Free Devil's Punch by Ann Aguirre

demon’s reaction told me that wasn’t good. Not just bats like I had been telling myself for half a kilometer. This wasn’t the small flutter of many leather-winged creatures, but a deep and powerful
snap-snap-snap
. For reasons I couldn’t articulate, the sound chilled the marrow in my bones.
    â€œIt appears we shall encounter heavy resistance,” Greydusk observed. “Prepare to fight.”
    The passage had a high ceiling, which wasn’t good. It gave whatever was coming too much room to maneuver. I had five spells swirling in my head, and one of them made light.
Not
helpful. So really I had four spells at my command, plus the touch, and unless the monster coming for us was wearing some article of clothing, like the knight had been, it probably wouldn’t help. Beside me, Chance crouched in a fighting stance; he had knuckle knives on both hands. Before, I’d always seen him fight without weapons, but a demon’s hide wouldn’t take damage from a human fist.
    Even if he’s only
half
human
.
    The creature shrieked and dive-bombed us from the shadows, moving too fast for me to get a good look at it. I had a fleeting impression of a monstrously female face grafted onto the body of a humanoid pterodactyl, and I saw claws that shone like diamonds as it dove a second time. Chance slashed at the wings, trying to bring it down, and I mustered my resolve, firming hands that shook as I raised my athame. While this spell might not save us, it wouldn’t hurt either.
    The power swelled inside me, burning, hurting, but I let it center me.
Pain means I’m still here, fighting.
I envisioned it swelling in my hand in a seething rush, gathering, gathering, and then I sent it out on my resolve like adark and winged thing riding the magickal wind as I whispered, “
Hostes hostium caecus
.”
    The enemy sightless
.
    I knew nothing about this demon, but it would help if the monster couldn’t see us. Its face looked so hideous that I wondered if this thing might have inspired the Harpy legends, thousands of years ago, but its skull didn’t seem shaped for sonar. A second later, it proved it had no special neural navigation when it screamed and slammed into a wall. The collision stunned it, and the thing dropped. Chance sprang to finish it before it could recover, but Greydusk raised a long, unsettling hand.
    â€œPlease. Allow me. Its death can serve us in two fashions if I do it.”
    Though I didn’t know if this was a good idea, I nodded, mostly because I wanted to see firsthand what it could do. That might save our lives later, if it gave me time to prepare some defense. My spells weren’t super-blow-the-door-off-the-hinges powerful, but properly deployed, they might save us.
    Greydusk strode in, dodged a blind and desperate strike, and slammed both hands—with sucker pads—on either side of the misshapen skull. The creature seized, grand mal tremors rocking it from head to toe. Steam hissed from the point of contact, and an awful purple light ran up our guide’s spindly arms. An orange glow sparked in Greydusk’s skull and then the attacker went limp.
    â€œYou killed it?” Chance asked.
    It had done more than that, but I waited to see how it would reply.
    â€œI drained it,” the demon corrected. “Its knowledge, memories, and skills are now mine. Sadly, in this form, I cannot use some of them.”
    A joke, I thought, if not a funny one. It reminded me of the way a cat licked its whiskers after a mouse. I smiled uneasily.
    Chanced stared down at the still-smoking corpse. It was smaller, withered, as if Greydusk had taken more than information, terrabytes of data streaming in magickal light. The exchange set my teeth on edge. Iwanted to blind Greydusk, and then let Chance kill it, but then I’d leave Shannon stranded in Sheol. I couldn’t do that, so once again I proved myself willing to work with the devil in order to