The Death Skull: Relic Defender, Book 2 (32 page)

Chapter Twenty

Jackson ducked under the slash of the creature’s claws, then shot the bastard in the face. The impact of the bullet exploded the thing’s brains out the back. Whirling, he then kicked the one coming at him from the side in its chest. The blow knocked it back into its brethren.

Still the fuckers kept coming.

At his side, Kanek kept up the steady throwing of those green light balls at the creatures, and he took out a lot more than Jackson. But it wasn’t enough. The sea of gray never seemed to lessen. More and more of the things replaced those they downed.

He and the boy weren’t going to make it.

His death didn’t piss him off as much as the fact that he’d failed Mari and his mother. Mari was kicking ass above in a battle she knew she couldn’t win, just so he could get the skull. And his mother… His stomach spun into knots. She was going to lose her home, the retirement home and be tossed into the streets.

A hot sting singed along his arm. He didn’t even stop to see what the hell that was. He turned, fired and kept firing until he heard the ominous
click
of the Colt’s empty chamber. Then he threw the weapon at the closest creature, who just batted it away with a horrible rasping chuckle.

That laugh did it.

Jackson held up his sword and shouted, “Yee-haw!” and plunged into the frothing mass. By damned, he was going down, but not without a bunch of them. He’d like to think, if his mother knew, she’d be proud of him for standing his ground.

The first line of demons went down, missing chunks of body. Under the rage of his onslaught, the rest fell back. He kept yelling, waving his sword back and forth, daring them to come close.

“Come on, you slimy bastards, let’s get this over with,” he snarled.

During the battle, the creatures’ force had pressed him and Kanek back against the far wall. This put Jackson smack-dab in a position to see just how many fuckers there were. That scared the shit out of him and pissed him off. Getting to that skull was important and he was about to go down in defeat. And his momma would be out on the street. His lips firmed and he threw himself forward, into the group, slashing the sword to his right and left.

Bleating cries of what sounded like surprise, the nasties fell back. Even as their moans and clicks filled the cave, they stayed several feet away from him and Kanek.

“Come on, you bastards! I don’t have all day,” he howled.

“Human, I didn’t realize you had a death wish.”

The sultry purr that instantly made his groin tighten came from his right. A slim form wearing red shifted into view. His heart skipped a beat.
Don’t that beat all, she’d made it.
Movement from his other side snagged his focus from the fallen angel. A tall man in black came up to his left. Jackson’s eyes widened.
Son of a bitch.

Ash acknowledged Jackson with a curt nod. What the hell was the Slayer doing here? He worked for the big badass, the father of the demon they were trying to stop from taking Earth as his personal playground and using humans as his toys. Why would Ash help them? Or was he here to stop them? Mari didn’t seem bothered, so Jackson held on to his concerns.

Jackson tossed a crooked grin at Mari. “’Bout damn time you got here, woman.” He was not about to let her know how happy he was to see her.

Her lips twitched then she faced the demons. The smile tugging at the corners of her lips drew his gaze, their pink fullness reminding him of when he’d had her beneath him, the taste of her mouth sweet on his.

Jesus H. Christ, son. You’re getting your ass kicked and you stop to think about sex?

Another movement, this one from his right, pulled his gaze from Mari and collided with the midnight glare of Lucifer’s Slayer. Jackson didn’t have time to find out why, because the creatures, obviously recouping their courage, attacked en masse.

Time became a blur of gray as he fought alongside Mari and Ash. Every few minutes, the darkness was lit by a flash of green, which told him Kanek was alive and kicking.

Finally, when Jackson thought they might fall under the volume of nasties, they stopped attacking. From within their mass, movement split their rank and file in half like Moses parting the Red Sea.

A figure dressed from head to toe in a muddy-brown hooded robe stepped through. The creatures nearest him flinched, their bodies physically drawing away from the hooded man. Ignoring them, the figure lifted one hand, his fingers curled into claws. On a bony finger, a large crystal ring—shaped like a skull—winked in the bright light. The finger pointed.

