Fallen Academy: Year Two (Fallen Academy #2)(20)

That was some crazy shit. My mom tried to explain to me once how she knew someone was dead even from twenty feet away. It was the light, the aura, the soul. Necromancers could see it, sense it, manipulate it at times. It kind of freaked me out.

“Can you force it down? Then, maybe I could heal her.” Bending down, I ran my hands over the little girl, trying to do a healing scan. It was a third year study but Noah had shown me a little so I was going to wing it. She was human, obviously, and therefore quite frail from the trauma. There would be no supernatural healing kicking in for her.

Bonnie shook her head. “This is some advanced shit. The Succubus in the room is doing something. I’m pulling against her.”

I breathed in and out slowly, trying to feel for something I could heal, but there was nothing I could sense that needed healing. Her life-force felt so weak, and I wasn’t sure how to help that. I needed to work on my healing skills with Noah more.

“Lincoln, look out!” I heard one of the boys call from the room, and then a crashing sound rang throughout the house.

Screw the rules.

I pulled Sera from my thigh holster and took off running to the bedroom. I wasn’t going to let some little demon bitch hurt my man and steal this little girl’s soul.

I have the mark of Lucifer himself, and I’m not scared of any demon. They should be scared of me!

With all the confidence of a lioness, I ripped the door open and readied myself for a fight. But when my gaze fell onto the creature suspended in midair, I nearly pissed myself.

“Holy shitballs.” I breathed.

And then she tried to kill me.





Chapter Eight





I grew up around demons. Warts, oozing skin, horns, scales—none of it scared me. But the creature before me now was absolutely terrifying.

She was humanoid-looking with long, thin silvery hair, and gaunt cheeks that made her look even more ghoulish. Her body was waif thin, showing protruding bones from every angle. That was okay—a skinny demon, I could handle—but her eyes were… missing. Where a human would have eyes, she had black empty pits, and yet she looked right at me. Her hands were weapons themselves. The fingers didn’t seem to have skin, they were just sharpened bones that turned into claws, and glowed an angry red. She was grinning in my direction, and I saw a legit razor blade peeking out from behind her teeth.

I guess Lincoln wasn’t joking about that part.

Jesus Christ, have mercy.

Everything happened so quickly that I could barely process it. I did a rapid scan of the room to see both of the Fallen Army guards unconscious on the floor and Noah leaning over one of them, healing orange light emanating from his palms. Lincoln was crouched over a terrified, pale, stricken little girl identical to the one in the living room. His sword and gun were drawn and he looked feral, blood dripped from his left eyebrow and down his cheek.

The Succubus was already halfway to me, crawling across the ceiling like a possessed monkey. My name burst from Lincoln’s lips, but all I could hear was my heartbeat slamming in my ears. My eyes flicked once again to the little girl and how terrified she looked. This evil demon was feeding off them and had nearly killed her sister in the other room.

Anger boiled inside of me and I just… reacted. Sera told me nothing, gave me no advice, I just exploded. I leapt into the air to meet the demon instead of falling back. With a roar, I lashed out, and Sera shot a bolt of white-hot light from her blade that licked across the demon’s abdomen, cutting it open.

Holy shit.

I barely had time to register how badass Sera was, and that she’d cut the demon without touching her, when a razor blade flew across the room and sank into my left upper arm. Pain shot up my muscles, as I fell backward with all the grace of a giant elephant. The Succubus didn’t let up—she was coming for me full throttle.

“Brielle!” Lincoln roared, but didn’t leave the little girl’s side.

Rage boiled hotter inside of me and I did a kick up, throwing my legs into the air and forward, allowing the motion to pull my body into a standing position. A little something Darren taught me. The demon dropped from the ceiling like a freaking hundred-pound spider, landing right on top of me. Her hip hit my head, throwing me to the side, and then I felt her searing hot claws on my back. I’d fallen to my knees with her weight, but her leg was right in front of me, and I took the opportunity to shove Sera in, right up to the hilt.

A roar rang out from the demon and she pulled herself off me, standing before me with those two red glowing hands outstretched.

“Lucifer’s princess,” she cooed in a voice that was anything but human. Her gaping eye sockets were locked on my chest and the mark that rested there.

She put one hand on Sera’s hilt, pulling her out without a problem.

Shit.

‘She’s made of fire. I can’t burn her,’ Sera told me.

I lunged for my weapon just as the Succubus thrust her arm out and an invisible force knocked into me, throwing me backward out of the room and into the entryway.

Shea and Luke scream-roared simultaneously. I landed hard on my ass, but immediately righted myself. The Succubus had gone back into the room, and was doing some weird shit with her hands, Sera still clutched in her grip.

‘Get me out of here!’ Sera screamed, panicked.

The darkness inside of me was welling up. I couldn’t push it down any longer, nor did I want to do it.