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A superheated wave of interdimensional energy blasted from him in every direction, targeting all souls inside any physical body within a fifteen-foot radius. Unlike his targeted soul-punches, this one didn’t discern between friend and foe.
He’d learned that the hard way.
The wave struck the demons…and passed harmlessly through them.
Which meant they were soulless, and he was still in a fuckton of trouble.
But Lilith…yes!
She screeched as her soul, an inky wisp, exploded from her body. He fumbled in his pocket for adecipula, but he froze in disbelief as the black stuff that had filled her snapped out like a million wormy tentacles and snatched her soul before sucking it back into her body.
“Ouch,” she snarled. “That stings, you asshole.” She rolled her head on her shoulders as if working out kinks. “You think I didn’t do my research? You think I don’t know all about your powers? I told you. I’ve been preparing for this.”
This was bad. So, so bad.
Wheeling toward the exit, he dodged and wove between cockblade demons. One swiped at him, slicing deep into his thigh. Pain stabbed him all the way to his skull as his leg crumpled, and he hit the scorching ground in a bloody sprawl. A demon dove at him. Clenching his teeth in agony, he rolled just in time to avoid being impaled through the gut by a dickblade.
Somehow, he managed to shove to his feet and avoid another impalement, but he was outnumbered and outgunned, and he was in some deep shit.
Let your instincts guide you. You have fast reflexes and excellent timing. Use them.
Jarvus’s words echoed through his head. One of several battle angel trainers he’d been working with since he was a toddler, Jarvus liked to distill the essences of his students down into their strengths and weaknesses. Logan had fast reflexes, excellent timing, and, as Jarvus put it, an “unreasonable fear of killing bystanders.”
In the battle between good and evil, there will be a lot of collateral damage. Remember that, because when the time comes, you cannot hesitate.
The angel was full of fun advice.
But he was dead on about Logan using his strengths. He had fucking amazing reflexes and precision timing when it came to springing traps.
Limping, panting, his vision starting to blur from blood loss and searing heat, he plucked adecipulafrom his pocket and summoned the last dregs of his power. The soles of his boots, enchanted by sorcerers to resist even the hottest fires of Hell, sizzled as he wheeled on his heel and hurled a targeted soul-blast at Lilith. The concentrated stream of energy struck her full force, knocking her body into a wall. It spasmed wildly as her soul was ejected like a pilot from a jet. With a practiced flick of the wrist, Logan lobbed the soul trap.
The black tentacles reached for her hazy spirit as the little sphere closed in.
Logan held his breath and then yelped in victory and relief as thedecipulapierced her smoky soul and began sucking it inside.
Yes!
The demons shrieked in fury and agony, freezing where they stood before melting into tarry puddles. Even the demonic fluid that had been inside Lilith’s body splashed out from between her legs. Her body crumpled to the ground, one of her arms landing in a stream of magma.
Her flesh cooked and melted away as he scrambled to seize the trap and get the hell out.
Got it. He whirled toward the exit.
Suddenly, his hand was on fire. Agony nearly swallowed his consciousness as black flecks killed his vision.
What the—?
He stared down in disbelief. His hand was shredded, his palm and fingers pierced by shrapnel from the explodeddecipula.He stumbled, dizzy with pain, as Lilith’s inky soul shot back into her body.
No soul had ever escaped adecipula.Now he was out of power, options, and, nearly, blood. He had to get out of there before Lilith recovered.
Stunned by his massive defeat and the soul trap’s failure to contain Lilith, he hobbled to the shadowy tunnel. Lit by torches made of bone embedded in the smooth walls, the path extended as far as he could see. Squinting in the darkness, he gritted his teeth against the pain and made his way around a couple of bends. By the time he saw the Harrowgate ahead, its glittery curtain a beacon of hope, he was dragging one leg and struggling to stay upright.
With a pained shout, he threw himself inside the gate. He wrenched around, and the last thing he saw before the curtain solidified into a black wall, was Lilith. She stood in the shadows, cradling the shard of bone and burned flesh that used to be her arm. And she was smiling like she’d won the lottery.
The insane lottery.
Logan fought to keep down a shudder as the dark space lit up with three glowing symbols, one for each of the human and demon realms, which, if pressed, would expand into maps. The other, the Underworld General caduceus, would expand into choices to go directly to the main hospital, any of its three clinics, or its school.
