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They followed the boiling lava heading straight to the heart of the battle. The massive vampire sentinels from the four royal courts used their claws, teeth, and daggers to rip through the spirit demons—part skeletal and half of their bodies on fire. None fought with swords, but some of the vampire sentinels had bow and arrows.
“Watch out!” Nina shouted, her dagger at the ready.
A slew of spirit demons headed straight for them. While Hawk punched at the demons, Willa kicked them with all of her six legs. The demons flew far and a few fell into the lava with a hot splash. No screams escaped their mouths. Nina wondered if they felt pain at all.
Willa sat on a demon, her potato-shaped body crushing it to a pile of bones. Licker used his tongue and smacked one soldier then the next. Then fire caught on to Licker’s face.
“Licker!” Hawk grabbed his friend and planted him face down on the dirt to take out the flame while Willa and Nina watched their backs.
“I’m fine,” Licker said with a slur, his tongue black and burnt. “I don’t feel anything.” Licker spun and killed more demons.
One demon spirit evaded Hawk and attached itself to his back. Nina, still on Hawk’s shoulder, jabbed the dagger between its eyes and kicked him off.
“Behind you,” Nina hollered at Licker. “To your left, Willa.”
No matter how many they killed, it didn’t seem like they were making a difference. Had Nina made a mistake by dragging her friends to this battle they could not win? Even the experienced vampire sentinels were outnumbered and screams came from them as spirit demons engulfed their body with flame.
Just as more spirit demons surrounded them snarling and Nina thought they were done for, an angel with red hair and red wings came to help beside a silver-haired angel with silver wings and two mice on her shoulders.
Nina did a double take at the animals. Then two male angels, and the three royal vampires named Kristoff, Maria, and Vara, landed in front of them.
The demon spirits lunged with their skeletal arms, swinging them like weapons while the angels blocked their strikes with their swords. The royal vampires used their claws and teeth to break their bones.
This mighty team had come to their rescue? No, they hadn’t. A hairless giant beast with two horns sprouting from its bald head, its face skeletal with a flat nose and large eyes, baring his teeth in a menacing snarl was headed in their direction.
Oh, skies. What had Asmodeus become?
The mighty team meant to draw Asmodeus to the heart of the battle where the lava had expanded to the size of a lake.
What was that all over Asmodeus’s body? Nina thought she was seeing things, but as the beast came closer … Mice? Squirrels? They were nipping at his body and distracting him. Asmodeus stomped awkwardly, trying to get them off him.
Behind Asmodeus, barreling straight for him, were Rafael and another angel with heart-shaped wings. But where were Victus, Joleen, Nadira, Markane, and Abacus?
As the earth continued to shake, thunder roared and lightning flashed. Though it was still daytime, darkness covered the land and the sky.
Sweat beaded on Nina’s forehead and exhaustion came over her. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to move her arms. How long could the supernatural beings keep up their strength?
“Move!” Nina barked an order at Hawk. “Everyone retreat!”
The earth shook as Asmodeus pounded the ground with his running steps. He crushed his own soldiers and vampire sentinels on his way. Then Gorgo rushed ahead of him from the sideline and tossed something inside the lava.
A deafening boom filled the air as the molten lava rose in a geyser above the trees. A few droplets of red-hot magma hit Asmodeus, but he paid no mind. He kept running with every ounce of his strength, even as parts of his body began to smolder. And even as the earth began to split apart in sections.
“Dawn. Snow, Otis, form a circle,” the muscular, Asian angel yelled.
“Retreat now, Hawk!” Nina commanded, still sitting on his shoulder, just like the mice on Snow. She grabbed tighter to Hawk when he punched a demon spirit and Nina kicked one climbing up his back. “Willa. Licker. Retreat.”
“No!” Willa shouted as she stomped the demon spirits with her six feet, crushing them like they were merely ants. “I’m making a difference. I’m part of a team.”
“Watch out.” Licker shoved Willa to the side with his tongue and a ball of lava landed in the spot she had stood seconds ago. A small flame caught one of her legs.
Willa rolled across the dirt, knocking some demon soldiers along the way, and stopped by a cluster of trees.
“Willa!” Nina hollered. The darkness gave her limited view, but the lava gave some light.
Hawk ran toward where she curled into a ball. Licker kept guard, fighting off the soldiers as Hawk and Nina attended to Willa. The fire had died when she rolled on the dirt but it had done big damage.
Willa’s leg sizzled and steam rose like a boiling kettle. And worse, an arrow had impaled through her chest. Black blood soaked her shirt, the oversized shirt Nina had sewed for her so she wouldn’t be naked.
