But before he can, another scrapper emerges from the depths of the woods. Four scrappers in the same location? I raise my what the hell to a what the fuck? Because scrappers don’t nest. They don’t hang out together. They follow each other around and fight for every bit of food they can find. Being together means having to share, which isn’t something they’re willing to do.
Then again, they don’t deflect energy balls.
Binx snaps the scrapper’s neck and shadows protectively around me. The next scrapper coming at us is normal. Human-like but small in stature. Pale eyes and a flat face. I conjure another ball of blue light and throw it at the demon. This time, he explodes far enough away that his body parts don’t rain down on us.
“Why do I get the feeling there are more?” I ask Binx, conjuring another energy ball so I can see.
“Because there are.” He shifts back into a black cat, trotting along next to me as we pick our way up a ravine.
“You should go get Freya and Pandora.”
He growls, green eyes glowing red in protest. He’s not leaving me. I toss the energy ball into the air, illuminating the forest. Squinting, I look around, paying close attention to the direction the scrappers came from.
“Look,” I tell Binx. “Is that a foot path?”
He runs toward the indentation in the foliage, sniffing it. He turns back to me and nods. Biting my lip, I let out a breath and look down at myself. I’m covered in demon guts and blood drips down my legs from running through the thorns. The woods are full of thorns and are what inspired the name of the town.
“Are you coming or not?” Binx’s question is pushed into my head and I respond by cocking an eyebrow before stepping forward.
“Of course. It was my idea.” We follow the path, going up a ravine, around another thorn bush, and into a thicket of pine trees. The smell of rotting and decay is strong, and I pull my ponytail over my face, using it as a mask.
“Is this a nest?” I whisper, looking at the pushed-down patches of weeds. It reminds me a bit of a deer bed but smells like the inside of a dumpster…just like the scrapper demons. “Scrappers don’t nest.” I shift my gaze to Binx, knowing he’s thinking the same.
Suddenly, two more scrappers rush at us. Binx takes one, wrestling it to the ground.
“See if you can find out what’s making them so strong!” I yell as I jump away from the big scrapper coming after me. There’s blood on its face, shining from the light of the energy ball above us.
I telekinetically throw it back, but he doesn’t go flying. He stumbles and recovers fast.
“Shit.”
I don’t have any weapons or vanquishing potions. I’m going to have to blow this fucker up, and that means letting him get close. I dart away, moving under the bright energy ball. I steal a quick glance up and raise my hand, powering the ball until it’s so bright it’s almost blinding.
I grind my jaw and suck in a breath, watching the scrapper charge in my direction. One…two…three… I pull my hand down, bringing the energy ball with it. The demon fights the magic, dropping to its knees and screaming in pain, but the energy grows brighter and brighter.
Before it explodes, something grabs my ponytail and jerks me back. I call out for Binx as I fall, but another scrapper appears out of nowhere and goes right for my familiar. I flip over, reaching up and grabbing the hands that are in my hair. The demon pulls hard, knocking me off my feet again.
Binx shadows forward, attacking the scrapper that’s got me. He shoves it to the ground, and I go down with it. I zap it with energy, stunning it enough to pull my hair out of its grasp. But as soon as I’m on my feet, another scrapper shoves me against a tree.
I conjure an energy ball but don’t have a chance to throw it. Lucas appears behind the demon and punches his hand through its chest. He pulls out the demon’s heart, which is faintly glowing a pale green.
“Is it supposed to do that?” he asks casually, looking from the demon heart to me.
“I’m gonna go with no,” I pant.
He shrugs and crushes it with his bare hand. The demon falls to the ground.
“Thanks,” I tell him, pushing off the tree. He wipes his hand on his pants and grabs me with his clean arm, wrapping it around my waist.
“You’re bleeding. I could smell your blood a mile away.”
“I went through a thorn bush.”
“Why’d you do that?”
I raise my eyebrows. “I’m a masochist, I guess.”
“Really?” He gives me a cocky grin, flashing his fangs. “You should have told me sooner. You know I like to bi—”
“Demon!” I interrupt and bring my arm up to throw another energy ball. Lucas whirls around. The energy ball hits the demon in the chest, but like the others, it tries to fight through it.
Lucas tips his head, watching with the same expression I had when I first saw the demon not die. Then he zooms forward and snaps the demon’s neck, twisting it around until it almost comes clean off.
Binx tackles another scrapper, and I run over, hitting it with an energy ball. It deflects it, sending it right back at me. Gritting my teeth, I dive down, pressing my hands against the demon’s chest and sending pulses of magic right through it, not stopping until it’s nothing more than a pile of ash. It fights me the entire time, and if it weren’t for Binx holding it down, I know I wouldn’t have been able to kill it at all.
“This is not what I had in mind when I said I was going for a run,” I sigh, conjuring another energy ball so I can see around me. Lucas takes my hand, helping me to my feet. His hands land on my shoulders as he looks me up and down, needing to see for himself that I’m okay.
“What were those?”
“Scrapper demons.”
“Those do not look like the ugly ball sack motherfucker from the other day.”
“I know.” I let out a breath, heart still racing. “Something about them is…is different.”
“Very different.”
I nod. “They don’t possess powers like that, and they certainly can’t deflect energy balls.”
“Can they evolve?”
I shake my head. “Not in less than a week’s time.”
“It’s almost as if something has supercharged them.”
I swallow hard, because that’s exactly what it’s like. “Great. Something is supercharging the demons. Must be Tuesday.”
Chapter 19
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Lucas flicks more scrapper goo off me.
“I’ll feel better after I’ve showered. I’ve had more exploded body parts on me this month than I had all last year.”
Lucas raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize exploding body parts were that common.”
“When you throw energy balls, it happens.” I let out a breath and look around. Everything happened so fast. “So much for our boring night.”
“You know I’m always up for a little killing in the woods.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
Lucas tips his head to the side and shrugs, looking both lethal and adorable at the same time. “I thought it would.”
“It kind of does. I was really set on coming out here and finding nothing. I told you, you jinxed us.”
“Yes, because supercharged demons is exactly the thing that results from a jinx.”
“Stop being logical.” I bend down and wipe my hands on fallen leaves. “Pandora,” I call, closing my eyes. “Freya.” They’re close enough to feel me summon them, and they’ll be here in just a minute. “You guys check out the rest of the woods,” I say, turning to Binx. “And thanks for the help. You were awesome.”
Binx jumps off the tree stump he was sitting on, shifting into shadow form. “I know,” he says, and his voice reverberates off every single tree in the forest. We’ve been together for fifteen years, and he feels like an extension of myself. He’ll never hurt me, because hurting me would be like hurting himself. It’s easy to look past his ancientness, to take the legions
of spirits he has under his command for granted and forget how incredibly terrifying he can be.
“You said you were set on finding nothing,” Lucas starts, stepping closer. “I know you well enough to know you came out here worried you’d find something.”
“Yeah.” I tighten my ponytail and conjure another energy ball so I can see. Ugh. I have more bodies—and body parts—to bury. “I think something is going on with the Ley line even though I have no proof or concrete reason to think so, other than it felt weird again and people were assholes all over town today.”
“The Ley line can make people be assholes?”
I nod and take a few steps forward, looking at the nest. I’m a little afraid of what I’ll find. Scrappers don’t usually kill, but these weren’t ordinary scrapper demons.
“It affects their mood, but they don’t know it. It’s what drew people to this town. The Ley line emits energy, and it’s not like some magical cure that will rid the world of evil and darkness, but it keeps the aura of this town more or less balanced.”
“And tipping the balance is a precarious thing.”