Page 93 of Demon Demands

22

Palmer

Saturday Afternoon

I was the last person to be brought through the Void and into the Lilk desert. Lucifer immediately jumped into the fray when we stepped out, but I couldn’t drag my eyes away from Sloane.

I could barely see her through all the demons between us. It was her silver hair that made her so easy to spot, billowing in the breeze as she stared Satan down with a smirk which pulled the left side of her face up.

As the rest of the demons shifted around, sensing all the power that was standing behind them, I caught sight of the blood covering her chest and left arm. I couldn’t see exactly where it was coming from, but it was no small amount.

Alternating my focus between Sloane and Satan, I watched, horrified, as he lobbed a huge ball of swirling fire straight at my mate from only feet away. She blinked slowly, or winked possibly, though I couldn’t understand why she’d wink at Satan. Then again, she was a complicated creature.

The flames hit her chest, flattening out to wrap around her body and swallow her whole. She erupted, disintegrating before my eyes until she was nothing but ashes floating in the breeze.

Feeling nauseated and confused, I glanced around me. The guys were all in various states of panic and disbelief. Jack, however, was smiling deviously and Dolyn was shaking his head with a grin on his face. My mate’s death didn’t even faze her family or Hyde.

I had no idea where Franklin was, but his voice flitted into my mind, images of Sloane’s plan flashing with his words. “She’ll be fine. She just needs a few minutes to regenerate. That was part of her plan.”

I snorted. Her plan. Right… How the fuck were we supposed to know that she could regenerate? I wasn’t surprised, though I was pissed off that she didn’t warn us.

Half of us had stopped fighting to watch her die. I’d never started, too fixated on her injured form to care about the demons around me. That was a mistake.

The tip of a dagger sliced across my right bicep as Briggs shoved me out of the way of an attack. Swinging his ax with his right hand, he struck a rusty brown demon from hip to hip, cleaving him nearly in half.

Creating a vortex in front of me, I pushed demons away by the dozens, dead and alive. “Where’s yer flannel? Ye look like a psychotic lumberjack,” I snarked at Briggs.

“Get fucked,” he grumbled under his breath.

Gale winds blew around us, giving the shifter and me time to assess the fight. “How many do ya think there are?”

Briggs shook his head. “Don’t know, don’t care. You got my back?”

“Always,” I assured him, clapping my hand on his shoulder as he gripped the end of his ax.

“Drop your storm, man. Let’s cut these fuckers down.”

I released the hold on my vortex, and Briggs threw his ax at the back of a demon charging at Stone. He shifted into his enormous black wolf, landing quietly in the sand before racing forward to wreak havoc.

Looking to my right, I stopped, doing a double-take and blinking rapidly. The sight of Sloane’s ashes swirling in the air, growing and growing as they mixed with the desert sand had me rubbing at my eyes.

Her body began to form, skeletal bones first, then her wings, tail, and horns. Muscle followed quickly behind, covering her skeleton completely as creamy skin inched up her body. It started at her toes and ended at the base of her horns, but the flesh never reached her wings or tail. Her silver hair shot out from her scalp, tumbling down her bare back in waves.

As her demonic form finished regenerating, her wings and tail burst into blue flames. Her naked body hovered a few feet above the ground. Thunderous eyes scanned the horde, slow and calculating, her neck twisting too far for my own comfort in her perusal.

Sloane tipped her head skyward, multiple voices coming out of her mouth as she cackled manically, and every single person in battle snapped their attention to her.

Terrifying was the only word I could think of to describe her laughter. As it echoed around us, she ended on a surprised gasp, her eyes dead-locked on the demon standing in front of me.

“Blue,” she sang, flames wrapping around her like a living dress as her feet hit the ground, toes first. “I’ve been looking for you.”

An orange demon with the body of a lion and a human-ish torso stepped in her path, sword raised to strike her. She slammed her hand through his human stomach, pulling innards out as she stole his weapon.

No one survived her wrath as she destroyed her way to the gorgon. I could see the determination in her eyes as she cut down foe after foe like she was slicing through soft butter.

I’d never seen anyone so flawless with a sword before. She was all grace and killing blows, no wasted energy. Every swing was thought out and planned.

Her violent streak was fucking scary, but also sexy. I wasn’t going to think about what that said about me; that her murderous tendencies turned me on.