Walking Shadow (The Darkworld Series Book 2) (29 page)

keletons pulled themselves out of the earth, bony hands grasping the sides of their graves. Heads rose above the ground, empty skulls filled only with staring demon eyes. Decaying flesh hung from their bones. The air filled with a ghastly stench: the smell of the recent dead.

“Shit,” said Leo. “It’s a mass demon-summoning. He’s ripped a hole in the Darkworld.”

Blackness descended all around us, but not because the torches were extinguished. I could still see them through the veil of semi-transparent darkness, but their light was dimmed, and I could see from the way the others were shivering that the temperature had dropped.

“We can take them,” said Berenice, through chattering teeth. “They’re only skeletons.”

But she moved closer to Howard, all the same.

“You’ll have to do better than that!” Howard yelled at Jude.

“You have no respect,” snarled Jude. “None of you understand that our world will soon fall to the demons, unless I do something about it. Your deaths will feed the power in this demon heart.”

Now I could see what he held in his hand. A piece of crystal, blue and glittering. A demon heart. “Now.
Kill them.”

They came at us, lumbering awkwardly over the suddenly open graves. There was a hiss and crackle of flames springing to life in the others’ hands; a swathe of darkness wrapped around us as someone conjured a shield. Cyrus and Leo. They moved to stand in front of the group, holding up the shield. Claudia, Howard and Berenice all held flames at the ready as the Skele-Ghouls clambered towards us.

The first of the army of walking corpses reached the shield. They stood awkwardly, like puppets propped up on the ground, but intelligence gleamed in their pit-like eyes―a hundred pairs of eyes, or more.

I could do nothing. I could feel my connection to the Darkworld, but it was like I was still trapped behind glass with the Darkworld on the outside. I’d never felt so powerless.

And Jude knew it. As the others faced off against the army of animated corpses, he beckoned to me. I didn’t move. I was behind the shield; he could no more harm me than harm the others. But though it might keep out the ghouls, if he summoned a true demon, we were dead.

The fortune-teller’s words echoed in my head as clearly as though she spoke now.
If a demon were to appear, right here, right now, any one of you could die. In fact, it’s likely that the person it chooses as its host would perish instantly… It could be any of you…

I had to stop him. But without my connection to the Darkworld, what could I do?

The silence broke as the first ghoul threw itself at the shield. At once, several flames went flying at it, and the demonic creature screamed as demon and corpse alike burned. But a dozen more rose to take its place, throwing themselves at the shield and letting out ghastly screeching sounds. The shield wavered, splitting and coming together again, and in that moment, one of them broke through.

Chaos erupted. Claudia whipped out her fan and jumped ahead of the group, throwing fire at the Skele-Ghouls one after another. Cyrus swore and leapt to join her, while Howard tackled another ghoul which was in the process of sneaking up on us from behind. I hated feeling so powerless, standing behind the others with Conrad as they fought. But the sheer number of them was overwhelming. Jude had summoned enough ghouls to possess every corpse in the catacombs.

And still more rose at every moment. Fire danced around me; the ground itself seemed to be alive with flames. They seared my skin even from behind the shield.

“They aren’t going down!” Cyrus panted, now standing back to back with Leo as they tried to pull the remainder of the shield together. Howard and Berenice had ditched the protection entirely―I couldn’t see Berenice, but Howard ran along the tops of graves, shooting fireballs, looking as though he was having the time of his life. I couldn’t see Claudia, at least until she emerged from a desecrated grave, scattering fragments of burned bone everywhere.

I looked desperately at the fortune-teller―and my blood turned to ice. Two Skele-Ghouls had targeted her, and as I watched, their corpse-bodies changed. Bony human arms became curved claws, poised for attack.

“Get away from her!” I yelled. I threw myself against the mental barrier blocking my access to the Darkworld, but nothing changed.
Stop. Please!

Cyrus and Leo jumped into action. Still using the shield spell, they ran to the fortune-teller and placed themselves in front of her, blocking the ghouls’ path. The two monsters let out guttural snarls at being denied their prey.

The shield now covered half the room, but parts of it were breaking down. I needed to get close to Leo and Cyrus again. And find a way to contact the Darkworld…

“I can help you, Ashlyn.”
The demon’s voice cut through me like an icicle; I turned to see the doppelganger waiting for me… on
our
side of the shield.

“You―how―?”

Conrad, who’d been cowering behind a headstone, looked at her in horror. “Ash! I thought it was you!”

But there was no time to think, to react. She had me in a headlock before I could blink, impossibly strong arms gripping me, cutting off my oxygen supply. I fought to shake her off, to break through to the Darkworld, but my connection remained blocked. She threw me to the ground, and we rolled away across the floor.

“Get off her!”

I found myself flung to the ground as Leo and Cyrus both tackled the doppelganger at once. She still held onto me and the two of us rolled over on the ground.

The shield broke―and so did the block the Venantium had put on me.

Violet light flared across my vision; the pendant seared my skin. A paralysing chill pinned me to the ground. And
she
stood over me, grinning, her eyes as violet as my own.

Stop,
I thought.
Please stop this…

Then someone leapt into my line of vision and delivered a flaming sucker-punch to the ghoul’s head, so powerful that the creature went flying. It took me a minute to recognise the person as Berenice. She glared at me. “Get up.”

I tried to say I couldn’t move, but my vision flared purple again.

