“That’s a long time to wait.” I walked toward the tree where Tyler had staked the winged devil. “Now all we have to do is figure out how to get past these evil things. If Selene knows you’re leading us, which she undoubtedly does”—every Sect had well-placed spies, and if Selene knew the Queen had her trinket, she would have people she bribed on the inside—“she will anticipate you’ve brought her prized possession and she will be awaiting her own revenge. It could have been her motivation to sell part of her soul for more protection and increase her boundary line, which will cost her in both energy and power reserves. She wants what you have.”
Naomi followed me to the tree, while Eamon stayed rooted where he was, still glowering. “This place in the mountains is new to us,” she said. “We have never visited here before. But her habits will be hard ones to break. We will expect some of her favorite defenses. Her mind is twisted, but she has likely convinced herself you are not stronger than she is, yet she is betting you will succeed in making it to her lair. She is always at war with herself. Killing your mate, however, will not be as satisfactory if you are not there to witness it.”
I gave Naomi an appraising look. “Cocky, deranged, overly self-assured, and masochistic all make her weak, and give us a definite advantage. But there’s no way we can get to her if we don’t get rid of these little freaks.” I peered at the squirming devil. Tyler had pinned it by the wings. It struggled sluggishly, its beady eyes glowing like a banked fire. But the worst was its gaping snout, filled with hundreds of needlelike teeth, which were currently dripping yellow goo all over the ground. Very slowly it lifted its talons and flexed them at me. It had one long thumb and one larger appendage, like the last three fingers of a hand, only melded together. Each of the fingery things boasted long nasty-looking blades. Like Eamon had said, they resembled thin razors for easy slicing. “How did Eamon know they had razor blades for fingers?”
“Selene has always coveted them,” Naomi answered. “She had statues and carvings of them adorning her walls. She called them her pets, all while lamenting the cost of ownership was too high. She vowed she would own them someday.”
“No pet I know costs a chunk of your soul.”
“True,” Naomi said. “But when you are as powerful as she, one covets what they can’t have. Selene convinced herself if she could raise an army of them, she would rule the supernatural world. There are not many things that can bring us down as easily or as quickly as these.” She shuddered, rubbing her arms. “They are vile creatures.”
“They multiplied,” Tyler said, coming over to join us. His tone was even, the fight gone. “When Danny killed a few, more popped up in their place.” I smiled at my brother as he ran a tired hand over his face. I knew it took a lot for him to back off, and I was grateful he was willing.
Naomi nodded gamely. “Only the amount negotiated can be summoned from the Underworld at one time. When one is killed in this world, another materializes to take its place. It goes back to the Underworld to regenerate. They cannot find true death on this plane.”
“If Selene wanted to amass a huge army of these things”—I stifled a gag thinking about how awful that would be—“how much would she have to pay?”
“She would belong to the Underworld for all eternity. If she did that, she would control an untold amount of them and the world would be a very bleak place.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s a good thing she’s too narcissistic to give up her life in total. What do you think her payment is for this many?” I asked curiously.
“I would expect it to be a millennium of servitude; nothing less,” Naomi said. “Payable once she perishes on this plane.”
“So if we can kill her body long enough, the demons will come pick her up? It’s not a perfect plan, but it makes her disappear for a mighty long time.”
Naomi bit her lip. Her fangs were retracted so all that showed were straight, white teeth. “Yes, true death would be optimal, of course, but I would be satisfied seeing her in the demons’ hands for a millennia. They will undoubtedly torture her repeatedly and painfully, as she will do nothing for them willingly. It would be just punishment.”
“So how do we get by the devils?” I asked. We needed to start moving or nobody was going to get to do anything to Selene. My wolf gnashed her teeth. I agreed. This was taking too long.
Naomi shook her head. “It will be difficult.”
“Can they attack during daylight?” Tyler asked.
She shrugged. “I would assume so.”
“It seems they work properly only inside Selene’s boundary,” Tyler said. “Here they seem… off. This one is still moving slowly and it can’t possibly be affected by the spell any longer.”
