“Did I forget to mention the other aspect of the circles?” Dagon said with glee. “Touch or magic triggers their defenses, but only to your circle, girl! It’s possible Ian could free himself, if he casts a powerful-enough spell. But that will kill you, and your father isn’t available to resurrect you anymore.” Dagon wagged his finger at me. “Which will it be? Will you watch him die? Or will you watch as he murders you to free himself? Either way, you suffer before your end, so I win.”
Ian’s gaze swung to me, an incredulous form of rage in his expression. “Tell me this arsehole is lying, and you didn’t forget to tell me you’re no longer immortal!”
I spat the last mouthful of blood out before answering. “Knew there was something I left out,” I said with a terrible imitation of a laugh. Then, agony of a different sort gripped me as I stared into Ian’s eyes. “If you can save yourself, do it. He’s not letting me live no matter what happens to you.”
“Oh, that’s true,” Dagon replied cheerily. “And if Ian breaks free from that circle, he’ll be lucky to have enough energy left to run from us, so forget about him avenging you.”
Ian gave him a look of such hatred that my blood chilled. It was as if he’d channeled all the rage from everyone slain before their time and lasered it at Dagon. The demon’s smirk actually fell beneath the silent, seething onslaught. Then, he caught himself, and his arrogant smile returned.
“Or, I’ll watch you die now, boy. That’ll be fun, too.”
With that, two humps swelled beneath the garbage that layered the bottom of Ian’s circle. Ian jumped back, pulling out more weapons. In the moments it took the forms to burst free from the trash covering them, Ian had already fired several rounds into both of the growing humps.
He’d hit his marks, but no blood spattered the creatures that rose up from the trash piles. They grew impossibly fast, going from the size of dogs to horses in the scant time it took Ian to holster his guns and hurl silver knives into their heads next. The metal pierced skulls that looked leonine, if lions also had horns, but then the knives fell out without any visible damage to the creatures. Feathers slithered over their torsos, skipping their hairless, lionlike heads and humanoid hands and arms. Then two wings unfurled from their backs.
I stared in disbelief. These creatures had been carved into stone murals when I was a child, but I hadn’t known they were real. Dagon saw my reaction and laughed.
“You do recognize them! Anzus were considered demons to ancient Sumerians, but what else do you expect primitive humans to call lesser divinities? They’re also rarer than Simargls, so you’ll appreciate the effort it took me to bring them here. Cost me two souls a piece.”
One of the Anzus reared up and swiped at Ian with its huge, claw-tipped, humanoid hand. Ian leapt back, hitting the walls of his circle. The circle’s defense mechanism slammed into me with the force of a car crash. Breath exploded out of me and my bones instantly broke. I staggered, avoiding touching the sides of my own far smaller circle because I didn’t want to be hit with another blast of defensive magic, as Dagon called it.
Ian gave a worried look in my direction. The other Anzu seized on the distraction and flew at him faster than he could avoid. Claws ripped through everything except Ian’s bullet-proof vest. Ian’s blood spattered the walls of his circle. I felt new inner slashes from even that slight contact. Then, Ian threw the creature aside. It slammed into the circle’s barrier, setting off another chainsaw-rampage sensation inside of me.
All I saw was blood for a few agonizing moments. It spurted from my eyes, mouth, and nose, forced out from the internal damage I could neither defend against nor protect myself from. When it stopped, I was on the floor, dangerously close to the edge of my own circle. Ian screamed my name. I looked up to see him stab his demon bone trident through one of the Anzu’s eyes with absolutely no effect.
“Destroy the head,” I croaked, hoping the old myths were true.
Ian flew up to avoid the second Anzu’s attack, leaving his trident in the first one. The Anzu ripped it free, then broke the trident under a massive back paw.
Ian torpedoed back down, landing on the Anzu’s back hard enough to snap the spine of any other creature. The Anzu didn’t even lose its balance. It began flying around the circle, bucking wildly, striking the walls and the other Anzu in its rage to get Ian off its back. Between bursts of agony from the repeated contact with the circle’s walls, I saw Ian hold on . . . and slam his longest, widest knife through the Anzu’s skull.
