the storm inside | kitty (boyxboy)

33 | The Demons Roam

They had not gone very far when Bri suddenly gave a yell: "Oh no! I forgot about Eli!"

"Eli?" Magnus cocked his head. "Oh, your twin brother, right?"

Bri nodded furiously. "I have to find him; there's no way he could survive on his own. Ran off in the middle of nowhere, that brat, and left me alone to fight the demon. I'm done being his parabatai."

"Ran off?" Emma echoed. "How could he just run off and leave you to fight off three against one? Are you sure he's your parabatai? And where could he possibly run off to? He's the worst parabatai—and brother—I've ever heard of! What a jerk!"

"Oh, he's not so bad." Bri shrugged, as if such things were a common occurrence. "Just a bit hard to manage is all. He often runs off in the middle of fights, but he always returns with money. He's actually what's keeping us alive. Brings in the dough and all that. I've no idea where the money comes from, but doesn't really matter anyway."

"Does he have a stele?" asked Emma.

Bri nodded.

"And you are parabatai, yes? Then he should be fine. We're taking you with us, to show him that he shouldn't be such an irresponsible moron of a parabatai. He'll be able to track you easily with the parabatai rune." Emma hooked her arm in Bri's, and began to march down the street.

Everyone else stared after them, until Emma gave a shout of impatience. "Are you going to follow, or just stand there to rot away until her parabatai comes back?"

"No, Em—look." Julian raised his finger; Emma's gaze followed it—and she stopped dead in her tracks.

A massive shadow loomed up in front of them. Huge, twisting tentacles curled around lampposts, crushing the metal with a sickening crunch. Yellow teeth bulged from the creature's mouth, gloopy saliva dripping and spreading in a pool on the pavement.

Emma's hand clenched around the hilt of Cortana. "I've never seen a demon this big," she muttered, backing up. The street was suddenly deserted, the air stale and cold. Kit suddenly felt shivers down his spine.

His fingers curled around his whip; Kit's knees bent to form a protective stance. He could feel his runes tense, as if getting ready to fight, too. Stamina. Endurance. Angelic Power.

The demon advanced towards them slowly, gliding along the floor, leaving marks of slime in its path. There was an air of apprehension shared between everyone, waiting for the moment when the demon would strike. Kit had never seen it before. It was new—perhaps there were different demons in different parts of the world.

Red, thin eyes stared lifelessly at them. Kit's grip on his whip tightened, his knuckles whitening; the silence surrounding them all was overwhelming. The rune Ty had just put on him before they left pumped shots of adrenaline through Kit's veins.

Courage.

With a sudden, sharp movement, the demon's tentacles shot out at all of them, slicing through the air. Kit ducked and rolled, his whip lashing out in front of him. There seemed to be enough tentacles to attack all of them, only...

"Julian, the tentacles are regenerating!" Emma cried out. "I chopped off one of them but another grew in its place!"

"That's hardly surprising," replied Julian through a mouth of gritted teeth. "I wouldn't expect such a big demon to not be so powerful."

"You can't be this nonchalant about it," said Emma furiously as she leapt away from a swishing chunk of flesh. "If we don't do something about it, we're all going to die, you idiotic—by the Angel, it's fast!"

"It's like a Hydria," observed Ty. "Regenerating heads, regenerating tentacles—all the same. You burn the stumps."

Magnus' hands flashed. "On it."

Kit legs burned. His arms swung out wildly in front of him; the whip had cut through by the creature's saliva. Apparently, it was potent enough to burn through weapons. Kit cursed and threw away yet another partially dissolved seraph blade.

He somersaulted backwards and blocked off a tentacle with the flat of his blade. "Guys, a little help here—"

He broke off his sentence as a flaming dagger whizzed through the air and sliced off the tentacle, setting it on fire in the process. He turned and saw Ty breathing hard; Magnus winked in the background. "Fiery weapons, courtesy of Magnus Bane. Spices up anything."

Kit rolled his eyes—and was about to shoot back a retort—when his eyes widened. "Ty, watch out!"

Leaping in front of Ty, he threw himself at the tentacle, a seraph blade in his hand. "Move out of the way! Magnus, help me—"

"Kit!"

As Kit sliced off the tentacle attacking Ty, something wet and sticky slammed into his back. A few seconds later, a burning sensation spread throughout his body, forcing him to his knees. The seraph blade skidded across the pavement.

Kit crumpled to the floor, arching his back. It felt like a dozen needles stabbing into his back, ripping off his flesh and digging into him. Just as spots began to appear in his vision, a comforting presence settled beside him.

It was Ty, a stele in hand, his grey eyes sparkling with worry. "Kit, are you alright?"

Kit swatted Ty's concerned hand away. "Go back to the fight. I'll be fine—" He broke off in a violent coughing fit, choking as he leaned away. A sharp, copper tang erupted in his mouth—blood. Red spots splattered the smooth stone before him; tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. His body shook with numbness.

"Take that, you idiotic piece of black goo! Charcoal-looking lump of shit!" Emma's voice stung Kit's ears; he could feel a headache coming on. "Disgusting, bloody hellhound!"

I feel so awful, Kit wanted to say. And useless. I barely contributed to the fight.

But just as he opened his mouth to speak, a croak emerged instead and he doubled over in pain. His eyelids began to slide shut. Even as he slipped into unconsciousness, he could make out several words in the dizzying chaos.

"...that should get rid of it. What's happened to Kit?"

"I don't know, he got injured shielding me from the demon, and now there's a huge, black burn-mark across his back. He was coughing blood, Jules—I'm scared—"

Then the voices became fuzzy, and his hand fell limp against Ty's. 

***

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~𝔂𝓸𝓾'𝓻𝓮 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓭, 𝓭𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝓪𝓷𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓽𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓮~