The Immortals Read Free Page A

this world.
    “ Anna, it’s behind you!” Colin suddenly realized.
    Anna spun around in time to see the mustard yellow form leap down from a roof toward her. They could move so damn quickly. It fell on her and Colin knew she had her knife drawn and pressed against the side of her forearm. She shoved it as hard as she could against the creature’s chest but it was still trying to claw at her. Colin reached her and dug his knife into the beast’s back; it sat up and leered at him with golden yellow eyes of fire.
    It smelled as repugnant as any other demon, always reeking of rot and death and some cross between manure and sour mulch. Jas still gagged. Colin and Anna had gotten used to it, as much as a person can. But Jas was trying to help, having drawn her own knife and was slicing at the thing’s leg. Colin and Jas distracted it long enough for Anna to slide out from underneath it and with Anna free, Colin finally felt like he could breathe again.
    Jeremy and the other hunter, Max, an older man approaching forty who was slightly out of shape but good with handheld weapons, finally reached them. They could all sense the presence of demons, too, but not as strongly as Anna and Colin, so sometimes, it took them awhile to catch on that something had happened. The jaundiced yellow demon noticed the others approaching and started growing. When it had jumped on Anna, it had been the size of a small ape; as the hunters backed away from it, forming a circle around it to try to keep it from running, it kept swelling like a wet sponge. Jeremy glanced uncertainly toward Colin.
    “Should we try to kill it now?”
    Colin didn’t take his eyes off of it. It was expending a lot of energy to make itself look more threatening, hoping to scare them off. Colin shook his head. “No, it’s a lesser demon. He has a limited supply of energy. Let him use some up.”
    It was almost as tall as the house it had been hiding on now. And Anna was getting nervous. “ Colin, do you feel that? It’s not really weaker.”
    Colin felt it, but it didn’t make any sense. They had fought these kinds of demons before. They were like cobras that expanded folds of skin to make themselves look bigger but unlike animals, it had always used up some of their power and made them easier to kill in the end. How was this demon doing this?
    “It’s something else,” Anna said. And now she was scared. This wasn’t a lesser demon they had stumbled onto, some easily replaceable minion of Hell. This was a greater demon that had somehow been able to disguise itself from them – even from Colin and Anna, which should have been impossible.
    “Holy shit,” Colin mumbled. But it was too late. They were here, and this demon was pissed.
    “Everybody, back up!” Colin shouted, but the beast’s shiny yellow eyes, like giant cat’s eye marbles, were fixed on Colin. “ Anna, DON’T!”
    But Anna ran toward the demon and as it swept its arm out to knock her away – which probably would have knocked her all the way to the Amite River – she slid underneath its arm and landed by its ankle, or where its ankle would have been. Anna dug her knife in with both hands and pulled it toward her. Colin had known what she was about to do and tried to distract it but Anna had moved first, so it didn’t notice Colin until his knife pierced into its … knee? … and like Anna, he dragged his knife through as much of the demon’s body as he could. Leaving long, gaping wounds like that was the only way to kill a demon. It allowed the energy within to leak out and vaporize.
    While the demon in the forest had been unbelievably hot, like battling a moving furnace – a really ugly, smelly furnace – this one was cold. As Colin dug his knife in again, dodging another blow from the demon’s fist, he could feel it rushing out: like cold air from a freezer or standing in the swirling wind of a blizzard. The others were all stabbing, slicing, dragging their knives through its body and