I resented the need to stop for a moment, but I couldn’t afford to leave enemies behind me, especially spellcasting witches.
Two of the eight shifters flew down the stairwell toward me as the witches both started to chant spells. I didn’t hesitate, and my mind prioritized the immediate danger without conscious thought. I shot the shifter on the right, then twisted to the left as the momentum of his body had him tripping over the witches and flying past me.
At the same time he flew past me, the second shifter dove right at me. I twisted and ducked, my hand blurred as I slapped his hands away so he couldn’t grip me, then I stood up and flipped him over my back. My pistol swung around and fired a dart into his ass as he tumbled down several steps.
By then, the witches’ protections had been burned through, and I shot both in the back before they could finish their spells. Barely three seconds had passed, from the moment I’d tripped them. Four down, seven to go. I started up the stairs again, three at a time.
The Nephilim sounded pissed as his sonorous voice filled the stairwell, “They failed, stop her, or at least slow her down, I have the boy.”
That told me the last six shifters were about to turn around and come for me, and they did. Handling six shifters at once would be difficult, but they could only come at me two at a time in the relatively thin stairwell. Of course, just to prove me wrong, two of them hopped the railing and dropped down to the landing a level below me.
Now I was surrounded, and four could come at me, two from behind and two in front with two more behind them. They were leaving me with little choice, I couldn’t shoot and knock out all six, not in such close quarters and being surrounded, not before they got hands on me. My hellfire shield flared up joining my witch protections, as hellfire licked all over my body.
I turned sideways and shot one as they rounded the flight with my left hand, while a hellfire whip exploded out of my right hand and literally cut the two shifters coming up the stairs through the knees, which cauterized the wound as it was made.
They’d live, their legs would even grow back, but it’d take a while.
That was all I’d had time for.
The fourth shifter on the front-line dove for me, wrapping his hands around my neck. The pure momentum of his weight pushed me over and we went flying down the stairs to land on the cement landing for the fifth floor. My hellfire shield kept me from taking damage, but it took a lot of magic out of me, and although I didn’t take damage from the impact, the abrupt stop did rattle my mind.
The shifter screamed, as the shield around my neck flared, and burned his hands off.
I twisted my body and bucked, sending him flying off of me, and as he hit the wall I shot him in the chest.
The loud growls of the two remaining shifters drew my attention. I’d wondered why they weren’t on me already, and it was because they’d taken the time to shift to wolf. I shot one and rolled to the side. The heavy unconscious wolf slammed into the wall behind me, but the second one landed gracefully and immediately lunged for my throat.
I lifted my left arm in front of me, and his jaws closed down on it. I shot him too, couldn’t miss from point blank range with my right pistol, and he collapse. As I rolled to my feet, I shot the two shifters with half their legs missing. I’d taken them down, and it hadn’t taken all that much magic to do it, but I’d spent more than I was happy with. Also on the good side, I hadn’t had to kill any of them, and maiming a shifter is only ever temporary.
The Nephilim would be another story, I’d be more than happy to end his miserable existence.
The stairs seemed endless as I raced after the Nephilim and Joseph. Joseph was still running, and the delay had put him out of my senses, but I felt him again by the time I reached the eight floor landing.
He had to be on the roof, and all the way on the other side of the building. The stairs ended at the roof access, and I shook my head as I ran up the last flight and burst out the door onto the building.
Apparently, he knew what he was doing after all, and hadn’t gotten himself cornered. The two of them weren’t on the far side of the building, they were on the next building. They must’ve jumped alleys, and they were heading for yet a third building. I took off after them.
The sounds of a helicopter rotor reached my eyes, and I glanced to my left as I flew over the alley to the second building. There was a channel four news sticker on the side of it, just great. We jumped from building to building, and I slowly but surely caught up to them.
“Give up, and I won’t kill you.”
The Nephilim didn’t deign to respond to my threat, but I imagined he was pretty nervous in that moment with me on his tail and Joseph in front of him.
