“We gotta go, Serena.” He leaped to his feet, but it was too late.
They came at them from all sides. Silas demons, the mercenaries of the underworld. Wraith had always hated the fishbelly white, eyeless bastards, sellouts who could be bought for any job for the right pay.
“Oh, boy,” she breathed. “Queue the Raiders of the Lost Ark music.”
“These aren’t Nazis, babe.”
Wraith shoved Serena to the ground. Silas demons were tall, and while their long limbs and extended reach gave them fighting advantages, they couldn’t bend easily, and if Serena remained flat—
She came to her feet and threw a punch at the Silas nearest her, knocking him to the ground. Blood flowed from his broken nose. Smoothly, she moved on to the next one, each action elegant and efficient, and damn, the woman could handle herself. He was relieved to see that her charm was in effect. It prevented her from taking blows, but she delivered them with brutal efficiency, dancing on the balls of her feet like a beautiful, untouchable Valkyrie. He’d like to get her in a gym, where they could spar until he took her down to the mat and—
A kick to the kidney leveled Wraith. He rolled and came to his feet. He’d been caught off guard, had been so busy admiring Serena that he’d let himself get taken. That wouldn’t happen again.
He leaped into the air, spun, took out two Silases with combination kicks to their heads. Still, they swarmed like ants. In the distance, he heard screams and the gruesome sound of tearing flesh. The human tourists were being slaughtered.
There were high prices to be paid for human massacres, so whoever had hired these scum must either be extremely powerful or this was a precursor to something worse, like the demon invasion Serena had talked about.
Wraith took a crippling blow to the gut. His muscles turned watery, and oh, fuck, the damned poison was attacking him from the inside as the demons were attacking from the outside.
A Silas kicked him in the head as Wraith doubled over. Stars swam in his vision. He went to his knees, wobbled, and caught himself with his hand.
Suddenly, the Silas went flying backward and landed at an awkward angle, its head wrenched a hundred and eighty degrees. Serena stood there like a guardian angel, looking pretty damned proud of herself.
Wraith would be proud of her too, except he was smarting from the beating and by the fact that he’d been rescued by a human. A human female. He was the one who was supposed to do the hero shit.
She leaped into action to take out another one, giving him the break he needed to get back on his feet. Another Silas came at him, and somehow he managed to pummel it, until an agonized cry brought him around. Serena had been captured by a black-robed figure. A flash of the face beneath its hood told Wraith all he needed to know about the bastard’s identity.
Byzamoth.
His arm was hooked around her neck as he dragged her backward. She clawed at the male’s arm, her legs flailing wildly.
“Serena!” Wraith sprinted toward her, silently willing the demon to let her go. He didn’t think about the fact that her charm wasn’t working against the demon. Again. He didn’t think about the fact that by turning his back on the Silas horde he was opening himself up to attack. He had to save Serena.
He weaved through the masses, blocking strikes and dodging blows. He closed in on the demon, who had taken Serena to the ground, forced her to her hands and knees. Still, she fought, swiping at him with her nails, kicking out at his groin. Byzamoth snarled and punched her in the back of her head.
Serena sagged bonelessly to the ground.
Rage twisted into a vicious, gnarled knot in Wraith’s chest. He dove for the other being, struck him in the back and knocked him into a boulder. “You are so dead,” he snarled, slamming two rapid-fire kicks into the demon’s face. Blood sprayed from his mashed nose, and then Byzamoth was on his feet, and Silas demons were swarming the Temple of Hathor.
“You are the one who is about to die,” Byzamoth said, and Wraith wanted to knock that sneer right off his too pretty face.
But now wasn’t the time. Wraith might be the best fighter in the upper-and underworld, but he wasn’t invincible, and he was beyond outnumbered.
In a quick series of moves, he lashed out with one foot, catching Byzamoth in the chest, at the same time twisting to chop a Silas in the jaw. As the two careened into other demons, Wraith swept up Serena without breaking stride. Their only hope was to reach the Harrowgate, and even that depended on Serena remaining unconscious.
Conscious humans died in Harrowgates.