Page 97 of Demon Unleashed

“Bitch!”

No, definitely Enya. She was here, saving him.

Relief and the knowledge that he would survive flooded him. With it, the pain dissipated, and movement was reanimating his limbs.

He heard a body slump to the ground and saw Enya’s face appear in his field of vision. She crouched down next to him. “She’s dead.” She gripped his arm. “Can you move?”

“Yes.” With Enya’s help, Zoltan rose. By the time he was standing on his own two feet again, his strength had returned. Yet he felt different. He touched the spot where Tamara had broken his skin and felt the blood there. He looked at his fingers. “She told the truth. It’s red. I’m bleeding red blood.”

Enya nodded. “And you have a Stealth Guardian’s aura. But we’ve gotta get outta here now.” She looked at her stopwatch. “Shit.”

An explosion rocked the Underworld, nearly swallowing Enya’s last word.

“The first circle,” Zoltan said, and took Enya’s hand. “We’ve got six minutes.”

They hurried out of the hall and into the next tunnel. He didn’t know how he knew, but he was certain that he and Enya were invisible, which could only mean that Enya was making them both invisible so they could escape.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Bad luck. I collapsed just when I had the upper hand. If you hadn’t come in time, I would be dead.” Knowing how little time they had left to make it back to the portal, he added, “You shouldn’t have risked looking for me.”

A second explosion echoed through the tunnels, making the ground beneath their feet vibrate.

Enya shot him a glance. “If you think you can shirk your duties as a father, think again. I’m not gonna let you off the hook that easily.”

“That’s what I love about you: you speak your mind.” He grinned. “And there’s no way I’ll be an absent father. I’m afraid you’ll have to deal with me, whether you’re getting sick of me or not.”

Another boom, indicating the explosion of the third vortex circle, blasted through the tunnel. This time, Zoltan felt the shock wave physically, as it sent a strong gust of air through the tunnel system.

“Five minutes,” Enya said.

“We’ll make it,” Zoltan said, his words more a wish than certainty.

They ran faster, Zoltan choosing the shortest way to the portal, which was equidistant from circle two and three and a little farther from circle three, which had been the first to blow. As they ran, they encountered panicked demons, all running in different directions, some charging toward danger without knowing it. Every time Enya and Zoltan had to squeeze close to the tunnel walls so as not to collide with them. Yet there was no need to remain quiet—demons were shouting and screaming in the confusion, nobody realizing that they were already doomed. Even the dogs seemed perplexed at the goings-on, whining and barking nervously. Nobody was paying them any attention.

For a moment, Zoltan thought of the animals’ lot. They were innocent, yet they would pay the same price as their demon masters. He wished he could free them and bring them to the human world, but it was impossible.

“How much farther?” Enya asked. “I’m all turned around.”

“Just a minute more. We’re almost there.”

He caught her looking at her stopwatch, a ray of hope illuminating her face. Yes, they would make it.

At the next intersection, Zoltan turned right—and came to a rocking halt. He spread his arms wide so Enya couldn’t race past him.

“What?”

But he didn’t have to tell her what had made him stop, because she saw it too now.

“Oh God!”

But God had nothing to do with what lay before them: a river of lava, cutting them off from the tunnel that led directly to the portal. The portal that was only two hundred yards from their position—so close, yet so far.

“It’s too wide to jump over it,” Zoltan said, looking at Enya, whose eyes were wide. For the first time, he saw real fear in them.

“This is it,” she murmured, and slung her arms around him.

He put his hands on her shoulders. “No, it’s not. There’s another way.” There had to be. “We have to reach the tunnel that connects to the portal from the other side.”