Page 99 of Bite of Passage
Command it to your bidding.
The gut feeling, conscience, instinct, or whatever the hell it was, came from deep in his soul, somewhere he never visited.Hot damn, his internal voice was back.
It never steered him wrong.Okay, maybe it had once or twice.Most of the time, though, it was right.
“Help me up,” Skarde rasped out.
Cade’s made no move to help.“I think I might’ve misspoken.You look like shit.What’re ye going to do?Ye can’t even stand up.There’s no fucking way you’ll do what’s needed.Killing her is the only way, isn’t it?Once I do, it’ll abandon her body, right?”
Skarde grabbed Cade’s arm tight and yanked himself upright.“This isn’t something you can do.It has to be me.”
“Bullshit.I’m as strong as you.Just as good a fighter.I can kill her and it.”
“Cade…” He sighed.“No.”
The demon paced the portal as it awaited its cohort.
Cade threw off his hold and marched toward the demon, sword out.
Skarde massaged his forehead and readied himself for the stupidity about to unfold.He’d interfere if he thought his brother might die.First, he’d let Cade get his ass handed to him.
Cade ran at Bannos, knives out with a bellow that would make their father’s ghost proud, not that either brother gave two shits about making the old man happy.The half grin on Gemma’s possessed face… his poor brother.
She moved faster than any vampire, missing all the knives headed for her and catching Cade on the pass with a knife slice down his arm.Using his momentum against him, the demon caught Cade’s arm, pivoted, and twisted the limb at an abnormal angle—at least one bone had definitely broken—before slamming him to the ground.
Ouch.
His stubborn brother didn’t give up; Skarde hadn’t expected anything less.Cade sprang up, broken arm dangling and useless, to strike again.The demon, bored of the situation, dodged the strike and launched him into the stone archway that surrounded the portal.
Cade fell to the ground, crumpled into a heap.
That was Skarde’s cue.
He took one step toward Bannos when something flew at the demon, emitting a warrior’s cry.
VanFliet.
All Skarde could do was watch.He would give VanFliet credit for bravery, but the beat down the demon gave him—now pinning him to the ground and pummeling his face—made him feel sorry for VanFliet.But the vampire was his blood brother.The code demanded he step in.
Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on the inner part of himself.He reached for the darkness, the tempting power he fought to keep buried.It slithered its way upward, slow at first as if wary.Yet, it wasn’t an independent entity.Skarde wasn’t possessed.It was more an essence, an energy he sensed that went beyond his vampire nature.Heart of a warrior, body of a vampire, and power of a demon.
Energized, he prowled toward Bannos.The demon had already discarded VanFliet, though the vampire was still breathing, and slayed a few humans to drink the blood from their corpses—such a demon thing to do.
A demon thing.
Yes, a demonthing.It was a creature doing what it knew to do.That didn’t make it evil.Perhaps, based on human standards, it may be seen as such, but Skarde wasn’t human.He needed to stop judging these beings using human paradigms.
“Bannos,” he demanded its attention.“That body isn’t yours to have.It’s mine.”
Gemma’s body kicked VanFliet out of its way, turning slowly.It lunged.
Skarde moved quickly.Given the wide-eyed look he got when it tripped and fell to its knees, he’d shocked the demon.Without flinching, Skarde struck it mid-throat, knocking Bannos fully to the ground.With a knee on the chest of Gemma’s possessed body, he gripped it in a chokehold.In the demon language, which Skarde hadn’t realized he understood or could speak fluently, he hissed, “Get.Out.”
The eyes bugged.
Between one breath and the next, Bannos Gemma’s body went boneless and fell to the ground.The demon, now in mist form, hovered for a moment before taking solid form.It couldn’t survive long as a solitary entity in this realm.It would need to possess a body to continue its existence.
He roared, “Cade, over here.Now.Get her out of here.”
