Pain kissed her skin and raced along her arm as the demon howled out his agony. She stepped back, brought up her sword, and then slashed down, severing its right arm. The left swung around, and she dodged before thrusting her blade up into its armpit.
“Head,” grunted Cole as he lumbered by. “Head.”
Charity stepped, spun, and swung, all in one clean, graceful movement that felt so incredibly right that she couldn’t help laughing as she lopped off his head. Probably a bad sign, her taking joy in this kind of carnage.
We have the blood of warriors.
Oh good, and now she was quoting her hallucination back to herself. When it rained, it poured.
The vans screeched out from the corner behind the demons, the leader mowing one demon down. The demon flew up into the air, flame dancing along its limbs. An orange-red burst flew after the vans, but the fire didn’t last, fading into the night.
The vans skidded near Charity, the back ends whipping around before stopping, the movements almost in sync, as if they were wolves. The sliding doors opened, and Rod leaned out of the leading van with Yasmine looking out from the one behind. Rod motioned Charity toward him.
A wolf yelped, drawing Charity’s attention to the opposite end of the parking lot. Wetness sparkled in the parking lot lights, four gashes in its gray coat. The vampire that had wounded it darted in for another attack, faster than thought.
Devon, who’d been dashing toward her, wheeled around to go back for his pack mate. Another vampire, pasty white in its monster form, cut him off. More of them rushed in from the sides, trapping the wolves in a widespread circle.
The vampires didn’t seem to be interested in Charity at all, however, apparently satisfied to leave her to the demons. What sense was there in that?
Steve’s roar boomed through the parking lot, pain threading through the sound of a challenge. Flame flickered on his thick fur even as he ripped into another demon. An explosion of flame rose behind the vans. She glanced in that direction and saw Cole’s thick, furry arm swing down at the thing attacking him.
A demon reached for her. She ducked under its charred limb and thrust upward, cutting a thick slice deep into the demon’s stomach. Black blood dribbled out, down its legs. The creature bellowed, and smoke came from its maw of a mouth. It swung at her again, anger making it forget it wasn’t supposed to harm her. Vlad wouldn’t want her spoiled. She slashed and danced away, finishing off the thing’s leg with her blade. The demon dropped to the ground, but when she looked up, she saw another set of claws slicing toward her. She twisted, avoiding the blow, and a burst of power from her hand had the creature flying skyward and back before its body exploded, flinging wet globs everywhere.
“Gross.”
Sirens sounded in the distance. The vampires charged toward the snarling wolves, and the demons slashed their way toward Rod and Yasmine in the vans.
Time to go.
Charity thrust her left palm skyward.
The sun lit up the sky, pulsing in wattage, sounding like a bug zapper. Vampires screeched and twisted, throwing their hands in front of their faces to ward off the attack.
“Run!” Charity shouted, feeling her energy drain the longer she held that magical sunlight in the sky. She released it as she turned, slashing through a roaring demon and sprinting as fast as she could for the lead van.
“How the hell did they organize so many so quickly?” Rod asked as she stopped just beside the open door, looking through the far window. Cole’s white fur was patchy black and red from being burned. Two demons advanced on him, one nearly as big as he was, its arms and legs as thick as tree trunks.
“Vlad’s an elder vampire—he probably has this many on call,” Charity said.
“I meant the demons,” Rod yelled over the din. “I’ve always heard demons are hard to control, but he has them moving around pretty handily.”
The first wolf reached the van and dove in, changing shape as it did so. Andy. He pulled a duffel out from under the seat, hauled it onto his lap, and started digging through it. He was probably looking for weapons.
Charity ran to the back of the van as another wolf jumped into it behind them, changing as she did so. Barbara. The shifter twisted toward the back window to check on Cole, but Charity was already on it. She sent a pulse of power at the were-yeti’s larger attacker, blasting it in half.
Cole roared and slashed at his other attacker, tearing out the demon’s stomach with his sharp claws, and then turned and lumbered toward the vans.
He might be powerful, but he was not fast.
“Hurry up, you bastard,” Andy yelled, clearly seeing the problem.