Page 85 of Live Like Legends

“Who the fuck are you?!” One of them yelled, heading straight for me. Axel’s teeth grew larger, extending from his mouth as he clamped onto the guard's leg, causing the man to fumble and fall forward. The other two, a short man with cropped dark hair and a female with two braids down the side of her head ran towards us. Their hands were encapsulated by dark magic which they threw in our direction.

I grabbed my sword from behind my back and blocked one of the streams of magic. The female stopped in front of me, giving me a mischievous smile before holding out her hand and letting her blackened magic mold itself into a sword of her own.

Garrett hustled his family back into the cell, while he shot his foot out, kicking the male guard in the stomach. The man stumbled backwards right into Reese, who grabbed hold of him from behind, shoving one of his arrows into his neck. Blood spurted out when he removed it, the guard grabbing his injured neck and crashing to the floor.

I moved my sword from side to side, blocking each of the female guards' blows. She was pushing me back, so far back that my spine hit the wall. She slashed up high, causing me to raise my arm and block the blow, but she took that as an opening to raise her leg and kick my side.

I blew out a pained breath, but I kept my stance, using all my strength to shove her back. I stepped forward, cutting downward to hit her ankle, but she spun away, conjuring dark magic in her palm and throwing it at me. Elise’s hand shot out, collecting the magic in her grasp. Her body shivered like she was absorbing it.

“You need to pick one, magic or weapons, you can’t have both you bitch.”

The female guard looked at Elise, but then she really looked as if something had dawned on her. “You must feel right at home, huh.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Elise said, but her shoulders stiffened a small bit as if those words hit exactly how they were supposed to. She shook it off, but the female demon had her sword raised but it went clanging to the ground when one of Reese’s arrows went through her chest.

Axel bounded towards his owner, his face covered in blood as I looked past the female guard, noticing the one Axel had fought had the most mangled face I had ever seen. The female guard held the arrow in her hands and slowly pulled it out, blood leaking from her wound. Elise wrapped her tail around the guard's waist, holding her up.

I held my sword out and placed it at her throat. I said my words slowly, just in case anything I said was misunderstood. “Where. Is. She?”

The female guard narrowed her eyes at me. It was hard to make out the color of her irises when it was already so dark down here. She coughed, blood coming from her mouth and I realized Elise was squeezing her middle. “So many creatures down here, you’ll have to befuckingspecific.”

She was taunting me.

I pressed my blade towards her neck, the silver wanting to become one with her skin. “Justfuckingtell me.”

“Or what? I’m dead anyway. And so are all of you when he’s done with her.” Blood trickled down her lips and onto her chest.

“So forthcoming aren’t you. Axel can help us more than she can, but we’ll just need one thing.” Elise unraveled her tail from the guard's stomach and without even blinking, slashed the appendage across the female’s wrist. A sound of intense pain left her lips as she slumped to the ground. Elise caught the guard's newly severed hand in her grasp. “Thank you for your service.”

Reese made a gagging sound as he hustled over to us, Garrett and his family behind them. “What is that for?”

“Like I said, Blondie, only demons that have permission can open Dani’s cell. I might have the dark magic to maneuver the lock but I don’t have the physical permission.” She dangled the hand in front of us. “Now I do.”

“We will have to find her fast and hope no one comes down here before we’ve gotten her out,” Garrett explained, nodding over to me. I looked down at Axel who was already staring up at me, like he wanted this just as much as I did.

“Get me as close to her as you can.” The hellhound wagged his tail and darted out the door.

Months ago, if you would have asked me if I could see myself following a hellhound through a Hell bound prison, in search of my hybrid girlfriend, I would have said you were out of your mind. I pressed my back against the stone hearing the groans from cells around us. Axel had stopped and sniffed the air, licking at his blood stained teeth. His ears swung left and right as he looked down the hallway and trudged onward.

He led us down a narrow hall that seemed to diverge into two paths like most of them did, but this time we heard voices. Elise pressed her finger to her lips, placing her hand up as if to saystay here.

Garrett and Leah held each of their children, surprisingly having refused our offer to send them straight to Beetee and her moms. Their reasoning was that the portal from inside the prison could cause too much commotion, so they would stand by us or at least hide when they needed to.

Elise walked around the corner and started talking. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but then I heard a grunt and gurgled noises of choking. The dark haired demon brought her head around the corner and motioned for us to follow her. The narrow hall we walked out of, morphed into one that had a dead end on both sides.

“Axel…” I said, pining my gaze at the hellhound. He simply looked up and down the hallway as if to saythis is the place.

“Start from that end and we’ll start over here,” Garrett delegated, bringing his family along as he walked down the hall.

My mind was racing with the amount of self doubt I felt. I didn’t want this to all be for nothing. It wouldn’t be. Axelwouldn’t lead us astray and I wouldn’t leave here without her. Reese was on one side and I was on the other, looking into the small rectangular openings at the tops of the doors.

Some of the prisoners were shrouded in their own darkness, not bothering to give us their attention while others stared right at me as if they were trying to dive into my very soul. Reese jumped back when one of them sprang over to the door, wrapping its hands around the bars. Every single time I looked into one of the cells and it wasn’t her, I felt defeated and I was mentally counting down the time we had here before shit blew up in our faces.

I blinked down at Axel when I heard him whimpering. His claws were scratching at one of the stone doors. Each time he pressed against it, a wisp of dark red mist came from the bottom. I looked down at him, but he swiveled his head from me to the door. Then he barked at me. One stiff bark.

I ran over to the door, wrapping my hands around the bars at the small opening and peering inside.

I saw an empty room and splotches of dried blood littered throughout the space and then I saw…

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