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He turned to face her fully then, staring intensely into her eyes.
After long, breath-held moments, his eyes lost their mistrustful, self-condemning squint, the tense lines around them slightly unwinding.
As if he might finally relent and let her help.
But that was when two shadowy creatures threw themselves upon the open carriage, landing with heavy thumps and blood-curdling snarls.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
It was Annie’s shout that alerted Ben of danger.
One moment they’d been parading in orderly lines around Hyde Park, seeing and being seen, and the next everything froze.
Like the special effects in anAvengersmovie.
Their surroundings receded into the background as Ben whipped his horse around to race back to the carriage. It took only a few seconds to get there, but already, everything was in chaos.
The two tall, brawny footmen Ben recognized from earlier, the ones who’d carried in the gigantic bouquet from the “prince,” suddenly transformed into demons twice their original size. Their dark, hairy muscles bursting out of their clothes. Hands and feet turning into massive claws. Their faces elongated into snouts and huge jaws that snapped with razor sharp teeth.
And they had leapt onto the back of the carriage. One was raking his claws in a downward arc at Sai and Brigid, while the other took a hold of Annie’s arm and flung her like a ragdoll from the vehicle.
Along the few yards of distance to the heated battle, Ben leaned over to pull a saber from a frozen soldier riding with his friend. He aimed for the second demon as he galloped past the carriage, managing to cut a long gash into the creature’s back with a calculated swing.
Thank Cloud for his training with swords!
Ben had complained that guns would be a whole lot more useful in modern times, but now he sent a fervent thanks into the cosmos to his dragon trainer.
The demon howled, arching its spine, sharp teeth dripping with saliva, tongue lolling. As Ben intended, it leapt off the carriage and focused on him, rather than Annie, who was lying prone on the grass nearby.
Meanwhile, out of the corner of his eyes, Ben saw the prince engage the other demon. Somehow, despite that he was only half the creature’s size, he managed to hold it back with hands clamped around the thing’s thick wrists, barely keeping the claws from his face and chest.
Even so, Ben could see that Sai was wounded. Fresh red blood streaked down his side and leg. His princely clothes already ripped in several places.
But Ben couldn’t help him at the moment. He had his own demon to dispatch.
The creature bounded toward him with the lope of a gorilla, its arms longer than its legs. Or perhaps, the better analogy was a werewolf. Not that Ben had ever seen one of those.
But… if vampires and elves existed…
Not the best time to have this debate in his mind.
As it closed in, it leapt into the air, levering off from its powerful hind legs, claws curled downward, aiming for Ben’s face and throat.
He waited until the last possible second before pulling his horse into a sudden rear, making it stamp its hooves in the air as it neighed with fright.
The timing was perfect. Both hooves struck the creature in rapid succession, pounding it back onto the ground.
A beating like that would have instantly killed a normal person, but the demon only shook its head to clear it, barely fazed.
Before it could regroup, however, Ben was already charging in for the death blow. He leaned his torso half off the horse, almost parallel to its body, hanging off the side and swung as they passed the demon with all his might.
A clean cut.
And a hairy gray head slid off the creature’s shoulders, falling onto the pavement and rolling a few feet away.
Ben rounded back to the carriage to deal with the demon fighting Sai. But the thing was already lying in odd angles upon the ground, tongue hanging out of its teeth-packed mouth.
He took in Sai’s heaving form, standing over the demon. He was unarmed. Bleeding and bruised, but alive. He must have killed the thing with his bare hands.
