Page 118 of Pain

“A blood cage?” Lerris shrieked. “You foul, disgusting little half-blood bastard.”

“Should we just behead him?” Maxar asked.

“We need to question him about the whereabouts of Gemma first.”

Maxar nodded and took off back into the thick of the battle.

Lerris was still screaming, but he was in the cage for now and not a problem. Ignoring his bellows, I turned my attention back to the battle that was still in full swing between Zandren, Ryden, Drak, and the remaining Phaceanesh and demons. Once Maxar joined the fight, it seemed nobody was outnumbered anymore.

A Phaceanesh knocked down Drak, causing my mate to smack his head on the ground hard enough I heard it from across the cave. This gave the Phaceanesh an opening, but I was faster and reached into my pocket for thelullabei that Kenvin gave me and whipped it through the air, just like he taught me. Halfway, the blades opened up, whirling around in the air. It made contact with the Phaceanesh’s neck, and a second later his head, with the wide red eyes, toppled to the ground while the lullabei stuck into the rock wall behind the torso.

Drak stood up, dusting himself off, then pulled the weapon out of the wall and handed it to me when I ran up to him. “Thanks.” Before I could make sure he was okay, he tore over to help Zandren, who had a Phaceanesh on his back, fangs out, trying to get at the bear’s neck. I couldn’t risk throwing the lullabei again since my target this time wasn’t easy to get out without running the risk of hitting Zandren. Instead, I jumped into the Phaceanesh’s mind, ramming an invisible jousting rod through the two lobes from the side near his temple. The creature screamed out in pain and crumpled to the ground, dead.

That left the demon battling with Maxar and the Phaceanesh on Ryden’s back. The old bear was still a formidable opponent, but I could see he was getting tired. He had quite a few big scratches and cuts on him, including a big one across his snout, which leaked blood all over the cave floor.

“Push them off you and back away,” I said, taking in a deep breath and bringing my hands out in front of me.

Ryden did as I told him to, but the nightwalker leaped back onto his back, fangs out, murder in his glowing red eyes.

“Ryden,” I hollered again, “drop! Now!”

The Shifter King caught my eye, nodded, and tossed his arms and legs out from under him so his belly collided with the ground like a bearskin rug in front of a roaring fire, just as I lobbed my energy ball at the Phaceanesh on his back. It worked perfectly and the fireball, along with a big sonic boom, took out the nightwalker, but didn’t even singe my father-in-law’s fur.

Elation flowed through me when I realized the fireball and sonic boom didn’t affect anybody else. Nobody else had been tossed to the floor, or clutched their ears in pain. The Phaceanesh landed on the ground with a thud, his left arm no longer attached to his body. Black blood poured from his stump, and Ryden took this as the perfect opportunity to finish him off, getting up and swipinghis enormous paw across the Phaceanesh’s face, ripping it off his skull. Then he bit down on the nightwalker’s neck and removed the head.

He was smiling when he glanced back at me, blood smeared all across his snout, fur, and mouth. I cringed a little, but did my best to smile back and offer him a thumbs up.

A crack of breaking bones behind me pulled my attention just in time for me to see Maxar break the neck of the demon he was battling. Then he snapped his fingers, made a fire sword, and beheaded the man at his feet.

We all stood there for a moment, catching our breath as we took an inventory of the bodies littering the ground. I glanced over at Lerris in the blood cage. He already appeared weaker. He was slumped over in the corner, his shoulders rounded, breathing shallow.

“Let’s chuck these bodies into the hole,” Maxar said. “Can’t leave the place a mess.” He already had a headless Phaceanesh body in his arms which he hurled into the pit in the center of the cave like it was a coin in a wishing well.

With a bear-like shrug, Zandren grunted, used his teeth to grab a demon body—also missing a head—and lugged it toward the pit.

I stalked over to Lerris. “Where is Gemma?”

He didn’t even lift his head. “Dead, hopefully.”

He was too weak to create a shield strong enough to keep me out, and I dove into his brain, making him scream out in pain. “Where. Is. Gemma?”

He could barely lift his head, but he tried, meeting my gaze. “Dead. Hopefully.”

I pierced his brain again, this time making it feel like fire ants were gnawing away at his gray matter from the inside. While he cried out in pain, I tiptoed through his mind to see what I could find, much like I had with Drak. I paused when a memory of Lerris, holding Moloch’s Sacrifice in his hand approaching a sleeping figure in a bed, flashed before me. I couldn’t look away.

He lifted the sword high in the air, over the head of the man sleeping on his back.

Then, without even a moment of hesitation, Lerris brought the blade down across the man’s neck, decapitating him. He dropped the sword with a sharpclatter to the ground and rushed to the center of the room, holding his arms out, face toward the sky. When nothing happened, a furious, “Noooooooooo!” burst from his lips.

A faint, raspy chuckle pulled me from his mind, and I found my uncle laughing in the corner. “Didn’t expect to find that there, did you?”

I shoved a meat clever into his frontal lobe and he cried out again. Then I dove back into his mind, searching for Gemma. I bypassed the memory of him walking up to Aunt Delia’s. I knew what would happen there and I didn’t want to see it. I kept going, ignoring all the horrible things Lerris was guilty of, until I found what I was looking for.

Him, staring down at a phone, texting something.

I’ve sent the coordinates from H. They should be there. Take care of them. No survivors.

Yes, sir.

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