Page 101 of Viper

He wanted to teleport to his woman’s side, but the strix were mainly coming athim. It was best that he wasn’t stood near her right now.

Crackling balls of flame arrowed through the air toward Viper—one, two, three. He sidestepped two, but the third clipped his shoulder. Even as he killed its source, a heavy weight crasheddown on his back and teeth bit his injured shoulderhard. The force felt like needles driving into his flesh and scraping bone.

Viper looked at Jester. “I am so done with these bastards.”

As yet another strix fell victim to her magick, Ella allowed herself to quickly check on Viper. She glanced his way … just in time to watch a strix unlatch its teeth from his skin and slip to the ground, agony painting its face. Huh. That was weird. She had to—

A hellfire orb slammed into her shoulder like a flaming rock, sending a brief sensation of numbness down her arm.

Ow.Focusing on her attacker, she chanted as she emitted twisting streams of magick that rammed into its heart hard enough to make it stop. Like that, the demon was dead.

But then another took its place, launching orbs at herandthe car. The latter move was a mistake, because those orbs bounced off her vehicle’s transparent protective shield and took down the strix who’d conjured them. Ha.

An alarming cry of pain came from Mia.

Ella tensed. “Are you—”

“I’m okay, just wasn’t expecting how hot that black fire is,” said Mia. “Their numbers are massively down, I’m thinking this will be over soon.”

Fingers crossed.

Always chanting, always tossing out magick, she and Mia snapped necks, broke legs, ruptured organs, and sent ashes scattering everywhere.

They didn’t always attack strix that came their way … because the strix didn’t persistently come at the sisters, too focused on the Black Saints. As such, Ella and Mia were also able to cover the angels’ backs. Not that the guysneededhelp. They actually appeared to be enjoying themselves.

If they weren’t grunting and cursing, they were laughing like loons. The strix were more animalistic, hissing and shrieking and making guttural cat-like sounds.

“I don’t know where the smell of acid is coming from, but it’s making my nose tingle.” Ella wasn’t crazy about the scents of sulphur and brimstone either.

“I think it’s coming from whatever the Black Saints are conjuring.”

Noticing that three strix were hightailing it across the field, Ella narrowed her eyes. Apparently, some had decided they were fighting a lost cause. Good decision. That didn’t mean she’d let them leave alive.

But before she had the chance to cut their run short, they bounced off something she couldn’t see. A containment forcefield, maybe? She wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, the strix battered at it with fists.

Chanting, Ella slammed them with heavy gusts of magick that punched their backs hard enough to knock them down. Before they could fully rise, she hurled a loop of magick that curled around each of their necks and contracted tightly, cutting off their air supply.

Another tried running. She did the same to it.

Another made the same attempt, and it met the same fate.

A strix sped toward her car with an enraged hiss, its eyes boring into hers. She launched a blast of magick square in its face, causing its head to wrench back. Before she could act again, an ultraviolet blast sliced through it.

She whipped her gaze to her far left. Viper was looking at her, his breaths coming a little heavy … and she saw that the battle was over. No strix remained, no others were attempting to flee. All the fallen angels appeared fine and were slipping their jackets back on.

“You okay, Mia?”

A relieved sigh. “Yeah. Just wondering something, though.”

“What?”

“Well, the strix somehow sent Ghost tumbling over your car and onto the road, didn’t they? How did they manage to see him when they call him Ghost for a reason.”

Considering he’d once claimed to Ella that people only saw him if hewantedthem to see him … “I really have no idea.”

Ghost tipped his chin toward a stretch of grassland. “They were waiting out there to swarm me, V. My cloak dropped for just a few seconds, and then they were on me. For them to wait here, they know my routine. They’ve been watching me—probably all of us.”

Just as Viper had suspected. “There are two things I don’t get.Howthey could know your routine when your presence is cloaked, and how the hell they could make that cloak drop.”

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