WARFIRE

Chapter 1

Seventy years later

"Attack!" Amira yelled at the top of her lungs. With one mighty heave, her wings exploded forward, the midnight color stark against the grayish sky. With her powerful wings, Amira felt unstoppable.

Ten echoed her screech with his own hoarse cry, his wings raised in challenge. With his face filled with hunger for blood, eyes gleaming, he charged for the incoming fray of teeth and claws. 

Amziel lifted his shining sword, his expression harsh as he strode forward, wings arched above his blond head. One smooth slash and four demons fell back with gaping bellies.

Amira's blood pumped even faster through her veins, as the foul scent of demon filled her nostrils, triggering her Warfire.

Instinct roared inside her, begging her to leap into the throng of demons. Her eyes tingled, signaling the change of her normal brown eyes to unnatural red. Her vision sharpened. 

With a cry, she ripped two throwing daggers from their sheaths, launching herself at a demon with reptilian eyes.

He didn't stand a chance. With a shrill whistle, the dagger buried itself in the center of his black throat. A moment later, Amira yanked the dagger out and darted past his slumping body.

Pleasure blossomed inside her as she sliced, lunged and dodged. Her wings slammed into her opponents, knocking them off balance while she lunged in for the kill. Her Warfire roared in victory as she sliced a demon's throat with practiced skill.

A few feet away, Ten bellowed a challenge, his big body slamming demons aside, even as his battleaxe decapitated heads in his way.

A distance away, Amira could see Amziel's white blond head bobbing above the mix of dark shriveled skin, the sword flashing in his hands.

A sudden roar from her left caused Amira to jerk her head up. A demon had crept up on Ten from the back, digging into his broad back with long claws.

Fury bubbled inside her stomach as she flung one of her daggers into the demon's shoulder, sending him flying to the ground.

Ten stared at her with crimson eyes, devoid of reason, even as blood welled from new scratches on his back. She threw herself back into the battle, her daggers dripping with blood. The next few minutes she passed in a trance. There was nothing in the world besides her daggers and the vermin they exterminated. Spinning, she danced her way across the battlefield, mindless of the screeches and growls echoing in her ears.  

The last demon gave a small cry as Amira's dagger slit its throat. Her Warfire flamed before it died down as the body fell forward, next to her feet.

Ten limped to a stop next to her, staring at the dead demons in front of them. "Well, that's another horde down," he murmured.

They were in the outer rings of Hell and around her, Amira saw black grass and scraggly trees. Ahead, a long narrow bridge of bones disappeared into the blackness. This was as far as they went for no angel would dare to enter the inner rings of Hell. There was no saying what laid waiting in the darkness. 

They had been fighting hordes of demons for years now. This was probably our thirteenth horde this month, Amira thought, gazing at the felled bodies of the demons. Seventy years ago, thousands of demon hordes were able to attack Heaven through a rip in the space continuum, leading to the deaths of hundreds of angels. The archangels couldn't close it and so the La'ziel were created to keep the tide of evil at bay.You know, saving Heaven from death and destruction. Yet, this time, there had been so many hordes of the rats. Amira couldn't help but feel weariness settle in her bones.