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

to look at for
    long. Hadrian lifted his sword, swung, and a demon shrieked as its arm
    dropped to the ground.
    Behind Hadrian, the Angel of Death, wings brilliant as the sun, drew
    the dead demons toward him and flung them into something she could only
    describe as a vortex of nothingness. During their planning, he’d made it
    clear that he couldn’t take part in the fight.
    A lion demon slashed at Hadrian with teeth and a knife, opening a gash
    in his thigh and immediately struck again. Hadrian threw up his sword to
    block its attack.
    Miko ducked under the snapping teeth of a neko-mata —a Japanese
    werecat demon—and sliced at the lion. It twisted at the last moment, the
    crucifix landing flat on its side. The smell of burning fur singed her nostrils.
    In her peripheral vision, Hadrian dispatched the one-armed demon and
    whirled back to her.
    The lion demon raised up on its hind legs, and she rammed the cross
    into its crasboethiad . As it fell, it dragged the crucifix from her hands. Demons
    on each side turned, grinning and slavering demon spit.
    “Behind you,” Hadrian called before a demon cloaked in fire leapt at
    him.
    Miko called on her years of training with her uncle and other sensei , and
    she flowed into her center. As if she could sense the attack before it
    happened, Miko crouched, spun, and grabbed a three-headed demon by the
    neck and sent it tumbling. A roundhouse kick broke the clicking mandibles
    of a demon that looked like man-sized ant. Its roar of pain drowned out her
    kiai yell as she rolled and jerked up sharply under the chin of one of the three
    heads of the first demon.
    Its other two heads fixed her with bloody eyes. Spittle flew as it began
    intoning what sounded like an incantation in some vaguely Arabic-sounding
    language.
    Great. Not only are demons real, but they can hex you.
    “I don’t understand a word you’re saying,” she taunted, casting about

    for something to take out this thing for good. She grabbed a trident from the
    ground, now slippery with gore. “Doesn’t matter.” She lunged low, bringing
    the weapon up through the stomach, into the heart, taking out its crasboethiad
    along the way.
    “Bring the female to me.” Shit, Appoloin had noticed her.
    Hadrian, less than ten feet away, hacked at the demons that separated
    them and yelled, “Get out of here, Miko!”
    “Not”—she leaped high over the back of something with one eye and a
    mace—”going to happen.”
    She had a mere second to wonder at the height of that leap before a
    two-headed dog beast cut off retreat. Even if she had wanted to run, two
    other monsters attacked her at the same time from the each side. A zombie
    thing with too many arms pinned her against its chest, lifting her off her feet
    while another disarmed her. Deprived of a weapon, she lost her center and
    fear swamped her. She writhed and kicked but couldn’t connect with any
    force.
    Judging by the screams, Hadrian had increased the pace of his attacks,
    but he was on his own again. Hadrian called her name. A little closer. At
    what cost? How long could he hold out?
    With a jolt, her captor tossed her at the Demon Lord’s feet, and she got
    a really good look as he peered down at her. Eyes lit with what had to be
    hellfire met hers. Pain—hot and raw—lanced through her brain, ripping a
    scream from deep within.
    His claws sank into her ribcage, tearing muscle and injecting searing
    acid. Each movement, each heartbeat awakened her senses to new agony.
    She screamed until she screamed blood. She battled to remain conscious,
    seeking within for the quiet, the source Nic had taught her. But her center
    eluded her.
    “Behold, Hunter. I have your female.”
    Miko turned her head toward Hadrian, her shriek of pain lost in the
    cacophony of demon noises. The demon horde parted, giving their master
    room to maneuver, providing an unobstructed view for Hadrian.
    He swept his weapons in deadly arcs even as those closest to him
    backed