“Boundaries would be in their agreement.” Naomi nodded. “Demons have very strict rules they must abide by on this plane, and a group such as this could kill a human town in a blink of an eye. They need bite a human only once to make them die in unspeakable ways. There would be precautions put in place.” Naomi peered closely at the devil. “I am surprised she did not save these until last, but likely she has trouble controlling them.” The thing hissed at her, its eyes flaming violent orange for a moment.“But once we get by these things, we’re in for more surprises, right?” Danny said, coming up behind us. “This can’t be her only line of defense.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him, happy to see he was almost healed. All the gashes had closed and were on their way to fully mending. “Glad to see you’re up, Danny. If you can heal from these things, then we can find a way to defeat them. We just have to put our brains together and figure it out.”
Tyler stood next to me, but Eamon had refused to join the conversation. He was still angry. I was surprised he hadn’t just flown off, but risking his sister’s anger for the second time today must not be worth it.
“If the witch’s spells worked even temporarily,” Tyler said. “We could try and mix up the spells and find a way to blanket them across the group.”
“Yes, but a temporary fix will only send them after us once they wake,” I said. “That would trap us in her boundary with no shelter. We need to find a way to corral them, if not kill them permanently. Once we end Selene, they should pop back to the Underworld for good, since they can only reside in a domain she controls, right?”
Naomi nodded.
“Why don’t you freeze them?” a voice said from behind us. I turned slowly to see Ray, still perched on a log, looking tired. His face was drawn, but he looked determined.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“Use the cooler. You have enough dry ice to freeze a herd of cattle, and they don’t seem to work here in the trees. Lure them in here and freeze the bastards.”
“That has possibilities.” I pondered. “I see you’re still thinking like a detective, despite all the brain trauma you think you’ve endured. I’m impressed, Ray.”
“They are diminished here for some reason,” Tyler agreed. “The cooler might hold them if they stay alive. If they pop back to the Underworld once they freeze solid, we’re out of luck. It will be a tricky balance to keep them alive but contained. But it’s a possibility.”
“The reason they are over here has been puzzling me,” Naomi said. “They should not be able to exist at all once they cross over Selene’s boundary. Once across they should be immediately forced back to the Underworld. They are not in her control here. Yet they are alive, but cannot truly function. It should not be so.”
“I did sense a strange power signature by the boundary,” I said, heading to the separation point of the trees and the clearing. “I was surprised you crossed it, Naomi. It felt menacing and it was definitely not Selene’s magic.”
“I felt no foreign power signature. If I had, I would have stepped back.” Naomi followed me, her face pulled down in a frown. “Eamon is the sensor. I am the tracker.” She turned to her brother. “Did you sense other magics here?”
Eamon walked briskly to us, unclenching and reclenching his fists. He had let Naomi say her piece, but he was clearly beyond his limits of tolerance. “No. There is nothing here. She is mistaken. I can sense nothing, even now.”
“I feel it. Right here.” I placed my hand near the bark of the closest tree and wiggled my fingers. “It’s a small pulse of some kind and it’s buzzing a warning. It jumps like a heartbeat in my veins. I have to be right next to it to get a current, but it’s here.” I glanced at Danny and Tyler. “Come over here and see if you can feel it.”
They moved to where I stood. Danny reached his hand into the space. “I can’t sense anything, but I can smell those little shites. Not everyone can feel residual power. I am someone who needs the beast in front of me to get a good read, but I trust you.”
“You are mistaken,” Eamon huffed. “Sensing is my gift and there is nothing here.” He put both hands up to the clearing and moved them around like a mime.
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you certain you don’t feel it, Eamon? You’re not just pretending you don’t because you missed it and sent your sister out to face her death? It’s strong enough to send the hairs on my arms up when I’m this close. It’s making my wolf agitated and wary as we speak.” My wolf had growled a warning the moment we had gotten close.
Eamon glared at me and took a bold step though the tree line. I read his reaction the moment he felt it.
The winged devils popped up immediately in front of him and he stepped back quickly, almost in a daze. “Yes,” he said. “I feel it, but only once my whole body absorbed it. It’s so faint you should not be able to sense it so clearly. This is not Selene’s signature.” He retreated back into the shelter of the trees, his mind clearly processing. “It’s a leftover current of the Underworld.”