Meanwhile, Lincoln hacks away at the tether between Dusk and Mourn. He’s not making any progress. In fact, his blade is half melted from the effort.
Mourn lets out a howl of pain. The angelfire net has burned through the dark shield of power that surrounds him. Now, a crisscross pattern is burned into his face. Mourn whips off his coat. That can’t be good. Using the fabric to cover his hands, Mourn tosses the fiery net aside. The baculum extinguish. Lincoln scoops up the metal rods from the floor.
Dusk and I circle each other. “Did you see that?” I ask Lincoln. No question what “that” is. It’s how Mourn’s face currently looks like he got hit with a waffle iron, thanks to the baculum’s fire.
“I did.”
“Assault Plan Gamma Xi.”
“Perfect.”
Mourn reaches behind his back and pulls out a pair of daggers. The edges of the blades gleam with green goop. More poison. He holds his weapons in a loose grip for tossing. The demon’s not going to fight hand-to-hand with Lincoln. Good pick, actually.
While Mourn stands still, Dusk gets moving. She races for me, her tail going berserk behind her. The stinger end slams into the linoleum floor as she races along. Damn, she has some force behind that thing. It smashes straight through the floorboards, sending plumes of dust into the air.
My tail arches over my shoulder. The arrowhead end curls forward in a move that says, Come at me.
“That’s right, boy.” I make the same motion with my hand. “Come on. If you didn’t bust up the floor so much, you’d be here already.”
Dusk leaps into the air, all her eight legs moving to pin me down. As she lands, I punch her right in the larynx while my tail gives her a solid torso hit. She tumbles down beside me but quickly rights herself. After that, Dusk lunges for me, her armored fingers reaching for my throat. I drop and slide across the floor, making a path right under her torso. As I move beneath her, my tail cuts a line through the exoskeleton on her belly.
Nothing like a dragon-tail to slice through what bugs you.
A few yards away, Lincoln reignites his baculum as a pair of short swords. Mourn whips his first dagger at Lincoln and misses. Barely. Lincoln rushes toward the tether line.
Mourn releases the second dagger. It lands harmlessly on the floor, embedding itself up to the hilt. That Mourn’s got a good arm. He’s also got more throwing daggers. The guy already has two fresh ones prepped to go.
Lincoln doesn’t wait for another volley of weapons. He brings his arms down, aiming the flaming short swords straight for the tether. The fiery blades easily slice through the cord of dark energy.
Their tether is toast. The battle’s looking up.
At this point, Mourn and Dusk lose their freaking minds. Both shriek in rage. Dusk is pretty distracted, so I take the opportunity to do an aerial somersault over her scaly back. While I’m midair, my tail cuts through the tip of hers, severing the poisoned stinger. It falls to the ground with a satisfying whump.
I make sure to land so I stand nose-to-nose with Dusk. My plan? Use my favorite weapon—that would be my tail—and make the killing blow. I’m deep in battle mode and laser-focused on my enemy.
But, yeah. I also want to win the bet with Lincoln.
My tail arches over my shoulder, ready to strike, when Dusk pauses from her roars of rage. She jerks once, her body going stiff. After that, her eyes roll back in her head as she falls over, dead. I lean over her corpse. A short sword sticks out of her back.
Crap, now that’s Lincoln’s kill.
My guy stands over Mourn’s dead body. Clearly, Lincoln tossed his short swords simultaneously. He took them both out at once, which is not easy to do with short swords, as a rule.
That’s super impressive.
My battle rage wanes, giving rise to another emotion. I really want to kiss him, but I can’t. I lost the bet. Ugh. He’s going to be impossible.
A smug smile rounds Lincoln’s full mouth. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
He steps over to Mourn, picks up his baculum, and extinguishes it. “Are you sure?” There’s a shit-ton of swagger in his step as he walks over to Dusk and does the same thing.
“Positive.”
Lincoln stands right in front of me. Barely a wisp of air separates our bodies. His warm breath cascades over my lips. He tilts his head. “Want to kiss me?”
“Maybe.” I slowly lick my lips. “You know how I love to watch you kill stuff.” k'12
Lincoln raises his hand, showing off the Rixa Codex. How exactly did he find the time to retrieve that book while taking out two Class A demons?
Crap, now I really, really, really want to kiss him.
Lincoln leans in even closer. “I’m not calling the kiss yet.”
“I figured that out.” Jerk.
“Maybe after we get our final interview for this.” He raises the codex higher. “I might change my mind.”
I groan. Dang, I almost forgot the entire reason we were running around with the book in the first place. We were off to Purgatory to interview someone for evidence to place in the Rixa Codex. “Who are we supposed to interview again?”