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I knew I’d gone a step too far when all of sudden my demonic side buzzed with fury. Raw power manifested in front of it, stronger than I’d seen thus far. It boiled and stewed, pouring over me like acid.
“Agh!” I threw up my hands in defense, managing to shield myself from the worst of it. Still, it burned with an unimaginable pain.
“Do not underestimate me,” it cried.
Squinting through the pain, I watched with horror as the dark shadow shimmered and morphed into something solid. Slowly, it grew recognizable features. A straight nose, symmetrical cheeks, flowing dark hair. Something about it made me shiver.
It was like looking at a mirror with a dark tint. My face stared back at me, a triumphant smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Evil glinted in my eyes, a tinge of red blinking deep within the irises. I recoiled from the sight and fell backwards, hitting the ground hard.
“How did you...?”
She’d never been able to take such a form before now. Whenever we’d faced off, she’d appear in her dark form, faceless and insubstantial. Fear birthed in my gut, shooting into my limbs.
“I grow stronger.” She flexed her bicep, staring at the way the muscles contracted. “It is only a matter of time. Prepare yourself, angel warrior. Your days are numbered.”
Bright lights blinded me as I fluttered my eyelids. I struggled against the hands holding me down, grunting my frustration. It took a few more seconds for me to realize I was staring up at the top of a church. Wooden beams crisscrossed the ceiling and fans dotted above. I turned my head to look into a pair of concerned green eyes staring down at me.
“Gabe!” Giving up my struggle, I threw myself into his arms. My body trembled as the remnants of fear and adrenaline pulsated through my muscles.
“You were out for almost ten minutes,” he said, clasping me tight to his chest. I could hear his heart racing. “The episodes are getting longer.”
I swallowed hard. He was right. They used to knock me out for seconds, at the most. But lately, they were getting stronger and more violent. Last time, I fell and cracked a rib on a cement sidewalk. That injury was still healing.
“She’s getting stronger.” Pulling away enough to look in his eyes, I breathed with control to keep the tears at bay. The last thing I needed to do right now was cry. “She has a form now. A carbon copy of my own. I don’t know what else she can do. She says it’s only a matter of time before she’s stronger than me.”
“She lies.” His hand gripped the back of my hair. Rage flashed in his eyes as he worked his jaw. “She says those things to create doubt in your heart. Don’t listen.”
I nodded, hoping he was right. If there was one thing we knew, demons thrived on deceit. Still, the best lies always carried a bit of truth within them. I wondered how much of what she said was valid.
“Are you alright?” Ashley kneeled next to me. She’d sheathed her deadly weapons. “You took a hard fall.”
“Didn’t break another rib, did you?” Raquel eyed me anxiously over Ashley’s head.
She’d become a little over-protective this year. Part of me thought it was because she felt so guilty about letting me get away with escaping into the woods last fall to fight demons on my own. She felt like she should’ve protected me better. Of course, it could also be because she took after her uncle—my father. He would’ve wrapped me in bubble wrap if I let him.
“Nothing’s broken.”
I flexed my muscles one at a time, just to be sure. Yep, all good.
The faint sound of crying drew my attention. Only ten feet away, the young priest we’d met clutched the lifeless body of a man to his chest. He wept over his face, tears falling onto the ashen skin. My eyes watered at the sight, my throat constricting. This never got any easier.
“What are we going to do with him?” I asked.
Letting humans into the confidence of the Nephilim way of life was tricky. We only told them as much as they needed to know. Most wouldn’t be able to handle the knowledge of the world around them.
Humankind liked to remain in the dark. The dark was comforting and familiar. It hid the sight of beasts prowling, just outside of range, ready to devour the soft flesh of man. They would go mad if they knew the truth about this world and the next.
“I’ll handle it,” Ashley said, giving me a knowing look and then leading the priest by the arm to the nearby door. She had a way with instilling awe and fear in the hearts of men. She could convince him to remain quiet.
“I suppose we need to get back to the manor,” Raquel said, tossing a dagger in the air and catching it with ease. “When Uncle Luke’s done visiting the European branch, he’s bringing the new researchers home. I can’t wait to check out the new gadgets. We have to get first dibs.”
I’d completely forgotten about my father’s trip halfway across the world. With the disastrous run-in with Sophia and Oscar last year, who’d tried to have me executed, the Europeans were desperate to repair relations. Luke had spent half of the summer flying back and forth, drafting new Nephilim legislation and meeting with the head honchos.
At the same time, he’d beefed up Westward Manor’s nearly nonexistent research team, pulling human and Nephilim researchers from all over the world to develop new tech for us. It was time we moved into the twenty-first century, he’d argued to the board. There was no reason not to morph new and old tech together to defend our world from demon spawn. If the casualties of last summer hadn’t convinced them, I wasn’t sure what would.
Luckily, Luke had been given free reign of the project. But that meant more time away from home. I couldn’t wait to see him again.
“We’ve got one more stop to make before heading back to the Manor,” Gabe said, glancing at the phone in his hand. “A potential demon in a town just sixty miles from here. It burned down a church and scared some of the locals. Could be our guy.”
