Airel - Aaron Patterson [130]
And then the Sword of Light vanished right out of my hands. It was gone. Was it ever there?
***
The angel and the demon tumbled into the undergrowth, away from Airel. Kreios knew that he must be quick if he was to be victorious. A massive aspen broke their progress, snapping off three or four feet above the ground, the tree top falling with a shiver.
Kreios grunted, grabbing the Seer by the neck, ripping at it, feeling the black blood trickle and spray, and the smell that rode along with it.
Clods of dirt flew through the air. They struggled, Kreios climbing onto the demon’s back, but Tengu flung him off. Kreios rushed him, faked left and lunged right, striking again at his neck with his left hand, using the hold to swing himself around onto the demon’s back. Kreios could feel his strength begin to fail; the demon soaking it out of him quickly now.
Kreios got a foot planted in front of him, shifted his weight, then forced Tengu forward mightily, sending him headlong into the dirt; the angel riding the back of the demon. The Seer choked and gagged, holding his ribcage. A gash appeared there, and Kreios could see the broken ribs jutting out. Airel was doing better than he had hoped.
Tengu tried to flop over on his back, arching himself desperately, trying to extend the seconds, to weaken the angel. Kreios simply enlarged his grip on the neck of the demon, holding his head now in the crook of his elbow. He reached and dug thumb and forefinger into both of the Tengu’s eye sockets, digging them in as deeply as he could reach.
The Seer screamed in total agony, blinded and bleeding from the damage, his eyeballs ruptured and leaking.
Now that the demon had been immobilized, Kreios changed positions. He wearily placed a knee on each shoulder blade, pinning him to the forest floor. Kreios then grasped with iron grip the horns of the Seer’s head that sprouted from the top of his skull and wrapped around in front of his face.
“You ceased long ago to be my brother,” he said. “The war of endurance is over. And I put an end to you at last.” With one powerful motion, Kreios wrenched Tengu’s head to one side, pulling upward, snapping the neck of the demon, killing him, and ripping his head off.
Now, like a scrap of discarded snake skin, the body of the demon withered, shriveled, and became dust, blowing away in a sudden strong gust. Kreios discarded the large head, letting it roll down the gentle slope a little ways. It came to a stop, then exploded in a whiff of inky darkness, pitifully vanishing as vapors into the wind.
Chapter IX
I was standing over the crumpled body of Stanley Alexander when I heard the most awful wrenching sound; a scream that ripped at the heavens and was cut short, as if the soul of it had been torn right out midstream. I was still trying to figure out what was real and what was not—vanishing doors, then disappearing Swords—seriously, what’s next?
As soon as that unholy scream had rent the air, Stan jolted wide awake in a spasm, lurching up from the ground. I jumped back defensively. I reached out in my mind to Kreios and got nothing. Is he dead? I didn’t know.
When Stanley Alexander opened his eyes, something was different. It was very bad and it was very new. She was sending me warning signals without words, and I understood that what I was looking at in Stan was unprecedented. What he had become then had never been seen under the sun before.
He got to his feet wearing a wicked smile, and said, “‘We’ is now me.” He moved so quickly that I couldn’t do anything. Before I knew it, he had stabbed me. I felt overwhelming pain dashing against my chest. He stepped forward, pushing with the blade. I heard Kim scream from a long way off.
He pushed harder, the black blade digging in further, and I fell to my knees. I gagged, wrapped my hand around the blade to try to stop it from going farther. I felt a pumping, gushing, leaking sensation in my chest that was all at once hot and cool, and my strength faded rapidly.
Stan pulled the dagger free and walked slowly around me as my wound gushed,