Grave Mistakes (Hellgate Guardians #1)(61)
I chuckle at the image, but then promptly choke on it when the Cousin It demons shed their long-haired outer layer like they’re taking off a coat to reveal the nasty looking things they are beneath. They look like something out of J.K. Rowling’s imagination. Only these fucked up, life-sized house elves have shiny black skin that looks uncomfortably tight and goat heads with no horns. Add to that the chill-inducing hyena tittering, and I’m a solid six on the freaked out scale.
Like someone just yelled, “Are you ready to rummmmmmmble?” and then hit the starting bell, both sides of the battle rush each other at the same time. They slam into one another in a flurry of demon bodies, and my mind can’t seem to decide what it wants to focus on.
Jerif grabs two of the goat fuckers in his bare hands, and they both scream as they start to melt and then burst into flames from his touch. Iceman channels his inner Elsa and throws a ball of blue light at a goat demon, immediately freezing it solid. He then smashes it, shattering it to pieces with his fist.
Echo is slinking around from one dark patch to another, choking demons to death with their own shadows like a really fucking creepy Peter Pan. He looks like he’s laughing and cheering as he goes, and I can’t even begin to decide what I think about that. Crux...well, Crux is just punching goat demons. I wait to catch a hint of his abilities, but he just looks like he’s in street fighter mode.
A shout draws my attention, and I bend some grass away to see Flint running straight toward a handful of demons. They try to attack him, but it looks like his skin is as hard as the marble it resembles. He starts bashing in skulls with his rock-like fists, and I look away, not needing that visual to haunt my nightmares late at night.
“Just do it, Crux!” Jerif yells out, and I have to work to find them in the melee of bodies.
“You know I hate it! I’m fine!” Crux argues as he punches another goat fucker in the head, knocking it down.
Unfortunately, Crux turns away just as the thing snaps right back up and rakes its claws down his arm. I gasp as Crux grits out a yell, and outrage and anger rips through me. Apparently, I don’t like watching him get hurt.
“Stop being a baby and just do it,” Echo yells out at Crux as a goat head rolls away from him, and the body it was formerly attached to collapses to the ground at his feet. Shadows curl around him with menace.
“The clean up isn’t worth it!” Crux counters.
“We’re outnumbered, so stop whining and do what needs to be done to maintain the balance,” Iceman orders gruffly, and I watch as Crux releases an exasperated exhale.
“Fine!”
I watch intently, wondering what Crux can do and why he’s so obviously against doing it. He stops, feet planted and hands slightly lifted up at his sides. He seems to take a breath, and then he crushes his hands into fists. At that same exact moment, the five demons who surrounded him suddenly jolt and then...it’s like they get sucked into themselves. One moment, they’re all tight black skin and goat heads, and the next, they’re...inside fucking out.
Eww.
I watch as Crux visibly shivers, and the attacking demons around him fall to the ground. With their insides no longer inside of them, it’s...messy. I can see why he didn’t want to do this trick.
Grimacing, I look away before I get the urge to vomit as the bodies made up of blood and organs fall to the ground with sickly, sloppy noises. I purposely look anywhere else, and my eyes snag on a patch of yellow that’s surrounded by a horde of demons. I can barely make out Alder as he’s attacked, and panic shoots through me. I look around to see if anyone is going to come help him, but everyone is fighting their own demons.
Did more of the Cousin It bitches come through the Gate?
It looks like twice the number of attackers than I originally counted, and I’m freaking out. Alder is a Guardian, so what the hell happens to the Gate if he’s killed? Will it break and let things like these goat assholes in all the time? Fuck no. I don’t know what these little shits want to do here in this realm, but it’s sure as fuck nothing good.
With the scythe firmly in my grip, I push up from my stomach. I want to help, but I don’t have any magical abilities, and I don’t want to be a liability. I debate for a moment about what to do, but then I see Alder throw a bunch of demons off of him like a bull bucking off its rider.
He looks fucking pissed, and I have to bite back the cheer that wants to burst out of me when he throws more demons away from him. But they just keep coming, more and more, seemingly spilling out from the Gate that poses as an outhouse.
That’s when Alder reaches up and plucks the flower from behind his ear. He smiles, the look filled with both triumph and promises of pain, and then he blows on the flower in his hand. The entire thing dissolves into fine yellow dust and rides the air, tiny particles delicately landing on the demons all around him.
In a heartbeat, every demon touched by the yellow pollen suddenly stops. Some of them keel over, while others claw at their throats. Their black heads puff up, like air is getting trapped in their skulls, and I watch as all of them slowly choke to death, falling to the ground one after the other.
I’m so stunned by the brutal beauty of what he can do that I just stand there and watch as he dusts another half dozen demons at Flint’s back next.
A bellow so loud it hurts my ears suddenly reaches me, and I can practically feel the pain in it. I whip my head around, searching for the source, and my heart stops when I find Iceman on the ground with what looks like a spear in his side.