Angie Fox - ADS 01 - The Accidental Demon Slayer

Vald’s eyes blazed for a moment, before he stomped down the emotion. “You try a demon’s patience,” he said, fighting to even the tone of his voice. “You’d better hope she doesn’t singe herself on the florescent lights.”

I strained to catch a glimpse, any sign of Grandma among the thousands of souls dancing around a series of hot bulbs encased in wide-set metal brackets.

“How about this?” he asked. “I’ll retrieve your grandmother and you hand over your power.”

I couldn’t do it. He was too dangerous.

“Well what if we include the rest of Dimitri’s family?” asked the fifth-level demon, far too reasonably.

My eyes had grown dry from staring. I could save Dimitri, his family, Grandma. But I didn’t want this monster walking the earth. Or, if I let my mind go there, I didn’t want any part of his demon slayer experiments. My mom was right. We should never have come down here. We’d only made things worse.

Vald twisted the clamp around my throat. “What if I do this?”

My body flooded with pain, as if he’d dropped me in a vat of acid. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

As soon as it began, it ended. My body tingled, hypersensitive to the static electricity racing up and down my arms.

“Was that effective?”

I didn’t know what to do.

“What about this?”

A cramp seized me between the ribs. My breath caught in my throat as Vald drew a spiderweb–thin line of blue energy from my body. He teased it out, unraveling my powers like an old sock. I felt myself grow weak with every pull. My head fuzzed, and my mouth grew dry. When he finished teasing out a length of my shimmering, demon-slaying essence, he dropped the thread to the floor.

“This way takes longer,” Vald grunted. “And now I’m going to have to untangle it. An interesting choice you’ve made.”

My rapidly numbing fingers dug into the case at the back of my tool belt. I prayed that the last tool in Great-great-great Aunt Evie’s bag of tricks would be enough to cap Vald’s ass for good. I inched my finger underneath the lid to find the mysterious creature I’d glimpsed on the deck of the Dixie Queen .

Ouch! Damn the thing—it bit me. I shoved my finger deeper. If the little degenerate thought its razor-pointed teeth could stop me at this point, it had underestimated this particular chewed-up, spit-out, not-going-take-it-anymore demon slayer.

It wriggled its sand-papery body far down into the bottom of the pocket until it disappeared completely. Impossible! I wanted to holler as I dug my bloody finger into the bottom of the leather case. Then again, what the hell did I know?

Back to the third pocket from the right. I reached for my last crystal and jerked back in pain as it burned my fingers. Vald’s pile of power had grown into a tangle of threads at his feet. I no longer had enough energy to use the few tools I had left.

My stomach sank. I couldn’t beat Vald even when I had my powers, much less now. He tossed me a maniacal grin. He was going to kill me and Dimitri—if Dimitri wasn’t dead already. Then Vald would walk the earth again.

As if he could read my thoughts, which he probably could given the grip he had on my life force, Vald said, “It will be important to wipe out the coven. And of course any trace of you, just in case you have a twin. I’ve learned to be meticulous. When I exterminated Edna, I gave in to celebration too soon. Her sister Evie escaped. A very difficult slayer indeed. I’ve regretted my lack of attention for many, many years.”

I felt the two halves of my soul fluttering in my throat. I wondered what Vald would do to them—to me—after I died.

Vald jolted, shocking me out of my haze. Dimitri stood next to my pile of power, holding up a Transport Spell.

Sweet happy puppies! Ant Eater had shoved that purple noodle of a transport spell in my pocket on board the Dixie Queen . I didn’t care when or how Dimitri had taken it. God love my crafty, demon-busting boyfriend.

“Cut it, Vald,” Dimitri said, holding up the transport spell, “or you’re headed for the third layer of hell.”

Vald stopped, his face twisted with annoyance and—praised be—doubt. “If you release that spell, you’ll also send Lizzie to the third layer of hell,” he said, wiggling the thin line of energy that connected me to the fifth-level demon. “I doubt she’d fare as well as I would.”

Dimitri drew the spell back like a weapon. “Yeah,” he said, his voice colder than the ice cliffs, “but I get rid of you.”

I hated it when Dimitri was right. He might be bluffing, but I hoped he wasn’t.

Even though I was rapidly losing my powers, I was still a demon slayer. And we lived by the Three Truths. Look to the outside. Accept the universe.

Sacrifice yourself.

“Do it,” I told Dimitri.

Vald stiffened. “Don’t be premature, griffin,” he said quickly. “I’ll let you have your sisters if you take them and leave now.”

“I think he’s telling the truth,” I said to Dimitri. “He hasn’t had time to kill them yet.”

Vald cocked his head toward me. “Lizzie’s taken more time than I’d expected.”

The demon nodded toward a row of jars at the far edge of the room. “Open the one with the blue lid. The curse is there.”

A bolt of silver danced inside.

“Will you know?” I mouthed to him, lacking the energy for words.

Dimitri nodded. He backed toward the far shelf. Eyeing us, he popped the lid, reached his hand inside and crushed the curse. His eyes blazed with relief for a split second before they hardened again. “Stupid demon,” Dimitri said with a smirk. “I still have the transport spell.”

Vald launched a switch star at Dimitri. It sliced through his beautiful chest and into the wall behind him. I watched in horror as Dimitri stood for a moment, an awful steaming hole in his chest, disbelief etched on his features, before he pitched forward onto the floor. Blood flowed from him in a sickening, widening pool.

“Stupid griffin,” Vald said. “I had a switch star.”

It was the single most helpless moment in my life. I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t even hold him. Vald’s pale blue eyes twinkled as he grinned at me. “Ah, switch stars. They’re quite useful, you know,” he said, returning to the slow task of killing me. “You can’t throw a spell from fifty feet.”

Numb, hard shock gave way to pure, blind rage. Dimitri could have used the transport spell to save himself. He could have popped it the moment he knew his sisters were safe. But he’d stuck around to help me and I’d be damned if I was going to let him lie there in a pool of blood. I was a demon slayer and I had to start acting like one.

Vald’s evil twisted in his heart. I could taste it like I could the black souls as they had twined and pulsed in JR’s chest. I leaned forward, pushed toward Vald like I was swimming through water. He yanked me closer, as my essence bled into his hands.

I breathed in pickle relish and seaweed as I laid my hand on his chest. Yeah, well I’d soon smell the sulfuric ting of black, gloopy demon blood. Gritting my teeth, I used every ounce of strength I had left to dig my fingers into his flesh. He hollered and pulled and for a second I thought he was about to fling me away, but I kept burrowing, through muscle and ribs and the goo that jammed under my fingernails and twisted around my wrist, my arm. I grasped his heart in both hands and yanked.

“Enough!” he demanded.

The muscle spasmed in my hand. It curled and pumped, spouting black gore. Alive. Empty. I felt for Vald’s essence, his living being.

“Demons don’t have souls, you raving lunatic.” Vald ground his teeth together, tethered to me by a single thread, my right hand still inside his chest. The two halves of my soul fluttered in my throat. They wanted to be whole again. Tears pushed against the backs of my eyes. I’d give anything to get out of here, to be normal. To leave this entire sick existence behind me.