Chapter 80 Rescue Dilemma (Kieran POV)

Chapter 80 Rescue Dilemma (Kieran POV)

"This is insane." Marcus checks his weapon for the third time as we crouch behind a shipping container outside Pedro's secondary compound, not the downtown penthouse where we left him forty minutes ago, but a converted warehouse in the industrial district where he's apparently been holding Lucinda all along. "Kieran, Pedro sent us on a wild goose chase to the penthouse while keeping Lucinda here. Why?"
"Because he wanted time." I study the compound through binoculars, twelve-foot walls, security cameras, armed guards with weapons that glow with demonic energy. "Pedro knew we'd waste an hour going to the wrong location. Knew it would push us closer to midnight. Closer to Sam activating that artifact."
"Or he's working with Lucinda." Tyler's voice crackles through the earpiece Echo set up before we left Pike Place Market. "Guys, Echo's been monitoring spiritual signatures around the compound. She says Lucinda's aura is...wrong. Corrupted differently than before. Like she's been actively channeling demonic power for the past hour."
"Channeling or being possessed?" I ask.
"Echo can't tell from this distance." Tyler sounds frustrated. "But she's warning that Lucinda might not be the same person we're trying to rescue. Might be fully corrupted now. Fully Asmodai's agent instead of his unwitting pawn."
"Then we extract her and deal with the corruption after."
"Marcus, you're with me. We go in through the east entrance where Echo detected the weakest wards. Pedro, you..."
"I'm coming with you." Pedro adjusts body armor that looks ridiculously expensive and probably useless against demonic weapons. "Lucinda has information about Maria. About what Asmodai plans to do with my daughter when dimensional barriers collapse. I need that information."
"You need closure." I don't sugarcoat it. "Pedro, your daughter has been Asmodai's vessel for weeks. By now, Maria Fernandez is probably gone. What's left is just demon wearing her face."
"I know." Pedro's voice breaks. "But I need to hear it from someone who'll tell me the truth. Lucinda orchestrated this entire situation. If anyone knows whether Maria can be saved, it's her."
"Fine." I move toward the compound. "But you follow my orders. You don't engage unless I tell you to engage. You don't risk the mission because of emotional compromise. Deal?"
"Deal."
We approach the east entrance, a loading dock with doors that should be locked but aren't. Too easy. My instincts scream trap.
"Tyler, tell Echo to scan for ambush signatures." I pause at the threshold. "This feels wrong."
"Echo says..." Tyler's typing sounds frantic. "She says the compound is mostly empty. Only three human signatures inside. One is definitely Lucinda. The other two are..." He stops. "Oh god. One of them is Maria Fernandez. Pedro, your daughter is here. In the compound. With Lucinda."
"Maria?" Pedro pushes past me. "My daughter is..."
I grab him before he can charge inside. "Pedro, think! If Maria is here with Lucinda, it's not a rescue opportunity. It's a trap. Asmodai is using your daughter as bait to ensure you walk into whatever he's planned."
"I don't care!" Pedro struggles against my grip. "That's my daughter! I'm not leaving her!"
"Then you'll die trying to save someone who's already gone." Marcus moves to block the entrance. "Pedro, Kieran's right. This is obvious bait. We need to..."
The door explodes outward. Not from physical force but from a wave of demonic energy that sends all three of us flying backward into shipping containers.
Maria Fernandez stands in the doorway. Except she's not Maria anymore, her eyes glow red, her skin has taken on an ashen quality, and shadow wings spread from her back like living darkness.
"Father." Her voice carries Asmodai's harmonics. "How kind of you to come. Lucinda and I have been waiting."
"Maria..." Pedro staggers to his feet. "Baby, please. Fight him. Fight Asmodai's control. You're stronger than..."
"I'm not fighting anything." Maria-Asmodai steps fully into the loading area. "Pedro, I chose this. Chose to be the demon lord's vessel. Chose power over humanity. The same choice Sam Drewsbury will make in approximately eighty-seven minutes when she activates the artifact at Pike Place Market."
