Page 98 of Bite of Passage
Disappointment and failure nearly sent him to his knees.He couldn’t do it.He wasn’t strong enough.He’d lost.
Bannos was back on its feet.In seconds, the demon had gathered up the chain that had been holding a chandelier that must’ve fallen from the ceiling at some point.It aimed to hit Cade with the chain, who was foolishly charging Gemma.With a quick jerk, Skarde unsheathed one of his smaller knives and tackled Bannos to the ground.He stabbed the hand holding the chain.If it hadn’t been Gemma’s, he would’ve shredded the body to kill the demon.Kill the shell, release the beast.
Bannos roared and flung Skarde to the ground.A buzzing sound neared his head… He wrenched himself to the left, out of the way of the blade headed for his throat.Where the hell had it gotten a blade?
Petra.The bitch was over there smiling.Did she not understand the demon would turn on her the second it deemed her useless?
The blade sliced his way again.He didn’t move fast enough.It went deep.Right between his ribs on the left side.
He gasped, his vision doubling for a few moments.Then everything slowed and he went numb as he fell.
He’d failed.Just as the prophecy predicted, Gemma now served as a conduit for evil in the world.
ChapterForty
Everything spun around Skarde.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Blade coming for his head.
Boom!
Cade rammed into Bannos, sending Gemma’s body flying.He dragged Skarde to the far side of the still-open portal.“Dying is not acceptable.You can’t leave me alone with this shit.I don’t know what to do.”
“I cannae… I don’t have the right tools for an exorcism.We’ve lost.”
“Fontaine said… Has it ever worked when you do it the way it’s ‘supposed’ to be done?Have you ever separated a demon from a human or vampire?”
Had he?
Skarde wracked his mind, replaying countless encounters.
He shook his head.“Last year I had one leave the body voluntarily when the human was too wounded to recover, and then we fought.That’s the first time I got a demon out of its vessel.Usually I have to kill both the demon and the possessed body, together.”
“Fight it your way, then.”
“My way?”Tried it.Hadn’t worked.What was the alternative?
His mind blanked, completely empty of options.
The chaos between VanFliet’s people, the Assassins, and Petra’s people blurred around him.He should be in the zone, listening to his gut, sure of what to do.But he didn’t see a clear path in his mind like he normally did.
There was no gorgeous smile from Gemma.No hint of her left in the demon moving from stone to stone around the portal, realigning them to allow its people through.She was unreachable.He had no way to apologize.Their last interaction would remain steeped in bitterness.
He couldn’t focus on a solution since none involved her survival.None gave him a chance to right his wrongs.To tell her how much he adored her.Loved her.
Fuck, he couldn’t do this.He couldn’t see how to save her.
He couldn’t do anything.
“Your way,” Cade whispered.
Maybe the way to fight a demon was to accept that dark part of himself that he’d absorbed when he fought the demon king.Took a demon to fight a demon.
You don’t fight it.
