Damned and Desperate (27 page)

So it’s like a magic web? Good. Maybe I can wish us the hell out of here.

“Would you like to touch it?” she asked me.

“That’s okay.” I vehemently shook my head and fluttered away from her. Luckily, Aedan held my hand, keeping me grounded so I didn’t hit the ceiling.

“Go on.” She ran her leg down the side of the web again, this time more quickly, and it made a musical sound like a harp. “It won’t hurt you.”

I warily eyed Aedan before releasing his hand and taking a hesitant step forward. I tried not to be panicked by Jack’s low whine as I gently tapped one of the strands. It felt like liquid silk and was cool to the touch. “Smooth,” I replied as I secretly asked the web to help us get back home safely before rushing back to Aedan’s side.

Her wide mouth pulled back in a creepy grin. “Yet stronger than steel.”

“My scythe.” Aedan pointed above us to a long object stuck in the web.

Mother’s mouth tongs rattled like a china hutch in an earthquake. “Is that what you’ve come for?”

“Yes,” Aedan answered. “That, and our friends.”

She walked beneath the web and began unraveling the strands. The scythe fell into her outstretched claw, and she wrapped spindly claws around it. “What do your friends look like?”

“Two giants, a green demon named Sergeant, and my brother Callum, a dragon demon.” Aedan tapped his cheek. “His scales are red but his face looks much like mine.”

“Ahhh, yes. I’m sorry.” Mother’s front legs came together in a prayer pose as she clutched the scythe tightly in her grip. “My demonlings had chased the Sergeant out of our tunnel. That was when he dropped the scythe. I had no idea he’d come from Purgatory, or else I would have let him stay. I have not seen your brother, but my demonlings reported both he and the Sergeant were eaten by the soul sucker, Zahaka. They are lost, and nothing you can do will return them.”

“What? No!” I hunched over, feeling as I’d been stabbed through the chest. The giants wailed behind me, and my heart felt as if it was being squeezed in a vise as I struggled to process what the spider had said.
Sarge and Callum were eaten by the dragon? No, it can’t be true.

When I looked at Aedan, and saw the hard glint of steel in his eyes, something snapped in my brain. The spider was lying. I couldn’t accept that our friends were lost to us forever.

Aedan cleared his throat as he eyed the demon spider. “They saw our friends get eaten?”

“I’m afraid so. Zahaka eats everything in her path.” There was a cold edge to her sibilant tongue, sending a chill down my spine. I got the feeling we wouldn’t be getting any sympathy flowers from her. “Most newcomers don’t survive beyond a fortnight unless they are lucky enough to find the safety of the web.” Mother shook the scythe at Aedan. “This place is far too dangerous for angels. I thought your scythe would be useful, but it won’t even penetrate my webs. I will give it back to you if you promise to leave and never return.”

Aedan puffed up his chest, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword. “We can’t leave without our friends.”

“But I told you they were eaten.” Her voice was laced with mock disbelief. Yeah, the bitch was lying. But why?

Aedan slowly bent down, picking up something near his boot and holding it out to her.

I inhaled sharply when I recognized it.

“This is my brother’s scale,” Aedan said in an accusatory tone as his eyes narrowed. “He has been in your tunnel. And you are telling me you never saw him?”

Mother sighed, her fat abdomen sinking low before she sprang back up. When her dark eyes reddened, I knew we were in deep shit. “I was afraid this would happen. You and your brother have caused me nothing but trouble. I took pity on you because you were angels. I was going to let you escape, but you leave me no choice.”

Aedan yanked out his sword, turning it into a blowtorch as a breeze blew into the cavern, followed by the rustling of millions of little legs. Mar screamed, Boner whinnied, and Jack barked loud enough to rattle my eardrums as we were surrounded by Mother’s demonlings.

“Call them back,” Aedan commanded as he blasted the floor with his torch, sending squealing spiders scattering. “Or I swear they will all burn.”

