Chapter Thirty-Nine
Enzo
The screams from the cathedral tore through the night, each one more desperate than the last. The blond figure had vanished from the broken window—Ari was inside with them. My people. My family.
Where the hell was Angelo?
Serenity.
I should leave Joy here—safe with Tinker Bell and Morden, protected while I handled this. But the thought of letting her out of my sight, of losing her again after everything we'd been through, made my blood run cold.
Every single time I'd left her behind, she'd been taken from me. Kidnapped. Tortured. Dragged to another fucking dimension.
Not again. Never again.
"Joy, no! The queen will get away," Morden yelled.
"Stay with me," I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her close.
We plunged into the bayou, water and mud sucking at our legs, slowing us down. The twisted roots of cypress trees made every step treacherous. Behind us, I heard the queen's remaining soldiers shouting orders, organizing pursuit.
A Dark Demon dropped from the canopy above, landing between us and the cathedral. I didn't slow—just drove my fist through its chest as we passed. It smacked into a tree and collapsed.
But three more took its place.
Joy's shadows lashed out, wrapping around one demon's throat. It clawed at the darkness, choking. I took advantage, snapping the neck of the second while her shadows crushed the third.
But they kept coming. The bayou swarmed with them now. Ari must have called every Dark Demon in the area. For every demon I cut down, two more took its place. It was hopeless—but I couldn’t give up. The screams from the cathedral were getting more desperate, more frequent. Those were my people dying in there.
Fuck. We were running out of time.
"Trust me," I said, and before Joy could respond, I swept her into my arms. My vampire speed kicked in, and we became a blur. Demons lunged but caught only air. Trees whipped past. The fetid water sprayed around us.
The cathedral's broken entrance appeared ahead, and the sounds of battle from within made my blood run cold.
We were almost there.
Dark Demons guarded the cathedral entrance, swords drawn and gleaming in the firelight. At least a dozen of them, tall men forming a wall of deadly intent between us and whoever was screaming inside.
Hades descended from above like divine retribution, his roar shaking the very air. The sound was primal, ancient—a challengefrom a creature that feared nothing. The Dark Demons' confident stances faltered. They tried to reposition, to brace for impact.
Too slow.
Hades crashed into their ranks with the force of a battering ram. His lion's body sent them flying like tin soldiers—bodies slamming into walls, tumbling across the muddy ground. Their screams filled the air as Hades' claws raked through them. The ones who tried to fight back were crushed beneath his weight or caught in his powerful jaws. Blood sprayed across the cathedral's stone entrance.
The path was clear.
I ran through the fallen guards, their groaning bodies littering the ground, and set Joy down behind me just inside the cathedral's broken doorway. My body became her shield.
She gasped behind me. “Zoe! Oh my god, is she dead?”
“No. But almost.”
Marsha’s portal was finally closed. Tinker Bell’s spell must have worked after Hades killed her. At least no more Dark Demons would be pouring into the cathedral. But there were still about twenty of the bastards left.
Nothing I couldn’t handle.
“Enzo, look.” Joy pointed up toward the ceiling. “It’s Serenity, but there’s something wrong.”