Battle With Fire by K.F. Breene

Thirteen

Shouting pulledme out of sleep, reverberating through the walls and crowding the space. I sat up in bed as Darius sprang up, dressing in a moment.

“What is it?” I asked, throwing back the covers and rushing to the window to answer my own question. My magic still held, the dark sky stretching above us to protect the vampires. Except for all I knew it could be night. I’d lost all sense of time.

A harried knock sounded at the door, and Darius opened it to a stern-faced Moss. Behind him waited the beautiful Marie and a team of Darius’s better-equipped vampires.

“What has happened?” Darius asked as I hurried to get dressed.

“Demons,” Moss said, his gaze cutting to me. “A host of them showed up, coming this way. The shifters and fae have stopped their progress, but it’s clear they are here for Reagan. They attempted to sneak in, donning human appearances, clearly not realizing shifters can scent the difference.”

“It’s not like my father to forget something like that,” I said, pushing through them and glancing down the hall of the weird apartment building. Penny and Emery came running, their eyes puffy with sleep.

“One of them tried to barter with Roger,” Marie said, wearing a pair of Gucci track suit bottoms and a snug top showing off her curves. It was an outfit I never would’ve thought to put together, but it worked super well. The woman was too fashionable for her own good, especially in the midst of a bunch of shifters who did not care. “They want to take the princess to safety, per Lucifer’s instructions.”

I rolled my eyes and followed Darius as he and Moss started down the hall.

“Did he honestly think he could come in here and kidnap me?” I asked as Penny made it to my side. “I’m not a broken mess this time.”

“It seems they want to…appeal to your sensibilities,” Moss said in a deadpan tone.

“It sounds like you don’t think I have any,” I replied with a grin.

“Is it that obvious?” he murmured.

We both knew he wasn’t totally joking, but I still laughed as we pushed out into the crisp night. No light glowed in the distance, suggesting it was after sundown. Wolves and other creatures ran to the north, headed toward the fight.

My magic thrummed, and I could feel demon magic close by, but it wasn’t limited to the direction the group was heading.

I slowed, brow furrowed, and picked apart the feeling.

Charity ran toward us with Wolf Devon at her side, her rumpled clothes and hair suggesting she’d been woken up too. She did a double take at me before halting, turning my way.

“What is it?” she asked, Devon slowing.

I shook my head distractedly, focusing on the feeling. There was a second location, and it practically vibrated with strength. The demons were much higher on the power scale, indicating the other group was nothing but a distraction.

“This way,” I said, and everyone followed me, including Charity and her growing group of fae. Devon’s pack found him a moment later, filing in as more and more vampires joined us. Clearly I wouldn’t be confronting the second group without a posse.

“Reagan.” Dizzy and Callie hurried my way from the right. Dizzy held up a piece of chalk as he neared. “I have this.”

“What will you do with that?” I asked, curving around the next building and then going straight. The second presence didn’t move, just stayed in the same location, waiting for me.

“I can lock you in a circle they can’t penetrate,” he said. “Theoretically.”

I grimaced. Good thing I had developed more control over my magic in the Underworld and mastered the highest power level—I didn’t really want to leave my safety up to theoretically.

“The demons that showed up first were clearly sent to die,” Charity said, following close with her sword in hand.

“Or they correctly assumed that Roger is a softy,” I replied, the thrum of magic stronger now, pulsing within me.

“Roger might’ve been hesitant to kill anyone when we first came back from the Realm, but that was only because of where we were in the Brink,” she replied. “If anyone breaches his territory here, they go down. He’s done playing. Dad is, too.”

I could’ve guessed considering the way they were handling people trying to sneak in through the portal. I’d heard that if someone came through, they didn’t return home.

I saw the shapes standing just behind a cluster of trees, five of them in all. They’d chosen humanoid forms that weren’t very well proportioned, something I’d seen a lot of in the Underworld. They clearly hadn’t been up here in a long while, although none of the demons I’d met seemed too concerned with getting it right. Maybe they just liked being different.

“Why are you here?” I asked as I approached, putting up a hand to motion for those behind me to stay back.

The demon with orange hair sticking straight up turned a bit to face me. Its boobs fell down to its waist, moving within its “I heart San Francisco” sweatshirt. Tan shorts stopped at creamy thighs that didn’t match its deeply tanned face, and its knees were red as though from the cold.

“Cute,” I said, running my finger through the air over it. “A summer tourist to San Francisco, right? They think it’ll be warm and instead it’s freezing so they have to buy a sweatshirt?” Darius had taken me a while back, and I’d seen that scenario played out a few times over. “But what are you doing here?”

“Hello, your royal heinous. The Great Master has a few things he’d like me to relay to you. He would’ve come in person, but he is aware the shifters would not enjoy the joke.”

“They wouldn’t get it, no,” I replied, wondering what he’d actually considered doing to warrant calling it a joke. Simply showing up where he wasn’t wanted? Hard to say with him.

