Brolach (Demon #1) (4 page)

Ruby made small protesting noises as his lips lifted from hers, trying to sink back into his mouth but he held her away from him.

“
Please,” Ruby said and Brolach caught her eyes with his own.

“
Listen,” he said, the heat of his expression fading to wariness.

Ruby looked around, seeing nothing, she made a face at him but Brolach didn't relinquish his tense and vigilant posture.

“I don't hear anything. We're safe,” she said, because Ruby did feel safe with Brolach. He was a demon. Or an angel... it didn't matter. He'd saved her and Ruby didn't think he'd hand her over to her father. No matter what. And hadn't that been who she'd spent the last two years of her life running from?
What
he was didn't seem as important as
who
he was to Ruby.

Brolach gave a soft hiss and Ruby watched horns grow from nubs to five inch long, slightly curved protrusions of black. If it hadn't been for the streetlight, they would have been too shadowed for her to notice. She whipped around, her back against Brolach's chest and there... there was Damon and the same minions they'd just fought only hours before.

“How did they find us?” she asked in a wounded whisper.

“
How did they find us?” parroted Damon as he approached. “Pathetic, Daughter. That a child of my loins would go unnoticed just miles away. Besides, I've had my
petite
tête-à-tête
with Lucas... and he has shown me how to look for you with greater accuracy.”

Brolach moved to put Ruby behind himself and she resisted. “No, let me help you.” But Brolach shook his head even as her father smirked in self-satisfaction.

“You are female, to be bred and taken by all. You are not a warrior Ruby,” Damon announced, his voice a grating chastisement on her nerves.

Brolach's eyes narrowed, scanning the six other minions who accompanied Damon. Damon he could easily dispatch with horns, vapor and talons. It was the other six who would possibly tip the scales in their favor.

“Ruby,” Brolach said beside her ear. “Do as I say, flame of my....”

“
Don't listen to that Ruby. He is demon, he lies. Come with me,” Damon stuck his hand out toward her, his eyes burning to a low ember inside his skull. Ruby saw only dim-burning blue flame where his eyes should have been.

“
And what are you?” she asked, clinging harder to Brolach, peeking out at her father from Brolach's broad chest. “A liar and a murderer. I think not! You,
you
... cock suck!” she shrieked at him, hot tears running down a face Brolach had just caressed.

“
You have your answer, Damon.” He kept Ruby close, just in case her emotions ruled and she thought to go near him.

Damon dropped his hand and stared at Brolach, his scathing gaze moving away from Ruby's righteous anger. “You will be taken alive. Lucas has much to discuss with you.”

I am certain he is right
, Brolach thought. But that meeting would never take place. Brolach knew he would live long while tortured. Perhaps the Dark King would mete it himself.

“
Ruby,” Brolach said against her ear. “Run!”

“
No Brolach,” she whispered, so tired of running her bones ached with the very idea of it.

“
I will find you,” he promised and Ruby, her soul shattered by hope stolen, spun. She began to run in the opposite direction. The wind and cool night air laid hold to her meager wardrobe, her fear fueled her flight, her sadness staggered her. Ruby ran.

Brolach watched the devil's minion flock to chase the demon female and he crouched to spring at them.

When the air shimmered above Brolach he felt it like a molten caress of heat and light and instinctively threw his hands above his head. But instead of a fiery surprise, Brolach tried to make his mind believe what his eyes told him.

Angels, as big as he, appeared above him, their wings over six feet in width as they hovered, the dark throng moving underfoot. Brolach was amazed by how their wings almost touched the other, they moved in harmony like one body.

Brolach looked away, his eyes moving to where Ruby had been and caught a pale glimpse of hair in flight, a wayward flag of platinum as she sprinted away.

He must kill those in pursuit.

