Page 54 of Till Death

Eli and I surrounded the enraged sin demon with the points of our weapons aimed to kill. He kept facing us, moving as we moved. Stepping back the moment we stepped forward until a low chuckle had him shaking.

“Something funny?” Eli growled.

Dread crawled along my skin.

“You two. Endlessly funny. It’s almost a shame you have to die. I’d love to see what else you can do together, if you know what I mean.” Lust gestured between us with a talon. “You move with such symmetry. One mirrors the other. I bet it’s the same once you shed the clothing. Right?”

“He’s mocking us.”

Eli seemed more outraged than the situation warranted but I knew the conversation for what it was: a distraction.

I had one chance to put this sucker down and I refused to wait any more.

My scream rang out as I swung my sword toward his heart. Or head. Whatever I could reach and prepared to fully decapitate this son of a bitch. Prepared to do whatever it took to survive.

There were no more rules now because we didn’t win with rules. We won by playing as dirty as they did.

“Wait!”

Kay’s voice rose above the rest of the noise and stopped me dead before I finished the swing. I ended up falling just a little short, dragging the steel across his neck instead. Lust’s eyes widened, his body jerking. The laughter turned into a gurgle before stopping entirely.

He kept eye contact, collapsing down to his knees in surprise, as though he couldn’t believe I’d gotten close enough to actually hurt him. No, not hurt.

I smiled as death took him. He went as still as a statue until the only thing I heard was the harsh exhalations of my own lungs.

“Took long enough,” I said out loud. “I didn’t think he would ever shut up.” My fingers trembled and I ended up dropping Bertha, unable to keep a hold on her. Christ. I needed to sleep. Now my hands wouldn’t even work.

Suddenly, he started moving again. One leg began to twitch followed by the other until Lust stood to his full seven-foot-tall stature.

“What the fuck is happening right now?” My muttered intonation exploded into a rough scream as Lust straightened, his head drooping to the side and his eyes still on me.

A hand clamped around my arm and yanked me backward. It was Eli. “Step back. Let Kay handle this.”

I started. “Kay? What does Kay have to do with anything?” I should be the one making sure she stayed safe and out of trouble.

Except when I spun around, any further comments died on a sputter because Kay was surrounded in a halo of pure energy.

“You have to let her do what she does, Jade. There’s no more keeping her sheltered,” Eli whispered. “She is a powerful necromancer and it’s time we stopped coddling her.”

“I’ve never coddled her,” I argued automatically.

“You know better than to argue semantics with me, Jade. Now step back and see what she can do. This is the first time you’ve witnessed her in action.”

Much to my surprise, Eli didn’t have to tighten his hold to keep me in place. I stayed rooted despite every atom of my being wanting to step in and take over. To protect Kay.

Especially when we still had Pride to deal with.

A terrifying bellow shook the air around us a second time and had sweat breaking out along my skin. In horror, I watched Lust’s dead body lurch forward, intercepting Pride as he was about to take a swipe at Lisa and Tamara. Kay remained in control, using her necromancy skills to re-animate the downed demon and turn him from a threat to a weapon.

The ground shook violently beneath our feet as the two went head-to-head.

They ran at each other and collided in a tangled mess of limbs and claws and teeth. Tar-like blood began to fly from Pride.

“Get out of the way!” Lisa’s screech echoed from my right and Eli and I scrambled in the opposite direction.

It was like a terrible car accident. The kind where you couldn’t look away, but only watch in horror. The two grotesque demons ripped at each other again and again with Pride clearly confused, having his brethren turn on him, but unwilling to stop to ask why.

Using his makeup to our advantage.

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