Battle With Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

“On the back porch. Four of them. They look humanoid from what little I could glimpse, but it’s an illusion. I can see the magic shrouding them.”

“What’s the end game?” Penny asked as Reagan leaned closer, trying to look through the gap between the wall and the material.

“They might think Reagan is alone and the four of them can take her,” he whispered.

Reagan shook her head and straightened back up, her voice low. “They must know I’d be with Darius, and if they asked around at all they’d know you guys were also around. You always stay here when you’re in town. Plus, they’re trying to come in, not draw me out, away from Darius.” She shook her head again. “They’ve been sent to gauge my preparedness. If they make it back, great. If not…” She shrugged, anger burning hot in her eyes. Penny had a flash of how good it had felt to release that hellfire. “The elves don’t care about their underlings. They won’t lose any sleep if they don’t come back.”

“The elves in charge, at any rate,” Penny said, knowing her mother kept Seeing that Reagan should spare the majority of the elves at all costs. That she must prevent Lucifer from mass killing.

She hadn’t brought that up to Reagan yet, though. She knew it wouldn’t be received well, what with how the last batch of Seeing had turned out, not that Penny could blame her. She probably shouldn’t have said anything about Roger manipulating her. Given what she knew, that had been shortsighted. Though Reagan likely would’ve clued in eventually.

“Sure,” Reagan murmured, stepping away from the door and then turning. “Should we come up with a plan?”

“Run out there and kill them?” Emery suggested, magic curling around him.

“I like the way you think.” Reagan pushed her palm against the wood, leaning in close, reaching down to the lock. She paused, and then everything happened all at once.

Seven

I flipped the lock and yanked open the door, pulling it wide. Large hands curled around my upper arms and pulled me back a moment before I was about to burst out of the door. A jet of magic zipped by my face and slammed against the doorframe, blistering the wood.

These fools were trying to fight Lucifer’s daughter with fire. Clearly they hadn’t been prepared for this mission. They were probably mercenaries or hired goons.

I’d just thought the word “goon.” What was happening to me?

“Thanks,” I murmured to Emery, just so he wouldn’t think I was ungrateful. He couldn’t have known that spell would’ve done nothing but strip my eyebrows.

I bent and dove, rolling out onto the porch and popping up. I slammed air into the strange-looking old-man forms, all exactly the same, with balding heads, white whiskers, and disproportionate bodies. If I couldn’t feel the difference, I’d have thought they were demons.

The short bodies, half my height, flew backward, their magic dying on their fingers. I ran forward immediately, but Penny’s and Emery’s magic got there first. A vicious spell ripped at the creatures’ skin and tore at the magical illusion. Orange trousers and plaid shirts disintegrated. Underneath, brown and black spots speckled pasty white skin, like some sort of very ugly animal. Long, pinched faces with large mouths full of sharp teeth hissed at us as the creatures fell to their hands and feet and scrabbled to face us in pairs.

Another spell bore down on them, magic shredding their skin and stabbing down through their backs. The creatures howled, and the one nearest me lunged forward, hands out to grab. I erected a wall of air and then sliced through its neck with an air blade before lighting it on fire. I had the feeling that Penny and Emery were going to dispatch the other ones, so I’d better get all my rage out now or I’d lose my chance.

The howl turned into a scream, cut off quickly. Magic kept stabbing the three others, much more gruesome than my approach, though I couldn’t put my finger on why. Green blood welled up and flowed over, dripping onto my porch. The creatures jolted and spasmed, curled down and then rolled over, shaking with the continual onslaught of magic.

“All right, then.” I put my hand on Penny’s shoulder. “You good?”

Tense, she broke my connection and stepped closer to Emery, laying a hand on his broad back. Apparently, Penny wasn’t the one I needed to worry about this time.

“Hey,” she said softly, and Emery shuddered as though coming out of a trance.

He scrubbed a hand over his face, and the magic dried up. The creatures stopped shaking.

Make sure they are dead, Emery thought to me. Thoroughly dead.

“Yup. I’m on it.” I picked the creatures up with air and moved them down to the grass so I wouldn’t get any more green blood on my porch—ew—and lit the three they’d taken down on fire. The one I had killed was currently a blackened ball of soot—it wasn’t coming back to life, and if it did, it wouldn’t be very effective without extremities. Or a head.