But I had a sick feeling deep in my gut. Something was wrong. I could smell sulfur. The glowing coming from the backyard told me the demons were coming.
Jake used my distraction to sweep me feet out from under me. I hit the ground hard. He fisted his hand, pulling his arm back. I readied myself for the block. Chay ran into him and hit him with a palm-heel strike to the side of the head.
I smiled. “I think I love you.”
“I know I love you.” He winked.
Our first declaration of love and it comes during a fight with demi-demons. Totally screwed up, but completely perfect.
Sulfur. The ground shuddered. I scooted away and stood. The dirt moved, shifting to form a pit. A yellow light shown from it, and heat radiated from it. I shuddered when I saw gray arms reach out. I reached down, taking out the dagger from the sheath on my ankle. My hands shook so badly that it took three tries for me to get the knife out of the sheath. My stomach felt full, like I’d swallowed a hand full of rocks. It weighed me down, and I couldn’t seem to move. I just stood in place and watched.
Demon. Demon. Demon.
Jake shoved me hard toward the pit. The smell of burning flesh and rotting meat filled the air. The demon reached for me. I held my breath, partly because I didn’t want to retch—although yakking on the demon did have its appeal—and partly because I was too scared to take a breath.
Here it goes. Please let us be right.
I used both hands and speared the demon’s gray arm with the dagger as it reached out of the pit. A scream pierced my ears, followed by a plume of black ash.
Wicked cool! Now we’re gettin’ somewhere.
A smile spread across my face. I wanted to jump up and down I was so excited, but I felt a hard push and stumbled toward the hole. I spread my legs wide, planting them on each side of the opening. Jake advanced on me. I pushed off on the balls of my feet, clearing the hole.
“Milayna, Milayna.” Jake walked around the hole and stood in front of me, keeping me from moving away from the pit. I readied myself for a blow. “You can end this. It doesn’t have to be this way. One word from you, and this all goes away.” His waved his hand around the yard, his voice silky smooth, like he hadn’t tried to beat me to a pulp minutes before. Or feed me to a demon. “Why are you fighting? Look around you. You’re all tired of the fight. There are more of us. We’ll win; it’s inevitable.”
“Listen, asswipe, did you not just see me kill that demon mo fo? I wouldn’t get too cocky about who the winner is going to be,” I yelled over the noise around us.
I wasn’t able to watch the pit behind me. Jake had meant to block my view and distract me. Unfortunately, I let him.
I smelled it, and I knew I was in trouble. The demon grabbed my hand from behind. I tried to wrench it free. Its skin was unnaturally hot against my flesh. My first instinct was to drop the dagger and fight it off me, but I forced myself to tighten my grip on the handle.
I took a swing at it. But trying to hit something standing behind you is difficult at best, and it easily deflected my blow, grabbing my other wrist and jerking my arm behind me. I screamed in pain. It forced the hand holding the dagger toward my throat. I tried to pull away, but the way the demon held me, I couldn’t get any leverage. I watched the blade inch closer and closer to my skin.
I’m dead. This is how it ends. Oh, God. I didn’t think I’d be this scared. Is it gonna hurt? Where’s my mom? Dad? Oh God, please don’t let Ben see.
Tears clouded my vision, and my muscles burned and trembled as I fought to push the knife away from my neck. I felt a prick on my throat; a trickle of warmth ran down my chest. The demon laughed, and Jake smirked.
DO something! Now!
I closed my eyes. “I control my pain.”
“What?” the demon hissed.
I moved my head to the side as far from the blade of the dagger as I could. Bending forward, I swung my head back. My head cracked against the side of the demon’s and the dagger sliced the other side of my neck. I couldn’t help the cry that escaped me.
The hit wasn’t very hard, but it surprised him enough that I was able to twist my hand and break his hold. I swung around and stabbed it in the side of the neck—my eyes locked on its cold, black orbs.
It howled in pain. I watched it turn to black ash and dissolve in the air. I could feel warm, sticky blood oozing down my neck and soaking into my collar.
The demi-demons and Evils scattered in the darkness. The earth shifted under my feet. I stood, drained of every molecule of energy, and watched the pit crumble in on itself until it was just an ugly, brown scab in a sea of lush, green grass.
We filed into the house to clean up. My mother darted from place to place, complaining about the police response time. “I called them when the whole thing started,” my mother complained, wiping the blood from Drew’s face.
“Some fighting teenagers aren’t high on their list when there are robberies and murders going on, Mom.”