Berenice backed away. “What… the… hell?” She looked from me to the fallen doppelganger and back again. “Which of you is the demon?”

I threw off the paralysis before her punch landed, and rolled out of the way. “I’m Ash!” I said. “It’s me!”

“What the hell are you, freak? You possessed?”

I shook my head.
Shit,
this was bad. “No, it’s her, she―” I pointed desperately at the doppelganger. “She’s doing it.”

“What’s her problem?” said Berenice, kicking my double in the side, flames spreading from her foot. “Why won’t she die?”

“No clue,” I said, knocking another Skele-Ghoul away from me. Berenice finished it off, and it collapsed in a pile of bones, its demon eyes extinguished. They’d crept into the part of the room the shield once covered, blocking the exit―but that didn’t worry me as much as the doppelganger.

“I am undying,” snarled the doppelganger, curling up on the ground. “That is my curse. That is
our
curse, Ashlyn.”

“What do you mean?”

Two Skele-Ghouls launched themselves at Berenice, and while she was preoccupied, the ghoul shuffled to her feet. She looked like she was genuinely in pain.

“You-will-pay,” she hissed.

“What
are
you?” I said. “You’re no ghoul. Are you?”

Are you really me?
I wanted to say.

“You forget I can read your mind, Ashlyn. No. But I was like you, once. A human-demon.”

No.
I stared at her in horror.
No…

“I was, Ashlyn. But I was captured by necromancers and taken to the house on Tombstone Hill. There, the
venators
mistook me for a true demon and killed me.”

You’re a ghost?

“No. I’m the demon I was. In the Darkworld, I cannot die. My anger brought me back, when someone broke into the Barrier. I have found a way to augment power. I can draw energy from demon hearts and become immortal.”

She moved closer to me, and I recoiled as she laid a hand on my arm.
“Join me, Ashlyn. We mustn’t let him steal our power. If he contacts Lucifer, we all die.”

I hesitated, torn. There was no reason for me to trust a word she said―and I didn’t even know what to think about being cursed to spend eternity in the Darkworld. Just the thought opened a cold, dark place inside me.
It can’t be true.

“Come to me when you’re ready, Ashlyn. I’ll be waiting.”

And she faded away, like smoke.

I looked around. Leo and Cyrus had conjured another shield to keep the ghouls away from the fortune-teller, while Claudia and Howard ran amongst them, striking the monsters down one at a time. Berenice ran to Howard, without as much as a glance back at me.

“Howard! You okay?”

“Course.” He swung a fist at a Skele-Ghoul and hit it with such force he sent its head soaring across the chamber.

I ran back towards the fortune-teller, who still stood unmoving in the centre of the room, behind Cyrus and Leo and the shield. But outside the shield, tendrils of the Darkworld had begun to swirl around the place where Mr Melmoth’s body sat, where Jude had been―

Where is he?

An icy presence stirred in the darkness, something apart from the ghouls and the doppelganger, something that brought a deeper chill.
A true demon?

Had Jude managed to make contact?

“Ash, wait!” Conrad leapt in front of me, trying to kick away a Skele-Ghoul which had wrapped itself around his ankles. He didn’t seem to have the hang of conjuring fire; every time he tried, it instantly extinguished itself. “I’m coming!” he shouted.

“No, you don’t.” Jude appeared from the shadows, tackling him to the ground. “I warned you, vampire,” he spat. “This is your doing, all of it. Your evil kind brought the demons right to our doorstep!”

The fight slowed down as everyone looked at Jude.

“I live so that this
thing
may die.” He held a long knife in his hand, and pressed it to Conrad’s throat. Conrad whimpered.

“Don’t kill him!” I shouted.

“Vampires all deserve to die,” hissed Jude. “They killed us, so why shouldn’t we repay them in kind?”

The knife slid out of his grasp entirely, but he hardly noticed. Flames danced along his outstretched arm, down to the fingertips still pressed against Conrad’s throat.

Conrad screamed as the fire licked at his exposed skin, but at that moment, a jet of darkness hit Jude from behind, knocking him off his feet. He whirled around, staring incredulously at the fortune-teller. She pushed herself upright, using a dislodged slab of stone for support. Scars ran the length of her face, which was haggard and wrinkled, as though she’d aged fifty years. Her hair was white as bone.

“Ah, you’re awake? Just in time.”

“Don’t think of using me as a vessel to speak to Lucifer. You’ll destroy yourself.” When she spoke, her voice was a hoarse croak.

“No, I suspect he might kill you if you contact him again. I’ve heard the rumours.
Demon lover
.”

The fortune-teller gasped.

“I thought so. Come,” he said.

And he waved a hand. Mr Melmoth―I hadn’t even seen him still there, amongst the chaos―stood. His skin was pale grey, his eyes sunken and sad. Not possessed―yet.

“Come, vessel. Serve me in death.”

“Screw that,” said Leo, and launched himself at Jude, hands ablaze.

Jude cried out; Leo knocked him off-balance and the burns seared his arms. I rushed to help, but the ground was suddenly alive with livid shadows.

“No!” the fortune-teller screamed. “You fool―you’ve woken one of them. They’re coming.”

Jude turned away from Leo, heedless of the flames licking at his skin. “He’s come? Lucifer?”

The fortune-teller shook her head. Jude stood, raising a hand, and all the strands of the Darkworld in the room rushed towards him in a flood of shadows.

At the same time, the fortune-teller raised a hand.