I splayed my fingers, feeling the charge in my hands as the creatures came within inches from my toes. Boy, what a way to die… again. Well, I sure as hell wasn’t going down without a fight. I planned on zapping as many of those little shits as I could, but first, I’d start with their leader. Electricity jumped off my palms as I prepared for the mother of all thunderbolts. This bitch was about to take petrified spider to a whole new level.

“Mother!” a voice echoed from behind the spider demon. “Callum is not in his chamber.”

I held my fire when Mother spun around. A pretty African woman was looking up at her with a slack jaw. She motioned to Mother. “What is happening? Why are the demonlings attacking these souls?”

“Leave us, Cara,” Mother hissed.

“Ask your Mother what she did with Callum,” Aedan boomed at the girl.

“Are you his friends?” she asked.

“Yes.” Aedan pointed his torch at Mother. “And she is telling us the dragon ate him.”

Cara screamed.

The spider jabbed the girl in the chest with a long leg. “Cara, go. Now!”

Cara stumbled back but regained her footing. “Was Callum eaten, Mother?”

The spider sighed before uncorking a small silver vial that hung from her neck. “You will not let it rest, will you, girl? You’re as bad as them.” She blew on the vial, spraying a blue mist at Cara. The girl’s eyes rolled into the back of her head before she fell over, landing on a pile of spiders. “Take her,” Mother said before Cara’s motionless body seemed to slither out of the cavern.

Mother turned to us with a frown. “You’ve turned my most loyal priestess against me. What other mischief will you cause before I rid myself of you?”

She held up the bottle of mist, and I zapped it out of her claw, careful not to hit the claw that held the scythe.

The spider hissed, shaking her smoking leg before looking at me with contempt.

Oh, boy. Here comes the retaliation.

What was she expecting me to do? Stand there while she put us all to sleep? As crazy as it sounded, I’d rather stay awake while being eaten by millions of poisonous spiders.

Instead of waiting to find out what other trick the spider had up her sleeve, I decided playtime was over. I knew her demonlings would avenge her annihilation, but it’s not like we had other options.

“Do it, Ash!” Aedan hollered as he torched hissing spiders.

Before I could let off a charge, Goliath hit Mother with a blast, knocking her through the web of light as the scythe flew out of her claw and over our heads. I ducked as the giant’s magic bounced off her shimmery abdomen and hit the ceiling. The web fell to the floor, still intact, amid a pile of rubble. Holy shit! Her armor must have reflected the magic. Goliath was lucky he didn’t get turned to stone, and I was lucky I didn’t zap her or I would have been a char-grilled Ash fillet.

Aedan burned the spiders that raced above our heads, Mar scared the others away by rippling the ground around us, and I electrified the ones they missed while trying not to topple over. Goliath created a path of stone spiders as we slowly backed out of the cave. One landed in Mar’s hair, and she nearly broke the ground beneath us with her meltdown before I zapped it off her head.

We were almost to the tunnel when another wave of spiders rushed us from the cavern. I had no idea where they’d come from, but I swear they appeared to have hatched from the spider’s huge abdomen.

“Plug noses!” Boar rumbled, and then he lifted up his toga and bent over, aiming his big grey ass toward the spiders. He let out a fart that sounded like a tornado, causing the spiders to fall on their backs and curl up as if they’d been poisoned.

I plugged my nose and breathed through a wheeze just before a wave of heat hit me. Gross. It was like a hundred dead skunks, a thousand pounds of fish guts, and a colonoscopy bag landfill all rolled into one. The smell was so bad, my eyes burned and watered, and my tank-top stuck to my skin. Ewww. I was never going to get that stench out of my clothes.

A roar sounded above us, so dark and powerful, it was like a nuclear blast of sound that shook me to my core. Icy shards of fear sliced through my veins when another roar was followed by a deafening crack.

Aedan turned to me with panic in his eyes. “Run!”

No need to tell me twice. We bolted through the tunnel, crunching and blasting spiders before ducking under the Nephilims’ arms. What were they doing? Why weren’t they running? I glanced over my shoulder, stumbling as Aedan pulled at me. And that’s when I saw the widening crack in the ceiling. Wait? What? Holy buckets! The giants were holding it up!

