Page 19 of The Human Element (The Human Element Collection #1)
Daemon
Daemon felt the pain erupt through his back as his body collided into the side of the car and dropped like dead weight to the ground. For a moment, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to move.
But when he heard Lorelei scream his name, a new kick of energy rushed through his body and his eyes shot open.
Lorelei was still on the side of the road, but was now surrounded by four demons.
Zanul was directly in front of her, inching his way toward her while the other three flanked her from all sides.
The fear that he felt, the fear of them harming Lorelei, fueled him to stand.
Getting to his feet, he breathed through the pain from the impact and started putting into motion his self-healing to alleviate it enough to die down to a dull ache.
Lorelei turned to look at him and the relief on her face to see he was alright guided him through his next moves.
Quickly, he ripped off his sweatshirt that was concealing his wings in one swift motion, and let them unfurl to their fullest capacity behind him, spanning 6 feet in full width, which only enhanced his imposing frame.
With the moon in full view above them shining brightly down on his now exposed chest, the muscles in his shoulders and arms tensed when seeing Zanul was a few steps away from Lorelei.
Daemon sprinted at full speed, his wings helping him glide over the ground, and with one brutal kick to his side; Zanul was flying off and skidding across the dirt.
The other demons sprang into action, and Daemon’s eyes burned brighter, channeling his power throughout his body to enhance his blows. Power and magic spilled from them as the gentle demeanor he had moments ago, vanished completely.
There’s a lot of them. But if I can just weaken them enough to use the Finishing Spell, we can get out of this alive.
Suddenly, a demon from behind, a woman with dark purple hair that formed an overly-large mohawk on the top of her head, came running toward Lorelei. Daemon mumbled the words to ignite his full strength and flew toward her.
It happened so fast, mere inches from Lorelei’s back; Daemon intercepted the demon woman and punched her square in the jaw so hard that it looked like he might have knocked her out cold.
But he watched as she got back to her feet, her face now screwed up in pain and she hissed as she jolted back at him, her hands long and the claws she released from her fingertips like daggers, they sliced through the air around Daemon’s head.
He moved like a dancer-easily dodging each swing the demon woman attempted, waiting for her to make a mistake.
And after a few more slices through the air, there it was.
The demon woman had over-extended her slashing arm and was off balance, leaning forward a fraction of a hair too much—the perfect, seemingly innocent mistake.
A mistake that would cost her life.
It was these kinds of moments in battle, the smallest, minute overreaction or underreaction that determined the winner.
One that Daemon was particularly skilled in noticing.
One of Daemon’s special abilities, one that used to earn him the title as one of the most skilled warriors in God’s arsenal, was the ability to slow down time for himself, but keep others around him unchanged.
It didn’t slow it down by much, but enough to catch these fatal errors before the other party could see what hit them.
Waiting one more second, he then spun around, his foot hitting her chest precisely; he heard the crack of her ribs collapsing over her lungs and she fell to the ground.
Before she could regain her strength, he sang the words that ignited her in an instant.
The power from the Finishing Spell surrounded Daemon like a bubble, it’s green light building up, resembling a firework exploding—sending the light directly at the demon woman and setting her alight. In a swift pop, she was dead.
This was all done so quickly, Lorelei didn't even have time to react to Daemon speeding past her.
Seconds was all it took for him to defeat one of the four demons.
Although it looked easy, this one fight had already zapped a good portion of his magic away; seeing as he didn't have as much as he did before his fall and it being years since his last major battle, he was weaker than he imagined he'd be. And if this demon had been the weakest of the others by far, he desperately needed to be smarter to conserve what magic he had left. Whirling around, he caught Lorelei’s eye and ran back to her.
Grabbing her shoulders firmly he made her look at him.
“Lorelei, you need to run. Take the car and get out as fast as you can. Do you understand me?”
He watched as she thought to argue with him, but he shook his head and couldn’t hold back the desperation in his tone.
“Please. I’m begging you.”
She nodded without another word and ran toward the car that surprisingly hadn’t collapsed completely at his body hitting it, watching her fumbling to open the driver's side door. The demon who he had seen with Zanul in the market, brandished a fiery whip and lassoed it, catching and wrapping itself around Lorelei’s left arm.
She screamed in agony while fire began burning away her skin.
She was now being dragged along the ground, pulled by the demon and Daemon let out a growl that sounded animalistic as he lifted out his wings and soared through the air.
