LAILAH
THIRTY-ONE
Once that first arrow hit, the world exploded as the demons surged forward, swarming us while others blew past us, going deeper into the school property.
They must be going after the Elementi that stayed to fight.
I hoped they would be alright, but I didn’t have the luxury of worrying about them at the moment.
Taking aim, I shot anyone that wasn’t Jay, and the explosions that came with it took out at least three or four more at a time.
In the madness, Makoto seemed to have slipped away but this day wouldn’t end without seeing his life snuffed out.
Even if I didn’t believe the entire story as true, I knew Makoto chose power over his son and the oath the Elementi made to the angels. That was enough to warrant his death.
Jay and I fought back-to-back, shooting anything and everything we could that moved.
I sent out a shield blocking the demons from getting too close to us, but the pressure of their attacks on it while I was focusing made it hard to keep it up.
As I took in the people around me, I noticed that it wasn’t just humans.
The Dark Lord had brought his brethren with him to this fight.
I wouldn’t put it past him to have Lilith show up.
What I’d done to her would slow her down but if she had a few Princes of Hell backing her up, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to believe she would grace us with an appearance.
“I know, but how do we even begin to move in all this?” I asked, stumbling as someone hurled demon fire at my shield. “Goddammit, what the hell can do that?”
Jay didn’t answer, and I didn’t blame him.
Talking took effort that we didn’t have.
What we needed was a break in the horde of bodies to make a run for it, and I thought I could make that happen.
Pooling my power together without drawing on the others, not knowing what they were dealing with, I thrust it out around us, blasting demons back and giving us a ten-foot circle.
Jay grabbed my hand, and we ran full out toward the nearest building.
It had a solid canopy over the door and I caught on to what Jay was gonna have me do.
When we got close enough, he dropped to one knee, hunching his back, ready for what I was about to do next.
Taking a running leap, I shoved off his back and caught onto the edge of the awning and pulled myself up.
Jay took a few steps back to give him a running start as he vaulted himself up next to me.
He landed with a grunt, as I grabbed his arm when I saw him starting to pitch backward, preventing him from falling off back into the hungry arms of the demons.
Once I felt he was safe, I let go and quickly fired off a few shots at demons who tried to follow after us.
No matter how many I put down, three more seemed to fill the space, making me wonder how the hell we were going to make it out of this.
The wind around us started to pick up, whipping around, pulling at my clothes and hair.
A gust almost shoved me off my feet but I dropped to my knees to create less wind resistance.
Looking behind me, Jay stood tall and proud, his eyes closed and his hands out as if he was calling all the wind to him...
which I guess he was. Trees started to wave in the wind, some bowing to the pressure as I saw the beginnings of a tornado starting in the middle of the quad.
It made me think back on the research I’d done when I first came to Ryevick about how the Elementi would show up and natural disasters would happen shortly thereafter.
At least we were keeping to tradition. When the tornado touched down, it scooped up a large amount of the enemy as it swept through the space, carrying them out into the open area behind the school where a large vineyard was.
I felt bad for the crops getting destroyed but it was a casualty of war and fewer people to fight, the better it was for everyone.
Jay pushed the tornado out as far as he could while trying to avoid any home or more damage to innocents, then he released it, scattering the enemy to the four winds.
Once it was released, he crumbled to the ground, making me scream out his name.
I pulled on our Bond and I sensed that he’d overused his power and hadn’t drawn from any of us, draining his own storage.
“Idiot,” I muttered. “We will talk about this when all this is over.”
Tossing up a shield, I had it surround the whole building; that way I could focus on Jay.
Placing a hand over his heart, I opened myself up to all my bonds and gave them a warning tug before I started to draw from them.
I didn’t have time to waste, so I slammed the power into Jay’s body, filling it to bursting, faster than I ever have before.
I cycled it through all of us, recharging everyone all at once, adding to the improved power they now had with us all being bonded.
