Angie Fox - ADS 01 - The Accidental Demon Slayer

Um. Perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea.

Dimitri tilted his head back at the crippled wolves. “Same thing happened to me when we found JR at the Red Skull. One second I had him cornered in the kitchen, and the next I was flat on my back with my friend ready to rip my head off.”

I wished I’d been further along in my training that morning so I could have gone back with him. I hated to think what he’d risked for his friend. “Is there anything left of JR in there?”

“Right now? I don’t know.” He glanced at me. “I like to think something held him back before Scarlet threw her paralyzing spell.” He shook his head, as if trying to rid himself of the memory. “It took four jars to pull him down. Even then, we hardly got the silver chains on him before he went crazy.”

That might have been the last time I saw Dimitri alive. “Sorry I chased you across the parking lot.”

“I’m not.” The corner of his mouth almost twisted into a grin. “All things considered, that was the best part of my day.” He yanked open the last lock. “You ready to see this?”

Ready as I’d ever be. Trust yourself, Lizzie .

Dimitri threw open the door. JR lurched for me like a feral animal. The man was built like a linebacker. He’d regained his human form, but there was no humanity left in his red eyes. JR’s midnight black hair shone with sweat as he yanked against his chains, his meaty hands and feet, his wide chest bloody from the struggle. It didn’t even seem like he felt the pain. What would we do if he changed back into a wolf? Would the chains hold him?

I felt the familiar urge to run like hell. Call it self-preservation.

Sacrifice yourself .

I soooo hated that last demon slayer Truth.

JR panted like he’d just eaten an entire village. Every time he exhaled, a thousand tiny needles pricked my skin. In his chest, I could feel them swirling. Dozens upon dozens. I couldn’t get my head around how many black souls churned inside him. They were so angry. They needed a place to be; they missed their bodies. And they wanted him, bad.

“Lizzie?” Dimitri touched my shoulder.

“I don’t know what to do,” I whispered.

When I’d faced Xerxes in my bathroom, I had no choice but to fight him. It was self-defense, pure and simple. But now, I could feel JR slipping away. He shouldn’t have lasted this long. Dimitri’s friend was a fighter. I wanted to help him, but I didn’t know if what I was about to do would save him or kill him.

Sacrifice yourself .

“Down, boy,” I said, easing myself into the trailer. His chains rattled as he whipped his head from side to side—fighting to control his raging body. “Work with me, JR.”

I reached out to touch his heaving chest and his hands flew to my wrists, trapping them. He could snap my bones without thinking. “Easy,” I told him, feeling anything but. “Easy,” I repeated. I inched his hands and mine toward his chest. “See, JR? We can do this.”

As long as you don’t eat me .

The moment my hand touched the hot, flushed skin over JR’s heart, I felt a jolt, like I’d wrapped my hand around a live wire. His hands flew back, freeing my wrists. Look to the outside . I let the hum of his body wash over me as I inched my fingernails into his chest. The skin crumpled back like wet newspapers and I could smell his coppery blood. I dug farther, pushing past muscle. I dug through bone. The cracking of his ribs sounded like a batch of popcorn on the stove.

At last, my fingers whispered over his beating heart.

Please, don’t let me hurt him .

I stared down at my wrist, embedded in his chest.

Please don’t let me hurt him worse .

I could tear his heart out of his chest like an Aztec nightmare. It would be over before any of us could stop it. My fingers slipped over the pulsing muscle.

JR stared at me, eyes as wide as the full moon. I caught a glimmer of recognition.

Help me .

“Oh God, JR. I’m trying.”

He groaned in pain as tiny knots bubbled in his heart. They felt like marbles. I coaxed the largest one to the surface and pulled it free. It almost slipped from my hand. “Shit!”

I almost lost it. And if I couldn’t even keep hold of one…I fought back a wave of panic. Sacrifice yourself . I took a deep breath, opened my mind, forced myself to relax and release whatever power I had. The thing wobbled in my palm.

Holy Hades. It sucked me down. As if in a dream, I watched a pretty brunette swimming in a lake at sunset. No. Not swimming—drowning. Do something! I clutched the edge of the boat.

I didn’t push her. She fell!

But we didn’t do anything to save her. Save her! She choked on the water, her eyes pleading.

No! She’s a whore. Let her get what’s coming to her. I loved her! Can’t anyone understand that? I loved her. But I won’t have my children growing up with a slut for a mother. She deserves to die .

It was in the past, a memory of the black soul I held in my hand. I felt its agony and its pleasure as the woman fought the water, gasped for her life. We ached and we laughed, as we watched the woman slip under the waves.

Holy moley. I gripped the black soul in my palm. There were more. I heard their faint screams, watched them bubble in JR’s heart. I didn’t know how either of us was going to survive this one.

“Heaven help us, JR.”

I inched my other hand inside his chest—past flesh, muscle, ribs. Slowly, deliberately, I eased the lumps up from his heart and plucked them like weeds. Every one I touched wanted to penetrate me. Wanted me .

They deserved to die .

I was following orders .

No one will ever know .

They screamed for release.

I gripped them hard as they surged through me.

“Lizzie!” Dimitri’s voice came from another universe.

Swallowing, I tried to answer. I felt like I was moving through water as I pulled my hands from JR’s body.

JR panted hard, his eyes unfocused. There should have been enough blood on the floor to fill a bathtub, but when I pulled free, the wound closed as if it had never been there.

My mind swam. They’d left him. They were mine now. And I wanted them.

“Let them go,” Dimitri was saying.

My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

“Lizzie!” he demanded.

I was weak. All my life I’d been weak. I’d been a sucker, always doing what people expected. Good Lizzie. Perfect Lizzie. Now, with these souls at my command, I felt powerful. And I didn’t need Dimitri or anybody else telling me what to do.

“Back off.” I shoved Dimitri as hard as I could. He crashed against the wall of the trailer. Good.

I had to get the souls inside me. I brought them to my chest, willing them. Please . I felt their power.

“Damn it, Lizzie!” Dimitri yanked my hands from my chest.

He was turning into a real pain in the ass. I wondered how hard it would be to kill him. He pulled me against him and the souls surged.

Another body!

He’s mine! Mine!

Get away!

I felt myself sway. The negativity, the greed—it wasn’t me. This wasn’t me! I fought for control. I’d opened myself too far. I started slamming the doors in my mind as Dimitri’s power poured into me. I didn’t care what he was doing or how he was doing it.

Dimitri’s hands warmed mine and through the clamor of the black souls, I felt…peace. I remembered flying. Flying? Not in an airplane, but like I had wings. High above cornfields and cotton, soaring with the wind in my face. Happy. I saw a family with twin girls. Dimitri’s sisters. I didn’t know how I knew, I just did. They laughed together, their noses almost touching. I felt the love. It reminded me of how I always hoped my real family would be, if I ever found them.