“He wishes for me to inform you that the unicorn lands have been created. Tatsu is able to communicate directly with them and had the Great Master fix it up to their specifications. He regretfully informs you, however, that they will likely join his side. He thanks you for sending them his way.”

“Super. Way to rub it in,” I muttered.

“He’d like me to relay the news that he will be marching on the elves within two days. His goal has not changed—he’ll seek to annihilate them. Given how vast his host has grown, he foresees their complete destruction. He respectfully requests that you do not stand in the way.”

“Denied,” I responded.

“In the event you deny, he would like to remind you that you and your silly friends are not enough to stand in his way. It would put you and them in danger. He urges you to reconsider.”

“No.”

“The Great Master would like to mention that he will extend the offer a second time during the battle before forcing the issue. If you go quietly at that time, it’ll give him the opportunity to save your dearest friends. If not, you will likely deplete his resources, and he will only be able to skirt you and Archion to safety. Your friends will likely perish, stuck between the two opposing forces.”

“He sure thinks highly of his situation,” Charity murmured, her sword still held up, ready to kill at a moment’s notice. “He lost last time, though, right?”

I nodded grimly, but this time would be different. He had more resources than the last time he’d fought the elves, and the elves had less. The power scales had tipped, and he knew it.

I wondered if the elves did.

The demon gave me a somber look. “Forgive my impertinence, your heinous, but you have a duty to your kingdom and your friends,” the demon said. “You cannot change the outcome of this war, not with how it is shaping up. You will see the truth of that assessment when on the battlefield. At that time, I urge you to really think about this offer. Save yourself, and save your friends. You will then have a chance to help Lucifer lead our people to greatness. It is an opportunity a great many would die to have.”

Part of that greatness this demon spoke of would be obtaining the Realm; any idiot could see that. Lucifer wouldn’t just wipe them out and walk away, not with the grudge he clearly held. He’d claim it for himself and expand his kingdom. That was what conquerors did.

“Thank him for thinking of me,” I told the demon, its words punching me in the gut. My old man was good—he knew dangling my friends in front of me would have an effect. It did. If it turned out that he had the forces he claimed, would he truly be able to stomp on us?

The demons stared at me with unblinking eyes. “The Great Master requests that you send me back, using the circle provided, or create another one. You have a mage within your employ who can manage such things, correct?”

I slid a glance at Dizzy. How did my father know about that? Someone had clearly been talking, and it wasn’t a big stretch to guess who.

“He needs to know what you said,” the demon went on. “You can send the others back or kill them—your choice.”

“Jesus,” Charity said softly. She clearly didn’t know how cutthroat demons could be.

Dizzy moved around the five demons, giving them a wide berth. He bent, studying the ground. Callie watched them as she trailed him.

A moment later, Dizzy pointed down with the chalk. “Yup. There’s a circle right here.” He bent a little more, examining. “Decent work in a shaky hand. Inexperienced, probably. The runes are a little shoddy in some places and the lines aren’t totally straight. That aside, it is a very effective circle, I would think. I haven’t seen this in any of the books I’ve been researching.”

“Ja was here not that long ago,” I said. “She’s proficient in circles, right?”

Dizzy rubbed his chin. “Yes, but hers tend to be ancient and neat, I recall. Well drawn. She has a certain few that work well, and she uses them often. I’ve never seen this one before.”

Someone in our camp would’ve had to draw that circle, Darius thought. If not Ja, then who?

That was the million-dollar question.

“How many people would it have taken to bring those demons up?” I asked.

Dizzy turned to me and blew out a breath, thinking. “These demons are high on the power scale. They’d need very little power to beam them up. Callie and I could do it ourselves, I’d imagine. Maybe just me, though that’s more doubtful.”

And someone summoned the other group, as well, Darius thought.

“Unless the others were brought up first, then the person zipped over here and called up these guys,” I said. “An elder vampire’s blood would make it easy. The circles could’ve been made in advance.”

“Oh yes, sure, using a vampire’s blood would greatly help.” Dizzy bent further. “The light is too low for me to tell, though.”

I took a deep breath. “We have two days. Let’s get everything in motion.”

I shoved the demons back with air and fed magic into the circle. I sliced my finger, walked forward, and crouched down, letting a droplet of blood feed the circle.

“It was an honor, your heinous,” the demon said.

“He is calling you your heinous, right?” Charity asked. “I’m not hearing things?”

“Yeah. It’s my title of choice. Soon they’ll realize how well it fits me.” I sent them back to the Underworld with a thrust of power. Nothing to it. That circle was ideal for easy travel, as perfect as if Lucifer himself had designed it.

And he just might have.

“We got problems.” I turned and held out my hands, using my magic to force a path through the gathered crowd, careful not to smack anyone or send them flying. “Where’s Roger? We need to talk.”