Chapter 4 Zane
Zane
Darkness cloaked me, the shadows so dense I could almost taste them. Raven vanished from sight. I called her name, but the shadows swallowed my words, echoing them back to me like we’d fallen into some fucked-up carnival attraction.
Fear and I were strangers, but for the first time in years, unease sank its claws into me.
What the fuck was happening?
The grass under my feet felt real, and if I listened hard enough, I could hear faint screams and yells, which suggested we were still on campus. But the hellhounds had vanished, along with Raven, the storm mage, and the sour-faced witch.
My hand flexed as I tried to pull my angel blade from the pocket realm where I stored it. But it failed to materialize. Whatever fucked-up magic this was, it had successfully blocked my access to the in-between.
Oh well. I’d been in worse situations before. Few, granted. But it was fucking difficult to kill an incubus like me.
A demon appeared out of the blackness. Like the one that had stolen Raven from me, this was also a higher-level demon. Not an archdemon, but still powerful.
It stood tall, smirking as it flexed its clawed fingers while wielding a vicious blade. I tried once more to pull my blade, but still nothing. Fuck.
Shit just got real.
The demon cocked his head to one side and frowned. A second later, the kitsune popped into view, carrying my angel blade. He dropped it at my feet and vanished again. The demon snarled in fury and lunged for me, but I grabbed the blade and rolled sideways out of reach.
Claws scraped my arm, slashing through my shirt, leaving shreds of fabric hanging loose. I huffed in annoyance as blood dripped down my arm. I’d paid good money for that shirt!
My angel blade sliced through the demon’s upper arm like a hot knife through butter, leaving the appendage dangling by a single tendon. This time the demon roared in fury.
With one more swipe of my blade, his sword fell, along with the remainder of his arm.
I had around ten minutes before his arm regenerated, so I danced to the right and hacked at his neck. He successfully evaded my blade and kicked out, catching me in the side with a clawed foot.
A rib cracked. Pain flared brighter than a falling star, but I swallowed it. My rib would heal. As long as I didn’t end up with a punctured lung, I’d survive.
The demon and I danced around each other. Losing an arm hadn’t hindered him too much. I’d noticed many times before that the more powerful the demon, the less physical pain affected them. It made killing them so much harder, and also less satisfying.
“Why are you here?” I asked while stabbing it in the thigh. It hissed but ignored my question. A claw lashed out before it tried to grab the sword still in the grip of its severed arm. I kicked the limb away, and the demon sneered.
“Are you after the witch?”
I swung and my blade nicked the demon’s neck. A flicker of alarm registered before it knocked me to the floor, causing me to lose my grip on my angel blade, which bounced away, just out of reach.
“She’s ours,” the demon rasped, his tongue flicking out in excitement when he realized he’d gained the advantage. I tried to reach for my blade, but the demon blocked me. “All ours.”
Did that mean she was part demon?
I frowned. It made no sense. Demons lacked souls. They didn’t breed with non-demons. No child born of such a union would survive, especially not if it was later dragged to the hell realm. The lesser demons ate babies and children for breakfast.
Literally.
The demon, confident he had me cornered, lunged to finish me, his claws extended.
At the last minute, I pulled the blade to my hand, praying my magic fucking worked. If it didn’t, I was about to end up in the demon realm minus a soul.
My blade quivered for a fraction of a second before reappearing in my hand. As the demon’s claws scraped my neck, I stabbed the blade deep into its heart. His eyes widened in surprise before he fell back and collapsed, clutching his chest.
While angel blades could kill demons if used to stab them through their blackened hearts, I wasn’t taking any chances.
I removed the creature’s head and kicked it into the long grass. A faint muffled curse filtered through the shadows, and I grinned. It sounded as if I’d just scored a hole in one.