Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex Demonized #1) - Annette Marie Page 0,83
the weapons up and I stumbled back, too close, too clumsy—
He jerked convulsively. His face went slack, then he pitched forward. His weapons hit the ground with clangs that echoed in the sudden quiet. Travis stood behind the collapsed man, holding a blood-splattered rock. He stared at Karlson, his face white.
Ten yards away, Zylas stood alone, surrounded by his fallen enemies. All the demons had disappeared, their contractors dead, and blood had turned the musty concrete into a macabre painting. Zylas was splattered all over.
My stomach squirmed and I looked away. So much death. So many lives ended. Numbness spread through me, and I didn’t know what to feel. Should I have felt anything else besides the relief coursing through me?
Tail swishing, Zylas hopped across the battlefield. When he’d cleared the bodies, his gait shifted to a dangerous prowl, gaze fixed on Travis.
“Well, payilas?” he crooned as Travis’s expression slackened with terror. “Should I kill this one too?”
I studied Travis, who clutched his rock like it might save him. Amalia gave me a pleading, desperate look.
Briefly closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. “Zylas, I think enough people have died already.”
“Mercy is for the weak, payilas.”
“The weak can’t afford mercy.” I met his eyes. “I think we can.”
He stared at me, then grimaced—his favorite “you’re so dumb you don’t even make sense” grimace. I rolled my eyes. Looking like he could hardly believe his luck, Travis cleared his throat to speak, then changed his mind. We stood mutely, silenced by the trauma and violence we’d survived.
“We should leave,” Amalia suggested.
Travis nodded eagerly. “I have a car parked on the street. This way.”
Together, the three of us started across the lot, leaving the massacre and Red Rum’s burning boat behind. Zylas trailed after us, rubbing at the blood on his hands with his nose wrinkled in disgust. As we passed the bumper of an abandoned tractor-trailer, the three of us stopped abruptly. A road ran alongside the concrete lot, and directly ahead, a black car with tinted windows idled at the curb.
The driver’s door opened. A man stepped out, large sunglasses obscuring his face, but a distinct scar ran up his chin and distorted his lower lip.
“Claude?” Amalia and Travis exclaimed.
Uncle Jack’s partner and fellow summoner smiled with warm relief. “Amalia, Travis—and Robin—I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“How did you find us?” Amalia demanded.
“I have many contacts in various circles.” He lifted his sunglasses to peer at Zylas in appreciation, strangely unalarmed. “So that’s the demon from the library, is it?”
“What are you doing here?” Travis asked sharply.
I wasn’t the only one wondering what was really going on.
“I came to fetch you—to get you all away from Red Rum.” Claude waved at his car. “Come along, kids.”
Part of me, the part that was exhausted and terrified and heartsick, wanted nothing more than to climb into that car and let a smart, experienced adult take over. But I wasn’t desperate enough to ignore the warning in my gut, and judging by the tense look Amalia and Travis shared, they felt it too.
Claude’s faint smile didn’t falter, but his eyes cooled. A slight shift in his expression, as though his attention had turned elsewhere. Turned inward—
Zylas sprang.
He crashed into me and I hurtled backward. I hit the ground as a reddish shadow plummeted out of the sky. It slammed down on the spot where I’d been standing—where Zylas was now crouched, having thrown me clear.
Monstrous wings flared as the demon smashed Zylas into the concrete. Crimson power burst off Zylas and he twisted free, whirling away in a blur—and the other demon followed, almost as fast, its long arms reaching. The demon and Zylas tangled, claws flashing, then Zylas broke away with an unsteady stagger.
I scrambled onto my feet as Zylas backed toward me. He turned, forgetting his adversary entirely. His eyes were dark, unfocused, blankly staring.
He dropped, his metal greaves clanging against the pavement. I leaped and caught him as he pitched forward. On his knees, he sagged against me, face against my stomach, his weight pushing me backward.
“Zylas?” I gasped, gripping his shoulders.
The attacking demon watched us, its eyes burning like magma. I’d almost thought it was Tahēsh, somehow returned to life, but at six and a half feet tall, this demon wasn’t as large. Its wings were more delicate, its tail ending in barbs similar to Zylas’s. Long black hair was pulled away from its sharp features and tied in place with a strip of leather.