Page 92 of Rites of Passage

“How about my kiss?!” Vlad protested.

“You stole one yesterday, remember?” she snapped.

The incubus grumbled and followed her inside the crevasse.

CHAPTER39

The breach Nikolaihad created in the grounds of the cemetery was some eighty feet deep and tapered down to a funnel. Mae smashed the exit wide open with Hellreaver, magic and the power of the demon who had sired her singing through her veins.

Shadowy catacombs with recesses full of skulls and bones appeared beneath them. A large, winged figure rose out of the gloom to meet her, dark sword in hand and pupils crimson with displeasure.

Brimstone sprang from Mae’s shoulder and transformed mid-leap.

Barquiel grunted as the nine-tailed spirit demon smashed into his chest and drove him down with his sheer weight. They crashed into the ground with a boom. It cracked, sending deadly shards arrowing through the chamber.

One speared the eye of a Dark Council sorcerer. Another punctured the throat of a witch. A man with fair hair and striking looks ducked behind a worktop crowded with laboratory equipment as the fragments peppered the spot he had just occupied.

“Protect him!” Barquiel roared.

Mae’s eyes shrank to slits as she studied the stranger in the white coat. He was soon surrounded by a group of black magic users.

That must be the Immortal helping them!

Her gaze shifted, seeking Oscar. She found him standing by a stone altar.

A savage sneer twisted the sorcerer’s face as he met her eyes. “You’re too late!”

He twisted the skeleton key he’d stolen from Hellreaver inside a smooth, metal compass. Mae stared, pulse racing. She couldn’t help but feel that the object had been something else before. And she sensed her own magic within the thing.

Is that the Book of Light?!

Oscar froze. The key wouldn’t turn. Confusion clouded his face.

“I told you to use the key, dammit!” Barquiel barked where he struggled under Brimstone.

“I am! It’s not working!”

Mae flashed them a mocking grin where she hovered above them. “Did you really think I’d be dumb enough to bring the real one to Philadelphia?”

The truth dawned in Oscar and Barquiel’s eyes. The sorcerer cursed.

Corruption swamped the catacombs as the demon released a strong pulse of hellish energy. The hairs rose on Mae’s arms when she picked up on something within it. Something that made her stomach curdle.

That’s black magic!

Barquiel shoved Brimstone off him, grabbed his broadsword, and wielded it at the beast rising to his feet. Mae moved.

Sparks erupted as Hellreaver clashed against Barquiel’s blade.

Vlad’s crimson-tinged, diamond-edged swords sliced into the demon’s wings from behind.

Barquiel bellowed. The catacombs trembled.

Rifts opened all around them, the portals ripping the air asunder. Demons poured out of the hell gates and converged on Mae and Vlad.

Colored magic bombs crashed into the fiends, stopping them in their tracks. Abraham, Raven, and Derrick had entered the catacombs ahead of the rest of the cavalry.

“Man, those are some ugly MOFOs,” Abraham mumbled.

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