Whatever she pulled at in his brain tried briefly to fight her.Hewasn’t doing that, and it alarmed him. Had she managed to call to theparasite the vampire had placed in his body? If so, she was doing the same to every ancient who had been infected. The revelation hit him too late. Not a vampiric parasite. They had expected the vampires to infect them with parasites. It was normal during a battle, but something else had slipped in with the parasites.
Demon. They each had a demon inside of them. Silke was calling to the demon in Raik, not realizing that there werefourother demons responding to her command. He couldn’t warn her. That would distract her and possibly get her killed. The only thing he could do was wait until she dragged the demons from their brains and the creatures were out in the open. Only then would he be able to aid her.
Benedek was never tense going into a battle. He had every confidence after centuries of taking on master vampires and their lesser pawns. He found himself, for the first time in two thousand years, with his gut in knots and his lungs deprived of air. It shouldn’t have mattered to him. He didn’t know the slayer, but something about her drew him, compelled him to protect her. More, he was becoming proprietorial of her. He wanted her safe. Slaying demons wasn’t the safest of occupations.
—
Silke centered her attention on Raik, determined to pull the demon out without allowing it to harm its host. The serpent thrashed and snapped as she drew it from the delicate brain, keeping it completely surrounded so its vicious bite couldn’t kill Raik or cause brain damage. The pull on her strength was draining. Seriously draining. Worse than anything she’d ever experienced. That didn’t bode well for the coming battle. The serpent was exceptionally strong.
She took a breath and began to pull again, keeping her energy consistent despite the fierce resistance. It took her several deep breaths to realize, as she relentlessly extracted the demon from Raik’s brain, dragging it toward the man’s mouth, that the serpent wasn’t the onlyone. She felt the fierce fight from several directions in the room. At least four other points. For just that moment when the realization hit her, her heart accelerated. Automatically she slowed it.
She should have trusted her instincts more. From the moment she had stepped to the front porch of her home, allowing Tora to enter, she had known eyes were on them. She’d felt the taint of demon. She hadn’t been able to locate the watcher or watchers, but she knew they were there.
Entering the Bootsma home, knowing something stalked her, she had thought to take every precaution. She had no idea how other demons had managed to sneak in unless they were already present in Raik’s residence. She would have to fight five demons at one time if she managed to pull them all to her. Where were they coming from? How had they gotten in?
“Tora, there’s a small problem.” She kept her voice exactly the same, not sounding in the least alarmed. Even as she spoke, she continued to pull on the demons, carefully keeping each one surrounded to prevent them from harming their hosts. “Raik is not the only one infected. I have no idea what type of demons I’ll be facing.”
“Silke, your weapon is untried.”
“There is no choice. I’ve started the process. The host bodies are protected as long as I keep the demons surrounded. You need to build layers of protection around you and Raik.”
Tora shook her head. “I won’t be able to get to you if I’m inside the weave.”
“I know you’ll be safe. I won’t have to look out for either of you.”
She kept up the steady, unhurried pull on the demons. It felt very much as if she were pulling at a freight train that had reversed itself and was heading in the opposite direction. She breathed steadily and concentrated on each of the demons, not just the one in Raik. She could pinpoint their locations now because the resistance was much more evident in the four concealed in the ceiling fan, the knots in the wood panels and the cracks in the fireplace.
Silke concentrated on the demon in Raik, ensuring the serpent couldn’t harm him. She did her best to surround the others, unsure of who or what their hosts were, but Raik was in front of her. A man she knew. A family man. A good man.
“Come to me, serpent of the sea. Slave to Lilith. She hurt you over and over. I feel the pain you’re in. Let me help you.” She continued in her persuasive, compelling voice.
The demon really had no choice but to be drawn to that enthralling voice. She kept the pull on all five demons relentless. There was a vague connection now with someone else, a male. She felt something dark and sinister in his head. The demon fought her command as she dragged it from where it had been safely secreted. Its body was forced to dislodge from the hiding place in one of the crevices in the stranger’s brain.
The five demons thrashed and snapped as she extracted them from their hosts, but her energy was powerful and the walls she’d erected around them prevented them from harming their hosts. Four of the five demons were the same, not at all built like the sea serpent. As she drew them toward an exit, they seemed, like the serpent, to grow.
“We aren’t alone, Tora. Be ready to protect yourself and Raik. There are at least four others, all males, in this room with us.”
“Vampire?”
“Doesn’t feel like vampire. More like demon.”
“Carpathian,” a male voice corrected.
The explanation came from the direction of the fireplace, but there was no one that she could see there. She knew Tora was quite capable of secreting herself in a room with several people in a way that she would never be discovered.
The voice sent a chill down her spine. She didn’t have time to think about the implications. Her full attention had to be on the demons she was bringing out into the open.
“Stay concealed,” she said, pouring authority into her voice. The little information she had managed to pry from Tora had been thatthese men answered to no one. They went their own way and did what they thought best. “If you distract me, I could easily die. So could every other occupant of this house.”
Silke dismissed them from her mind. Either they were who they said they were and meant the women no harm—although she was very suspicious of anyone spying on them—or she and Tora would be in the fight of their lives. At the moment, she had no recourse other than to continue along the path she’d already started down.
The sea serpent shot out of Raik’s mouth, its body swelling to double its size, almost to the thickness of Raik’s arm. Savage teeth glistened with venom as the creature rocketed toward her. With practiced skill, Silke sent the tube of sacred water spinning into the air over their heads. At the same time, she pointed the tip of the crystal sword directly at the demon. A dozen crystal lights, wrapped in the dragon lily centered on the creature.
The long tube of water spun in the air, acting much like the spray from a showerhead, dispersing the liquid in what appeared to be gentle raindrops. They fell around the room as the clear tube continued to spin. Each drop that landed on the serpent pierced the scales, leaving behind a smoking hole. The insides of the demon glowed orange-red through the pinpoint dots. The demon screamed hideously, its mouth wide open, teeth dripping long strings of yellowish poisonous saliva as it hurtled itself straight at Silke.
A dozen prongs on the sword sprang to life, the colors vibrant and blinding, wrapped in the long, soft dark maroon petals of the dragon lily. The spectrum of light was changed significantly by the wrapping. The lights from the prongs hit the shrieking demon from various angles, but the hapless creature continued to charge forward, unable to stop its momentum. Or, she decided, it was programmed to try to kill her at any cost to itself.
Silke didn’t attempt to sidestep or try to elude the demon, not even when four more demons, a completely different type, came at her from all directions.
