Chapters (42)
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT PAGE
- DEDICATION PAGE
- CONTENTS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I plunged through that hole with a rending crash as my boots collided with rotting boards, and was in the open air for a split second before landing with a crunch on the Mazikin that had just tried to taste his skin. I grabbed her hair and wrenched her head back; then I drew my knife across her throat as the rest of the Mazikin roared with surprise and stumbled away from the table Malachi was tied to. With my blade dripping red, I dropped my first victim and spun around. There were at least twenty Mazikin in the dimly lit rectangular chamber, which looked like it had once been a private party room. A lot more than we’d anticipated.
I dove for one of the ropes holding Malachi’s wrists and began to slice at it frantically, but a muscular arm looped around my waist and yanked me away before I could cut all the way through. As I was carried backward, I stabbed my captor in the wrist. The arm let me go, and I turned to see a stocky male stagger back. I buried my blade in his neck, splattering blood on a group of Mazikin closing in on me. Malachi was shouting, but I couldn’t hear his words over the snarls and grunts of the Mazikin.
Smoke burned my eyes; one of them was stirring up the incense, filling the room with its heavy haze. Above the table, a dense shape began to coalesce, and then was blocked out as several Mazikin launched themselves at me at once, driving me into a wall. My head bounced off its upholstered surface as my legs kicked at them. I drove my knife upward into the gut of the fat Mazikin directly in front of me, and it doubled over, allowing me to see the ghostly shape near the ceiling turn in the air … and dive into Malachi’s body.
His shoulders slammed into the table, and then he arched up, his head snapping back. His face twisted with agony, his mouth opened in a silent scream. And my whole world shattered. Dimly, I felt the Mazikin grasping at me, trying to wrestle me to the floor, but my heart was with Malachi on that table. Every muscle in his body was rigid as he fought with the smoke beast trying to pry his soul loose, trying to send him to hell.
And if he was still fighting, I would, too. I had to get to him. I had to save him.