Wanted Angel - Sadie Moss Page 0,35

Sawyer tells the corrupted who’s currently erasing the demon mark on my shoulder. “We’ll go outside and meet them—try to hold them off so you can finish.”

“What?” I screech, craning my neck as my heart lurches in my chest. Flynn curses under his breath, restarting on the section he was just erasing. Shit, I must’ve screwed him up.

But still…

“No! You guys can’t just go out there and make yourselves into demon target practice just to protect me!”

“Angel, I’ve never been anyone’s target practice,” Ford promises darkly, cracking his knuckles.

“But you—”

Whatever compelling argument I was about to make, I never get a chance to finish. Knight’s eyes flare wide, and he starts to gesture, but he’s interrupted too as the door flies off its hinges.

Nearly a dozen corrupted pour into the space. They’re all low level, by the look of it. There’s almost nothing humanoid about them, except for the fact that most of them are walking on two legs. Some have bright red skin and slitted black eyes, and others are a milky white color that makes them look like living corpses.

Ford shouts a battle cry, hurling himself at two demons who spot me and try to attack. The other men form a perimeter around us, holding off the demons as yells and grunts fill the air.

I move to help them, fear rising in my throat, but a calloused hand clamps tightly around my upper arm.

“Don’t move,” Flynn hisses, his other hand still tracing the demon mark on my skin. “The longer it takes me the do this, the greater the chance that we all die. Let me finish.”

It’s torture, staying still while the men battle bloodthirsty corrupted around me—especially considering that all the demons are trying to get to me. If any of the sins get hurt, it’ll be because they stood between these monsters and their prize.

My entire body is rigid as a block of ice, and I suck in breaths through my nose, trying to keep myself from panicking entirely as I listen to the sounds of battle all around. I can’t even see half of what’s going on since my back is to the action, but the glimpses I catch make my blood run cold.

More corrupted are pouring into the shop. Maybe they’ve sense my mark, or maybe they just heard the commotion and smelled the blood and decided to join the party.

“Almost there…” A slight tremble in Flynn’s finger is the only indication that he’s feeling the strain just like I am. “Hold still. Almost… there!”

He crows triumphantly, and a shiver of cold works through me—one I’m pretty sure has nothing to do with my fear. It’s the spell dissolving, the demon mark being lifted.

I glance back over my shoulder. “It’s done? It’s gone?”

“Yes. Now—”

He’s interrupted by a hairy body hurtling past us. Whatever the thing is, it hits the wall with a thud before leaping up and growling at us. I think maybe one of the sins threw it, but I don’t have time to ask before the demon leaps forward, claws outstretched.

“Fuck!” Flynn ducks, grabbing up the pencil he used to sketch the demon mark earlier and jamming it into the creature’s eye. The thing howls and veers away.

Flynn grimaces, his gray skin wrinkling as he turns to take in the chaos that’s exploded inside his meager shop. He glances at me, and my stomach drops out. I get the feeling he’s debating whether to throw me to the demons just like one of my men threw that corrupted earlier. Maybe he hopes if he offers me up to them, they’ll stop tearing apart his shop.

But then he sighs, an irritated sound. “Come on. Dammit all.”

He grabs my wrist, then darts over to the wall, pressing on a spot where two cracks in the stone meet up. I don’t see anything there, but as soon as he puts his finger on the spot, a staircase begins to emerge from the wall, as if the rock itself is changing shape.

Holy… wow.

“What the fuck is that?” Ford bellows. He’s practically covered in fallen, fighting them off madly even as more leap on him.

“Your way out of here!” Flynn calls back. He drags me up the stairs as soon as they’re fully formed, and I realize a door has appeared at the top of them.

Clever. There’s a whole second floor to this place that no one would ever know about unless Flynn summoned the staircase.

Ford roars, renewing his efforts as Nix and Sawyer leap forward to