LAILAH #2
I still had no idea what we were chasing after, but I could feel the wards as we passed through them.
Jay was like a heat-seeking missile—he didn’t hesitate for a second, and he never took his eyes off whatever it was we were chasing.
Whipping out a hand, I saw him swirl his wrist and cast it out like he was holding a lasso.
Wind burst out from him, trapping whatever we had been chasing against the trunk of a large tree.
Having caught the creature we were chasing, we all slowed down to a walk.
Hudson’s hands glowed an icy-blue color, and two pistols appeared, one in each hand.
Jay’s silver energy glowed, and he had a bow in his hand with a quiver of arrows on his back.
I had so many questions, but I knew now wasn’t the time.
“Stay behind us. Until you can manage your own powers, it's not safe to have you use them,” Jay said, casting a quick glance back at me.
As much as I wanted to argue, I couldn’t.
I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t want to hurt either one of them.
Hudson and Jay slowly approached the creature, weapons at the ready.
Jay dropped his wind trap, and Hudson shot a stream of water at the creature's feet and legs while Jay sent a gust of cold wind, freezing the water.
The toddler-looking thing trapped before me could only be a demon.
Its gray-looking skin was sunken, showing every bone in its body, eyes glowing red with tiny rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Knowing it was trapped it suddenly let out a high-pitched scream that made me wince.
“Shit, we need to kill it now before it calls more to his rescue,” Hudson said, lifting one of his guns.
Jay snapped out a hand, stilling Hudson’s movement. “We need answers first. There’s been no other sign there are more minor demons around.”
“You really want to take that chance while we have Lailah with us?” Hudson argued, frowning at Jay.
Jay just stepped away from him and closer to the little demon. “What demon has been carving the runes? You're not powerful enough to do that with the holy wards so close.”
The demon hissed at him, spit flying out of his mouth like a rabid animal before it answered, “The Dark Lord knows Synergy has awoken, he is coming for her.”
“That’s not what I asked you,” Jay snapped, placing an arrowhead flat on the demon's body, causing the skin to smoke like it was burning.
The demon started his keening cries again, squirming to get away from the pain.
Feeling sick to my stomach, I turned my back to what Jay was doing.
I knew the demon was our enemy and that it wanted to hurt us or others—that wasn’t what bothered me.
It was the fact that Jay seemed so calm and practiced about the whole thing, that he had obviously done it many times before.
The demon started ranting in another language, but by the tone, I didn’t really need someone to translate it.
“Speak if you want us to end this, and we will banish you back to the furthest gates of Hell,” Hudson cut in over the demon’s tirade.
Something in the shadows caught my eye, and I moved away from the guys to get a better look.
I could see movement in the forest, but it was hard to tell if it was just my mind playing tricks or not.
It might just be animals in the woods, scurrying away from all the noise the demon was making.
But… the glimpses of movement were getting closer, not further away.
Then, as if my nightmares over the past few weeks had come to life, a demon much like the one that had killed Mallory appeared out of the darkness.
Its tall, skeletal frame moved in a strange, disjointed way. What little flesh it had was black and charred, falling from him like ash. The face, just like last time, had no eyes and a gaping mouth with rows of teeth. I froze at the sight of it, a scream clawing its way out of my throat.
“Lailah,” Hudson yelled, and I could hear feet pounding in my direction.
I hadn’t wandered that far from them, had I?
I wanted to peer over my shoulder to see how much longer it would take them to get to me, but I couldn’t force myself to move.
What I thought were animals in the dark had been other small gray demons that now popped out on all sides and rushed past me to attack the boys.
“Goddamn it, Jay, I told you there would be more of them! They never work alone,” Hudson growled as I heard shots going off behind me.
The soft twang of a bow and grunts from demons being killed was the only sound in the forest, aside from my wildly beating heart.
The larger demon approached me slowly, letting my fear eat away at me.
A clawed hand reached out to me, the tips oozing black liquid that sizzled when it reached the ground.
“Synergy . . .” it rasped. “Dark Lord . . . wants . . . must . . . bring you.”
I gulped, trying to get my body to do something, anything, that would keep me from being a sitting duck.
There had to be something I could do to protect myself that wouldn’t endanger anyone else.
My power flared to life, swirling around me, agitated at the sight of the demon.
I could feel something solidifying in my hands, and I looked down to find two golden weapons.
Never had I seen anything like them before.
One long, sharp point came out of the middle of the handle, while two shorter points framed it.
They were like tridents, only smaller and handheld.
Having no idea what to do with them, I clutched them for dear life and lifted them just in time as the demon took a swipe at me.
The impact of the hit broke me from my frozen state, and I dodged to the left as it sliced at me again.
Man, was I glad that I was tiny and fast while the demon was large and cumbersome.
Not knowing how to really fight put me at a disadvantage, but the kickboxing I had done kept me light on my feet and out of harm's way.
Deflecting another attack with my weapons, I stumbled, not having my legs under me to withstand the impact.
Leaping out of the way, I fell to the forest floor and scrambled away like a crab on the beach.
“You guys, I could really use some help here,” I called out, having lost track of where they ended up in my effort to stay alive.
Stabbing pain roared through my leg as two of the demon’s claws punctured my skin.
It felt like liquid fire had entered my bloodstream, and I screamed and screamed and screamed until my throat was raw.
I could feel my body convulsing on the ground, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Hands latched onto my arms and legs, and I kicked and fought against them. I was not going to be dragged to Hell.
“Lailah, it’s us.” I stopped fighting as Jay’s voice penetrated my panic. “We need to get you back to the house and get this wound looked after.”
The relief of knowing I was safe allowed me to let go and blackout at the pain.