"What is it?"
He didn't respond to Danger's question as he moved away from her to keep the demon's attention on him. "Qui' esta rahpah?" he asked the demon, wanting to know where it had come from.
Pausing momentarily, the demon showed its own surprise that Alexion spoke its native language. But that didn't stop him from attacking.
Before Alexion could move, it dove down, seized him by his throat, and slung him to the floor. He hit the ground so hard that had he been human, every bone in his body would have shattered.
The demon tore at him with its claws. Alexion brought his leg up to kick the demon off.
It didn't work.
He flashed away from it, but somehow the demon anticipated the action, and when he reappeared, it grabbed him again. This time it slammed him facedown on the floor. His teeth rattled as the demon seized him by the hair.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Danger grab a sword that she had hidden beneath her sofa.
"Stay back!" he shouted an instant too late. The demon caught her with his tail and knocked her off her feet. There was no way to win a fight with a Charonte. Not unless you were a god; and though Alexion could call upon Acheron's powers, they weren't really his.
That left him with one serious disadvantage.
The demon rolled with him. Alexion flashed out again only to have the demon seize him while he was invisible.
Give it up, Lex. The damned thing can obviously see you transmutate. Damn.
He punched at the demon, who didn't feel his blows at all. But Alexion did. His hand throbbed as if it were broken. The demon laughed at him as it grabbed him up, dropped him to the ground, and slammed his head painfully against the floor. It felt as if his brains really did rattle in his skull. He could taste the blood in his mouth, feel it running from his nose.
If he didn't get the demon off him soon, it would kill him. And this time, Acheron wouldn't be able to bring him back.
Alexion tried to call up the force field to block his blows. It was less effective than a flyswatter against a rhino. No wonder the Greek gods lived in fear of this species. They were horrifyingly powerful. The only real question was, how did the Atlantean gods ever subjugate them?
"Get off me, you lard-ass, halitosis, flea-infested horror-movie reject," he snarled in Charonte.
That succeeded in another head slam to the floor. The Charonte pulled back and wrapped itself around him like a boa constrictor. And much like the snake, he knew this was its final move before it tore him apart and ended his existence.
Alexion tried to pull its arms away.
Yeah, that's going to work. Why not spit at him while you're at it?
What he needed was Simi.
But in lieu of that...
He was pretty much screwed.
Danger was terrified as she watched the demon maul Alexion while Alexion was helpless against it. Until this moment, she hadn't even known he could bleed. It was frightening to see something do that much damage to someone she'd foolishly assumed was invincible.
She reached for her sword.
The demon let go of Alexion to lunge at her. She grabbed the sword and plunged it deep into the demon at the same time Alexion shouted, "No!"
She quickly figured out why he would say that when the demon snatched the sword out of her hands, removed it from his body, then went after her with it.
She braced herself to fight and die, but just as the demon reached her, Alexion rushed it and knocked it back. The two of them spun away from her.
"Protula akri gonatizum, vlaza!"
She had no idea what those words meant, but the demon immediately released him. To her utter shock, it actually dropped down to one knee, crossed its arms over its chest, and bowed its head reverently.
"Whoa," she breathed, in awe of what had just quelled the unstoppable. "What did you say?"