I wasn’t known for my great bursts of speed, nor my talent to see in the dark. So I didn’t get very far—five feet, give or take a few inches—before I felt the pain.
Agony exploded from nowhere inside me, and I screamed. It felt like my lungs were on fire. My concentration shattered, and the bits of the spell I’d pulled from my rings vanished. My knees gave way and I hit the pavement beside what looked like a metal garbage bin.
The pain concentrated towards my lower back. Instinctively, I reached out, my fingers finding wetness under my t-shirt. They’d stabbed me with one of their death blades. It was enough to cause extreme physical misery with its poison but not enough to kill. Teeth clenched, I lifted my head to find the higher demons standing above me, the black haze moving around them like eerie black capes.
Great. That’s all I needed, super-higher demons.
I grabbed the sides of the bin and pulled myself up, trying not to hurl at the stench of garbage that assaulted my nose. “You know,” I said, struggling to my feet and taking their not-attacking-me as a sign I could actually do just that. “Three against one,” I panted, trying to hide the fact that I felt as though my spinal column was melting. “That’s not exactly fair.”
“We’re higher demons,” said one of the gray-skinned clones. “We don’t do fair. We do whatever we like.”
“Not with me, you won’t,” I hissed as another wave of pain hit me. “You’re all going to die.” Blocking out as much pain as I could, I pulled on the energy from my rings.
In unison, the higher demons laughed. The sound was as unpleasant as if they’d scratched their fingernails on a blackboard. I hated that.
“How sweet of you to think you can best us,” said one of the higher demons, coming closer and causing the stench of sulfur to fill my nose and mix with the week-old garbage stench. He carved the air with his death blade and said, “You should take comfort in knowing you won’t die alone.”
The higher demons blurred and came at me in a rush, but I’d been expecting that.
Since I knew my magic did diddly squat to them, I did the only other thing I could.
I reached in the bin, grabbed handfuls of garbage, tried not to vomit as the cold squishy substance between my fingers, and hurled it at them.
It worked like a charm.
The three of them froze, disgust plastered on their faces as they screamed something incoherent and bestial. They struggled against chunks of rotten meat and fruit all mixed in with a brown and green slime. Their shouts became lost in their attempt to wipe themselves clean. The three of them started clawing at their clothes and faces in a frenzy.
It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen. The great and powerful higher demons had a weakness. And that weakness was cleanliness. Go figure.
As for me? Well, I took it as my cue to get the hell out of there.
With my heart in my throat, I spun around and ran through the black haze towards what I hoped was the street. I just needed to get to a safe place for now. I’d come back for Poe. I was no good to him if I was dead.
My legs, heavy with the pain in my lower back, burned with every step. I knew it was the poison. If the cut had been deep, my legs wouldn’t have moved at all.
I kept going. I could see a break in the haze, a spot where the darkness wasn’t so dark, as if someone had turned on a light. Always follow the light. The sense of freedom pushed my legs harder. I was going to make it.
A fist came out of nowhere and connected with the side of my head.
I pitched sideways, my hip exploding with pain as I hit the hard pavement.
Well, my escape didn’t last long.
Head throbbing, I felt a presence above me. Twisting, I snarled and kicked out with my leg as hard as I could, hitting a higher demon in the shins and taking him down to the ground. No sooner did he crumple and another higher demon appeared in my line of sight.
Before I could move, he grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up, my boots grazing the ground as I stared into his black eyes.
“Not bad for a witch,” said the higher demon, his face smeared with what looked like pea soup. If I could have smiled, I would have. “That some martial arts or something?”
I struggled to breathe. “It’s called asshole.”
He squeezed harder. “You shouldn’t have soiled us with your human waste. You’re going to pay for that.”
“You shouldn’t have tried to kill me,” I wheezed, and the other two higher demons appeared at his side, looking equally pissed and covered in slime. Boo-hoo.
I tapped into my rings, willing the magic to come, but it didn’t answer. Either my magic was spent, or the death blade’s poison was keeping me from reaching it.
The higher demon with his hand wrapped around my neck smiled wickedly, seeing the fear in my eyes.
Was this it? Was this how I was going to die? Killed by some demon thugs in a dark alley? Talk about a cliché way to die. There was nothing honorable about dying in that way. Especially for a Beaumont witch. What would my Aunt Evanora say?
If only I could reach Poe...
“That’s how the big boys do it, little witch,” said the higher demon with satisfaction as he pulled me closer.
I pursed my lips and spit in his face.
The demon lost his smile, and a snarl replaced it. “You’re asking for it,” he said, and he used his free hand to wipe his face of my white foamy spit. I’d gotten him good. Yay for me.
“Poe?” I gasped, praying that my familiar was still alive somewhere in that horrid black mist. “Poe! I need help!”
The higher demons laughed, mocking and hissing, thick with something wet and bubbly erupting from them. When it came to spooky laughter, they were the champs, hands down.
Fear coursed through me like an icy ribbon and settled into my core. I was going to die.
And what image flashed before my eyes? Logan’s lips. Damn. I was such a girl.
A blade with a coiling black shadowy mist appeared before my eyes.
“I’m going to cut out those pretty eyes of yours,” said the higher demon. “Then, I’m going to eat them, one by one, while you watch until you can’t see anymore. But you will feel the pain.”
Terror slid to my middle, and his black eyes darkened. “Time so say bye-bye, little witch,” he said in warning.
His blade grazed the skin on my neck, my flesh tingling as the cold metal slipped along my jawline and then back tracing a line along my neck. I felt the demon’s grip tighten in anticipation of my death.
I struggled in his grasp, in my panic, and then a new fear slid into place behind it. I didn’t want to die. Not like this. Tears welled in my eyes.
Cauldron save me...
The blade pricked the skin on my neck—
And then retreated.
With my lungs burning from the lack of air, I blinked through my tears as the higher demon whipped his head around at something behind him.
An orange glow broke through the black haze. Even from my limited vision I could feel its rays upon my skin, warming my face with its presence.
Morning was approaching.
The demons hissed at the sun—a hateful enemy, the one that would destroy them.
The pressure around my neck released and I dropped like a bag of sand. My feet did nothing to break my fall and I hit the pavement hard on my left hip.
The higher demons squealed and scrambled like frightened rats as they jumped around seeking shadows and trying to avoid the sunlight, their black eyes wide in panic. It was a glorious sight.