Page 10 of Underworld
He gave me another wicked grin.
“Of course, now I’ve got a hell of lot more firepower than I had an hour ago.”
“I bet,” I said, blood staining my cheeks pink at the lascivious look he gave me. “Great to know this place is still as crazy as ever—students, rushing into the breach.”
“We aren’t human,” he said with a shrug. “None of us were made for sitting on the shelf, Lily. You know that better than anybody. Alright, are you ready?”
I stepped past the broad double doors, wrinkling my nose as the scent of sulfur hit me in the face. My eyes watered against the substance and I blinked rapidly to clear my vision.
This side of the campus wasn’t nearly as empty now. A crowd of students rushed toward a crack in the dome, the other side writhing with shadows.
“Let’s go,” Orion said, tugging my hand. He seemed excited to fight, to finally feel alive.
“No,” I said, tugging against him. Something in my gut drew me the other way. “This way.”
Orion didn’t argue, just walked with me, then fell into a jog as urgency drove me to quicken my pace.
The alarm’s rhythm abruptly changed just as we rounded a row of hedges. We came to an abrupt halt in one of the more secluded areas of the Academy.
“Is this a second breach?” I asked him as I stared at the dark silhouettes barely visible through the soft, pearly barrier of the Academy’s protections. A long crack ran up the perimeter, and it was getting wider.
“Yes.” He put a hand at the small of my back. “The first was probably a decoy. Big and showy, while they sent their stronger forces to this spot. We’ll have to adjust the defenses and—”
The barrier burst inward, spraying us with pearlescent shards that cut off Orion’s instruction. The barrier broke, leaving tinted glass that slowly lost its light as it flung through the air.
For some reasons, I was mesmerized as I stared at those shards, watching the glow leeching away.
“Come on, Lily,” Orion said, squeezing my shoulder before he launched himself toward the breech.
The Demonspawn flowed in a sinuous line to meet him and my demigod laughed; a joyful, bright sound that seemed out of place as literal demons flowed into our sanctuary.
Good thing I had Demonspawn blood in me. Fight fire with fire, as they say.
Letting my claws free, I lunged into the battle, tearing and slashing, losing myself to the violence.
The Demonspawn kept coming and we hacked them down; Orion with a blade he’d pulled from thin air and fierce golden energy he hurled from the other hand. It wasn’t until I spotted golden magic slamming into a Demonspawn and turning it into nothing that I remembered my own magic and called a fireball to my hand.
A Demonspawn grinned at me.
How about a fireball to the face, asshole?
Launching my attack, I squealed with victory when the creature writhed and screeched, the flame consuming him.
Apparently offended, another Demonspawn came at me and sank his teeth into my arm, making me scream.
Before I could deal with it, Orion slammed a massive fist into the thing’s skull. It went lip, skull caved in and Orion gave me a wince as he worked the Demonspawn’s mouth free.
“Sorry,” he said when I hissed in reaction to the teeth coming free.
“No problem.” I smiled at him, feeling a rush of warmth in my body that was unfamiliar, but my instincts told me it was nothing dangerous. As I watched, the wound on my arm began to knit itself closed before my eyes. “Wow. That’ll come in handy.”
Orion agreed, but then something jerked hard in my Virtue bond, making me fall to one knee.
“My darling little angel.”
That voice, low and rough, with the faintest sibilance to it, came from behind us.
Orion’s jaw went tight. He turned before I did and tried to keep me behind him.
