Mikayla stood up from behind the counter and let out a whoop. The man fighting the big demon grinned and gave me a nod as if he approved.
His eyes. I sucked in my breath. They were the same ice blue color as mine.
Until my trip to Hell, I’d had brown eyes. In the pit, they’d changed. Gabriel said it was because I fought Lilith and won. Cephiel believed their color was tied to the Mark of Cain. Either way, I constantly startled myself in the mirror when I saw them. They were scary pale and unnatural looking and colored contacts had become my new best friend. You can’t run a successful business if you scare off the clientele. Plus, freaky eyes unnerve even your closest friends. The only person they didn’t seem to bother was Luc.
The three-headed demon made a loud, long screeching noise and shifted his reptilian tail to knock the man off his feet. This seemed to be the signal to resume fighting. The man jumped the tail and sunk his sword into the base of the demon’s spine.
Not bad. While part of me was still freaking out that there were demons inside my shop, the other part was riding high on adrenaline. “Who’s next?” I called to the milling crowd of freaks. “Show me what you’ve got.”
As the next demon attacked, a human-looking man jumped the counter and tackled Mikayla. Dispatching three more demons to dust as I headed for her, I sprinted around tables and jumped the counter myself.
Mikayla lay on the floor, the man on top of her. His face was buried in her neck and her wide eyes stared vacantly at the ceiling.
“Get off,” I yelled, grabbing him by his ratty T-shirt and trying to drag him backwards.
He was attached to her like a leach. When I lifted him, she came with him.
Vampire, my magic said, wiggling inside my chest.
Really? A vampire? I knew they existed, but I’d never seen one.
Didn’t matter. Vamp or demon, I kicked, pommeled, and pulled his hair. Anything to get him away from Mikayla. None of it worked.
If I could just get him to attack me instead…
A giant crash cut across the other sounds of fighting. The noise distinctive of splintering glass. I looked up, and there was my front window…gone.
The three-headed demon lay half in, half out of my shop, the man with the sword standing over him and breathing hard. Or should I say, there laid the demon’s two halves. The man and his sword had apparently cut the monster right down the center.
Cold, winter air whooshed in from outside as black goo oozed from the demon’s open wounds. Shards of glass lay everywhere, but the bulk of glass had gone outside onto the snowy sidewalk. Unfortunately, the white snow melted fast under the black demon blood. But it was ten o’clock on a winter night in a small Illinois town. There was no one around to see the giant demon with three heads and a lizard’s tail decorating the shop and sidewalk.
Pissed that my front window was gone and my employee was being mauled by a vampire, I grabbed a large, heavy-duty stainless steel ice cream scoop and whacked the vamp on the back of the head. The whack was hard enough to break his hold on Mikayla and his head shot around, blood covering his lips and chin as he glared at me. His eyes were red.
Not good.
I hit him again, as much out of fear as protection. The force of the hit sent him crashing into my new gelato cooler.
Since joining Witches Anonymous and suppressing my magic, I’ve had increased strength, especially under stress. The vampire shook his head and blinked a couple of times before he stood on wobbly legs and made a break for it. He ran past the man with the sword, jumped the halved giant demon, and disappeared into the night.
The last remaining demons and another vampire took that as their cue to exit stage left. Giving me a wide berth, some ran up walls, others jumped over tables and a couple spread their wings as they headed for the open window. I tried to grab a few as they scooted by, as did sword guy, but they were too fast for me. He managed to take down three, slicing them in neat pieces, but the others escaped.
Mikayla coughed and gingerly touched her neck. I helped her sit up. Her voice came out raspy. “Who was that guy? The one that bit me?”
The man with the sword strolled over. He wore a white tunic that was now splattered with the thick, inky demon blood. A gold belt encircled his waist and the tunic showed off his muscled arms and thighs. His sword was no longer glowing, but his skin and hair were. “Latimer. An ancient vampire. Yours is the first blood he’s had in a couple hundred years.”
Mikayla’s mouth dropped open. Even though I’d never seen a vampire before, my magic had called it right.
That satisfaction was short lived when the man added, “He’ll be back for more.”
Mikayla’s eyes went wide and she pinned me with a questioning gaze.