My fingers dug into the pavement, preventing Beleth from tossing me around like a rag doll. Kicking, I freed myself enough to roll over. I directed the rage, the pent-up anger that lingered behind a thin calm. Willing it from my body, it was less fire and more a blazing light. The ground tore away, leaving a hole down to the rebar. While a nearby car flipped in the air, Beleth’s toes dug in, holding him steady.
“Xander…”
Black tendrils wrapped about William’s arms, holding him in place within the demon’s chest. While Beleth hadn’t moved, I shattered the shell hiding his tribute. The source of this carnage sank into the beast’s chest, vanishing once again, but not before I glimpsed the necklace dangling about his neck.
The suit’s arms reached for the pendant, hoping that pulling it from William’s neck might end the battle. Beleth caught both hands and with a foot braced against my chest, he tore the limbs free. They weren’tmylimbs, but the suit vibrated as if it screamed in reply.
“Mortal dies,” Beleth said as he roared. Holding my severed limbs in the air, the demons on the bridge cheered, a cacophony of hissing and grunts.
It leaned in, foot and nails digging into my chest. Even with my strength, the weight of the creature held me captive in the hole my powers created. With a puff of smoke from its pig-like nose, it roared again, close enough I could smell the death.
“My legions will roam free from Hell.”
I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t draw enough air. My ribs were bruised and my sternum threatened to break. I struggled, trying to pull my arms free. Even the fire raging through my veins did nothing to force Beleth from crushing me.
I imagined a respectable death. Instead, I was about to be eaten by a minotaur with bad breath.
25
“Aiden.”It was the only two syllables I could muster.
Beleth’s jaw expanded, unhinging until he transformed into nightmare fuel. The fire rippling along my arms did nothing to slow him. I needed one of those flaring moments, but as his nails threatened to penetrate the suit, I couldn’t focus.
The darkness enveloped my head. I refused to close my eyes. If I was going to die, I’d see it to the end. Even in death, I’d be a stubborn jerk. The demon’s tongue slithered along my neck, a dry crusty sensation that would haunt me for the next ten seconds of my life. It sounded as if the beast was inhaling, sucking in air as if gasping for breath, but I couldn’t feel the air moving, just the sensual touch of its tongue.
The ear-piercing scream wasn’t mine. The world spunabout. Light, I could see the sky again. The pressure along my chest vanished. Beleth wasn’t holding me as I spun through the air. My senses returned, and I had a moment to taste the salty air.
“Shrieker?”
The teenager leaned into the force of his powers. The air rippled, his abilities sending heroes and demons along to their knees. With his back against a car, he braced for the immensity of his own powers. Beleth slammed into a truck, pushed into its frame. Its growls were almost inaudible by comparison. Shrieker had pinned the beast.
Having turned traitor, the teenager was the last person I expected to join in the fight. Had he taken me up on my offer? I imagined heroes spent their days saving those without powers, protecting them from evil outside their control. It had never dawned on me I might actually sway the destiny of somebody on the other team.
Shrieker fell to his knees. The kid had to inhale eventually, and after that demonstration, I didn’t know if he had a whisper left in him. Beleth’s roared loud enough to break through my fuzzy hearing. He tore away from the truck, reaching back, digging his claws into the car and hurling it at the kid.
“No.” It wasn’t begging. It was a simple fact. Beleth would not end the kid. The flames wrapped about my body before pouring out of my palms. The truck changed directions, hurled through the hole.
Beleth charged at the kid, determined to make him pay. I wasn’t about to let the kid be a sacrifice because of me. It was time to end this battle and save Vanguard City.
I landed between the demon and Shrieker. Holding up my hands, I could see through my limbs. I was no longer surrounded by the inferno. I hadbecomethe inferno.
A wall of fire sprung up from the ground. Beleth struck it, his nails piercing the barrier, tearing it open as if it were paper. With each step toward the beast, he grew smaller. No, it wasn’t the demon shrinking—I was growing. Even the suit wrapped around my fiery form tightened.
Beleth was a symptom of the cause. But it was the man housed inside his body that had created this problem. I could trade blows all day with this demon, but eventually he’d overpower me, and I’d serve as a meal. There weren’t enough Shrieker’s in Vanguard to protect it.
The wall of fire reshaped, turning into a pair of fists. Instead of restraining the beast, I imagined it tearing through Beleth’s chest. I shoved my own hands forward, controlling the phantom limbs remotely. I wanted at the villain inside. Milky flesh rose to the surface and I could see a shoulder, then the neck. With a growl, I tore open Beleth’s chest, revealing a trapped William.
Beleth struggled, threatening to break free from my grasp. I couldn’t hold him and free William. Aiden’s words echoed in the back of my head. I had stepped up to the plate and become the hero. But that adorable journalisthad been right. We couldn’t do this alone. The admission was difficult, but I was a single man.
I couldn’t do this alone.
“The necklace, Shrieker,” I growled. “It’s time to be a hero.”
I couldn’t hear a response, not a confirmation or the sucking in of oxygen. I heard the high pitch squeal. A single, short, punctuated yelp from the kid. He had exhausted his talents saving me.
The green amulet shattered.
Beleth howled. He no longer tore at the shield. The circle of magic pulled at the demons covering the bridge. One by one, it sucked them into the portal, returned to whatever hell they had been summoned. Beleth fell to the pavement, determined to claw his way to freedom.
