Rourke grunted. “Don’t forgetme.”
We all turned toward him and shouted, “You’re stayinginside!”
* * *
Iopeneda window and lobbed a fireball at the house on the other side of the street. Instead of hitting my mark, it careened down the abandoned street like a tumbleweed. Fine. Whatever. I didn’t need it to hit the house anyway. And it did the trick. The fireball caught the demon’s attention, and he turned toward the mess while we all piledoutside.
Of course, he heard us. He twisted his horse back around, and I couldn’t help but stumble back a step at the pure, unbridled power that shimmered off his body in waves. I swallowed hard, my hands trembling while they held tight to their twin daggers. Uriel stood just behind me, his bow nocked with an arrow that would pierce through any skin, demon ornot.
The horse sniffed at the air, and the demon smiled. “I thought it would take far longer to break youdown.”
His voice was like ice and death all mixed into one, a scratching, deep sound that slithered down my spine. It was all I could do not to scream, turn around, and run. But I knew that if I so moved an inch, he would take that as a sign to charge. He revelled in the chase, the game of it all. He wanted to terrify us. He wanted us scared. He wanted to chase usdown.
I wet my lips and held my ground. Head fetish or not, I wasn’t going to let this demon get under my skin. All of our lives depended on how well we could keep our shit together, and I wasn’t going to be the one to screw up, not thistime.
The demon’s eyes scanned our group, the strange ensemble that it was. His gaze paused on Lilith, then me, then…Rourke. Dammit. He hadn’t stayedinside.
The demon cocked his head, curiosity lighting up in his eyes. From what I could see, at least. Most of his face was hidden behind his steel helmet. “Interesting group we have here. Certainly different than most of the trespassers I come across. Fallen angels. A demon. A human. And aNephilim.”
Damn it all to hell. How could he tell what I was? This was the second time this hadhappened.
I tightened my grip on my blades as I shifted on my feet. “How do you know what Iam?”
He let out a deep chuckle that sounded more like daggers down a chalkboard than laughter. “Because I am Nephilim,too.”
What?!
There were a million questions I wanted to ask. So many questions that I no longer cared what this demon liked to do with heads. How could this demon be the same as me? He was nothing like Sam. Nothing like me. Right? I mean, all I had to do was look at him to know that he was drenched in terrible demonic power. How could this creature be partangel?
It was like all my fears were becoming fully realized. If he was Nephilim, if he was this dark and this evil, then what did that make me? Was this what I would become if I embraced the demon side ofme?
But I didn’t get to ask thosequestions.
Hecharged.
Chapter Twenty-One
Erela
Idon’t knowwhy I wasn’t expecting the demon to launch an attack, but he totally caught me off guard. Maybe that was his plan the whole time. Drop the bomb about being Nephilim, distract me with that information, and then take us all out before we even knew what hit us. Of course, the others were prepared. Uriel got off a shot of his arrow before the horse could slam right into my body. It stopped short, neighing in pain. Wings ripped out of the back of the demon. A pair of pitch black wings that spanned out behind him. He rose off his horse as his wings beat heavily against the air, lifting high into the sky, pulling his sword from his sheath. It glinted against the light of the moon, and the demon’s smile stretched into a wide, evilgrin.
“Nice try,” he called down to us. “But you’ll have to do a lot better than that to keep your heads on yourbodies.”
Okay, time to get myself together. I needed to focus on the fight at hand, not on the fact that this demon, the one with wings, was just like me. The one who killed. The one who ate bodies. The one who rode around with severed heads hanging from hiswaist.
I wasn’t like him. Just because he was evil, didn’t mean I was, too.Right?
“Get it together, Erela,” Uriel said with a hiss from behind me. He inched closer, his eyes focused on the demon soaring around in circles above us. In the background, I heard the unmistakable whoosh of arrows as Ramiel and Sam lobbed their own attacks at the demon. Attacks that missed, the arrows falling back to the ground and sinking deep into the earth. “I know you’re caught off guard by what he said. Just ignore it for now, okay? You know he did this on purpose. You know he understood the reaction he would get. You cannot let him get to you. You’re stronger thanthat.”
But was I? I turned to glance over my shoulder and met Uriel’s eyes. There was so much conviction in them, so much faith, so much trust. If he could believe in me, maybe I could,too.
With a shuddering breath, I turned my attention back toward the demon soaring above us. He started to descend again, so quickly that it was impossible to follow his movements. He raised his sword high, hurtling straight toward Rourke. The human. Of course he would take the weakest of us out first, picking us off until there was nothing left but the strongest. The strongest, who he could fight one onone.
I glanced at Ramiel, and we exchanged a look, understanding passing between us as he dropped his bow to the ground, pulling the sword out of his sheath. Together, we both charged in Rourke’s direction, our weapons raised high before us. Lilith spotted our charge, and she grabbed Rourke shoulders, pulling him back just as the demon slammed into the ground. Black dust rose up in a thick cloud all around us. Ramiel and I reached the demon together, but it was impossible to see each other through the dust. Not only that, but it was impossible to see the demon,too.
I swung my blade blindly, wishing and hoping that it would find its mark. There was nothing there other thanair.
“Erela,” Lizzie screamed from somewhere in the distance. I stumbled out of the fog, blinking in the direction of Lizzie’s shouts. Somehow, the demon had gone from here to there, and he had one arm twisted around Lizzie’s neck. His sword was only inches away from slicing her in half. Isaac was standing just off to the side, his entire body trembling as he tried and failed to keep a heavy sword raised up before him. He had not been out of Celestia long enough to be able to fight against this demon. My heart hammered hard. If I didn’t do something, and fast, both of them woulddie.
