But as I closed my eyes, it was as if a switch went on inside and I found my body fluid, a whirl of smoke and vapor shifting into another form. The next thing I knew, I was hovering above the ground, in bat form, looking down at Smoky, Shade, and Vanzir. I could barely see them, but I could sense them. I let out a series of clicks and as they bounced back, I was able to make out their presence a lot easier. What the fuck! I was a bat! I took a few turns around the area before settling back down toward the ground.

Usually, transforming back was just as difficult. I strained as the shift began but was focusing so hard that when it came easier than expected, I overshot and fell forward, kissing the ground before I managed to catch myself. Smoky grasped my arm and helped me up.

“What the hell was that?” Vanzir asked. “You’ve never done it like that before.”

“Yeah,” I said, keeping my voice as low as I could. “Maybe it has something to do with the ritual that I performed with Roman. He’s incredible at shifting forms to bat and wolf.” Roman had other powers, too, and I wondered just how much I’d inherited from him. Life was suddenly looking up.

Just then, Charlotine came flying back. She landed gracefully and shifted back into her form. “Ten of the demons you describe. And the Demon Gate is glowing. There must be someone in there activating it.”

“Gulakah? Fuck. We can’t face him.” A wave of panic rose up inside. But we had to go in. We couldn’t let this go on, and we couldn’t just sit out here until the coast was clear. “Okay, what are we doing?”

Smoky and Shade looked at one another. “There’s room enough out there for us to shift into our dragon forms. The degas are strong, but not strong enough to hurt us when we’re as big as a house.”

“That’s only if we can lure them out. And what about Gulakah?” I looked at Vanzir. “You can’t latch onto him, now that you have your abilities back, can you?”

“I can try, but I won’t win. That much I guarantee you, and I’m sorry, but I’m just not feeling up to a suicide mission right now.” He turned to Shade. “You know the most about Gulakah. What do you know that will repel him?”

Shade shook his head. “I can’t think of much that I haven’t already told you. There has to be a way to defeat him, but I don’t know what it is.”

“We can’t defeat him,” Charlotine said, “but I can repel him. I can cast a powerful circle to keep out demons. Sorcerers use it for summoning, in order to protect ourselves during the rituals. We also have a variant for repelling the demons. The spell will last for about ten minutes, which will give us the leeway to destroy the gate and get out of here.”

“You’re sure you can repel him with that ritual? He’s a god, exiled from his home.” I knew Charlotine was powerful, but powerful enough to repel a god?

She gazed at me evenly. “I can do it, but it won’t hold for more than ten minutes. It might go for fifteen, but I’d have to be focusing on it, and you need me to disarm the gate.”

“What do we do?” I didn’t like being backup, but in this case, it was all about teamwork.

“You keep anything and everything away from me so I can do my job. Menolly, I need you with me. Up front. I may need some help. Let the others fight the demons that will be coming in.” And for the first time, she gave me a faint smile. “I work better with vamps.”

I looked at the others, who nodded their agreement. “I’ve got your back. So what’s first?”

“I set up the circle and you guys lead Gulakah out here.” She slid out to the clearing. Luckily, there was nobody out there, and she was able to reach an open area. She opened her pack and pulled out what looked like a bag of some powder. She began sprinkling it in a large circle around her. Shade noticed me squinting, trying to see what she was doing.

“Sulfur,” he whispered.

After the sulfur, she took out yet another bag and made yet another turn with it. I tried to see what it was, but in the darkness, with only faint flickering lights from within the cave to see by, it was impossible.

“What’s that?”

Shade inhaled slowly and grimaced. “Asafetida. Pungent as all get-out, and very useful in keeping baleful spirits at bay.”

The third time she cast the circle, I didn’t even have to ask. Shade volunteered the info. “Rock salt. She knows her stuff, all right.”

After she finished with scattering the sulfur, asafetida, and salt, Charlotine pulled out a dagger—double edged—that gleamed with a wicked blade. She cast a circle—that much I recognized from what Camille often did—and though I couldn’t hear what she was saying, I could feel the hairs on my arms raise. Then, she motioned for us to join her in the circle.

