Page 117 of House of Pain
“They’re inside!” Gael’s voice, from the first floor. “Move away from the windows! Move away!”
No.They couldn’t have been…
But then there was a roar, low and deadly, sending shivers down Alecto’s spine. It came from downstairs, followed by a sea of screams and cries.
“Fuck.” Alecto breathed out the words, looking between Val and Blaze.
“There’s like a dozen Hellbates outside our windows,” Jolene said, rushing from her room. Andro was right behind her.
Another wave of screams came from the first floor.
“Yeah, and from the sound of it seems like there’s a dozen of them inside,” Val snapped. “Blaze, Andro, go check on the protection wards. Pull them back up. Take Rogue if you need to.”
Blaze nodded, and he and Andro ran up to the third floor.
“Jolene, what is it that Hellbates don’t like?” Val asked. “Fire and…?”
“Light, not fire, any sort of light,” Jolene said, her breathing shallow. “They’re the night’s creatures, so they can’t stand the light. But it won’t kill them.”
Alecto ran back to her room, grabbed her bones from the nightstand, and returned to the girls. Without waiting, she closed her eyes, chanting as she conjured a ball of daylight in her mind.
“Good, Alecto,” Val said. When Alecto opened her eyes, a ball of light warmed her palm. “Keep that going. Well, what the fuck is going to kill them?”
Jolene bit her lower lip, frowning.
“Think faster, Jols!” Val insisted, and Alecto slapped her shoulder.
“Pressure is not going to help.”
“Smoke of the burning Girther!” Jolene blurted out, her hands moving frantically over her body and hair. “Yes, yes, the smoke is deadly to them.”
“Do we have it?” Val asked, glancing down the stairs.
Jolene was already on her way to her bedroom. “I’ll get it. But I’ll need some time.”
“Jolene, get the shit and meet us downstairs. Alecto, with me. We need to get everyone into the basement where there are no windows.”
Alecto followed Val downstairs, keeping the light in her palm going.
“I’m not going to let a single fucking witch die tonight,” Val hissed through her clenched teeth as she rushed to the living room.
Three witches were pressing against the wall as two Hellbates crawled inside through a broken window.
Alecto jumped into the space between the creatures and the students, transferring light into her free palm as she held it against the creatures. They both stopped, screeching and hissing.
“Move, fucking move!” Val snapped behind Alecto, and when she glanced back, she saw Val gesturing for the witches to move to the corridor.
Alecto glared back at the Hellbates, all of their attention clearly focused on her now. All thoughts left her mind as she stared at them.
“Alecto, leave it, come here,” Val said, pulling at Alecto’s pajama shirt.
Without turning her back to the creatures, Alecto let Val lead her to the corridor.
“Move to the basement, close the door, and stay there. Got it?” Val said to the witches, and they obeyed.
Alecto rushed into the meeting room on the opposite side of their corridor to find another bunch of witches trying to shoo three Hellbates, already inside, by throwing random items at them.
“Stop that!” Val snapped, and Gael’s hand froze. “You’re just going to make them angrier, you dumb fuck!”
