Page 13 of Guardian

6

At first Logan had thought that Manus had entered the shop, passing through the locked door the same way he had done. But Manus’s text message had squashed that assumption. Demons must have picked the lock and entered. How many, Logan didn’t know. And there was no time to ask Manus.

In disbelief, Winter stared at him, mouth agape.

But the time for explanations had run out. The door was flung open, and several demons charged through the short hallway into the kitchen.

Winter screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Fuck!” Logan hissed. There were four of them.

Apparently these days Zoltan, leader of the demons, believed in throwing as much manpower as he could muster at a tiny problem such as a psychic. Clearly, he’d learned from his mistakes. And the demons had an advantage: there was no back exit through which he and Winter could flee.

“Stay back, Winter,” Logan warned her, as she stood frozen at the kitchen counter. At least she still held the knife in her hand.

The four demons, their telltale green eyes glaring, charged at him. They were big creatures, humanoid in nature, but stronger and less vulnerable. Only weapons forged in the Dark Days could kill them. Logan now pulled such a weapon, an ancient dagger, from the concealed sheath inside his jacket.

“Come get me, you bastards!” he yelled. He had to keep them away from Winter until reinforcements arrived.

With blades aimed in his direction, the demons lurched forward. Logan made himself invisible, a skill unique to Stealth Guardians, and dove low to the left, avoiding his adversaries’ daggers. Angry grunting sounds bounced against the kitchen wall.

“Get the psychic!” one demon ordered.

Over my fucking dead body!

Still invisible, Logan lunged in front of the demon who now separated from the other three and veered toward Winter. Logan sliced his dagger across the asshole’s thigh, cutting deep.

Green blood spurted from the injured demon, accompanied by a cry of pain. He’d hit the femoral artery. Kicking him to the side with his foot, Logan managed to avoid being rained on. Relieved, he whirled around. The three able-bodied demons charged toward him like a wall.

“He must be here!” one of them grumbled in displeasure. “Fucking guardian!”

Still invisible, Logan jumped, aiming his foot at the demon to the left and kicking him back against the doorframe, while he let his right arm make a wide horizontal motion, aimed at the middle demon’s throat. More blood spurted, but the demon wasn’t dead. Logan had only grazed him.

“Gotcha!” one of the demons ground out.

Logan didn’t have to look down at himself to know that he’d been sprayed with green demon blood, blood that gave away his position. Unlike any other substance, demon blood couldn’t be made invisible.

“Shit!”

His advantage gone, Logan made himself fully visible to save energy and lunged at the demon again, but the two others came to his aid. And from behind Logan came the sounds of a struggle. The injured demon was trying to grab Winter, but Logan didn’t get a chance to spin around.

He kicked one of his attackers in the balls and while the bastard toppled over, clutching himself and crying in pain, Logan aimed his dagger at the demon to his right, managing to deliver a cut across his chest.

Then a blade came toward him from the other side. Logan ducked away, but couldn’t avoid it entirely. Pain seared his bicep. He drew back his other arm and flung the demon backwards. But the next one was already upon him. This time, Logan didn’t have time to dive away.

Yet the demon’s dagger didn’t connect with Logan’s chest. The creature suddenly froze, blood spurting from his neck, then he fell sideways. Behind him, Manus stood with a satisfied grin on his face and a bloodied dagger in his hand.

“You’re welcome,” Manus said and jumped at the demon Logan had just flung across the room.

Now free, Logan spun around.

Winter was fighting the injured demon at the kitchen counter. With one hand the bastard was trying to stem the flow of blood from his wound, the other was wrapped around Winter’s neck. The knife in her hand was gone, though Logan noticed several cuts on the demon’s arms.

Logan rushed toward them, gripping his dagger firmly. He snatched the demon by his shaggy hair, bent his head back, and sliced through his neck with such force that he severed the head from the torso.

He kicked the dead body to the ground, tossing the head after it like a useless piece of garbage. Which it was.

“You okay?” he asked Winter, who stared at him wide-eyed. He gave her a quick once over, but couldn’t detect any wounds except for the redness on her neck where the demon had tried to choke her. Luckily he’d been so weakened by his blood loss that he hadn’t had sufficient strength.