"Sam's not choosing anything!" I charge Maria with my knife drawn. "She's corrupted! She's lost the capacity to make real choices!"
Maria dodges with inhuman speed. "Kieran Braut. The cursed hunter who thinks he can save everyone despite three centuries of evidence to the contrary. How does it feel knowing Sam will die tonight? Either by angelic execution or by your hand? Either way, the woman you love is..."
I don't let her finish. I strike with the blessed knife, aiming for her chest where Asmodai's presence should be concentrated.
Maria blocks with her shadow wing. The blade cuts through demonic energy, causing her to scream, but doesn't land the killing blow.
"You'll have to do better than that." She counters with a blast of shadow fire that I barely dodge. "Kieran, Asmodai has been watching you all week. Studying your fighting style. Learning your limitations. Did you really think one cursed hunter could challenge a demon lord?"
"I don't need to challenge him." I circle for another opening. "I just need to rescue Lucinda and stop Sam. Everything else is secondary."
"Lucinda doesn't want to be rescued." A new voice, elderly, familiar, but not corrupted.
Lucinda Drewsbury walks through the doorway. But something's wrong. She moves like she's in a trance, her eyes unfocused, her hands raised in positions that suggest she's channeling magic against her will.
"Kieran." Lucinda's voice wavers between her own and something else trying to speak through her. "I'm...I'm undercover. Pedro and I...we made a deal. I infiltrate Asmodai's network, gather intelligence, but the corruption...it's stronger than I expected. I can't...I can't hold it back much longer."
"She's been serving me willingly." Maria-Asmodai's voice overlaps Lucinda's. "For the past month. Not as an unwitting pawn but as a deliberate agent. She and Pedro planned this together."
"No!" Lucinda fights against the demonic influence, her body shaking with the effort. "That's...that's the programming talking. Pedro, tell them! Tell them we were trying to gather intelligence! Tell them..."
"It's true." Pedro's voice is hollow. "Lucinda and I made a deal a month ago. She said she could infiltrate Asmodai's inner circle if I provided resources and cover. She said we could find Maria, rescue her, stop the invasion from the inside. But something went wrong. The deeper she went, the more corrupted she became. And now..."
"Now she's mine." Maria-Asmodai waves her hand, and Lucinda convulses. "Pedro, your partner was always going to be corrupted. That was the point of letting her infiltrate. Every piece of intelligence she gathered, every secret she learned, it all came with a price. And that price is now due."
Lucinda screams. Her aura flares with demonic energy as the corruption she's been fighting surges through her completely.
When she stops screaming, her eyes glow red. Her voice carries harmonics that shouldn't exist in human vocal cords.
"Thank you for coming, Kieran." Lucinda-corrupted smiles with too many teeth. "The rescue attempt triggers the fourth portal opening. You see, the entire building is a summoning circle."
I look around the compound, finally seeing the demonic script covering every surface. "No..."
"Every person who enters with hostile intent feeds energy into the circle." Maria-Asmodai gestures to walls I didn't examine carefully enough. "You, Kieran. Marcus. Pedro. Even Echo monitoring from Pike Place Market through spiritual connection. You're all powering the fourth portal right now."
I feel it then, the pull. The way the compound is drinking our presence, converting our intention into fuel for a ritual that's already begun.
"Tyler!" I shout into the earpiece. "Tell Echo to cut spiritual connection! Now!"
"She already has!" Tyler sounds panicked. "But Kieran, the damage is done! The fourth portal is opening beneath the compound! It's corrupting Seattle's power grid! The entire electrical system is about to..."
The lights die. Not just in the compound but across the entire industrial district. Then further, spreading like a virus through Seattle's infrastructure.
"The power grid." Marcus stares at the spreading darkness. "You're collapsing the city's electricity to power a portal?"