Jackson heard Mari suck in her breath with a loud hiss. He could almost feel the tension in her body from a foot away. It radiated off her with a physical presence. He gave her a grim look but didn’t ask if she knew the figure.

“We are pleased to see you again, Marisol Asheni.” Its words, singsong and soft in deep contrast to the nasties’ growling tones, raised the hairs on his arms. And not in a good way.

Jackson jerked his head to look directly at Mari. From the corner of his eye, he noted Ash did the same thing. Under the pressure of both their scrutiny, she seemed to duck and if he didn’t know better, her feet shuffled. She didn’t return their looks, just kept her gaze firmly on the creature in the robe. But something he could see—a darkness in her eyes—let him know she was taken aback by robed dude and its comment.

She lifted her chin. “I can’t say the same. In fact,” she purred and lifted her sword, “if you come closer, I’ll show you just how unhappy I am to see you.”

Go get ’em, beautiful.
Got to admire the woman—she stayed tough even when he sensed she was anything but.

The thing laughed, a shudder-inducing sound. “My king is expecting you. You may pass.”

Jackson reared back, unnerved by the sudden change. He’d thought he was going to die, then suddenly, she and Ash join them, and now they can pass? Just like that?

Mari shot him a look. “Let’s go.”

Jackson frowned. “That’s it? Let’s go? Don’t you find something odd about this?”

“We have to get to the skull before Beliel does.”

“Agreed, but I was getting my ass kicked a second ago and now we are free to go? Pardon me, but if it smells like shit, it probably is shit.”

“The demon speaks the truth. We will not be harmed.”

That was from Kanek. He’d spoken English? When the hell had he learned? Or had he hidden that ability from them?

“Um, yeah, I’m not going to take the word of a boy, even if he can throw green balls of light.” Jackson looked around, glaring at each of them in the face. “Does anyone else here think this is a trap?”

“Jackson.” His name on her lips shut him down. He’d gotten so used to hearing her calling him “human” instead of his real name he figured she didn’t even remember it.

Mari shifted until she faced him squarely, with her back to the creatures. He cringed, imagining one of the bastards leaping at her and slicing through her neck before she could blink.

This close, he nearly drowned in the pools of red her irises had become. He’d never thought crimson eyes would be attractive. Hers were different. Not blood red or even ruby, but more the color of claret.

“Indeed, I am quite certain this is a trap. Still, we have to get to the skull. We can deal with the trap when we have the skull. Time is running out. Beliel has Kat and he will make her help him find and use the skull. If we are to save her and keep the skull from Beliel, we must go. Now.”

At the mention of Kat, Jackson saw Ash go rigid as if he’d suddenly had a board shoved up his ass. So it was true. Lucifer’s Slayer had feelings, or something that amounted to feelings, for the ghost. Wonder if that meant the other rumor was true. The one that claimed Ash had murdered Kat. Talk about obstacles to overcome in a relationship.

Mari had a point. Save Kat, get the skull and deal with whatever shit Beliel threw at them after. So, despite the itch that niggled at him regarding the seriousness of the threat facing them, Jackson nodded.

Relief flooded her eyes, turning the red softer. He couldn’t help himself and his gaze dropped to her lips. The natural rose color beckoned for him to touch and his hand lifted before he caught himself and froze. Too late—she’d noticed. Her nostrils flared and she retreated. Damn, the woman was skittish.

She pivoted and faced the creature again. “All of us pass.”

It nodded. “That is agreeable.”

“We know it’s a trap.”

“I would not expect otherwise.”

Her head tilted. “It won’t matter. We will get the skull.”

It nodded again. “Yes.” It slipped back into the creatures but as it did, it tossed over its shoulder, “But will you keep it?”

“Rotten bastard,” Jackson growled.

“You have no idea,” she murmured.

