Page 96 of Demon Demands

“Yes, but never like this,” Lilith whispered, wide-eyed as she watched Sloane get swallowed up by her flames.

Vaughn’s hands were shaking as he continued to work on Briggs. York and Stone didn’t seem to be worried; they appeared more curious about what was happening. Novak kept leaning closer, hoping that he could see more.

Hyde grabbed Dolyn’s hand, squeezing until he winced, and Jack rubbed across her shoulders, trying to sooth her. Sloane’s parents and grandparents murmured to each other in hushed tones as they studied my mate.

I was starting to freak out a bit as the heat inside the dome soared to ridiculous temperatures.

This shouldn’t be possible. She was part vampire. Her body should have burned from that kind of heat, even with demonic blood. But there she stood, naked under her flames, in the middle of a battlefield, surrounded by demons who were advancing on her.

If I had to guess, I’d say seeing us get hurt made her own demon snap. It was all murder and games until someone threatened her treasures. And so far, we’d only glimpsed the possessiveness that her other half was capable of.

The nerd in me was drooling. It wasn’t the time to be thinking about studying her, but godsdamnit. I wanted to examine all the power possibilities that she was hiding.

“She’s OP as fuck,” Novak whispered.

“This isn’t anime, you idiot. She’s going to hurt herself,” Vaughn snarled.

“She’s fine.” Stone waved their concern away, ever the calm and collected one of our group.

She’d made it hundreds of feet from us, but we still felt the blistering heat. We were all sweating, even Lilith. Clothing clung to our skin, metal weapons were dropped, Dolyn was fighting the melting zipper on his tactical vest.

Then… She screamed. It was a horrible, not totally human sound that made me want to cover my ears.

She wasn’t hurt, though.

No. She was angry.

Just as her voice broke, the flames erupted from her body and flew outward in a violent rush of power.

They hit the shield so hard that I had to dig my feet into the sand to keep from sliding backward. I held my hands out, funneling as much magic as I could into the shield to make it strong enough to withstand her assault.

The flat desert area that we’d been fighting in looked like napalm had exploded, leaving only the dome untouched. The horde of demons were charred and burned, standing completely frozen and mummified as their skin cracked.

Sloane swiped her hand across her body, creating a gust of wind that blew them away. Ashes floated in the breeze, swirling around her, and when they touched her flaming body, they became nothing. She’d killed half the horde and disposed of the evidence in one single attack.

Sand thrashed around her, battering the outside of the shield. Her silver hair whipped wildly to the left, untouched by her fire. With her back to us, I couldn’t be sure that she was okay. She hadn’t stopped burning, though, and that worried me. The temperature felt consistent, but it wasn’t cooling at all.

“Drop the shield, Palmer. Let me out,” Novak demanded.

“You’ll burn if you go near her. You need to let her calm down first.” Vaughn tried to reason with the vampire.

“Drop the fucking shield. Let me out. Then put it back up,” the vampire gritted through clenched teeth, his hands balling into fists. He was ready to throttle Vaughn and me. I glanced at Stone and Jack, both of them shrugging like they didn’t know what to say.

Cautiously, I made a slit in the shield, like parting a curtain, and heat poured in so fast that it felt as if my skin was melting. I sealed the dome up tight as soon as Novak rushed out. He was standing in front of her before I’d finished.

He reached his hand out, and I shut my eyes. I couldn’t watch him burn. I couldn’t stomach the pain in her eyes when she realized that she was the one who’d hurt him.

So, I just closed my eyes... and listened as it started to snow inside the shield.

23

Novak

Saturday Evening

“Drop the fucking shield. Let me out. Then put it back up,” I told Palmer through clenched teeth as I fisted my hands. I was going to hit him if he said no, and he knew it.

Reluctantly, he parted the shield enough for me to rush through. It was like walking into an oven, if ovens reached the temperature it took to actually evaporate steel. I wasn’t even positive that was possible, but swords were definitely melting.