Outlaw (Wolves of Royal Paynes #4) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,86

got a good shot in, or hurting the water demons hurt him. The wraiths fluttered to the ground, dark again, and rubbed against the side of Dog's face. He let out a soft woof as a second demon slid in to replace the first.

The wraiths repeated their actions from before, but already, it was clear they weren't burning as brightly. My chest didn't grow nearly as warm, and when they shoved their misty bodies into the demon's core, it took twice the time to turn him into steam. At least Thalasso screamed again.

"Storri! Hurting the demons hurts Thalasso. You need to tell the others!"

He nodded and took to the sky, soaring above the danger. Storri did not have trouble flying, but none of them could sustain flight for very long.

A few minutes later, the demon screamed again, and the water demon closest to us dropped, becoming a large puddle.

While we'd been figuring out how to fight back, the fire at the back of the hotel had spread, jumping the lawn, to the closest branches of the forest.

We waited for Storri to return before heading toward the fire as a group, dodging water monsters while we ran into a burning forest. None of us got very far before the water demons gathered together, forming a wave too powerful for any of us to hope to swim through.

There was no direction left to go but back, which was probably exactly what Thalasso had planned in the first place. To think we'd worked so hard only to wind up in the same place made me want to burn hot like my wraiths, but they were clearly exhausted from the effort and refused to leave Dog as long as he was down.

Back at the front of the hotel, the pack still had Thalasso surrounded. Several of the smaller wolves limped or were actively bleeding. But the demon king bled as well. He looked like an old chew toy. His right knee was nothing but a wet chunk of flesh. The demon's blood ran dark, and I wouldn't think about what it probably tasted like. He was missing most of the fingers on one hand, and his legs were completely covered with bite marks and missing bits of flesh.

I couldn't spot Diesel in the middle of the action and panicked, searching the ground for his body.

The pack worked together, keeping the attacks constant but brief. If the demon got his hands on any one of them, he could've torn them apart, but facing four alpha wolves and the rest of the pack to boot seemed jarring enough to knock him off his bearings.

This wouldn't last for long. Soon the wolves would tire, or Thalasso would regroup, and then everything would be over.

Despite the futility of it all, the pack kept pushing Thalasso off the lawn and to the cliff.

Without a warning I could see, Storri howled, and the wolves jumped back at once, leaving a wide berth around Thalasso. He pulled back, eyes flitting from wolf to wolf, but not to the school bus tearing through the grass toward him. The shifters cleared the way at the last possible moment, leaving Thalasso just enough time to inhale before the bus made impact and sent the demon flying over the cliff.

The front of the bus teetered over the edge, and for one heart-stopping moment, the back tires lifted from the ground. Knox, the twins, and Faust were there at the bumper, keeping the bus stationary long enough for Diesel to jump out. When the others let go, the bus teetered once more before resting at the edge.

"Diesel, check the—"

Thalasso rose above the cliff. He hung suspended above our heads, a smirk on his face that said he knew he'd won. We'd thrown everything we had at him, and he was still coming. Worse, it looked like his time over the cliff had given his body a chance to heal. His knee was back, along with most of his fingers.

I jumped from Sitka's back and raced over the lawn toward Diesel. If we were all going to die now, I'd do it by my mate's side.

"Are you finished?" Thalasso mocked. "I could go a few more rounds…" He let his gaze land on the torn-up lawn and our pack members, beaten and bloody, to the hotel, where large clouds of black smoke billowed from the back side. "It doesn't look like you can. Look, you don't all have to die. I'll even let you keep your nephilim,