Page 71 of The Devil Went Down to Laughlin
After that first violent reaction, though, they both blinked and looked around as if they had no idea where they were.
To be fair, they probably didn’t.
“Exit’s that way,” he said, and inclined his head toward the tunnel that led to the fifth sublevel and the real world.
“Thanks, man,” the first guy said. He looked like he was barely old enough to drink, with the kind of muscles he would have gotten from long hours at the gym.
No wonder Sellers had wanted him for a lackey. He could probably put someone right through a wall.
“Don’t mention it,” Caleb replied, since two more of the minions were coming straight toward him.
The first pair made their escape down the tunnel. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Ty had apparently decided it wasn’t worth his time to waste any further words on the demon, and instead was hurling ball after ball of white light at Sellers.
However, each one seemed to bounce off an invisible barrier, one that shimmered like black glass. Was the disguised demon really that powerful? Caleb was pretty sure any one of those light balls would have knocked out any of the other demons he’d encountered.
But they hadn’t been drawing on the power of the river, amplified to crazy levels by Delia’s burgeoning gifts.
Which meant the connection between them — however August Sellers had brought it into being — must be destroyed as soon as possible.
First, though, Caleb needed to splash more water on the lackeys as they rushed toward him.
The next one reacted the same way the first guy had, which was to blink and look confused, and then run for the closest exit.
The last guy, though, didn’t seem to want to wake up from his trance. Eyes still blank, he went straight for Caleb with his arms outstretched, clearly intent on wrapping them around his throat.
Well, that wasn’t going to happen.
He brought his knee up straight into the man’s groin. That seemed to bring him out of his trance the way the holy water hadn’t, because he went down like a ton of bricks, moaning and doing his best to curl into a fetal position.
Okay, he was definitely awake now…and would probably follow the rest of his compatriots as soon as he was able to stand again.
Behind Caleb, Ty and August continued to battle it out, lobbing their respective energy weapons at each other, but it didn’t seem as if either one was gaining the upper hand.
Stalemate, unless Caleb could do something to tip the balance.
He moved closer to Delia, still suspended in midair, her oval face as serene and lovely as a Renaissance Madonna. There had to be something he could do to wake her up from her trance.
Throw holy water at her, the way he had with Sellers’ minions? No, she wasn’t a demon, but she appeared to be controlled by one, the same way those clueless men had been.
Caleb pulled another vial of holy water out of his bag, reflecting that if he was going to keep getting dragged into fights like this, he should probably have some kind of bandolier setup made for the things, maybe like one of those rigs he’d seen waitresses wear in a couple of bars he’d visited since his arrival in Las Vegas, where the women had bottles of their current pour hanging from their waists in holsters and a bunch of shot glasses loaded in leather straps that crossed over their chests. It would be more efficient than what he was currently doing.
But since they hadn’t had the time to buy a specialized rig like that, he’d just have to make do with what he had.
“Sorry,” he murmured under his breath. Yes, this was necessary, but he still didn’t like the idea of splashing Delia full in the face with a bunch of water.
Desperate times and all that.
He removed the cap and threw the entire contents of the vial right at her. It should have hit her face and hair…and maybe some of the chest that was more exposed by the sequined gown than he’d ever seen before.
That was some seriously spectacular cleavage.
The water never reached her, though. Instead, it splashed onto some sort of barrier, sort of like the one that seemed to be shielding August Sellers from Ty’s attack, only this one shimmered white as the holy water hit the surface.
Shit.
Caleb stared at the barrier in consternation. If it had been created by the demon, then it should have shattered into nothingness the second the holy water made impact. That it didn’t…
…well, that seemed to tell him Delia herself was the one who’d created the barrier that currently protected her.
