Chapter 55
Chapter
Fifty-Five
Thomas could barely process what had happened. Ginny was dying. Again. Kate had come to his rescue. She’d also befriended yet another demon somehow, only to stab it in the chest, making it disappear in a burst of flame.
Meanwhile, he was currently wrestling with a supernaturally powerful old guy who had his knife and meant business.
Focus, Thomas chided himself. He’d trained for this. This was a signatory, someone who’d signed away his soul to Cyril in exchange for power, riches, whatever. This one swore to protect Cyril’s life with his own.
Your loss, Victor, Thomas thought.
The old guy was wiry, though, and strong. Thomas struggled as the knife fell lower and lower, coming close to his own throat.
“Do you really think you can beat me?” the guy taunted, his eyes wild. “I’ve been flaying fools since you were in diapers. I’m one of the strongest souls Cyril has in his power base. You don’t stand a chance!”
He crowed triumphantly…then yelled in pain.
Kate had slashed at his back with her knife—the one she’d turned that demon to ash with.
“Come on, you fucker!” she shouted. She had no training, no style, but God, the woman had guts. “Come get some!”
Victor frothed, distracted from Thomas. “You dare?” he screamed.
Fighting is just as much about opportunity as strategy, Thomas heard Yagi’s voice drone in his head. Use your opponent’s weakness against him.
Victor turned, like a plant toward the sun—obsessed with Kate. His weakness.
Kate backed up. Victor stretched toward her.
In a move Thomas had practiced thousands of times, he twisted Victor’s arm, the knife clattering to the ground. Victor sounded like a wounded animal as they both dove for the metal.
Thomas grabbed it first…and Victor’s forward motion, already in full and unstoppable momentum, plunged his chest onto the knife.
He stared down for a moment, in stunned disbelief. “You can’t,” he said slowly. “It’s…it’s not possible.”
Thomas drove the knife deeper. He watched, without a doubt, as the light in the old man’s eyes went out.
Then he shoved the body off of him, watching as it crumpled and turned to dust, taking the knife with it.
“Well, shit,” he muttered from the floor, backing away from the pile of debris that was once Victor Klauss. “Yagi didn’t mention that would happen.”
He rolled over, taking in the scene. Ginny seemed like she was dead, too, a crumpled, bloody pile on the opposite side of the small room, by the door.
“Are you all right, Kate?” he asked finally, then got a good look at her.
She was standing there, knife in hand…
Staring at him.
“This,” she said, her voice shaking, “is a very interesting situation.”