Page 13 of Alice Worth and the Elite Death Machine

Take Jesse and get the one on the right, I told Malcolm.Tug on our binding once when you’re ready to attack. Air magic blade across the spine or through the neck if you can. Do not let him get you with his magic.

Roger that. He let go of my shoulder again.

I sensed rather than saw Jesse leave with Malcolm to circle around to the right. Ben’s wolf bumped my side. He was large and tawny brown, with a patch of white on his chest. I slipped my fingers into his thick fur and enjoyed the feeling of his warmth and power.

I’d started spooling magic the moment we arrived at the house, but slower than normal because demons sensed spikes in natural magic. My skin felt tight and buzzed with power. The sensation invigorated me and sharpened my senses. I might not be a shifter, but I loved a good fight as much as my pack mates.

As for how to fight the demons, I did what I always did before a battle: I listened to my instincts. I needed to kill my target fast. I might be decent with the blade, but “decent” might not be good enough. With magic, I liked my chances a whole lot better. I still might get an opportunity to use the blade later. We had more to kill tonight than these two demons.

I leaned the blade against a thick tree, spooled a little more earth magic and air magic, and waited. Only my first blow would land unexpectedly. I had to make the most of it.

Malcolm tugged once on the magic that bound us together.

In one fluid movement, I emerged from my hiding place and made a gesture with my right hand that looked like I was tossing a pair of dice. My earth magic formed a bright green cold fire whip and spiraled out of my hand. I lashed with practiced precision at the back of my target’s neck, intending to wrap the whip around it and separate his head from his shoulders before either demon knew what had happened.

My whip struck the demon’s neck, only to hit a hidden collar or protection spell that caused it to sizzle and spark without causing any damage.Double shit. The demon turned with a hiss, his eyes glowing red, and flung a ball of dark orange sulfurous magic that could very well melt the flesh from my bones.

Reflexively, I spun out of the path of the magic and manifested a second whip with my left hand. I lashed out again, this time aiming for his side and spine. I’d lost the element of surprise, but my speed helped me score a hit that cut through his leathers and deep into his flesh. Dark blood spurted from the wound.

The demon wrenched himself free of the whip and leaped straight at me, blades raised.

Moving so fast that he was almost a blur, Ben’s wolf met the demon in midair. His jaws closed on the demon’s leather-clad ankle with a meaty crunch that would have severed the demon’s leg if it hadn’t been for that triple-damned silver chainmail.

Snarling, Ben flung the demon against a thick tree with enough force to break what sounded like half the bones in the demon’s body. Over the stench of demon innards, I smelled Ben’s burned flesh and blood. His injuries made me want to strangle the demon with his own chainmail. As our targetlurched to his feet, I lashed both my whips and caught him around the midsection with twin crackling streams of earth magic.

Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, Jesse and Malcolm struggled to kill the other demon, who was putting up a hell of a fight. These highly trained mid-level demons weren’t nearly as easy to kill as their lesser brethren. But I couldn’t help Jesse and Malcolm yet—not until my own demon foe was dead.

Caught by my whips, the demon thrashed, turned, and threw one of his weapons in a perfect arc that would have left the blade buried in my chest if I hadn’t spoiled his aim by yanking him in different directions with my coils of magic. Instead, the edge of the blade sliced through my sleeve and left a stinging gash along my forearm that burned like white-hot flame. I clenched my jaw to hold back a scream.

As the demon struggled to free himself, Ben went in for the kill. With the demon’s neck protected by what I assumed was a shifter-proof silver collar, Ben instead buried his muzzle in the wound I’d made earlier and tore out a mouthful of bone and viscera. At the same time, I twisted and yanked my whips as hard as I could. The demon tore in half with a sickening sound of flesh and bone separating. Even that wasn’t a fatal wound; for a demon to die required that their heart be destroyed.

I left Ben to that task and turned my attention to the other fight just in time to see the second demon’s head part ways with the rest of his body thanks to what looked like a combination of Malcolm’s air magic blades and Jesse’s teeth. As the demon’s body twitched and tried to rise, Malcolm split his chest and cleaved his heart in a single powerful blow. The air stank of demon innards and burned werewolf flesh.

“Any more?” I whispered, clutching my injured arm. The pain grew steadily. The cut was deep, and the blade had likely been spelled to cause maximum agony.

“Not that I know of,” Malcolm said from the direction of the second dead demon. “Heal that cut. Don’t want any EDMs smelling your blood.”

As Ben and Jesse circled, watching for other attackers, I took a blue crystal containing a mid-level healing spell from my bracelet and held it to the wound on my arm. The pain from the demon’s spelled blade was bad, but the cure would be worse. I leaned against a wide tree, steeled myself, and invoked the healing spell. “Helios,” I murmured.

Familiar agony whited out my vision and left me panting as waves of magic pulsed from the crystal and into my arm. I couldn’t risk giving us away, so I had to bear the pain in silence. That made a nearly impossible level of pain even worse. My knees went out and I slumped to the ground. Through the haze of magic and torture, I felt Ben’s warmth beside me, standing guard as I clenched my jaw.

Finally, the last waves of healing magic faded, leaving the crystal empty. I dry-heaved and leaned against Ben’s side. It had never seemed fair that healing spells hurt so much—especially when healing from vampire blood felt so damn good. Vampire blood was very much a double-edged sword too, though. Consuming it for any reason left the recipient under the influence of their benefactor, who would use that to their utmost advantage. I knew that from personal experience, unfortunately. So given the choice, I’d rather suffer through a healing spell than get tangled up with any vamp. They could keep their delicious, seductive, nothing-but-a-trap blood to their fangy selves.

I got to my feet with a little help from Ben and made my way a bit unsteadily to the demon the others had beheaded. We needed to get moving, but I wanted a closer look at the collar that had resisted my magic and the wolves’ teeth so well. It turned out to be a wide band of silver, which I’d figured, etched with both witch and sorcerer’s spellwork. I’d never seenthat kind of protective armor before, but the demons had known they’d be facing shifters. A silver collar made sense.

Malcolm touched my arm.You okay?

Feeling sick, but getting better, I said.Good job with this one.

Can’t let the wolves have all the fun.His voice in my head turned serious.Speaking of the wolves, Ben and Jesse are pretty badly burned from that chainmail. They aren’t going to shift unless you tell them to.

The wolves moved around the clearing on high alert, stiff-legged, their ears flat and eyes glowing golden as they watched for danger. Even in the darkness I saw the chainmail had left their mouths and other areas of their bodies blackened and burned like they’d rolled in a fire pit and chewed on white-hot coals.

I didn’t want to see my pack mates hurting, but shifting would leave them vulnerable and we had no way to know how many more adversaries lurked in the woods. Ben and Jesse knew that too, which was why they hadn’t shifted. As Sean’s consort, I could order them to do so, but my heart and instincts told me that would be a mistake.

It’s their decision, not mine, I told Malcolm.Those injuries are painful, but they aren’t fatal or significantly debilitating.

Even without seeing his face, I knew Malcolm didn’t like my answer. I didn’t like it either. I didn’t like anything about this entire situation.

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