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Before I could figure out what was happening, Telazhar broke off his attack and stood back, gesturing with his hands. Magic flowed between them, and then another flash and there was a spinning vortex in the room, and something was coming out of it. Oh fuck, what the hell was going down now?
Everyone stopped to turn and stare, including Newkirk and Shade. Smoky kept his hands tightly clenched around Van’s neck, and I heard a snap as something in the demon’s throat broke. His head lolled to the side and he slumped. Smoky tossed his body aside.
I hurried over to Camille and Morio, who were slowly struggling to their feet. I grabbed Camille’s arm and helped her up, then turned to see what the hell we were facing now. The portal was spinning, and runes lit up the sides, hanging in midair like eye catchers.
Camille gasped and moved forward, staring at Telazhar. “No—you can’t! You’re fucking insane!” As she started to run forward, Newkirk lunged and grabbed her around the waist. He slammed her over the table, against the wall, and then Smoky was on him, ripping his face with one long sweep of his talons. Morio managed to shake out of the stupor as I ran toward Camille. Menolly took the opportunity to break the neck of a nearby Tregart, and now she and Trytian were attacking yet another.
Vanzir and Rodney began to back up as a noise came through the portal—it was the sound of trumpets thundering, of crackling fire and the screams of the damned.
“A Demon Gate. Telazhar created a Demon Gate!” Morio looked petrified. “What the fuck—”
Camille was nursing her wrist as she staggered to her feet. A nasty lump on her forehead was going to hurt a hell of a lot worse later on. She heard Morio and, before I could stop her, was racing headlong toward Telazhar.
Morio staggered after her, and I gave chase after him.
Vanzir glanced at them, then moved in again on the other side of the necromancer while Rodney tackled the last Tregart. The bone golem grabbed the demon’s balls and twisted, hard enough to rip them off. A sharp scream echoed through the room and the demon fell to the ground, blood saturating his pants.
I caught up with Morio and pushed him aside, then reached out and yanked Camille back. As she fought me, I pushed her together with Morio. “If you have any magic left, now’s the time to bring it on!”
A clap of thunder and the room filled with mist, pouring out from the Demon Gate. Trytian was suddenly beside me. He grabbed my arm and yanked.
“Get the fuck away—you do not want to be in the way when the guest of honor comes through.” He dragged me out of the way as a hooved foot stepped out from the gate. I caught my breath. Not Shadow Wing—please, don’t let it be Shadow Wing!
Newkirk lunged forward, blood pouring down his head. One eye was hanging by the optic nerve, dangling on the side of his face. He was clutching at his chest—holding the spirit seal. A flicker of light shone from it as it began to reverberate, and Newkirk dropped his head back and let out a crazy laugh.
The figure emerging from the Demon’s Gate was a reptilian creature; he was nine feet tall and looked a little like one of the Sleestaks from Land of the Lost, but his head was sporting a lovely do of weaving tentacles that draped down his back like crazy dreadlocks. His eyes were flat and black, if it was a he. It was rather hard to tell. I thought I saw a penis, but I wasn’t looking all that hard. My attention was focused on the razor-sharp teeth and the claws that passed for fingernails. He was a dirty olive green, and his gaze darted this way and that.
Four shadows followed him out of the gate, and I groaned as pictures began to fly off the walls and spin through the air. Morio yelped and ducked as a chair went over his head all by itself.
Next to me, Trytian let out a sharp gasp. “Gulakah! Motherfucking son of a bitch, that’s Gulakah, the Lord of Ghosts! Get the fuck out of here or we are dead.” He motioned toward his bloatworgle lackeys. “Get the seal! Now!”
Oh hell! Trytian was making a play for the spirit seal. I barreled headlong toward Newkirk, dodging the creatures. I was faster than they were, and as I pulled up in front of the Koyanni, a light shot out of the spirit seal, hitting me like a fist in my stomach. I lurched, falling across the nearest table. The daemons were hot on my heels, but they, too, ended up sprawling on the floor. Smoky and Shade were coming in from two different angles, but then Gulakah was suddenly in front of the Koyanni, moving in a blur. As the ghosts following him entangled the dragons, Gulakah gutted Newkirk with one hand while with the other he ripped the spirit seal from his neck.
“No!” Menolly raced forward, but Trytian tripped her as she went by, turning to the Lord of Angry Ghosts in her place. He tried to snatch the spirit seal out of Gulakah’s hands, but one of the ghosts rushed through him and the daemon went sailing back across the club, landing in a heap against the wall.
Camille let loose a ball of energy and it landed square on the demon general but bounced off and managed to take out one of the ghosts. Gulakah snaked his neck around to stare at her and, with a whimper, she scrambled back, turning to race for cover. In the next moment a black slither of energy came sailing out of one of the moving tentacles that he called hair, and it hit her in the back, sending her sprawling. She screamed, so loud I thought she was dying, and Smoky and Morio flew to her side.
Menolly and Roz were side by side, and they both threw ice bombs at the demon general at the same time, but they just exploded and shattered another one of his ghosts.
Telazhar was heading toward the Demon Gate, and Gulakah, spirit seal in hand, followed him.
“No—you can’t take that!” I leaped forward, but the next moment, the two vanished through the gate, and the gate disappeared. They were gone, and so was the spirit seal.
“Fuck. We were right. Telazhar was working with Shadow Wing all along, and now he’s helping Gulakah. They took the spirit seal. Shadow Wing has two now…no…” I could only whisper as the shambles around us began to come into focus.
“Camille needs help! Delilah, get over here.” Smoky sounded frantic.
I crawled over to her side. Something black and leechlike was affixed to her back. It had eaten through the cloth. “Motherfucking…what is that?”
Trytian stomped over. “Good going. Now neither of us has the seal.”
“Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Do you know what the hell is attached to Camille?” I shoved him in front of me. “Because if you do, fix it.”
He gave me a long, cold look but turned back to her. “Devil leech. You need to freeze it off her. And I’d do so soon, or it will burrow through the flesh and take hold of her heart, and then she’ll belong to the enemy.” And with that, he motioned to his henchmen and they strode out of the club.
We sat there, in the midst of absolute carnage, as Smoky sent a blast of freezing cold over Camille’s back. The leech let go and fell off, and Camille groaned. She rolled over and slowly sat up, looking as bruised as I felt. We’d all been slammed around, including Menolly.
“Well…” The sudden silence was deafening and I felt like somebody had to say something. “What do we do now?”
