Page 99 of Demon Unleashed

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Cinead didn’t collapse. Virginia was by his side, steadying him just in time, and he seemed to regain his strength quickly.

“I should have the whole lot of you locked up in a lead cell,” Barclay thundered. He glared at the entire contingent of the Baltimore compound, then pointed to the vampires. “And to drag our allies into this behind the council’s back… despicable! You’ll all have to answer for this.”

That one of the men he was accusing was his own son, Aiden, didn’t seem to matter much to primus, the head of the Council of Nine. Clearly, Aiden knew it, because he kept his mouth shut.

“So I guess somebody blabbed,” Enya said, tipping her chin up. She wasn’t afraid of anything right now. She’d just escaped certain death. Whatever Barclay and the council could do to her now was a slap on the wrist in comparison.

Barclay narrowed his eyes—by the looks of it, ready to douse her in a barrage of insults—but Virginia put a hand on his shoulder.

“Allow me.” As a member of the council, she had the same voting rights as Barclay and Cinead. “Yes, somebody blabbed, as you call it.” She motioned to Samson and Amaury. “As you know, Blake is good friends with Wes. He couldn’t wait to tell him what you all were planning. In fact, he sounded a bit jealous that you didn’t need him to join you. And since you, Enya, had asked Wes and Charles about a miracle cure for a demon named Zoltan, well, it wasn’t hard for him to put two and two together. So, when he got home and I asked him about his day, he told me about your idiotic plan, even saying he was surprised the council authorized it.”

Barclay huffed. “Yes, imagine our surprise, since we never got to vote on this.”

“I take full responsibility,” Enya said. “I talked the others into it. It’s not their fault. I made them do it.”

Before Barclay could respond, Zoltan stepped forward. “It was my idea. Therefore, I take the blame. Do with me what you want. But spare Enya and the others. They did what they thought was right.”

Barclay looked at Cinead.

For the first time, Cinead spoke up. “And was it right?”

Zoltan turned his head to look at him. He nodded. “It was. We defeated them. All three vortex circles flooded with lava. They’re destroyed. And the portal we carved and which brought us back was rigged to explode behind us. I heard the explosion. The demons are imprisoned in the Underworld. There’s no way out for them. And no way for the demons currently topside to return. They’ll be easy pickings. We’ll chase them down and kill them, until none is left.”

“We?” Cinead asked, and looked Zoltan up and down, scrutinizing him as if seeing him for the first time. “So you have no regrets having destroyed your own kingdom? It is your kingdom, Zoltan, isn’t it?”

Zoltan nodded. “Yes, and I had no choice but to destroy the Underworld. I did it for Enya and our unborn child.”

Gasps came from the three council members, and Enya instinctively took Zoltan’s hand. They were in this together, and whatever punishment they would receive, she would take her share to lighten his.

“Is that true?” Barclay asked, looking at Enya.

“Yes, Primus, I carry Zoltan’s child.” She turned to Cinead. “Your grandchild. You must have guessed it already. I saw the way you stared at Zoltan when we arrived. You saw yourself in him, didn’t you? You already know that he’s your son. He’s Angus.”

Cinead’s lips quivered, and it took a few seconds before he had the strength to speak. “I didn’t dare hope.” He looked at Zoltan. “Not after Winter told me that he was a demon. In my mind, I buried him then.” He shook his head. “I buried you because I saw no hope. No way of redemption for you.” He lifted his hands as if wanting to reach for Zoltan. “Yet you stand before me, the aura of a Stealth Guardian surrounding you. And I don’t understand how it happened. How you were able to cast out the demon.”

Zoltan leaned toward Enya and put his hand on her flat belly. “My child saved me. My child’s virta gave me back my real self.”

Enya smiled at him. “He has all his Stealth Guardian powers back, and his blood is red now. There’s no demon left in him.”

Cinead nodded to Barclay and Virginia. “A word.”

While the three stepped aside to talk quietly to each other, Enya’s brethren came closer.

“We thought we’d lost you,” Hamish said, and pulled her into a quick embrace. Then he looked to Zoltan and squeezed his shoulder. “Both of you.”

“Yeah, what happened down there?” Aiden asked.

“Enya saved my life,” Zoltan said. “I got cornered by the traitor’s partner, Tamara. She attacked me just as I went into another convulsion.”

When the others stared at him, confused, Enya explained, “Zoltan turning back into a Stealth Guardian came with spasms so bad that I thought he was dying. The second wave hit him down in the Underworld, gave him all his powers, but practically incapacitated him while it happened.”

Zoltan took her hand and squeezed it. “You came just in time.”

Behind them, Quinn piped up, “And the vortex circles and our portal? You sure they all blew up and were destroyed?”

Zoltan chuckled. “Yeah, about that. Do you think you were overdoing it a little on the explosives?”