Page 97 of Bite of Passage
He staggered against the pain in his shoulders and searched for Gemma.
Dread twisted, tight and raw, in his gut.
Gemma’s body, now animated, stood and easily broke the bindings around her wrists and ankles.Her eyes were blacked over, all color gone.
Skarde whirled, detecting motion behind him, and caught Petra aimed the staff at him as if she intended to somehow use it as a weapon.His right hook was faster, and sent her flying across the room.The staff clattered far away from her.A quick assessment of the battle around him determined the humans fighting, but not amongst themselves.Instead, they battled the vampire fledglings turned by VanFliet.Cade had done his part.
Before he could help Gemma, Skarde needed to close the portal.He grabbed the staff and surged toward the source of light.He attempted to pluck free the crystal he’d inherited from his father but the second he touched it…
“Motherfucker!”He yanked his hand, now imprinted with a perfect burn in the shape of the crystal, away from the staff.
A feminine, otherworldly cackle echoed behind him.“The door is locked.”
He turned and faced the voice.
Gemma.
Balls, he wanted to beg her forgiveness for what he’d said and kiss her.It’s not her.See her eyes?Blacked over, lifeless, and possessed.
“Which one are you?”Skarde asked.It would be easier to handle hurting her body if he could give it a name that wasn’t Gemma’s.If he had to kill her…
No.He was not thinking about that as a possibility.
It cocked its head as if surprised he cared to know.“Bannos.”
Skarde held up the black blade and intoned in Latin, “I know the immovable comes undone.I know the invisible appears to me.I resolve you to remain outside the creation.Takes?—”
Bannos lunged forward, forcing him to stop the separation incantation.He stepped aside to avoid the attack, unwilling to damage Gemma’s body.It might yet come to that, however.
A new demon emerged through the doorway.Skarde jumped onto its back and squeezed with his thighs.He locked a hold around its neck, twisting the head so far to the right that it broke free.
Jumping away as the body fell, a grip locked around his neck from behind.Bannos was attempting the same move on him?Yeah, fuck that shit.With a quick jerk, he swung around and dislodged the demon.
“Why do you want to hurt me, Skarde?”It came out in Gemma’s voice, soft and melodic as she stood and stepped toward him.“I’m scared.”
The tone…it called to his soul.
Focus on her eyes.They weren’t hers.No color.
The smile wasn’t hers.It lacked her kindness.
He wasn’t losing her.Not tonight.
He resumed the incantation.
Gemma’s body jerked, falling to the floor.She screamed and rolled.
“Skarde…” Her lower lip trembled.“Hurts so much.”
“Fight it, Gemma.Come back to me.”
She reached out to him with a shaky hand.Tears ran down her cheeks as her gaze bore into him.For a blistering moment the black receded.A trick or real?
He wanted to touch her, to take her hand and pull her to him.But no.It was a trap.If he faltered now, she’d lose the fight.
Her mouth twisted, lips drawing back in a snarl.She gnashed her teeth.The glimpse of the blue of her irises dissolved back to black.
A sound that would never come out of Gemma spewed forth in a triumphant growl.
