Fallen University: Year Two

I lunged at him, but never made contact. A furry black thing struck my side like a freight train when I was in mid-air, making me tumble to the ground a few yards away.

He brought minions. Of course.

Gavriel stepped back, grinning maniacally as demon after demon joined the battle. The one who’d tackled me was on top of me, its ugly pig-teeth darting for my throat as it pinned me down. I buried the knife in its skull and it squealed, its eyes rolling back as all three hundred pounds of it collapsed on top of me.

“Kingston,” I groaned, unable to fill my lungs enough to shout. “Get your ass over here, please!”

A blast of flame arched over me, striking the attacking minions beyond. A second later, Kingston’s massive dragon claws snatched the beast off of me and chucked it at Gavriel, who ripped it in half with his claws before it struck him. My head was pounding, but it wasn’t from the impact. It was the stench of charred, twisted magic pounding like a drum through my senses. I whipped around to face Gavriel. His lips were barely moving, but I could almost see the ripples in the air. He was chanting something low and dark and dangerous.

I turned back to the fray. “Kingston, to your right! Jayce, left! Kai, above you! Xero, blast Gavriel’s face! Run!”

It almost worked. They acted as a unit and disabled the minions, at least temporarily, but Xero’s blast met Gavriel’s shield and reflected back at him. Gavriel didn’t look the least bit discouraged, which pissed me off. Half his minions were gone, and the other half were moments from death. What the hell made him so special? So powerful?

He grinned at me as if he’d heard my thought and snatched up one of his own fleeing fiends. It squealed in terror. I stared, unable to believe what I was seeing as Gavriel sank his claws into his own minion, letting the blood soak his fingers up to the knuckle before tearing the beast apart.

Then, dripping claws outstretched, he turned toward my men.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Jayce! Look out!”

I moved, driven by pure fear.

But I wasn’t fast enough. Nothing would have been fast enough.

Gavriel whirled through the battle, slashing with his tainted claws. Whatever had infected the feral vampire must’ve been in Gavriel’s minion too, and I watched in horror as he tore at Jayce, Kai, Xero, and Kingston, infecting their blood. They fought hard against him, but he managed to pierce the skin of each man as his remaining minions held me off, keeping me from coming to their aid.

My mates landed in a tangled heap at my feet, their bodies jerking as they groaned. Gavriel’s laugh echoed through the chamber as he stood flanked by his two remaining fiends, just watching and waiting.

Jayce clambered to his feet first, foaming at the mouth and full of murderous rage.

Gavriel’s chuckle trailed off ominously. “Get her.”

The hellhound roared and jumped at me. The others scrambled to their feet, all of them zombified, infused with pure, dark magic. Jayce was swinging at me, his hands morphing in and out of hellhound claws as he attacked. I knew what I needed to do, but he wasn’t making it easy. Dodging his blows forced me deeper into the cave, farther down the passage.

Our torches had been abandoned near the walls before the fight began, and they still burned dimly where they lay on the ground. I glanced around as I dodged, seeking a good vantage point. I looked at one spot just an instant too long, and his massive black paw nearly took my head off.

“Go to sleep,” I persuaded as I dodged. “Sit. Stay. Play dead. Roll over.”

Okay, maybe I was grasping at straws a little. I hoped like hell he wouldn’t remember that afterward.

He was still a slashing whirlwind, showing no signs of slowing down, and now the others were after me too. I scrambled up a boulder with Jayce following me up on my left, Kai on my right. Kai would be easy. His weapons were in his mouth. But Jayce—

“Ow! Damn it, Jayce!” He’d caught my thigh, carving a deep, nasty gash in it. I needed to get away from those motherfucking claws.

Kai’s hot breath on the back of my neck made my decision easy. I jumped off of the twelve-foot boulder over Jayce’s head, twisting in mid-air to catch myself on his broad shoulders.

He roared, swiping at me but unable to reach me if I stayed in just the right spot. I clamped onto his rib cage with my thighs and slid my upper body over his shoulder as I put him in a tight headlock. His paw flew through the air, ready to tear my face off, and I forced his chin to turn toward me and kissed his mouth.

I felt his claws catch on a few loose tendrils of my hair, yanking the strands out, but the razor sharp weapons missed my face. Any closer, and I would have been done for.

I could hear the rest of the men coming, but I had to finish with Jayce before I could deal with them.

Forcing his lips apart with my tongue, I deepened the kiss, pushing thoughts and feelings and memories at him in a pleasant, warm, erotic tangle. He swiped weakly once more, then his hand cradled my cheek, stroking it instead of attacking. As our lips stayed fused together, healing magic and power suffused me.

Just as my thigh began to heal, my hair caught fire. Whipping around, I found Xero below me, lobbing fireballs up at us. I squeezed Jayce’s hand then let go, falling at an angle so that I landed on Xero’s chest, knocking the wind out of him as he crashed to the stony floor. Straddling his chest, I kissed him again and again, mentally reminding him of every precious hour we had ever spent talking over the mysteries of the universe, the politics of magic, and the magic of humanity. The power I’d gleaned from Jayce boosted my efforts, and I spilled everything I had into Xero.

“Hey, not that it’s not hot as fuck to watch you do that, but wrap it up,” Jayce hissed as he ran over to us, crouching to stay out of Gavriel’s sight. “He doesn’t know what’s up yet—doesn’t know you’re bringing us back—but I can’t hold Kingston and Kai off without making him suspicious.”