Page 20 of Resting Witch Face
“I have manners.” River and Sissily were on the first floor already. “I don’t barge in uninvited.” Keeping her eyes on my face, I slid an inch closer.
“Come on in, then.” Her arms folded at the small of her back, hiding them from my view as she stepped to the side.
A whimper came from somewhere in the apartment, but it was cut short. My stomach dropped to my feet. I knew there were two Rakshasas because their disgusting demonic powers were crawling all over my skin. Not for the first time, I wondered if humans felt the “other” since they were magicless like me, the sensation like an army of fire ants using my body as a sugar cube to munch on.
Poised to attack the moment I was close enough, I moved toward the demon. At the last minute, I decided to change tactics, and as soon as I was halfway across the hallway, I pounced. I swung my purse wide, socking the Rakshasa in the head when I released the handles. Both her arms came up to protect her face, but I was on her already, my fists hammering at any opening I had. Bones crunched under my knuckles when we went down in a heap of limbs a couple of feet past the broken door. Breath sawing in and out through clenched teeth, I made the mistake of glancing inside the apartment to check for the location of the second demon.
And I lost the advantage of the surprise attack.
My head turned into a tunnel with a shrieking train passing through when she caught me at the temple with a backhanded fist. The hit doubled my vision, giving her two heads and two mouths filled with those teeth. Black blood dripped from her nose and split lip, yet she was grinning like a piranha when she yanked my head back by a fistful of hair.
Lesson number six: long hair, unless wrapped in a tight bun, will fuck you over in a fight.
There was nothing in this life I hated more than someone grabbing my hair.
It made me black out.
Rage bubbled until my skin was warm with it, and I jerked out of her grip with a snarl, leaving ripped strands hanging limply from her fingers. My scalp was on fire and hot liquid drenched my head, plastering my hair to it. My blood was flowing freely down my scalp. I fell back, catching my weight on my hands just in time to kick out with all the strength I could muster. It was satisfying to hear her shriek when the heel of my peep-toes sunk into her side. Pulling my leg back, I did it again and again, each time punching a new hole in her upper body.
Then the magic came.
Burgundy tendrils snaked out from the Rakshasa’s hands, hissing and snapping at me like living snakes. Blisters filled with a sickly beige fluid popped out everywhere it made contact with my skin. The damn magic was eating through muscle while I screamed, and it was coming from two sides instead of just the demon I was fighting. The second demon decided to help his buddy, and I wished it hadn’t. Not because I was burning alive. Because that one was the scariest thing I’d ever seen in my life, and that announced him as the male in the duo. Terror tried to lock me in its grip, but a cry coming from whoever they held hostage in the apartment snapped me out of it.
Unlike the rest of my kind, I actually took it personally when humans were attacked. That was the main reason I stuck my nose where it didn’t belong—much to Danika’s dismay—but I couldn’t help myself. They were just like me, only I was stronger and would live much longer. Because they were magicless, every asshole thought they were free for the picking.
I strongly disagreed.
The pained cry not only snapped me out of the terror but gave me the strength I needed. Desperate to reach them so I could protect them better, I wildly swung with my fists and kicked out with both legs. The Rakshasa didn’t expect me to move with the magic her buddy was waving, so I stabbed my heel in her eye, the thin point cracking her skull and poking through the bone. It stuck out at the top of her head like a newly grown horn. I had to kick off the other shoe so I didn’t limp around like a fool, and all because of a demon for the second time. Another pair of shoes ruined by damn demons. Soon, I had every intention to mail an invoice directly to Hell for my damages.
My foot pulled out, leaving my poor peep-toe hanging in front of the female Rakshasa’s face, and I scrambled up to face the male. At eight feet, he hunched low so his head didn’t go through the ceiling of the apartment. The demon’s body was some butchered version of a Frankenstein monster, if said fictional creature had made his body out of different animal parts. Fur stuck out in tufts from some parts, while others were covered in scales or wrinkled hides. Two tails twitched around the area of his ass in agitation. Instead of a mouth, there was a beak, the tip sharp enough to go through steel, and three sets of backward arms were spread wide as if ready to snatch me if I dared get close enough.
I had every intention to get close enough.
Jaw clenched and seething in anger because my skin was still trying to eat itself from their damn magic, I screamed from the top of my lungs like a banshee and charged him raging-bull style. It must’ve been a first for the demon to fight an idiot like me because he stood like a lump when my head connected with his sternum. There was a crack in my neck, and a sharp pain zapped from the base of my skull through my shoulders when we collided, but much to my surprise, we both when down. Furniture and other decorative objects broke when the demon’s body plowed through them, and I landed sprawled over his chest. My left hand gripped around the floor blindly in search of anything I could use to kill him, and this was all while I avoided his beak because he was shaking his head at me the whole time.
My fingers wrapped around something long—a lamp base maybe—and I raised it above my head to stab it in his throat. My nose burned from the stench of sulfur coming off him, and water pooled in my eyes, blurring my vision. Just before the object sank into his head, the demon’s eyes regained their focus, and he swatted me off him like a fly. I rolled before coming up in a crouch just as I heard my covenmates at the front door.
“Hazel,” Sissily yelled, the panic in her voice stabbing me in the heart. “HAZEL!”
“In here,” I called out, backing up until my butt found a wall so I could scan the space.
Wide, innocent eyes the color of clear skies locked on me from behind an armchair that was pushed in a corner. I nearly doubled over seeing the young boy trembling in fear and clutching his younger brother while tears rolled down their faces. Dried blood was caked in their hair, and there was enough of it that I could hardly tell what color it would be when it was clean. The boy’s hand was shaking so hard he nearly hit his brother in the face when he raised it to press a finger to his lips, asking me to not give them away. The chair was angled in the corner of the room, so the poor children must’ve thought they could hide and not be found behind it.
Their father was a bloody mess swaying on his feet in front of the armchair, though he was still determined to protect them from the monster invading their home. His wife’s dead body was at his feet, her blue eyes the same color as her son’s staring at me unseeing.
Something inside me broke.
River materialized at the entrance of the ripped-apart living room, fury twisting his otherwise handsome face. His eyes darted from me and my blistered skin to the barely standing man and dead woman. My lungs were burning from the need to fill them with oxygen, but I wasn’t able. When I spoke, it felt like someone was pulling barbed wire through my throat, and my voice was unrecognizable.
“Protect the children.”
Blackman’s eyes widened for a split second.
He didn’t give me a chance to move.
In a split second, he transformed into a creature with a body made of flames, and light spit from his fingers. The stale air in the apartment filled with the scent of ozone, which covered the stench of blood and sweat I smelled when I entered. The male demon was still struggling to stand when River was on him, the impact blinding me when the fire burst around both of them like a cloud. Numb from shock, I stood stunned because it didn’t burn anything but the demon. No, everything else seemed to have a barrier, protecting it from River’s magic.
The roar of a wounded animal shook the walls of the building.
