“And now I’m done talking.” Jonas turned to Charles. “Get your iPhone out and be ready to start recording.”
Knox, if you plan to do something, you need to—
The shuck dipped, coiled to spring, and growled long and low in its throat. The noise made everybody stiffen. Except for Asher. Knox’s heart would have skipped a beat in panic, but it didn’t for the exact same reason that Jonas, Alethea, and Charles exchanged confused looks. The shuck wasn’t growling at Asher; it was growling at them.
“Grant, stop pissing around,” Jonas snapped.
The shuck barked and snapped its teeth so hard Knox was surprised they didn’t crack. The hellcat rounded Asher and sidled up to the shuck with a hiss of warning at Jonas, as if it also planned to protect Asher.
It was the perfect moment for Knox to pyroport to his son and get him to safety, but his demon ushered him to remain still. To watch. To have faith in Asher and his own demon. Fuck if Knox would stay right where he was while his son was in danger, but then he froze as his demon did the unexpected. It finally told him what breed of demon Asher was.
Not a sphinx. Not an archdemon. Not a hybrid. But a breed that had qualities of the two.
Knox, do something, Harper urged.
Knox met her eyes and echoed words he’d heard her earlier say to Alethea. I won’t have to.
Just then, Asher’s face blanked and his eyes bled to black as his demon surfaced. It opened the palm of its little hand. Narrowed its eyes. And then the shuck—lightning-fucking-fast—lunged at the practitioner with a roar. It knocked him flat and ravaged him with teeth and claws. Charles screamed in agony, but it wasn’t just the shuck causing that pain. No, the practitioner was blurring around the edges. Like he was splitting. And then he did. His body sagged to the floor, eyes wide open, and his soul whooshed over to Asher and seemed to sink into his open palm.
Looking at his mate’s face, Knox watched as shock, dread, and realization slammed into her. There was only one breed of demon that could call to souls that way. A rare breed. A feared breed. One that tended to remain in the abyss of hell.
Jonas shook his head. “No. No, he’s a sphinx. Sphinxes cannot harvest and deliver souls to hell.”
Anubis. The soft whisper came from Harper.
Yes, he’s an Anubis, said Knox. It fit. Like sphinxes, they were of Egyptian descent. But instead of walking the Earth, they dwelled in the depths of hell and served it faithfully … just as archdemons did. Asher had a mother who could touch souls and a father who could kill as easily as he could breathe. Anubis demons could call to souls and deliver them to hell just as effortlessly as they could call to objects around them. They could also kill a person without even touching them, much like Knox could.
What’s more, Anubis demons also drew and communicated with living death omens such as black cats, crows, owls … and black shucks.
Breaths coming short and fast, Alethea bit out, “No. I am not dying today.”
Jonas shot two balls of hellfire at the shuck and telekinetically sent it careering into a tree just as Harper’s cage abruptly went up in tri-colored flames that began to quickly eat through the iron bars.
The incorporeal surged out of Charles’s body and flew at the hellcat just as the beast was leaping at Alethea, causing it to topple on the floor and whimper as it fought the incorporeal’s attempt to possess it.
“Die, you little bastard!” Alethea shot a ball of hellfire at Asher, who let out a wave of gold energy that dissolved the orb and knocked her flat on her back.
Levi and Tanner skidded out of the trees and went straight to Asher protectively just as Knox pyroported out of the box and moved to stand behind Jonas. Trusting Harper and his sentinels to deal with the hellcat and shuck, Knox snapped his hand around Jonas’s throat, baring his teeth. “Really, Jonas, how stupid can two people be?” Knox tossed him at a thick tree. Of course, Knox could have snapped his neck and killed him instantly, but he didn’t want him dead. No, he had much more interesting plans for Jonas and his bitch of a sister.
Levi, Tanner—stay with Asher, Knox ordered. The hellcat and the shuck tried to protect Asher, but I don’t trust them. Don’t let them near him or allow them to escape.
Struggling to his feet, Jonas threw an orb of hellfire at Knox, who sharply side-stepped it. Grabbing Alethea’s hand, Jonas dragged her toward the trees. Both tossed more balls of hellfire as they ran.
Neatly avoiding the orbs, Knox asked, “And where is it you think you’re going?”
*
Harper stiffened as the ground tremored. Mere seconds later the air buzzed, pulsed, and thickened with a power that purred against her skin. It was a power that lived inside Knox, and he was apparently setting it free. The sheer, raw force of it stung her eyes, squeezed her chest, made her teeth rattle and caused her ears to ring.
Striking, ten-foot high flames erupted out of the ground in front of Jonas and Alethea, forcing them to skid to a halt. Cursing loudly, they changed direction and fled. A jagged line of red, gold, and black flames devoured the undergrowth as they raced past the motherfuckers and cut off their escape. Harper’s demon grinned.
Branches snapped, leaves crackled, and trees groaned as the flames consumed them while quickly forming a circle around the siblings and Knox. He wasn’t just trapping them, thought Harper. He was toying with them. And now she couldn’t see shit.
Asher looked up at her. His demon had now retreated. Good. She kissed Asher’s head. “I’ll be just a minute, baby.”
There was a loud, feline whimper. Harper turned just in time to see a whirl of hazy vapor erupt out of the hellcat, which it had obviously failed to possess. And she knew it would flee. Knew it would thrust itself into some animal and hightail it out of there. Not a fucking chance.
She called to the radiant flames that were consuming the last of her cage. A pretty red one snatched the incorporeal out of the air and curled around it. The haze squirmed and twisted, attempting to escape, but the flame tossed it into the fire. There. Done. Which was anticlimactic, since she would have liked to torture it a little first, but she had no way of containing it. Besides, she was much more interested in hurting the fucking dolphin.
The hellcat staggered to its feet and looked at her, eyes unreadable. Taking a leaf out of Knox’s book, she directed the crackling flames to form a circle around the beast, imprisoning it until she could figure out what the fuck to do with it.
“The shuck’s dead,” Levi told her. “Little bastard tried to rip my throat out.” Which meant that Asher didn’t have control over such creatures for long. God, he was an Anubis. Later … she’d think about all that later.
Harper gave Levi a thankful nod. Looking from him to Tanner, she said, “Stay with Asher.” There was something else she needed to take care of—or someone.
She headed right for the large circle of flames. They roared, crackled, hissed, and spat. The air shimmered with the waves of heat. It was a horrendous heat that seared her skin but, as always, caused her no harm—not even when she walked right through the flames like they weren’t even there, making Alethea’s mouth drop open in shock.
Harper sidled up to Knox, eyes on the siblings. “I don’t know why they look so shocked that their plan failed,” she said to him. “I mean, I did warn them. Why do the bad guys never listen to me?”
Knox shrugged. “No idea, baby.”
“You won’t find me easy to kill,” growled Jonas.
Knox blinked. “Why ever would you think that I intend to kill you?”
Jonas seemed thrown by that question, but then he scoffed. “Don’t expect me to believe you will allow us to live.”