As we had learned before, this only supercharged them for a short amount of time but since it recharges me as well, I could do it an unlimited number of times.
Jay gasped like I’d just shot him through with adrenaline, which I guess I did in a way.
“What the hell, Jay?” I snapped. “Why didn’t you tell me you were running out of energy?”
“You were dealing with the shield earlier,” he answered with a groan as he slowly got to his feet.
Standing, I steadied him as he got his center of gravity back. “Did you forget that I’m the never-ending battery? All I need to do is cycle through our power and it fixes everything.”
“Sorry, I guess I haven’t wrapped my head around the changes yet,” Jay muttered as he looked at the path of destruction his tornado made.
“Don’t you dare feel bad about that. We needed to even the playing field,” I pointed out. “Besides, if we lose, I don’t think the world as we know it will exist. Better to leave behind some damage than the alternative.”
We were both taking in the amount of demons we still had to deal with when a shrill whistle sounded in the air.
We both turned to find the guys in the ATV come tearing in with Hudson pushing a wave before them, knocking people out of the way.
Seeing them had something in my soul relaxing just a bit, knowing they were okay.
Brayden used the cobblestones from the quad to pelt at people while Micah let a stream of fire out, hitting the flying demons that seemed to be chasing after them.
Now we could end this. Jay and I had held them off long enough to take out their backup so we just had to deal with this swarm of people.
Dropping down off the awning, I used my crossbows to blaze a trail to the rest of my men.
When we converged, all the energy we held within us sparked to life, arcing between us in an endless loop of power.
This was what it meant to be Synergy, combining all the elements to make something stronger.
I looked them all over making sure they were all in one piece. “Everyone good?”
“You know it, Trouble. Thanks for the pick-me-up. That shit is crazy!” Parker commented as he took down two women charging at him. “So, do we have a plan here?”
“We need to find Makoto. He’s the Dark Lord’s conduit. If we can take care of him, then I think the demons will follow,” Jay informed them. “I don’t know that it will help those who have been given the serum but Lailah can do that trick she did back at the warehouse.”
“Any reason she can’t do that now?” Micah asked, looking over at me.
I thought about it, but the moment I considered it, I knew it would be too much even for me. “Too many to deal with. If we can get the numbers smaller, then I can make it happen.”
“Great. Now, how do we find the demon bastard?” Parker asked. “I’d really love to have a chat with him.”
Trying to strategize as you fight for your life was a lot harder than you thought.
There was no time to just let your mind process things as it was reacting to what was happening around you.
I couldn’t keep the shield up since we had more of us with close-range weapons, so we had to face what was right in front of us.
Then a thought struck me. “Parker, can you manipulate any of these people into being pissed enough at the Dark Lord to bring him to us?”
“Guess we’re gonna find out!” Parker said with a wicked grin on his face as he shifted to the center of our circle. “Put a shield around me. I need to focus on this. Give me as long as you can.”
I did as he requested, enveloping him into a bubble of safety as we handled things.
Time passed slowly as we fought. The only thing that caught my attention was the fact the streetlights came on flooding the area with their light.
Sweat coated my body, making my shirt stick to me and the bulletproof vest chafed my neck.
The sting of it rolling into my eyes didn’t help, but I couldn’t afford to stop and wipe it off.
We used a combination of elements and weapons, but it was clear that any information we had about this army of the Dark Lord was wrong.
It seemed like we were fighting half the world.
I knew true demons intermixed, but I couldn’t distinguish them as I kept moving and fighting.
Just when I didn’t think I could keep pushing my body, the crowd parted and men dressed in the uniform marking them as Makoto’s arrived, guns at the ready but they weren’t here for us.
All fighting around us stopped as if they were frozen.
Makoto was chucked out of the mass and stumbled to his knees.
The hood he was wearing was now tossed back, showing his normal features.
I reached out to sense him with my powers but he was empty and the Dark Lord had left him.