“All right. While we’re in here, someone has to go lead Gulakah out so I can finish the incantation. We’ll be protected from him while we’re inside the boundaries until I repel him out of here. After he vanishes—and if everything goes all right, he should—then we move out. Menolly guards my back, and you guys take on the degas and bhouts. The bhouts can’t get to Menolly and me, but the other demons…they can hurt us.”

“So who goes out to lead the Lord of Ghosts our way?” I would have volunteered, but I’d already promised Charlotine to be her backup.

Vanzir started to say something, but then Shade spoke up. “I’ll do it. He’ll recognize my energy as being from the Netherworld, and it may spur him on. The rest of you wait here.”

Smoky took his arm. “I’m full dragon; I’m less likely to be harmed if he goes on a rampage.”

“No. You have the household to protect. I’ll be all right. I can fade into the shadows and hide.” He leaped out of the circle and headed for the cave before Smoky could say another word.

Smoky glowered but said nothing. We waited…one minute…five…and then a low reverberation shook the ground. I tensed, moving behind Charlotine so I wouldn’t be in the way of her spell.

And then, in that point between then and now, Shade came rushing out, with a blur on his heels—Gulakah, in full pursuit. Nine feet tall, reptilian in nature, the Lord of Ghosts towered over everyone around him. Weaving tentacles emerged from his head to dart this way and that, like horrendous living dreadlocks. Matte-black eyes and razor-edged teeth marred the muzzle-like face, and his skin glimmered with a dirty green glow.

Terrified, I stood my ground, but watching the demon general-cum-god bear down on us was testing my limits.

Smoky tensed, and behind me, I heard Vanzir gulp.

Charlotine held out her hand. “Repel!”

Her voice shook the clearing as a crackle of flame lit up the night. Gulakah froze in his tracks, a look of rage on his face as the crazy snakes on his head writhed furiously. Then the flame blasted through the air, framing him with a halo of brilliant light as thunder cracked the air. Gulakah let out a roar and, in a single blink of an eye, vanished. Charlotine didn’t hesitate but leaped out of the circle and raced for the cave.

“Come on. We have to get inside and take care of the gate before he comes back!”

Following on her heels, I charged into the cavern. Smoky, Shade, and Vanzir flanked us, ready to meet the degas and bhouts who poured out of the entrance. Smoky jumped in front and read from one of the scrolls as Vanzir set off his supersonic screech machine.

A loud piercing wail broke through the night as a torrential rain began to pour, and several of the degas screamed and cowered back. The raindrops seemed to act like an acid on their skin. One, who got caught behind us and the opening, writhed on the ground, screaming as the water ate into his skin, steaming with every place it touched the gray, wrinkled flesh.

As we pushed our way into the passage, Shade going first, I chafed at not being on the fighting end of things. I didn’t like being a bodyguard—I’d rather be in there kicking the shit out of the demons—but Charlotine reached back and grabbed my wrist, as if she’d read my mind.

“Stay with me! I need you.”

“I’m here.” We drove our way through the narrow passage that was lit from within the central cavern ahead. Two degas were crowding into the passage, and the nearest shrieked as Shade slammed his fist through the creature’s chest. How the fuck he managed that, I couldn’t see, but the demon fell to the floor and Shade kicked him aside and moved forward to the other, who, apparently, had not learned from his comrade and suffered the same fate.

We broke into the main chamber, stumbling through the rough-hewn opening. Two huge standing stones were lit up like a Yule tree, covered with fiery runes that ran up one stone, over the crosspiece, and down the other, like some demonic copy of Stonehenge.

The cave was teeming with demons. A mass of swirling energy filled the room as bhouts poured through the Demon Gate. I stared at the monolithic structure, dread filling every bone in my body. How many hundreds of the spirits had already come through?

