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The men at his back were dressed in tactical gear: padded jackets, helmets, face shields, and of course, guns. They had their sights fixed on me, unwavering, far better prepared than their unfortunate comrades had been.
Jeremiah looked around — at the blood on the walls, the puddles seeping into the carpet, the intestines draped over the lampshade like cheerful party streamers. He took it all in, nodding slowly.
And he smiled.
“What do you think you know, demon?” The cadence of his speech was drastically different, easy to notice considering I’d followed him for a whole damn day. “How long have you been creeping around?”
“Long enough to know you’re in over your head.”
He narrowed his eyes. Recognition flickered in his gaze, and he said, “You were at the party. The...the bartender guy.”
“Yeah, the one who gets all the pussy.” I gave the body beside me a shove, pushing it away. The blood was getting cold and sticky. “Tell me, Jeremiah...how are your reflexes?”
I had already condensed the wall of energy in front of me. Right as his eyes widened in suspicion, I pushed it out, and it slammed into him and his men full-force. They were blasted backward against the wall, the impact so hard they burst straight through it, sending their bodies sprawling onto the lawn in a hail of splintered wood.
I chuckled as I got to my feet and strode over to the damaged wall. Jeremiah lay flat on his back on the grass, and two of his men were trying to roll over to their sides. The third seemed to have been knocked unconscious. Damn, and here I’d been worried. That blast probably shattered Jeremiah’s ribs.
Or at least...it should have.
Maybe I got a little too cocky. Maybe I let my guard down way sooner than I should have. I walked across the lawn, ready to crush Jeremiah like the little bug he was.
But he leaped up, and he moved far faster than I’d thought possible. No human body should have been able to move that fast. His fist connected with my face, snapping my neck back — he gripped my shoulders, wrenched me down, and tried to follow up his fist with his knee. But I twisted, gripped his leg, and used it to wrench him to the ground.
His strength was shocking. He’d attacked me in a mere second, hitting me hard enough that I’d felt something crack. I tried to scramble into a better position and get on top of him, but he was grappling with me, somehow managing to hold me back.
“What — what kind of fucking —freakare you?” I snarled, squeezing his throat as he shoved against my face. His teeth were bared, his eyes were wild and bloodshot. Something thick and black dripped from his nose, and he snarled as he twisted, trying to switch our positions. I thrashed, breaking his grip and leaping back, putting some distance between us.
He got up, cracking his neck. He wasn’t breathing hard; I couldn’t smell any fear on him. Every inch of him was tense, his muscles bulging, veins rigid beneath his skin. He spat a thick glob of black stuff onto the ground, and I wrinkled my nose.
“So you’re just fine with the whole rotting from the inside-out thing?” I said. “That’s gross, dude. You smell.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “So carefree, aren’t you? Not like the last demon I met. Honestly...I expectedhimto be creeping around out here. But you…what the hell is your game?”
“My game is simple: kill Rot Boy, go home, have a smoke. It’s been a fun game so far.”
I attacked again, but he was ready for me. He deflected my strike, slammed into my shoulder and shoved me back, twisting my arm as he did. I barely managed to maneuver myself out of a nasty injury as I slipped away from him, pausing again to reevaluate my approach.
The popping sound of rapid gunfire sent me dodging back again, sprinting to avoid the bullets. Two of Jeremiah’s men had found their feet, and they had their weapons aimed at me. It would take a hell of a lot of bullets to kill me, far more than they had. But enough bullets could still slow me down, and that was the last thing I needed.
Jeremiah was faster than I’d thought.Strongerthan I’d thought.
I slipped around into the garden at the side of the house, and crouched down into the shadows. Footsteps ran past, with a second set walking slowly behind.
“You’ve run right past him, you blatheringfools.”
Shit.
Jeremiah was on me before I could run again. I got my arm around his throat, gripping him tight as he flailed and tried to claw at my face. I squeezed his neck in my arm, until the breath was wheezing out of him and his movements became frantic. Fuck, he was hard to control. The strength I was using should have crushed a human’s windpipe and if that somehow didn’t kill him, the lack of oxygen to his brain should have. But Jeremiah kept struggling. He thrashed his entire body against my hold, and I lost my footing, grappling with him on my knees —
More gunfire popped, and this time I couldn’t dodge it. The bullets peppered my back, my neck. I flinched at the sting, and Jeremiah took advantage immediately. He twisted free and shoved himself back, right as more bullets peppered my back.
I could take out the two gunmen quick enough, but Jeremiah...
He didn’t give me a chance for that.
He kicked me in the chest, so hard and so fast that it slammed me back through the garden wall. Bricks collapsed around me and I dodged his incoming fist, caught his wrist and snapped it. But there was no satisfying scream of pain, no hesitation. It was like the pain didn’t even register for him, and that caught me off guard. Off guard enough that his next strike made contact.
He slammed his fist against my back, right where one of the bullets had pierced into me. It was far more fucking painful than it should have been.
