Demons (Darkness #4)(13)

She didn’t acknowledge. Her gaze was locked on that demon, body bowed slightly, brow furrowed.

The demon stared back, its too-large mouth filled with gnarly teeth, grinning manically, always talking. Rasping out incoherent words as she stared.

“Yuck, you’re gross. Lots more power than the other ones. But…” Sasha took a few unconscious steps in its direction, as if working out a tough math problem. “You’re a runt, aren’t you? You aren’t all the way here, or something. You’re…practice.”

“Stop her!” Toa shouted as the Boss pulled her back. She didn’t notice any of it.

Which was not like her.

Magic swelled, dragging Charles attention away from Sasha, the power wobbling within the link between the three of them, the bubble of power starting prickles up Charles’s arms.

“Focus on the link, Toa, Charles is inexperienced. He is drawing the power to him in his protectiveness.” Dominicous stepped forward, up beside Sasha and the Boss, facing the demon. “We don’t need him passing out before he can be of use.”

The link trembled, the center of magic yanking toward Dominicous. Toa’s forehead beaded in sweat.

“Let it loose, Sasha. Let me handle it,” Toa instructed.

The thing had started making those horrible sounds again. Like a blade scraping across decaying bones. Black mist spread out along Sasha’s magic. Pulsing. A smell of burning hair drifted from the warehouse.

“Oh yeah, I’d get to lead until you got free,” Sasha spoke to the demon. “Lot of good vast riches and mind-blowing power gets me, since you’d just suck my power dry and kill a bunch of people. Nah, I think I’ll just kill you.”

Power surged in Charles, Sasha unconsciously bolstering him as she always had in classes. They didn’t have a link, but they had a deep connection through friendship—she always had him in her unconscious bubble. Except, this time, he wasn’t excited about the extra magic.

The link wavered, the extra push from Charles battering toward Toa.

“I cannot maintain this balance with the two of you drawing inconsistently,” Toa yelled.

Tim stepped closer to Sasha as he pulled off his sweats, ready to change. Knowing it was coming soon. Whatever happened in the past, Tim was not one to run away, and he was proving it.

“It could be sucking the magic out of her right now,” Toa warned. “It uses speech to enact a kind of trance.”

“It’s not,” the Boss growled, still holding her. “She’s not expending any energy right now.”

The thing started its grating again. Sasha waved her hand through the air. “Right, well, banishing you out of your mobile form might as well be killing you. And guess what, ugly, you aren’t real mysterious. Your creator was practicing—I can see that now. You’re an experiment gone wrong. You’re no stronger than a messenger, isn’t that right? All I have to do is…”

“No!” Toa shouted.

The sheen around the building cleared away in an instant, that black plume of smoky vapor spilling out onto the street. Charles could feel it, sucking at him, draining his energy and power even before it touched his skin.

It tumbled forward as the creature surged, rushing, aiming directly for her.

The Boss tossed her behind him, bracing in front of her. Dominicous stood right beside him, sword out, knees bent. A quick blur and blast of magic, and suddenly a Kodiak bear lumbered in the place of Tim. A huge roar rumbled the ground. Bursts of magic lit around the circle, various animals taking the place of their human counterparts. Growls, shrieks and barks sounded a battle roar.

“Cut it down!” the Boss roared.

Glowing swords swung out, three males running forward to cut off the charge. And not a moment too soon.

The maniacally grinning demon reached the first line of defense as the ranks closed in behind it, locking it in a circle of glowing tattoos, swords and fur. A claw struck out with a blur of movement, swiping the midsection of a male with green power. Three gapes in leather bubbled forth a sludge of red, the claws cutting through leather and skin like fingers through foam. Another demon claw swung out, catching a furred arm. The demon snarled, legs whipping out, catching someone on the thigh as a red blade swooped down into the melee.

Magic and metal cut through a thick demon hide, a sizzling swirl of smoke rising from the wound. The howl battered through the street, hate and rage filled. Claws lashed out, downing one male and one wolf.

“No!” Sasha yelled, dagger yanked from its holster. The blade was burnished gold, dimming fast.

“Do not lay that spell, Sasha!” Toa commanded with strain in his voice, his face pale, his hands fisted. His legs wobbled where he stood, trying to balance magic and work it at the same time.

Charles stepped forward, but staggered in a wave of dizziness. Magic pulsed and pushed, yanking at him one minute and pushing the next, threatening to overcome him. Threatening to blast him with more than three times what he could safely handle.

“Include the Boss in this link—he can balance this,” Charles said through clenched teeth.

“Hurry, Toa,” Dominicous said, knuckles white around the hilt of his sword.

“She is working—something,” Toa replied with strain lancing his words. “She is laying intricacies she doesn’t understand. She is in survival mode.”