“Goliath! Anak! Boar!” I screamed. “Run!”

The giants’ long arms shook as the ceiling began to buckle. Just as Mar, Boner, and Jack raced through, the cavern behind us collapsed in a plume of smoke and dust.

Aedan O’Connor

I coughed into the crook of my arm, choking on fumes and dust as I helped Ash climb out of the shallow pit, all that was left of the spider’s tunnel. I had no idea where we were, save that the cavern was dark and airy, illuminated by a torch at the opposite end of the shiny marble floors. I wished for a light and shined it above me. The smooth stone walls were swallowed by a dark hole, reminding me of the black abyss above the Nephilim’s underground river. A slight breeze ruffled my toga. I angled the light across the walls, revealing velvet tapestries embellished with gold and silver threads. I turned a slow circle, pointing my beam at each one that told a story of knights, kings, and queens. And then there were several disconcerting images depicting a black dragon eating all of them. Good God, we were in Zahaka’s lair. Where she was, I did not know, for my beam did not reveal any other inhabitants. One thing I did know: we had to leave��and fast. She would not be pleased with the mess we’d made of her lair. The marble floors were now covered with debris, her tapestries marred with soot.

I wondered if the giants had survived the cave-in, but I heard not a sound coming from the other side of the stone avalanche. As much as I wanted to try to dig them out, I feared the dragon would soon find us. “Go check the perimeter, boy,” I said to Jack. “See if there’s a way out, and be careful,” I added solemnly. “The dragon may be near.”

Jack answered with a soft whimper and then trotted away, his two heads sniffing the cavern floor.

I’d never been so terrified in all my existence. I’d almost lost Ash back there to those spiders. I cursed myself for being eternity’s biggest fool for bringing her down here. I should have talked King Og into sending an army with me. Now the Nephilim were buried, and we were in the dragon’s God-forsaken hole.

Boner and I led the girls to a large marble slab that seemed to be a bench, then Boner returned to the cave-in, kicking loose rocks with his hooves. He was looking for a way in, but I knew it was hopeless. Some of the boulders that covered the entrance were the size of Jack. There was no way we were getting inside. The only way the giants were escaping was if they did it themselves. Maybe Boar could blast their way out with his gas. In which case, we definitely needed to get out of here.

Ash looked up at me, twin pools of fear in her eyes. Lacerations covered her arms, and she had a big bruise on her cheek. “What about the giants?”

“We’ll need to find another way in.” I nodded behind me, toward the cascade of rocks that spread several yards onto the shiny marble floor. “The hole is sealed.” I didn’t dare mention my fear of the dragon and risk setting everyone into a panic.

Katherine was starting to wake up, groaning atop Boner. I could tell he was getting tired of carrying her as his back was starting to sag, but as he examined the rubble, he made no complaints. Maybe I’d pegged the guy all wrong. Maybe he was good for Mar.

I caught a glimpse of Mar, whose face was ashen and covered with grime. She was slumped in a daze, her wings wrapped protectively around her. She’d held up fairly well considering she’d been used to the luxuries of Heaven for the past century. Still, damnation was starting to wear her down. Dark circles framed her eyes as she coughed up soot.

Boner clomped over to her and nuzzled her neck. “Mar, are you sick?”

She waved him away. “I’m fine.” She stared straight ahead, swatting the empty space. “These darn flies won’t leave me alone.”

“Flies?” Ash said. “What flies?”

“They know I’m sick.” She leaned against Ash’s shoulder. “They sense my death is near.”

“Your death?” I asked. “Mar, you’re not making any sense.”

Mar rolled into Ash’s lap, draping a hand across her brow. “Aedan, you must promise me you will look after Katherine when I’m gone.”

“Mar, you’re not dying.” I wanted to add she was already dead, but she should have known that, shouldn’t she? Or was Mar experiencing some sort of waking hallucination? Perhaps the perils of Hell had finally driven her mad.

“Just promise me, Aedan. Please,” Mar begged.

“I promise, but you’re not dying.” I jumped at the sound of a falling rock behind us. “We need to leave this place.”