She shouldn’t be bleeding. This was a simulation. But as the blood dripped down her arm, there was no denying the truth.
“Fuck.”
This was real. He was real.Motherfucker.
Together, Alek and I rushed him even as he clamped a hand around her throat and lifted her into the air.
“You’re going to die for that. I don’t care what my master does to me for killing you.”
She reached for his head, thumbs pressing against those goat-like eyes. Alek grunted in approval.
Before either of us could react, a shadow blurred out of the alley, slamming into the demon and sending him flying. He lost his hold on Sunday, but instead of hitting the ground, she was cradled in the arms of a familiar dark-haired priest.
“Caleb?” she whispered, blinking rapidly.
“Aye,a stor.” He turned to us, his expression livid. “Take her while I deal with the creature.”
Alek moved faster than I did, gathering Sunday in his arms and tucking her into his body.
I didn’t watch the priest as he took his revenge on the demon. The squelching and tearing sounds coming from behind us said it all. Caleb was playing the role of avenging angel, destroying him for touching our Sunday.
“Sunshine,” I whispered as I brushed her hair away from a face streaked with grime and sweat. “Fuck, are you okay?”
Instead of answering, she asked a question of her own. “How are we supposed to fight those things when we walked right by him without even realizing what he was?”
“Don’t worry about that right now,” I murmured.
“She has a point,” Alek said, his voice tight. “Without our powers, we’re little more than humans.”
Caleb returned as Alek finished speaking. The shock of seeing him covered head to toe in demon blood, eyes wild with hunger and chest rising and falling as he fought to catch his breath was enough to make even me take a step back. The priest was fucking terrifying. Who knew he had it in him?
“Put me down,” Sunday said, squirming in Alek’s hold. The Novasgardian tightened his arms, but he relented when Sunday growled at him. Without a second’s hesitation, she went to Caleb, flinging her arms around his shoulders and hugging him. “Thank you.”
He pushed her away with a hand on her hip. “We need to be going.” Caleb’s voice was calm and controlled, even if he appeared crazed. “This exercise is over.”
“There’s a dead girl in the alley.” Alek’s words stopped us all. “She looks like Sunday.”
Sunday shook her head. “That’s not real. None of this is.”
“The demon was fucking real. Look at your arm,” I snarled.
She held out her arm, still bleeding freely, and Caleb sucked in a sharp breath in response. “Won’t it stop when the illusion is broken?”
Caleb pulled out another vial like the one from earlier and threw it into the street. Purple smoke filled the air before everything around us disappeared, leaving a blank room, students in mid-fight, and a dismembered demon who was rapidly crumbling to ash.
The four of us turned to the place where Alek had stood by the garbage bags. Even as I prayed for there to be nothing remaining, I wasn’t surprised by the mangled corpse. Her dark hair was strewn about her, her body the same size and shape as my mate’s.
“Get her out of here,” Caleb said, his voice a low, scary rumble. He locked eyes with me. “You know where.”
Sunday was working up to a protest, I could feel it in her, but Caleb roared, “Now!”
The rage coming from him was enough to stun Sunday to silence and make Alek and I kick into gear.
“Where are we going?” Sunday asked as I caught her hand in mine and took off in a flat-out run.
“Somewhere we can keep you safe.”