Battle With Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

Fire scoured the ground around us, kept off us by my hastily thrown-up magic. Bodies writhed and creatures screamed. Blood splattered my face from the side. Still we pushed on, tearing a path forward. More dragons flew overhead now, intermingled with the elves’ flying troops, trying to fight them back.

Tatsu, her back empty, opened her mighty jaws and crunched a sylph between her teeth. Faeries around them flittered away. I didn’t know if they’d decided to battle someone else, or if they’d (wisely) decided they’d rather not give their lives for the elves.

“So why the hell am I?” I said as I spotted Lucifer in his demon form, hovering near the back of the elves. He was going for the most powerful of them. Other demons flew around him, creating a sort of circle. A protective ring, maybe? He likely knew tricks with which to combat the elves, and I had taken out his biggest threat.

Yeah, real great decision-making, dummy, I thought to myself as a sword made it past Darius and licked the side of my leg with blinding agony. I grunted and staggered, nearly falling. That one had sliced deeply. Dang it.

Darius stabbed through the chest of the enemy. The ugly creature with a flat face and protruding mouth shrieked and shuddered as he ripped it down and away from me.

Are you okay? he thought.

“Good.” I wasn’t—it hurt something awful. I had to pay more attention to keep moving.

Limping now, I felt Emery and Penny’s spell float into the air like fog. It drifted slowly, aiming for Lucifer and his band of merry men.

“Still can’t feel them,” Penny yelled from behind me.

She meant the elves, who had to be just beyond this line of enemy.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a vampire hiss before dropping. He convulsed on the ground as the vampire behind him stepped forward, picking up where he’d left off.

A dragon flew overhead, bearing down with fire. I covered us as two centaurs went down from Cahal and the vampires’ combined efforts. I smashed a third with air, allowing the dragon’s fire to help keep it down. Behind them, the roiling and surging group of elves focused on Lucifer and the dragons. Mostly undamaged, most standing, it was clear they were doing just fine at keeping my dad at bay. We had a chance at stopping him before he did the kind of thing he couldn’t walk back from.

Someone hit me from behind. Penny shouted, and the burst of magic she’d been sending out shot wide. It hit a dragon and clamped its wings to its sides. The beautiful purple and black body crashed down to the ground.

“No! Oh no!” Penny surged that way, but a vampire stepped in her path. “Move, Marie,” she shouted.

The dragon roared and fire blasted into the air. Wings beat and then the dragon tramped through the crowd, knocking people over as it tried to get back in the air.

Marie in monster form recoiled and dropped Penny, who was done with being saved or stopped and had clearly hit her with a spell. Once on the ground, Penny charged toward the dragon, cutting down the creatures who were trying to chop at it with weapons and stab its eyes.

“Follow her,” I yelled, altering course, blinding agony vibrating up my thigh each time I stepped on that leg. Heal already, leg.

Emery caught up to Penny quickly, as did Cahal, detouring from my father to cleave a path toward the dragon.

“I didn’t mean to, sorry,” Penny yelled. The dragon stopped in its thrashing, its great head turning her way as she and Emery shot out rapid-fire spells at its attackers. I covered the far side in fire. A demon appeared at the dragon’s rump, slinging air and also a weapon, not powerful enough to just use its magic. Another appeared beside it, and it was clear they’d followed us toward the elves. We were running out of time.

The dragon bellowed and flapped its wings, rising into the air, and demons surged into the hole it left behind. The dragon turned and blasted the area in front of Penny with fire, repaying her for her help.

I let my magic pulse as the demons rushed toward and around us, reaching into them as a group, thankful for their limited power level. They felt my magic and slowed their movement. They turned their gazes toward me in confusion. I willed them to slow further, to allow us to go first. They pushed against the directive, shaking with the effort. Lucifer must’ve already had his hooks in them.

“Damn it,” I said, kicking a downed body. Pain coiled around me, hard to shake off. I winced and clutched the wound briefly, willing myself to heal faster. My leather pants bulged with the slit, and gooey wetness slid down my leg. That wasn’t great. I wished I’d thought to bring duct tape so I could patch up holes in thighs.