“What do you wanna do?” I ask, trying to sound brave.
He gives me a sympathetic look and puts his hand behind my neck, giving it a firm squeeze that’s supposed to steady me. I guess it does a bit.
“We get the hell out of here.”
“No fighting?”
“No fighting. We just run. Okay? Back to the hotel. At least there’s a sword there.”
“Might just be some loser demons?” I suggest hopefully, but I know that’s not true. The last so-called loser demon I came across put me in the hospital.
“We need to go,” he says to me. “But we can do this. Are you ready?”
I find strength somewhere inside and raise my chin. “Let’s kick some ass!”
“No, Ada, we’re running away.”
“Let’s run away!”
He goes over to the door.
Turns the lock.
Opens it.
We step out into another world.
Oh, it’s the same House of Blues.
And Gwar is on stage.
But they’re frozen in place.
And so are half the people in the crowd.
Totally still, not moving. Like insects posed in amber.
Then there’s the other half.
All of them demons.
Shit.
They’re all looking at us.
Hundreds of them.
“Max,” I whimper. “What’s plan B?”
He gives me a grim look. “We fight.”
As soon as he says that, the two closest demons run for us, fingers turning to claws, jaws unhinging to reveal rows of teeth, coming fast.
Oh my god.
I push off from my feet in the nick of time, summersaulting over their heads. I land in front of a big dude with white eyes and I drop low to the ground, kicking out until I connect with his shins and he falls down, making the floor shake. I reach out and grab his head before he can get up, twisting it off into a pile of dust.
“Ada!” Max yells.
I turn to see him punching someone in the head so hard that their head swivels violently, snapping right off.
Okay, is he showing off for me, or—?
“Behind you!”
I whip behind me to see three women dressed up in Playboy bunny ears for a bachelorette party, all of them lunging for me.
I scream and jump up over their heads.
One of them grabs my leg while I’m soaring over them, claws digging into my calf.
I scream and she rips me from the air until I’m landing on my back, hard. She jumps on me, trying to take out my face, but I manage to headbutt her in the nick of time, disorienting her enough to grab her head and rip it off, the demon dust coating me.
I spit it out of my mouth, rolling over to get to my feet, but then there’s a foot on my back holding me in place before claws reach down and grab my shoulders, hauling me back as if to snap me in two.
Then Max appears, taking off the head before grabbing me under my arms and hauling me to my feet.
“You okay?” he asks.
I nod only because the adrenaline is keeping me from feeling any pain.
Or embarrassment. Since I’ve been doing flips and summersaults and I’m wearing a dress with no underwear.
“We can get out that way,” he says, pointing to the edge of the balcony where no demons have gathered, only people frozen in place.
He pulls me along quickly as the demons from behind us follow, their demented jaws snapping hungrily.
We reach the edge and see the exit down below, only a handful of demons between us and the door.
Only problem is we’re high up. Very high.
“What do we do now?” I say to Max, looking behind me as they get closer and closer and I’m counting at least fifteen here, no time to kill them all and survive.
“We jump,” he says.
And then he climbs up, stands on the edge of the railing and just fucking jumps.
“Max!” I scream, leaning over the edge watching as he just lands on his feet, thirty feet below on the dance floor, no problem.
What the fuck is with this guy?
He reaches up with his arms, beckoning me.
“Now your turn.”
“Are you crazy!? I’ll die!”
“I’ll catch you.”
“Then you’ll die!”
“No, you’re going to die if you don’t jump!” he booms. “And then I’ll die. Remember?”
Fuck he’s right.
I turn around in time to see the demons starting to run at me.
I step up onto the railing, trying to balance myself to make the leap, but I lose my footing right away.
I fall, twisting, turning in the air, the scream ripped through my lungs, expecting to hit the ground.
But I land in Max’s arms, so strong and so steady, that it’s like he’s catching a pillow.
He puts me down on the ground, gives me a cocky smile that I totally deserve, a told you so, and then we start running to the exit.
I take out one demon with a kick to the head.
Max rips the head off another.
Then we’re bursting out of the doors and into the outside, gulping the humid swampy air.
Pedestrians pass by on the street, laughing, drunk, taxis zoom along, zydeco music plays from a nearby store.
It’s normal out here.
But there’s no time to waste.
Max grabs my hand and we start running down Decatur Street, him leading the way, dodging people as we go, navigating the uneven sidewalks.
We run all the way to Jackson Square, then cut across it past the statue, adrenaline keeping me sprinting.
“What do we do now?” I yell at Max as our legs are pumping, mine working double time to keep up with his. I look over my shoulder to see if demons are following us, but immediately trip over some grass.
Max reaches out and steadies me just in time and I’m stumbling for a moment before we keep on going.
Problem is, I’m pretty sure I saw demons behind us.
“I think we’re being followed,” I tell him, my lungs burning.
Max looks over his shoulder, and that’s when I notice the flames in his eyes are still flickering. “I reckon you’re right.”
“Should we call for backup?”
“Backup?” he says, pulling me to the left along Saint Ann Street, then across the road, nearly getting hit by a
