Demon Forged

the female shrieked with rage. She plowed toward Irena with terrifying speed, a stone battle-ax over her head.
    Irena couldn’t outrace her. She’d barely have time to start running before the female was on her. Heart in her throat, Irena formed handholds in the block and flung herself up and outward. The female veered in the same direction, throwing her ax.
    The ax struck Irena midair, a glancing blow to her arm. It knocked her aside, forced her to spin, but she managed to create a smooth disk beneath her as she hit the snow. The aluminum disk raced over the icy crust, carrying her away from the female, who’d set her feet in anticipation of Irena’s landing.
    Part of Irena’s arm lay on the snow next to her. A trail of blood followed the path of Irena’s sled.
    With a burst of laughter, Irena looked down at the stump below her elbow. Not a glancing blow. And a good thing she’d prepared for this. Her lips drew back from her teeth, and she leapt off the disk. The female was almost on her again, ax in hand.
    Focusing her Gift, Irena shaped a new forearm and hand of steel and clamped it around the stump. She called in her shield over it, just in time to block the nephil’s ax.
    The blow staggered her. The impact tore through her body. Feeling as if she’d been ripped apart, Irena dug her feet into the snow, and barely recovered in time to intercept the next swing.
    The nephil was fast. Too fast for Irena to mark the male nephil’s position. She needed every instant to track the female’s movements, to defend against the stone weapon. Looking away for a moment meant death.
    Not looking away to find him meant the same.
    She couldn’t hear his steps or wings over the crash of the ax and shield. He wasn’t in her field of vision. Behind her, then. And so this would be the end.
    Despair screamed a dire warning beneath her racing heartbeat. Irena barely avoided a pummeling blow that would have shattered her head, and searched desperately for an opening for her blade. She pulsed her Gift constantly, forcing the heavy steel arm into natural motion, waiting for the strike of a sword against her neck from behind.
    She felt an electric charge sizzle through the air, instead. A familiar Gift hummed against her psyche.
    Jake. Oh, sweet Jake. She had never loved the young Guardian more.
    The nephil felt the psychic hum. As she brought down the ax, her eyes darted to the side, as if to check her back.
    Irena lunged. She vanished her shield and caught the edge of the stone ax in her steel palm. Pain shot through her shoulder, bearing the force of the blow. She clenched her teeth and swiftly unraveled her metal forearm. Within the space of a blink, thin steel wires spun out, wrapped around the ax handle, and pierced the nephil’s wrist. Irena forced the wires into the nephil’s arm like hungry worms. They coiled around bone, stabbed through the muscles in her shoulder to her neck.
    The female’s eyes widened with shock and terror. The veins in her throat bulged and exploded through her crimson skin with gouts of blood.
    Irena yanked her arm back. The wires ripped free in a scarlet spray. With her right hand, she followed through with her blade, slashing through the shredded flesh and spine that remained.
    Spinning around, she remade her forearm and prepared for another attack. The nephil wasn’t behind her. Alice raced toward her instead, her black skirt flapping like crow’s wings. Fifty meters beyond Alice, beside the iron block, Alejandro battled the last nephil. Their swords rang in a flashing frenzy of steel, Alejandro falling back before the nephil’s speed.
    Irena’s heart climbed into her throat. She’d barely taken a step toward them when Alice’s shout reached her.
    “Get down!”
    Irena automatically looked up at the sky, searching for a winged threat. Nothing. She started for Alejandro again.
    Jake teleported in behind the nephil. Irena had an instant to realize that the young Guardian was slinging a belt of plastique and wires around the nephil’s waist before Jake teleported and reappeared behind Alejandro. They both vanished—and reappeared beside Alice.
    Irena met Alejandro’s eyes. He dived, catching her legs, and tumbling her into the snow. His body shielded hers, his hands covered her ears.
    The explosion rocked him against her. Pressure swelled in her head. Hot air whipped past them. Irena’s exposed skin tightened, felt like it would split. Alejandro swore and his Gift sucked in the heat