She started crawling to Kelly, then thought better of it. Kelly had warned Brianna the closer she got, the less she was able to control herself. How in the hell could she help Kelly if she couldn't get close to—?
"Brianna!"
She flattened herself to the floor without looking up, and something skimmed the hair on her head. A half a heartbeat later a sword slammed into the wall to her right, clattering harmlessly to the ground.
"That was close," Kelly said in a deadpan voice. Brianna looked at Kelly, who seemed bored with the demons fighting in Brianna's living room. Kelly eyed the spectacle as if detached from the scene.
She'd lost her damned mind.
Brianna belly-crawled to the side of the couch just as the sword embedded itself into the brown fabric, barely missing her. She gasped, pulling back. Where could she hide that a damned possessed sword couldn't nail her in the ass? It was as if this Leviathan guy was merely playing with her.
"Damn." Naberius came to her and hauled her to her feet, wrapping his hands around her arm painfully.
"Look out!" she screamed as the sword vibrated again, tearing the material of her couch. Naberius held onto her with one hand and waved his right in the direction of the sword. The power he was using filtered through his touch, and she shivered from the onslaught. The sword disappeared before it became airborne.
A searing pain hit her in the side as she and Naberius were thrown into the wall. His body took most of the impact, but the effect was bone-jarring enough for her. When she regained her breath, she rasped, "Are you okay?"
"Never better," he said as he spit blood.
Asmodeus charged the demon as her house violently shook. As they fell to the floor, the demon disappeared.
Raum began limping toward Kelly. "You had to have known that would happen."
Kelly shrank away from Raum, but he ignored her as he bent down, put a hand on her shoulder and both disappeared.
Knowing what that de-materializing shit was like, she felt sorry for Kelly.
Seeing Kelly in that condition had shaken her to the core. She doubted Kelly could be saved. She looked as though she were beyond help.
"If you need me, call." Naberius flashed out of her living room holding his side.
Brianna slowly got to her feet. The situation was over so quickly she could barely wrap her mind around what had just transpired in her living room. Was that it? Did no one think the demon would come back?
She stood before Asmodeus, questions swirling through her mind. He didn't look as though he just went toe to toe with a demon. "Don't you think he'll come back?"
"He's badly wounded. I doubt it." His sword disappeared, but before it did she saw the blood on it.
"Oh." He must have stabbed him with it as she battled the attacks of the air sword. She looked around her living room. It was a good thing she didn't rent. "Who was that?"
Asmodeus walked over to her wall and lifted his hand. The large hole Raum's body had made disappeared. "Leviathan. A demon from the first fall."
Why would a demon from the first fall want to help Kelly? She quickly came to the conclusion that he wouldn't. "Why does that demon want Kelly?"
Asmodeus's hair was loose, falling behind his collar. The residual effects of his power began to ebb away. The glow in his eyes was fading, turning back to normal. If eyes that had horizontal pupils could be considered normal. "He doesn't."
"He wanted her to bond with me so she could heal herself."
Asmodeus shook his head. "He can control Kelly. Her spirit is weaker than yours. If you bond with her, you won't just be healing her, your powers will be hers. He wants those powers, along with the book. With both the powers and the book he will be damn near unstoppable. Demons were not meant to control the energy of the earth. That was a power bestowed only on certain humans such as yourself. He could bond with you, but why not have the powers of two witches?"
She ignored the way her body responded to the sight of Asmodeus. Only hours before she had stood before him, admitting to feelings he had cruelly dismissed. Then he came to her rescue. Again. "Unstoppable to do what, exactly?"
"Control humans. Weather. Anything."
Well, that sounded great. "What will happen to Kelly?"
He didn't answer her. She could tell by the look on his face Kelly didn't have a chance. "Certainly there's something we can do."
"Kelly chose her own destiny."
His cold tone reminded her of her earlier resolve. The elation she had felt when she had chosen her own course of action. At the same time, if he hadn't popped in she would still be in serious trouble.