Page 35 of Demon Unleashed

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Zoltan stared at the five demons coming at him. They didn’t look friendly, nor did they seem to have any respect for their leader.

The sun had just set, and he was only a few steps away from his apartment building. He’d taken the back way, through the alley, because his contact lenses were on the verge of disintegrating, and he was hoping to avoid being seen. Apparently that was his first mistake. His second was that he hadn’t slept and was exhausted. He’d combed the city for Enya. Without success. Mick hadn’t delivered any better news. So Zoltan had decided to return to his condo, rest for a few hours, and then try again. He wasn’t going to give up. He needed to talk to Enya. But the way things appeared now, it didn’t look like he’d get the chance.

Five demons and five deadly daggers against one exhausted Great One. The odds weren’t good. Whoever wanted him dead was stepping up his game and had clearly gotten some good intel. To encounter assassins only steps away from his hideout in the mortal world meant Zoltan’s antagonist knew about the place. Not that this fact was the most important one right now. After all, a dead leader didn’t need a condo anymore. To his own surprise, one regret surfaced: Zoltan would never know what it would be like to have Enya in his bed every night.

Zoltan gripped his dagger tightly. He wasn’t going down without a fight. He’d take a few of these bastards with him. Turning to his left, he charged the demon on the outer flank first, a move the idiot hadn’t anticipated. Zoltan slammed into him, dagger first, lifted him off his feet, and tossed him toward the other four. Three of them managed to get out of the way; only one got knocked off his feet by the injured demon. Both crashed onto the asphalt, while the other three advanced.

Zoltan glanced around, but there wasn’t much he could do. Turning tail and running back to where he’d come from wouldn’t get him far. Besides, he wasn’t going to die a coward.

With a grunt, his jaw clamped shut, he lunged forward and let his dagger fly. It hit its target: the chest of one of the approaching demons. The bastard tumbled backward. But the two others were unimpressed, and the demon who’d crashed to the ground earlier was on his feet again. Zoltan ducked to pull his second dagger from his boot. The action cost him a valuable second, allowing one of his attackers to lunge for him, his dagger pointed at Zoltan’s heart. Temporarily off balance, Zoltan swayed. With his free arm, he instinctively blocked the assassin’s dagger hand, but he felt its tip rip his sleeve.

Already, a second attacker came charging from the other side.

“Fuck!” Zoltan cursed.

He pushed the demon whose knife had almost sliced into his arm away from him, and to his surprise, the bastard stopped in mid-motion. His mouth opened wide, and his eyes glazed over with utter surprise. An instant later, he fell to the ground, green blood bubbling from his mouth.

“What the—”

But Zoltan had no time to figure out what had happened. The second attacker was upon him, wrestling him to the ground, while a third joined the melee. Zoltan thrust his knee up and managed to toss one of his attackers off, but the other made a downward motion with his dagger. Zoltan couldn’t get his arm up fast enough to block the attack.

“Shit!” This was it.

But the dagger stopped an inch away from Zoltan’s chest, and the attacker’s head was jerked back as if by invisible hand. In the next second, somebody slit the assassin’s throat, and green blood spurted over Zoltan. Now he knew he wasn’t alone. Somebody was helping him. Somebody who was invisible.

Confused, the third demon who’d lunged for him froze for a split second. It was long enough for the invisible rescuer to plunge a dagger into his heart. Zoltan jumped up, grabbed a dagger from one of the dead demons, and charged for the only demon still standing, but somebody tripped him, making him fall forward. Zoltan ripped his head toward the asshole: the injured demon on the ground. A punch landed in his face, whipping it to the side. Zoltan rolled, then jumped up and whirled back to the injured demon. Just in time, because the assassin had gotten back on his feet and was coming for him. But this time, Zoltan was prepared. He barreled past the bastard, pivoted, and plunged his dagger into the demon’s back, twisting it for good measure, then pulled it out and kicked the dead creature to the ground to join his dead brethren.

Behind him, he heard grunts, some definitely belonging to a woman. And she was in trouble. Green demon blood had splattered on her, and even though she was still invisible, the specks of demon blood weren’t and gave away her position.

“Enya, duck!” Zoltan called out, and lifted his dagger hand over his shoulder. When he saw the specks of green demon blood move, he took the shot and threw the blade. It found its target. The last of the five demons stumbled for a few seconds, before he fell forward, dead.

Zoltan breathed hard and braced his hands on his knees. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins the way a bullet train cut through the landscape. He’d survived, but not thanks to his own doing. He looked up, and in front of his eyes, Enya became visible.

“You saved me.” He shook his head. Had his groveling actually worked on her? Had he known of the power of groveling before, he would have used it earlier.

“We’ve gotta hide the bodies. Help me.” She motioned to the large trash containers lining one side of the alley.

Together they heaved the first demon into the container.

“I was looking for you,” Zoltan said. “Looks like you got my message and decided to agree that we talk.”

She huffed. “Don’t flatter yourself.” She pointed to the next body and gripped the dead guy’s legs.

Zoltan hooked his hands under the demon’s arms, and they carried him to the container, swinging him back and forth to get enough momentum to heave him over the ledge.

“Listen, Enya, we clearly have something here. You and me. We want the same.” At least when it came to sex.

She tossed him an annoyed look. “If you’re talking about getting your dead friends off the street, then yeah, we want the same.”

He lifted up the third guy. “They’re clearly not my friends.”

“And there I thought all demons stick together.” She took the dead guy’s legs. “Guess there’s trouble in the Underworld.”

“You could say that. Somebody wants me dead.”

“That’s pretty evident.”