“Those humans aren’t going to make it through the night,” Sin murmured as he leaned against the wall and pulled a chrome lighter from his pocket. He began flicking it open, then closing it, over and over. A nervous habit he’d picked up from his days as a rock star.
“And we care, why?” Malice asked.
“We don’t, I was just stating facts,” Sin murmured, his eyes still focused on the trio at the far end of the alley.
As I followed his gaze, I saw what appeared to be a shadow peeling away from one of the brick walls.
“Case in point.” Sin stiffened as he pushed himself upright and put away the lighter. “Do we help?”
“No.” Grim’s attention was trained on the humans as well, his brows pulled together with a look one might consider concern. “They made their beds.”
“Does this mean wearen’tthe good guys? Cause I thought we were the good guys now. You know, because we’re trying to save humanity instead of damn it this time.”
Sin’s question brought me up short. Could horsemen ever be considered good? We were morally gray antiheroes at best, and outright villains to most.
“He has a point,” Malice murmured. “Maybe we should...”
“Shiiit, that’s a lot of them.” Sin’s words echoed my thoughts exactly, which was a rare occurrence.
A hundred or more demons crawled, slithered, and flew out of the shadows, all converging on the three humans in mere seconds. They didn’t even have time to scream before they were dead, their souls forfeit to hell.
“What are we doing, guys?” I asked, adrenaline surging through me at the promise of a fight. It had been a long time since I’d got to use my full strength, most match-ups rarely requiring me to break a sweat. But as I clocked several monsters that I knew hadn’t seen the light of the human realm in several centuries, I realized we were in for a serious battle.
These weren’t your run-of-the-mill minor demons. Some of them were known as lesser gods back when I’d been alive. They had the ability to do damage to the most powerful beings... even us. The leather-skinned creatures stalking across the street were probably the least of a threat to us. They were a mixture of a panther and a squid, with barbed tentacles extending along their spines like wings. The claws and fangs were tipped in venom that would bring down a shifter in his prime, but would only sting one of us. I knew that personally.
I was a little more concerned about the floating eyeballs the size of cantaloupes. They too had tentacles, these ones attached like legs. I’d never fought one, but I’d heard stories of them. Soldiers returning from battles, shells of themselves, plagued with nightmares of the effects these monsters had. If thecreatures locked you in their sight, they could manipulate your mind, forcing you to believe whatever they chose. Then, once you’d served your purpose, they’d finish you with their tentacles. If the tales were to be believed, this was generally done with a very unpleasant hug around the face, so the tentacle could penetrate all available orifices, before sucking the brain out until the skull collapsed and their victim was nothing but a husk.
“Should’ve brought my pickleball paddle,” Sin muttered. “They’re almost the perfect size.”
“Looks like we know who our spy was working for,” Grim said. “Fucking Lucifer.”
“That was fast,” Malice muttered beside him.
“Armor up!” I shouted, knowing the decision had been made for us. Our chance to flee was long gone. We were in this fight whether we wanted to be or not. “We have to kill them. Every last one.”
We all acted as one, calling our armor and weapons to us in a move too polished to be coincidence. We’d done this exact thing countless times before.
“Spread out. Take them down. Don’t let them touch you. Especially not the brain suckers. Avoid line of sight if you can, they have psychic attacks. Then they’ll suck your brain out, and we can’t afford to wait for you to regenerate.”
Sin shuddered. “It hurt plenty when my throat was ripped out. I can’t imagine how much it would sting to have my brain eaten.”
Grim was the first of us to stalk into battle, and I followed on his heels, albeit in a different direction. A cluster of winged gargoyle-like demons hissed as they prepared to lob what appeared to be balls of fire they’d summoned. Fire would be a nightmare, an added element for us to dance around when we could ill afford it.
The comforting weight of my sword in my palm helped me shore up my focus with every step toward the enemy. Mow them down. Send them back to hell where they belonged. Don’t let a single one survive.
Easy.
By the time I reached the first one, my grin had to be just this side of sane. I needed this release for more reasons than one. Violence coiled in my belly, deadly and ready to be unleashed. It was time for me to prove why War hand-selected me to be his replacement.
Swinging my blade in a powerful arc, I sliced the demon’s head clean off its shoulders, the stinking, acrid scent of the monster’s blood only serving to amp up my bloodlust. On the return swing, I caught another in the belly, her humanoid form making her an easy target as I cleaved her in two.
Just that quickly, I was lost to the thrill of the fight, mowing down foes until I had to literally tread over the smoldering remains of their bodies.
“Has anyone ever told you you stink, you weird cat thing?” Sin shouted as a tentacle lashed out at him from where the displacer beast had appeared. He swung his weapon and attempted a strike, but the creature disappeared before he could make contact. “You stink, but you’re fast as fuck. I’ll give you that.”
He had no clue just how much danger he was in.
But I did.
