Page 79 of Blood and War
She couldn’t waste time watching over the others. A quick glance was all she could spare as she fought her way after him.Gabriel, Kane, and Eire had amassed bodies of their own, and she was confident that they’d be okay. The angels had fanned out to her left as they attacked from the air. Unleashing their silver and golden weapons upon the darkness that threatened to consume them. But those shadows were faster, deadly, as they wound around Laylah’s leg and pulled her to the ground. Her piercing scream echoed across the battlefield, and it struck her in the chest. Heaving the breath from her lungs as the shadows consumed the female’s body.
A wicked laugh filled her, almost numbing her, as another cry pierced the air. “You think you can beat me? I wrote the fucking book on your maneuvers. You are nothing!” Lucifer bellowed over the screams as his power erupted.
Demitria pulled herself away from the screams. Away from the wails of Oriel as his sister fell to the darkness, and she kept running. Pushing the tears away that threatened to fall with each step further.
I will not be afraid.
She told herself, again and again as she pushed on. Willing the words into her very being.
“You’re not going alone.” Jace panted, reaching out for her arm to stop her from running further. He’d fought like literal hell to get to her side. His temple coated in blood. Red, which meant it was either his or Cory’s. “I’m okay.” He added, dropping his hands to his knees as he sucked in breath after breath. “Cory is with Arakiel.” Demitria nodded once.
“I’m going after Kellan. Stay with the others where it’s safe.” She pleaded. Going after Kellan was foolish enough. Having Jace follow her into it was outright suicide.
“We agreed that we do this together. Don’t push me away.” Jace grabbed hold of her arm again as if it would stop her from whatever stupid decision she was planning on making. “I’m going with you.”
Demitria knew she couldn’t fight him. All she could do was nod, and the two burst into a sprint after the red warrior. Her and Jace fought side by side. If one would block, the other would slash. They moved in tandem, swords hissing through the air as blades met flesh. She was covered in blood. Some of it inky, some of it red. Her own, Jace’s too. He didn’t look any different, but they pushed on. She could already feel her body tiring and knew that Jace must be close to empty. The hike had taken a lot out of them. More than they both would care to admit, but to fall now could mean defeat.
She watched as Kellan advanced further, swinging his blade at the darkness that threatened to incapacitate him as Lucifer let out wave after wave of power. Farther toward the open mouth of the mountain. What the hell was he doing? She’d lost sight of Lucifer. Hadn’t seen him since he’d disappeared into the darkness, but she’d heard his laugh. Seen the devastation of his power as shadows whipped about the battlefield.
Another scream ripped through the air, but Demitria didn’t have the heart to turn around and see who had fallen next. Angel? Horseman? Even Cory? She didn’t know.
Another body. Another mark on her soul of people she’d lost.
When Kellan darted into the opening, Demitria almost screamed. “It’s another trap.” She gasped. Lucifer was baiting him into the mountain. Away from his siblings. Away from the angels. “Jace, he's running right into a trap.”
“I know.” He huffed, sword piercing through the neck of another creature. He’d realized shortly after she had.
“Fuck.” With a speed she didn’t know she could muster, Demitria took off, dodging around the remaining creatures that stood in her way. Jace quickly trailed her as blade met beast.
Kellan was running right into a trap that Lucifer had set, baiting him into whatever area would give him the best advantage. Demitria didn’t know if there were other morepowerful demons lying in wait for him. Waiting for their chance to strike the Horseman down. She couldn’t let that happen.
Not when they’d made a promise to each other. To return hometogether.
Forty-Four
KELLAN
As he ran through the hoard of creatures, Kellan couldn’t believe the cowardice of Lucifer as he retreated into his army. The sharp metal of his blade pierced through beast after beast, the sound creating a rhythm as he moved fluidly through them, following Lucifer to the back of the mountain. This was the one being Kellan cared about most. The only one he cared to truly drive his sword through. That familiar urge beckoned him to let it free. To completely take over his body and just give in to the blood lust that called to him. With a shake of his head, he ran. Ran faster and harder through the demons that came at him. He was gaining ground, catching up to the fallen angel of death and destruction as he chased him through a narrow path between the emerging peaks. Kellan didn’t know where it led, but he followed anyway.
Lucifer banked left down another small passageway, tossing out a wave of his dark power before disappearing from his sight. Kellan sensed it moments before it was upon him, no more than a heartbeat between the time it took to throw his large frame to the ground as those piercing shadows slashed out overhead. He felt it graze across his forearm, tearing the fabric and breakingskin, but he didn’t stop. The moment they receded, he was on his feet and running.
Kellan was angry. At himself for giving whatever he and Demitria were away before they’d even fought, but mostly at Lucifer. For using any weakness against them that he possibly could in order to get whatever he wanted, even if that thing was him. But he had killed far too many souls for Lucifer. Kellan had done so many things he wasn’t proud of during that time with the dark angel, and it had taken him hundreds of years to forgive himself. It had taken a human girl to truly set him free.
So he’d fight, he’d decided. For a brief moment, before he’d sprung free, he’d entertained Lucifer’s demand for himself. He would fight until he no longer could. Until his legs had been rendered useless, and his arms had been torn to ribbons. Kellan would fight until his sword lay bloodied on the ground, his enemies strewn around him as his battered body stilled on the cool stone if it meant he had a chance. A chance to walk away. To be happy.
With her.
The closer he got to the fallen angel, the more his brain screamed at him. To go back. To wait for help. Kellan knew it was a trap, yet he didn’t care.
“My offer still stands.” With just enough time to dodge the attack, Kellan stumbled into the rocky mountain side as a golden-silver blade missed his throat by only a few inches. In all his time with the Dark King, the male had never shown an angel blade, and he couldn’t let the thought sink its ugly, taloned claws into his mind, despite the fact that there was a very real chance he wouldn’t make it off the mountain.
They’d just emerged into another smaller, flat outcropping that overlooked the war raging on below when Lucifer jumped him. Kellan didn’t even have the chance to check on the others down below before the male was upon him.
“I want nothing to do with your cause.” He swung, and the angel easily evaded his efforts.
“Don’t you miss it?” Lucifer grinned, swatting away Kellan’s maneuvers as if he’d been wielding nothing more than a stick. “The killing? The bloodshed? I can see it in your eyes, Horseman.” Kellan could feel it too. “We conquered so much together, you and I. Waged wars on so many cultures.” Like flames, those shadows danced down his arms, twining with the golden-silver blade in his hands. He’d be so, so fucked if Lucifer got ahold of him. The edge of his blade grazed across Kellan’s forearm and he flinched, feeling the burn as it sunk into his skin, as the shadows tried to fillet the flesh from his bones, but held his ground.
“That was a long time ago. I’m not the same as I once was.” He hadn’t even had control over his own body during most of those years with the Dark King, but he’d changed, regardless.
