Page 277 of Mayhem and Minnie

I don’t have the time to think things through as another demon comes toward me. A middle-aged guy with a balding head and flaring nostrils grabs me by my shirt and throws me to the ground.

The breath is knocked out of me. Taking advantage of my position, the demon grabs my hands, pulling them together to secure them with cuffs.

“Marlowe!” Minnie cries out. She tries to come to me, but more demons swarm around her, blocking her path.

“Goddamn it,” I mutter under my breath as I push against the middle-aged demon. He presses my hands close together to tie them up, but as I struggle against him, my wounded palm makes contact with his skin.

Only a few drops of blood are still left on my palm, the wound mostly closed now. But as those drops make contact with the demon’s skin, the same thing happens. He screams in pain before he disintegrates.

I stare in shock at my palm.

It wasn’t the ritual, was it?

It was my blood…

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This might be a gamble, but I roll on the floor to the place my broken blade had landed and I use it to cut my hand again. And just as a demon makes to grab me, I press my bloodied palm onto his face.

He screams, falls, and disintegrates.

It…worked?

I don’t have the time to wonder why my blood might act as poison to those demons. Clutching onto the blade, I make more cuts along both of my palms and run to where Minnie is currently fighting six demons.

Six demons at once.

Damn.

“Marlowe, stand back,” she grits out as she parries a blow, then another. With her attention on me, she fails to dodge one of the blades and it cuts her across the chest.

A faint gasp leaves her lips, but she keeps fighting, not letting the pain slow her down.

I reach her side and despite her continuous protests, I place myself in front of her.

“Are you mad?” she asks.

“Perhaps,” I answer noncommittally

The demons stop fighting, too. They share a look and speak a few words in a language I cannot decipher.

“Alive,” Minnie echoes. “They’re saying they need you alive.”

“Me?” I blink.

She nods numbly.

“We can worry about that later. First—” I grab her swords, one in each hand, and I smear my blood all over the blades. “Hit them now.”

She frowns at me, but the moment she’s no longer behind me, the demons try to attack again.

Not me. They don’t swing their swords at me. Only her.

Minnie parries a couple of blows before she manages to cut a demon across his back.

I hold my breath as I wait for the process to repeat itself, and sure enough, it does.

Scream, fall, disintegrate.

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