Huddling up, I am so close to Rye I can feel his body heat.
“Get the others.”
His command to Ya-Ya doesn’t make it sound like she has an option.
“What are we going to do now?” I ask.
He is still staring at the woods, and I follow his gaze but all I see are, well, trees.
“We are going to wait till the whole team is here.”
“And then?”
“Then we hunt.”
***
“She ran out of there like a track star, legs and arms pumping. I swear she could put the pros to shame,” Ya-Ya rambles on as we push through the woods.
With every snap and pop or sudden rustle, I hold my breath, expecting one of those bastards to hop out and grab me.
Rye has been silent since we entered the woods. Sunday, Jinx, Grace, and Mel are all also very quiet. Just Ya-Ya is talking, carrying the group forward. But when we turn the corner where a fallen tree stretches over the trail, even Ya-Ya stops chatting. A ring, just like the one I saw before, blazes in the air, suspended as if by special effects wires. Except this isn’t special effects. This is real.
I’m still eyeing the portal when movement catches my eye and I fully register the danger we are in.
“Sailor. Run. Go, now!” Rye orders just as three Slip Demons turn their ugly faces toward us and growl.
Chills race up and down my arms as three sets of eyeless sockets zone in on us. Great. One Slip Demon was bad enough, how do we defeat three at once?
“Sailor!” Rye shouts again. He’s twisting back to look at me, anger painted all over his beautiful face. It only makes him prettier, damn him. “Get out of here, that’s an order!”
“No. I’m not going anywhere.”
I move to his side and he scoffs, letting out a frustrated sigh. A growl rises from his throat, but he seems to see that arguing with me about this is pointless.
“Fine, but don’t die. And keep low. If you get a chance to strike at them, try to hit them in the soft tissue and avoid bones. You will just hurt yourself.”
The Slip Demons haven’t charged at us yet, but they look like they are thinking about it. I ignore Rye and take out my knife, ready for anything.
“And stay behind me,” he adds.
“Yeah, okay.”
“If you two are finished, can we get to the killing demons part?” Sunday pipes in and I roll my eyes.
As if sensing it, one of the demons steps forward and approaches us, the other two flanking it.
Rye bursts forward with a battle cry, and I am tempted to cover my eyes. I’m afraid to see him fight and die. He doesn’t even have a weapon. As his fist makes contact with the demon’s chest, my jaw drops. It’s flung at least fifteen feet through the air, completely off its feet and onto its ass.
Boom.
Its partners jump into action. Fire crackles and blasts past me at the demon to the left as Aziza flings fireballs from her hands. I hadn’t even asked about any special powers they might have. But there’s no time for being mesmerized. Rye’s already on top of the demon he knocked aside, a wild animal out for blood.
I charge in, letting my own battle cry escape my lips, and slam my knife down into the Slip Demon to my right and pull it back out, flinging thick black blood across the leaves beside us.
Grace is on the edge of our odd bunch, but her hands are in motion and I can see she is working to reopen the portal that must have shut while I wasn’t paying attention. The demon I stabbed is far from dead, and it pushes me out of the way and charges at Grace, who has to break her focus. As I go down, my knee hits a rock. That’s going to bruise.
I’m back on my feet, pushing through the pain. Lightning flashes, jetting out of an electric current surrounding Ya-Ya’s perfectly manicured hands. Even her eyes glow, and a wicked grin plays on her lips. She arches back and sends a blast of that coiling energy at the demon I stabbed, but it lunges just in time to avoid the strike.
I’m still watching the spark when Rye calls my name. I look up to see him take a blow from the first demon.
“Rye!”
The demon turns away from him, but Rye jumps on its back and slams his elbows down into its neck, causing it to stumble.
Sunday yells, “Watch out!” I turn in time to face a drooling, bloodstained mouth about to chomp down on my head, and for a second, I freeze. A second is too long in battle, but this time, I’m lucky. A ball of orange slams into the demon and it reels back, screeching as flames burst inside its mouth. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Aziza just saved my life.
“Thank you,” I stutter.
“Whatever,” she grumbles.
Yep. She hates me.
The demon falls to the ground, flames still licking its lips as it twitches before falling still.
“One down, two to go,” Jinx says. “Take a break, sunshine, it’s my turn.”
He nods to Aziza, who looks really exhausted. After cracking his fingers, he steps up and puts his hands together in a loud clap, rubs them together, and pushes out toward the remaining demons. A wind whips by me, and whatever he did, a blast hits the demons, pushing them back. The demon on the right drops and covers its ears, making a horrible sound like nails on a chalkboard.
“What did you do?” I whisper.
“No time, Sails. But maybe later we can have a little alone time and I can tell you all about my special abilities.” Jinx snickers, making the mistake of turning away from the demon not on the ground in pain.
The one still standing rakes its
