Chapter 33

 

Quinn trusted Reese’s assessment about demons closing in on them and hooked his hands around the tree to start climbing. He’d reached the second set of branches when three men came out of the trees around them.

All three looked up.

Not men. Black eyes flipped to red. They were all dressed in the same black coveralls as the one Reese had killed in Midtown. If they hid their eyes, they could move through human areas undetected until they attacked some innocent person.

He scurried up two more levels, which was as far as he could go. Anything higher wouldn’t hold his weight. He checked on Reese. She’d made it six feet above his position.

He paused at the image of wild hair flying all around her face. Bright blue eyes full of intelligence and determination.

But they had no backup.

More demons were coming in by the minute and the first three were climbing up.

Quinn’s powers were nonexistent.

Still, Reese moved with a confidence and excitement that spoke to her experience in this.

Whatever demons she carried inside her were of the human variety. She claimed she’d made a decision to no longer live on a knife’s edge between life and death, but Quinn wasn’t convinced.

Growling and scratching pulled his attention back down to the threat that had now climbed halfway to where he was. The demons would have reached him if a fight hadn’t broken out, knocking them back to the ground. He didn’t even have mind lock to use on them, but that was just as well. He wouldn’t survive entering that many demon minds at once.

That left him with just eight triquetras hooked to his belt, the minimum that he carried into any fight. He might stop four demons with those, maybe five or six if he got a couple of damn good shots.

Quinn called up, “Reese, what do you need me to do?”

“Keep them busy for about a minute.”

Another eight, no, make that twelve, filled in the space at the bottom of the tree. One started climbing over the top of the two that were making their way up again.

They snarled and fought, but the first one paused to lift his head. His red eyes stared at Quinn as if judging the distance.

Quinn eased two triquetras free. His pulse throbbed in his head. He heard Reese climbing even higher.

When the demon reached for Quinn’s foot, the thing’s gaze was focused on one spot. Holding on to a branch, Quinn swung down and sliced across the demon’s neck. It reached for its neck and gurgled, sliding down into the next one’s face.

The second demon yanked the first one out of the way, tossing him to the ground, but the dead demon burst into gray dust even before his body hit.

Quinn threw the two triquetras, taking out the next demon, which also turned into dust.

He chanced a look up. “Reese? I’m only going to be able to stop about four to six. We can’t stop all of them. This isn’t going to work.”

She leaned over and lifted the medallion with her free hand. “See this? I’m the baddest bitch on the planet right now. Just keep them back for a few more seconds. That’s all I need. Be ready when I shout at you.”

He didn’t know what she thought would happen in so little time, but he nodded and turned back as the second demon lurched up.

Quinn threw another triquetra. The three-sided blade struck between the demon’s eyes, burying deep into his head.

He howled and kept coming.

Dammit. Quinn threw another triangular blade that hit the same demon in his neck. He fell. That left four throwing blades.

But even more demons showed up below.

Who controlled these things?

The buzzing fog surrounding Quinn got louder.

He’d thought drawing in the demons was supposed to weaken that field. Even if Reese managed to rip a hole in the energy field, they still had ... over forty demons to go through to get off this tree.

Quinn threw his last four triquetras. They hit true, but now what?

One of the faster demons scrambled over the others and leaped up.

Quinn braced for the hit, but the demon looked up at Reese with a feral hunger. Then it swung under Quinn and did a crazy flip to shove his booted feet into Quinn’s chest.

Shit, that hurt.

It knocked Quinn’s footing loose.

He dangled from one hand.

The only good news was the demon’s momentum sent it sliding backwards, then it clawed a hold and kicked off the next demon heading up.

During the split second that Quinn dangled, he saw Reese above him with the medallion sandwiched between her hands. She called out words that sounded tribal, like something Storm would chant.

Power burst from her fingers. A hundred lightning bolts shot up then split out into a fiery flower of electricity.

The energy field rocked and rolled like waves on an ocean.

Reese’s skin glowed white hot.

A claw slashed at Quinn’s leg. He hissed and yanked himself back up to a standing position before the demon had a chance to climb over him for Reese.

The demon’s unholy eyes were locked on Reese.

He wanted only her.

Quinn shook his head. “Not while I’m alive you bloody son of a bitch.”

That jerked the demon back to him.

