Angie Fox - ADS 03 - A Tale of Two Demon Slayers

“Get down!” Dimitri smashed me onto the cold hard floor, his body falling on top of me as a monster on the windowsill flung a leathery arrow at us.

I winced as it clattered against the wall behind us and fell to the floor.

“Get up. We need to separate. They’re hurling curses.” Dimitri dragged us sideways as another arrow whizzed past.

We rolled to the left as I dug my slimy tennis shoes off without untying them. Then, for lack of options, I tossed one at the window imp. It smacked him right in the forehead, the goo zapping him backward out the window.

“Ha!” I pushed away from Dimitri, aiming a switch star at the imp currently making a big char hole in the floor. The bronze on my shoulder made it harder to throw. Still, I cleaved the imp in half, the two sides of its hairy black body sizzling as three more imps poured in the window.

Dyonne caught a claw on the outside ledge, tearing part of it off as she snapped her eagle’s beak through the window. But her head was too wide and the imps too fast.

One of the imps from the window leapt onto Dimitri’s antique desk, and the wood disintegrated on the spot.

“Holy Hades!” My stomach flip-flopped, shocked, as the imp fell into a pile of ash.

Dimitri’s eyes widened. “Kill it!”

His forehead glistened with sweat as he worked some kind of incantation over the broken window.

Right. I leveled a switch star at the thing’s head, slicing it open, as the other two from the window leapt into the study. I caught one of them as it took cover behind a potted ficus tree in the corner. The imp fell forward and the tree wilted and turned to dust before my eyes. Another one landed on the oriental carpet by a massive fireplace. The carpet curled and blackened.

Sweet Mary. Everything they touched aged and died.

“Lizzie!” Dimitri yelled as the last imp hurled a curse directly at me. I dodged as it struck my bronze-clad shoulder, bouncing off.

I gasped, panic shooting through me. But the bronze had protected me. Thank God.

The imp launched itself straight for my head. I grabbed a switch star and stepped backward to throw, when an electric shock radiated through my body. A momentary panic seized me. I’d stepped on a gooey tennis shoe. I flung the switch star hard. It zinged sideways as I fell, the imp crashing straight for me.

“Lizzie!”

I forced every bit of focus I had on the switch star hurtling back to me. It sliced straight through the imp as I rolled sideways, scrambling to avoid the body.

“Jesus!” Dimitri tackled me, crushing me against the hard floor with his weight. “Lizzie.” He yanked me upward, inspecting me before hauling my body against his.

I shoved against him. “What are you doing? Where are the imps?”

“Outside.” His chest heaved against me and it felt, well, nice. “For now. I sealed the window to keep out anything demonic.”

He pulled away, his face a maze of worry, “Lizzie, I thought I’d lost you.”

Before I could tell him that would be hard to do, he wrapped me in a crushing kiss. He was all heat, fire and tongue. I kissed him back, hard. Either one of us could have been dust on the floor, like the plant or the desk. By the sheer grace of the heavens, we’d survived.

I could not lose this man, this life. Not yet. He was solid and strong against me. Ribbons of pleasure wound through me. I felt his relief and his love and, yum, him against my leg.

He groaned, or it might have been me, as we luxuriated in being alive and whole. Way too soon, Dimitri pulled away, looking as dazed as I felt.

I ran a finger along his jaw. “Mmm…That was almost worth getting zapped.”

Dimitri frowned. “No, it wasn’t.”

“Oh yeah? Let’s make sure.”

I tipped my lips to his and delighted in his swift and utterly complete surrender. I’m not sure how long we kissed. I didn’t care. He was my port in the storm.

A small boulder crashed through the open window, bringing us back to reality.

I stiffened, ready for attack, and saw Diana, in human form, perched on the windowsill. Oh my goodness. It was at least a fifty-foot drop.

“Don’t worry about us,” she said, shaking out her mass of dark hair, easing a leg inside the window as Dimitri murmured an incantation to allow her to pass. “We were happy to drive off the rest of the devil’s spawn while you two made out.”

“Where’s Dyonne?” Dimitri asked, evidently used to this kind of behavior.

“She’s going the long way—around the house, up the stairs.” Diana shivered as if she found the whole thing a complete bother. “Dyonne also has to stop by her room on the way up.” Diana winked. “She lost her dress.”

“How did you manage to keep yours?” I asked.

Dimitri always shifted back naked. Not that I was complaining.

Diana lifted the skirt of her yellow sundress and showed me a loop under the hem. “I tie it to my tail before I finish shifting.”

“It’s dangerous,” Dimitri added, making it clear they’d had this discussion before.

Diana rolled her eyes. “Pshaw. I haven’t done it in any griffin battles. Let the imps try to grab it”—she wiggled her rear—“or my tail.”

Speaking of such, “How did you touch those things? They turned everything in here to dust.”

“Griffins have Skye magic,” Diana said. “Cursed imps can hurt us, even kill us. But they can’t…well…” She waved a hand over the ashes on the floor.

Dimitri wrapped a protective arm around me. “Cursed imps can only disintegrate things that owe their existence to the earth—the carpet, my plant, my desk.” He cringed slightly. It had been a nice desk.

“And people like me,” I said.

Dimitri nodded. “For all your powers, it’s still a matter of dust to dust.”

I’d remember that.

“Are we safer in the house?” I asked. Aside from a burn hole in the floor, the imps hadn’t been able to damage it.

“Perhaps,” Dimitri said, his fingers playing along my arm. “The house has been soaked in generations of protective magic. Still”—he leaned forward and treated me to a lingering kiss on the forehead—“let’s not test the theory, okay?”

That was more than fine by me.

“What I can’t figure out is why they were going for the floor safe,” Dimitri said, moving away from me.

He brushed his foot across the remains of his desk and over one of the slate tiles. “I keep our family histories in here, but nothing else of consequence.”

“And the light box?” I asked.

Dimitri led us to the massive stone fireplace behind what had been his desk. It was white like the walls, blackened inside from generations of fires. He said a few hushed words over a carved griffin head at the apex of the mantel, and it opened with an eerie creak.

We crowded around him to see as he pulled out a drawer the size of a cereal box. He peeled away layers of gossamer cloth to reveal a thin glass lantern with bronze fittings. A wisp of light danced inside like a flame.

My stomach tingled. “Is that my magic?”

Dimitri stood silent for a moment. “No.” He cast his eyes down, hesitant to say what came next. “From the color of this flame, it seems as if your magic has been missing for quite a while.”

I stepped back, shock washing over me. “Gone?” I’d prepared myself for the possibility, but it still felt like a punch to the gut. “And what do you mean it’s been missing for a while? I’ve only known you for two months.”

Wouldn’t I have sensed it if I’d been compromised? I had to believe I’d have had an inkling. If something was working against me, I’d have felt weaker, I’d have felt exposed—I’d have felt something .

Dimitri looked as horrified as I felt. “From the blue of the flame, I’d say it’s been two weeks. About the time you were hanging out with Max in Vegas.” He couldn’t let it go.