from the white tornado swirling up in the middle of the hallway.
He noted it didn’t happen in an instant. That was a good thing for demon hunters. They’d at least know these fuckers were coming.
One demon materialized, the same kind as he had fought before, its pale eyes glowing in the semidarkness.
It didn’t move at first, just made a slight turn of its head from side to side, as if sensing the air around it. Then it zeroed in on their direction and moved forward.
Ryder snapped to his feet, Angelique scrambling to do the same. He drew his weapons, a dagger in each hand, and stepped toward the demon.
“Stay out of the way, and always behind me,” Ryder warned.
“Got it.”
The demon ignored Ryder, seemingly intent on getting to Angelique. Exactly what he expected, so he stepped in front of it each time the demon made a motion toward Angie.
When the demon raised its arm to push Ryder out of the way, Ryder sliced it with one of the daggers, feeling a sense of satisfaction when the demon snatched its arm back, hissing in pain. The wounded skin sizzled and began to deteriorate immediately. The demon focused first on its own melting skin, then turned a menacing glare on Ryder.
Emotion. Odd for a demon. This one was damned pissed off, too. Growling, snarling, holding its wounded arm as if in pain.
This was good stuff. Anger and pain were distractions to the demon.
And working out perfectly, since its attention was on Ryder now and not Angelique.
“Come on, fucker. Come at me.” Ryder felt his own rage building and used it to shore up his strength.
The demon lunged at him, this time maneuvering to avoid the daggers. It was strong, grasping Ryder’s left arm and applying a tight, painful squeeze. Ryder stabbed the demon with the dagger in his right hand and the demon let go, backing away again.
The only problem was that even though he was wounding the creature, the skin around the injury began to regenerate.
That sucked.
“Ryder, there’s another one coming,” Angelique said.
He didn’t have time to look, his attention only on the demon he fought. “Let me know when it’s fully formed,” he said, his back turned to her. His primary objective was keeping the demon focused on him, and away from Angelique. Hopefully he could get this one down in time to battle the next one.
With renewed effort, he lunged and attacked the demon, stabbing with the daggers and wishing he’d pulled one of the swords instead so he’d have a longer weapon reach. The demon feinted back at every swipe of the knife, then surged forward to grab at Ryder again. Sometimes it missed, sometimes it didn’t, grabbing Ryder in its bone- crushing grip.
What kind of Wheaties were they feeding these demons anyway? This sonofabitch was superstrong, and being on a hardwood floor wasn’t helping. The demon was pushing, and Ryder had nothing to dig into with his boots. He was sliding backward. The demon gave a hard shove and Ryder went flying, slamming against the stone wall. He grunted at the pain, but filed it away for later, pushing off the wall to go after the demon again.
He caught sight of the next demon, its mist continuing to rise up from the kitchen floor. Angelique, armed, moved toward it.
“Don’t,” he warned her. Her gaze shot to his but he didn’t have time to hold it, his attention turning back to the demon he fought. This one had to die, before Angie tried to engage the other one. With renewed effort, he went low and embedded the dagger in the demon’s midsection. With a look of surprise the creature stilled, using both hands in an attempt to pull the dagger out.
Ryder used that momentary advantage to swing the other dagger up and jab it deep in the demon’s chest, right where its heart
The demon began to shudder, both hands still around the dagger in its stomach. It dropped its head and stared at Ryder.
“You can’t kill me.”
Its voice was hoarse, filled with frustrated anger.
“Heard that one before,” Ryder replied, stepping back as the demon began to disappear, reforming into its original mist.
He didn’t know if he’d killed it, but at least the damn thing was going away. Soon the demon was invisible, nothing but white smoke, then gone.
“Ryder!”
Ryder pivoted at Angelique’s warning tone and raised his daggers, but too late. The demon was on him and grabbed him by the throat, shoving him back against the wall.
Trapped and his breath cut off, Ryder struggled for air and fought to break free. The demon had his arms pinned against his sides so he couldn’t raise the daggers to stab the monster.
Shit. White spots flickered in front of his eyes. He was losing consciousness, felt himself weakening as his airway was cut off.
He didn’t have much time left, nor the strength to fight the demon.
