Gold Stud paled and retreated a step, but the other two squeezed their triggers.
Two water jets hit me: one on the side of the neck, and the other in the chest. I bit back a scream as the skin of my neck blistered. My chest began to burn a moment later as the water soaked through my shirt and bra.
Being only half-demon meant holy water wouldn’t kill me. It still hurt like hell. And they had plenty more to douse me with.
I slashed at Class Ring’s arm, slicing both sleeve and skin. The water gun fell from his hand. I smashed it under my boot before he could recover, then elbowed him in the center of the forehead. He dropped.
“Shit!” yelled Glasses. “Why isn’t she burning up?”
“Keep firing,” said Gold Stud, who had recovered his courage enough to shoot me in the gut.
I reached behind my back and drew my knife from beneath my blazer.
The fourteen-inch Bowie had a bone handle and a blade sharp enough to cut a deal with a devil. Green fire danced to life along the edge. The fire was a spell I’d bought from a witch in Belgium. It was illusion, and its only purpose was to make kids like this shit themselves from fear.
From the terror on Gold Stud’s face, it was working.
I stepped in and sliced through his gun with the knife, then kicked him in the chest. I was no Hunter of Artemis like Jenny, but I had strength enough to knock him on his ass. He did a backward somersault to the ground and lay there gasping.
Holy water drilled my ear and cheek. I raised my arm to protect my face. I saw movement from the edge of my vision and braced myself as Class Ring struck me low and hard, like a linebacker.
What the hell? I’d elbowed him hard enough to put him down for the night.
“Hold her!” Glasses reversed his grip on his weapon, holding it by the barrel. He was going to break the tank over my head.
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” snarled Class Ring.
Dammit, I didn’t want to end the day by killing teenagers.
Flesh wounds it was, then.
I stopped fighting Class Ring and let his momentum carry me toward Glasses, getting inside his swing. My index finger jabbed three times, puncturing his shoulder, bicep, and thigh. None more than half an inch deep, but he still whimpered and dropped his gun.
“Oh, shit.” Class Ring released me and tried to grab the gun Glasses had dropped.
I threw my knife. The blade stuck through the tank and several inches into the asphalt. Class Ring yelped and jumped back. I followed, sliding close enough to clamp his throat with one hand. My claws pierced skin. “Are you going to tell me who the hell you are and how you found me, or am I going to eat your fucking face?”
I wasn’t the face-eating variety of demon, but he didn’t know that. For extra effect, I smiled and licked blood off the claws of my left hand.
Class Ring’s face went white. Then his eyes moved, focusing past my left shoulder.
I stepped sideways and hurled him into Gold Stud, who’d been coming at me from behind.
They ran. I followed, but I’d only gone half a block when the holy water in my hair dripped into my eyes, burning and half-blinding me. I retracted my claws and used a dry patch of my shirt to carefully mop my face and forehead until I could see well enough to retrieve my knife and return to my car.
A window opened across the street. A man called out, “Are you all right, lady?”
Sure, now somebody noticed. “I’m fine.”
I climbed into the driver’s seat. My vision was a blurry mess, and I felt like my skin was on fire. I stripped off my wet clothes, started the engine, and hoped I didn’t get pulled over on the way home.
“You didwhat?”
“We thought this was what you wanted. We were ridding the world of a dangerous demon. Isn’t that the point of all this? To hunt threats?”
“You jumped Annette Thorne. Are you fucking insane? You might as well try to sucker-punch Superman. She could have ripped your throats out. Or maybe she wanted you to get away. If you’ve led her and her friends to me—”
“Nobody followed us! She was hurt pretty bad.”
