KEASIA
I duck as the sword swings at my neck. Shooting back up to my full height, I toss a spell at the creature who’s trying to decapitate me.
“Sonofabitch,” I hiss as I send out more magic, hitting the giant beast right in the chest. It’s huge, taller than the houses around us, with gray, scaly skin and three black as night eyes across what should be its forehead. It has two curved horns on the right side of its head, no nose, and a mouth full of three rows of razor-sharp teeth.
The monster falls to its knees as my spell tears through its torso. I fling another shot of magic into the being and he explodes. I duck and manage to dodge getting gore all over me.
I sigh in relief. One down, twenty or more to go.
My name is Keasia, and I’m a member of the Wolf Coven. We’re a coven of witches, and our familiars are wolves. Familiars are animals who can turn into humans and can help witches with their magic. They protect us when there’s danger and will sacrifice themselves if it means they save your life.
A familiar and witch bond is a strong one. There has to be trust and friendship. Your bond is special. There are some male witches who don’t like their females to have a male familiar, mainly because they end up getting jealous of the bond they share.
I turn toward the children I was tasked to protect, erecting a protection barrier over them. It’ll crumble with one hit of the demons’ magic, but it’s all I can do as I fight while keeping the five children, my own among them, safe.
The demon attack left the vulnerable babies and kids defenseless. My familiar, Tristan, is fighting off two of the creatures about twenty feet in front of me. I’m one of the more powerful witches in our coven, which is why I was given the job to protect our next generation.
Two of them bound toward me. Pulling my swords off my back, I whisper an incantation to send fire down the blades. I swing them before me, not willing to let these bastards pass me and harm the children.
The two demons look similar to the last one I killed, except they lack horns and have green scales instead of gray. One of them grins, showing its rows of teeth. Then it charges me. I swing out my weapons, crossing them in front of me, taking its head off with both, simultaneously cauterizing the wound in the process.
“Not getting that head back on,” I mutter.
I barely have time to react as the other, probably a sibling of the one I just beheaded, is sending his own vile magic at me. With my right hand, I cast a spell to deflect the magic sent toward me back to the demon. This one is more limber and is quick to move out of the way.
I swing out my sword and nick the thing’s ankle, repeating the process with my other blade, causing a gash the length of its thigh to appear. The green goo that’s its blood pours freely down its leg. The roar that emanates from it rocks the ground I’m on.
My arms pinwheel as I try to steady myself while watching what the thing does. Its body grows. The thing is already huge, and it fucking grows! Now it’s towering over the damn houses and ready to squash me like a bug beneath its hoofed feet.
Tristan whines from his current position, either sensing my pending doom or warning me of more danger. I spare him a glance; it’s quick, but it costs me. He’s injured. Red blood is running down his right flank, and he’s limping. Every instinct within me is telling me to go to him and help him. I turn back to the ginormous demon before me and realize I’m a goner. This thing is going to crush me in point two seconds.
I raise my blades just as its hoof is about to crush me, and they slice through it. The demon’s cry of pain is muted by the gooey blood that’s now coating me. It’s in my hair and ears, covering my eyes and sliding down to my mouth.
Disgusting.
I take my hand and swipe it down my face, getting as much of the demon blood off as I can. Thankfully, when I can see again, I notice that the beast isn’t moving. Perfect. I wounded it badly enough to keep it shocked into stillness.
I send the implosive spell at it, hitting it once in the gut and again in the chest. A second later it explodes like the first one, only this time it’s far bigger than the other one, and I swear it feels like the sky just opened up and coated me in this shit. There isn’t an inch of me dry.
It smells foul, like rotting flesh. I rub it out of my eyes and away from my mouth.
“Shit,” I say, realizing these two asshats drove me away from my post. I sprint back over to the edge of the barrier I put up protecting the kids, and stand guard. Tristan is limping back toward me; the two demons he was fighting are both dead.
I badly want to run over to him. He’s my best friend, and seeing him hurt breaks a piece of my heart.
He must read the desire in my eyes because he shakes his head, his silver fur now red and green.
I nod and glance around me, taking in my surroundings and making sure the children are still safe in the bubble. The oldest, an eight-year-old girl, is holding my six-month-old baby boy, Kanon. She’s doing great, and Kanon is a great kid, barely cries, and will settle no matter who has him in their arms. Very spoiled, that boy, but I love him.
Happy that they’re all safe, I turn around just in time to see three demons coming at me. One has a sword, and the other two are sending their magic at me. I repel the two shots of magic and get my right arm sliced by the one in the middle.
Fuck, that hurts.
“You can’t have them!” I shout at them. The one in the middle, the sword wielder of the three, grins down at me. “I don’t want them,” it says, sounding appalled that I would think he wants our children. “I just want the baby.”
Ice fills my veins at its words. The baby, my son, is the youngest of the bunch. The next youngest is a three-year-old girl named Samantha.
“You can’t have him,” I say, deadly calm. In my head, I’m shouting to Tristan to hurry and help me, but I know he can’t. He’s injured and is limping toward me as it is.
The two others sneer at me. Their demonic faces are distorted by the action.
Lifting my own sword, still covered in flames, I point it at the one in the middle. “I’m warning you now, get the fuck away from the children, or I will kill you.”
They don’t take my threat to heart. The two on either side of the sword wielder move swiftly. One swings out a beefy fist and connects to my jaw, sending me flying into the barrier. The other sends his magic into me, and I feel my body seize.
My body is twitching while I’m still pressed against the barrier, and the middle beast grows a giant black ball of magic and tosses it right at the only protection left for the kids.
I feel the magic of my barrier begin to fade a second before it caves in, and brace myself for the fall.
The creature in the middle strolls over to the kids and rips my son from Sara’s arms. I scream out Kanon’s name. Tristan hears it and howls in agony and anger.
He can’t make it, even with me willing him to. He’s too wounded, and he hasn’t been healed by me yet.
“I suggest you do something about that pet you have. He left you unprotected which caused you to lose your child.”
I open my mouth to tell the bastard off, but instead, I shout for Tristan again as the demon sends his magic into him. He drops to the ground in a heap.
My muscles still don’t work. I can’t even feel my hands to utilize a spell.
The demon with my baby stands above me. “You weren’t fit to be his mother. I’ll see you on the other side, Kash.” I freeze. Only one person has ever called me that. Kanon’s deadbeat father.
Before I can react, he sends magic into me, too. Sweet blackness takes over.