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What's wrong?
Somebody's invaded our house--possibly the demons. I need you to go in on the astral and see what you can find out.
Lead me.
I turned and bounded out of Haseofon, Arial on my heels. We raced through the mist and landed right where I'd been standing, in front of the house. I turned to Arial, who gazed up at the house in her ghostly presence.
Can you go in--find out what's going on? I'm going to creep around back.
I'll meet you shortly. She vanished again, quicksilver as a shadow in the night. I gazed after her, wondering what it would have been like if she'd lived.
There would have been four of us--and maybe things would be different. Who knew what turns our lives may have taken? But that was conjecture. We were who we were, and at least we knew she was happy and we could contact her. And right now, Iris was in danger, and we had enemies on every side.
I padded through the grass, trying to catch a whiff of our enemies. A sudden cry from the back of the house sliced through the night, and I broke into a run, racing around the corner. Camil e and Morio were weaving some sort of spel against--oh crap, a bloatworgle. Hadn't we fought enough of these over the past few months?
It opened its mouth and sent a searing flame their way, and they broke apart, dodging left and right, disrupting the spel they'd been conjuring. Morio scrambled for his bag and pul ed out a tiny coffin, about thirteen inches in length. Fuck. Rodney, the misogynistic bone golem he'd been given by Grandmother Coyote. But we needed al the help we could get, I thought.
Camil e leapt to her feet and sent a blast of lightning toward the bloatworgle. It let out a shriek as the strike hit its distended bel y, and its arms, too long for its body, flailed. But it did not fal . The buggers were dangerous because they were so hard to kil --and because of that mouthful of fire they had going for them.
I circled around, using the brush and weeds for cover, and then leapt on it from behind, my paws encircling its neck. I raked a paw ful of claws across the demon's throat as Morio set Rodney loose to grow to ful height. At the same time, the youkai-kitsune began to grow to ful height. He could do far more damage in his ful demonic form than he could in human form.
He lunged forward and raked at the bloatworgle's bel y with long, black nails. I pul ed back on the demon's neck as he did so, and the creature lost his footing, sliding to the ground on his back. Morio leapt on him, finishing the job as I looked around, trying to pick up Iris's scent.
Another noise startled me, and I turned to see Arial's ghostly shape racing toward me. I touched her nose.
What did you see?
There, in the house, snakes and a group of men tearing the place apart. And Menolly, and your friends the dragon and the incubus are fighting them. They need help.
Tregarts! Snakes . . . Damn--Stacia Bonecrusher's crew. We need all the help we can get.
I'll do what I can on the astral. She turned and vanished.
I shifted into my two-legged form so fast it hurt. Even as I let out a yowl, I was standing there in front of Camil e and Morio and the dead bloatworgle.
"Tregarts in the house, and snakes. Fighting Menol y, Smoky, and Roz. Come on!"
We raced to the back porch. I took the steps two at a time and slammed open the back door, Camil e and Morio hot on my heels. We burst into the kitchen, where the place had been trashed. Not stopping to ascertain how much damage there was, we raced on. By the time we made it to the foyer, the kitchen, where the place had been trashed. Not stopping to ascertain how much damage there was, we raced on. By the time we made it to the foyer, the fight had spil ed out onto the front porch. A group of biker look-alikes with chains and swords were holding their own.
Menol y was engaging two of them at the end of the porch, and one of them was holding a wooden stake behind his back.
"Get the fuck out of there! He's got a stake!"
Menol y didn't respond but instead leapt nimbly up on the railing and then over the side. The demons fol owed her, vaulting over the railing to meet her on the ground. Meanwhile, Smoky had dropped two Tregarts already, but three surrounded him as he fought his way down the front steps. Roz was grappling with a bloatworgle over by Camil e's herb garden.
I waded into the fray, taking a running leap to bound over the railing and land on the ground near Menol y. Before he could turn around, I ran my dagger through the back of the Tregart carrying the wooden stake. He let out a yelp. As I pul ed Lysanthra out, I twisted her, and that did the trick--he dropped the stake and fel to his knees, struggling to get up. Menol y gave him a kick to the jaw, and he went over, moaning. The other demon stared at us, looking for al the world like a Hel s Angel with bad hair, but beneath that leather jacket there beat the heart and the soul of Demonkin.
Camil e disappeared into the house, and I wondered where she was going, but I couldn't focus on what she was doing. There were stil too many demons, too much danger standing beside me.
Smoky took one down, and then Roz final y got on top of his bloatworgle by stuffing one of his magical bombs down the creature's throat when he opened his mouth to breathe fire. The resulting inferno caught a nearby rosebush on fire, and Smoky swung around and let out a long breath, and an icy mist settled down over the flames, calming them.
In the dark of the night, il uminated by the lights from inside the house, al was chaos. I caught my breath and turned to help Menol y with the remaining demon she was facing. Together, we managed to corner him, and she ripped at him with her fangs while I sliced him cleanly between two ribs.
There was another noise, and I turned in time to see Wilbur, racing around the house, chasing two bloatworgles who were running for their lives. Whoa.
Whatever he'd done had put the fear of magic in them--rare, because bloatworgles usual y didn't scare easily--and they raced right toward us, their shouts echoing through the night. Rozurial dove out of their way as Smoky let loose with his talons and Morio engaged the other. They raged away while Menol y and I turned on the last Tregart.
I ducked in back of him, and when Menol y gave him a good kick that sent him flying toward me, I held out Lysanthra, and he landed right on the tip of her blade. His weight sent me reeling, and I landed hard on a rock in the crook of my lower back, with him on top of me. He was stil , and I felt the flow of his blood spil ing over me from the wound.
