“You made a mistake coming here, Demon,” she says. “And now you will leave like your friend.”
She tosses the head toward us, an almost casual underhand throw, and it bounces off the demon’s stomach. He screams in anger and turns himself fully toward Sailor. I see my chance and I push myself to my feet as two more demons come running down the stairs.
“We couldn’t find the Soul Gem,” one of them says.
His words trail off as he sees the scene before him. They pause for a second, and then all hell breaks loose. The original demon turns back to me, his eyes alight with venomous anger. The other two throw themselves over the bannister and come to land in front of Sailor.
I have to get to her.
She’s outnumbered and she doesn’t know what these fuckers can do. I punch out at the demon in front of me. My shot catches him square in the nose, but it seems to make no difference to him.
He just keeps on coming, his arms flying all over. Power balls rain down from every direction, and in the back of my mind, I can’t help but wonder how long the ceiling will hold as the house takes a huge battering.
I start to slowly move to my right, knowing I need to retrieve my knife. These things are taking time to kill, and a punch in the face just isn’t going to do it. I try to get around him but he sees where my vision is focused and blocks me.
I glance up at Sailor as he swings at me and I duck. She’s fighting the other two demons like she was born to do this.
She was born to do this.
I can see it all over her. The training has finally paid off, and the Paradox inside of her has been awakened. Watching her in action, ducking and bobbing gracefully, waiting for her moment to take down the demons, I’m starting to think it’s not her that needs help. I keep fighting the demon in front of me, who is far from giving up, but my eyes are on Sailor.
I watch as she throws herself to the ground and rolls to one side. She jumps back to her feet behind one of the demons and she reaches out with both hands. She clamps her hands on the sides of the demon’s head and twists it. A sickening crack tells me she snapped its neck. It crumples to the floor as she releases it.
She jumps back from the other demon, who is screaming obscenities at her. She pulls her dagger out of her boot and stands facing the oncoming demon. The demon I am fighting has allowed itself to become distracted by the death of another of its friends, and I take my opportunity. I jump to the side, squat down, and snatch up my knife.
I manage to stick it into the demon’s side, piercing a spot between its ribs. It gives a pained shriek and turns back to me, but I’m ready for it now and I reach out and grab a handful of its hair. I swipe with my knife again, cutting off its other hand. It screams and I spin it around, holding its back against my front, my knife at its throat.
I look up at Sailor again. The remaining demon is running towards her with a war cry, but she is ready for it. She crouches slightly, watching him intently. As he almost reaches her, she springs up and sticks her dagger straight into his eye. She yanks it back out, and blood sprays over the ground and over her arm. The carpet begins to singe and Sailor’s arm bubbles and blisters where his acidic blood coats her.
She doesn’t even seem to notice. She turns to face the demon I am holding, fire burning in her eyes.
“Let this be a lesson to you all,” she says, looking at the demon, who squirms in my hold. I tighten my grip on him, forcing him to be still. “The Paradox is not some scared little girl you can all push around. If anyone threatens me, my team, or my family, death will be merciless and instant.”
CHAPTER EIGHT: BORN FOR THIS
The demon shrieks at her and tells her she will never win. She nods to me and I lift my arm, running my knife across the demon’s throat. I push him away from me as he gargles, choking on the blood that pours from his opened throat. He is already dead when I step over him and pull Sailor into my arms.
“So, you think I should call your dad now?” I say, looking around the broken house with a grin.
*****************************************************
“How much longer do we have?” Aziza asks.
Sailor glances at her watch.
“About half an hour,” she confirms.
I stand back and look around. The house is almost back to normal. After the demon attack, I sent messages to the team letting them know what had happened. By the time I healed Sailor’s arm and established that she was okay, the team and Nexus showed up.
Nexus explained that the demons must already have been inside when she put up her protection charm; otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten in. She has redone them all and doubled the strength, and I’m confident Sailor’s house is as safe from demons as it can be.
The rest of us have been running around cleaning up the mess the demons made. We swept and scrubbed and cleaned, and all that’s left is for Nexus to use her magic to fill in the holes in the wall and fix the part of the hall carpet where the demon’s blood left scorch marks.
As Nexus moves around