Buzzing turned into the screeching sound of something being ripped apart. Rain poured down on Quinn suddenly, as though someone had dumped a giant bucket. The demon hissed, furious about something.

Quinn blinked away the water in his eyes and risked another quick look at Reese. She was shaking so hard he feared she would fall.

Her arms dropped to her sides. She yelled, “Now, Quinn!”

That’s when he realized he could feel his power again. He lashed out at the demons on the tree, knocking each off with a kinetic hit. He could do this all day.

The tree swayed hard.

Quinn grabbed the trunk to hang on, looking up for Reese, who had started down.

She lost her grip.

She fell, yelling as she hit branches.

He shot an arm out and grabbed her wrist as she came by.

Her weight yanked them both to the side, because the freaking demons were pushing the small tree over.

Some were starting the climb back up.

Quinn couldn’t use his kinetics with both hands tied up. After entering the demon’s head in the cemetery, he’d rather not dive into another one’s mind unless it was a last resort. Jumping in a nuclear sewage dump full of razors would feel better. His mind was still raw even all these hours later.

Reese looked at him with an expression he’d not seen in her face before. Terror. Demons were drawn to her energy like piranhas to fresh meat.

They wanted her energy.

To get it, they’d have to kill her.

She whispered, “It’s okay, Quinn. Let me go. You can get to the others while I distract them.”

His heart tried to crawl out of his chest.

She thought he’d hand her over to them?

Quinn gripped tighter and yanked her up to him. “Hold on to me or you’ll face something worse than demons.”

“What?”

“Me, pissed off. Understood?”

“Sir! Yes, Sir!” she answered with her signature sarcastic tone. The only thing missing was a salute.

He almost smiled, glad to hear her confidence back.

The tree creaked and leaned further over, but it was heading for another tree. Quinn pulled Reese around to his back. “Hold on tight. We’re going flying. Ready?”

“I guess.”

“Ready?” he shouted louder.

“Yes, just do something dammit.”

He pushed off and throwing his kinetics downward, he maneuvered them over to a bigger tree. When he reached it, he grabbed a branch, twisting to put his back to the trunk, sandwiching her in.

“Hold my sides so I don’t slide off. I need both hands.”

She said something that might have been yes, if he could have dug that word out of the curses. He kept his back to her while she clutched him, and not gently.

Good woman.

Demons had made it up the first tree and leaped toward where he perched with Reese. Quinn batted those away with kinetics. He pointed his hands at thick trees, shoving them over. Solid trunks slammed demon bodies to the ground, breaking necks and backs. He dropped more trees, pinning down the flailing bodies.

The howling turned into groans and cries, but demons still crawled around on top of all that.

Rain pounded them and thunder beat across the skies.

Lightning bolts far bigger than Reese’s shot down to the ground.

As the demons died, the canopy of energy kept ripping in different directions.

But more demons were coming. How many were there?

Reese said, “The energy field isn’t completely gone. It’s affecting my power, because I don’t have much left.”

Everything had a limit, even supernatural powers.

Quinn was stronger than most, but he’d started wearing down after using his power nonstop today. He should have more battle endurance, but the lingering field still fueled by demons that hadn’t died was draining him, too.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to calculate that they wouldn’t get past these demons without more muscle.

Reese said, “If I had my sword, I could mow them down, but I don’t and we have no other way out.”

Quinn considered what he could do.

He pulled out his mobile phone. No service.

He shouldn’t use telepathy after they’d determined the traitor Beladors might pick up their telepathic thoughts, but this was a hopeless situation. If he didn’t get Reese out of here and find the others, avoiding telepathy would mean nothing.

He opened his mind and called to Trey, This is Quinn. Can you hear me?

Trey’s voice said, We ... don’t ...

Quinn couldn’t get anything intelligible out of that, but Trey was powerful so Quinn decided to transmit and hope Trey heard him. Find Daegan. Tell him we’re pinned down inside the abandoned mining hole near Blairsville. We need help. When our warriors get close, they should hear the buzzing, but we broke through the energy field. I’m stuck above a mass of demons with no way out. I think the others might be here, but I can’t get to them.

Trey’s voice came through broken again. lost ... help ... time ...

Quinn’s heart sank. They were out of time.

Demons were scaling trees all around them.

Reese wrapped her arms around him and put her head down against his back. He patted her arm, letting her know he was still with her.

He had enough energy to fight them hand to hand, but that would last only until too many attacked.