September Moon (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8)

It had a humanoid appearance though that was where the similarities ended. The entire body was devoid of hair. Its feet had a cloven appearance, and its spine jutted out at a horribly unnatural angle. Its back was to us, and it busily slurped away at something I couldn’t yet see and was pretty sure I didn’t want to. The thing was either deaf or didn’t give a shit since it had yet to acknowledge us.

“What the fuck?” Jez put a hand to her mouth as we caught sight of what the demon was doing.

It turned suddenly, a strip of flesh hanging from its mouth. Its face was grotesquely deformed, as if someone had stepped in the center of it. Horns protruded from its forehead. Its eyes were the most frightening, goat-like pupils in a milky white pool. They fixed on us, and the thing snarled.

A mouthful of razor sharp teeth got my pulse pounding faster. The remains of the person it was eating were unidentifiable. Chunks of flesh covered the floor and the demon’s claw-like hands. The coffee and bagel I’d had earlier threatened to make an appearance as I watched it suck in that piece of dangling meat like a spaghetti noodle.

It lunged toward us, flailing like a newborn calf that didn’t yet know how to use its limbs properly. In an uncharacteristic move, I took a step back.

Jez surged forward to bury her dagger in its chest. With a heavy arm, it smacked her, sending her crashing into a desk that overturned. She rolled and got to her feet, pulling another dagger from her boot.

I snapped into action and hit the thing with a psi ball as it lunged for Jez again. My attack threw it back, down beside the mutilated corpse. I swung the Dragon Claw, hoping like hell that Lilah had been telling the truth back when she told me it would kill demons with a physical form as well as vampires. This demon looked pretty damn physical to me.

The blow never landed. The demon threw one of the student desks at me with more strength than any such creature should ever have. It hit me dead on, taking my feet out from under me. The desk landed on my chest, crushing the breath from my lungs. Jez was there, throwing it aside and dragging me to my feet. I struggled to breathe, but I had no time to recover.

The demon clamped a heavy hand around Jez’s ankle and jerked her off her feet. It pulled her close, like she weighed nothing. Smacking its lips, it wore a gruesome smile. She swung wildly with her dagger, plunging it into the demon’s arm repeatedly. Murky black blood bubbled up from the wounds she inflicted, but the demon continued as if unaware.

I moved fast, swinging the Dragon Claw. I sliced a deep gash across its chest, and this time it did react. With a loud wail, it tossed Jez aside and came at me. Smoke rose from the wound. It stunk like death and sulfur. I waited for it to get closer, and then I plunged the dagger deep into its guts. The wailing grew louder and more shrill, hurting my ears.

Pulling the blade free, I lined up my swing and let fly. The blade sliced through its thick neck, and its head flew across the room to land with a sloppy slap on the teacher’s desk. The demon’s body fell at my feet, twitching and convulsing. Then it began to slowly dissolve until all that was left was a thick, black goo staining the floor.

“What the fuck was that?” Jez gasped, her eyes wide as she watched the goo bubble and pop. “Since when do demons do that?”

“That couldn’t have been a pure demon. Not one that was ever an angel.” I gazed down at the mess. Was Shya behind this? “Crap like this can’t just walk free among the rest of us. Not without someone powerful to call it.”

“Someone like Shya?”

“Or maybe someone like the FPA. Someone in their lockup. I don’t know.”

I couldn’t imagine why either party would want to unleash something so twisted in the city. I had a bad feeling that I was going to find out.

Jez retrieved her dagger from the black sludge, used the edge of a desk to give it a wipe, and stuck it back into her boot. “I bet you’re really missing the Vegas vampires now.”

Chapter Two

“What the fuck was that, Shya? I don’t appreciate being sent after shit like that without more warning. I’m not sure what you’ve been up to, but I don’t want any part of it.”

I disconnected the call with the press of a silent touchscreen button, missing the days when one could slam down the phone in anger. I doubted the demon would even hear that voicemail message, but it was the only way I could reach him without going to his house or summoning him through the demon mark on my arm. Since leaving the school, I had been a jumble of mixed emotions. Mostly, I was just mad.

“No answer, huh?” Jez nodded, twirling an unlit cigarette between her fingers. “Maybe it’s better that way. Do you really want to know how that thing got here? Let’s just be glad there’s nothing left of it but goop.”

She had a point. I probably didn’t really want the answers I was going to demand, but that wasn’t going to stop me from finding out. If I was going to protect this city, I needed to be in the know about this shit.