Page 99 of Death Wish

Everything stopped.

Why wasn’t I falling?

When I opened my eyes, I was stuck above the pit, hovering in midair. Frozen in place. I waved my arms and legs about, ready for the drop, but it didn’t come.

Xaver shouted something in a foreign tongue. He was angry. It was obvious from the blaze in his eyes. Something was happening, and it wasn’t his doing.

A ball of bright light whizzed across the darkness, illuminating the night and capturing every eye. It circled Xaver, who swiped at it like a pesky fly, before it flew my way at full speed.

What the—

The orb crashed into me. Like I had been hit by a sack of bricks, all the breath left my lungs. Whiteness exploded, and I was suddenly soaring through the air, away from the Hell hole.

I landed hard several feet away, rolling several times before stopping with my face in the dirt. Gasping for air, I hauled myself to my knees. My ribs screamed in protest, and every inhale was sharp like sucking in glass shards. They were probably bruised. Possibly broken.

Struggling to my feet, I searched the sky for the thing that had shot me out of danger but only saw darkness.

Had I imagined the flying speck?

I must have.

But then how had I ended up all the way across the yard?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to mull what had happened around because Xaver let out another one of his terrifying, animalistic roars, and the ground beneath my feet shook so hard, I almost lost my footing.

When shadowy shapes appeared at the pit’s edge, my insides iced over with dread. The blackness began to concentrate, gaining more density, more horrifying features, and by the time the dozens of creatures lifted themselves out of the ground, it was clear we were in deep, deep shit.

Halflings. More than I’d ever seen before.

And they were crawling out of Hell at an alarming rate.

Inside the trailer, Angel barked ferociously. Kay screamed as the Halflings rushed for them. Cole whipped out his gun from his bag and began emptying the clip. One by one, Halflings flew back from the impact of his bullets, screeching so loud my ears rang, but as a single creature withered away, another five would take its place.

More gunshots blared, this time from Wyatt and Sean’s weapons.

My pulse banged against my eardrums. There were too many of them. Even with the rapid fire of bullets. Everyone was forced to take steps back as the creatures drew closer.

I had to do something. I had to help.

As I raced around the crater, toward my friends, I kicked one of the Halflings back into the hole. My gun was gone, thrown away after my deal with Xaver, so I had nothing to fight with but my fists and feet. Lucky for me, I was pretty good with them.

“Get the girl into the house and barricade the door!” Wyatt yelled above the commotion. He reloaded his shotgun and fired again.

Laurence didn’t need to be told twice. He scooped Kay up like she was a child and ran up the stairs into the trailer.

Smart move. With all of Wyatt’s protection symbols and Laurence’s extra spells, the trailer was the safest place to be. Getting everyone in there would be ideal but unrealistic. Then we would just be trapped. Put in our own cage.

No. We had to fight this fight. Now that the deal was off and things were a mess, Xaver would keep coming after Kay—maybe all of us—if we just put him back where he came from. I couldn’t let that happen.

It was time to find out if a demon could really die.

Wasting no time, I leapt onto a nearby Halfling’s hunched back. It flew forward, bringing me with it. We landed with a thud. When the Halfling twisted to throw me off, I wrapped my arms around its neck and squeezed hard. My hope? To cut off the thing’s breathing. But when its bucking and squirming only increased, I realized these demonic creatures probably didn’t need to breathe air, like I hadn’t.

I needed a new tactic.

“Jade!”

When I looked up, I spotted Cole through the throng of bodies pouring some liquid on the blade of Sean’s long knife. Then he threw it at me when such precision, it landed perfectly stuck in the dirt by my arm. I grabbed it and plunged the blade into the Halfling’s back, then dragged the knife down its spine when it tried to throw me off again.

---