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I balled the hand Nova wasn’t holding hostage into a fist. The poor woman’s mewls of pain were torture to my ears, and it took every bit of willpower I owned not to attack the group of demons in different stages of consuming one victim or another with my entire arsenal of weapons.
As if knowing what I was thinking, Nova’s eyes slid over to me and his smile softened. “Very perceptive of you. But I’d expect nothing less, Donovan. I’d appreciate it if you would cease your present activities, or you might bring the wrath of my companion on every demon here.”
Donovan grabbed his victim around the throat, and she fought him despite her open wounds and naked body, struggling desperately to breathe. My gaze narrowed dangerously on the one called Donovan, silently praying he said something stupid so I could get to the slicing and dicing, bashing and crashing sooner rather than later.
Come on, Donny-boy. Say something ignorant. I dare you.
“Oh? Found another do-gooder waste of demon space, did you? I say give it your best shot, doll, because I don’t take orders from anyone who’s not Lucifer.”
Grinning like the Cheshire cat, Nova released my hand and then covered his mouth. Green eyes beamed an intense, violent red a second later, and the air around Nova was instantly charged. “I’m quite chuffed you’d say so because she’s been desperate for a reason toplay.”
Bingo!
A shudder ran through my body and I removed the bat clipped to my back, smile lifting devilishly. “Fuck yeah. I’m so glad we can skip all the pleasantries, asshole.”
Spiriting over to the closest demon, who was mid-bite into a chunk of some poor bastard’s leg, I swung my favorite bat with an eagerness befitting a vengeful bitch who’d gone weeks without killing a demon. His eyes widened before my bat dented in his skull and blood sprayed across my face, and all over the dark-eyed demon next to him.
“I’ve really missed this…”
You ever get a song stuck in your head when you’re doing something? Well, so did I. Except, in this case it was while frolicking through a room of torture and death, swinging my bat and pairing up with Nova to make quick work of the demons who surrounded the overconfident one at the front.
Save the best for last, I always say.
Twirling, I hummed “Show Off” by Todrick Hall and Nicole Scherzinger, foot connecting with a demon who was trying to escape. The deadly crack of my bat against the bastard’s skull was like coming home. It landed and smashed. Something I could rely on in this intensely long, bullshit existence.
It saved the part of me that spent years helpless, a victim to the men who sought to take advantage of what little I could do to fight back. Every time I smashed in the head of one of these bastards, it was for that little girl I’d once been who had no choice but to comply.
Now it was I who they feared. I was the Reaper of their nightmares. I brought death and revenge to every evil bastard who crossed my path. Sometimes for others who couldn’t. Like these poor bastards chained to the floor, who’d bear the marks, scars, and wounds of this night for the rest of their life. Because even if they got away tonight, they’d be forced to remember this fear forever.
Oh, sure, some might chalk it up to a hallucination from a drug or their wounds, but there’d be a few—a few who’d remember it all and would know it wasn’t a dream or illusion. But hey, at least they wouldn’t be dead. That was better than nothing, right? And maybe even a few might use it the way Aidan and I did to get vengeance. The world could always use a few more demon hunters, I guess.
The familiar sound of a gun going off echoed in the small room, and the people on the floor screamed out in horror and huddled as close together as they could in fear they’d be next. My shoulder took a hit, and I looked down to where my shirt had been pierced. Blood dribbled from the wound and I rolled my neck, feeling the cracks along my spine. Somersaulting to evade the demon’s next shot aimed straight at my heart, I was on him in an instant, bat landing with a sickening thud onto his awaiting skull.
It never got old, their wide eyes before I smashed their heads in. But more than that, what kind of asshole brought a gun to a sword fight?
Amateur.
Bullet holes would heal. Unless he found a way to decapitate me with a line of bullets, I was pretty safe from most guns. Even if it didn’t go all the way through, my body expelled them like some bullshit out of the Underworld movies. Looked creepy as shit. Taking a bullet was like being stung by a bee to me, so it didn’t slow me down. If anything, it just pissed me off more.
And I got creative when I was pissed off.
Foot on his chest, I tore the demon’s limbs right off his body, one by one, with a smile on my face. His metal gun went clattering to the cement floor when his arm came off. In frightened horror, the humans nearby cowered in a corner, crying and begging for their lives.
I didn’t have time to tell the poor souls that I wasn’t here for them. But even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. Poor bastards had every reason not to believe a word I said. Better to kill their captors and show them exactly what I was here to do.
Some brave asshole tried to get the sneak on me when I, in slow-motion, lifted my bat and got ready to really give the first one hell. But my eyes quickly flitted behind me, and I switched my weapon’s direction, twisting. Another crack and the new bastard slammed into the wall.
A few of the chained victims reactively cried out, while others were just outright shell-shocked. Which was to be expected. They’d seen enough carnage already, and I probably looked like another version of death for them.
It didn’t take long to clear the room of all the demons save Donovan.
Gently, I helped the poor woman off the cement slab, taking special care of her injuries after breaking through her metal cuffs with brute force. She whimpered, limping, and clung to me like she worried I was leading her to the same fate as every demon bastard I’d killed before getting over to her. But as I took great care to help her over to the exit and unchain the rest, most of them got the picture and hurried to escape. It only took a few minutes for the ones not unconscious or dead to clear out.
The noise above us indicated they’d made a splash, so we needed to be quick about this before it was reported to the police.
Pivoting on the heel of my foot, I rested the spiked, blood-saturated bat across the back of my neck and shoulders, then dead-eyed the last bastard—the one we’d need to torture to get the deets on one of the Sworn Three assholes. With one last wistful glance at the carnage I’d left in my wake, I silently mourned how quickly it’d all ended.
I was definitely stronger and faster now. These low-level demons felt like a walk through the park to fight.
