once.
I frowned and looked back to the tangle of flame. It took me a moment to see it, the slow shifting at the bottom, a massive head the size of a car snuffling and blazing along the ground. Christ, the thing was the size of a house, headed straight for the gate.
“What does it want?” someone cried. “What is it doing?”
“Searching,” Azariah answered, but he looked to Deyva with a rare solemnity, and my arms tightened around her, not sure if I was trying to comfort her or reassure myself.
Deyva only watched the beast, the cracks in its black form reminding me of lava bursting and cooling in a constant cycle. The smoke and smog surrounding the hellhound billowed back and revealed a figure seated astride the creature’s massive shoulders. Massive, and made from that same shifting and smoking fire as the hellhound, the rider’s face was blank aside from two ruby red eyes glinting.
“Another fucking general, just what we need,” I hissed. I turned to Azariah. “What can we fight a hellhound with?”
He shook his head. “The gate will hold. It can’t come in. It will return to Hell soon.”
“Az,” Deyva said, and I twisted so I could see her frown, the smoke reflected in her eyes.
“The gate will hold,” Azariah repeated.
Kais and Zach found us, urging the residents back into their homes, but quickly giving up the effort, coming to stand at my side, Zach’s hand catching Deyva’s.
The hellhound and its rider prowled closer, some of the roar of the storm blending into the beast’s low chuffing as it searched the ground, right up to the gate. The hound’s head lifted from the ground at last, and it looked nothing like a hound, more like a dragon, but the flare of its nostrils was clear as the massive head bowed to our small, shabby little gate. The hellhound huffed and growled so loud that the ground vibrated. Fire-yellow eyes stared over the gate to us, and I thought for a moment my eyes might burn right out of their sockets as I stared back, before I realized it wasn’t me it was looking at.
“Az, are you sure?” I asked. “What if it—”
“Flesh bags!” The voice was sudden and crackling, flames licking out of the rider’s mouth with every word. “I am sent on behalf of King Belial to retrieve what was wrongly released from his service.”
The townspeople around us turned to stare at Deyva, and I held on tight to her as she shifted in my embrace.
“No,” I growled in her ear, but the general continued before I could.
“Hand over the angel Azariah, and your town will remain unscathed. The armies of Hell will never march to your gates again if you comply.”
For a moment, silence blanketed the entire crowd gathered at the gate. And then all hell broke loose.
27
Call of the Hound
Kais
How could I explain to the others that brief and ugly moment in my own mind when I’d considered—seriously given genuine thought to—agreeing to the demon general’s terms. One angel, only recently arrived, and a bit of a thorn in my side, in exchange for my town’s safety? Permanent safety?
“Not a fucking chance!” Jason bellowed. “That’s our goddamn angel!” He bent, grabbing a fist-sized rock from the ground as the rest of the crowd cheered around him, and whipped it across the gate and into the chest of the general. Impressive, actually.
The hellhound bucked, rising onto back legs the size of tree trunks, and our human cries of defiance were swept under the horrifying howl that followed, raising every hair on my body and piercing at my ear drums. Beside me, Azariah backed away with a pale face, his head shaking slowly, apologetic eyes on mine.
“I won’t go.” The howl covered his voice, but I read the words on his lips, the dark refusal in his eyes, and it reminded me of Deyva’s own terror. She was braver than him, our succubus, but I couldn’t blame him for his reluctance in getting dragged back to Hell.
“We won’t ask,” I said, nodding.
Az’s shoulders sagged and he nodded, before pointing up to the sky. “Then you better get ready to back that promise up. The hound has called for backup.”
“You said the gate will hold.”
“It will,” Az said, nodding, and then his hand pointed up to the sky. “But I’m not sure what we’re going to do about those!”
I looked up to the sky and released a string of curses at the sight of the winged creatures approaching,