UnholyCravings Read Free

faster!”
    * * * * *
    “Did you hear that?” Urian asked.
    “Hear what?” Nergal seemed much more relaxed since that
spirit went back into its prison within the tree. The deahman slave
seemed almost carefree and optimistic.
    “Maybe it was my imagination.” Urian glanced at his hand,
examining the tattoo the spirit had placed there. Three sixes intertwined
around a stone. It was a sign. He was the deahman leader now.
    There was that sound again, a rustling of leaves. Were they
spotted? No, their former leader had placed a spell over the area. Urian closed
his eyes and felt the ripple of magic around him. The spell was still there,
but there was something else too. Urian felt two new shifts in the magic around
him. Two energies he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
    Urian opened his eyes and glanced at Nergal. The deahman nodded and drew his sword. He had heard it too.
    Urian pulled out his blade and crept over to the bushes
nearby. He came within about twenty paces when two figures burst from behind a
bush and took off into the night.
    The twins. “Get them!” Urian started to run.
    Nergal swore and followed. “We can’t let them get away. They
know too much.”
    Urian cursed as he weaved around the trees of the common.
They had to silence the twins before they located Darien and told him what they
had seen. The last thing he needed was his former boss up his ass. He didn’t
want to deal with Darien until he was good and ready.
    How the hell did the twins get here? No deahman can
pass through the portal without using the power buried in one of the shards
from the shattered stone. That meant…
    Shit, they had one of the shards.
    “Donar! Soren!” Urian roared. “Stop, it’s me.”
    They rounded another corner and the portal into hell came
into view. If Soren and Donar crossed that portal in the alley, then he was
screwed. There were thousands of places they could hide in the Netherworld,
thousands of rips in the fabric that they could cross back to Earth. He had to
stop them.
    Urian’s strength was growing. He could feel the seductive
black magic from the spirit running through his veins. Perhaps he could use it
to persuade the twins to his way of thinking. Together they could kill their
former leader and everyone Darien held dear.
    Do it. The spirit’s voice echoed inside his head. The
voice was heady, persuasive. Urian’s own inner darkness purred with erotic
pleasure. Urian cried out and pointed his sword at the backs of the twins in
front of him. Ancient words fell from his lips.
    “ Ní mar a shiltear a bhítear .”
    The portal shimmered, then the colorful mist within the
large oval stopped swirling and turned gray.
    The portal was frozen, at least for the moment. No one would
be able to pass. Urian knew that the magic he cast was fleeting. Soon the mist
would begin to color and swirl, as if it was a drop of oil in water, and
passage could be taken once more. He had only precious moments to capture the
twins before the portal would reopen and they’d be lost to him.
    “Stop!”
    The twins wouldn’t listen.
    “Use your magic,” Nergal shouted from beside him.
    The twins stopped short of the portal and paused for a brief
moment in confusion. Another foreign phrase tumbled from Urian’s lips as he
pointed the sword at their backs.
    Black mist shot out through the tip of the sword and sped
through the air. The twins turned, their eyes widening in fear as the mist
hurled toward them. They withdrew their swords in a feeble attempt to battle
the magic. It was no use.
    Urian’s power slammed into their bodies, tossing them up
into the air as if they weighed no more than a feather. A loud blast echoed
through the air as the brick wall behind the portal exploded and bits of brick,
dirt and dust spread out in all directions. Urian and Nergal were forced to
cover their mouths and duck. Dust, dirt and smoke filled the air, obscuring
their vision.
    “Shit.” Urian didn’t want to kill them, not when