When I got close enough, my hellfire whip exploded from my right hand to trip the Nephilim, but he jumped over it, barely, but he managed it.
Crack!
A loud retort filled the air, and I felt something hit my hellfire shields. I turned my head slightly, and now there were two helicopters. The second one was a police helicopter, and there was a man in black tactical gear with a rifle aiming right at me.
Nothing was ever easy.
I jumped over the alley, and it looked like the end of the line. There were no more buildings to jump to. But Joseph must’ve been doing a lot of exploring, he didn’t even hesitate to jump over the side of the building and fall out of view when he reached it.
I tried again now that I was closer, this time my whip managed to trip him and the Nephilim face planted into the roof. I ran right past him, jumping his swinging sword, and right off the roof. My eyes scanned for the answer of Joseph’s leap, and of course I spotted him almost immediately running down the fire escape on the side of the building.
Only problem was, I leapt a little too far, and was falling rapidly toward the pavement below.
I giggled, good thing I could fly. Hellfire exploded out of my back into the form of wings, and I slowed quickly and touched down on my feet lightly.
Joseph was only a few seconds behind me, and looked surprised when he dropped off the fire escape and saw me standing there.
“Down!” I yelled, my senses telling me the Nephilim had recovered and followed my lead, my senses had him flying down at us. So much for just getting away.
The Nephilim pulled up and swung his sword at Joseph’s neck, but the wiry kid was fast and he actually listened to me and fell into a sideways roll. The sword whooshed right above his head.
My hellfire whip snaked out and wrapped around his ankles, halting the Nephilim’s forward flight, and he fell to the ground. I started to snake it around him as I summoned my collapsible steel rods and lunged forward.
His sword whipped out and cut my hellfire whip, and I slammed it with one of my rods in the same direction even as the second rod came down and slammed into his face. Of course, all the attack did was consume some of his magic, while mine didn’t drop at all. He rolled, dodged, and tried to recover and stand several times, while I beat the living hell out of him with kicks and my two steel rods.
I went at him full bore, beating down his shields wildly for several seconds.
Eventually, he stopped his foolish panicking, and merely took the few hits on his shields as he stood up and regained some equilibrium.
Crack!
I didn’t feel a thing, and when Joseph cried out in shock I realized the asshole had just shot a sixteen year old kid, fortunately his shields ate the bullet. No more ignoring that, I let a rod go as I summoned a pistol with human grade knock out potion in it. The helicopter was at least two hundred yards away, but thanks to the enchantments on the darts they’d fly true a whole lot farther than just by the weapon itself.
I took a sword stroke to the neck, letting it bounce off my shields, while I emptied the pistol in the helicopter’s direction. I might’ve hit him, but the chopper dodged behind the building regardless, and was out of the picture for the moment.
I ducked and rolled a second sword slash, and then re-summoned
my second rod as I sent the pistol back to my mound. The Nephilim was a master swordsman, but I used the usual dirty tricks with my hellfire whips to jam up his arm, or trip him, and got in a lot of hits with my rods to drain his shields without draining mine.
Joseph said, “Sirens,” in a pissed off warning tone of voice.
I heard and ignored the sounds of coming police cars, and I kept my focus on the enemy. He was getting frustrated like Serin did, I kept tripping his ass, and trying to wrap him up with hellfire whips even as he kept cutting them preventing him from hitting me at all.
Thing was, unlike Serin, he wasn’t throwing around and wasting his magic. He hadn’t lost his mind or his place, and he was cold and determined. So it was a good thing I’d learned how to fight with weapons, otherwise our magic loss would’ve been a wash.
I slowly beat him down, mercilessly bludgeoning his sides, head, and chest with the rods every time my whips bought me an opening. He hit me too, but it was rare. More often than not I parried with the rods, dodged, or fouled his swing with a whip.
