“Look at us, Kyden, we’re compromising.” I really was quite astonished. “Whoever thought this would happen.” I sure as hell didn’t.
“I don’t want to upset you. You’ve enough to deal with. I can put my wishes aside to stand behind you. That’s not a concern.” He gave my butt a little pat, then sighed. “We need to get back to the book.”
I groaned. There was no putting off. “I’ll go.” I quickly jumped off the bed and headed for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Kyden demanded.
“Getting the damn book.” I reached for the door handle.
“Not like that, you’re not.” Kyden’s curt tone stopped me in my tracks.
“Like what?” I looked down and realized I was na**d. “Yikes.” I burst out laughing. “I totally forgot we weren’t alone.”
I grabbed the bathrobe off the door, then went out to grab the evil thing. After taking the book off the coffee table, I returned to find Kyden had clicked on the night table lights and was just finishing putting up our pillows. I dropped the robe, jumped into bed beside him and ran my hands over the thick cover of the book. “Tell me, what does Diabolus Somes mean?” Since my skill in Latin was non-existent, his help in this department was very necessary.
“Devil’s Remains.”
I should have expected it to be something creepy, but wasn’t prepared since I shivered. Ignoring that, I opened the book and looked at the first page. It was so cryptic. There was some writing on it, but there wasn’t any sense of order. Just scribbles here and there. “What does this mean?” I asked, pointing to the words, Ego sum totus.
Kyden leaned forward to look. “I am all.”
Fear ran cold through my blood. The devil probably wrote this himself. I skipped through most of the literature part. I wasn’t interested in what he had to say and it would probably just scare the shit out of me anyway. I wanted to be able to sleep in the next year.
Finally, some runes appeared. Page after page, runes with descriptions underneath flew by in front of me as we flipped through the book. I stopped at one that nearly jumped right off the page at me, and not in a good way either. A classic Pentagram, but had a goat’s head in the center.
“What does that say?” I whispered pointing to occultus unus.
“The hidden one.”
I gulped and looked up at him. “This is very, very evil.”
His gaze turned curious. “What makes you think that?”
“I can just feel it. Something is very wrong with that rune.” I shook my whole body to rid it from the hebejebes and flipped the page, anxious to put that bit of horribleness to bed. Soon, I came upon a Pentacle. It looked normal enough, except this one was inverted slightly, and it practically glowed off the page. I looked at Kyden. “Does it glow to you?”
“No.”
“Weird. It’s glowing so brightly it’s hard to look at.” It really was that bright and hurt. My eyes squinted to adjust to the brightness. I ran my fingers across the rune and it tingled beneath my touch. Just as the rune before felt wrong, this one felt completely right. Looking at it, touching it—warmth and power spread through me.
“That is an odd feeling you’re having, and one I have never felt from you before.”
I examined the rune closely, unable to look away from it. “This must be what Azar meant when he said it would show itself to me.”
Kyden nodded. “Let’s try something.” He jumped up and knelt in front of me.
I burst out laughing.
He arched a brow. “Problem?”
“Er, yeah, look at your dangly bits. They just look so funny with you sitting like that.”
He gave me a chastening look. “Will you focus?” He jumped off the bed, threw on his shorts, and knelt back down beside me.
I laughed a few more times, then settled myself. Inappropriate I know, but when the funnies grab hold, sometimes they’re impossible to contain. “What exactly do you want to do?” I asked once I stopped smiling.
“I believe Azar is onto something. I could feel it within you earlier. Something was there.” He examined me, typical show-nothing-on-your-face Kyden, but with the bond, I could sense he was completely enthralled. “Yet, it couldn’t come through. There’s a reason this rune shows itself to you.”
Just as he reached for my hand, our door flew open and Ryker stormed in. I gasped and drew the covers up. “Knocking would be nice, you know.”
“Come,” he stormed forward, pulled me from the bed. “It’s Sabi.”
“Let go of her now,” Kyden roared.
I ignored him, as did Ryker. Panic filled me. She had a vision. The urgency of this situation hit me. I dropped the sheets and ran to Sabi, who was slumped over the couch.