"Not just electricity." Lucinda-corrupted raises her hands, and symbols burn themselves into the air. "Every electronic device in Seattle. Every computer, phone, tablet, anything connected to the grid. They're all feeding energy into the fourth portal now. Millions of devices. Billions of watts. More than enough power to open a permanent gateway between worlds."
"Lucinda, fight it!" Pedro charges forward. "You're still in there! I know you are! Remember the deal! Remember why we started this! We were trying to save Maria!"
For a moment, Lucinda's eyes flicker. The red dims slightly, and her true voice breaks through. "Pedro...I'm trying...but the corruption...it's too strong. I can't...I can't hold it back anymore. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I was supposed to gather intelligence. Was supposed to help. But I became exactly what we were fighting against."
"Then let us help you!" I move toward her cautiously. "Lucinda, if you're still conscious, if there's any part of you that remembers being Sam's grandmother, fight back! Don't let Asmodai control you!"
The fourth portal opens. Not gradually like the others but explosively, a tear in reality that erupts from beneath the compound, spreading upward through dimensions.
I feel demons on the other side. Feel them pressing against the barrier, ready to flood through the moment the opening stabilizes.
Lucinda-corrupted raises both hands, channeling power into the portal to stabilize it faster. But her movements are jerky, inconsistent. Like two consciousnesses are fighting for control of the same body.
"I can't...stop myself..." Lucinda's true voice breaks through again. "Kieran, the corruption is making me...making me channel for the portal. I don't want to do this. Don't want to help Asmodai. But my body won't listen. Won't stop. Please...you have to stop me. You have to..."
The demonic influence surges back, drowning out her human consciousness.
"Tyler!" I dodge a blast from Maria while trying to think tactically. "How do we close this portal? What stops it?"
"Echo says..." Tyler's voice cracks. "She says Lucinda is the primary anchor. Her corrupted channeling is what's stabilizing the opening. You need to break her concentration. Disrupt her connection to the portal. But Kieran, if you hurt her while she's channeling, the magical backlash could kill her or make the corruption permanent."
"Or it could free her." Marcus aims his weapon at Lucinda. "Kieran, sometimes you have to hurt people to save them. Sometimes tactical necessity requires..."
"Don't shoot her!" I throw myself between Marcus and Lucinda. "There has to be another way! A way to break the channeling without making the corruption permanent!"
"There isn't time for another way!" Marcus's voice is desperate. "Kieran, that portal is pulling demons through right now! I can see them materializing! We have seconds before this becomes a full invasion!"
"Then we have seconds to find a better solution!" I turn to Lucinda, who's shaking with the effort of fighting demonic control while simultaneously channeling power into the portal. "Lucinda, listen to me! You're Sam's grandmother! You raised her! Trained her! Loved her despite knowing she'd become this weapon! That love is stronger than corruption! Use it! Use your love for Sam to fight back against Asmodai's influence!"
"I...I can't..." Lucinda's voice wavers. "Kieran, I've been corrupted too long. Been serving him too thoroughly. Even if part of me wants to fight, the majority is already his. Already committed to opening this portal. Already..."
"Enough talking." Maria-Asmodai waves her hand, and Lucinda's channeling intensifies. "Kieran, you've wasted precious seconds on emotional appeals. Now watch as your hesitation costs Seattle its power grid and its safety."
The portal expands. Demons start crawling through, not many, not yet, but enough to prove the gateway is becoming functional.
"Kieran." Sam's voice crackles through the earpiece, cold and analytical. "The fourth portal just corrupted Seattle's entire power grid. Every electronic device in the city is feeding it. I'm detecting massive dimensional instability. You need to disrupt Lucinda's channeling immediately. Strike her. Shoot her. Whatever it takes to break her concentration before the portal stabilizes completely."
"That could make her corruption permanent!" I argue.
"Better permanent corruption than successful invasion." Sam's logic is flawless and horrifying. "Kieran, stop debating. Start acting. Break Lucinda's concentration. Close the portal. Save Seattle."
