A Demon Infestation

There were a few new faces in the studio, members of the squad that I’d never seen before.

When Louisa finally arrived, she looked very serious.

“Demonic portals have been opened all over the city. Many innocent people have been killed. There are a lot of demons terrorizing the city,” she began.

“The other squads are already out hunting and closing the portals. We need to find the spellcasters responsible and eliminate them before more people are sacrificed and more portals are opened,” Louisa finished.

While everybody was heading out, Louisa found me.

“What happened to your arm?” she asked.

“Alex, Ellie, and I fought tricksters on our way,” I answered.

“What?” She looked shocked. Then she sighed.

“You’re on sniper duty. Protect the others from afar,” Louisa said, and gave me a communicator.

“We’ll talk about it later. If you get attacked, you immediately call for aid. Do you understand?” she asked harshly.

She didn’t have time for this.

“Yes, ma’am,” I answered.

I went to change out my gear for sniper equipment. I texted Ellie that they could go on without me, because I was on sniper duty.

***

I climbed the city hall and stationed myself in the tower, letting the rest of the squad know where I was so I could help them.

I put on a pair of special glasses; through them, demons lit up from a great distance.

The enchanted items we had never ceased to amaze me.

While I waited for my squad to ask for assistance, I scouted for demons.

I saw one on a rooftop and pressed the trigger. Headshot—it went down.

I let the others know it needed to be burned, or it would get back up in a while.

Rebecka contacted me. She was on a street nearby, chasing a spellcaster responsible for a portal.

I caught sight of them and pressed the trigger. The spellcaster fell; at least he died instantly.

I really was a great shot. Now my squad finally got to see it.

I had shot eleven demons and one more spellcaster when I felt a powerful presence and a strong arcane energy.

It wasn’t a demon.

I turned around and saw a spellcaster chanting at me.

This aura wasn’t coming from the spellcaster.

I had never felt anything like it, but it reminded me of Damion’s.

The very strong arcane energy was coming from the spellcaster, though, and I was in deep shit.

I picked up a handgun, but it was useless.

All around the tower, demons were crawling up, surrounding me.

I managed to shoot four before they were upon me. I drew my sword. I slashed two more, but this was it—I was going to die here.

I felt one grasp my arm and another sink its teeth into my leg, making me scream out in pain.

Just as I waited for their claws to tear me apart, I saw them all burn to a crisp.

It was odd how the fire didn’t touch me.

The witch I’d seen chanting at me was on the ground and missing her head, but nobody was there.

The powerful presence was gone.

It was unlikely that it had come from the spellcaster. It must have come from whoever saved me—maybe Damion?

I had seen him burn a demon like that before, but the aura didn’t feel like a spellcaster; it was something else.

“Bella, are you sleeping? Help us out here,” Alex shouted through the communicator.

“Sorry, I was attacked. But I’m all good now,” I answered before I got back to my position, sniping demons that had been lured to the main street.

***

“Bella, I warned you,” I heard a voice say from behind me twenty minutes later.

It was Louisa, and she was pissed.

“What did I do?” I asked, confused as I continued to scout.

“You were supposed to call for aid immediately if you were attacked,” she reminded me.

“And what the hell happened here? You couldn’t possibly have done this by yourself. Did you use magic?” she asked.

She wasn’t an umbra; she couldn’t tell.

“I did not use magic. I’m not sure what happened myself,” I confessed. “Nobody would have managed to get here on time anyway.”

She knew I was telling the truth.

“Well, I’m staying here to be sure it doesn’t happen again,” she said.

“Even though it seems like you might have a guardian angel…we’ll talk about this when it’s all over,” she said sternly.

We worked all night.

It was early morning when all portals had been closed and demons killed.

There were probably spellcasters who had gotten away. We only caught the weaker ones who couldn’t escape.

I looked at my phone on my way home. I had gotten a text from Erik, wondering if I was all right.

The whole city knew about the portals.

The city had been in total chaos.

A coven had obviously declared war on us umbra.

