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“Ooo, cooperative is kind of a big word for you, isn’t it? Don’t hurt yourself.”
“I’m going to make you shut that smart mouth.”
“Ready when you are.”
I gritted my teeth, dagger in hand. So predictable, he lunged straight for me, bulky arms reaching out, though he moved faster than I remembered.
“Flamma intus!”
I slashed my dagger across his abdomen. A pulse of white light rippled out of my chest, down my arm, flinging Fabio back onto the pavement and knocking his head against the brick building. Eyes wide with shock stared back at me as a dark line seeped through his gray shirt in the same place as my own wound.
“Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it?” I glared.
Stunned still for a second, the mean one lunged for me. I spun, swinging my boot up and punching out with power simultaneously.
My VS obeyed the summons without repeating the words, though my blow missed. He ducked and clipped me from behind. I fell forward, scraping my palms on the pavement, and rolled sideways as he lunged again. I slashed in an arc, my dagger cutting across his face. He screamed and stumbled backward.
Suddenly, two viselike grips pinned my arms. I’d put my back to the newcomers by mistake. Instinct had me yanking to free myself.
“Hold her!” yelled Fabio, grim-faced, marching forward.
I crunched my boot on the foot of the scraggly guy to my left. He screamed and let go. As I swung to punch the one on my right, someone grabbed me from behind around the waist, pulling me tightly against his sweaty, foul-smelling body.
The mean one. Panic shot through me, strong and potent. I tried to elbow him at my back, but the other minions had a tight grip on both forearms.
“So, the Vessel has learned a few tricks,” Fabio grumbled, touching a finger to the bloody spot on the back of his head.
I stopped struggling, took a deep breath and summoned my power. A weak pulse thrummed in my core. I closed my eyes to focus, inhaling a deep breath.
A squeezing hand clutched my throat, snuffing out the pulsing light at once. Fear startled my eyes open to see a leering Fabio, sinister eyes glinting with rage.
“Not so smart now, are you? Master gave me a little something extra to deal with you.”
I choked out a laugh, sensing someone else on the wind.
“You won’t be laughing long, sweetheart.”
“Neither will you,” I promised.
His eyes narrowed. “Why is tha…?”
Blood gurgled in his throat. He coughed metallic-scented spray across my cheek as a sword blade ripped through his chest from behind. The besmeared tip exited the left pectoral at an angle. Dazed, Fabio peered down, gripping the blade with a shaking hand as if to shove it back through.
Jude had sifted in mid-thrust. Fabio was skewered before anyone even saw the demon hunter ringed in red-orange flames with death in his eyes.
He chanted low in the demon’s ear as the life-blood drained away. At Jude’s command, the creature began shriveling inward. Clawing and convulsing on the pavement, it shrieked, gurgling crimson from its mouth. I couldn’t feel sorry for the demon, but I pitied the man who’d fused itself with the beast.
Eyes hooded, Jude continued to whisper an expelling chant to the thing at his feet. Fury consumed the air, brushing against my skin, my face, the emotion so strong I felt that if I reached out, it would flay the skin off my bones.
Instead, a moon-bright beam reached out from within by instinct, coating my skin in luminescent light. A shield against the rage pouring from Jude as he broke the man and demon in half.
With a final wail, the human host crumpled to a lifeless heap. Legs and arms twisted at unnatural angles, the neck lolled completely parallel to the shoulder. Smoke swirled up, dissipating in the scattering wind. We’d all frozen to watch the scene in horrific fascination. Fabio’s buddy had let me go and now slowly inched away.
“Hello,” came Kat’s casual voice from behind.
The demon took off in one direction. The two oafs scattered, but the scraggly one fell to the pavement a few yards away. Well, no. His human body fell, but a three-foot, bony creature with sagging gray skin squeezed out of him. I felt a crackle of Flamma energy as the little demon cast illusion, disappearing into the night. Its human host lay unconscious, as I’d seen happen to all the others when the lower demons vacated the premises.
All the while, Jude stood over the broken body of Fabio, eyes closed, breathing heavily. His aura of fire licked in angry waves, caressing his shoulders, flaring in arcing bursts high above him. Something was wrong.
