Page 66 of Legion
The Eliouds were pitiless in their attack.When they weren’t launching magick, they were aiming to slash and stab people with their swords.None scored hits on Naomi this time, but she didn’t know if she could say the same for those in her lair.
As for the damage?Portraits hit the floor.Glass smashed.Splinters came off the wooden furniture.Stray hellfire collided with the walls, leaving scorch marks.
Wonderful.
Clerics flinched.Screamed.Fell.Dropped swords.Eyed their injuries in horror.Literallyburned alive as her acidic fire ate at them.
Sensing movement, Naomi turned.
But not fast enough.
A sword slashed her arm, causing a blazing fiery pain—fucking ouch—to race down it.More, she had the same sensation as last time: a sliver of something malevolent creeping inside her.
“Fucker,” she spat, even as her inner fire rose up to incinerate the sliver and heal her wound.
Baby Face’s brow creased in confusion as her flesh reknitted.Confusion that was swiftly chased away by a fanatical hatred.“Die!”
“Nope.”She scorched his blade with power, forcing him to drop it, and—
“Don’t kill him, he’s all that’s left!”shouted Jolene.
Bummer.Naomi had wanted to make him pay for that slice.Instead, she pyroported behind him, wrapped her arm tight around his neck, and then squeezed hard.
He choked on a breath and struggled against her hold.As a demon, she was stronger than him, and he couldn’t get himself free.He desperately clawed at her arm and tried stomping on her feet.She thought he’d start lobbing magick at her, but it was as if he wasn’t thinking, too caught up in sheer animal panic.
She didn’t release him.Didn’t loosen her hold.Just kept on choking him out.
His struggles weakened until finally he lost consciousness.
Naomi let him drop to the floor and then looked around.The rest of his brethren had been slain.Her lair members were all on their feet, but a few looked a little the worse for wear.“Anyone need healing?”
Ciaran waved away the offer.“I’ve only got minor burns, they’re healing already.”The others echoed his sentiment, except for her mother and her anchor.
Tobe stared down at the slice on his chest.“It’s only shallow, so I’d say it ain’t a big deal, but I felt dark magick enter my bloodstream.”
Naomi pressed her hand over his wound, calling her inner fire to the surface, letting it heal him as it would her.She then gave the same treatment to the slashes on her mother’s neck and arm.
All seraphim could heal.Her power might not be pure like theirs, but it could still perform that ability.It had come in handy often over the years.
“Nobody else has an injury they want rid of?”she double-checked.
“We’re all peachy,” said Alfie, and the others nodded in agreement.
Smoothing back the hairs around her face that had escaped her stylish updo, Jolene said, “I believe we’re ready for step two in our plan.Let’s move the cleric over to the bed.”
Beck scooped him up and unceremoniously tossed him over his shoulder while Jolene snatched up a fallen sword.
Naomi used red-violet fire to incinerate every trace of his brethren’s existence, including the other blades.Meanwhile, Beck positioned Baby Face on her bed while Jolene propped the sword up against the dresser.Tobe then quickly injected him with a drug that was a slightly stronger version of truth serum.
Khloë rubbed her palms together.“Fingers crossed this all goes well and we get the answers we need.”
“Your fingers aren’t crossed,” Ciaran seemed to feel compelled to point out.
“You’re so literal sometimes,” his sister griped.
“Right, all of you step away from the bed and stand behind Tobe,” Jolene ordered.“The human should wake any minute.”
They did as instructed, at which point Tobe threw up a shield that would hide their presence.Jolene then knocked back a vial of something she’d bought from Ella—it was basically liquidized glamor magick.Her facial features seemed to blur, swim, ripple, then re-form into a completely different face.Her features hadn’ttrulychanged; the magick simply made themappeardifferent to whoever looked at her.
