Five: Out of the Pit (Five #2) (44 page)

“Should we head down?” I sent.

“That’s what I was going to ask.” Halli’s voice entered my mind.

There was a pause before the answer came in Johnathan’s whispered voice. “Yes. Be careful everyone.” Then, just to me, “I love you Paige.”

“I love you, too.” I sent to Johnathan alone.

I released the shield and Alec and I half slid, half ran down the steep incline to the trail below. I could hear Halli and Seth coming from the Double Arch to our right.

A horrible screech filled the air, followed by what sounded like dozens of others accompanied by the sound of feet pounding on the ground toward us. The fog thinned and figures began to appear, some running toward us and others veering off to where Seth and Halli were coming from. I barely had time to process what kinds of creatures were attacking us. Trolls out front, at least a dozen of them, but I didn’t know what else. I didn’t wait for them to close in on us. They were obviously sent to stop us from getting to the dead zone—which is where Johnathan was.

I razed three of them with blue lightning fueled with the fear I felt for my friends. Out of the dark, several large forms leapt at us, snarling and snapping huge jaws.

“Devil Hounds!” Alec roared.

I threw up a shield just in time, and three of the ugliest, hugest, dog-like animals smashed into it face first. Quick yelps were followed by snarling, deep-throated growls.

“I’ll drop the shield on three,” I said, staring at the dripping, three inch fangs just inches from my face. I took a couple steps back. “One. Two. Three!”

I dropped the shield and zapped the Hound closest to me with a ball of fire. It yelped and rolled a few yards away. Alec shot a steady stream of flames at the other two. I added my power to his until the two remaining Hounds were a pile of ashes. The one I’d hit first recovered and crouched down, preparing to leap. With a howl loud enough to break eardrums, it pushed off. My voice matched the loudness as I screamed out a battle cry. I sent a golf ball sized, orange sphere straight into its gaping mouth just as its hind quarters pushed it into the air. There was a millisecond of a pause as the little sphere spiraled out of sight into the Hound’s throat. Then, the fireworks began. The ball exploded inside the heinous creature and splattered Alec and I with smoldering gore.

Smoke from our defensive magic replaced the fog, filling the air. We ran forward in an attempt to get to the place of the Gathering. We were met by a host of Undead—Ghouls, Wraiths, and Wights. The area around them became colder; our breath turned to ice crystals and fell to the ground before us. Thanks to Joe’s wisdom, we knew that the only way to kill Wraiths and Wights was with weapons that had been blessed. Alec and I pulled our daggers from their sheaths, grateful that Joe had thought to give them to us.

The dagger held in both hands, I brought it from my waist, energy building, up to the nearest Wraith’s neck. The dagger slid through its transparent skin and bones and I let the momentum of the swing carry me around in a complete circle. My blade met the next enemy in the side of the head, cleanly slicing off the top of its skull before the first Wraith’s head even hit the ground. The Ghouls stood back, waiting to take over our bodies when we fell.

Halli and Seth reached our position and we fought back-to-back with them. Halli had a dagger in each hand and mowed down the enemy like a machine gun. I followed her lead and took to using the powerful kicks she’d taught us to knock the enemy to the ground and then finish them with my dagger. I suddenly found myself without a Wight or a Wraith to occupy my attention, so I turned to focus on the slobbering Ghouls. Since it’d worked before, in the State Hospital, I used the warming spell again. I was able to fry the three Ghouls’ measly brains in a matter of two seconds.

Dagger in hand, barely winded, I turned in a circle to find my next opponent. There were none; we’d cleared the path.

The four of us ran around the huge, elephant-shaped rock blocking our way to where Johnathan and Joe were. Explosions and screeches filled the air. The grunts and thuds of hand-to-hand combat were heard between blasts of magic. I ran faster. The scene that met my eyes as I cleared the rocks, was one of chaos and death.

Back to back, Joe and Johnathan fought with nightmares. The indescribable creatures they faced caused me to stop in my tracks for half a second. I wasn’t alone—Halli and Seth stopped, too. Only Alec proceeded without so much as a stutter to his steps. I forced my feet to move—against every instinct in my body and soul—toward the monstrosities.