Brolach had put away the wings of his angelic roots when he and Ruby were entangled in their passion but now in a painful burst of instant unfurling, they burst from his back. As the first minion dove at him, he swept the male with a feathered and muscled wing, the demon sailing into a nearby wall, driven into it with what could be a tender rescuer, but was now brutal in battle. But war was always savage and Brolach employed that now.

Brolach scooped and drove two others into the wall, his eyes on the battle before him, not the one above. If the angel warriors meant to kill him, then they would have already struck. They were the primary enemies of
below
, of course. But at this time, they seemed intent on other matters.

It was only when Ruby screamed that Brolach broke from the third minion, jerking his battle horns out of the sternum of the one and goring the second before the male could pick himself off the ground. Brolach stood and turned, black demon's blood dripping from his horns and soaking the top of his head. It began to run dangerously close to his eyes and he jerked his head to the side and the blood flew, splattering the ground at his feet. Brolach swept his wings aside and without a conscious thought, the wings expanded fully, swinging wide. Brolach took a running leap, the wings carrying him low and steady across a street that was dead but for the demon war which waged below.

“Brolach!” Ruby gave a panicked scream into the still air and he saw where she was. She'd almost been free from harm. Brolach's strong wings were new and they felt like an ill-used tool. He made a crash landing, jerking the wings close to his body as he made an expert roll and charge, bounding up to a walking stride.

Then he ran to Ruby.

Two demon minions were seated on Ruby, one on each arm and Brolach wailed a guttural warning from deep in his gut and they flinched in pain at a warrior of Hades lashing them with his burning reprimand.

They would not have her.

Then there were two beside Brolach. He had time to register their presence but not nearly enough to respond. His vision had narrowed to the female in front of him.

Blood of his blood.

“Halo!” bellowed the angel with wings that glowed like milk in the night. Brolach wasted a glance on him as a searing pain, a circle of fire, erupted from his head and Brolach plunged to his knees. The agony making him immobile for dire seconds he could have been at Ruby's side.

Critical seconds while Ruby screamed in the background and his own blood ran into his eyes.

What new curse was this?
Brolach wondered, staggering to his feet and swiping the burning of his blood from his vision.

He stopped in his tracks, frozen, as the pair of angels stood before the dark minion. The one with wings as black as Brolach's own grabbed something that floated, as if on invisible strings, just a few inches above the crown of his head.

It was an iridescent disc. It was opaque but when the warrior's fingers touched the surface, it grew solid. With an expert toss he threw it at the minion on the right, and the other warrior tossed one a breath later, though colored differently it didn't seem to matter for the result.

In the midst of Ruby's hiccuping sobs, their howls drowned out the sound of her fear, the discs embedded in their red flesh.

The halos did not remain stationary but continued to bore, reaching for the other side of the demons' bodies through the torso they'd plunged into. They let go of Ruby, rolling away from her, trying to tear the offensive halos out of their bodies and wailing as the discs of light shredded their hands to ribbons from barbs sprung all around the perimeters.

Ruby came running for Brolach and he rushed to meet her as Damon blindsided them all. He used the minion to distract them and had waited for the perfect opening.

“No!” Brolach bellowed into the air as Damon tackled Ruby, wrapping her up in his arms. They rolled together and when they came to a stop he locked gazes with Brolach. Ruby's eyes pegged on him with an intensity that burned him where he stood.

“
Oh yes, fire traitor,” Damon said in the quiet voice of the triumphant. Fire burst around them in a circle, Ruby struggling against her father.

“
Nolen,” the angel with pale wings commanded.

“
My captain,” Nolen replied as Brolach moved to the fire.

“
Use the gilded horn.”

Brolach moved to the circle of fire, his eyes shifting to Ruby's. “Help me, Brolach...” she whimpered, hope and fear equal in that beseeching gaze.

“I shall, I promise it,” Brolach said, easily stepping into the fire to wrest Ruby from her debauched father.

When the horn sounded it caused a ringing agony inside Brolach's head, but he watched blood burst from the eardrums of Ruby's father, his screams as heinous as the gore that leaked from the holes in his skull.

