Battle With Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

I blanketed the elf troops with protection as fire rained down over them, their magic doing a little something to provide their own brand of resistance. They worked their magic up at the dragons, making their wings flutter uncomfortably, and a couple came crashing down. I grimaced and lifted my spell enough to let those dragons right themselves before pushing them away. I wanted them to stop, not to get hurt.

Lucifer threw magic that materialized in a wide splash of air that sliced through flesh and bone. I slapped him back with my magic, knocking him to the side. His head snapped up as he clung to Tatsu, whose bleats had the dragons around her shifting and moving. Those on the outskirts turned toward us, and Archion tensed below me, preparing for battle. But they didn’t attack.

The dragons flapped, crowding us, getting in the way. They were a deterrent. They wouldn’t kill me, and I wouldn’t kill them.

What a stupid kind of battle I’d found myself in. This wasn’t my speed at all.

Keep trying, I thought to Archion before throwing my leg over and hopping off.

“Reagan,” I heard as I fell before catching myself, seeing Penny and Emery looking around, probably wondering how they were going to follow. Of course they would; that was a certainty. Right or wrong, Penny would not risk allowing me to save her a third time.

I pulled them off their dragons, who would get their directives from Archion. Cahal jumped, of course, just as damn stubborn as the others. Near the ground, I caught them all, thankful the elves were more worried about Lucifer than us.

“What’s the plan?” Emery yelled as they ran at me. He fired off a spell to take down a centaur, cutting out its legs, and Penny finished it off with some sort of bone-breaking thing. They’d clearly studied the best way to take those creatures down since we’d dealt with them the last time.

“Always with a plan, even though you’re the one that told me to attack without one,” I grumbled, throwing my hand wide and cutting down a row of goblins vying for space. What a very handy way to take down a bunch of things at once. Thanks, Pop. “We need to make Lucifer give up this fight,” I yelled.

“Oh, only that?” Penny said. She shot a spell at a minotaur, catching it in the chest and flinging it back.

I didn’t get to see what that did, too busy ripping at three enemies in front of me and blasting a fourth with fire. “Null his magic, and I’ll shove with mine,” I yelled. “Help Cahal…”

I let my words slip away as I felt Darius’s presence throbbing through our bond. He was close and coming closer. Monsters burst through the crowd of bodies around us, claws ripping. A goblin went flying. Darius reached forward to grab another, but only took out its throat. The rest of the body slid to the ground.

What is the plan? Darius asked as the vampires seeped into the area, clearing out the enemy.

This time I could actually pretend I had one. I relayed it to him, throwing air at a minotaur trying to ram his way into our group from the elves’ side.

“We’re trying to bloody help you, you miserable shithead,” I yelled, frustration eating at me. A pegasus flew overhead, its legs gyrating through the air as if it were running along solid ground. A winged horse reminded me of the unicorns. They hadn’t engaged in the battle. I wondered why they’d even come. They hadn’t seemed too keen on seeing action back on their island.

The pegasus neighed as it pulled up and kicked out with its back feet, its hooves cracking into a dragon’s hide. The dragon turned to deliver retribution, but it must’ve been slapped with magic, because its wings tilted dramatically. The pegasus kicked again, and then again. The dragon crashed into the ground, disappearing behind a crush of bodies. Its roar cut off, and my heart jumped into my throat.

“Hurry,” I said, shoving forward, pushing with air, cutting down anyone in my way. “We have to stop this now! Vampires, keep everyone off us. Cahal, you come too. Emery and Penny, null Lucifer’s magic.”

“I’ll null the magic. I know how,” Emery said. “Penny, cut out the elves’ magic if you can.”

“I’m not close enough to feel their magic,” she said. “I don’t know how to stop them unless I can.”

“Then we have to get closer.” I pushed Cahal to the side and blasted out with air and fire, pushing and killing at the same time, cutting a line to those elves so Penny could get close enough to do her thing. The vampires stepped up quickly, helping me. The front-line creatures fell away, surging around behind us. I doubted we’d be able to get out of this as easily as we were pushing in, but that was a problem for another time.