The protective barrier blocked most of his power, but he could still fight like any other human. And the mofo was strong.
He let go of my throat, and I fell to my hands and knees in front of him. I tried to crawl away. He smiled down at me before he grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me up. Pinning my arm behind my back, he held it so tightly that his fingernails bit into my flesh. My shoulder joint screamed in agony when he jammed my arm further up my back. He pushed me from the bedroom and down the hallway. I stumbled. He dragged me to the front door, my legs flailing, trying to find something to wrap them around. I used my free hand to hold on to the doorjamb. He easily pulled me through the door and down the concrete steps of the porch, my feet hitting the steps painfully as they bounced from one to the next.
Muriel, Jen, and Drew were there, already in a fight with the demi-demons and Evils. But nine against three weren’t very good odds, and they were quickly overtaken. Without Chay, our second-strongest demi and next in line to lead the group if something were to happen to me, our group was weakened. Broken.
“See what you have caused, Milayna?” Abaddon gripped my face in one hand and forced me to watch the fight.
Two demi-demons were laughing as they held Drew in place for Jake. Jake took his time with each hit, making sure it delivered maximum pain. Drew’s left eye was already purple and swollen shut. His lip was bloody, and blood dripped from his mouth. His head lolled to the side, and I wasn’t sure if he could stand up without the demi-demons help—I couldn’t tell if he was even conscious.
Jen was still fighting, but she was losing ground quickly. Lily and Shayla were enjoying smacking her around. Jen would’ve been fine if it had just been the bitchy duo—she could take Lily and Shayla without problem. But Rod and Steven were in on the fun, too. The four circled her, taking turns jabbing and kicking. Just when Jen would block one hit, someone else would throw another at her. Her nose was covered in blood. She was holding her side and hobbling on one leg. She was finished.
Muriel was trying her best to fight off the remaining two demi-demons and help Jen, too. There were too many fists and legs flying for me to keep up with her fight. All I could tell for sure was that Muriel was hurt. Her face was bloody and she held one arm close to her body, protecting it. She was done.
“Tell them to stop. Please,” I whispered around the lump in my throat.
He’s right. I caused this.
Abaddon raised his hand. Without a word, the fighting stopped. “It was getting boring anyway.”
Muriel’s face was already swelling from the brutality of the fight. Blood ran down her cheek and dripped onto the shoulder of her torn T-shirt, but instead of worrying about her own fate, she looked at me with remorse. “I’m so sorry, Milayna.” Tears formed in her eyes.
The group was herded together by the demons, forced to watch as Abaddon shoved me forward to the pit. I fell to my knees. I could see the people who had sold their souls to Azazel and I cringed at the sight of the damned sentenced to Hell, swirling in the yellow light. The smell of sulfur and burning flesh was so strong that I gagged with each breath.
“Milayna!” my mom screamed from the porch where she and my dad were cornered by a group of sickly gray demons. Tears ran down her face. My father fought a futile battle against the demons. The tendons in his neck were taut, the muscles in his arms bulging as he pushed against the group, his face red and full of rage.
“I love you,” I yelled to my parents.
“Well, Milayna, time to go. I’m not like the idiot Azazel. I’m not going to spend time chitchatting with you. I prefer to get things out of the way sooner rather than later. So I’ll ask you this only once. Do you want to change your mind and come and work for me… or do you want to die?”
I looked into the pit, smelling the sulfur, rot, and burning flesh. I saw the fiery golden color emanating from it, feeling the heat and tasting the char in the back of my throat. And for a mere second, I wavered.
I don’t want to die there. I don’t want to die now. Maybe switching sides wouldn’t be so bad. So Azazel gains some of my power. The next demi-angel can fight him. I’m too tired. So very, very tired of it all.
I looked into Abaddon’s black eyes rimmed in red. A slow smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. He knew what I was thinking. He thought he had me…
He was dead wrong.
“I won’t switch sides,” I yelled over the groans and wails of the people suffering for all eternity in the fiery pit and the banshee-like screams of the demonic angels flying overhead, their black robes flowing around them, the hoods covering what I knew were hideous faces. “I’d rather die a thousand deaths in your pit than spend one second as your slave.”