“Ahhh,” Rynna exhaled, smearing the demon’s blood across her cheek and nose in three oily black streaks. “That was…easier than I thought it would be.”
The demon pulled back, its eyes fixed on her, wide and furious, lips stretching over jagged teeth in something between a snarl and a scream.
“Abomination!” it spat. “You will pay for this!”
Rynna held her ground, blade steady. “Leave the body you’ve possessed and leave this town.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Or I’ll cut you down some more and let them make ropes from your entrails.”
Its teeth flashed, but then, its gaze slid past her, raking over the faces gathered in the street. The snarl died on its throat, and one heavy foot moved backwards in the dirt.
The others weren’t cowering anymore. Their fear had burned off, leaving only anger. Eyes narrowed. Shoulders squared. And hands clenched around whatever tools they’d grabbed in haste—hatchets, hammers, kitchen knives. It wasn’t an army, but they were no longer victims.
Somewhere in the crowd, a man raised his fist. “Kill the bastard!” he shouted, and others took up the cry, voices ragged but loud.
Rynna turned back to the demon, watching as its shoulders sank, the fight bleeding out of its posture.
“Where am I to go?” it finally asked, the words falling flat.
“I don’t give a fuck. You’re lucky I don’t take whatever passes for a soul from your wretched hide.” She pointed her blade at a distant pasture. “What about those goats? You’d fit right in.”
It looked toward the animals, then back at her. “This won’t solve anything. I’ll find your Prophet one way or the other.”
She bared her teeth, pointing at the goats again. This demon wasn’t the first to target Joshua. And it wouldn’t be the last.
“Fine,” it hissed, and the body it held jerked once as the mouth gaped open in a silent plea.
Then, darkness, thick and buzzing like a nest of wasps, poured from his eyes, his mouth, his nose in a writhing stream. The shadows churned and thickened as they spilled free, spiraling away toward the herd of goats penned at the edge of town. The animals shrieked, hooves churning the muck, bodies slamming against the pen in blind panic. The sound chafed down Rynna’s spine, and her stomach contracted.
She let the air go. They didn’t deserve this. Maybe she should’ve just killed the human meat puppet. He’d probably die from losing an arm anyway.
Somewhere behind her, a villager gasped.
The goats had stopped their struggling, and every snout now tipped skyward in eerie unison, eyes gone slick and black as pitch.
Rynna waited, sword ready.
Then, one by one, they turned. The herd shuffled away from the ruined pen, marching in eerie formation as they trudged toward the hills that marked the desert’s edge. Eyes on the horizon, Rynna tracked the mass until the last of the possessed animals had lumbered out of sight.
“Hmmm.” Her heartbeat relaxed, and fingers eased from the sword’s grip, joints cracking as tension bled from her knuckles.
A laugh worked its way up, raw and half-strangled.
I did it.
She slid the golden blade back into its sheath with a soft click.
I saved them.
She tipped her face toward the sun, lips pulling into something close to a smile even as the hairs on the back of her neck prickled.
Ahh.She frowned,knowing what would come next.
Behind her, there was stillness. It wasn’t quiet, but rather a holding of breath. Like that camp thousands of years ago, after she’d killed the giant, and many more since then. The faint scuff of a boot against dirt. A cough, bitten down before it finished.
Slowly, she turned. They watched her now, faces pale, and eyes wide beneath furrowed brows. None of them spoke as their eyes bounced between her and the bloodied ground.
Bodies littered the dirt around them, some broken, some in pieces. Doors hung crooked from their hinges, walls caved in like rotten teeth. And there Rynna stood, untouched among it all, laughing with blood on her face and a sword at her side.
Vampire. The word still echoed in the ruin, spat by the demon before she’d ended it.
