Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 5 Read Free Page A

the moment he heard which demon was holding the angel. Some demons could be bartered with, some could be intimidated, but others could only be stopped through brutal application of force. Semiazas was one of these. He feared none but Satan, and would never give up the angel without a fight.
    Sure enough, Semiazas simply grinned, steaming saliva dripping to the ground as though his mouth were watering for the fight. Perhaps it was, at that. He tossed his end of the chain away, then lashed out with one razor hoof. It caught the angel square in the chest, knocked him through the air and onto his back. None of the crowd dared to touch him, not even to sample his energy. If they handled the chain without Semiazas' consent, it would burn the offending limb to dust.
    Again, Renat kept his eyes averted and focused everything on his opponent. Fire crept up Semiazas' hands and arms, eventually engulfing them completely in a flame so hot it was the color of ice. In turn, Renat unsheathed his sword. The light emanating from the blade was bright enough to hurt the eyes of the watching demons, a strange, twisted pain brought on partly by the hellfire that had been poured into its forging, and partly by the thread of angelic virtue that somehow formed its core. Renat had made the sword very early after his fall, imbuing it with the tattered remnants of his grace and making it an enduring symbol of his reason for falling, which was solely love. The sword helped him to remember and kept him from overwhelming regret, and in turn the blade was one of very few weapons that could lastingly hurt a demon.
    "You and your toys," Semiazas growled. "You are nothing but a plaything, Pretender." He reared back onto his hind legs, and the tremor caused by his thundering strike as his front hooves hit the ground again made the pillars of the Western Gate itself tremble. He launched himself at Renat at a full run.
    Renat swept up into the sky, avoiding Semiazas' first blitzing attack. Unable to stop his bulk in time, Semiazas plowed into the first rank of watching demons, snapping and hissing as he lashed out at them, trying to turn around. Renat dove down, his sword flickering faster than sunlight, and cut through the tip of Semiazas' long, reptilian tail.
    The demon roared, flames spilling down his arms, then raised them up and leveled a sheet of blue-hot fire at Renat. Renat flew up and away, not quite fast enough to avoid the bottom edges of his wings getting singed. It hurt, but Renat was accustomed to pain from his vestigial members, and he ignored it. The flash had momentarily weakened Semiazas, and this time Renat came at his opponent's face, slicing away two of the fingers on one grasping hand as he drove his blade at Semiazas' swamp-colored eyes.
    The demon lowered his head defensively and the sword impacted a curling horn instead, half-severing it before Renat could draw back. It stuck there for a moment, caught in the bony whorls, and Semiazas took the opportunity to grab Renat.
    The heat scorched the outer layers of his chest, where Semiazas gripped him tight. Gritting his teeth, Renat used what little leverage he had and managed to jerk his sword free just as his opponent's other, injured hand rose to try to clamp his lower half and rip him in two. He hacked the rest of the fingers from that unlucky hand, and when Semiazas howled with pain and reflexively loosened his grip, Renat tore free. Instead of flying away, though, he dropped to the ground, and moved directly beneath the heavy body of his opponent. Before Semiazas could think to try to crush him, Renat had run the span of his belly, dragging his sword through the thick hide above him. He emerged behind Semiazas and watched as the perforated bag of guts drooped slowly downwards, finally spilling out in a mess of writhing, coiled intestines. Semiazas bellowed with pain and came down hard on his forelegs.
    Renat walked slowly around to the front of the demon. The fire burning along