My Beautiful One

10. The dance of death

Author's note: dramatic music on the side for a dramatic chapter!

All hell broke lose.

Literally.

There were crowds of demons surrounding us. Filling up the alleyway, clinging to the walls, they shrieked and gurgled and growled.

"Can you fight?" Asked the Shadowhunter, not looking at me, but keeping his eyes fixed on the hoard.

"Yes." I replied, unhooking a fist of knives from my weapons belt.

"That's good. You'll need to." He said shortly, before leaping into the fray with a battle cry. For a moment, I was rooted to the spot, watching as the flaxen-haired demon hunter took on the pack. His accuracy was incredible; he seemed to be fighting several battles at once, and demons exploded into ashes and sludge with every swipe of his twin katana swords. But the fluidity of the movements was oddly beautiful, like watching a dance.

The dance of death. I thought, still marveling at his impeccable technique.

"A little help here, faerie." He grunted, but had to turn back to his fight as the talons of an Achaierai demon cut across his shoulder. In retaliation, he flicked his blades in a scissoring motion, and the creature's head was on the ground moments later.

"I'm on it." I said, and leaped into action. I first tried to help the Shadowhunter by picking off the demons surrounding him, but they surrounded him like a vortex, and the time I took looking for a way in was long enough for a pack of demons to take me on themselves.

Three Moloch demons, one Hydra, and a Kuri. They shrieked their guttural cries, the Hydra bared the fangs of all of its three heads, the Kuri revealed its scythe-like claws, and the Molochs' eyes glowed red. I snarled back, gripped my knives, and started fighting.

I crouched down, and as the Hydra snapped at me with all three of its heads, I leaped high over them and came to stand on its spiny back. It bucked like a bronco, and I had to wedge my feet between the two tall spines to keep myself standing. All three heads writhed and snapped, but they couldn't reach me, and I lunged down with a knife and buried it deep in the base of its neck, where all three heads joined. The Hydra screamed, and started to disintegrate, so I jumped off quickly.

One down, two to go. I thought grimly as the Kuri demon advanced, its venom-coated tusks positioned to charge. It lunged at me, trying to gut me with its tusks, but I dodged to the side and sliced at it with my knife. One of its skeletal arms fell to the ground, still twitching, which made the demon yet more angry.

The mouth on its stomach gaped open, and a pair of jaws on a retractable tongue shot out, aiming for my right leg. I jumped as high as I could, but the jaws still clamped around my foot, and I gasped in agony as demon venom began to burn through my veins. But that only gave me even more purpose, and I'd hacked off the extendable jaws in one strike, sending the demon stumbling backwards. I jumped to my feet, leaped on top of the monster, and beheaded it quickly. The dragon-like head still snarled and snapped like its arm had twitched, but it couldn't do any more harm, and I was already too concerned with the approaching Moloch demons to care.

But I knew exactly what to do with these little suckers, and I narrowed my eyes. Trying ignore the searing pain in the leg the Kuri had bitten, I stood up straight and looked the pack in their glowing red eyes. "Moloch Moc Og Na." I said firmly, and just like it had said in the demonology textbook, they disbanded and fled. As they turned their backs on me, I withdrew three knives from my belt and threw them at the demons. Each knife hit a Moloch in the back, and they exploded into ash.

I whipped around to face the Shadowhunter who was fighting with me, and he seemed to be on the last leg of his battle as well.

"Need any help?" I called to him.