Without the need to stay inside the chalk circle’s confines, I regrouped. Ducking under the swipe of one of the popobawa, I rolled and pushed myself up to standing. When the wolves saw the limits of my circles, they decided I needed physical training. I was five foot six inches of relaxed muscle. Very relaxed in my lower region from all the cakes I ate. Still, it was muscle nonetheless. If I threw it around just right, sometimes I could do some damage.
The first popobawa to come at me copped a right hook under the chin. The wolves had assured me that a hit like that would have knocked out a person. Popobawa weren’t people. It staggered backward but didn’t go down. The thing gnashed its teeth in rage. When it came at me again, I pivoted and kicked out, slamming my foot into the side of its head.
I felt the second monster try to come at me inside my mind. It latched onto the edges of my fear and tugged. I saw an image of myself go down. I watched as the monsters sucked out my soul to fuel the portal they were opening for their master. The spell in my blood hit back with a wave of alertness that had the image shattering.
I wished beyond all reason for a staff or some knives. Behind me, I heard more monsters scurrying into the room. The sound of a body being pushed over told me the Nephilim didn’t have long before he was harvested. That thought propelled me into a seething rage. My next kick clipped the popobawa in the head and sent it sprawling.
It took a few seconds to get up. I would have whooped for joy if I wasn’t puffing. The second popobawa lunged toward me. I raised my fists, fully intending to wipe that hideous grin off its one-eyed face when it skidded to a halt.
Eye narrowing, the popobawa lowered its torso, snarling as it stared at something over my shoulder. Oh Gaia, what now?
The lion’s growl skirted over my skin and rattled my ribcage. I turned my head in time to watch Max, shirtless but still in human form, catch one of the popobawa by the neck. The monster had been crawling over the Nephilim guard. The sound of bone cracking and hide tearing would be forever imprinted in my mind. The fact it was associated with such a rush of relief would become months of guidance counsellor fodder.
The popobawa attacking me pawed at the concrete. Its small talons gouged marks into the floor. A hideous battle cry spewed from its mouth as it charged forward. Max shot past me, latched his own massive paw around the popobawa’s ankle and used it as a tennis racket. He took out another two monsters with his popobawa weapon.
I could swear he was grinning as I skidded down in front of the Nephilim. He was scratched up pretty badly but there were no fatal injuries just yet. I lifted his eyelids but they resisted. Beneath his lids, his eyes were flickering in rapid movement. I could only imagine the horrors the popobawa were making him see. Some demons stole life essences with pleasure. I’m talking succubi and the like. Some of them stole it with pain. Popobawa fed on fear.
I was plenty afraid. But as a human living amongst the supernatural, fear was kind of like a second skin. I wore it pretty well by now. That didn’t stop me from squeaking when Max smashed a monster right beside where I sat and crushed its skull with his foot.
He grabbed me by the arm and shoved me behind him. For the time being, the portal had stopped vomiting corporeal demons.
Physical demons were the harbingers of their masters. Most of them were the underlings to those demons with the will to dominate all others. Something much worse was coming.
“Can you close the portal?” Max asked.
“I haven’t learned how!” I thumped on his back so he would turn and see there was no door. “The only way out is back the way you came.”
“Shit.”
I wanted to question how he’d gotten here in the first place. Shifters had no high magic. His lips pulled back over teeth gone serrated at the tip when he looked down at the unconscious Nephilim. He was verging on a shift and was just holding it together.
Alphas were treated with the reverence of royalty by their subordinates, but I had always thought the responsibility would suck big time. Being a leader often meant making hard choices. Max didn’t even hesitate. He reached out to grab me around the waist.
“Wait!”
He hauled me into his arms and curled himself protectively around me. We were moving before I could protest. I bit back the scream at the thought of leaving the Nephilim helpless.
Any scrap of altruism disintegrated when we landed on the other side of the portal. Max’s feet touched down in the infirmary. I heard scraping and sharp, shallow intakes of gurgled breath. We were earthbound for a split second before his muscles stretched taut and he sprang. Max broke into a run. I had enough time to take in the sprawl of demons all over the unconscious before he collided with the front doors and we were heading back to the dorms.
I put two and two together. He must have tried to take Charles to the infirmary only to find it was infested with demons. I was just grateful for whatever possessed him to jump through the portal. Knowing Max, it was just his
