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His left hand swept out toward her, an invisible wave of his magic blasting those two demons clear across the room, where they died on impact against the doors of the sauna, hitting the wood with sickening thwacks.

A third came down the stairs that led up into the house.

A fourth followed.

A fifth.

And there were still more coming on Darien’s side.

Darien cursed, and suddenly he was planting a hand against her upper back and pushing her.

The move was so unexpected, she stumbled several feet and fell, barely missing a pale-skinned monster that dove for her head. Had Darien not pushed her, it would’ve torn her throat open.

“Up—up!” Darien shouted, lashing out constantly as more and more creatures charged into the house, their hunger driving them to move faster—to attack without thought or hesitation. Bandit worked alongside Darien, attacking the ones that got past Darien’s magic, the dog’s lean body hardly more than a black blur. “GET UP! Back with me!”

She got to her feet, but the thing that had attacked her scrabbled after her, the other two from the stairs flanking it, moving like a pack of wolves—stopping her from getting into Darien’s bubble of protection.

A monster that resembled a decaying canine leapt on Darien, its teeth latching onto his forearm.

Darien’s shout of pain echoed, the sound chilling Loren’s blood. “Bandit, Bandit—get Loren!”

Going, going! I’m coming! The dog leapt for her, but was knocked off course by another decaying canine. The dogs smashed into a corner in a spray of black mist and blood.

Loren bolted—away from the monsters that were separating her from Darien, baiting them away from the Darkslayer. Around the swimming pool she ran, sprinting for the sauna and steam room.

She heard a thud, and turned to see one of them falling as a spear of Darien’s magic tore through its skull, blood misting the tile.

But the other two were still coming.

Loren slid to a stop in front of the steam room, bare feet squealing, her left barely missing the bloody lump of the dead creature Darien had thrown against the sauna. Her momentum sent her slamming into the wall by the temperature dial, the impact bruising her shoulder.

Claws screeched.

They were gaining on her.

She grabbed onto the door handle. Pulled it open—

And spun around, planting herself in the doorway. With one hand propping the door open, opaque clouds of rose-scented steam fanning her back, she faced the demons barreling at her full tilt.

At the last second, she let go of the door and rushed out of the way.

The monsters didn’t have time to stop. With keening yelps and sharp barks, they tumbled into the benches inside the boiling-hot steam room, the slam of their bodies echoing loudly.

Loren threw her whole weight into the door, pushing it shut—trapping them inside. It was still so hot in there, even without power, that Loren wondered if the sauna had a backup power source.

The thought gave her an idea.

The demons attacked the door, throwing their bodies against it in an effort to get out. She twisted the deadbolt, praying it would hold, and moved to the temperature dial bolted to the wall—

With a twist of her fingers, she cranked it.

She must have distracted Darien, because he was knocked off his feet as two four-legged creatures, their bodies limned with rippling green flames, leapt on him.

He landed on a pool chair with a grunt of pain, wood snapping under him.

Loren ran back his way, lungs burning. She leapt over corpses, her bare feet slipping in blood.

“Darien!” she screamed as he held one wolflike creature back by its jaws, its claws tearing into his chest. “Darien, there’s more coming!”