Demon Night

more than a vegetable would.
    Footsteps came up fast behind him. Ethan looked under his arm, snatched the attacking vampire’s wrist before he could take off Ethan’s head with his sword. A tight squeeze had the vampire dropping his weapon. Ethan caught the sword before it hit the ground and swung the vampire by his broken wrist, whipping him up hard against a wooden storefront. He clamped his hand around the vampire’s throat, lifted the bastard until he dangled.
    The muffled pop warned him, but even Ethan couldn’t move quick enough to avoid the bullet. Pain exploded in his upper back, tore into his chest like a blacksmith pounding a hot iron stake through him. His muscles screamed as he turned and replaced the vampire’s sword with his crossbow.
    Ethan fired. The vampire holding the gun dropped, the weapon clattering to the sidewalk, the bolt between its eyes. Gritting his teeth against the agony in his back, Ethan trained the crossbow on the vampires circling the booth.
    Charlie was watching them wide-eyed, and he could see by the rise of her chest that she was breathing erratically. Her lips were trembling.
    Then she flinched and raised her arms protectively when a female with long dark hair and wearing half a cow in leather lifted her gun. The pings of the bullets against the glass were no louder than the silenced shots.
    Charlie lowered her arms and stared. Her gaze shifted to Ethan and he nodded once, letting a smile touch his lips. She might not understand magic was at work, but the results were unmistakable: they wouldn’t be getting in, and couldn’t hurt her through the spell.
    Her mouth widened in a relieved grin, opened in a laugh that he could see but not hear.
    Still watching her, still watching the vampires circling the booth, Ethan replaced the crossbow with his own sword, pressed it to the neck of the vampire he held before loosening his grip.
    Using his lungs brought blood up to his mouth; he swallowed it down and ignored the burning in his back and chest.
    “Let me make this real simple.” His tone was low enough it made speaking less of an effort, dangerous enough they wouldn’t know how much it was hurting. It was better the vampires thought a bullet had little effect, or they’d soon be shooting more at him. “Anything happens to Charlie, any more humans are turned against their will, and Sodom and Gomorrah is going to look pretty next to what I’ll do to Legion.”
    In the booth, Charlie rose to her feet. Her palms flattened against the window panel. Not cowering anymore, though she took a startled step back when the female snarled at her and made a lunge at the plastic.
    Rabid dogs, just looking to frighten her.
    Beneath Ethan’s hand, the vampire’s throat worked as he struggled to speak. “You Guardians talk a lot, but you don’t help us. Don’t give us anything we need.”
    That sounded like a line a demon would feed them. Ethan smiled a bit, and even without fangs he reckoned it looked as lethal as a demon’s. “Well now, you just tell me what Legion is giving you, and perhaps—”
    The female rushed around the booth, snapped at Charlie again. The vampire’s movement must have looked near instantaneous to Charlie, as if she’d appeared from thin air; Charlie stumbled back against the opposite side of the small space.
    Her surprise crackled through the air like summer lightning.
    Son of a bitch. She’d rubbed up against the blood on the symbols, wiping them clean.
    And the vampires realized it the instant he did. If they got in there with her, reactivated the spell with their own blood, Ethan wouldn’t have a chance in hell of helping her.
    The female was on the wrong side of the booth—her companion went for the door.
    Put them down. This wasn’t a risk Ethan was taking again, not with these vampires. He let go of the one he was holding; his sword slid through the vampire’s neck before his feet hit the ground. Two quick slices as he ran past the vampires lying motionless on the sidewalk meant they wouldn’t be getting up again.
    The female turned to flee; Ethan set his sights on the male at the door and let her go. He needed one left alive to deliver his message to Legion.
    Unless Legion was coming to him.
    That scaly psyche he’d felt the night before crawled over his skin, and it was getting closer, stronger. A demon posed a real threat to Ethan, and he wouldn’t be protecting anyone if he was gutted or dead.
    Time to get Charlie out of there.

    It was