Charade (Heven and Hell #2)(91)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“He said I couldn’t kill you, but he never said I couldn’t harm you.” Logan cackled, reaching up and tearing a jagged piece of stone from the rock mountain and holding it above him, ready to strike Heven with it.

I realized then that this may look like my brother. He might sometimes talk like my brother.

But he wasn’t my brother.

Gemma whistled and I looked up. She sent something spiraling through the air and I caught it. I knew exactly what I had to do.

In the end, I did have to choose between him and Heven.

“I’m so sorry, Logan,” I said, the words actually hurting me.

I rushed him, caught him from behind, and dragged him away from Heven. Before he could react or turn, I plunged the dagger Gemma had thrown me into his chest.

Surprise flickered through Logan’s eyes before they turned a flat black color.

I expected there to be blood.

There wasn’t any.

But there was something worse.

Out of the hole the dagger created, something began to leak, to ooze… and as it filled the ground beneath my brother’s lifeless body, it began to take shape. It began to fill out, it began to stand.

The demon.

A demon of huge proportions. He towered over me a good foot and was wide with muscle. His skin had a greenish tint and his teeth were yellow. He only had four fingers on each hand and his hair was buzzed off unnaturally short.

“Finally, I am released from my puny prison,” he said, his voice deep. “Go to your master,” he ordered Heven who was standing behind him in shock. “You cannot save these people.”

Instantly, I shifted to full hellhound form. I watched the Lucent Marbles go rolling across the ground when my jeans tore from my body, but I didn’t stop to pick them up. Heven rushed after them, scooping two up and shoving them in her pocket.

I launched myself at the demon, teeth exposed, ready to rip out his throat. I would tear him apart for what he did to my brother. He knocked me away with one swipe of his arm, but I wasn’t done. The gash in my arm burned, but I ignored it. I focused completely on this vile creature before me.

Heven was pacing behind us, then stopped and squatted next to my brother. She touched his cheek with her hand and she frowned. Her tenderness distracted me and earned me another hard hit from the demon. Heven shot to her feet at the same moment I did and she began to look around wildly. She wanted a weapon so she could join the fight. I prayed she didn’t find one. Moments later, she ran out of my line of sight and I was relieved. I didn’t want her anywhere near this.

I took a chunk out of the demon’s side, listening as it roared in pain and I lunged again, taking another out of its thigh. But on my third lunge, he kicked me and I went flying, landing hard against the large rock formation. I felt something crack and I wasn’t able to spring right back up.

The demon moved fast, coming to stand over me, a manic expression on its face. It was holding the dagger that it tried to stab me with earlier. The very one that I had stabbed my brother with. It raised the blade above its head and I jumped to my feet as I saw the edge rushing down toward me.

“NO!” Heven screamed from close by and then she was in front of me shoving another dagger—Gemma’s dagger—in the demon’s chest. He stumbled backward, shock marring his nasty face.

Run, Heven, I urged.

Heven looked toward Gemma, who yelled, “You know what to do.”

To my dismay Heven reached out and grasped the dagger and pressed the jewel on the hilt.

Then something remarkable happened.

The demon opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He dropped to his knees and fell forward as I pulled Heven out of the way. Bright light seemed to fill the inside of the demon. Pure, white light. We all watched as the demon writhed in pain as the light shined out from his eyes, ears and nose. He writhed for a long time. It was hard to watch because the more light that shined the more pain it obviously felt. He tried to scream, but it was as if his pain was so great, he couldn’t manage the sound. He was trapped in a world of pain with no escape. Finally, I realized something and stepped forward.

Using my teeth I reached down and tugged the dagger free.

The light died instantly and so did the demon. He was left lying on the ground, blackened as if he had been charred in a fire, with smoke curling from its ears and mouth.

“It’s like he was burned from the inside out,” Cole said, now fully awake. There was a trail of blood down the back of his neck that curled around his ear and disappeared into his shirt.

“Cole! Did you break anything? How are you even awake?” Heven said.

Cole smiled. “Gemma has some serious mojo and fixed me up.”

Gemma didn’t seem to want to talk about her “mojo” and she motioned toward the dead demon at our feet.

“That’s exactly what happened,” Gemma said, taking the dagger from my mouth. “That vile creature was no match for the pure light of Heaven, which is exactly what just killed him.”

We all looked at the dagger clutched in her hand with awe.

“I saw an image on the wall of the catacombs… it was of that dagger. That’s how I knew what to do,” Heven said, sounding shaken.

I morphed immediately while Cole stepped in front of me, yanking some pants out of the bag he was carrying. I hurried and shoved them on and ran to my brother, kneeling beside him.

“Logan,” I choked out.

The dagger wound in his chest was gaping and blood soaked the front of his torn and dirty shirt. He was so pale and small. Smaller than he had looked since he first found me. I realized that the demon had made him look bigger, had somehow swelled his looks so he appeared stronger than he was. In truth, his shoulders were narrow and his body was thin. He seemed to have a hollow look about him and I wasn’t sure if that was because his body was suddenly more empty than it had been or because he was so close to death. His dark blond hair fell limply over his forehead and beneath his closed eyes were purple smudges. He was so frail, so achingly fragile that I was afraid to touch him in even the smallest of gestures. His chest was rising and falling slightly, so I knew he was hanging on to what life he had left and I sat there, hunched over him, trying to think of a way to somehow give him some of my own life.

“Let me see him,” Gemma said, pushing me aside and holding her hands out, palms down over his chest. The air between her hands and his wound began to glow. The wound magically began sealing itself up and the skin knitted back together.

“You can heal?” Heven asked from beside me.