Fiends and Familiars - Debra Dunbar Page 0,53

didn’t hear was the growl of the demon or the sound of him close behind me. Had it been my imagination? The beer, the dream, the darkness and the adrenaline of the game…had they all combined to make me see things that weren’t here?

Either way, I was following this fox and getting the heck out of this maze.

I ran for what felt like hours, the corn stalks catching on my hair and clothes. A light glimmered off to my right and I hesitated, not sure whether to follow the fox’s presence or head to the light. In a split second decision, I turned toward the light.

As I fought my way through the corn I heard someone coming toward me. Spinning around, I saw the demon once more. The light, I ran toward it, hoping that the demon wouldn’t try to grab me once I was out among a group of humans. Common sense told me there was safety in numbers, but was there? Would a demon really give two shits about snatching me in front of witnesses? Would he care whether he hurt the humans or not? Could Babylon and I manage to fight him off before he did hurt someone?

Screw it. I’d rather face this guy out in the open than here in a corn maze. I took off, plowing through stalks in as straight of a line as I could toward the light. A shadow appeared in front of me, and before I could swerve or put on the breaks I slammed into him.

We went down. Flesh and blood. Arms went around me, and I looked up into his face in the dim moonlight.

Ty. My body reacted as if I had suddenly landed the starring role in a porno. I caught my breath and one of his hands drifted lower to grip my ass.

Then I got a grip on my hormones and remembered I was pissed at this demon. Although, there was another demon after me, and if I had to pick between the two, I’d pick Ty. At least I knew deep down in my heart that he wouldn’t harm me. He might kill my squirrel, but he wouldn’t harm me.

Still I scrambled to my feet, making sure I rubbed up against Ty a little on the way up. “There’s a demon after me,” I told him, figuring he’d do the chivalrous thing.

“Who?” he snarled, leaping to his feet.

“A dude with horns?” How the fuck was I supposed to know who he was? It’s not like he had a nametag on or something.

“Abraxas,” he spat out.

I’d been on the verge of running away, but that stopped me dead in my tracks. The horns didn’t ID the demon. They all had horns. Ty knew who was following me. He knew this demon was after me.

Which made me even more pissed off at him. Damn it. He could have warned me when we were in Cassie’s office. Although to be fair, we’d been too busy arguing for him to probably get a word in edgewise about there being a price on my head. Did Lucien know about this? Because Cassie was going to chop off his balls once I told her.

Something crashed through the corn. I didn’t have time to see what it was or even run before Ty had shoved me out of the way and slammed into whatever it was. I landed hard, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I’d broken a few cornstalks in my fall and those suckers were sharp. That’s how I knew the wet feeling on my shoulders and arms was blood. But all that seemed of minor importance compared to the epic battle going on not ten feet away from me.

Two demons fighting was like watching National Geographic alpine ram edition. They slammed into each other, horns locked, curls of sulfur-smelling smoke puffing from their nostrils and mouths.

“She’s mine,” Ty roared. Claws extended from his hands and he raked bloody furrows along the other demon’s chest.

“If you’re too weak to make her give up Faust, then I’ll do it,” the other demon snapped. I noticed that although he too had claws on his hands, he didn’t seem to be causing quite as much damage as Ty was.

Wait, was I rooting for Ty? Yes, I was. Damn it. I was pissed off at the guy, but I still lov…liked him. Kinda.

The demon I kinda sorta liked head butted the other one, then punched him hard enough to send him into the corn.