Free Risen: The Demontouched Saga (Book 6) by Douglas Wayne Page A

don’t get a chance to retrieve her soul before I see the culprit.
    “You must be the demontouched.” A man, nearly seven feet tall walks from behind the large piece of stone, sliding his hand through his slick black hair. He is wearing a black trench coat over a pair of black slacks with an enormous angel blade in his free hand.
    “Who the hell are you?”
    “Samael,” he says, walking close. “Second in command around here.”
    “Who’s first?”
    “Don’t you worry. You’ll meet him soon enough.”
    I step away from the man as he approaches, wanting to stay well out of range of that massive sword. Looking at the platform I notice all the orbs are clear, the souls inside long gone.
    “Back away from him Samael,” Uriel says, running up from behind.
    Samael grins when he sees the angel. “Look who finally came out to play. Tell me, are you done hiding behind these humans?”
    “She wasn’t hiding,” I say, squaring up to the man.
    “She just needed some help.” Nal walks to my side, my demon killing knife in his hand.
    “The odds are even, I see.” He laughs before creating a large black spear in his outstretched hand.
    “How about now?” Azrael says, lending his sword to the fight.
    “Fighting on the wrong side, are we Azrael?”
    He shakes his head. “I didn’t leave to torment humanity.”
    “But you left.”
    “Enough talk!” Nal tosses the knife at the demon, sticking the knife in his leg.
    “So you are the first to die.”
    Nal doesn’t react before the spear hits him in the chest, sending him flying in the air away from the portal.
    My jaw trembles as I try to keep it together. Just like that, Nal was gone.
    “You going to cry, little human?”
    With those words I charge in, the angels are close behind me.
    Time seems to slow after he parries my blade. Sensing an opening, I do a counterattack that he blocks by creating a new black spear. He returns the favor, sweeping his long angel blade at my waist. I try to get my sword in the way, to parry, but it gets caught on the ground as I move it over. Thankfully, Uriel threw a barrier in front of me to catch the blade.
    With his attention on me, Azrael circles around to attack him from behind. I feign an attack, hoping to keep his attention, but he senses my diversion and faces Az right in time to parry his sword.
    “As much as I want to play, I have an important detail to attend to.” Samael says before throwing his new spear into Azrael, pinning him into the ground. “I’ll take care of you soon, brother. After I kill your pesky little friend.”
    Azrael’s hands turn black the moment he touches the spear. He screams as he tries to pull it out of his body, but it doesn’t move an inch.
    And like that, we are down to two.
    “Which one should I kill next?” he says, creating another spear. “Perhaps the baby angel.”
    Uriel creates another barrier to block that blow before creating a white spear of her own.
    “Try me,” she says, changing into an adult.
    Without a hint of hesitation, he leaps at Uriel. The angel blocks the first set of blows by parrying the spear and creating a barrier to stop the sword, but she can’t mount a counterattack before he brings another weapon to bear.
    Not wanting to see another friend die today, I let out a savage roar when I leap into the fray. Without hesitation, he blocks my blow with his sword before sticking the tip of his spear through my shoulder.
    “Tsk, Tsk,” he says. “Attack a man with his back turned.” He raises the handle of his black spear, sending me to my knees, screaming in pain. With a laugh he thrusts the spear forward, pinning me into the ground. “Now you can watch me kill all of your friends. You, I’ll save for my brother.”
    I would ask him what brother, but I assume he is talking about Lucifer. The only reason I can see them going through all this trouble to open the portal would be to bring him back on the earth. He is the one being that can truly handle Michael,