It laughed, multiple eyes blinking at me, all at different times. “Little girl, little girl, I will love to eat your heart and hand your soul to my master.” It swung a leg toward me and I deflected it. From the other side I caught glimpses of Erik battling with his fair share of legs, ducking and slashing, but unable to actually hit the bastard. Backing up too fast, he tripped over a desk and disappeared. Great. Some help he was.

“Creepy fucker.” I spun, driving my right hand sword down through its body, pinning it to the floor like the bug it was. A spurt of pale yellow fluid bled out around my blade, coating the floor with a hissing burn.

“Watch the blood,” I said, raising my second sword and grabbing my whip with my empty right hand.

Now the demon wasn’t so happy. I smiled up at him. “Little girl, this, shit head.”

“Wait. Do you not wish to interrogate me?” Its eyes rolled and blinked and I didn’t dare look away. Too many legs still flailing about.

“Wrong person. I don’t interrogate. I kill.” I snapped my whip forward, curling it around the demon’s neck and yanked it forward. The whip didn’t hurt it, but it brought the bastard within range.

My blade bit through the demon’s neck, the head rolling forward, yellow bile pouring out of its neck hole. In a rush, the body slumped down, melting into the bile, bubbling and burning a hole through the floor. Chunks of concrete fell into the lower levels along with the dripping body.

Erik clapped a hand on my shoulder and I tensed. He didn’t seem to notice. “Not even trained and you are a better Slayer than me. Not surprised; your father was the best of the best.”

There was no malice or jealousy in his voice, but I had no doubt at one point, there had been.

I gave him a nod and looked into the hole. At the bottom, I could just see the glimmer of my sword. Swinging my whip, I snapped it into the hole and with it grabbed the handle of my sword. A sharp tug and the weapon sailed up to where I could snatch it out of the air.

“Fancy,” Will said. “You practice that move?”

“I work with all my weapons, asshole. You know that.”

“Why am I the asshole?”

Erik snorted and tucked his weapons away. “You have to ask that and then wonder why she picked Liam over you? Shit, man, even I know that answer and I’ve only known her a few days.”

“Liam isn’t here, is he?” I looked around for something to wipe my blades off and settled for someone’s coat slung over a chair. The demon blood burned right through it, so I threw what was left down the hole.

“He’s at Jack’s manor.”

I glanced around and really looked at the SOCA agents surrounding us. Oh, fuck a duck. There were a dozen—as in twelve—and every single one flashed me some seriously red eyes.

We were in for a fight.

“Will.”

“What?”

“You think that Denning wasn’t busy recruiting the whole time he was here?” Will’s body stiffened. Yeah, that a boy, let that thought sink through your thick stupid skull.

Erik let out a sigh. “Bah. There can never be just one demon. Always has to be a bloody damn herd of them.”

The ‘”agents” were shifting closer and closer, tightening the ring around us. Will’s eyes were wide. “I didn’t think there would be more.”

“There’s always more,” Erik said. “Nature of the beasts, as it were.”

I didn’t wait for the “agents” to completely shift. I lifted my two swords and ran at those closest, swinging hard. They didn’t fight, couldn’t, when caught between their two forms.

Will followed my lead and we’d downed ten of the twelve before the last two broke through their human shells.

Upside, they were small, young demons. Down side, they were fast little bastards. And they didn’t wait to fight us. They ran.

“Rylee, they breed like rabbits,” Erik yelled, running after them. They were headed for the stairs leading to the roof.

With a grunt I bolted after them, knowing if we didn’t catch them it would only be a matter of time before London was overrun with breeding red-eyed human demons.

I burst through the door to the roof to see Erik standing over one of the young demons. He lunged and tried to drive his sword through the demon’s neck. He missed, nicking the demon on the shoulder instead. Shit, he had bad aim. The young demon scampered in front of me and I swung my sword hard, driving it right through the little fuckers neck. But that left us one more to deal with.

“Where?” I yelled, searching the rooftop, feeling more than a little frantic.

“Gone.” Erik slowly stood, his blade dripping yellow goop. Worse, as I watched, it was eaten away, the steel unable to hold up, even after being prepped. We needed to get him a weapon that Milly or Pamela had spelled.

I moved to the edge of the roof and peered out on the street. There was no sign of a demon. No doubt it would go into hiding.

“Please tell me they need each other to breed.”

Erik’s footsteps drew close. “No. They have eggs that are already fertilized. Handy for them.”

I turned in time to see him throw his sword to the ground. “Piece of shit.”

Reluctantly, I handed him the larger of my two swords. “It’s spelled to withstand that kind of damage. Until we get you one of your own, use mine.”

He gave me a surprised nod, took the sword and tucked it into his sheath. “Thanks.”

I had my whip, and I could always pick Erik up another weapon at Jack’s. There might even be a few weapons there already spelled. I Tracked Liam, felt him in the general direction of Jack’s place. Of course, that was where he said he’d meet us. Damn Will for his motherfuckery.

“Come on, let’s get Will and get our asses out of here.”

Erik was quiet a moment but I could see he wanted to talk. “Ophelia is a real treat when she’s angry. I almost feel bad for Blaz.” We walked side by side down the stairs.

“You think they have any idea where we’ve gone? I don’t think they should come here; the plan is to go home, not cross paths with them mid Atlantic.”

“Blaz can probably sense you, but that doesn’t mean he’ll realize how far we’ve gone. Ophelia can’t sense me as we aren’t paired in the proper sense. I’d bet we have a few days before they start looking for us.”