Omens (Dark in You 6)

Keenan swore. I’ll have someone teleport me to you; sit tight.

Oh, there’d be no sitting. She needed to deal with these fuckers. Her demon was furious that its enemy had not only penetrated its home and launched an attack, but that said enemy wasn’t physically within reach.

Khloé ducked as a series of hellfire orbs came flying at her at an incredible speed. The first two missed. The third grazed her temple; it was like the slice of a hot blade. The fourth orb rammed into her thigh and, fuck, the searing hot pain almost sent her to her knees.

The hellfire ate the denim of her jeans and scorched the skin beneath, making it sizzle and blister and burn like a motherfucker. Her demon’s fury hit a whole new level.

She could smell her flesh burning, but that horrid scent was nothing compared to the nauseating smell of dead flesh burning. It was like someone was roasting rotten meat. Her stomach rolled, and she would have gagged if she wasn’t so busy fending off Enoch’s puppets.

She swiftly sidestepped another orb, gritting her teeth as the move aggravated her thigh wound. Seething as much as her demon, she tossed a succession of hellfire balls at the heads of the corpses, aiming for their eyes, blinding some but only wounding others.

Fuck, I can’t get inside your house, growled Keenan.

She tensed. What?

There’s a translucent shield surrounding it—my teleporter can’t bypass it.

Shit, shit, shit.

Collapse the shield, he added.

I can’t unless I can see it. Right now, I need to knock down the people coming at me. She sent out a wave of electric fire strong enough to knock all the corpses down like bowling pins. Those she’d blinded stayed down, but the others awkwardly struggled to stand.

We’ll keep trying to get inside.

Okay. But she had absolutely no confidence that they’d manage to penetrate it.

Khloé fired a series of electric-fire “bullets” out of her hand. Skulls burst and brain matter splattered on the floor as corpses toppled to the ground. But others only jerked as the bullets sank harmlessly into non-vital body parts.

As she’d already learned, it wasn’t so simple to incapacitate people who were already dead. Especially since, even while they were jerking with electric shockwaves or suffering from horrific burns, Enoch—completely unaffected by their injuries—could still use them to attack her.

Khloé inhaled sharply as a hellfire orb smacked into her chest, almost winding her. She hissed through her teeth at the blazing pain. “Fuck this shit.”

Shelving the pain as best she could, she kept on fighting. Enoch upped the ante, using his puppets to throw balls of hellfire and even a few psychic slaps that stung like a bitch. But it wasn’t much longer before all the corpses were flat on the ground, to her demon’s utter satisfaction.

Walking toward the only body that was still moving, Khloé said, “And then there was one.”

Enoch glared at her through his puppet’s eyes. He couldn’t attack her again, since the corpse’s arms had all but disintegrated, courtesy of the amount of hellfire it had been hit with. “It is only a matter of time before you are dead,” he said, the words weak and garbled.

Her demon hissed, but Khloé gave him an “oh you’re so cute” smile and said, “Sweetie, you don’t get to be so cocky when you’re too chicken shit to come out and face me yourself. Hiding behind corpses? I guess I should feel flattered that you fear me.”

His upper lip curled. “I fear no one.”

“Yeah? Prove it. Come face me.” With that, she sank a bullet of electric fire into the corpse’s head.

Sighing, Khloé glanced around. What a fucking mess. Her hallway floor was littered with pieces of skull and brain, and blistered, battered bodies—many of which were leaking slushy brain matter out of their noses, mouths, and ears.

The front door flew open, and Keenan rushed inside with several others hot on his heels. He went to grab Khloé, but one look at her injuries made him halt. “Jesus, fuck,” he bit out.

Khloé peered down at the ugly wounds. “I’ve had worse. The hellfire isn’t eating at my skin anymore.” The pain was still unreal, though. “If Enoch popped his shield up around my house, he couldn’t have been far away.”

“Which is why I have several members of my Force searching the area,” said Jolene, her eyes scanning the space. Power rippled through the air. The windows rattled. The walls shook. Vibrations hummed through the ground.

“Grams, please don’t huff and puff and blow my house down,” said Khloé.

Her grandmother turned to her and exhaled heavily; the disturbance slowly eased off. She strode toward Khloé, her face creased in concern. “Are you all right, sweetheart?”

“No, she’s fucking not,” Keenan snapped. His gaze, so cold and hard, swept over the remains of the corpses. “It’s a good thing you’re so damn powerful, because the bastard sent a small goddamn army. Were the corpses already here when I first telepathed you?” His unnaturally calm voice was coated in so much ice she was surprised the air didn’t fog.