The Immortals Read Free Page B

with a slithery hissing sound, the demon’s energy was slowly escaping. But it was so damn strong.
    It grabbed Jas and was about to throw her against the side of the house, but Anna leaped onto its arm and dug into it, slicing, hissing, leaking. Anna was shaken to the ground with a nauseating thud. Colin felt like his heart had burst through his chest. She was in pain, but she was ok. Colin gored the demon again to keep it away from Anna while she got back on her feet.
    Max had been knocked against a tree and still seemed dazed; he probably had a concussion. The colossal ochre beast had turned its attention back toward Jas, obviously singling out the weakest in the group first, and this time, Anna wasn’t fast enough to stop it. It reached out with one of its long arms and grabbed Jas then hurled her through the air. Colin couldn’t see where she landed. He could, however, feel the agony and anger welling up within Anna.
    Jas had been her only real friend here. She had made her lonely existence in Baton Rouge bearable by having someone to talk to, someone to get drinks with and go shopping with, and have some kind of life outside of hunting semi-immortal creatures of Hell. And this semi-immortal creature of Hell had just taken Jas, the only friend in this city she hated, away from her.
    Again, he knew what she was going to do as soon as she decided to do it, and he tried to stop her, but he couldn’t. “ NO!” It was the only thought he had time for. Anna threw herself at the demon, not at its ankle or leg this time, but at its abdomen where she could reach more of its body to allow greater tears for more energy to release. Colin was right behind her, trying to pull her away with one arm while hacking at the demon that refused to wear down. There were only three of them now. And this thing didn’t seem that tired.
    Anna pushed Colin away. She had no intention of backing off. But the demon’s citrine eyes were fixed on her; its hands were useless with three hunters hacking at them, but its mouth was free. Colin saw it bending toward her and knew what it was about to do. He threw himself at Anna and they toppled out of the demon’s reach, rolling away from the seeping cold wounds, still hissing like a tire with a slow leak.
    “ Stay. HERE.” Colin ordered her then rushed back to Jeremy to help him. Jeremy was about to get thrown against the asphalt of the street when Colin reached the beast’s arm and cut through it, letting a rapid rush of arctic wind blow past him. Jeremy fell to the ground. Colin had finally gotten a good injury on this bastard; he was going to start getting weaker now. Jeremy got back on his feet, shaky but not willing to leave Colin alone, and attacked the other leg, trying different angles with his blade, different areas on the demon’s body, different lengths of openings. He finally found a combination that worked.
    It must have seemed that the whole thing had taken hours, but only a few minutes had passed since the small ape-like demon had jumped on top of Anna to the time Colin and Jeremy finished killing it. And when Colin was sure the thing was finally dead, he turned around to look at Anna. She had listened: she hadn’t moved, but he had never seen so much anger in her eyes.

Chapter 3
     
     
    It took them over two hours to find Jas’s body. Anna had only known her for two months, but she had still been the only friend she’d had here. Jas had given her a sense of normalcy, a feeling of belonging in a city she otherwise felt unwelcomed in. And Jas had one of the most generous and forgiving spirits of anyone she’d ever known. How the hell had this happened? How could the hunters, especially Colin and her, have not known what they had walked into? Jas shouldn’t be dead. She couldn’t be dead. Anna wouldn’t even believe it until she finally saw her body in a drainage canal.
    They had called the cops, waited until her body had been retrieved from the shallow water and brought