Charlotine yanked me forward with her as Smoky, Vanzir, and Shade went to work on the degas. Smoky’s nails lengthened into talons and he set to ripping through them, leaving a trail of bloody, eviscerated demons behind him. Vanzir held out his hands and the neon feelers came twisting out, latching hold of several of the creatures, who writhed, unable to break away, as he triumphantly fed. A haze of purple fire emanated out from Shade, forming a mist around him to engulf an invisible enemy. I only hoped it was the bhouts and not something else that had come through, as well.

As screams and groans filled the air, Charlotine and I approached the Demon Gate. She stared up at it, the first look of uncertainty on her face that I’d seen from her.

Frantically, she shook her head. “This is huge. I don’t know if I can do it. I’ll try, but this…this isn’t just any Demon Gate.”

“Holy crap. If we can’t destroy it, what the fuck do we do?”

“I don’t know. But the number of spirits pouring through this gate is legion. Hundreds must have come through. If we break the gate, we break the control that Gulakah has over them. But that’s a big if…”

I frantically tried to figure out how much time we had left before he could come back. “We have to move quickly and then get the fuck out of here.”

Just then, one of the degas came racing in, directly aiming for Charlotine. I jumped between her and it and rammed my fist into its face. The damned thing was hard as a brick wall, but I was stronger than brick and managed to smash its face. It dropped where it stood, and I gave it a nasty kick for good measure.

Turning back, I saw that Charlotine had her hands against the left pillar of the gate, and she was moaning as she pressed against one of the runes. The flicker of fire swirled around her, and I realized she was attempting to infuse it with her own energy. Another demon was on her tail and I intercepted again, throwing it back against a third that was headed our way. The two began marching in on me again, and I kicked one in the face as I slammed the other to the ground.

Behind me, Charlotine screamed and I turned to see her vibrating, holding on to the massive stones as they began to quake.

“Get out of there!”

“I can’t! If I do, I’ll break the spell and it won’t work.” She held on, her face a mask of pain and fear as cracks began to appear through the stonework, racing up the monolithic structure like veins popping out on skin.

I glanced at the others—they were being inundated by the demons. Where all the demons were coming from, I couldn’t tell, but the degas were swarming them and the swirl of energy around Shade snapped and crackled, as if he were a bug zapper killing mosquitoes.

A great creaking began to reverberate through the chamber, and I turned back. The monolith was breaking up; the runes were flickering and going out as the stonework crumbled into massive boulders, tumbling down around Charlotine.

“No! Charlotine!” I tried to dart forward, but the rumble of the rock slide drove me back.

“Get out of here! Go!” She shook her head at me, holding on, her magic disrupting the Demon Gate, turning it into an avalanche of stone and dust.

At that moment, a sound from the front of the cave made us all turn. Gulakah was entering the cave—the spell had dissipated. He jerked his head to stare at Charlotine and the breaking Demon Gate, and with a roar, he charged toward her. I started to throw myself in front of him, but suddenly Smoky was there, pulling me aside, Vanzir beside him.

Gulakah reached Charlotine and I screamed again, trying to break free from Smoky’s grasp.

“You can’t stop him—he’ll kill you if you do.” Smoky held me fast, his voice both terrible and terrified. “We can’t help her.”

“Go, please, don’t make my sacrifice for nothing!” Charlotine’s scream echoed through the chamber, caught in the fury of the tumbling stones as the Demon Gate crashed around her. Gulakah stopped, unable to reach her because of the rock slide, but he stared at her and his eyes began to glow, and there was a horrific blast of energy as the entire gate went up in flames, taking Charlotine with it.

Smoky grabbed Vanzir with his other arm, and the next thing I knew, we were in the Ionyc Seas, the ripple of energy sending me into a tailspin. It wasn’t the same as going through a portal, and it affected me in different ways because I was a vampire. The mist rippled around us, and I could say nothing, do nothing, save for press against Smoky and Vanzir as the dragon protected us from the mist-shrouded currents of energy.

I closed my eyes, pressing against his chest, unable to shut out Charlotine’s screams echoing in my ears.

After an indeterminable amount of time, although it took only moments in the physical world, we stepped off the Seas into the house. As Smoky let go of us, I saw that Shade was already there.