"There has to be..." I look at Pedro. "You made the deal with her! You partnered with her for this infiltration! Is there any way to break Asmodai's control without hurting her?"
"I don't know!" Pedro is crying now. "Lucinda said she could handle the corruption! Said she'd been fighting demonic influence for eighty years and knew how to protect herself! But she was wrong! And now she's trapped in her own body while Asmodai uses her as an anchor for his invasion!"
"Then we give her what she needs to fight back." I make a decision. "Marcus, Pedro, help me create a soul-bond circle around Lucinda. If we can anchor her human consciousness with our combined will, maybe she can use that anchor to resist the corruption long enough to break the channeling."
"A soul-bond circle?" Marcus stares. "Kieran, that's... that's advanced magic! We don't have the expertise or the time to—"
"We have what we need." I grab Marcus and Pedro, pulling them into position around Lucinda. "A soul-bond doesn't require expertise. Just commitment. Just willingness to share our humanity with someone who's losing theirs. Pedro, you loved Lucinda enough to trust her with this infiltration. Use that love now. Anchor her."
"I...I don't know how..."
"Neither do I." I place my hand over my heart. "But Sam taught me something this week. She taught me that sometimes love is the most dangerous magic of all. Not because it's powerful, but because it refuses to give up even when logic says it should. Lucinda is still in there. Still fighting. We just need to remind her she's not fighting alone."
I close my eyes and think about Sam. About falling for her despite knowing she was corrupted. About choosing to care even when caring made the necessary choices harder. About the moment earlier tonight when we were planning this rescue and she looked at me with eyes that still held traces of humanity and said, "Kieran, if I don't survive tonight, I need you to know that you made me want to survive. Made me want to be more than just a weapon."
That moment. That connection. That's what a soul-bond feels like.
I channel it toward Lucinda. "I know what it's like to be cursed. To feel yourself losing humanity one death at a time. To wonder if you're still the person you started as or just a monster wearing familiar skin. But Lucinda, you're not alone in that darkness. We're here. Anchoring you. Reminding you that human connection is stronger than demonic corruption."
Marcus joins in, his voice rough with emotion. "I know what it's like to serve Asmodai unwittingly. To realize you've been his agent for decades without knowing it. To carry guilt that feels like it will crush you. But that guilt means you still care. Still feel. Still have enough humanity to regret your compromises. Use that humanity now. Fight back."
Pedro's voice breaks completely. "Lucinda, you're the strongest person I've ever met. You survived eighty years of supernatural warfare. Raised a granddaughter into a weapon while loving her the entire time. Infiltrated a demon lord's network because you thought you could make a difference. That strength is still there. Still yours. Don't let Asmodai take it from you."
The soul-bond forms. I feel it—a connection between the four of us that transcends normal human relationships. Marcus's guilt, Pedro's grief, my curse, and Lucinda's corruption all flowing together into something that's stronger than the sum of its parts.
Lucinda gasps. Her channeling stutters, and the portal destabilizes slightly.
"I can...I can feel you..." Her true voice breaks through. "Kieran. Marcus. Pedro. You're...you're giving me strength. Giving me something to hold onto while I fight."
"Then use it!" I pour more of myself into the soul-bond. "Lucinda, we're anchoring you! Use our connection to break free of Asmodai's control!"
"I'm trying!" Lucinda's body convulses as human consciousness fights demonic influence. "But he's so strong! The corruption is so deep! I can't...I can't fully break free!"
"You don't have to break free completely!" Pedro's voice is fierce. "Just break free enough to stop channeling! Stop feeding the portal! Let us help you hold the line until we can find a permanent solution!"
Lucinda screams. It's not a sound of pain but of effort—like someone lifting impossible weight.
Her channeling stops.
The portal flickers, destabilizing without its primary anchor.
But then Maria-Asmodai steps forward, her own hands raised. "Clever. You disrupted Lucinda's channeling with a soul-bond. But I can serve as backup anchor. The portal doesn't need her anymore."
