The red irises of his turtle gaze glowed as his maw opened wide and his tongue slithered out to lick my chin. I ignored his taste, gathered my remaining strength, and punched through his chest. His head lolled forward in shock as his heart pulsed one last time in my hand.
The demon dropped me as his body bopped and rolled like some sinister and twisted Weeble. I landed hard on my side, shaken, severely oxygen deprived but alive. Very, very much alive.
Danny fell backward, groaning when he hit the slab of stone and gagging when the demon burst in an explosion of moving innards. He rolled onto his side and crawled toward me, fighting back his nausea. Maybe I would have had to beat down bile, too, if I hadn’t viewed the blast of guts as the equivalent of drop-down balloons to our very nasty, very gruesome victory.
“Oh Gawd. Gawd,” Danny spit. He trekked across the squirming intestines, slapping a few of the more ornery ones away, until he reached my battered body. He froze, realizing clothing was something my tigress had long since pooh-poohed. I’d crossed my legs and covered my breasts, but that didn’t matter, did it? Fact remained, I didn’t enjoy anyone but Aric seeing me naked. And hell, I didn’t even want him seeing me covered in demon organs.
Danny jerked his body away and yanked the shirt off his lanky frame. “Here. It has some demon snot on it, but I think it’s okay.”
“Thank you, Danny.” I didn’t just mean for the shirt. He’d fought for me, despite knowing he might die. I didn’t have many friends. But the ones like Danny were worth having.
I sat up and pulled the polo over my head. The shirt thankfully covered all the important female parts. I leaned against the boulder, trying to ignore the shower of sweat pouring down my body and the blinding pain that leadened my lids. I didn’t remember Wonder Woman ever ending up covered in demon bowels. But maybe I’d missed that issue.
Danny inched to my side, panting. The lenses of his glasses spiderwebbed out. It was a wonder he could see at all. “We asked to do this,” he said with stunned disbelief.
“Yup.”
He angled his head. “Do you think Aric will ever let us tag along again?”
I took in the scent of my blood leaking behind my skull, the withered demon parts, the body fluids coating my skin and hair green, and thought about how close we’d come to becoming demon kibble. “Oh, hell no.”
“Yeah. I didn’t think so.”
Danny and I stopped moving, stopped speaking, the effort it took to breathe robbing us of our remaining stamina. The sun dragged across the mountain, brightening the rock walls to orange and eventually stealing our shade. Bastard. “We need to get back,” I mumbled. Too much time had passed. The sun, although grueling, was nothing compared to the chilly desert night that awaited us. And despite the tough exterior with which my tigress blessed me, my injuries needed to be tended to by my youngest sister.
Danny peered over the edge. “How are we going to get down?”
“I’ll shift us down and change at the bottom.” At least I’d try. “You can ride me if you’d like.”
Danny shook his head. “No way. I’d rather take on another demon lord than risk Aric finding me on top of you.”
The sound of roaring engines cut off my laughter. Danny bolted to his feet and hurried to the ledge. “It’s the pack. They must have regrouped and doubled back to the Jeeps. Bren! Bren!” He waved his arms.
I scrambled to my feet on wobbly legs, digging my disgusting claws along the indentations of the rock to help me stand. By some miracle my back wasn’t broken and my legs still semiworked. But damn, I resembled nothing short of a chiropractor’s wet dream.
I ignored my pounding head and focused my topsy-turvy vision on the horizon. Sure enough, the wolves and my sister had arrived. Shayna maneuvered the lead Wrangler. They’d been desperate enough to find us to allow her to drive. She powered through the inclines and ditches, leaving the other Jeeps to trail in the far, far distance. Bren and Aric stood in the backseat, their gazes taking everything in despite the hard jerks and skull-chattering bounces. Bren pointed to us and shouted to Shayna, “Over there. Near those damn rocks!”
Shayna stood in the driver’s seat and threw her fists in the air to “Woo-hoo!” before sliding back and taking control of the jolting vehicle. She tore through the underbrush and skidded to a halt at the base of the boulders.
Aric leapt off the Jeep before it completely stopped and scaled to the top within seconds. His hands swept over my face, back, shoulders, and head. When he yanked them back, they were covered with my blood. “Jesus, Celia.” He pulled me tight. “Stay with me, okay? Emme and Gemini’s group are almost here.”