Page 34 of Eternal Mate

“One minute,” Barimuz called.

Hang on, I told Sariel. We’re almost there.

Don’t jinx it, he grumbled.

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have.

Azazel eventually grew tired of trying to chase us when we just kept dodging and getting potshots on him. When Sariel and I were both on the wrong side to stop him, he whirled around and aimed for the people on the sidelines.

Barimuz immediately rebuffed the attack that came his way, swatting it away like an annoying fly. Unfortunately, that just made Azazel whirl around and go for Ashe instead.

Ashe should have moved, but he didn’t. He stood his ground against Azazel, grabbed and held the skeletal arms that came for him back, then shoved him backward with all of his might.

He managed to topple the larger demon over, but not before one of Azazel’s flailing limbs slashed a gash into his side.

The wolf yelped pitifully and went to hold the side of his stomach, but he still didn’t back down from his position.

“Done,” Barimuz announced. “All of you better get out of the way.”

We didn’t need to be told twice.

Sariel and I flew over to Ashe and Atlan’s side. They and Barimuz had taken a few hearty steps away from the circle’s edge as it glowed a brighter and brighter shade of red.

Azazel tried to come after us, but the activated circle seemed to be draining his strength. He got all of two feet before he slowed, let out a pathetic whine, then collapsed into a heap.

The goo that made up his bulk slowly oozed away from him, revealing a skeleton underneath. Unlike the fake ‘head’ from earlier, his real one was horned, and his skeletal structure seemed more like a beast’s than it did a person’s. His white bones emitted weak, red-black puffs of demonic energy.

After watching him to make sure he wouldn’t be launching a surprise second wave, I got closer to Ashe, who was panting roughly. Atlan sat on his heels.

“What can I do to help you two?” I asked, worry growing in my gut as I saw the blood seeping out from between Ashe’s fuzzy fingers.

Ashe laughed; it was a gravelly and low sound. “He has cracked ribs, and mine’s already knitting up. I just need to—ouch, not move too much before it finishes stitching up.”

As if on cue, he fell to one knee. “Ow. It does, uh… hurt like hell in the meantime, though.”

I patted his head in sympathy.

When I looked to Atlan, the fae wolf was looking up at Ashe’s face. Upon noticing me giving him a questionable look, he whined, then laid his head down on the ground.

Seeing as how Ashe was another black wolf with red eyes, I could understand that reaction. Poor guy. Maybe Barimuz would let him visit his brother.

I barely resisted the urge to pat his head, too.

“Are we sure that’ll hold him?” I heard Sariel ask. He was looking at the remains of his ‘father’ with a flexed jaw and clenched fists.

“The circle will drain him indefinitely,” Barimuz explained, stepping towards the circle with a curious look on his face, “although he was already much weaker than I expected. Lucifer must not have taken care of his puppet.”

Something he’d said earlier came back to me. “You said earlier that he wasn’t supposed to be a demon yet?” I asked.

“Correct. Turning into a demon was always in the cards for this puppet, although not for a few centuries more.” He sighed. “Thankfully, the circle works for both fallen angels and demons; their differences on a cosmic level aren’t that great. Redoing all of this would have been a pain.”

My mind started whirling with possibilities. What would be the point of Azazel shifting early, then?

“Do you… think Lucifer did this on purpose?” I questioned hesitantly. “Maybe things didn’t go to plan, and he needed a distraction or something?”

Barimuz scoffed. “That’s just about as likely as him initiating it out of boredom or accident. Or maybe this extension of Lucifer’s mind grew desperate. It’s hard to say, and we’ll likely never know for sure.”

I sighed. That was as much as I’d expected.

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