. “It’s never boring around you, Astra.”

I grinned. “Yeah, I know. It’s one of my better things.” I positioned myself under Dialle’s other arm. “Do you think you can shift us out of here?”

He nodded. A heartbeat later we were locked beyond sight and sound. And the evil bitch Crisanne was left holding the bag.

I didn’t feel even a little bit bad about that.

~SC~

We landed in a grassy field, flat and green as far as the eye could see. Except for the circle of arrow-shaped rocks in the distance.

I squinted toward the strange landmark. “What the hell is that?”

Dialle handed Gerch a sword he’d pulled from the ether. Apparently he’d lost the last one during Dialle’s rescue. If we lived through the current mess, I was going to make him tie one end of a string around the handle of his blade and pin the other end to his shirt. “That is our destination.” Dialle looked at me, his gaze unreadable in the darkness. “Do you still have that venom?”

I patted my clothing and turned a horrified glance to Dialle.

He paled. “Please tell me you did not lose it.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the cloth-wrapped vial, favoring him with an evil grin.

Shaking his head at my antics, Dialle took it from me and trickled some over Gerch’s blade. “Don’t touch this blade, old friend.”

Gerch nodded.

Dialle handed me a set of long knives and I held them out as he did the same to them.

Once he’d treated his own sword he glanced up at the moons overhead. “It is almost time.”

“What are we waiting for?”

He jerked his head toward the rocks. “At midnight the twin moons will be directly overhead. That is when we will attack.”

Gerch’s wide brow lowered over his black eyes in a frown. “Won’t their magics be strongest then?”

“Yes. But so will ours and the light will help against the dragon demons. They don’t see as well in light.”

A chill crept down my spine and my voice squeaked a little when I said, “dragon demons?” I’d never seen one but I remembered them from stories my mother told me when I was a little ballbuster sitting on her knee. Mother dearest Danika never told sweet, soothing stories to her offspring. The world’s worst mother liked to send us off to bed with nightmares already dancing in our heads.

I looked toward the rock formation again and realized the tops of many of the rocks had become longer, misshapen. The dark shapes looked huge with the moon’s aura behind them. Several pairs of glowing red eyes peered at us through the darkness. “They know we’re here.”

Dialle slipped his sword into its scabbard. “Yes.” He started forward. “Let’s go, I have a score to settle.”

The moons were directly overhead by the time we neared the rock formation. The dragon demons that had been watching in immobile silence as we approached finally lifted off the rocks when we got close. The dragons sent fiery blasts into the sky from between bony beaks as they spread their long, black-feathered wings. I stopped in my tracks, not knowing what they would do. But they simply soared upward and began to circle the stones like vultures, their skeletal heads furthering the impression that they were enormous carrion eaters.

I only hoped Gerch, Dialle and I didn’t provide them with a meal any time soon.

I moved forward, keeping one eye trained on the circling nightmare in the sky. We stopped at the edge of the circle, arrayed in a tight triangle between two of the huge rocks. Up close, the stones that made up the formation were much larger than I’d thought. Their pointed tops towered a dozen yards above my head. The rocks gave off heat and vibration, like living things, and their surface sparked orange and red in the moonlight. I resisted the urge to reach out and touch one of them, figuring nothing good could come of it.

The evil musketeers had chosen that spot for a reason. Whatever it was, I was sure it didn’t bode well for the good guys.

Inside the circle, said musketeers stood waiting, looking much calmer than I, and that was annoying as hell. Dialle the First, my Dialle’s devilish dad, smiled. “Welcome to my favorite spot in Hades.”

First was tall and slim like his son, with a thick mane of silky black hair that was combed straight back from a perfect widow’s peak on his forehead and hung all the way to his waist. As usual he had it tied back in a low tail, probably gathered together with a leather string, though I couldn’t tell from where I stood. His shoulders were broad, his biceps well-developed, and he had a tat of a pitchfork on one of them. I loved that pitchfork. He cocked his head as he addressed his son, his sexy eyes narrowing. “I’m pleased we finally have a chance to settle things. I grow weary of your usurpation and wish an end to it.”

I glanced at my Dialle. His eyes had blackened, not a good thing, and his sexy jaw was taut, but he seemed calm, obviously fighting the urge to rise to his father’s bait. “I would have preferred we settle this without you murdering my entire court.”

Dialle the First shrugged. “They can be replaced. And it made quite a statement, did it not? Particularly since the light ones believe you have shed your sanity and gone rogue.”

Someone growled and I realized it was me. I stepped forward. “I’m just curious, how did you naughty children manage to escape the Hell environs? You were banished here for a reason.”

My mother laughed, the sound scraping across my last nerve. “We had some help from our friends. Even Hell can be breeched if you have a strong enough advocate on the Earthly plane.”

The evil Danika glanced toward Astis. The ethereal beauty had situated herself at the farthest point in the circle away from us. She stood behind Dialle and Danika, her too-pretty face alight with anticipation. The witch wore a long dress with a silvery sheen and clutched a tall, black staff in one small hand. A tiny flame burned atop the staff. Astis gave me a mean smile. “We meet again, ugly halfling. I can taste your death in my mouth and it is so sweet.”

I shrugged. “Death and I have an arrangement, I give him lots of other playmates and he leaves me alone. It’s worked out fine so far.”

