The Deadliest Bite

was because they were ambidextrous, wielding their katanas equal y wel with either hand and with such speed that people were left staring at the stumps of arms and the gaping wounds from which their intestines had begun to snake out without even having felt the blows. Ichoks could also deal a potential y fatal strike with what I cal ed their spit glands. Located in a specialized pouch tucked inside the lining of their bloated, gil covered cheeks, the glands could be emptied with force, usual y into an opponent’s eyes. Blindness was the first result, after which the Ichok could finish you off at its leisure. But if something distracted it, you’d eventual y die from the poison as it worked its way through your system, paralyzing major organs along the way.

They preferred to fight in a crouch, which left a much smal er target to aim for. And, like most hel spawn, they came shielded, though their armor was easy to see, even to Unsensitized eyes like Bergman’s.

“What’s that chest plate made of?” he whispered to me as I reloaded. “It looks like…” Knowing he’d never be able to finish the sentence, I did it for him. “Skul s, Miles, those are human skul s. The top, cap part, to be exact. Hundreds of them cut to fit into neat little rows and linked together with bits of silver chain. What a great Hal oween costume that would make, huh?” He caught my bitterness and seemed about to respond, but he couldn’t look away from the armor. “Al those people,” he whispered.

“If you don’t want to become one of them, you need to give me a little more room,” I told him.

He backed off, moving to stand next to Aaron, who’d tipped an armchair over in the corner and hustled Jack and Astral behind it.

Beside me Vayl had also reloaded and gone another round, blowing his Ichok back into the wal .

But even before that his most effective weapon had already swung into ful motion. In fact, the second the demons had entered the room I felt Vayl’s power working at my hands, which were cold enough that I worried they wouldn’t squeeze the trigger in time. And in my nose, which had begun to run. Even in my breath, which poofed out gray and frost-laden. I realized this might be the biggest storm Vayl had ever cal ed.

I glanced at Miles and Aaron. “You might want to bundle up.”

Already their teeth were beginning to chatter. Stil , Bergman kept struggling with his boot. I couldn’t see the hilt of a knife, so what the hel ? “Did Vayl have to be a Wraith?” he complained. “I hear lethryls are a lot warmer.”

“They also require a lot more blood to heat up the place, which usual y means a couple of ful -

time suppliers working the entourage angle. Do you want to be some lethryl’s bitch?”

“Point taken.” He gave up on the boot. “I’m freezing. And my VEB is stuck. Feel free to start without me.”

Wondering what a VEB was and if I should’ve taken out insurance against being disintegrated by one, I emptied my clip into Cole’s Ichok. Its armor had kept its chest from turning to dog food, although blood trickled down its arms and legs in a steady stream, and our combined rounds had thrown it to its knees. But stil it was roaring and spitting, warning us that soon we’d be wishing for more powerful weapons.

I reached for the sword Raoul had lent me. As I pul ed it, I realized my Spirit Guide was not waiting patiently for us to finish with the long-range fighting so he could wade in with his own weapon. He was standing just outside the door, ful y engaged with a third Ichok who stood at least a head tal er than the two we were holding off. His blade arched and slashed so quickly it was just a blur, but so were the Ichok’s weapons, and I swal owed a spurt of fear as I saw that his uniform was ripped in several places where blood had darkened it to black.

Then, like the warning had been ripped from the middle of her chest, Kyphas cried, “Watch out, Cole!” and I had to turn back to our fight.

He’d had to throw himself to the floor to avoid a spit-patch of poison that now dripped from the wal behind him. Worse yet, the blows from our bul ets had begun to ping off the skul s of the Ichoks, as if the armor had learned how to deflect them in the time we’d been shooting.

Cole’s hel spawn had risen and begun to twirl its double katanas like saw blades, and al he had was a now- ineffective sniper rifle and a sheathed sword that he’d never be able to compete with in a fair fight.

By now my blade was in hand as I stood beside him. “Draw steel,” I ordered, although I didn’t hold out much hope for our survival.

Next to us Vayl had centered the cold of the grave he’d never entered on the hel spawn whose realm was ful of the burning dead. In one massive cloud of air that looked like a perfect coil, Vayl surrounded the Ichok with tiny, razor-sharp shards of sleet. And then he drove them into it. The boom of sound that accompanied the strike shook the floor, making us al stagger backward as Vayl’s opponent shattered into a mil ion pieces.

Cole and I pressed our advantage, swinging our blades at our unbalanced adversary as he leaned toward the wal . Unfortunately he recovered quickly, and soon we were both on the defensive, fighting for our lives against blades that seemed to be everywhere at once. Of course, this was giving Vayl a chance to move around behind the creature, but given the speed of this attack nothing was going to save us in time.

I glanced over my shoulder at Raoul. Nope, he couldn’t wade in beside us, because his hands were ful as wel .

Then I saw Dave and Cassandra running down the hal . Dave had drawn his knife. The sheen of its blade matched the edge of steel in his eyes, making me glad I was fighting on his side. Suddenly I felt sorry for the Ichok who was about to die. But only a little.

I turned back to my own fate. Cole, back on his feet and fighting more fiercely than I’d ever seen him, raised his sword just in time to parry a blow meant to separate my arm from my shoulder. And then Bergman yel ed from behind us, “Okay, I’m ready, guys! Duck!” Cole and I traded a single look. And dropped to the floor like we’d just heard the whistle of a bomb zeroing in on our coordinates.

The Ichok, seeing its prey do the don’t-slice-me dance, leaned over us with a leer on its butt-ugly face and roared. I saw its throat work and realized, “Cole. It’s going to spit on us. Cover your eyes!” And then I forgot my own advice, because Bergman whooped like a cheerleader whose team has just won the playoffs. “It’s gonna work, guys! Watch this!” We al turned to where Bergman stood, holding his boot in front of him like it was his very first twelve-gauge, the toe tucked under his arm for support, the empty leg pointed toward our foe. Only it wasn’t quite empty, as we could tel from the blue spiral of smoke curling out of it. My guess?