The Survivors: Book One

The oak exploded, raining down wooden shrapnel in warning, but Warren ignored it. He snatched her by her sweater, jerked her up against his hard, thin body. "Surrender yourself to me, Witch!"

Her face became a snarl of hatred. "I belong to no man!"

Lightning crashed again, close, and she pushed him away with a strength he wasn't expecting. When he tried to grab her again, the Witch whispered two words and Angela felt power flowing through her, something alive and hungry.

She closed her eyes as her newest gift was revealed: "Fire! Ice!"

Lightning cracked for a third time, striking the truck Warren had arrived in, and it exploded, twisted metal raining over their battlefield. Warren and Aaron ducked, but the Witch didn't flinch and wasn't hit.

The sky opened up a second later and huge chunks of hail, black and heavy, began pelting them. The four men whose names she had never known recovered too quickly, her magic weak, but they fled in fear, never thinking to use the guns that most of them had dropped from panicking fingers.

The Witch held out a hand, where flames now danced along her fingertips and the two remaining men stopped, eyes confirming they were in over their heads and knew it, but were still unwilling to back down.

"If you push me, I will kill you," the Demon's voice was cold, without weakness.

When Aaron raised his gun, finger tightening on the trigger, the Witch surged forward to laugh at him. "You think that'll work on the likes of me? The woman may die but I am immortal!"

The Witch shoved forward, demon face merging with Angela's and the black man went pale at the sight of glowing red eyes and hungry white fangs. Horns sprouted from the sides of her head, her long, crooked mouth opened to reveal razor sharp, needlelike teeth. When the Demon's forked tongue lashed out at him, Aaron turned and ran, never looked back.

The Witch remained, resisting Angela's attempts to get her under control, and the Preacher showed no fear even though he was now facing her alone.

"You are not strong enough to override her morals. She is a doctor. She will not let you kill me," he countered, sure of his answer.

The Witch grinned back, red eyes changing, becoming reptilian. "You know so little. Doctors kill often. They don't murder. This would be self-defense."

Leaning on faith, Warren grabbed her arm again, Bible still in his hand. "I am the Lord's Prophet and I see you, Demon of Souls! Surrender yourself to me in the name of the Father, the Son...aaahhhh!"