Christ, that was fast! I wasn’t expecting it be so soon. I reached out to her instantly and gave her a boost. She jumped to her feet dressed in a Hello Kitty nightdress. Who knew she’d wear such a thing? It was almost comical. Nothing in me could laugh and if I didn’t act now, another Demon Lord would be summoned. Oh, hell no!
“We must go,” Sabi grasped my hand, and we ran toward the door.
“Nexi!” Kyden shouted. “You’re…”
His words were lost to me—totally tuned out. I didn’t have time for him. We had to get to the scene or we’d be too late. Having one Demon Lord here was enough, and seriously didn’t want two.
“Listen,” I said to Sabi as we ran down the hall. “Once I get there, come back immediately. It’s not safe for you there.”
She nodded, breathless. “Gladly.”
We hit the Foyer, slammed open the door to the portal, and when the world returned to me, we stood near an old farm house, obviously long ago abandoned. The smell of old rotten wood hung in the air. The house was barely standing. The windows were bordered up and the door creaked as the wind brushed by.
“He’s there.” Sabi pointed to the left.
I followed her gaze and saw the Demon nestled in between some apple trees. Shadows from the night gave the view an entirely ‘shit yourself scary’ kinda vibe. “Go Sabi, go now.”
“Be safe.” Then, she vanished.
“Quinney, Tyde,” I whispered.
My Demons shimmied into view. “What do…” Tyde’s eyes went wide, then his words died by his laughter. Quinney put a hand over her mouth and shook from laughing.
“Am I missing something?” I snapped. “What in the hell is so funny?”
Tears rimmed Quinney’s eyes and Tyde held onto his stomach while he laughed so hard, he nearly fell to his knees.
“Nexi…” Quinney leaned forward, “where are your clothes?”
I glanced down, suddenly mortified. “Oh shit, I’m na**d.” I wrapped my arms around my chest and crossed my legs in sheer embarrassment. Not like it really helped, it was hard to hide everything. “Well, there’s not much I can do about it now, and a demon is doing the summoning ritual. Let’s go and stop this.”
Quinney nodded firmly, but Tyde hadn’t stop laughing. Not for a moment. In fact, he was now on the ground dying with laughter. Who knew a demon had the ability to laugh like that, but he did, and he could hardly contain himself.
“Tyde,” Quinney chastised. It didn’t help any, he still went on and on. She gave a little glare, then grabbed my hand. “Excuse the imbecile.”
I really couldn’t blame him. In any other situation, I would find this way too funny, but now, all I could do was focus on the demon and hope I could stop him. The breeze was warm, but even still, goose bumps rose along my skin. Walking was slightly difficult as I was doing my best to hide my female bits and pieces and cover my ass at the same time so Tyde couldn’t see it.
When I heard his laughter grow louder, I glanced back and gave him the look, which only made him laugh harder. Ass! I focused back on the scene. Luckily, the demon had just finished the circle. The human hadn’t been sliced open yet, and even better, he was still alive. Asleep but alive, his stomach was cut open, but somehow he had survived this.
Only a foot away, I screamed out. “Oh no, you don’t.” The demon spun around and froze. His eyes went wide as he ran his gaze over my na**d skin. “Keep your eyes to yourself, you bad demon. Just because I’m na**d doesn’t mean it’s a free show.”
“Drachan, you will stop this,” Quinney said firmly.
He smiled slow and easy. “You’ll never be able to stop what has been started. I’m just a mere part in this. Destroying me will stop nothing.”
“Nonetheless,” I retorted. “We are going to stop you.”
He glared at me. “You don’t speak to me.” His voice was so callous, so cruel. “It’s an insult and one that I won’t have.”
Before I could react to that verbal attack, Quinney snarled and then shimmed into her black fog, but so did Drachan. High piercing screams came around me as the two battled. God, they were so loud. I couldn’t help notice that I had become used to their screams. They weren’t so sharp, just more of an irritation. Like an annoying mosquito buzzing around my ear.