The breath I held exploded out of me when the Anzu ripped that knife out of its skull with one of those humanlike hands, then bent down and rammed Ian against the circle’s barrier hard enough for me to hear his bones shatter. I didn’t hear anything except my own screams after that. The circle’s defensive ricochet from that tremendous impact ripped me apart on the inside.
When I could focus again, Dagon’s laugh was the first thing I heard. Then the blood left my vision and I saw Ian, far bloodier than before, flying out of the Anzus’ reach while trying to avoid the sides of the circle. He must have figured out touching them was the source of my debilitating damage.
“Did I forget to mention my favorite part about Anzus?” Dagon’s voice rose with vicious satisfaction. “No weapon forged can harm them.”
Chapter 41
I could stand to watch Dagon gloat, and I could stand to die. But I could not stand to see Ian die again.
“Use your magic to get out of there, Ian!”
My hoarse shout made Ereshki smile. I didn’t care. If Ian managed to survive the Anzus, he had enough magic in him to free himself from the circle. Then all he had to do was stay alive until the first rays of dawn shone through the blue diamond, and he could teleport out of the lodge. Dagon couldn’t attack Ian directly because the spell my father cast on him meant he couldn’t get close enough, and I didn’t think Ereshki had the energy. Not from the way she looked. Setting the groundwork for Dagon’s trap appeared to have taken everything she had left.
“No,” Ian snapped, getting a bloody swipe to his side from one of the Anzus for his reply. That’s how fast they were. One moment’s distraction was all they needed.
Dagon smirked. “See how long his loyalty lasts when the Anzus are feasting on his flesh.”
Ereshki’s smile widened. Despair and rage shook me.
She laughed at what she did to you, Ian had said earlier. Every second she lives after that is too long.
My jaw tightened until cartilage snapped. Ereshki had lived too long. So had Dagon. I should have killed her the moment I recognized her at Yonah’s, and I should have killed Dagon as soon as I saw him at that theme park in Paris. I hadn’t. Now, Dagon would continue his murdering, soul-damning ways, and Ereshki would continue helping him. Countless more people would suffer and die, starting with me. But Ian didn’t have to be next.
“If I die, I’ll find a way to come back to you,” I swore in a desperate attempt to sway him. “My father said the power to resurrect resided in me. Use your magic and free yourself from that circle! If I die, I will return to you!”
A lie I wished with all my heart were true. Maybe, if I wished hard enough, it would be true. I had no way to know. There was no margin of error for whether or not I could self-resurrect. If it didn’t work, that was it.
“Yes, free yourself by killing her!” Dagon urged, grinning so widely, his lips should have split. “I want the last thing she sees to be you sacrificing her to save yourself.”
Blood painted Ian’s face red, making the flash of white from his teeth a sharp contrast as he smiled. “No weapon forged can harm these creatures? Thanks for the tip.”
Then he tore off his outer tactical gear as he flew out of the Anzus’ reach. A thick belt filled with weapons bounced off one of the Anzus before it hit the floor, then the two automatic rifles strapped to Ian’s back, then the extra silver knives he’d strapped to his forearms. Dagon watched, cocking his head in curiosity.
“Giving up so soon?
How boring.”
Ian tore his shirt off in response. The gleaming expanse of pale, muscled flesh actually made Dagon stare for a moment before he caught sight of the dark bands encircling Ian’s upper arm. Then the demon’s gaze narrowed.
“What is that?”
Ian gave him a brief, savage grin. “You’ll soon find out.”
Hope flared, bright yet fragile. Caught in the grip of every horrible way Dagon had thwarted us, I’d forgotten about the horn, which had been created by the gods. Not forged by man. Could the ancient relic be enough to take down the Anzus?
I sucked in a breath as Ian flew at the Anzu that was flapping its great wings to reach him at the top of the circle. Right before Ian slammed into it, his arm shot out. The horn did, too, stabbing the creature through its open, fanged mouth. The impact rocketed them both to the ground, Ian’s entire arm disappearing down the creature’s throat. They hit the ground hard enough to make it shudder. My heart seized. Nothing was happening. Just like before, the Anzu wasn’t hurt—
Ian ripped his arm forward. The dark tip of the horn sliced through the Anzu’s back like a butcher cleaving off a tender piece of meat. It didn’t stop even when it reached the Anzu’s head. Another brutal rip, and two bony halves fell to the side, while an eruption of a thick blue fluid burst from the center. The Anzu shuddered once and then it lay completely still.
