The Savage Grace: A Dark Divine Novel(60)

I reached for my own stake with the intention of throwing it to Daniel, but found that it had almost completely disintegrated, lying in a pool of Gelal acid.

“Heads up!” Talbot shouted. He elbowed an Akh in the face and then flung his sword at Daniel with all his might. It sailed through the air, spinning point over hilt, toward Daniel’s face.

I was about to shriek, but Daniel whipped out his left hand and caught the sword in midair by its handle. In a move just as quick, he brought the blade down on the neck of the Gelal and lopped off its head. He spun away from the spray of green acid, and I felt my jaw drop as I watched Daniel, with moves fluid yet forceful, slice through three more demons before they even had time to react.

“Wow,” I said, my heart beating quickly in my chest.

“That was killer,” said Ryan, watching with just as much awe as Daniel finished off a forth demon.

The other monsters in the clearing hadn’t failed to notice Daniel’s prowess with the sword, and I watched as the four remaining Akhs and two Gelals backed away. They clawed their way into the wall of cornstalks and disappeared. I could hear their footfalls as they ran at top speed through the stretches of the maze.

“Should we go after them?” Zach asked. Ryan and Brent looked just as eager to pursue their old gang mates. Slade, looking a bit dizzy himself, sat on the ground next to Katie, his hand on her back as she held her head between her knees like she was trying not to pass out again.

“No,” I said. “I don’t want you getting separated in that maze with them.”

“Aw, come on,” Ryan said, practicing swinging his stake the way Daniel had handled the sword.

“My guess is that they’re already gone by now.” Talbot lifted his cowboy hat and wiped his forehead.

“All the same,” Ryan said. “If we chase them, they’ll be less likely to regroup and come back.”

“Fine then,” I said. “Zach and Ryan, you two can go. Stick together and be safe, all right?”

Ryan and Zach went after the probably-already-long-gone demons, whooping and hollering like a couple of lost boys chasing pirates. Brent groaned about being left behind.

“I should go with them.” Slade stood, but he didn’t seem the most stable on his feet. But maybe that’s because Katie was clinging to his legs for support.

“You can stay,” I told Slade. “Looks like Katie isn’t letting go any time soon.”

She looked at me then with eyes that still made her seem a bit dazed and confused. Her mascara smeared in long streaks down her face. “Grace? Is that you? I thought you weren’t coming to the party.”

I sighed, relieved that she obviously still wasn’t quite with it if that was her biggest question. Maybe she wouldn’t actually process anything that had just happened. “I changed my mind. Can’t pass up a good party.” I shrugged.

“This was some party,” she said slowly, bobbing her head up and down. She seemed positively high. “Wait, why did you follow me out here? Did you … kill … that guy who was trying to make out with me?”

Uh-oh.

Daniel stepped forward. He tucked the sword behind his back, but he couldn’t cover up the bloody tear in his shoulder. “I think someone may have slipped something in your drink, Katie. We followed you to make sure no one took advantage of you.”

“Daniel?” She leaned forward, squinting at his eyes behind his mask. “You came, too? I thought you had pneumonia?” She tapped her fingers against her forehead like she was trying to think really hard. “Did you just chop off some guy’s head?”

Brent busted up laughing. I gave him a quick glare.

“Okay,” I said. “I think Katie’s had enough partying for one night.” I motioned for Slade to pick her up. “Take care of her, will you?” I asked him.

Slade looked down at Katie, still clinging to his legs, and then back at me. A stricken look crossed his face. He leaned toward me and whispered, “Um. To be clear, are you asking me to kill her and dump her body?”

“What? no! Why on earth would you think that?”

Brent cleared his throat. “To a Shadow King, ‘taking care of someone’ has a very different connotation.”

“Oh … oh!” I was going to have to be more careful with my vocabulary choices in the future. “No, I mean, make sure she gets back home okay. Keep trying to convince her that everything she saw was the result of special party Kool-Aid so she doesn’t go spilling all of our secrets. You know, that kind of taking care of someone. Take Brent with you.”

Slade nodded. He and Brent pulled Katie up and hitched their arms around her back to help her walk.

“You saved me, didn’t you?” Katie asked, patting her hand limply against Slade’s cheek. She giggled and waved her hands like someone who’d enjoyed a good joint. “Did you see all the pretty green ooze?”

“Yeah, it was pretty,” Slade said. Brent snorted. Slade glanced back at me with the look of someone being punished.

I watched them walk away, leaving me with Daniel and Talbot. Not the three best people to be left alone together.

Especially with weapons.

We were all quiet for a moment, tension building thick between us. Finally, Daniel approached Talbot with the sword in his hand. Daniel stood in front of him, their eyes locked, like they were trying to read each other’s thoughts. I was reminded as to how much bigger Daniel’s stature was now than before. Talbot, who had never seemed small to me, suddenly did, compared to Daniel. Or maybe it was just the way Daniel carried himself now—like an alpha. One whose pack had just defeated a rival’s attack.