Demon Moon

he heard the tiny catch of Savi’s breath.
    Do not fear, sweet . He’d no intention of making a bargain. One who did, and failed to meet its terms, risked an eternal torment: his face frozen in Hell and his body dangling—continually devoured—in Chaos.
    Colin couldn’t imagine any gain worth that risk.
    “What have you to offer that I cannot take?”
    The crippled vampires sat propped against the left wall of the gazebo. Colin held the sword lightly in his right hand as he began circling the pond counterclockwise; his gun—the weapon Dalkiel feared the least—he kept between them. “Your life,” he said simply. “I’ll not kill you…tonight…if you return those two to me without further harm done to them.”
    He knew Dalkiel only played with him when the demon did not laugh at Colin’s assumption that he could kill him. A demon hunter, luring the vampire prey close by letting it think it could defend itself.
    Colin hated being prey.
    “Two lives for one? Hardly an equal bargain,” Dalkiel said. The demon had to turn his back to Paul and Varney to keep Colin within his sight; in his arrogance, he wouldn’t feel threatened by them—but nor would he turn away from Colin to further mutilate them.
    “You equate your worth with a vampire’s? I once heard a halfling demon say that a vampire’s life was nothing to her; what must you be, that two are worth more?”
    “The inequality is theirs, not mine.” Dalkiel studied him through radiant slitted eyes. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest; not a defensive gesture, but one that stated he’d no reason to prepare himself. His hands had transformed into razor-tipped claws. “We cannot bargain with these terms, vampire. I believe I shall kill them, after all.”
    He’d never had any doubt of the demon’s intention. Colin stopped halfway around the pool, giving himself a view of those inside the gazebo, as well as Fia, Darkwolf, and Gina. “Why bother to kill them if they are nothing? They hardly seem worth the effort.”
    “Their lives are not, but their deaths?” With a smile, Dalkiel uncrossed his arms, reached out and clamped his hand over the top of Osterberg’s head. The vampire’s skull cracked. He shrieked, but Dalkiel had no mercy: he did not finish it. He held the vampire there, his head half-crushed. “Pain and fear. The most powerful currency in the world.”
    Christ. Colin preferred to take Osterberg alive. He raised his pistol, held it on the demon’s face. After he’d sufficiently weakened and distracted Dalkiel, and given a signal, Fia and the others would rush in to retrieve Paul and Varney—but as soon as he fired, the Guardians would hear it, swoop down on them.
    Osterberg screamed again.
    Bloody fucking hell. They’d hear that, as well. Colin squeezed the trigger. Dalkiel’s head rocked back with the impact, but he remained standing. Blood poured from his missing eye.
    The demon laughed softly, his lack of concern serving better than mockery. “You threaten me with a gun ? Do you truly think these vampires will follow you when they see what I can do to them? How I easily erase liabilities?” He glanced toward Darkwolf with his one burning eye, and another sickening crunch sounded from Osterberg’s skull. “And any who resist me or expose me, I’ll consider a liability.”
    “Not just a gun,” Colin said coldly. “Hellhound venom. Let him go.”
    Surprise flickered over Dalkiel’s face.
    Colin fired again; a hole appeared over the demon’s right eyebrow. He’d missed, but it’d have to do—the first eye had begun to regenerate.
    Colin traded his pistol for his second sword; Dalkiel staggered backward, blinking. The two bullets had been covered with a minuscule amount of venom—the demon was at normal vampire speed, most likely, or just above that. Colin’s weapons switch must have looked instantaneous. “Let him go; you’ll need both hands to fight.”
    Dalkiel glanced over at Osterberg swaying in his grip, and tore off the vampire’s head.
    “Get them,” Colin growled, and cleared the pond in a single jump, running after the demon when he turned and fled. Footsteps pounded behind him, splashing—then Fia’s soothing murmurs.
    Colin sped through the gazebo, across the rooftop, his gaze fixed on the demon’s back. He’d catch him within a second or—
    Dalkiel’s wings unfurled, and he leapt into the air.
    Fucking coward. But shouting the insult after the demon only earned him Savi’s