Acca

Chapter 3

3

Dusk and Mourn waste no time getting into battle mode. Mourn raises his left hand; black particles of power appear around his palm. At the same time, Dusk transforms into another humanoid insect. This time, she becomes a massive red scorpion. At least, the back end of her is a scorpion, anyway. That part comes complete with a tail and a poisoned stinger. From the waist up, Dusk is still her human self. Only now, she’s covered in a thick exoskeleton. I hate to admit this, but she looks pretty tough.

On reflex, my hands go to where my hood connects to my fighting suit. The seam isn’t secure because I rushed getting ready. It will just have to do.

Lincoln raises his arms high, a baculum gripped in each hand. A line of angelfire winds between the two silver rods. The flaming cord quickly weaves back and forth until it becomes a full net made of white fire. Lincoln tosses the fiery web toward Mourn, who uses that moment to release his dark spell.

Black particles fly away from Mourn’s hand. The black cloud heads straight toward Lincoln and me. I steel myself, waiting for the magic to strike. Will the igni be able to protect us? The dark mist presses in close around our shield of igni. The tiny black particles vibrate as they try to break past the power that surrounds Lincoln and me.

They don’t get through, however. The igni hold.

I grin. That means it’s time to fight.

Since his baculum is netting up Mourn, Lincoln pulls out a regular short sword from the sheath on his hip. Raising the weapon high, Lincoln leaps through the newly made break in the wall and races straight for the tether cord that links Dusk and Mourn. With any luck, Lincoln’s regular blade will slice right through their connection.

For my part, I have a dual-action scorpion-human b***h to deal with.

I leap through the hole in the wall and rush straight for Dusk. She skitters forward on all her buggy legs, and damn, that woman can go fast. As she closes in, I sock her with a series of body kicks that send her flying. All of which bring up some interesting points.

Number one. Kicking an exoskeleton hurts like f**k.

Number two. Dusk can’t get booted very far before her tether stops her. It looks like she and Mourn have about ten yards of room to play with. Good to know.

Number three. Dusk has some excellent fine motor skills, despite the fact that her hands are covered with insect shells. I know this because the b***h ripped my hood off as I sent her flying over my head.

Damn. I really should have taken an extra minute to get my gear on properly. Something to remember for next time. I actively ignore the little voice in my head that says there may not be a next time. Screw you, voice.

Dusk regains her footing and glares at me, her irises flaring red with demonic power. “Your skin is exposed now, Scala. One scratch from my stinger. That’s all it will take.” Her scorpion tail sways menacingly behind her. “And you’ll be dead.”

My wrath power streams through every nerve ending I’ve got. My mind clears as I go into battle mode. My thoughts turn eerily calm as I calculate the vectors and approaches between Dusk and me. There are a few that seem super promising.

Think you’re taking me down? Think again.

Meanwhile, Lincoln hacks away at the tether between Dusk and Mourn. He’s not making any progress. In fact, his blade is half melted from the effort.

Mourn lets out a howl of pain. The angelfire net has burned through the dark shield of power that surrounds him. Now, a crisscross pattern is burned into his face. Mourn whips off his coat. That can’t be good. Using the fabric to cover his hands, Mourn tosses the fiery net aside. The baculum extinguish. Lincoln scoops up the metal rods from the floor.

Dusk and I circle each other. “Did you see that?” I ask Lincoln. No question what “that” is. It’s how Mourn’s face currently looks like he got hit with a waffle iron, thanks to the baculum’s fire.

“I did.”

“Assault Plan Gamma Xi.”

“Perfect.”

Mourn reaches behind his back and pulls out a pair of daggers. The edges of the blades gleam with green goop. More poison. He holds his weapons in a loose grip for tossing. The demon’s not going to fight hand-to-hand with Lincoln. Good pick, actually.

While Mourn stands still, Dusk gets moving. She races for me, her tail going berserk behind her. The stinger end slams into the linoleum floor as she races along. Damn, she has some force behind that thing. It smashes straight through the floorboards, sending plumes of dust into the air.

My tail arches over my shoulder. The arrowhead end curls forward in a move that says, Come at me.

“That’s right, boy.” I make the same motion with my hand. “Come on. If you didn’t bust up the floor so much, you’d be here already.”