The things changed form as they fought. When we joined the fight, I thought we were fighting a bunch of different
things.
I concentrated on a couple that looked like eight-legged, giant spiders that stood erect on the back four legs of their hairy bodies. They used their four front legs like razor-covered arms, swinging them at my boyfriend with vicious strikes. I raised my arm, and with a throwing motion, sent a bolt of electricity flying directly at its chest. A satisfying explosion blew bits of mutant spider twenty feet in the air. I repeated the action as its companion turned toward me. Direct hit number two.

I stepped forward, thinking to finish them off. The flesh of the spiders’ backs split open and out crawled a giant slithering snake creature from one, and a man-like creature with the head of a many-toothed praying mantis from the other.

“You have got to be kidding me!” I yelled.

Johnathan caught my eye. “Go for their heads, it’s the best way to stop them!”

As if to emphasize his point, he blasted a crocodilian looking monster right between the eyes, exploding brain matter flew everywhere as the body dropped to the ground and started to dissolve with a hiss.

Joe used his sword to slice through the necks of the oncoming foe. I dropped my dagger back into the sheath tied around my thigh—I was much faster with magic. We tore through the remaining monsters until none were left standing.

“Shit! Positions!” Joe yelled as a pit the size of a baseball field opened up on the flat ground before us.

I turned toward the pit in an effort to get into position. I froze and drew in a sharp breath as my eyes took in the form of our enemy—Brone floated above the whirling hole. He directed his fledgling Warlocks and soul-sellers in the ceremony that had opened up the Gates of Hell.

His image—he wasn’t there in the flesh—turned toward me. His good eye looked at me and his mouth formed a half smile, the scarred side of his face twisted grotesquely, unable to complete the smile.

“I’m delighted you could make it to my little Gathering,
Quinae Praesidia.
I am so looking forward to the end of your reign here on Earth.” Brone’s laughter echoed off the surrounding rocks. “I’m so glad you survived the distractions I sent for you. This is going to be good!”

Alec gasped beside me. “Mariah!”

I followed his gaze. Mariah was near the edge of the pit. Two men held her, forcing her to her knees.

“Sacrifice them!” Brone yelled.

My stomach plummeted as I realized that others, both people and animals, were held to the ground all around the pit. I looked back at Mariah; one of the men jerked her head back by the hair, exposing her neck as he brought a knife toward her throat.

“No!” Alec ran toward her.

She was a hundred yards away from us—there was no way he’d reach her in time. I focused on the man holding the knife, and—using the hypothalamus warming spell—fried his brain in a millisecond. His partner took even less time.

As soon as she realized she was free, she stood and bolted toward Alec. “Alec! I’m sorry!”

She only succeeded in taking two steps. A snake-like Demon slithered out of the blood ringed pit, raised up twenty feet in the air before its entire body was out of the pit, and brought its gaping mouth down over her whole body. She was gone in less than a heartbeat.

Alec slid to a stop. The Demon swayed and turned its attention to him. Before any of us could help him, we were all caught in our own battles.

Two beasts spit out of the pit. I recognized the overalls and greasy hat of the bigger one. They zeroed in on me. A transformed Grease Ball and his friend galloped toward me, all claws, fangs, and red eyes. Foam dripped from their open mouths.
Mouth breathers
, I thought just before I finished them off with twin lightning bolts through the chest.

I searched for Johnathan through the smoky haze. The smell of singed flesh and death burned my nostrils. I ran in the direction I thought he was and found him facing two shadowy figures. Only, he wasn’t fighting. He stood with his arms half raised, his mouth open in shock.

“John!” I shouted, hoping to be heard over the battles.

Things, horrible things, crawled out of the pit all around us.

I reached Johnathan’s side and touched his arm. He shook me off, his gaze locked on the shadows coming toward us. “Emma?” he whispered. “Linzee? You’re bleeding.”

My heart stopped.
Mind-Shadows
. Creatures that stole memories from people to use against them, stood before Johnathan now, only
he
saw his dead baby sisters. I pulled my blessed dagger from its sheath and leapt forward in one motion, taking the heads from the Mind Shadowing Wraiths with one swing.

The agonized scream that tore from Johnathan’s throat stabbed right through my soul. I turned to him and he grabbed me by the upper arms. His eyes were wild, his grip like steel. A high-pitched groan escaped my mouth as his fingers dug into my skin. He shook me without mercy; spit flew from his mouth as he cried out.

