Lady Anastacia lasted just long enough to scream in agony.
Chaos erupted on the floor. The vampires, absolutely terrified by the violent appearance of a large, burning object, scrambled to flee. Many shoved one another aside, bringing down members of the Brotherhood in their flight. Molly pulled Onyx into the shelter of a slightly recessed doorway to keep them both out of the way of the mob.
Harrow didn’t linger. The burning demon rose, roared again, and leapt through the smashed remains of the entrance.
“Now?!” Molly asked.
“Yeah,” Onyx coughed. “Ward’s down. Go nuts.”
Molly grimaced. She darted out to where she could see up onto the staircase again. Smoke and dust were everywhere, but it hadn’t spread so much that she couldn’t see. She spotted Baal yanking on Lorelei’s chains as he turned to climb the rest of the way up the stairs. The young witch drew from her pocket a loose key, threw it up onto the staircase, and shouted a series of words in Hebrew, in Greek, and Latin.
Lorelei’s bonds all snapped undone at once. Baal was left tugging on loose, empty chains. He spun in alarm as Lorelei fell savagely upon him with her fingers extended into long talons.
“Go get ‘im, girl,” Molly muttered. She turned to get out of the way, only to find Mr. Woods pointing his wand at her.
* * *
Rachel saw the brilliant flash of orange light from miles away in the sky above. By the time the sound reached her, she realized she could see Alex again. She dove toward the fire without a second thought.
* * *
The crash distracted Lydia badly. It was just the break Alex needed. He pulled the.45 from his underarm holster and fired straight into Lydia’s chest. She stumbled back, dropping him, and before she could recover he put the whole clip into her.
She shouldn’t have had a torso left. Alex knew-somehow-that the.45 could do an awful lot of damage, particularly this close, and it wasn’t like Lydia was a stocky person. But while she was clearly hurt, staggering against the wall behind her, he saw little blood. The gunfire tore up her dress and left her looking somewhat punch drunk, but she still stood.
Alex heaved himself up, grabbed her hair, and pulled her roughly into the service room. He grunted, “This is for Antioch, bitch!” and hurled her by her hair toward the window.
Lydia slammed up against the window, but did not go through. The glass held. She slumped to the floor.
“Oh god dammit,” Alex huffed. He picked her up by her hair again, got a good running start, and made a second go of it. This time she went through.
* * *
Baal let out a cry of pain as Lorelei’s talons ripped across his back. He stumbled away from her, wanting nothing of such a confrontation under these circumstances. A second blow from Lorelei knocked him to the ground. He spun, kicked hard enough to knock her back a few paces, and scrambled to his feet to hurry down the hallway.
“You know this is pointless!” Baal called out as Lorelei, predictably, leapt upon him again. She had already torn off the muzzle, treating him to the sound of her bloodthirsty snarl. Her legs gripped his sides and her wings dragged against the hallway walls as he tried to move. It allowed even more of a chance to shred his upper body with those frightful talons. Rather than blood, though, his wounds poured and puffed out ash.
“It causes you pain,” Lorelei growled. She punched at him, too, pounding his jaw into pieces with one hand even as the other dragged savage gashes across his chest. “You’ll remember this part of our meeting while you stew in that stinking fortress in Hell!”
Baal stumbled and fell. Lorelei fell with him. She ran purely on rage and hate, pushing past all the injuries just for the chance to harm her former master. She had to punish him for coming after her, to make it as painful for him as possible. It was the only chance she had to ward off a future attempt.
She knew Alex was free, somehow, or at least alive. She felt his desires. He no longer wanted to die. He wanted Lorelei. His wants were jumbled and fraught with stress and confusion, but his strongest desires held no ambiguity. After all of this, he still wanted Lorelei.
So focused was Lorelei on punishing Baal that she lost track of her surroundings. She didn’t see the air in the hallway beyond them begin to warp and burn.
* * *
Drew forced himself up off the ground almost as soon as he stopped rolling. He hurt all over, and suspected he was even worse off than he felt, but there wasn’t time for that.
Taylor sat up in the grass not far away, clutching her shoulder. Drew spotted her mainly because of the headlights of Wade’s pick-up coming up toward them. Gunfire came from the pick-up as Wade fired to pin down the guards in front of the house. Screams and crashes erupted from inside. Drew fought past the pain to rush over to Taylor.
Then he heard that terrible roar again. The monster came flying out of the mansion, engulfed in flames and fixated on Drew. He ran, hoping to put some distance or at least a bad angle between himself and obvious doom, but the thing landed and spun to charge him.
Bright, white light flashed against the beast, followed by a sudden wave of wind, dirt and torn-up grass. Wade’s pick-up braked hard and spun into the demon, striking it with the rear side and sending the monster rolling away.
Jason was at the wheel. At Wade’s bark of, “Down!” Jason curled up to allow Wade to lean over him with the sub-machinegun pointed out of the window. Wade blasted the whole clip at the stunned monster.
“Got ‘im!” Wade shouted. As he pulled back to reload, Jason reached out of the window with his pistol to shoot at the demon.
It all clearly had the monster battered and staggered, but it didn’t put the thing down. It still fought to get to its feet, shaken by every successive bullet but not at all finished off.
Drew tugged Taylor up. “I’m okay,” Taylor coughed, sounding not at all convincing but able to move on her feet.
“Gotta go, girl,” Drew managed. He pulled her toward the back end of Wade’s truck, heaving her up over the tailgate and into the hard metal bed. He didn’t have a plan; he just knew there was a demon here too big to fight, and a friendly vehicle potentially offering escape.
As Drew hauled himself up and in, though, the pick-up shook. Drew found the thing standing over the cab. The claws on its feet punctured the roof to help it gain purchase. Wade reached out of the cab with his sub-machinegun again, only to have it swatted away by the demon’s tail. “I am Harrow,” it roared, “First warrior of Baal!”
Drew didn’t listen to the introduction. There was only one thing to do with the giant white demon-thing leering at him as if it were about to eat him: he punched it in its ugly face.
Not a single bullet seemed to have penetrated its skin, yet blood erupted from its face as Harrow reeled. It howled, shook itself and glared with hatred. Clawed hands and a slashing tail drew back to rain down Harrow’s revenge.
It never had the chance. Drew and Taylor looked up at their inevitable deaths, only to see a flaming blade erupt out of its chest in the split second before it was carried off of the truck and into the air above them. They saw a flash of white wings and black pants. Harrow let out an unearthly cry of pain, but over that they heard a woman’s voice shout, “This sword’s goin’ straight up your ass, motherfucker!”
Taylor looked on in awe. “What the fuck was that?”
“Rachel,” Drew said, similarly stunned. “That has to be-“ he winced as Harrow was shoved off of the angel’s blade right where he would fall through the roof of the mansion. The blonde dove straight in after him. “Has to be Rachel,” he finished.