Dusk leaps into the air, all her eight legs moving to pin me down. As she lands, I punch her right in the larynx while my tail gives her a solid torso hit. She tumbles down beside me but quickly rights herself. After that, Dusk lunges for me, her armored fingers reaching for my throat. I drop and slide across the floor, making a path right under her torso. As I move beneath her, my tail cuts a line through the exoskeleton on her belly.

Nothing like a dragon-tail to slice through what bugs you.

A few yards away, Lincoln reignites his baculum as a pair of short swords. Mourn whips his first dagger at Lincoln and misses. Barely. Lincoln rushes toward the tether line.

Mourn releases the second dagger. It lands harmlessly on the floor, embedding itself up to the hilt. That Mourn’s got a good arm. He’s also got more throwing daggers. The guy already has two fresh ones prepped to go.

Lincoln doesn’t wait for another volley of weapons. He brings his arms down, aiming the flaming short swords straight for the tether. The fiery blades easily slice through the cord of dark energy.

Their tether is toast. The battle’s looking up.

At this point, Mourn and Dusk lose their freaking minds. Both shriek in rage. Dusk is pretty distracted, so I take the opportunity to do an aerial somersault over her scaly back. While I’m midair, my tail cuts through the tip of hers, severing the poisoned stinger. It falls to the ground with a satisfying whump.

I make sure to land so I stand nose-to-nose with Dusk. My plan? Use my favorite weapon—that would be my tail—and make the killing blow. I’m deep in battle mode and laser-focused on my enemy.

But, yeah. I also want to win the bet with Lincoln.

My tail arches over my shoulder, ready to strike, when Dusk pauses from her roars of rage. She jerks once, her body going stiff. After that, her eyes roll back in her head as she falls over, dead. I lean over her corpse. A short sword sticks out of her back.

Crap, now that’s Lincoln’s kill.

My guy stands over Mourn’s dead body. Clearly, Lincoln tossed his short swords simultaneously. He took them both out at once, which is not easy to do with short swords, as a rule.

That’s super impressive.

My battle rage wanes, giving rise to another emotion. I really want to kiss him, but I can’t. I lost the bet. Ugh. He’s going to be impossible.

A smug smile rounds Lincoln’s full mouth. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

He steps over to Mourn, picks up his baculum, and extinguishes it. “Are you sure?” There’s a s**t-ton of swagger in his step as he walks over to Dusk and does the same thing.

“Positive.”

Lincoln stands right in front of me. Barely a wisp of air separates our bodies. His warm breath cascades over my lips. He tilts his head. “Want to kiss me?”

“Maybe.” I slowly lick my lips. “You know how I love to watch you kill stuff.”

Lincoln raises his hand, showing off the Rixa Codex. How exactly did he find the time to retrieve that book while taking out two Class A demons?

Crap, now I really, really, really want to kiss him.

Lincoln leans in even closer. “I’m not calling the kiss yet.”

“I figured that out.” Jerk.

“Maybe after we get our final interview for this.” He raises the codex higher. “I might change my mind.”

I groan. Dang, I almost forgot the entire reason we were running around with the book in the first place. We were off to Purgatory to interview someone for evidence to place in the Rixa Codex. “Who are we supposed to interview again?”

Laughter dances in Lincoln’s eyes. “That would be Mrs. Pomplemousse.”

“That’s right.” She’s an ancient broad who was mistreated by Aldred. Her big claim to fame? Aldred confessed to her that he was in league with Armageddon, making her our best potential interview of all. There’s no way we can skip it.

“Mrs. Pomplemousse.” I step back, shaking my head. “Why is her name more of a mood killer than three dead demons?”

“Because it’s us.” Lincoln tucks the codex into his pocket.

I scan the room. What a mess. “I’ll tell Mom to send a cleanup crew later. For the time being, we should probably haul ass to Mrs. Pomplemousse. We’re super late as it is.”

“Agreed.”

I silently vow that no matter what happens, I am not letting Lincoln torture me about this kiss. I’ll be Miss Cool. Miss No-Lust Demon. Miss Awesomesauce Who Can Lose A Bet And Not Give A Crap.

Maybe.