“You’ve only brought yourself future desolation beyond what any flesh bag has yet faced,” the general called. “You will surrender your souls to Hell!”
“Not on your crispy ass!” Zach bellowed.
The hellhound groaned and coughed, tipping sideways and landing so heavily it made the ground shake. I held my breath as it rolled to its feet, maimed but still not dead. But the demonic creature stayed low, snarling in pain as it began slinking away into the smog. It was retreating, the demon general turning its yellow gaze away from us to follow its mount. The hellbats above us that still remained were either being shot down, or were losing their focus and drifting away.
We’d won the battle.
“I really am fine,” Heather murmured.
She was curled up on the couch of her and Jeff’s place, leaning into Jeff’s chest as his hand soothed cautiously around the bandage he’d placed over the bite mark.
“I’m gonna stay and keep an eye on them both, but your de—our succubus seems to have her healing nicely,” Georgie said, smiling up at me. Georgie was a petite and grandmotherly figure of a woman, but she’d made it plain tonight as we’d fought how she’d managed to survive the apocalypse so long. If anything got hairy tonight, she’d be able to raise the alarm.
“Tell her I said thank you, Father,” Jeff said, nodding.
“We,” Heather corrected, not lifting her cheek from Jeff’s shoulder. “We say thank you.”
“Will do. You two just rest up this week and Bethel will chip in on anything you need,” I said.
That made Heather sit up, and she did so with narrowed eyes. “No way. I’m gonna be back on those training mats tomorrow, Father Kais. Not letting another hellion get the jump on me.”
“We will both be on the mats, but not until I know your stitches won’t pull,” Jeff said, looking surprisingly at ease for a man who’d had to give the woman he loved stitches after she was bitten by a flying hellion.
Only five stitches, though. Five stitches for Heather and a scratched up and twisted wing for Azariah. That was all the fight had cost us. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
“Go get your own rest,” Georgie said, frowning at my probably dazed expression.
I nodded and bade my goodbyes to the three, leaving the small brick apartment over the diner behind, pausing on the small staircase outside their door. The night was so calm now, cool and quiet. The heavy winds had blown away the smog that’d been blanketing Bethel for weeks, and the world almost looked...normal. Or at least, normal for our times.
There was a pyre burning down the street, cleaning up the remains of the hellbats, and larger-than-usual parties of patrollers waved at me as I passed, our numbers doubled up, just to be sure. The people I greeted looked tired, but happy too, like fighting back tonight had made them feel safer than ever.
Deyva was standing in the small garden between the church and the cottage, facing the gate and staring into the dark.
“Heather and Jeff send their thanks,” I said.
Deyva jumped, eyes wide and yellow as she spun to face me, and I raised my hands at my sides, surprised that I’d startled her. She’d been so confident, so determined earlier, but the woman standing in front of me now looked frightened again, as she had weeks ago.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Everyone’s fine and I thought...well, I kind of thought you’d be glad to know they came for Az and not you this time,” I said, grinning sheepishly.
Deyva blinked and ducked her head, relaxing slowly. “Umm, yeah, that was a nice surprise, I guess.”
I opened my mouth, a million things on the tip of my tongue. She was a nice surprise, better even than uncomplicated and relieving sex dreams, better than having an angel arrive at our gates. I wanted to bury myself inside her again, to feel her strangling my cock as she whined and thrashed with pleasure. I wished that she’d been with me, at my side, to receive Heather and Jeff’s thanks herself.
“You tired?” I asked instead, fully aware that Deyva didn’t really need to sleep.
Her head lifted and her lips curled seductively. “Sure, Kais. Tuck me in.”
I swallowed down all the wicked ways I wanted to take that statement, and reached for her hand, leading her inside and up to my room, just to get another good night’s sleep with her at my side.