flaming blade across hundreds of yards, but the wraiths’ smoke fucked our visibility. I also couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling about the angel. Should have kept those two in my sight at all times, especially on the battlefield.
A sudden bright, white light stopped me in my tracks and forced me to shield my eyes.
“Back to where you came from, damned creatures!” Azariah’s voice rang out as if amplified by a speaker.
I peeked one eye open first and then the other, to see that the smoke had cleared and the light emanating from the angel.
Or rather, he was the light.
His hands were outstretched, his whole body glowing as though he were made of sunlight itself. Single handedly, he broke up a cluster of wraiths that were merging. And what he didn’t kill immediately, Zach jumped into the fray and swiftly cut down what remained with his demon blade.
“More coming down over the hill,” Stavros said.
“I see ‘em. Be ready, Zach.” My gun out of water, I holstered it and pulled out my own demon blade, a short katana-style sword I kept strapped to my back. Lightweight, with a thin, beautiful blade, I could use it one-handed comfortably, while still keeping my crossbow ready in the other.
“Azariah?” I called.
“Yes, Father Kais?” The glowing angel turned to me, his smile cocky and irritating.
“There’s a cluster merging by the church. Will you go take care of them while we get these?”
“Certainly, Father.” He started in that direction far too leisurely, casually, for anyone in the midst of a battle, immortal being or not.
But I didn’t have time to worry about his pace. I had to deal with what was right in front of me.
Zach swung his blade with controlled rolls of his wrists, the fire cutting through the air with whooshing sounds and a dazzling figure-eight pattern.
“Zach, you ready?”
“Just waiting on you, Kais.”
His eyes weren’t on the wraiths coming toward us fast, hovering above the ground in their shapeless masses. They were on Azariah.
“Zach!” I barked. “Get your head in the fucking game!”
“I’m good, I’m ready!” he yelled back.
“On three,” I said. “Stav, cover us.”
“Got you, guys.”
“One.” I raised my blade. “Two.”
Zach and I moved toward each other, finally in sync as our shoulders touched. We could hear the wraiths now, their creepy hissing crawling over my skin along with the heavy, corrupted presence of Hell they brought with them.
“Three!”
We moved in tandem, our blades slicing through smoky forms. The shine on mine let me know that we still had light, that the wraiths hadn’t succeeded in morphing and trapping us.
A small handful of our flock had been taken by merged wraiths in our early settlement days. We never found bodies, so we could only imagine they had been dragged back to Hell.
Not anymore, I thought as I slashed my way through the oppressive dark smoke. We are the swords of God.
All the while, I kept Zach’s flame in the corner of my eye. I knew he could handle himself, but fuck if I wasn’t still worried about the kid. Especially since that angel arrived.
“Kais, there’s something else coming over the hill!”
I felt the spray of Stav’s water gun raining down on me and welcomed the cooling moment. The smoke, heat, and heaviness in the air made my breathing labored, each inhale like a jagged knife sawing in and out of my lungs.
“What is it?” I never stopped cutting through, but the wraiths never seemed to stop either.
“Big, scary, ugly. I think it’s the demon general.”
I cleared out the smoky hellions in front of me before pausing to turn and look. Oh no, those words didn’t do this thing justice. This thing was nearly skeletal, its form black and brittle with red glowing lines all over its body, like dying logs in a campfire. And its body, if it could even be called that, was horrifically distorted. Impossibly long arms dragged along the ground, leaving small grass fires behind. A small, human-sized skull held up disproportionately large horns, just as long as the arms, twisted and gnarled like ancient tree roots.
“What the fuck…”
“Zach, look out!” Stavros’ usually calm voice was laced with panic.
I turned around, cursing at myself for being distracted by the monstrosity. All hellions were grotesque and ugly-looking. Well, except for Devya.
Zach slashed wildly in a hurried, desperate attempt to cut through the wraiths closing in on him, but the damned things outnumbered him. Rushing in, I forgot all about the demon as I saw the fear rising in the