Page 23 of Snowed in with the Demon Lord
Again, he moved so fast he blurred. Experience let me compensate, ducking his first attack, blocking the second, clawing his stomach as he landed his third. Then he was out of my reach again, retreating as fast as he’d attacked.
“You are old and slow.”
“And you are burning through your reserves,” I said, baring my teeth in a grin. “You will run out of energy and die.”
“Perhaps, perhaps. Or maybe I’ll kill you and feast on your pet’s soul.” Hate dripped from his words. “That will sustain me a—hrk”
Perhaps he’d expected me to let him finish the sentence, or just overestimated his reaction speed. My attack caught him unprepared, and my claws bit deep into his forearm. I’d aimed at his throat, but with his soul-fueled speed, he managed a block.
I didn’t let up the pressure, driving my knee into his wounded stomach, slicing with my claws, sending him staggering back into a tree. The fight was almost won.
But Seeker wasn’t giving up, even in the face of death. His aura of hellfire flared up, intensifying, as he committed everything to his rage. Sudden strength let him push me back, scoring painful hits on my arms, and then he turned his attention toward Holly again.
He couldn’t win, and he had to know that. All he wanted now was to hurt me, and he’d found the best way to do that in my mortal. I would not allow that to happen.
Everything slowed down as I realized what I had to do. I leaped after Seeker, swinging my arm past him as he launched his strike. If I’d attacked him, he’d have rolled with the blow, blocked it, dodged. The only way for me to save Holly was to reach past Seeker and grab her, pulling her out of his way.
He twisted to follow, and I kept turning. Shielding her with my body. Cold agony stabbed into my back, Seeker’sclaws buried deep, and I saw Holly’s green eyes widen as she understood what I’d done.
We didn’t need words. Her eyes said it all, and I hoped she saw my feelings in mine. There wasn’t time to speak them aloud, anyway. I wished we’d had that time, but now the important thing was that she’d live.
To make sure of that, I threw her out of the clearing. Seeker pushed me to the side to follow her, ducking under my attempt to elbow him in the face as he passed. He thought he’d won the fight.
He hadn’t noticed me looping my tail around him while my back was turned. Two steps later and he found out as I jerked him back toward me.
We collided in a mess of claws and horns and teeth. All technique forgotten, I gave no thought to defense, letting his lightning-fast strikes hit. My own attacks struck home with brutal strength, and his edge in speed counted for little when we were bound so close.
Oh,hestill tried to defend himself, but he couldn’t dodge while I held him. Blocks worked better, but not enough, and each one was a missed chance to hit back. I rained my fury down on him, roaring without words, and his hatred faltered in the face of my rage. With growing desperation, he sliced me open, each hit draining my strength along with my blood. But I refused to let go.
Even when my legs gave out and I fell, I dragged Seeker down with me into the snow. His claws tore at my neck, my hands closed around his, and our eyes locked. I watched his hate and anger turn first to fear, then panic, as I ignored his attacks. They didn’t matter, as long as I kept my Holly safe.
My grip tightened, and his neck gave a horrible, finalcracklike a rotten branch snapping. Seeker kicked once, a death spasm, and went limp, his dead weight dragging me down to theground. The world dimmed, and I looked up to see Holly limping toward me. She was safe, which was all that mattered. I smiled and closed my eyes, letting the darkness take me.
18
HOLLY
“No, no, no!” I hobbled towards the pair of demons, but I knew it was too late. The flames in Abaddon’s eyes guttered and went out as he watched me with that damned smile of his. It looked like he was taunting me or claiming victory.
“No, you fucking asshole, you don’t get to die on me.”
I fell to my knees, heedless of the bloody snow, and grabbed his hand. Black ichor covered it, and I didn’t care. Squeezing hard, I tried to find some sign of life, but there was nothing. His hand didn’t return my grip. No fog of breath from his mouth or nose, no movement of his chest. When I felt for a pulse, I got nothing.
That doesn’t mean anything,I tried to tell myself.He’s not human. Maybe he doesn’t have a pulse, maybe his breath doesn’t steam. He could be unconscious.
Even to me, that wasn’t a convincing line. I’d heard Abaddon’s heart beat when I rested on his chest. I’d seen his breath in the air. This was grasping at straws, and I knew it.
Tears burned their way down my cheeks, freezing in the icy air, and I tried to hold myself together. The absolute worst thingthat could happen now would be me dying because I fell to pieces in the snow, making Abaddon’s sacrifice pointless.
“Right,” I said to myself, trying not to notice the fear and pain in my voice as I stood. “First, I get Belial, then we go back to the cabin, and then…”
I trailed off. It was hard to imagine the cabin without a brooding, grumpy, crimson-skinned demon in it, and I hated the idea of going back there. But what choice did I have? It was the only shelter I knew of within walking distance.
Hopefullywithin walking distance. Bruised, battered, and limping, I wasn’t in peak hiking condition. I didn’t know how far we’d come, either, and my only hope of finding the way back was to follow Abaddon’s tracks through the snow. If the storm picked up again, I’d lose that trail, and big, heavy flakes were already drifting through my field of view.
Wait, that’s not snow. I blinked as my brain caught up with what I saw. Seeker’s corpse was coming apart, the wind pulling wisps of ash from him. He’d already almost vanished, and as I watched, what was left collapsed in on itself.
I looked from the shrinking ash pile to the stubbornly solid body of Abaddon, and wondered. Did all demon corpses vanish like this? It made sense, otherwise there’d be more evidence demons existed. In which case, it might mean that Abaddon was still alive.
