standing closest to the fallen demon. Charlie recognized her from the alley. The stab wound his sword had made in her stomach healed over as he watched. She kicked the bullheaded demon's body. "See, I told you that guns suck."
"That was well done, Meat," said the one to Charlie's right. Her neck was still knitting back together. She was the one he'd blasted up onto the cabin roof.
"You guys do bounce back with a certain Wile E. Coyote charm," Charlie said. He grinned, feeling drunk now, like he was watching all this from another place.
"He's so sweet," said the hand-job harpy. "I could just eat him up."
"Sounds good to me," said the Morrigan to his left, whose head was still a little lopsided.
Charlie saw the venom dripping from her claws, then looked to the wound below his chest plate.
"Yes, darling," said hand job, "I'm afraid Nemain did nick you. You really are quite the warrior to have lasted this long."
"I'm the Luminatus," Charlie said.
The Morrigan laughed, the one in front of Charlie did a little dance step. As she did, the bullheaded demon lifted his head from the water.
"I'm the Luminatus," said the demon, black goo and water running between his teeth as he spoke.
The Morrigan stopped dancing, grabbed one of the demon's horns, then pulled his head back. "You think?" she said. Then she plunged her claws into the demon's throat. He rolled and threw her off, sending her sailing twenty feet in the air to smash into the hull of the ship.
The Morrigan behind Charlie patted his head as she passed. "We'll be right with you, darling. I'm Macha, by the way, and we are the Luminatus - or we will be in a minute."
The Morrigan fell on the bullheaded demon, taking great chunks of flesh and bone off his body with each slash of their talons. Two took to the air and swept in, taking swipes at the demon, who flailed at them, sometimes connecting, but too weakened from the gunshots to fight effectively. In two minutes it was finished, and most of the flesh had been flayed from it. Macha held his head by the horns like she was holding the handlebars of a motorcycle, even as the demon's jaws continued to snap at the air.
"Your turn, soul stealer," Macha said.
"Yeah, your turn," said Nemain, baring her claws.
Macha held the demon head out in front of her, driving it at Charlie. He backed away as the teeth snapped inches from his face.
"Wait a minute," said Babd.
The other two stopped and turned to their sister, who stood over what was left of the demon's corpse. "We never got to finish."
She took one step before something hit her like a ball of darkness, knocking her out of sight. Charlie looked at the demon head coming at him, then there was a loud smack and Macha was yanked to the side as if she'd had a bungee cord attached to her ankle.
The screeching started again and Charlie could see the Morrigan being whipped around in the darkness, splashing, and chaos - he couldn't follow what was happening. His eyes wouldn't focus.
He looked to Nemain, who was now coming at him with her claws dripping venom. A small hand appeared at the edge of his vision and the Morrigan's head exploded into what looked like a thousand stars.
Charlie looked to where the hand had appeared before his eyes.
"Hi, Daddy," Sophie said.
"Hi, baby," Charlie said.
Now he could see what was happening - the hellhounds were tearing at the Morrigan. One of them broke, jumped into the air and unfurled her wings, then dove at Sophie, screeching.
Sophie raised her hand as if she was waving bye-bye and the Morrigan vaporized into a spray of black goo. The souls, thousands of them, that she had consumed over the millennia, floated into the air, red lights that circled the grotto, making the whole huge chamber appear to have been frozen in the middle of a fireworks display.
"You shouldn't be here, honey," Charlie said.
"Yes, I should," Sophie said. "I had to fix this, send them all back. I'm the Luminatus."
"You..."
"Yeah," she said matter-of-factly, in that Master of All Death and Darkness voice that is so irritating in a six-year-old.
The hellhounds were both on the remaining Morrigan now, tearing her in half as Charlie watched.
"No, honey," Charlie said.
Sophie raised her hand and Babd was vaporized like the others - the captured souls rose like embers from a bonfire.