Without hesitation, she strode to the creatures and walked between the first two. Kanek followed, then Ash. Jackson brought up the rear. Soon, with the creatures’ mass behind them and the darkness beyond, his group was swallowed. As he approached the nasties, he got a true picture of just how twisted they were. Before, too busy fighting them to see them, now he got an eyeful.

When he’d first seen them, he’d thought they resembled humans, but up close the nasties had nothing in common with humans, except for their general shape and the fact they had two arms and two legs, even if the arms ended in Freddy Krueger hands.

Long necks attempted to support bulging heads covered with what looked like bony humps. As far as he could see, they had no ears or nose and the small eyes set deep in the protrusions were yellow with red streaks. Twisted bodies fidgeted as if they couldn’t remain still for long. He’d thought their skin gray but he’d been wrong. So wrong.

Under bleached-white skin that seemed paper thin, things moved, curling around as if their bodies were filled with snakes, which seemed even more likely when gray, slender bodies hissed at him from splits in the skin.

As he passed the nasties, Jackson couldn’t stop the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck from lifting as he anticipated they’d been lied to and any minute, the creatures would attack.

Even though they growled and snapped and the snakelike things hissed, they didn’t attack. He made it through the group of nasties and down the corridor before he realized he’d been holding his breath. Beyond the cavern, he rested a hand on the stone wall and took a couple of gulps of air and nearly choked on the musty rodent smell. Still, after the rotting scent of the nasties, rat stink was Nirvana.

When he’d collected himself, he looked around. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he muttered.

He figured they’d cross into another cave like the one they’d left, or find themselves in a long corridor, but instead, they were in a big-ass cavern that stretched farther than he could see. He stood with the others on the precipice of a large slash in the floor with no apparent way across. He looked out over the blackness.

“Holy hell,” he breathed.

In the center of the humongous cave was a structure made of large squares of stone, just like the ones outside in Lubaantun. But these were different. First, they glimmered. As in a golden glimmer reflected in the torches set about the base of the pyramid. Gold? Christ, he’d watched
Indiana Jones
as a child and was familiar with the stories of El Dorado, but to actually be standing before a building made of gold? Un-fucking-believable.

One of those things would offer his mother security for the rest of her life. Hell, even half of one would.

Mari had done well when she’d dumped him and Kanek in the cave. She’d set them down within a short distance of their final destination.

But not close enough.

He slid her a flat look. “So,” he whispered, “how do we get to the other side? I don’t suppose you can fly?”

Lexi had once told him that flying with an angel was a very private thing and it didn’t happen as a matter of course. She’d flown with Mikos once. There was something so incredibly binding about that—the intimacy of the event. He and Mari were in no way ready for something like that. Even if the flying thing was true, he certainly didn’t expect her or Ash to take them across.

At his comment, she bared her teeth at him, then closed her eyes. He expected something, but nothing happened. After a minute or two, she opened her eyes.

“I can’t apport.”

“Apport?” he asked, confused for a second, then answered himself as memory slapped him in the head. His mind had apparently gone on vacation. “Ah, that thing you do when you travel from one place to the next.”

She nodded. “Something around the pyramid, like around Belize, won’t let me use that particular ability. We have to find another way across.”

Jackson frowned. “You were able to do it when you sent Kanek and me away.”

She pulled her lower lip between her teeth. “Yes, I know. It seems the place has very specific rules about where my powers work and which ones do.”

She turned toward Ash. In a language Jackson didn’t recognize, she spoke. While she and Ash discussed whatever the hell they needed to discuss, Jackson stared at the tall Slayer. He couldn’t get over the sight. Lucifer’s deadly assassin working with them to defeat Beliel.

Now, he didn’t understand politics and maybe demon politics was different. The fact that Ash worked for the devil himself, and they were all about stopping the devil and his son from having their way with humans, seemed to be a problem in Jackson’s mind. And he wasn’t sure about the whole working-alone thing Beliel had going. No way did the King of Hell not know what his son was doing.