penetrated halfway through before my blade stuck.
A flailing paw backhanded me across the enclosure, and I bounced off
the containment dome. Lighting seared my back, and my cloak caught fire. But I
was only stunned for a moment.
A snatch of chanted Greek and a flash of golden light announced
Avilla’s entry into the fray. The oppressive pressure of the temple wards
vanished.
“Odin’s merciless gaze,” Holger breathed. “Quickly brothers, bring
the fifth vessel!”
I sprang back to my feet, reaching with force magic, and Grinder’s hilt
smacked into my palm. Cerise was back on the ground, frantically dodging
around the demon as it stumbled awkwardly in circles trying to get a grip on
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her. She dived over its tail and rolled gracefully under a clawed hand, her
knives leaving thin trails of blood on the monster’s hide as she moved.
I raised my weapon, and sent a jet of violet plasma into its face.
It roared. Two misshapen hands rose to cover its eyes, too late to
save them from the flames. I rushed in and brought Grinder down on its
damaged knee again, and this time the blade sheered clear through.
The demon toppled forward, nearly crushing Cerise as it crashed to
the ground. She darted out from under it and jumped onto its back as it fell. Her
gleaming daggers plunged into its hide where a man would have kept his
kidneys.
I brought Grinder down again, this time on the demon’s neck. Bone,
flesh and the stone floor beneath were all gouged away in an instant. The
demon’s head rolled across the floor, and its body gave one final convulsion
and went still.
But the priests had been busy, carrying a heavy iron vessel across the
room and raising it to press the mouth of the container against the side of the
dome. As the first demon fell the vessel’s lead stopper fell off, and a foul-
smelling black mist poured into the space where we were trapped.
Cerise’s eyes narrowed. “No body? Fuck. Corruption demon. How
kill?”
I frowned. “Fire, maybe?”
Avilla stepped up beside me. “A dirt monster?” She asked, amused.
“I think I can handle this one. Με την ευλογία της Εστίας, θα σας καθαρίσω!”
A golden glow lit the room, and the demon disintegrated with a shriek
like an overheated tea kettle.
Cerise gazed at her admiringly. “Mine!”
“Yeah, good job Avilla,” I said with a smile. But if the demon could
get in that way…
I put a blast of plasma into the mouth of the iron vessel. It burned
through the last remnants of the demon and filled the metal container, heating it
cherry-red in seconds. The priests holding it screamed and stumbled back,
dropping it in the process. Sadly the vessel rolled away, and the opening in the
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containment field closed almost instantly.
Holger was staring at us, all traces of his former blasé demeanor
gone.
“Who are you people?” He demanded. “No mortal wizard has such
strength, but no familiar or bound spirit could enter the circle. Where are you
getting all this power?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t seriously think I’m going to explain,
do you? Step back, girls, this is going to be messy.”
I strode to the edge of the barrier, and brought Grinder down on the
floor.
The enchanted stone offered no more resistance than the body of the
demon I’d just hacked apart. Grinder had no point, but it could cut anything.
Down, across and around in a wide arc, coming up under the carved symbols
of the circle.
I could hear Holger chanting something, but I ignored it. This was
working. My blade came up through the floor, chewing the complex symbols of
the diagram to bits in a storm of broken stone. The magic of the circle
wavered, and collapsed in a shower of sparks. Excellent. I looked up
triumphantly just as Holger leveled his spear, and a bolt of lightning leaped
from the tip to slam into my chest.
Being electrocuted was really starting to get old.
A second bolt struck me before I could recover, and then a third.
There was shouting and screaming, and a smell of bacon and burnt hair filled
the room. Wait, was that me? Faces loomed over me, spears frantically
stabbing, but physical blows couldn’t reach me.
Enough awareness returned for me to sit up.
A confused melee filled the basement. Cerise dodged through the
crowd of priests and soldiers, stabbing with her knives while her tail and hair
tripped and strangled her opponents. Avilla was hiding in a corner, behind a
dazed-looking soldier who was clumsily trying to defend her from a pair of
priests. Two more priests were chanting over their spears and trying to stab
me, and not having much luck. Their blows damaged the fabric of my shield
spell, draining off huge gouts of magic with every hit, but even together they
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were barely outpacing my amulet’s recharge rate. If they’d had a few hours to
work at it they might have gotten through, but that wasn’t going to happen.
I’d lost Grinder again, but a simple force blade cut them both in half.
“The wizard lives!” Someone shouted. “Run for your lives!”
“No!” Holger called. “Have faith, broth-urk!”
Cerise carved his throat out. The men around her all stepped back in
shock, and she paused to lick the blood off the blade.
“Murdered by my hand, darkness claim your soul,” she crooned.
“Tasty priest. Next?”
They ran.
Cerise cut down one more fleeing priest, and then pulled back and
turned towards Avilla just in time to see her behead her former guardian with
her enchanted butcher knife. I threw a couple of force blades into the remaining
priests, but let the soldiers go.
Avilla released her spell, and the wards pressed down on us again.
But they were noticeably weaker than before. Maybe the deaths of most of the
priests had eroded them?
Avilla was weaker too. She’d burned through a lot of the power I’d
given her, but a glance reassured me she wasn’t in any danger. I was a bit beat
up, but I’d be healed in an hour. Cerise, however…
She tangled her hand in Avilla’s hair, and kissed her thoroughly.
Avilla sagged bonelessly into her arms, surrendering instantly to the moment.
They were both so beautiful I couldn’t help but stare.
Cerise was draining Avilla’s energy.
I shook my head, and brushed away the strands of glamor that were
trying to enthrall me. Cerise was more demon than human now, and they’d both
been worried about her self-control even before this happened. She might not
be able to stop.
Avilla certainly wasn’t going to muster the will to stop her. The
curvaceous blonde moaned raggedly into the kiss when Cerise’s tail probed up
under her skirt. A moment later I heard cloth ripping, and a scrap of fabric
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fluttered to the floor.
I stepped closer, and put my hands on their shoulders.
“Cerise?” I said. “I hate to interrupt, but there’s an army of frost
giants we have to escape from.”
She broke the kiss, and looked up at me dazedly.
“Daniel?”
Her eyes found mine, hugely dilated and full of hunger. I lost myself in
their depths. She pressed her sleek curves against me, her firm breasts pressed
against my chest. The scent of her desire made my head spin. What was I
doing?
“Daniel,” she purred. Her arms rose to twine about my neck, and she