Page 51 of Oracle
We moved in a flurry and excitement brewed in my chest. There was hope.
Sure enough, the sulfuric scent wafted in the air as I ripped my clothes off and threw them in the pile with our supply pack. We’d leave it all behind and come back if we needed it. For now, we needed to move without anything weighing us down. It was the first lead we’d found and we for damn sure weren’t going to let it slip through our grasps.
Moving in a straight line once we’d all shifted, we filed out of the cave, trotting along the thin rocky path and towards their smell. Jameson’s fluffy white ass was in front of me and I saw his back paw slip as a section of the path crumbled. Reacting on instinct, I took a mouthful of his tail in my mouth and righted him until he had solid footing once more.
Internally I groaned at having been as close to I’d ever be to a mouthful of his ass. The only one I wanted that acquaintance with, was Kira’s delectable round ass. I had a feeling Jameson would never let me live this down, even if I had possibly prevented him from plummeting to his death.
After a few short minutes, Tian at the front turned left, leading into the thick of the mountain, thankfully giving us a wider path so we could group up in twos as we moved forward. He halted with Luca at his side in front of Jameson and I, and with the overwhelming smell, there had to be a pack of Daimona around the bend. The wind was howling through the crevice, thankfully carrying the scents out towards where we’d come from, or else they would have scented us as well.
Tensing, I waited for Tian to head into the thick of it, signaling we’d be one step closer to get the answers we so desperately needed. He launched around the corner and we ran after him, mouths open and snarling as we took the Daimona by surprise. We outnumbered them seven to two, so it wasn’t much of a fight, and I thanked the Goddess for that.
Pinning their thrashing bodies down, we implemented our plan of trying to get them to shift back so that we could speak to them, but not all Daimona had the ability to do that, so it was really just luck of the draw on if they could or not.
Jameson ran, pressed his claws over where the heart lies, growling in warning that they were about to die. He was trying to make it clear they needed to do something about it now, to try to spur the shift. Meanwhile, Luca was doing the same to the second beside us.
We all exchanged looks before Tian nodded, signaling they were of no use to us and to end it before one of us could be hurt. Without Kira, there was no burning the infection out of them, and we couldn’t risk them getting their poisonous blood into us, so their death was the only option.
Their grotesque howls pierced the air as the two wolves sunk their claws into their chests, pressing all of their weight down into them. Jameson was a bit more messy than Luca was about it, not stopping until his front paws were soaked in black blood, making him look like he had stepped in tar with his white fur.
As he moved off the creature, he flicked a paw like he was trying to get the blood off and it sprayed myself and Seth, much to our displeasure that our growls at him made clear. But then a sucking sound occurred behind us, making us leap back in defense, prepared for an attack.
Cocking my head at what was in front of our eyes, I whined, the prospect of getting Kira back one step closer. I wanted to rush in head first, but knew that wasn’t the plan if we got this far. A portal lay swirling in place of the once flat rock wall that had been there previously before the blood flicked over it, shining a bright red.
There was no doubt that this was the portal we’d been searching for. It would take us to Hell.
I chuffed out loud, knowing wereallywouldn’t hear the end of Jameson parading around that he had discovered the portal.
Grouping up back into our three pairings with Seth at the rear, we ran forward and sent our prayers to Selene that we wouldn’t land at the feet of hundreds of Daimona. It was impossible to know where we would be deposited on the other side, but we were prepared to die finding Kira, and wouldn’t turn back no matter what was there.
Traveling through the portal was an odd experience. It was like being submerged in thick jelly, hard to move but also not uncomfortable. Red and black energy pulsated around me until eventually it felt like I was spit onto the ground in a heap.
“Well, we definitely found her,” was the first thing I heard as I realized I was back in human form, like the portal had forced my shift back.
Coughing, feeling like water lodged in my throat from the trip, I pushed myself up to see what they meant. It was music to my ears, but I could hardly believe it without seeing it with my own eyes.
A crumbling dark castle lay in pieces before us, demons in human skin fleeing in all directions that led away from the mess. Neon blue flames licked at pieces of them, growing until it engulfed them, causing them to fall to the floor and scream in pain as her powers consumed them.
Was this real life? We came here to save our mate and bring her home, yet she had quite literally lit Hell on fire without us.
Seth huffed out a laugh, somehow dropping from the portal with grace and surveying the scene before us. “And Reagen really thought we’d believe that she couldn’t handle five Daimona. Look at this.”
My eyes flicked to Caleb’s face in time to see the pain flash before he quickly buried it, as our mate came trotting out of the wreckage with tinged white fur and the crescent mark blazing on her forehead, paws tinged with blue flames, leaving singed marks in the ground as she went.
It took everything in me to not scoop her into my arms, despite still being in wolf form as she came to sit on her haunches in front of us. I needed to feel her warmth and confirm she was okay, but I needed to be patient.
She morphed before us, shifting back with ease until her piercing blue eyes were sweeping over us. Putting a hand on her hip as she jutted it out, she smirked at us and said, “Satan’s dead and his forces are scattering. We can go home now.”
What a fucking queen.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
KIRA
Talk about perfect timing with my mates appearing with a portal just in time to get my ass out of there after I’d fought my way from the dungeon to the top of his castle. I could see the shock all over their faces when I had appeared out of the chaotic fray, trotting up and calmly letting them know I’d taken care of Satan.
Before they could bombard me with questions, I had asked them to shelf it for now along with their affection until we were safely back at our camp. We couldn’t let our guard down now, even with Satan dead. I had taken note of some Daimona dying of their own accord as I made my way through the castle. The ones that I assumed were high-level demons didn’t suffer the same fate, and I had to resort to using my powers on them.
My hopes were that by taking the base of their power out of the equation, that his hold on the Daimona would crumble away, effectively taking out the majority of our enemies in our own realm. From my understanding, his blood was the key to his power as it coursed through them like a tree of life, so to speak, but once you killed the source, everything that fed from it would die along with it.
