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He’s an amazing fighter, but you wouldn’t know it unless you saw him in action. Blaze isn’t showy like a lot of the other powerful werewolves. He’s incredibly humble and kind.
I really liked that, and having an amazing fighter with us was about to come in very handy.
I watched as Astaroth grew closer. With every step, my heart rate kicked up another degree, until I thought my chest was going to rip open. He was still in the form of the boy, but he was holding something. His too-wide, jack-o-lantern grin started to spread across his face as he held it up for me to see.
The jar from the altar.
“Oh, shit.” I turned to Claudia, eyes wide. “It’s my fault he got here so quickly. I don’t even know why I took it.” I was so stupid. I shouldn’t have touched something I knew nothing about. I’d had it with me in the car, but maybe he needed nightfall or to do some spell to make it work. But that was the key. That’s how he got here.
“There probably was a compulsion,” Claudia said. “Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
I didn’t know if that was possible. I wanted to cry at my own stupidity, but I couldn’t. I had to fight. But I didn’t know if I could ever forgive myself for being so dumb.
Astaroth stopped at the foot of the stairs, watching us.
My chest grew so tight, I could’ve sworn he was already strangling me. I wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. But if he wanted me afraid, he’d accomplished that ten fold.
I could still hear everyone climbing into cars—doors slamming and engines starting. It was going to take a few more precious minutes before the school was cleared out.
“What’s he doing?” Claudia asked.
“I don’t know.” I rubbed my sweating hands off on my yoga pants.
Two things happened at once. Astaroth raised his arms in the air, holding the jar up, and the ground started to rumble.
He was opening a portal. “Oh shit.” This was going to get worse. A lot worse.
“Hurry!” Dastien yelled to the fleeing Weres as Astaroth turned in a circle.
“Be ready,” I said to the Weres.
“We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again,” Dastien said, and I hoped that was true.
“Yeah, except I never wanted to do it the first time,” Chris said. “That chapel in Santa Fe was enough for me.”
“Agreed,” I said. “But then, nobody asked us.” I didn’t have any spells prepared. No weapons, except the small dagger in my pocket. Which I really didn’t want to use. I wasn’t even sure if I should have it in my pocket, but it was too late now.
The wolf begged me to let her out, ready to attack. Fur rippled along my skin and I fought it back down. Not now. Not yet. “We’re holding here. Let them come to us.”
The scent of sulfur burned my nose
as a ring of red light circled Astaroth.
He stepped back as the ground before him shimmered, became almost translucent, and the first demon climbed up. Its wrinkly gray skin shimmered in the moonlight.
I’d seen a variety of demons in the chapel, but these were my least favorite. The sight of them as they crawled along the ground terrified me. They were vaguely humanoid, but their legs and arms had too many joints that could bend either way. The demons could stand on two legs, but they liked to crawl—over each other, up walls and onto the ceilings. Their eyes were twin black pools filled with death and despair.
Where there was one, there would be more, but I still hoped that I was wrong. That only the one would come through.
I wasn’t wrong. A second later, there were ten more squatting next to the first.
And then ten more.
In a few heartbeats, we were so outnumbered, it was stupid. I was stupid. I’d made two mistakes today. The first was taking the jar. The second was not running when I had the chance.
Damn it.
He had an army, and there were maybe twenty Cazadores, my friends and the Alphas made thirty-five, plus whoever hadn’t made it out of the parking lot.
