Free Magick Rising by Evelyn Vaughn, Parker Blue, P. J. Bishop, Jodi Anderson, Laura Hayden, Karen Fox Page A

out.
    “Miko!” Father Dan’s voice carried a warning. His eyes were on the last
    of the stragglers.
    She spun. A demon with a raptor’s beak and talons for hands grabbed
    the last man. It ripped open the man’s throat, leaving his head to collapse to
    one side, blood spurting. He was dead before the demon let him drop.
    “Run,” she yelled, shoving those closest to her ahead. “Get to the
    church.”
    Several dropped their packs and sprinted toward it. A couple appeared
    paralyzed. She reached the first one, jolting him into motion with her

    shoulder. “Run, dammit.”
    A crocodile-headed thing wielding a forked dagger attacked the second,
    dragging him into the trees. The man kicked and screamed as he disappeared
    into the blackness beyond the streetlights.
    These were what Hadrian was fighting right now. Alone. And they
    wouldn’t come one at a time.
    She pushed the remaining men up the steps past Father Dan. Their only
    safety lay in consecrated ground. She hoped.
    The chanting grew stronger, louder. Shrieks and unearthly screeches
    ricocheted off the buildings and underpasses. Hadrian was down there. She
    started down the steps.
    “Miko, wait. Take this.” Father Dan passed her the tall processional
    crucifix from the altar. “I sharpened the bottom of the staff and the edges
    and doused it with holy water. It might hurt those bastards.”
    As she grasped it, he blessed her and made the sign of the cross on her
    forehead. “Go with God.”
    She pelted down the hill in the direction of the demon who’d taken the
    last guy. Probably dead, but who knew? She had to try.
    The only sounds she heard as she entered the trees were hers. Grabbing
    a tree trunk to halt herself, she listened. A growl came from her right. She
    slipped from tree to tree, careful to avoid stepping on downed tree limbs.
    She reached a clearing. The demon was busy gobbling down what
    looked like intestines. Blood pooled around his victim’s lifeless body. No
    time for squeamishness, no time to cringe at what she had to do.
    She raised the crucifix and lunged. One arm of the cross cleaved its
    skull. The creature stiffened, then fell sideways. “That was for Bert, you
    asshole.”
    Miko yanked the cross from the thing, sending silent thanks to Father
    Dan. They were really going to have that sit-down and coffee.
    Remembering what Hadrian had told her about keeping a demon dead,
    she reversed the pole and impaled the demon’s crasboethiad with the tapered
    point of the staff with a satisfying sizzle. She pulled the cross out and got her
    bearings.
    She hurried downhill. No need to keep silent. The chanting and yelling
    covered any noise she’d made.
    She came to a halt at the riverbank. Heart pounding, she searched for
    Hadrian. A flash of brilliance identified his location even though she
    couldn’t see him for the intervening bodies. More than twenty chanting
    demons gyrated or undulated or slithered around the fire, centered on what
    had to be Appoloin.
    She’d assumed the Demon Lord would be more grotesque than the
    others, but he was surprisingly human in shape although over seven feet tall.
    Fangs dripped blood down his chin. Then he lifted his arms and wings, each
    as wide as he was tall, spread above and behind him. All he needed was a

    pointy tail and a pitchfork.
    Waves of hatred and evil rolled off him and the others, making Miko’s
    stomach convulse. She promised herself she could be sick later. Right now
    she had to reach Hadrian.
    Ignoring her brain telling her to run and hide, she stepped into the open
    area. None of the demons noticed her until she swung the crucifix and sliced
    the head off a snake-shaped demon. This time she stabbed the crasboethiad
    and retrieved the cross without a pause. She vaulted over the demon’s dead
    body. Thank goodness for all that time training at the dojo .
    She saw Hadrian. He was holding a half circle of demons at bay. More
    demons lay dead at his feet, and the dagger was too bright