Dagon turned paler than his normal ivory visage. Then he screamed and flung himself at Ian’s circle, beating on it. But the same spell that kept Ian and I trapped also locked the demon out. Ian’s circle had the same defensive reaction to being touched on the outside as it did on the inside, though. I fell over, more blood blinding and choking me while my organs felt like they were exploding, then burning.
“Die, die, die!” Dagon screamed.
I felt like I would. That must be Dagon’s goal. A person’s body could only take so much, vampire healing abilities or not.
Then Ian’s voice cut through the merciless pain. “Veritas!”
Dammit, one more costly distraction could be Ian’s last! I forced myself into a sitting position, my abrupt wave saying worry about yourself, not me! I wasn’t the one locked in a circle with an Anzu.
Dagon kept chanting “Die!” while beating on the circle. Every blow slammed into me. Once again, all I saw was red and all I tasted was blood. I didn’t know it was possible for my body to contain this much blood, or produce this much pain. It maddened me, making me grasp at anything that could help.
I yanked my other nature out of her cage, crying out in relief at the brief respite of her being in the forefront instead of me. It lessened the pain, allowing me to see through her far more detached eyes as she rose up from my blood and the thicker, heavier things I’d retched to look at Ian.
It reminded me of Ashael’s unique spying method. Everything was coated in red, making the struggle between Ian and the remaining Anzu look more like a blood-soaked nightmare than reality.
The Anzu tore into Ian’s shoulder, fangs ripping out hunks of flesh as it slammed Ian into the circle’s invisible wall. Agony exploded, so intense that it seared me even through my other half. When it lessened and I could see again, Ian’s right shoulder was gone, his arm was hanging by only a few stubborn ligaments, and the Anzu was closing in for another gouging bite.
I screamed, hearing the echo of it leave my other half’s lips. She no longer felt as separate from me, just as I could no longer use her as a shield. The pain had stitched us too tightly together. Or maybe we were both struck with horror at the sight of the Anzu savagely ripping into Ian. His huge mouth closed over Ian’s shoulder once again, tearing at the gaping wound. Ian’s right arm hit the floor, severed. Then his back bowed from the creature’s weight as the Anzu bore down on him, wings flapping for maximum assault velocity.
Dagon howled in victory and stopped beating on the outside of Ian’s circle. Ereshki ran forward, clapping with the delight of a child. Ian dropped to his knees beneath the Anzu’s massive form. His blood splattered the circle’s edge, sending more stabs into me that paled next to the anguish of seeing Ian on his knees.
The Anzu reared back for another flesh-rending bite—
Ian twisted, using the blood slicking the ground to slide past the Anzu’s descending head. Then he stabbed the horn through the creature’s mouth so violently, the tip went straight through the Anzu’s head and into the wall of the circle.
Pain blasted me, but beneath it, I felt a crack! that stopped the pain for a blissful moment.
When I looked up, the horn’s tip was still embedded in the wall surrounding the circle, and now, a spiderweb of fractures spread out to reveal that part of the invisible wall.
“No,” Dagon whispered. “It’s not possible!”
But it was. Brute force and multiple blasts of magic hadn’t made a single fissure in the circle, but somehow, the horn could damage it. And if it could be damaged, it could fall.
Ian kicked the dead Anzu aside. Then, its blue blood mixing with the scarlet swaths that splattered him, he rose, eyeing the crack with single-minded focus.
“Use the horn to break the circle!” I shouted, a fierce thrill of hope acting as a shot of adrenaline. “It isn’t the same as using magic. That crack you made stopped the pain!”
“No!” Dagon screamed, now beating against the walls with everything he had. Ereshki ran over to join him. Their double assault ripped into me with blinding ferocity, but amidst that, I felt another, stronger crack! that briefly stopped the pain.
