Sherrilyn Kenyon: Dream Chaser

Simone put it in her back pocket. "You think he'll be in touch?"

"Don't worry about it."

She pulled him to a stop on the walkway, "Do you have to be so surly over every question?"

"Do you have to be so damned perky Was it too much to ask that I get chained to a depressed mute or one of those clucks who dresses in black and writes bad poetry?"

She'd never been more offended in her life. "What is wrong with you?"

His eyes flared in the darkness. "Be grateful, human, that you could never understand."

Understand what? That he was an asshole? There was no excuse in that.

"You know, you're not the only one with problems in this equation. I happen to have a life and a job. The last thing I need is to be pulling around a three-hundred-pound gorilla with a chip on his shoulder so big it's a wonder he's not hunchbacked from it."

"I don't weigh three hundred pounds,"

She arched a single brow at His retort. "No denying the gorilla part?"

"No."

That took a lot of the bravado out of her. It was hard to get the upper hand when he seemed so content to be a monster.

"Um, Simone?" There was a note of fear in Jesse's voice.

She turned toward him. "Yes?"

"What is that?"

She looked to see what he was pointing at. Tall and lithe, it had eyes that were glowing red in the darkness.

And it was headed straight for them.

Xypher jerked her toward Jesse. "Both of you stay back."

Simone wasn't about to argue given the size of the creature headed toward them and the fact that his skin appeared to be boiling and smoking.

He was dressed in a flowing black cape that obscured everything but those creepy red eyes. He went for Xypher so fast, she could barely see it.

The two of them tore into each other.

Xypher flipped the demon, who rolled and shot a blast of fire at him. He deflected the fire, then flung his hand out as if to return it to Smokey the Demon.

It didn't work.

The demon laughed. "Poor Xypher. Having trouble?"

"At kicking your ass, Kaiaphas? Never."

The cloak vanished. In the darkness, the demon's boiling skin articulated into something that looked like leather. His face mutated into that of a gargoyle while the cotton of his clothes tinned into sleek black armor that clung close to the muscular contours of his body. Still those eyes glowed like bright embers from a fire.

Kaiaphas pulled out a short sword and twirled it around his body before he lunged at Xypher who sidestepped the blade. A silver vambrace appeared on the arm that wasn't wearing the bracelet. Xypher used it to twist the blade out of the demon's hand. But before he could capture it, Kaiaphas caught it in his left hand and stabbed at him again.

Spinning around, Xypher shoved the demon. Kaiaphas staggered, then caught himself.

Kaiaphas lauglied. "You've improved."

"Yeah, little boys grow up eventually." Xypher lacked at him, but Kaiaphas caught his leg and snatched it up.

Xypher turned a midair somersault to land on his feet. He ran at the demon and caught him about the waist. They fell back, still fighting.

Simone wanted to run, but remembered that so long as she wore the bracelet she couldn't go far without killing them both. "Find a weapon," she whispered loudly to Jesse as she started looking around for a tree limb or something she could use to help Xypher beat back the demon.

Suddenly Jesse cursed.

Simone turned to look at the combatants to see what had caused Jesse's reaction. Faster than she could blink. Kaiaphas twirled the sword in his hand and stabbed Xypher in the stomach so deep, the point of it came out his back.

Xypher gasped as blood pooled around the sword hilt and flowed over Kaiaphas' hand.

The demon laughed. "Apparently your skills didn't improve enough, eh?" He head-butted Xypher. The motion of it caused Xypher to stagger back. As he did so, the sword was jerked out of his body.

He fell to one knee on the ground while Kaiaphas lifted his sword for the coup de grace.

Simone ground her teeth as she saw her mother and younger brother dying in her mind all over again. An unfounded rage consumed her so that she could no longer think rationally.

In that moment, the demon became the focus of twenty years of hopeless frustration with a justice system that had failed her and a rage so bitter, she could taste it.

Her only thought to save Xypher, Simone grabbed the pepper spray from her coat pocket and ran at the demon. Shoving him back with all her strength, she held her breath and doused him with the spray.

Kaiaphas coughed and spat. His eyes flashing, he stalled for her.

Simons braced herself for his attack, intending to fight back with her bare hands. But before he reached her, something knocked him away.

A flash of blond hair confirmed it was Julian with a sword in his hand. He put himself between them and forced the demon away from her and Jesse.

While he engaged the demon, she ran to Xypher, who lay on the ground coveted in blood. His face was pale as he visibly shook. Blood poured over his hands without slowing.

"Shh," Simone said, pulling his hand away so that she could see the jagged wound. "I've got you, Xypher. Don't worry." She glanced over her shoulder. "Jesse, pop the trunk and bring me my medical bag."

Jesse ran to the car while she examined the wound in Xypher's stomach. It looked gruesome. And the instant she touched it, he cursed. His nostrils flared and she was sure he'd hit her.

Fortunately for her, he passed out before he could make good on that unspoken threat.

She glanced up to see Julian engaged in an impressive swordfight. They moved so fast, all she could see was the sparks that flared whenever their blades met. The sound of metal on metal was deafening and drowned everything but their grunts and insults.

Then in one fluid motion, Julian dodged the demon and shoved him sideways before he stabbed him in the ribs.

Staggering back, the demon hissed, showing a full set of jagged teeth before he dissolved into the darkness. All that was left behind was die stencil of sulfur and something that reminded her of treacle.

Julian cocked his head as if trying to sense something. He turned in her direction at the same time Jesse brought the bag to her. She focused on stanching Xypher's blood. It wasn't easy, especially since she was starting to get light-headed herself.

"You okay?" Jesse asked.

"I'm not really sure."

Julian knelt beside her. "We need to get him out of the public eye, if you take my meaning."

She certainly did. They'd been lucky no car had driven by during their fight ... or worse, that a neighbor's dog hadn't needed walking. "I couldn't agree more."

A heartbeat later, they were inside Julian's house again, in an upstairs bedroom that was decorated in greens and cream and furnished with nice Victorian antiques.

She and Julian stood to the side of the queen-size bed while Xypher lay on top of it.

Jesse popped in a second later and wrinkled his nose. "That is one grody wound. It gotta hurt."

Julian grimaced as he saw the blood pouring out of Xypher's side.

Without a word, she lipped open Xypher's shirt. She sucked her breath in and remembered one of the advantages to her job. Decedents didn't bleed like this on the examination table. She hadn't tended a living patient since she'd been an intern in college.

Julian looked over her shoulder. "How's he doing?"

"That . . . thing, whatever it was, made a mess of him. The sword went all the way through his body."

Julian grimaced. "Yeah, wounds like that seriously hurt. Had a few myself back in the day."

She decided to let that remark pass without comment while she checked the blood flow as best she could. "I really need to take him to a hospital, but having worked in the ER for four years, I know the questions they'll ask that we can't answer."