Maria begins channeling, and the portal stabilizes again.
"No!" Pedro turns toward his daughter. "Maria, please! Don't do this! Don't help him!"
"I'm not helping him, Father." Maria's voice carries genuine affection beneath the demonic harmonics. "I am him. Maria Fernandez chose to be consumed by Asmodai. Chose power over humanity. And I don't regret that choice."
The fourth portal expands, demons crawling through in greater numbers now.
But Lucinda is free. Her eyes clear, the red fading as human consciousness regains control.
"I'm...I'm me again." She staggers, collapsing into Pedro's arms. "The soul-bond worked. You pulled me back from the edge. But Kieran..." She looks at the expanding portal. "Maria is the anchor now. And I don't think we can save her the way you saved me. She's been Asmodai's vessel too long. Been consumed too completely."
"Then we close the portal another way." Marcus aims his weapon at the demonic symbols covering the walls. "If we destroy the summoning circle, we disrupt the entire ritual. Maria can't maintain the portal without the circle to channel through."
"Do it." I help Lucinda to her feet. "Marcus, destroy the circle. I'll handle Maria."
What follows is chaos. Marcus shoots the demonic symbols while I fight Maria-Asmodai with blessed steel. Pedro supports Lucinda, keeping her stable while she recovers from the partial corruption.
The summoning circle breaks. The portal destabilizes. Demons that were crawling through get pulled back to their own realm, screaming as dimensional barriers snap closed around them.
But the power grid remains corrupted. The electricity doesn't return. The damage is done even if the portal is closing.
"Kieran." Sam's voice through the earpiece. "The fourth portal is closing. Good work. But Seattle's power grid is still corrupted. The electrical system will take hours to restore. Which means electronic communications are down. Which means coordinating tonight's ritual just became significantly harder."
"Can you still seal the gateway at Pike Place Market?" I ask while helping Lucinda toward the exit.
"Yes." Sam's voice is emotionless. "But without electronic coordination, I'll have to rely on direct spiritual communication with Echo and Lord Ash's fae warriors. Kieran, you need to return to Pike Place Market immediately. We have sixty-three minutes until midnight. And I need..." She stops. "I need you here. Need your presence. Even if I can't process why anymore."
That admission that tiny crack in her tactical assessment that's the most human thing Sam has said in hours.
"I'm coming." I support Lucinda as we exit the compound. "Sam, I'm coming. And we're bringing Lucinda. She fought back against the corruption. She deserves to be there when we stop Asmodai."
"Acknowledged." Sam pauses. "Kieran, the soul-bond you created to save Lucinda...I felt it. Felt the connection even from Pike Place Market. That's what love does, isn't it? It creates bonds that transcend distance and corruption and logical assessment. It makes us stronger by making us vulnerable to each other."
"Yes." I help Lucinda into Marcus's car. "Sam, that's exactly what love does."
"Then I'm glad I experienced it before I lost the capacity to feel properly." Her voice is soft, almost wistful. "See you at midnight, Kieran. Let's save the world together one last time."
The connection cuts.
We drive toward Pike Place Market through a city gone dark. The fourth portal is closed. Lucinda is saved from permanent corruption. But Maria Fernandez remains Asmodai's vessel, the power grid is destroyed, and Sam is sixty-three minutes from activating an artifact that will either save humanity or destroy it.
And somewhere in the darkness, I realize that the soul-bond I created to save Lucinda also connected me more deeply to Sam. I can feel her now, her corruption, her determination, her fading humanity.
And I know with absolute certainty that when midnight comes, when Sam stands at Pike Place Market ready to activate that artifact, the soul-bond will make executing her infinitely harder.
Because how do you kill someone you're spiritually connected to? How do you destroy the woman you love when you can literally feel her consciousness intertwined with your own?
I don't have answers. Just sixty-three minutes to figure them out.