Me too.
I walked out of the front door with more boldness than I felt. My insides were shaking and sweat was pooling at the base of my back. I hoped they weren’t like dogs or bees and could smell fear, because I was stinkin’ of it.
I saw Lily and Shayla first. No biggie. I could take either one of them. Then I saw Jake and next to him was Steven. My heart dropped. Both were football players. I wasn’t sure I could take either one of them. I didn’t particularly want to try. Even though my training taught me how to use an attacker’s weight and strength against him, I wasn’t ready to test it out on Jake.
There were eight Evils and six of us. That wasn’t too bad. When a demi-angel switched sides, they lost some of their strength. Six of us could take on eight of them and do fine. It was the demi-demons that stood behind them that posed a problem. Their powers were fairly matched with ours. Taking on eight Evils and four demi-demons would be difficult. Very difficult.
I was relieved when I saw my Uncle Rory walk across the street. My dad came out of the house, followed closely by Chay’s dad, who, like his son, jumped the back fence. With the three of them, our odds were a little better. Not great, but better.
“Let’s see.” Jake tapped his bottom lip with his finger. “We ask you to surrender. You say?”
“No.” I tried to sound bored.
“We ask you to join with Azazel, and you say?”
“No.”
“So that only leaves one thing,” Jake threw the first punch. Chay deflected it.
This is so stupid. What good does it do?
One of the female demi-demons charged me. I braced myself for what I suspected was going to be a hard hit. And, damn, I hated it when I was right. She lunged at my midsection, knocking us both to the ground. I hit my head hard on the cement front step. Stars floated in front of my eyes.
She took advantage of my daze and landed a hard punch to the side of my face. I could feel her ring dig into my skin and the warm blood trickle down my cheek. I felt a second blow to my chin. My teeth clacked together, and pain ricocheted through my head like a metal ball in a pinball machine. It bounced from bumper to bumper, burning into my skull with each hit.
“Milayna, get up!” Jen yelled. She had pulled the demi-demon off me and was holding her in a bear hug from behind.
Slowly, I managed to pull myself from the ground, looked at the hulking girl, and landed an uppercut to her chin followed by a jab just under the rib cage.
“No fair, two against one.” Jake smiled at me.
I followed him as he circled me. My mind raced. The best I could hope for was that Jake wouldn’t hit a girl. When he threw his first punch, I knew that wasn’t the case. I easily deflected his second and third jabs. His arms were longer, but I was quicker and missing a hit was more tiring than landing one. If I could keep him entertained long enough, maybe my dad or Chay would be able to help.
It happened so fast. First, I was on my feet holding my own against the much larger and stronger Jake, and then he feigned a jab to the right. When I moved to avoid contact, he kicked my feet out from under me. For the second time that night, I was lying on my back with stars dancing in front of my eyes. I didn’t recover as quickly from his blow, however. My head pounded and my sight blurred.
Jake’s blurry face leaned close to mine and smiled. “Say goodbye, Milayna,” he murmured. Picking up my ankle, he dragged me from the front porch to the side yard. My head bounced against the cement walk and then the ruts and stones in the grass.
He pulled me along the side yard and into the back. Blinking to clear my vision, I saw the stumpy legs of the hobgoblins running around and smelled their ever-present odor of sulfur. It wasn’t until I saw the glowing hole and smelled rotting, charred meat that I realized what was happening.
I kicked at his hand with my free foot, trying to sit up and claw at his arm. He pushed me back. Jake was big. He was built, solid, packed muscle. But I fought him. I kicked. I scratched and clawed at his hand. I grabbed at anything I could reach and hung on. If he was going to drag me to hell, he was damn well working to do it.
“No, no, no,” I screamed.
“Yes. You had your chance. Now Azazel will take what’s his, with or without your consent.”
He pulled me closer to the hole. I could feel the heat radiate from it and smell burnt flesh and sulfur. Bile rose in my throat, and I gagged.
The groans and shrieks of the damned channeled upward from the hole like a sharp wind and smacked me in the face. I did not want to meet the same fate, and I twisted and clawed at the ground for something to hold on to. My nails dug into the grass, leaving gouges as Jake pulled me across it.