Mentored in Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

Penny’s and my boots echoed against the walls in the empty hallway. I didn’t bother trying to be quiet with her thumping around, obviously tired but trucking on. Light flickered around us, very little sound reaching us from the front. Cahal crossed to the other side of the hall, no longer able to use the shadow trick to hide the rest of us, and slowed near the corner. He edged his head out to look around before pulling back. He flattened against the wall, not saying a word. That meant danger was near.

My turn.

I pulled back a little and drifted to the center of the hallway, pointing first at Penny and then at Emery. I turned the point into two fingers and indicated the space right behind me. Darius and Cahal got the next points, behind them.

It was time to finally, finally display the full extent of my magic. And I’d make sure it was a spectacular show.

Twenty-One

I strutted forward like I owned these halls and the people in it. Just like Lucifer would’ve done.

A horde waited for us, three wide and ten or so deep, huge bodies standing in the way. They wore metal armor on their heads and across their wide chests. Thick, hairy, weapon-laden tree-trunk arms draped by their sides, and muscular legs ended in feet or hooves or stumps. The last would be easier to knock over.

Glaciem magic swelled. Air condensed in front of me, blocking the way.

“They don’t like fire,” I said with a grin, stopping in front of them, my team behind me.

“So let’s burn their faces off and get out of here,” Penny said.

I lifted my eyebrows and spared a moment to glance back at her. Her face was closed down into hard lines, her eyes determined, her bearing tense but ready. There was an edge to her that I hadn’t seen before, like she was on the verge of breaking. Like it was her last straw. This place had clearly gotten to her.

While a part of me delighted in this tough, hardened version of Penny, guilt quickly overrode it. I’d been pampered and treated with kid gloves, flying on dragons and playing games with creepy demons; she’d been scared and hurt and dragged through hell, almost literally. She’d probably endured horrors she’d never dreamed of on this trip—the kind of things that well and truly might show up in her nightmares. And she’d done it all to help me.

“Fuck,” I said to myself as anger thrashed within me like a vicious serpent. “Move or die,” I said, turning to the host.

“We will not hurt you, princess. Let us get you back to your—”

I sent a blast of hellfire down the center of the hall, punching through the center of their faction. I didn’t run forward as I might’ve once done. I had an image to uphold. If they were going to call me princess, I’d kill them like royalty.

I ran my hand through the air, unraveling their Glaciem magic as though it were a containment spell set up by newbies. Their power level didn’t compare to mine, and while it had been expertly woven, they didn’t have my special secret sauce. Penny’s secret sauce, even.

“Light ’em up, Penny.” I pushed my way down the hall, using my own Glaciem magic to ram them backward.

“With pleasure.” Her voice wobbled, and I felt another pang in my chest. I’d pushed Penny at danger a time or two, but always with the awareness that she had a line—one I shouldn’t cross. Something told me this trip had finally shoved her over.

I’d have to make amends later, though—more demons were coming around from behind, trying to trap us. I could feel their magic pulsing.

“What’s the story, Darius?” I called back.

“Work on the front. We have the back.”

Penny blasted fire from beside me, catching my arm in the crossfire. At least it wasn’t my eyebrows.

I joined with more hellfire, ripping it through the heads and bodies of the demons on the left. A wicked spell let loose, Emery joining the fray.

“Fuck it,” I ground out. I might be royalty, but I still hated walking into battle. There was nothing for it but to charge.

I picked up the pace, running now, closing the distance. I stopped the hellfire as we circled the last corner before the entrance. The breath whooshed out of me.

The place was packed.

The larger creatures blocked the way, but I could see the smaller variety behind them, and another demon in a wrinkled suit. Power pulsed, hard and hot, from their crew. It shoved me, tossing me backward into Penny and Emery, before hardening into a wall.

“How’s that rear?” I called, working at that magic, applying fire to rip it apart. It wasn’t as intricate as some of my father’s creations, but these demons were obviously more powerful than the ones we’d just roasted and toasted, and their block was robust, since they were all working together, constantly rebuilding the wall as I tried to tear it down.