Dark Descent: The Arondight Codex - Book One, R Nicole [best feel good books TXT] 📗

breath tickled the shell of my ear. Reaching into the inner pocket of my jacket, my fingers closed around the arondight blade.

I turned slowly, tensing as the shadow behind me solidified. White eyes stared back at me, the male demon grinning from ear to ear.

“Boo.”

I cried out, tore the hilt free, and swung, willing the blade into life. On cue, the sword erupted in a shower of purple sparks, its metal links slotting together as it arced through the air.

The demon ducked, and the sword collided with the wall, sparks flying everywhere. Before I had time to react, his arm flew upward at an unnatural speed. Its palm slammed into my forearm, the force loosening my grip on the sword.

The hilt flew over my head, the blade disappearing as suddenly as it came to life. Metal clattered onto the cobblestones and skidded away, and panic took me.

A hand clamped around my neck and I was thrown against the wall. I collided with the brick, then my body swung the other way and I hit the opposite building with a thud. Dazed, I fell to the ground, my head cracking against the cobblestones.

The demon laughed and folded itself over me, its weight pinning me in place.

I cried out as its fingernails dug into my skin and pried my eyelid open. He lowered his face towards mine, his tongue dangling out of his mouth. Was he going to lick my eyeball? Man, now I’d seen everything.

“Arondight,” it hissed. “Where is it? Where is it?”

“I don’t know!”

“You do know. You do!”

I gritted my teeth, desperately searching for an escape. The demon forced my head to the side, its tongue dipping dangerously low to my eyeball. It was the Infernal who’d attacked me and Jackson. It had to be.

“Infernal,” I said. “You’re the Infernal who’s been following me.”

“Arondight,” it hissed.

I squirmed, trying to work my way out of the demon’s grasp, but he was too strong.

“Wriggle all you like, Natural, but you will tell me. Then I’ll pry your skull open and fu—”

A scream tore from my throat as the Infernal flew to the side, rolling across the lane. It slammed into the wall, landing face-first on the ground.

“Get back,” a voice commanded.

I glanced up at the silhouette, my heart beating wildly. Martin.

I scrambled away, my back hitting the opposite wall, and swiped at my face. The side of my hand came back smeared with red, the action making my face sting where the demon had tried to pry my eye open.

The Infernal was pushing to its feet as Romy appeared out of the shadows. Martin wrestled the creature to the ground, pinning it underneath his body. Then Romy lunged, burying her dagger deep into its chest. The Infernal wailed, its arms thrashing, and a plume of black smoke poured from the man’s mouth and into the air.

Romy wrenched her blade free, dropped it, and snatched something from her pocket. Whatever it was, she held it high and the Infernal’s smoky essence began to pull towards it. The mass writhed and sparked, hissing as it was sucked into the Natural’s hand. Then, with a strange sucking sound, the demon was trapped.

Romy snapped the lid closed on what I could now see was some sort of vial.

“What was that?” I asked, sitting up. My gaze was locked on her hand, where I could see black smoke billowing inside its prison.

“Bloody hell,” Martin cursed, glaring at me. He turned and began to search through the man’s pockets. He pulled out a wallet and flipped through the contents, holding up a photograph.

“You’re lucky we came along when we did,” Romy said to me.

“Did you really just ‘come along’?” I narrowed my eyes and hauled myself to my feet. Flaming embarrassment was now my middle name.

“Unfortunately, Wilder called us when you left the Sanctum,” Martin declared, his pride obviously hurt. Obviously, being ordered around by the Sanctum’s resident misfit wasn’t his cup of tea.

“It took us a while to find you,” Romy said with a shrug.

I glanced at the vial in her hand and wondered if this was another one of those moments where I’d been manipulated, but it was unlikely. My stupidity had given them an opportunity to trap an Infernal.

“At least we got it before it could escape,” Martin declared. “There’s an upside.”

“But there’s someone in the flat,” I said, pointing across the street.

“An illusion,” Romy explained.

“Demons can create illusions?” Glancing up at the windows, which were now dark. Frowning, I didn’t get it.

“There’s a lot you don’t know yet,” she replied. “There’s a reason we do the things we do.”

“Yeah, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye,” Martin drawled.

The man on the ground began to groan, and to my surprise, his chest was fine. Other than the hole in his shirt, there was no other evidence he’d just been stabbed by Romy’s cold iron dagger. No gaping wounds or pools of blood to be seen. I didn’t know how that worked yet, but somehow, I knew now wasn’t the time for a lesson in exorcisms.

Martin knelt over the man and began to murmur, using his Light to alter and soothe.

“Don’t worry,” Romy said, “he’ll be fine. Martin will send him home with new memories.”

“But… if that’s the Infernal who mutated Jackson…”

“He can tell,” she reassured me. “We wouldn’t send anyone away who was soul sick.”

“Soul sick?” I scratched my head. “That’s what you call it?”

Romy nodded and tucked the glass vial that held the Infernal into her pocket. “Let’s get you back to the Sanctum.”

Groaning, I leaned against the wall as the unknown man stumbled down the lane to the street beyond.

“You can’t avoid it,” Martin said, narrowing his eyes at me. “You’re in big trouble. Better face the music now, than later.”

Romy offered me a half-smile and began to walk away. I had no other choice but to follow them with my tail between my legs.

Wilder was right… Vendettas never ended well for anybody.

16

The lights of London twinkled across the