The Unlikeable Demon Hunter (Nava Katz #1)(12)
I stopped, forcing Ari to stop with me. I couldn’t in good conscience leave this woman stranded in the middle of the night. Especially outside this dump with its sketchy lighting. I dug out my phone, shuffled a few steps closer, and handed it to her. “Here. Use mine.”
“Thanks,” she said, latching onto my wrist with a talon. My phone tumbled to the concrete as her mouth elongated into a distorted sneer. “Have fun with my brother tonight?”
I tried to scramble back, terrified her jaw was about to unhinge and swallow me whole, but she held me fast. Good thing because I still hadn’t recharged and lack of energy plus fear equaled my knees buckling.
I batted at her with my right hand, which was totally failing to shock her.
“Bitch,” she snarled, her stilettos morphing to crow’s feet, “I liked him. He was the only one of my siblings I hadn’t eaten.”
Ew. Phrasing.
A surge of adrenaline raced through me and I snapped my knee up into her crotch.
She gasped, doubling over.
That’s when I head-butted her, a technique learned while hanging with this hockey player I’d wanted to bang. The demon’s nose made a satisfying crunch as the cartilage shattered. I snatched my arm loose with a laugh. “Booyah, mother–”
With a roar she puffed up into an ogre. A solid muscle demon ogre with a now-tattered dress hanging off her body. Her shiny mane of hair erupted into white feathers and her nose transformed into a pointed beak. The crow/ogre hybrid grabbed me by the throat.
My powers were still in absentia and all thoughts of electrocute the bitch, were supplanted by get air to brain as she continued to squeeze. Spots danced in front of my watering eyes, my vision tunneling down to the narrow pinprick of her bumpy chin. I flailed my limbs.
“Get your own sibling,” Ari said, “I spent years training this one.”
SPLOOSH! Murky goo splattered all over my face.
She dropped me like a hot potato.
I stood there wheezing, staring in incredulity at my brother. Not only had he jammed a standing lamp through the demon’s neck, he’d taken advantage of her clawing at the thing to whip out a knife from an ankle sheath, firing it into her just below her navel.
A scream ripped from the demon’s throat, her skin blistering in a way that made me think of crackling. I might never eat bacon again. Yeah, who was I kidding? Tendrils of smoke wafted off her bubbling flesh. She screeched a high-pitched, inhuman cry of pain and rage.
“Nee, finish her!”
I stared at him blankly. Ari grabbed my hand and, hauling me over to the demon, placed my fingers around the knife so they touched her rubbery skin.
A tingle deep inside me rippled into a concentrated bolt of lightning, firing straight into the demon.
She exploded. The lamp and the knife clattered to the ground.
Shimmery gold dust floated down from the star-filled night sky. It coated Ari, turning him into a sparkling hero.
“How?” It was all I managed to stutter out.
He shrugged and picked up his knife. “Training.”
“But…” I pointed at the weapon.
“Iron blade coated in salt. Two things demons hate.”
“And…” I made a thrusting motion with my hand.
Ari stared at me for a second before he clued in. “Ohhh. The lamp. Again, training.” He ran his fingers through his hair, shaking out the dust as he walked along the sidewalk. His slippers made soft padding sounds with each step.
Avoiding the trail of demon dust on the sidewalk, I scooped up my phone with my thumb and index finger, not touching any more of it than I had to, then hurried after him. I punched his shoulder. “Don’t fight demons without magic.”
“I didn’t. You were right there.”
I growled at him. “Your own magic.”
Ari turned the corner, pulled his key fob out, and beeped it at our father’s blue Prius parked at the curb.
“I know you, Ace. Magic or no, you come across someone in need of saving from a demon, you’ll rush in. You can’t.”
He shrugged as he opened the passenger door and helped me inside.
“Unlike me,” I said, “you possess that stupid selfless gene that Rasha are supposed to have. Tonight proves there’s been a colossal mistake.”
“You killed the demon,” he said. “No mistake.”
“You killed that demon. I was merely a tool.” I forgave him the small smirk at my word choice as he shut my door. Didn’t lessen my desire to throttle him, though.
Ari got in the driver’s side, tossing the blade into the pocket on the door.
Pushing him about staying safe would only spur him in the other direction. “Why are you not more excited about this? Or upset about it? Or something resembling anything?” I asked.
My brother placed the key in the ignition and started the engine with the press of the power button. He pulled out into the street to the strains of shitty soft rock. Dad must have been the last one to drive the car. “Big deal. Another assist. Not like I got to score on goal directly.”
I rested my feet on the dashboard, slouched in my seat. “Not enough excitement for you, brother dear?”
He shrugged. “Eh.”
I stuffed my fists under my butt, the sight of my hands still troubling. “That disturbs me about you.” As did the fact that the idiot was going to get himself killed.