Although I’d heard we’d gotten assistance from all law enforcement to protect the civilians, and the luci to try to track and kill the spellcasters, humans were not as strong or fast as us, and luci specialized in spirits, not demons.

“You know you don’t have to walk me home,” I said to Louisa, who was stalking close behind me.

“Yes, I do, you are injured, and you’re in trouble. The Dux Umbra is going to want to talk to you once you’ve rested,” she insisted.

I had been past the headquarters to tend to the bite in my leg before I’d been allowed to go home.

The bite would have been lethal to any other species, but we were somewhat resistant to most demon venoms.

“About what? I haven’t done anything,” I said, confused and tired as I answered Erik’s text discreetly.

I told him that I was almost fine, and asked if he could come over when I was home. I needed to talk to him about the hair.

“Tricksters and your guardian angel, that is definitely something we should investigate,” she said.

She had asked another umbra before we left if I’d used magic, just to be sure. I hadn’t.

“No it isn’t,” I mumbled. I was unsure of why I didn’t want to know how I’d been saved, but I did know I didn’t want them thinking Erik was behind the tricksters.

“It is, but you shouldn’t talk to anybody but me and the Dux Umbra about what happened in the tower. Do you understand?” she asked when we were by the gate of the apartment complex.

“I won’t, I want to forget it,” I muttered.

“I don’t want you to forget it,” she stated.

“Anyway, you should be safe at home. Get some rest and call Alex once you’re awake. I have instructed him to escort you to the headquarters once you’ve rested,” she said.

“Fine,” I sighed before I went inside the building.

I had a nasty feeling I was part of something complicated when I was in the elevator.

It also seemed like Louisa knew that the tricksters had been after me, which was bad…

I had almost forgotten about Erik when I entered my apartment. He was already waiting in the living room.

How did he get in, really? As far as I knew, I didn’t have anything of his at my home.

“I forgot a sock here. That’s how I was able to portal in,” he said after looking at my confused expression.

He quickly got off the couch and rushed to my side. “What happened to your arm?” he asked, looking at my arm, concerned.

The bite on my leg was worse, but he hadn’t seen that yet.

“Well, you wouldn’t happen to have taken a lock of my hair?” I asked him seriously.

He went white. “What happened? I feared my brother might have taken it when I couldn’t find it,” he confessed.

The panic in his eyes, at least, told me he truly didn’t mean for me to get hurt, but he’d still planned to use it for something?

“I got attacked by trickster demons. Why would you take a lock of my hair?” I asked, feeling a little mad.

“I meant to use it to summon a protective familiar,” he answered, looking a little uncomfortable.

I looked at him with wide eyes. “But that’s very difficult and dangerous to attempt,” I said, shocked.

He suddenly looked surprised, but quickly grew a sly smile. “I suppose it is,” he said, obviously amused about something.

“You should ask before you do something like that,” I said, glaring at him.

“I know, it’s just I kind of like you, Bella. I was worried my brother would try to hurt you, and I was right to worry about that, it seems,” he explained.

“He only succeeded with that because you took a lock of my hair,” I argued.

“No, luckily, he didn’t succeed,” Erik said seriously.

I sighed and placed my forehead on his shoulder before I looked up into his golden eyes.

“I am damned,” I whispered, letting myself drown in his seductive gaze.

“How so?” he asked, stroking my hair. A smile was pulling at the edge of his lips.

I unbuttoned his shirt and traced his collarbone with my fingertips before moving my hand down to caress his abs.

“Because, Erik, you were bad,” I said, as I unbuckled his belt. He caved and smirked while he let me continue.

“So now I’ll have to punish you,” I said, taking a pair of magic-proof handcuffs from my pocket.

Louisa wasn’t aware I had those, since I was supposed to return the equipment.

He let me cuff his hands behind his back. I tried to act indifferent, even though having him cuffed made me feel smug.

I wondered if he’d noticed that I had bound his magic.

“Sit down!” I commanded.

He obeyed without a word, watching me, curious as to what I was planning.

I smiled mischievously at him.

In this mysterious and complicated mess, this was not complicated. This was going to be fun.