The door burst open, and a dark-haired man with glowing red eyes dressed in black charged in. Black lightning crackled from his hands, and Brodie raised his already-glowing arms to block. He ducked low, then blasted the man with a ball of green magic. The Demonkin blocked the blow with his own sword, and I rolled off the edge of the bed and onto the floor just in time to avoid getting struck.
Shit! I’ve got to get out of here, I thought, my mind racing as I peered over the edge of the bed. The two men were locked in a fierce battle, their swords clanging so loudly that I expected the other guests to come rushing out. A lamp went crashing to the ground, a chair tumbling, and I knew it was only a matter of time before the entire room was trashed beyond repair.
A second Demonkin crashed through the window then, tucked into a ball, arms shielding his face as he cleared the barrier of glass and metal in a move that should have been impossible—the window was double paned. Fear seized me, and I didn’t think—the hunting knife flew from my hand. The next thing I knew it was sticking out of the Demonkin’s sternum. The man gaped at me, his glowing red irises fading to human blue, then collapsed on the ground, his lifeblood bleeding out underneath him.
The other Demonkin let out a howl of rage, and I turned back just in time to see Brodie gut him with another knife. The man’s death cry echoed through the room, and, like the other man, his bloody eyes also faded back to a normal color before they went lifeless.
“Blast it,” Brodie hissed as he tugged his knife out of the man’s body. “Something’s not right. There’s a different kind of energy coming off these idiots. It doesn’t—it doesn’t make any sense.” He shook his head. “Get yer things, lass,” he said as he wiped the blood off his blade. “We have to leave. Now.”
I stood, my knees shaking, then went to retrieve the knife. But that dark sensation brushed up against my mind once more, and I paused as a shiver of revulsion rippled through me. Instinct drew me to the window, and I brushed the curtains aside to see a third Demonkin standing on the other side of the parking lot. Those glowing eyes locked with mine for a moment before he turned tail and ran.
“Arabella!” Brodie called as I burst out the door, but I didn’t turn back. These bastards had burned down my house, and I wasn’t going to stop until every last one of them had paid in blood.
10
Arabella
The Demonkin racedacross the parking lot and jumped over the back fence with lightning speed. I sprinted after him, fast as I could, vaulting the fence in seconds, but he was already halfway across a backfield, heading for a copse of trees on the other side. Dammit! I was never going to catch him at this rate.
How many innocent people might he hurt and kill if you let him get away?
As the thought crossed my mind, the birthmark on my chest began to burn. I tried to ignore it, but a tingling sensation began to spread through my right arm, and my vision suddenly changed. The Demonkin zoomed in, as if I were looking at him through a set of binoculars. He had to be fifty yards away… and yet I could see the light gleaming on the individual hairs of his blond head. The stitching in his jeans. The bead of sweat sliding down the back of his neck.
Shoot.
The command came out of the darkest depths of my consciousness.Shoot with what?I wondered, even as my arms came up of their own accord. In a trance, I watched a glowing bow and arrow appear in my hands, crafted of pure blue energy, and yet so real. A strange calmness filled me, and I nocked the arrow, then pulled back the string, all in one smooth motion. I’d done this a thousand times with real bows and arrows—shooting was second nature to me. But there was something different about this, something even more intuitive, as if the weapon was truly a part of me.
The world went still for a moment as I breathed in, aiming. My target was almost to the tree line, but it didn’t matter now. He was mine. Supreme confidence filled me, and I released the arrow along with my breath.
Time sped up again, and the arrow shot across the field and impaled him straight through the heart from behind. The Demonkin let out a shriek of agony that hit me like a visceral blow even from this distance, and the arrow in his back flashed brightly before dissipating. An invisible wave of energy rippled across the field, and the air suddenly felt cleaner, brighter.
Purified.
“By the saints, lass,” Brodie murmured. I turned to see him standing behind me, a stunned look on his face. “Ye did it. Ye called on yer Sentinel powers, and exorcised the demon from this bloody bastard.”
“Holy shit.” My legs wobbled from beneath me, and the bow in my hands faded away. There was no escaping this now. It was real. I had done it. I’d slayed a demon.
“W-what do we do with all these bodies?” I stammered as my whole body began to shake. “Oh God. We killed people. The other guests must have heard what was going on. The police will be here any minute!”
“Calm yerself, lass.” Brodie took my hand and squeezed it. “I anticipated something like this might happen, so while ye were asleep, I took precautions. None of the guests at this fine establishment will have heard a thing.” He grinned at the astonished look on my face. “I told ye I had a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“No kidding.” I let out a shaky breath, then turned toward the third Demonkin lying in the field. “So what do we do with these guys?”
“The first two, we get rid of,” Brodie said, releasing my hand so he could stalk toward the Demonkin I’d just shot. He crouched down beside the prone man, then pressed two fingers against the side of his neck. “But this one is still very much alive. And now that he no longer has his demon to depend on…” he added with a fierce grin that sent chills through me. “There’s nothing stopping us from tying him up so we can finally get some bloody answers.”
11
Brodie
Islungthe unconscious Demonkin over my shoulder and hauled him back to the motel room. It was still dark out, only four in the morning, so we had a few more hours until the sun’s rays crested the horizon and undid my spell. Druid magic worked closely with nature, and the type of magic I’d used to put the motel guests to sleep was tied to the night.
Arabella walked ahead of me, her hips still moving in that hypnotic sway even though she was shaken from the ordeal. The lass was changing before my very eyes, and I didn’t know what to make of it. One moment, she was trying to run away, claiming that she knew nothing about the world she’d come from, and in the next second, she was conjuring celestial weapons and exorcising demons.
What had happened to the lass to make her this way? I wished Gaia would tell me, but, as usual, the goddess was as silent as the earth beneath my feet. It was her way, and begrudging her for it was like being angry at the sea for crashing its waves against our shores. No, there was no use wishing and praying for Gaia to give me answers. If I wanted to learn why the lass was so screwed up, I’d have to find out myself.
Starting with this Demonkin.
Arabella opened the door for me, since my arms were full of Demonkin. As we stepped inside the miserable excuse for a motel, her shoulder stiffened. “How are we going to get rid of these guys?” she asked quietly, her dark eyes fixed on the dead bodies soaking blood into the carpet.