But they were too late, as the agony of the trumpet from heaven sounded, a pop of reverse air pressure sounded in the well of musical sound and Brolach had time to watch Damon's arms convulse around Ruby and her eyes grew big inside her face in understanding as her form shimmered before him, no longer solid. They reached for each other, her fingers fading in and out as his passed through the mist of where hers had been.

Then she was gone, his Ruby taken.

The jewel of the soul he'd discovered he had.

Brolach collapsed to his knees, his head on fire, ears thudding in a dull aching pain.

He did not hear the horn when it stopped. Nor did he feel the hand fall to his shoulder in reassurance.

It was just weight. And it was not weightier than that of his leaden heart.

Lucas

Lucas could feel his own heat spiral from his mouth when his lips twitched into a delighted smile, his cock giving a happy nod at the sight of Damon and his demonspawn daughter half-breed.
Oh happy day
, Lucas thought, I will taste of a part-blood, always a delicacy.

She fought Damon, that she did. Delicately constructed wrists turning inside a grip he could not maintain. Lucas frowned, she was clever at escape, she would need special bindings. That could be done easily; Lucas was very much into a little
tie me down.

Or a lot, as the case may be.

Lucas allowed his eyes to roam over the newest member of the female breeders he would keep within his dark harem. If he were not looking for it, he would not have known that she was demon at all. The telltale pink in her fair skin could be attributed to the ruddy complexion so many fair-haired humans had. However, once exposed to the Halls of Hades, that same skin began a slow smolder, the skin deepening to a pale red. Her eyes were as wide as a colt preparing to bolt, showing too much white as she tore herself away from her biological father.

Lucas' eyes narrowed. He would not tolerate inbreeding. Though it was technically Damon's right to breed his own daughter, that would not be allowed in this case. She was too mixed, too diverse to be wasted on a part- demon lackey. Though Damon was at the top of that particular heap, as the humans were so quick to put it, it was a heap that Lucas wiped his feet upon.

Ruby sprinted back the way they had come, racing through the tunnel- like maze with an unerring accuracy.

Lucas' eyes became slits in his head, low embers of blue flame the only visible light from his face, so dark was the red of his flesh. He recognized she should not know her way out of the entrance to Hades.

There could be only one reason for that.

The breeder was more than she seemed. His smile matched his joy. It would be truly sublime to degrade the angelic. He felt the barbs of his war phallus sprout. It perturbed Lucas greatly that those would recede during a fucking with the demonic female. It was as though, her very essence quenched the battle lust just long enough that his tail spikes would retract. It would be so wonderful if he could but let them stay and cause the kind of real damage he so wished to.

If the female were not so demon in her veins, that might be possible. At the very least, if she were a virgin, then the spike could be employed to tear out that which protected her innocence.

His excellent vision sought Ruby as her pale hair ran in streamers behind her, Damon gaining two steps for her one.

Lucas crouched, talons, horns and tail engaged for a race after just one instead of many.

Steam unfurled as his feet left the ground and he hopped at six foot intervals. The stones hissed as he landed then hopped again, his tail whipping like a lash behind him, lending balance as he moved. Lucas was almost leisurely in his pursuit, the walls glowed from the heat of the stone, casting a strange light like fire burned down to embers as he watched Ruby latch onto the handle to the outside.

It was made of angelic halos, trophies of the victories his kind had managed over those from
above
. The razor's edge of the halos were fully sprung for they had been taken in battle, engaged inside the demonic flesh they'd been flung into. After slaying the angel who the halo was a part of, that barbed form remained. Let it be a reminder for every demon who passed this way; taste the bite of those from
above.
The perimeter of the half circle which lay outside of the hand-forged door of iron was like piercing nettles to those of demon blood. Whenever they transgressed the entrance from Hades to the earthen realm, they would be reminded that their sworn enemies from
above
roamed the same plane as they, and hunted for the same prey.