Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet

He cursed and shook off the dog, but Artemis took over from there. She’d already disposed of another demon, leaving a guy around my age lying unconscious in the small square of grass that lined the apartment building. Now she pounced on the heftier man, her snarls of rage enough to cause goose bumps to jut out all over my skin.

I glanced at Reyes and the demon. One incorporeal being against another, his enveloping black robe making much of the fight impossible to see. But what I did see was surreal, otherworldly, and my mind had difficulty processing it. Their movements were so fast, so fluid, it was like watching two oceans collide. Then I looked at his physical form. He had the sumo wrestler in a headlock, one knee jabbed into the man’s back. In the next instant, the man’s head snapped to the side with a sharp crack. He slumped to the ground instantly. But I knew from experience that wouldn’t last long. He’d be back up in a matter of moments.

I tore my gaze away. The Englishman’s body lay limp on the paved lot. I gripped the leaf rake and started toward him as PP went after another possessed woman. Hunched a few feet from me, she seemed confused. She wanted me but didn’t seem to know why. And when PP nipped at her fingers, she appraised him with a vacant stare as though trying to figure out exactly what he was.

I took the break to check on the Englishman, but the instant I started toward him, I could tell he was already dead. That’s when I realized another of the possessed had picked up the knife, his eyes glistening with hunger as he came for me. I met him halfway, pitching forward and lashing out with the rake. Just to stop it. To slow it down.

The bristles of the rake scraped harmlessly across its face, doing little damage, but I did manage to knock the knife out of his hand. He looked to the side, and the distraction granted me enough time to crash into him, another male in his early forties. He seemed unable to believe his luck as we tumbled to the pavement and skidded across the lot. Dirt and gravel ground into my shoulder. He straddled me, took my head into his hands, and started to twist.

He was going to break my neck, and I hated having my neck broken, so I lifted my legs, leveraged my feet up and around his head, then jerked back, knocking him off balance long enough for me to almost make it out from under him. But he threw his weight on top of me.

I fought his hold, elbowed him across the face, and crawled forward, fighting for every inch I gained. Before I knew it, his hands were gripping my head again. He really wanted the kill. When he twisted, I rolled with it, forcing him to go for a better hold. But Artemis finally ripped into him, hurtling herself right through the human’s body and dragging the demon out with her as she landed. The man went limp on top of me, and I lay pinned to the ground.

I looked over and realized Artemis had already taken care of the demon inside the man Reyes had been fighting, the sumo wrestler. Only one demon remained. The woman. She came into view as I lay right in front of her, easing over me, drool dripping from her mouth and into my hair.

A mountain lay atop me, and a possessed woman sat studying my every feature as though I were a specimen in a petri dish. I looked to the side just as Reyes sliced through Hedeshi’s demon self, cutting him in half at the hips. He’d screamed and started back for more, when Reyes swung again. He severed its head, and with its death, it evaporated like smoke on dry ice.

When another drop of drool landed on my temple, I shivered in revulsion. But at least she wasn’t trying to break my neck.

I looked to my other side. PP and Mrs. Allen were gone. She’d probably call the police.

Artemis came into view then, her stubby tail wagging in excitement, ready for more. She hunched down by my side with a begging whine. Reyes stepped beside me, and his incorporeal body reentered his physical one. The robes settled around his shoulders, then disappeared as he dragged the man off. Grateful, I stood, wiped my face and hair, then stepped to the woman, who sat on her knees, now staring at the grass where I’d been.

I knelt down and talked to the demon inside. “This is not going to end well for you.”

She looked up at me, her lids fluttering, and said, “Let me go now and I’ll spare the woman.” Then her brows crinkled and she stared into space again. She was fighting it. The woman. She was fighting the hold the demon had on her.

Sensing the new danger, Artemis crept forward until her jaws were at the woman’s neck, her teeth bared and glistening, saliva dripping off her jowls. The demon flinched, and its head turned toward her. Artemis struck in the next instant with a ferocious bark that shook the windows. The demon didn’t stand a chance. She yanked it out and tore it to pieces until it was nothing more than a heavy vapor. From there, it evaporated, its immeasurable darkness dispersing in the air.

The woman collapsed into the cold grass, and I turned her head to make sure she could breathe. Reyes bent to help, and only then did I realize that he had fought a demon while his incorporeal self was out of his body. He’d never been able to do that. Normally when his incorporeal self left, he entered a seizurelike state.

I leaned back, regarded him warily. “You—You’re—You told me you couldn’t do that,” I finally said accusingly. “You fought a demon without—” I fought for the right words “—without your soul.”

Reyes was checking the woman’s pulse. “Couldn’t,” he said absently before turning back to me. “Can now.” He stood and offered me his hand. He seemed distant, hurt.

“That’s it?” I asked. “You just can now?” When he only shrugged, I asked, “Is that all of them?” I hoped that with the absence of Hedeshi, their leader, there would be no more demons to contend with.