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“Not fair,” I shouted, beating a hasty retreat

I hit the outer wall of a hedge ht withsurrounded Of course, that alsocornered, then captured I cursed underto face the five as I stopped short of the enor above us

Where the hell was Raziel when you needed hiel powers he could use to drive the de these assholes after us?

I flourished my sword at the de asses do I have to send back to hell?”

If one of theotten pissed But none of therunted further threats, and that just drovewho or what I was up against wasmy blood boil How many years did nephilim even live? How many more of these demons would I encounter in my lifetime? Under my breath, I cursed Artemis, and Beatrice Rex, and my father

Two of the demons wielded weapons, if you could call theht The other three were unarmed, which always made me so much more cautious That meant that they were potentially ar, loaded gun, after all But the three deers pointed up Their nails grew longer, and longer, until they had sprouted into slick, enormous claws

Da that wants to kill you isn’t holding a weapon, it’s got so much worse in store Always

The five demons closed in on me, bats and bare hands tipped with kitchen knives at the ready One de, sharp talons I slashed in an outward crescent, severing the dele blow The arht, and beautiful, and elegant, but they could probably cut through anything And I was fighting with the weight of lyphs on ardens like a firefly The other deered away from me as the headless body of their forrass

“Give me the name of your prince,” I roared

Silence Pure silence My blood rushed to old froe overtookthrough them with my sword One de husks corrupting the perfect floral freshness of the arboretum

E in on the last of the dethe blade down, so red flashed before my eyes I cried out as a white-hot pain ripped intowetness One of the claws had caught leaash across ers tightened even harder aroundto make this bastard pay

But I didn’t reach him in time, with either a fist or my sword The demon launched into the air, lifted by so looped around his leg, as long and as huge around as an elephant’s trunk, only green, the color of new saplings Then another vine snaked out of the bushes, then another, until four tendrils had restrained each of the demon’s four limbs

The vines pulled, all at the same time

The man screamed So did I Frankly, I was shocked I’d never see a man ripped into four pieces before, even if it was just a demon’s husk I backed away asaround his torso, then squeezing hard enough to snap his spine I shouldn’t have looked I should have covered htmares

I brandishedon terrified by this new threat, until I found the source of the sentient vines Florian walked towardsas if dozens upon dozens of snakes were slithering through His shoes were gone, his feet bare, his eyes glowing bright green This was him This was all him