Park’s words were like a match to a fuse. A veil of darkness smothered the lights, bringing a pall of gloom to the entire club. Amber flashed all around them.
The demons finally attacked.
“Shit!” Drake said between clenched teeth.
Artemus grunted as a flurry of fists and talons rained down on him. He blocked the vicious onslaught with his sword, the blade juddering in his grip while claws slashed and sliced through the leather covering his arms.
“We have to make it to those stairs!” Serena shouted.
Blood oozed out of the cuts on her face and body as she fended off the strikes of the demons swarming her, her wounds healing almost as quickly as they appeared.
“Easier said than done!” Drake snarled, deflecting a storm of wicked blows with his shield before counterattacking with his blade.
Artemus’s heart thudded against his ribs. He eyed the twenty feet separating them from the metal steps spiraling up toward the mezzanine and the primary exit.
Serena’s right. Our only chance is to get to that door!
There was only one thing left to do.
Artemus repelled another wave of attack and concentrated. Heat flared inside his chest with his next breath. Power surged through him and danced down his sword. The blade broadened and lengthened in his grip, the metal vibrating until it shimmered with a faint, white haze.
An echo of the savage energy running through his veins resonated inside his consciousness a heartbeat later, startling him. He looked over at Smokey and Drake, sensing the same strange bond. The bond he had felt the day he first met the two of them.
The hellhound’s eyes flared and brightened to molten gold. His hide trembled and shivered as his body swelled, adding another foot to his height and girth.
Drake’s sword darkened and thickened, the edges of the blade twisting into wicked, jagged teeth. The shield covering his left arm grew dull, the metal losing its luster as if all light had been sucked out of it. His eyes, when they met Artemus’s, were blood red and filled with a feral light.
Artemus’s pulse stuttered. Is this Drake’s true form?
There was no more time to think.
Serena felt the change in the air and saw the demons falter for a split second. She followed their surprised gazes. Her eyes widened.
They moved as one, every step, every gesture, every strike synchronized, as if they were parts of a single, well-oiled machine. When Drake ducked, Artemus attacked. When Artemus stepped back, Smokey pounced. Blades, claws, and fangs flashed as they advanced through the crowd of demons, the sheer brute force of their assault felling the creatures where they stood, their passage often too fast to be gleaned.
Something glittered out of the corner of Serena’s eye. She leaned sharply to the side. A faint draft sent the hair fluttering at her right temple. A single lock slowly spiraled to the floor.
She turned and studied the blonde who’d just sliced the dark strands with her blade.
The woman in the purple leather outfit smiled, her teeth sharp fangs that matched the dagger in her hand, her pretty face distorted by the evil that lurked beneath her skin.
Serena inhaled sharply as the woman’s blade danced toward her once more, the motion so quick she would have missed it had she been an ordinary human. She blocked the attack a hair’s breadth from her stomach and gritted her teeth as her own knives were knocked violently out of her grasp. She swooped, spun on one heel, and aimed a reverse roundhouse kick at her attacker’s head as she rose.
The demon blocked it with one hand.
Numbness bloomed up Serena’s leg as the woman curled her fingers into her limb with a sadistic grin, crushing flesh and grinding bone. Serena scowled, lifted herself off the ground with her right leg, and hooked her foot around the demon’s neck. She braced her hands upside down on the ground, twisted, and flipped her over.
The demon pivoted in the air in a gravity-defying turn. She landed firmly on her feet, grabbed a stunned Serena by the throat, and hurled her bodily across the club.
Air whooshed out of Serena’s lungs as she smashed through two chairs and a table before crashing into one of the bars. Bottles exploded around her, drenching her in expensive liquor, the shards slicing her exposed skin. Pain shot through her spine and sent tingles sparking down her legs. Her knees sagged.
The neural implant in her brain and the nanorobots that lived inside her took over, dulling the feeling to a barely noticeable ache. She braced a hand against the counter and straightened.
A fist slammed into her solar plexus.
Serena bent over with a grunt, alarmed at how rapidly the blonde had closed the distance between them. She deflected the next blow with her left forearm. Heat erupted along her skin as the woman sliced a line from her elbow to her wrist.
Serena snatched a piece of broken glass from the countertop and stabbed the blonde in the chest and gut with lightning fast strikes.
The woman stepped back, her amber eyes narrowing as she looked down and slowly fingered her wounds. Her features shifted, the ugly mask sharpening and becoming more grotesque, as if the demon inside her was threatening to break loose.
The hairs rose on Serena’s arms. Her ears popped as the pressure dropped around her.
A deep growl erupted from the blonde’s throat. A shudder shook her from head to toe. She grew in size in the blink of an eye, gaining two feet in height and some hundred and fifty pounds in weight.
Serena stared at the monster now towering over her.
Oh crap.
The next thing she knew, they were in the air. The demon touched down on the mezzanine, lifted Serena above her head, and hurled her over the railing at a metal cage below. The world spun around Serena in a dizzying kaleidoscope as she fell toward the evil black spike atop the enclosure. She gritted her teeth.
This is gonna hurt like a bitch!
Something flashed below. A dark shape leapt toward her.
There was a sound like thunder.
Black wings filled Serena’s vision and carried her into darkness.