Blood of the Lost Page 67


Liam pummeled the demon into the ground, then tore its head off with his bare hands.

Beside him, Alex had shifted and was snapping the neck of a demon with his teeth.

“Doran, time to get the girl,” he shouted to the daywalking vampire.

Doran was in a pocket of demons about ten feet from them. “You got a plan?”

“Not really, Faris does.” Liam took a step back, bracing himself for a split second. “Alex, with me.”

Alex was at his side in a flash. “Yuppy doody, boss.”

He raised a hand. “Eve!”

The harpy swooped down and caught both him and Alex up in her talons.

“Where?”

“Rylee.”

She tipped her wings and they were over a bare patch of ground, devoid of every demon except one.

Orion.

And he was beating the shit out of Rylee.

Eve let them go without asking, dropping them in front of Rylee. “Get him, Liam!” she screeched.

Liam landed in a crouch, his eyes locked on the glowing red orbs of the demon in front of him. Orion was breathing hard, blood ran down the side of his head, and his hand looked like it had been busted up. Alex ran to where Rylee lay on the ground. “She’s alive.”

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the martyr. Come to sacrifice yourself again, Wolf?”

Baring his teeth, a low rumbling growl slipped out of him. “Fuck you, demon.”

“Now, now, is that the kind of language you want your daughter to learn? Where is the pretty little Marcella?” He looked around then back at Liam. “Naughty boy, you took her away, didn’t you? Never fear, I’ll find her soon enough.”

Liam didn’t hesitate. He leapt forward, tackling Orion to the ground. The demon was big, bulky, and physically dominating compared to the lean muscle that Faris’s body carried. But Liam—and Faris—fought for someone they loved, giving him the strength he needed to overpower Orion.

He rolled the demon under him, straddling the fucker’s chest. Yanking his cutlass free, he brought it down hard, aiming right for Orion’s neck. He only hoped it would do more than slow the big bastard down to lose his head.

Something that smelled like it had been dead for months slammed into him, sweeping him away from the demon in the last second before his blade made contact. In the tumble through the air, he caught flashes of gray tattered skin and long, cracked claws. Liam hit the ground hard, rolling across the broken cornstalks, stopping only when he came to rest against Rylee’s side.

She looked at him, her eyes swirling. “We’re in deep shit this time, Liam.”

“This time?”

“Well, you have to admit, all the other times we weren’t outnumbered, not like this.”

He choked out a laugh. “No, not exactly like this.”

Around them the demons laughed. How long had they been fighting? Hours? It felt like it.

And there was no doubt in his mind that they were far from done.

CHAPTER 40

PAMELA

WE WEREN’T GOING to make it in time to save Rylee. That was the only thought that rolled through my head, and I couldn’t shake it no matter how hard I tried. The seething black mass of demons in front of us was too great. Was too much.

Lark’s words to me echoed through my head.

“Let it all out,” I whispered. For everything I was, and all those I loved, I would embrace everything in me. The light and the dark.

I opened myself to the magic like never before and it screamed through me like a maelstrom of epic proportions. Barely able to direct it, I didn’t care if I lived past the battle. If we couldn’t get to Rylee, it wouldn’t matter what was left of me.

A scream ripped out of me as the magic exploded in a wave of pure power, dissolving the first lines of the demons. I didn’t walk, but ran forward into the opening and did it again. And again.

And again.

CHAPTER 41

LARK

I’D BE DAMNED IF we didn’t make it in time to save Rylee. Well and truly damned. Pamela was battling with all she had, and I would do no less. I embraced the power of Earth and Spirit and wove them together, making a deadly concoction.

I flexed my fingers as I unleashed my power right behind the wave of magic Pamela sent out.

Destroyer. That was my name.

And I would live up to it every time.

CHAPTER 42

ALEX

I HELD MY GROUND, putting my body against Rylee’s, as if I could feed her my strength. I would give it all to save her.

No matter what it cost me.

CHAPTER 43

RYLEE

WHAT WAS LEFT of my family, my pack, was grabbed and brought to the opening Orion had created around us. All except the unicorns, who were still fighting as fiercely as they ever had, alongside the werewolves and what was left of what looked like half-breed trolls.

Yet, if they continued for a month, they wouldn’t be able to destroy all the demons.

Doran, Berget, Louisa, Mer, Charlie . . . they were shoved into the circle with us, still fighting. But it had been hours since we’d started the battle. Hours of fending off the never ending horde.

A whoosh of wings and Ophelia landed behind us, scattering demons left and right. She crouched over me, snaking her head toward Orion with her teeth open.

Before she could close her teeth, though, she was hit in the head by a club of a tail attached to a dragon bigger than her. A dragon that looked as though it had been dead for a long fucking time.

The heavy smack of bone on bone reverberated through the air, like a bell being rung. Ophelia shook her head and her legs wobbled.

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