I really wanted to finish him, the Nephilim deserved it, and his attack on me and Joseph was all the justification I needed to pursue it with a clear conscience. Self-defense, and he was an enemy that knew the true score, not a brainwashed or merely afraid shifter or witch. But… the police sirens were getting close. He was weakening, I knew I could win the fight, but it was taking far too long to burn through his magic. His death also wasn’t my mission, I was here to save Joseph, not get us both killed in the pursuit of angry vengeance.
Still, the idea of letting him live boiled my ass, and knowing the cops would take their murderous side incensed me.
A surge of magic threw up a gateway.
“Go, Joseph. You’ll be safe there.”
Joseph spat, “I want to watch him die.”
I sighed, “He’s not going to, the cops are too close, and their guns will turn the fight. He still has a lot of magic left. Go, I’ll be right behind you.”
The Nephilim smirked, and I kicked him in his smug face. I’d had to take a sword stroke to the fire gauntlet for it, but it was worth it as he flew back and slammed into the wall.
Joseph finally went, and I backed toward the gateway with a smirk of my own as the cop cars screeched to a halt.
One more parry, and I pulled his legs out from under him with the whip, and I gained the time to jump back, disengage, and enter the gateway. It slammed shut behind me.
Joseph had a mulish expression on his face.
“I thought it was a scam after all, until you showed up.”
I nodded, “Sorry, we’re trying to figure out how they found out now.”
Joseph seemed like another angry one, like Linda, but it could’ve just been the situation and I tried not to make that a permanent judgment on my part. After all, I was a little annoyed myself, that I hadn’t gotten the chance to finish that Nephilim. They were the true enemy.
Self-righteous bastards.
I gave him the usual spiel, as well as his enchantment and training manual, and introduced him around. It’d been a long day, but we’d saved two more half-demons for a total of seven. Eight, including me. No new adults, but between me, Muriel, Maria, William, and Cindy we could corral seven teens. I hope.
Not a bad day’s work, I could catch up on my potion experiments and training the others tomorrow. Shit happens, sometimes the schedule would have to give.
Chapter Nine
The hot spray felt good, as I washed off the sweat, blood spray, and scents of battle in the shower. I pulled on dark gray short shorts, and a clingy red halter top. It was casual, but nice, and a little sexy. Perfect for the dinner and night in William had planned for us, though I didn’t really know his full plans yet past he was cooking me dinner.
When I got downstairs, Karl was waiting for me with a nervous look on his face. I ignored his wandering eyes, his crush on me was pretty harmless, and normal, but I knew he was smitten with Sabine. Point being, I wasn’t worried it would turn into an obsession, I was just the hot and slightly older authority figure he couldn’t have, and men tended to want what they couldn’t have.
“What’s up?”
He sighed, “We were hacked, and I didn’t notice it. I found a software worm on the host server with hooks into our website. That’s how they knew about them, and where they lived. The government must’ve been behind it, and then they fed the information to the local councils in those cities.”
“Is it fixed?”
He nodded, “Yes, they won’t be able to get in the same way again, and I’ll be more vigilant in the future.”
I said, “The enemy always gets a vote, we rolled with it, and we won making them look stupid. Don’t stress it so much. It could’ve been worse, and we should always be vigilant, but it wasn’t worse.”
I smirked, “I’m just glad the government is so damned inefficient, they could’ve had people there hours earlier if they were on the ball.”
He said, “We want to make a video about them being rescued, and that the government is still helping the corrupt Nephilim murderers, etc.”
“Sounds good to me. The charity research?”
He fidgeted for a moment, “I made a few inquiries, none of them want anything to do with us. Apparently, they fear they’ll lose half their current supporters simply by us endorsing them. To be fair, they’re probably not wrong, and we’d end up hurting those charities, at least in the short run. Pure potion donation to clinics won’t work either, I got the idea they wouldn’t accept potions from us, since we’re not accredited and approved by the councils.”
