the flock of crows. Wasting no time, Khloé snapped out her leg and kicked the crate door open. She thrust out her palms and called to the power humming in her belly. Whips of electric fire lashed her captors, making them cry out and fall to their knees.
She crawled out of the crate just as a golden wave of pure power swept out of Asher’s demon and crashed into its foes, including the two corpses—hurling them all across the room. Well, damn. Her own entity was mightily impressed.
She itched to stand at astral-Asher’s side, but it would serve them both better if they remained separate targets—it would divide the attention of their foes.
Lane ran out of the saloon mere seconds before crows flew through the front door. Their wings flapping like crazy, the birds descended on Enoch, Gavril, Thea, the sentinels, and the puppets before any of them even had the chance to stand upright. Voices cried out and cursed as the crows pecked with their beaks and raked with their talons.
Enoch batted them away and then surrounded himself with his forcefield. Ugh. He snarled at Khloé as he stood. “You will not survive this night.”
“Worried that you’ll fail yet again, old man?” she taunted.
Growling, he pitched several death orbs through the air. She deflected them with her own power, and they harmlessly crashed into the wall, leaving patches of rot.
The asshole threw more black, smoky orbs at her. She evaded them just as another surge of golden power swept out of Asher. It crashed into Enoch’s forcefield, causing spiderweb-like cracks to form in the construction, but the bastard quickly bolstered it and repaired the damage—
She winced as a high-pitched sound built in the air, hitting a note so high it threatened to burst her eardrums and once more damage her psyche. Khloé hurled a ball of hellfire at Gavril’s head, and the sound cut off.
Sensing he was the most powerful of her foes besides Enoch, Khloé plunged her mind into that of the Prime and seized control. “You will protect me and fight alongside me.”
Gavril didn’t hesitate to whirl on the spot and attack Enoch. He couldn’t pierce the protective forcefield, but he was able to telekinetically bat away every death orb that came at her. Awesome.
Unlike Enoch, she couldn’t control more than one person at a time, but Gavril proved to be very good backup. He essentially held off Enoch while Khloé blasted the others with strong currents of electric fire again and again, managing to obliterate one puppet pretty much instantly.
She inhaled sharply as one of the sentinels all but dazed her with a telepathic punch that made her stagger like a drunk. Bastard. Still, she fought on. At the same time, the crows kept biting and raking, and Asher kept on releasing gold waves of such crushing power it almost took her breath away.
The combined attack took the two sentinels and the second puppet out of the equation, but Thea teleported to the other side of the saloon and out of harm’s way. Enraged, Khloé’s demon hissed through its teeth.
Worried that the woman would teleport out of the building and escape, Khloé taunted, “Yes, that’s it, flee and leave the others to fight your battle. Keenan told me what a coward you are. How many times was it that you left him without even a goodbye?” Khloé replicated Jolene’s haughty sniff that could make a person feel an inch tall.
Covered in bites and scratches, Thea sneered. “Think you’re better than me just because he calls you his mate?”
“No. I think I’m better than you because I’m better than you.”
“Bitch.” Her upper lip curling, Thea released a series of hellfire orbs.
Khloé ducked, dodged, and weaved, but the latter orb connected. She jerked back at the punch of hot pain to her ear. Fuck it burned as the hellfire blistered and ate at her skin.
Thea laughed. “You won’t be so pretty once I’m done fucking you up.”
“Right now, you’re no spring chicken yourself.” Khloé retaliated; a flickering wave of electric fire soared toward Thea and lashed her so hard she flew backwards and crashed into the metal crate.
Even as she fell, Thea flicked her hand at Khloé. A ribbon of ice-cold energy whipped Khloé’s face and sliced the skin like a blade. Fucking ow.
Khloé tossed several hellfire orbs at the little skank, who teleported away and took cover behind the piano. “Fuck.” Another ribbon of frosty energy came flying at Khloé. She jerked back, but it slashed her