Astis frowned. “Bring it, bitch!”

I just smiled.

Without warning the witch whipped the staff around, pointing it directly at me, and blue light shot from its tip. I jumped to the side, rolling behind a rock as the ground where I’d been standing exploded upward. Dialle and Gerch started forward and I leapt to my feet, intending to follow.

They ran two strides into the circle and stopped, their arms and legs caught in a parody of running as they hung, seemingly in mid-air. I stopped, watching as Dialle tried to move his arms, the strain of his effort clear on his face.

What’s wrong?
I asked him.

A magic web. I can slough it off but it will take a minute. Can you keep them busy in the interim?

I glanced toward my mother and saw that she and First were already moving toward Dialle.
Got it. But you’d better hurry, bud. I have no idea how long I’ll be able to hold them off.

Working on it, Astra.

I leapt upward, aiming for the top of the nearest stone. My feet hit rock and I wrapped my arms around the narrow tip to steady myself, nearly falling as a jolt of something powerful seared through me. I held on, letting it sizzle through my system and, after a few beats, it settled down to a low-level hum that I could stand.

Almost immediately the rock I clung to exploded under a stream of blue light. I looked up.

Astis.

I flung my hand out and sent magic shooting in her direction, then leapt onto the next rock, and fired again. I kept on the same way over several more of the power-drenched stones, getting more and more acclimated to the low-level vibrations with every move. I alternated my blasts to keep all three of the evil musketeers busy while Dialle worked to free himself and Gerch.

As I fired and ducked, fleeing while power exploded all around me, I noticed that my energy was hotter than usual...more destructive than I expected. I wondered if I was drawing energy, somehow, from the stones themselves.

Another blast of blue hit the rock I was on and the top sheared off, falling away. I fell forward and stopped ten feet from the ground, mired in the sticky air inside the circle. It was like falling into a vat of glue that was quickly drying around me. I struggled to free myself, watching with horror as Astis raised the staff and pointed it in my direction.

A horrendous shriek split the air above me, too close, and I hung helpless as something that felt like knives pierced my sides and yanked me upward, lifting me toward the sky. As soon as I was wrenched free of the muck I turned my head, looking at the dark brown, ragged underbelly of a dragon demon.

I drew my power forward and then stopped, realizing if I blasted the thing and it let go I’d fall right back into the muck. But as the deadly claws of the demon tightened, digging deep within my torso and cracking ribs like toothpicks beneath them, I almost gave in and blasted the thing anyway, just to get away from the pain.

The demon rose straight up in the air and shook me, hard, like a dog trying to break the neck of its prey, and then loosened its grip and dropped me.

The magic web didn’t catch me. It apparently only existed on the perimeter of the circle. The ground rushed up to meet me and I hit it hard, feeling the broken pieces of my ribs piercing through flesh. I cried out as agony sliced, trying to roll away as Astis approached. But the pain was too great and my limbs felt as if they were enclosed in lead. A moment later a small pair of silk slippers stopped next to me and the base of the staff slammed into my head.

The world blurred and darkened and blood ran from a new cut on my forehead. I lifted my hands to blast her and she hit me again. Darkness called to me, encroaching to pull my muzzy thoughts into sweet oblivion. I realized I needed to do something or I would be dead within seconds.

I grabbed my power and thought about the space behind Astis, praying she hadn’t extended the web to that side. The world slipped away, locked in silence, and I lost the sensation of firmness beneath me.

I hung there, suspended in nothingness, unwilling to move forward. Peace descended. A sense of safety in the silence. Pain razored through me, even in the emptiness, and my mind tried to slip away, looking for the blessed relief of unconsciousness. Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized I would be forever lost in a nether realm if I didn’t stop my shift. But I couldn’t get my mind to wrap around it. I floated in gray nothingness, the absence of danger a siren song I could barely resist. But Dialle’s face slipped across my mental screen and I sighed, realizing I’d have to go back.

With a monumental effort of will, I forced my mind to grab hold of the image it needed to end the space-shift and the hard ground re-emerged beneath me.

Agony made me suck in a breath as a rock jammed my ribs where I’d landed.

“Astra, watch out!”

I looked up and saw the skeletal face of a dragon demon dropping down from the sky, claws extended for another pain-filled trip. “Yeah, I don’t think so, asshole.” I shot power in dual, dynamic streams that consumed the creature in a wash of heat and power and turned it to ash within a breath.

Soft, gray cinders floated over me like dirty snow.

With the use of my power my body felt a bit stronger, so I shoved myself off the ground and turned as Astis whipped around and pointed her deadly staff in my direction. I jerked my hands up, palms outward, and gave her everything I had. Her eyes widened as it hit her and I had a second to enjoy the look of surprised pain in her large, gray eyes before she shot backward, arms and legs akimbo, until she hit the invisible mesh of her web and stuck. I yelled, “To Hades with you fool, for God hath tired of you.” The mesh holding her ignited from the power sizzling over her skin and her slim body went up in flame. She screamed, writhing with pleasure as she burned. Nausea roiled in my gut. “Gods save me from pain junkies.”

When the witch’s scream finally drained away, I looked around and saw Dialle battling his father with swords. I wasn’t too worried, First would have to score a killing strike, Dialle would only need to graze his father with the venom-drenched blade.