I snorted, “You didn’t get council approval yet?” I asked in a faux tone of voice that implied he was slacking.
He looked shocked for a second, then started to laugh.
I shrugged, “So, that entire line of attack is a no-go then? We can’t force our help on charities if they don’t want us. We’ll have to stick to interviews maybe, any other ideas?”
He replied, “We can still do YouTube videos. We’ll just have to play them off the interviews and the injustice of it all. Stick to the facts, and share slices of our daily lives to show we’re just normal people and not the evil they think.”
I nodded, “The other would give us more exposure, and in a good way. I’ll see if I can think of another way or idea to increase the impact. But you’re right, what we’re doing now isn’t bad at all.”
He said, “Me too, I know Sabine is too, looking for more to do to help, I mean.”
“Sounds good, just don’t lose heart. This could take a while, and there’s always plan A.”
He nodded, “Hiding.”
I smiled in agreement.
He said, “I’ll let you know, the others are waiting on me for the video idea.”
I nodded, and we went our separate ways.
Delightful scents of steak, caramelized onions and mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls reached my senses as I walked into William’s house. Celeste and all the others were at Carlos’s house no doubt, and it seemed like we had the place to our own.
William looked up and smiled when I walked into the kitchen, “Good timing, just need a few more minutes. You look fantastic.”
He looked pretty damned yummy himself, in a pair of jeans and a tight black shirt that was snug enough to show off his muscles.
I said, “Thanks, you too. Dinner smells wonderful.”
He said, “You made the news. That crazy leap from one ten story building to another, when you were looking at the news chopper.”
I laughed, “Figures. No one died, not even the Nephilim, unfortunately.”
He smirked, “My wild one is feeling bloodthirsty?”
I bit my lip, “In the moment I was, but I know better than to hunt them or fight outside self-defense. The Nephilim was a cheeky little bastard.”
There was also a surge of warmth in me at that. His wild one? I supposed I might’ve been, at that. His I mean, for the moment, and hopef
ully for much longer than that.
He snorted, “I’m just glad your home safe. I wanted to go, help protect you, but I’d have just been in the way. There’s no way I could’ve made those jumps.”
I rounded the island counter, and I claimed a long lingering kiss.
“I know, and I’d love to have you at my back when things get crazy, but that wouldn’t work.”
He grimaced, and then stole a kiss.
“I don’t like it, but it’d just put you in more danger. I’m only human.”
I said sultrily, “A human with a really nice… kitchen.”
He laughed.
“Pour the wine, this is ready to come off.”
I nodded in agreement, and got our drinks set while he moved the food off the oven and onto the table. It all looked great, and it was. After both of us tiptoeing around his protective instincts to a satisfactory conclusion, we stuck to small talk and getting to know each others quirks, pet peeves, and preferences.
I hoped that was the last time we needed to speak of it, but I had the worry that it’d come up again. He was obviously okay with it, for now, but I could tell he didn’t really like it. Of course, that was his own fault, for dating a freak like me that was stronger than he was.
After dinner, we watched a romcom on the couch, then he took me to his bed, and drove me absolutely wild with another slow and deliberate teasing seduction. Most men didn’t even know the true meaning of foreplay, but my William was a god at it.
Almost too patient, but even my needy frustration at his slow pace was ultimately a turn on that drove me crazy. It was entirely too easy to give myself to William, and to lose myself in it.
The next couple of weeks passed without all that much happening on the big picture level. There were protests and counter-protests, the newscasters and American people continued to be split on their opinions. The governments, both the politicians in the U.S. government and the Nephilim and councils continued to stonewall, probably hoping it would all just go away.
Personally, William and I continued to go well and we spent a lot of time together in the morning and evenings, and I got back to a solid daily schedule. Breakfast, physical workout, errands, lunch, study, potions, and magical practice and class for the teens, followed by dinner. My days were full.
Demon Underground: Kyra Bell Book Three Page 9