Stop holding back, you fool! You have to use your more powerful spells! If you don’t, Lorelei will die!
Right before Daemon plunged into the demon, whose eyes were filled with satisfaction at Lorelei’s screams of pain, Daemon cried out his next attack.
“BODVA POILP I OBZA!”
And without touching him, the demon’s smile faded instantly as the top half of his body slid off from the bottom half.
Not a killing spell by any means, as it was a type of slicing spell which would resemble the damage done by brandishing a real sword.
But it was enough to slow down demons and typically injure them enough to then be terminated.
The demon howled in agony while testing whether he could pull himself by his arms to get to his legs and somehow re-attach himself.
But Daemon was on him again quickly, knowing that the demon could still recover from the blow if he had the time, and began singing the words that made the demon become nothing more than a pile of ash.
Daemon didn’t have time to relish in this victory though, as the third, massive blonde-haired demon, who was probably twice the size as Daemon, knocked his large fist into the side of his head.
Daemon soared through the air, landing with a thud and began rolling over on his side, trying to regain his breath as the demon now went for Lorelei, who was cradling her arm to her chest.
No..no...I can’t..let him…get the fuck up, Daemon!
Before he could make himself move, a rough hand grabbed a fistful of his silver hair and was wrenching his head backwards. Zanul’s face was above him and he smiled at Daemon.
“It’s lovely to be running into you like this, Daemon. Although, I must say, the last time we crossed each other, you were much more fearsome than the sad sack that's before me now.”
Zanul’s grin grew larger; he was loving every second of this.
“What’s all of this to you, anyways? Why help the pathetic girl?” Zanul narrowed his eyes, curiosity lingered in his question.
Daemon didn’t respond, but sputtered out blood that dripped down his chin as he forced his head to swivel to where Lorelei was now knocked out in the large demon’s arms.
His heart felt it could break into a thousand tiny pieces.
Her slender frame, her dusty-blonde hair falling over her face, the arm that had been injured hung over the demon’s own that was holding her up.
Daemon’s strength was practically gone. The pain from the blows he took were now creeping back up on him.
It was difficult to keep healing himself while also performing such high level spells.
It was draining him. He felt totally helpless.
“Why aren’t you just killing us, then? If that’s what you were tasked with doing, why haven’t you already?”
Zanul licked his lips, and it made Daemon’s stomach churn.
“You know me, Daemon. You know how much I love to play with my prey before finishing it off..”
Daemon didn’t have to hear Zanul directly say it for him to know he was talking about Lorelei.
Daemon knew all too well the rumors of what Zanul meant by “playing.” Daemon’s anger spurred him to grab the hand that latched to his hair, and chant the only spell he could think to use.
The Finishing Spell. He'd never used it unless he knew the demon was already weak, but this time, he planned to use it to kill both demons off at once. It was something he didn’t know had been done before; and one he wasn’t sure he himself would survive from.
But it was the only chance he had to save Lorelei .
Using the last of his power, he focused all of his magic energy on this one spell.
Looking once more at Lorelei, it renewed him enough to give it his best shot.
The chant and song-like quality of the spell changed; it was pouring out of him in a way he hadn’t heard before and yet, he knew that his instincts were kicking in to carry him through the rest of the way.
Daemon slowed time again, so that Zanul couldn’t stop him from finishing it.
In mere seconds, the entire area surrounding them glowed with intense green and white light that caused Zanul to release Daemon’s hair long enough to sing the final word of the spell; he watched as both Zanul and the other demon screamed in anguish as the light flickered in the air like fire, consuming their bodies at the same time, causing the demon holding Lorelei to ignite instantaneously.
Daemon sprung out of the way as fast as he could and caught Lorelei before she hit the ground just as Zanul burst into flame and was no more.
Lorelei was still unconscious and injured, but she was safe. She was alive. Barely alive .
The happiness at this one fact could’ve lit up the entire night sky around them.
Daemon could no longer hold back the emotion that filled him to the brim.
For the first time in centuries, he let the tears fall, and hugged Lorelei to his body, pulling her head to rest against his bare chest, his wings curling around them both like a blanket as the world around him started to fade in and out.
He used so much of his power, he wasn’t sure he could move.
His insides felt like broken glass, but he continued to cradle Lorelei to him, swearing to himself then and there, that he would never let Lorelei’s life hang in the balance like this ever again .