“You crazy… you killed my… you… Linzee! Emma! No… no.”

My brain slammed into the front then the back of my skull as he continued to shake me.

All of a sudden, his grip on my arms loosened and the shaking stopped, I looked into his face. His eyes went wide, then rolled back in his head as he dropped to the ground. I stared at him, confused.
Did he just faint?

“He’s hurt, Paige. Do something!” Seth stood beside me, fighting the things that were closing in around us.

I dropped to my knees next to Johnathan as Seth constructed a shield around the three of us. “Where… where are you hurt, John?” I cried. I grunted as I rolled his heavy body over. His breath came in short, rapid bursts.

I sucked in a breath. A bloody talon the size of a sword protruded from his back. I laid one hand next to the talon and began the healing process at the same time as I pulled it out. It had pierced one of his lungs and he bled internally. I threw the talon down and placed my other hand over the deep wound. I poured the healing magic into him, strong and fast, as monsters, rocks, and weapons bounced off Seth’s shield all around us. The healing was the most difficult I’d ever done—and I did it in record speed. The whole process took less than thirty seconds.

Johnathan took a wheezing gasp and then started to breath normally as the wound wove back together from the inside out. He shot up to a sitting position, and looked around with bewilderment for a second. His eyes met mine and he wrapped his arms around me in a fierce hug.

“Paige, I’m sorry. It wasn’t them, was it?”

I shook my head, tears spilling from my eyes at the anguish Johnathan had just been forced to relive.

“Come on guys,” Seth said, “Halli needs help. I’m dropping the shield.”

We jumped to our feet and turned to where Seth pointed. He dropped the shield and we fought our way to where Halli stood, surrounded by dozens of small, animal-shaped Demons. More poured over the edge of the pit. I started to blast them with tiny explosions but it took too long. We herded them around until they no longer surrounded Halli. I glanced at her. Her eyes were narrowed, her smoke streaked face a mask of determination.

I gritted my teeth. “This is going to take forever.” There were just too many of the little, sharp-toothed Demons. I was shooting bigger blasts into the advancing Demons when Johnathan had a genius idea. He pulled the Elvin net from his gear belt, and with the flick of his wrists, settled it down over the gathering horde. He touched the edge and said, “
Sa-tuen.
” The net snapped taut against the ground, not only trapping the evil little creatures, but causing them to freeze in place.

I looked at Johnathan questioningly. I’d never heard the word he’d used. It wasn’t Latin. He shrugged and smiled. “Surpy taught me.”

“Alec!” Halli yelled as she began running away from us. I followed. Seth and Johnathan spread out, trying to dispose of creatures before they gained the rim of the pit and could come fully into our realm.

I nearly screamed as a giant tusk-faced Troll swung its enormous axe at Alec’s head. Just at the moment the sharp blade should have made impact, Alec disappeared, reappearing behind the hideous Troll. He hit it with a spell that exploded the monster from the inside out. I think an eyeball smacked me in the face as I ran toward him.

I stumbled as my gaze fell on what climbed from the pit a few steps away from Alec. My eyes met
his.
Trey. Alec’s dad. He smiled and stepped toward me, though his smile faltered when he saw the determination to kill in my face. He turned to run, intent only on his freedom.

“Whoa!” Alec’s exclamation brought my attention back to him, and I momentarily forgot about the Incubus. Something from inside the pit had ahold of Alec’s gear belt and shirt.

“Alec!” Halli was closest to him, but we both lunged for him, missing as he fell backward into the pit. “No!”

A figure blurred past me, impossibly fast. I caught a glimpse of Trey’s blue eyes, intense with anger and fear, as he flew into the pit. He hit the huge arm of the creature holding onto Alec with full force. Trey kicked out his feet and made contact with Alec’s back with enough force to send him airborne out of the pit. The enormous clawed hand of the creature closed around the Incubus’s torso. My heart lurched as blood shot from his mouth and he disappeared into the gaping, Kraken-like mouth.

As the reality of what just happened struck home—the fact that Trey had just sacrificed himself for his son—my anger flared. My hair sparked with energy. The anger magic built up faster and stronger than ever before. I shot a ball of nuclear energy the size of a car into the creature’s mouth as it attempted to crawl out of the pit. It, and every nasty monster on that side of the pit, was annihilated, turned to smoke and ash.