Free Acropolis by R.K. Ryals Page B

snarls, scratching me, and I watch as her
nails leave a red welt across my chest. I am going to have a hard
time fighting anything with her fighting me as well. I need to get
to the ocean. Quickly. Water is a sanctuary for gargoyles.
    Kill her if you have to
    My arms tighten around Emma. She is howling.
I know what she is. I hate what she is. I have been trained to kill
Demons. I still hate them, hate them for what they take from
mankind, what they have taken from me. They killed my father, took
Dayton.
    I look down at Emma. She is going wild. But
beneath the thrashing, the screaming, I see it. Bloody tears. She
is a Demon, but she is also human. She has not asked for this.
    I head for the Gulf. We need water.
    " Sssssssssssssss . . . if they send the hounds, we
are done for," Roach hisses, his serpentine body twisting through
the air, his clawed feet covered in black blood.
    He smiles wickedly and sucks on one of his
talons. There is more than one reason Roosevelt is called Roach. I
look at him, my eyes full of disgust. Roach isn't an awful guy, but
he is intolerant.
    "Fly for the ocean," I tell them. Will and
Rachel are flanking me now. Roach moves ahead, his neck arched
backwards.
    "You want to drown her?" Roach asks, his
snake-like voice rumbling with laughter. One day, I will beat the
shit out of him.
    "We use it. We dive. We come up for air. We
dive."
    Will looks at Emma. Her hair is sticking to
her forehead. She is sweating from the fight, and there is no sign
she will tire soon.
    "She could drown," Will says softly.
    There is no malice in his tone, nothing to
suggest he wants her dead although I realize it would be a relief
to them. She is a danger to us. She could get us killed, and no one
wants to die for a Demon.
    "Yes, she could," I say quietly.
    If she does, it won't be intentional. I have
no idea how she will react to salt water. I have no idea how long
she can hold her breathe. Although Demons can't be drowned, they
have an aversion to water. It doesn't hurt them, but Demon-hybrids
haven't been so lucky. For some, water is deadly.
    We fly faster, the Gulf welcoming us on the
horizon just as a black cloud rolls in from the same direction. It
is a mass of Demons, possibly Hellhounds.
    "Dive!" I yell.
    Emma is moaning, her head rolled back as she
stares up at the sky. The moon suddenly breaks through the cloud
cover and Emma goes slack, her eyes locked on the huge white orb.
In that moment, she isn't awkward, she isn't unremarkable, she is
breathtaking.
    "Emma," I whisper.
    She doesn't look at me. I close my eyes
briefly as the wind buffets us. The water is coming up fast.
    "Hold your breath, Sweetheart."
    I can only hope she hears me. Roach sinks
into the waves. Rachel skips on the surface of the water before
diving into the Gulf's comforting arms.
    Will looks at me, his eyes sad. I wonder if
he and I are the only ones who care what happens to Emma. I think
about her mother, the skinny auburn-haired woman who'd been ringing
her hands in the hall outside Emma's cubicle in Atlanta.
    Will sinks into the waves. Emma's voice
rings through my head, her phone conversation with her adopted
mother still fresh in my mind. I love you,
Mom. No matter what, I love you. Emma doesn't have a
lot of people in her life, but she has that much.
    "Hold your breath, Sweetheart."
    We plunge into the icy waters just as the sky
above fills with Demons.
     
     

Chapter 12
     
    Emma
     
    I am cold.
    Demons . . . power . . . such power.
    I can't breathe.
    Fire . . . blazing flames . . . I am
burning.
    I am scared.
    Burning . . . I am burning . . . it feels
amazing.
    I am dying.
     
    I am in water when I open my eyes, and I
panic, thrashing as I draw in a lungful of salt water. It burns,
and I struggle. There is no oxygen left. And still I struggle. I am
weakening. I struggle. I am slipping away. I struggle.
    There are arms around me, vice-like and cold.
We are moving. I am dying. My world is going dark, the only sound,
a gurgling of