Val didn’t knowwhat the hell to do. Talon was in a fight for his life while Grizz and Nergal, possessing a powerful gargoyle, fought in the air, on the ground, and everywhere else. They blasted through shops in the bazaar with force, and she did her best not to be where they would suddenly appear, landing like meteors and taking out entire shops at a time.
She wanted to get to safety like everyone else scrambling around her but also wanted to be close should Grizz need her. For so long, he’d helped her at great cost to his eventual rest. She owed him.
The feel of Aisha falling hard pulled at her, and she collapsed to one knee. Just in time, since a chunk of building would have nailed her in the chest had she been standing.
Aisha!
The witch was no more than a whisper of goodbye.
Val waited, but for the first time in her life, her essence didn’t return to her. Khent had been right. Vladimir would take all her dead and consume them, consuming Val as well.
She couldn’t let that happen.
Never let him find you, dearest,she suddenly remembered her mother saying.You find him first and make him pay.
Talon screeched, in trouble.
She rushed around another mass of rubble to see him struggling in the grip of several galla demons.
So focused on Talon, she didn’t spot Vladimir waiting for her with an ugly staff in hand.
He lowered it to her chest, and she froze.
A rush of pestilence embraced her, trying to force its way into her eyes, nose, and mouth, through her pores.
“Die, bitch.” Vladimir laughed.
The memories returned, all that hateful laughter echoing while he killed everyone she and Talon loved.
Talon jerked away from the demons holding him, his memories clear as well, and glared at Vladimir.
To her shock, Vladimir reminded her of the four-eyes they’d fought on that mountaintop. Vladimir of the Void was no normal human. Instead, he looked demonic, skinny and huge, taller than anyone mortal. His skin was tar-black, his eyes a marbled gray, black, and crimson and boiling with rage.
She opened her mouth to laugh at him, letting the poison in. Knowing it wouldn’t hurt her. Not with her resistance to toxins and Khent’s energy buoying her, allowing her to float on a sea of hatred and vengeance.
The necromancer didn’t look so sure of himself as she refused to go down. She pushed the staff aside. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for years.”
“As have I,” Talon said, now a naked human with a blade in hand. He stood a few feet behind her, the demons around him in pieces. Instead of flying at Vladimir with talons and feathers, he leaped at the necromancer and stabbed him in the heart, knocking him on his ass.
None of this was according to plan. Val wanted all her pets here, now, but the logistics would be a major pain without magical help.
Vladimir burst into laughter, still gripping the staff.
“Talon, get back.”
“No. You’re not the only one with a plan. I?—”
He disappeared before Vladimir swung his staff around to infect him.
“Talon?” Where the hell had he gone?
Grizz landed perilously close, rolling at the last second to avoid crushing her. Instead, he bowled into Vladimir, knocking him down. Grizz hurried to return to Val.
“Ah, my staff,” the other gargoyle rumbled. “Good of you to bring it, Vladimir.”
Val didn’t know what to do, but at least Talon hadn’t been touched by it. The few Beast Brigade shifters seemed to have vanished as well.
Heck, so had everyone else from the bazaar except for Grizz, Val, and a host of hungry shadows—demons—searching for food while their demon god and his pet necromancer played tug of war over the staff.