“It’s working!” I croaked when my throat cleared of blood enough for me to speak. “Don’t stop!”
He didn’t. I felt each hammer of Ian’s fist against that wall in the snap of my bones becoming slower and the pulverizing of my insides becoming less crippling. Soon, I caught glimpses of Ian through the blood that took longer to block out my vision.
Ian had the horn wrapped around his hand like a pair of brass knuckles as he hammered at the wall with the determination of the damned. Fractures made the entire circle visible from floor to ceiling, resembling cracked glass. Dagon and Ereshki had switched to beating against my circle instead of Ian’s, and the fury on Dagon’s face was balm to my endless pain.
Dagon wouldn’t be so furious unless Ian was winning.
“Don’t stop!” I repeated before my vision and mouth flooded with blood again. I felt like I was drowning, but that was impossible. Vampires didn’t need to breathe to survive.
Then I felt the magic, foul and putrid, pulsing through the pain. Dagon and Ereshki had stopped using physical force on my circle. Now, they were casting the darkest of magic at it. The circle reacted with all the defensive violence in it. Soon, even the relentless hammering of Ian’s fist wasn’t enough to counter it. I wasn’t being drowned; I was being plunged toward death.
“Veritas!”
Ian’s voice cut through the currents pulling me under. I tried to lift my head, but it was too heavy.
“Answer me, Veritas!”
The sharpness in Ian’s voice was nothing compared to the detonations going off inside me. Dagon and Ereshki’s magic was too strong. My body was giving out. I didn’t know how much damage Ian had done to the circle, or if it would be enough, and I couldn’t open my eyes to look. I didn’t have the strength.
“If you don’t answer, I will stop beating this circle and let them kill me!”
Fucking hell. Was it really too much to ask that he not get killed for me again? I, at least, had a chance at coming back from the dead once I died. Ian didn’t, but was he letting that stop him from making his threat? Of course not.
“Veritas, I mean it!”
I still couldn’t speak or see, but I marshaled all my energy in order to move one finger. It was my middle one, and I stuck it straight up in the direction his voice came from.
A harsh laugh preceded his reply. “Good. I’m almost through this wall, but it’s taken quite a lot from me. When it goes down, I need you to be ready because Dagon will att
ack you. Do you hear? You can’t stay slumped in a pool of your own blood.”
Did he think I was lying in my own pureed guts because it was a hot new fashion trend? If I could’ve flipped him off with both hands, I would have.
“Whatever you did to terrify Tenoch all those years ago, I need you to do it again,” Ian went on, shocking me. “That part of you is buried too deep to be beaten down by this spell. It’s also been waiting a long time to come out. Now, you need to let it.”
Tenoch’s face flashed in my mind. Not one of the memories I cherished; the one I’d tried the hardest to forget. The horror on his face when he stared at the bodies lying beside pools of darkness around me, and worse, the revulsion in his eyes when he looked up from them to stare at me . . .
“No,” I croaked, so appalled I managed to speak.
“Yes,” he snapped. “I won’t let Tenoch’s fear cost you your life. And do you think Dagon will stop at you? Do you want me to break down these walls only to get slaughtered by that sod?”
With each word, he continued hammering at the circle. I felt it in every flash of relief in my broken body, but now I was worried, too. How much had it taken from Ian for him to keep beating on that magic-imbued barrier? Was it everything he had?
I reached down inside myself and felt around until I brushed the most forbidden aspects of my other half. Yes, that power was still there, but would it be enough? Worse, would it be too much? Ian was right; that part had been held back for so long that I had no idea what it would do if I let it out again.
“Can’t . . . control it,” I managed to say.
“You don’t need to.” A shout that coincided with a boom! that shook me to my core. “I trust you, all of you. You won’t hurt me, and nothing you can do will ever horrify me. Let yourself free, Veritas! Every bit of you!”
I could feel the cracks on the walls widening. Soon, they would come down, and Dagon would come at us with everything he had. He didn’t even need to get close to Ian to kill him, either. A shot through the heart with a silver bullet would be enough, and Ian had left automatic weapons filled with silver rounds at the bottom of his circle.