Page 39 of Peacemaker

Chapter Twelve

The sword and the Golem

“Can she hear me?” Clayton murmured, horrified.

The demon waved Blacklight a little harder, shaking a glowing arc from the black metal. “Hear you?” He laughed, genuinely amused. “Who knows? But she can hurt you.”

Then he looked at me, his stare fierce. Something had changed in the demon since the last time we’d chased him back to his world. “You can save the others by giving me the sword and the golem.”

I shook my head and squeezed Silverlight. “That’s not a trade I will ever make, demon.”

I felt Silverlight’s strength and fierceness returning. She’d be ready for Blacklight when they clashed again—and they would clash again—now that she was over the initial shock.

“I am Seamus Flynn.” His voice was conversational, his big body relaxed. “You should know the name of the man who will kill you.”

Amias was suddenly at my back. I felt him like a puff of bloody wind seconds before I saw him. “That man will not be you,” he told the demon.

Seamus roared, and without another hesitation, he attacked. The time for talking was over. Blacklight expanded like a beating heart, taking all the air from Bay Town, and for a second there was nothing to pull into my lungs. Nothing but panic.

Then he released her and she flew toward Clayton, deadly, fast, and malicious. The demon jumped—one second he was on the ground and the next he was in the sky, then hurtled himself back down like a boulder in an avalanche. He would crush whatever he landed on.

“Shane,” I cried, unintentionally, even as I launched Silverlight at the demon’s sword. She would die for me, my Silverlight, but first, she would do as Amias had promised. She would kill the world for me.

I was terrified for Shane, even more so than the others. It was that damn gut feeling. But maybe I should have been more worried for myself.

I was weaponless, powerless, human.

And Silverlight was busy elsewhere.

I was a vampire hunter. Not a demon killer.

I did not want to die. I did not want to become a vampire.

With a suddenness that shocked me, a visitor arrived at the way station walls. His urgency was overwhelming, and I had a moment to wonder what would happen when I had no choice but to ignore him.

I forced myself out of the chaos of the call, shook my head to dislodge the crashing, shrill sound inside my mind, and put my concentration back on the bigger crisis.

The demon fight.

Rhys arrived, and I wanted to yell at him not to fight, not to show his power, not to weaken himself, but he would do as he would do. Rhys Graver was his own master.

Jade Noel and Amanda Hammer were with him, and they rushed in with whoops of joy, eager to fight, happy to face the demon and his living sword.

Amanda shoved me out of the way, and she shoved me hard. “Run,” she screamed, almost angrily. “Hide.”

Because she believed I was distracting them all, that I was a liability. I was in need of protecting. I was useless.

Or maybe that was just what I thought.

Jade didn’t pull the guns holstered at her hips. She pulled a wand. A barbed, black, red-tipped wand that lengthened as she whipped it through the air.

She waved it at the demon, her entire body twisting and moving with her wand, and I would have been fascinated if I’d had time to be.

Amanda Hammer leaped, and as she flew through the air, she slammed her fists together. A flash of power like silver lightning zigzagged toward Seamus the demon.

Angus charged the demon, his blood-colored horns flashing, his massive hooves tearing up the earth of the way station.

Shane and Clayton advanced from behind the demon, side by side, shooting as they came.