Fan-fucking-tastic.
Pushing up onto one knee, the demons slowly circled around me. I grabbed my gun, firing at the closest one.
The explosive round hit center mass, going straight for the heart, and the demon burst apart into black smoke before the bullet slammed into the wall behind him.
Boom. The metal wall of the hangar tore open, and the ceiling above us groaned dangerously. Dust rained down while the support beams visibly trembled.
Oh. Okay. No more explosive rounds indoors.
“One down,” I muttered, cocking the gun again. “Two to go.”
The remaining demons creepily smiled at me at the exact same time.
Movement across the room caught my eye, where I saw Rack being pinned against the far wall. Half his body was being swallowed by rapidly growing limestone while a massive stone hand crushed around his torso to keep him trapped.
The mage stood several feet away with both hands raised, his fingers twitching violently while sweat rolled down the sides of his face.
Without thought, I pulled out my revolver and let it rip.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Acid rounds went straight into the stone hand gripping Rack. The impact splattered sizzling green liquid across the rock. Smoke hissed upward as the limestone melted apart in chunks.
Rack ripped himself free the second the restraint weakened, and air exploded out from him violently enough to send debris skidding across the floor.
Unfortunately, saving him distracted me for exactly half a second too long, and pain exploded through my stomach.
I looked down to see one of the demons had buried the now normal blade clean through me. The force of it shoved halfway through my back, causing a second wave of pain to hit. Hot and vicious, it tore through my abdomen hard enough to make my vision pulse.
A growl ripped out of me, and I glanced up to see the demon looking… confused.
His eyes darted from the blade to my face like he expected me to already be dead. That alone made me start laughing.
“What?” I wheezed out through a grin. “Expected me to fold apart or something? Thinking you're using that handy fae magic? Guess again.”
His expression twisted harder when I wrapped my hand around the blade still sticking out of my stomach and yanked it free myself.
Blood splattered across the concrete, and the demon physically recoiled backward in shock.
Meanwhile, I stared down at the healing wound beneath the torn fabric with the biggest grin I’d worn all night. Of course, the second demon slammed into me from behind before I could fully recover. My gun skidded across the concrete while thick fingers clamped around my throat.
Then he pulled. Hard.
Pain tore through my neck as he tried ripping my head clean off my shoulders. The muscles in his arms bulged violently with the effort while he snarled into my ear.
Too bad for him, I planned ahead.
Smacking my watch against my thigh three times, a hidden compartment snapped open instantly. An air blade shot into my waiting palm.
Without hesitation, I drove it straight into the demon standing in front of me. The blade punched through his chest with a wet crunch, and his eyes widened as I croaked, “E-explode.”
The command barely left my mouth before the demon behind me vanished into black smoke. The pressure around my throat disappeared so suddenly I staggered forward, coughing.
That left only one demon standing, and he looked genuinely baffled.
His eyes darted from the blade sticking through his chest, to me, and back again like his brain couldn’t process what had happened.
I grinned at him despite the blood dripping down my stomach.
