Page 51 of Chaos Demons

“Fuck me,” I whispered in awe.

And with Fen adding so much destruction and chaos into the mix… Ramsey lost it too. Discord and conflict swirled around the Lord of Strife, tearing up everything in his path.

I wouldn’t be able to do much now, not as I was. I needed to fall back and regroup… even if it was only me regrouping.

I swore again as I was forced to flee. The bitter sting of failure sunk its claws into me as I bounded away and heard the combined laughs of Nari and Melinoe behind me.

“I’ll be back,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

For now, I’d retreat to the church where Ana and the others were holed up.

Except even before I got there, I could see the throng of undead crawling over the place, breaking windows and swarming through already broken doors. The building was completely overrun.

ANAIS

For a while,things had been fine.

Grey’s helicopter had returned, bringing a surprise with it: Harmonia. She’d been at the hospital when it had arrived with the wounded. Apparently, she’d helped some others escape the undead and had escorted them to that hospital. When she’d seen the helicopter, she’d known it was Grey’s and had hitched a ride back to us.

The helicopter had then taken the rest of those who were seriously injured away, leaving a small group of able-bodied people waiting in the church to get out on the next pass.

But not long after that, things escalated quickly. The zompires were no longer ignoring this building, but swarming toward it.

“It must be us,” Harmonia said, dismay thick in her voice. “We’ve doomed these innocent people.”

The doors of the church bulged inward with the force of the horde of zompires pressing against them.

“Us?” I asked, confused.

“Daemons. The zompires must be attracted to us for some reason.”

“Fu—” I remembered I was in a church, “—dge!”

“Fudge indeed,” Harmonia said, clipped. “Ana, get everyone to the basement. That will keep them safe a little longer, especially if the zompires are after us. I may be able to slow them with my harmony. Eva, get your gun. We’re about to need it.”

Eva grinned like a maniac as she snatched up her rifle. The sight of my daughter with such a weapon still boggled me.

All of this was too much.

My thoughts stuttered. I stood there, stunned, for a long moment.

“Ana?” Harmonia asked, laying a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Come on, girl, snap out of it!”

Her soothing peace swept through me, and my emotions settled, but my mind was still on the fritz.

“Ana?” She stared into my eyes, but it was like she was a thousand miles away. “I could really use confident and courageous Ana right now,” she whispered. “You know, the Ana that commands three daemon princes like they’re puppies. The Ana that faced down Mammon, an ancient daemon, and overwhelmed him. CanthatAna come out to play?”

Something about that wording made me laugh. It was a harsh, self-deprecating laugh, but still, it broke me out of my haze.

“Confident Ana is confident in a sheath dress, heels, and when faced with hot guys,” I told her. “Not horrid monsters.”

It was true. In social situations, I could rule the room. But in a warzone, I was less useful.

“Still, can you summon some of that moxie and power? We just might need it to get through this.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” I sniffed. “I mean, I am pretty hot in his outfit, so… maybe?”

“That’s the spirit,” Harmonia said, giving me one last squeeze before releasing me.

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