Those sons of bitches made a grave mistake coming here, said Jolene, her telepathic voice vibrating with rage. We’ll be there fast.
The angel’s eyes flared with impatience, and the force around her head contracted. Fuck the pain was so excruciating she almost blacked out … which gave her an idea. Raini went limp in the hold of his power, feigning unconsciousness.
He let out a sound of disgust. “I was warned she was weak, but I didn’t believe she was this weak.”
“Now how do we get Maddox here?” asked another voice.
“Wake the woman he had guarding the house; maybe we can get her to call out to him.”
Raini hit the floor hard as the force trapping her vanished. Fucking ow. She didn’t hesitate to act. She raised her hand and let out a blast of raw, scorching hot power that rippled through the air, shimmering like waves of heat. The halo-bearers had no time to react. The power coming for them was too fast, too deadly. It didn’t crash into them, it forcibly poured into them— entering their bodies through their mouth, nostrils, and ears.
Their heads jerked. Their eyes rolled back. Their bodies shook. Their knees buckled. Then they dropped like stones, dead, and their halos disappeared.
Moreover, their skulls—shattered by the force of the blast— caved in, leaving their heads gruesomely deformed. Because that was what happened when you were hit by a lethal dose of psychic hellfire. It ate at your brain, devoured it, leaving nothing behind. And that was bad enough. But it was the other thing psychic hellfire could do that made people fear it.
She instantly lit up each of the corpses’ heads with good ole regular hellfire, intending to burn away the evidence. The fire would soon engulf every inch of them, which would not only leave an ungodly stench but potentially scorch her floor. Better that, though, than exposure.
She almost jumped when Jolene, Ciaran, and Khloë appeared in the doorway.
“Oh good, they’re dead,” was all Jolene said. “You were right about there being more. I have people outside fighting them.” She and Ciaran then left, presumably to join the battle.
Raini pushed to her feet, every bone feeling almost … rickety.
Khloë crossed to her. “Damn, girl, what did they do to your eyes?”
Cricking her neck, Raini lifted a brow. “Bloodshot, huh?”
“Seriously bloodshot. Maddox is gonna freak.”
The man himself materialized a few feet away. Speak of the devil …
His gaze locked on Raini, narrowed, and then took in the blazing corpses. Those vacant blue eyes briefly glittered with something … malevolent. Fury swept across the room like a tidal wave, so bitterly cold she wouldn’t have been surprised if a sheet of ice formed on every surface.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Her demon pressed close to her, ready to defend, though it doubted he’d ever harm Raini.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice hard and clipped, as and he made a beeline for her.
Raini licked her lips. “They came looking for you. They were halo-bearers.”
“The dumbasses either didn’t know I was in the bathroom upstairs or didn’t consider me a threat,” Khloë cut in. “She and I tag-teamed them. In a totally non-sexual way.”
Nothing in Khloë’s tone or body language gave away the fact that she was lying. Jolene had taught her well.
“It was lucky I was here,” the imp tacked on.
Maddox looked at Khloë. “Yes,” he agreed. “Lucky.”
He put his palm against Raini’s, and the familiar cold burn of his healing power shot straight to her eyes, making her flinch and hiss out a breath.
“Your guard telepathed me and said she’d been attacked by halo-bearers who knocked her out with a psychic blow, not thinking she’d recover so fast. She feared they might have targeted you.”
And the psychic tag he’d planted in Raini’s mind had clearly led him straight to her. “Is she okay?”
“Yes.” He glanced at the dead bodies. “You say they came for me?”
“They came for you,” she confirmed.
His jaw went hard as granite. “And you didn’t think to call out to—” He cut off, and she felt a weird vibration against her psyche; realized he was having a telepathic conversation. He cursed beneath his breath. “I’ll be back. Call me if more come here.” Then he was gone again.
Khloë frowned. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” Raini raked her hand through her hair. “I don’t know why halo-bearers would want Maddox.”
Khloë twisted her mouth. “I heard Knox tell Keenan that several lairs of descendants have been destroyed recently. I thought one of their own kind had turned on the others or something, but now … ”
“It could have been halo-bearers. They could want Maddox and his lair dead. Though why they didn’t just attack the club, I don’t know. There seems no sense in using me as bait to bring him here … ” Her words trailed off as realization hit her.