Chain of Iron

Chapter Twenty-One

When Matthew opened his eyes, he was laying on top of Cordelia, her dark eyes wide with shock. He had seen the demon at the very last moment and had immediately thought to push her out of the way. The Khora demon was now standing before them and Matthew jumped up, trying to ignore how Cordelia had felt underneath him, and pulled her to her feet. In a flash, she had Cortana in her hand and Matthew himself pulled out a seraph blade.

Cordelia dove forward, slashing at the demon, and Matthew joined her a second later. The demon hissed and snapped at them but the pair did not stop striking it until it vanished in a puff smoke to whatever Hellish dimension it had come from. Matthew panted and looked over to Cordelia who was wiping off Cortana on her dress.

"James and Lucie." She looked at him, worried. "We must find them."

Matthew only nodded and then they were running down a series of corridors. Downworlders were flooding out of the Hell Ruelle, looking wide eyed and panicked. Some warlocks were portaling themselves away and Matthew saw some vampires get on motorbikes and speed away as he exited the Hell Ruelle. He then spotted James and Lucie standing not too far away and he grabbed Cordelia's hand and pulled her though the crowd and towards their friends.

"Are you two alright?" Matthew asked once he approached them.

James nodded and then looked down at Matthew's hand which was still holding Cordelia's. He immediately then let it go and avoided eye contact with his Parabatai.

"Belial," Lucie sounded frazzled. "He sent these demons because we refused to help him."

James looked as if he were about to speak when a pack of demons landed in front of them.

"I am so tired of seeing these ugly creatures every time we go out somewhere." Matthew sighed exasperatedly as he readied a rapier that he had pulled from his belt.

Beside him, he heard James chuckle and then they were all fighting again. Lucie was slashing at a demon with her axe and Cordelia was right alongside her, Cortana flashing gold as she killed one of the demons. Matthew himself stood back to back with James and was slaying the demon in front of him without too much effort. Every time he felt himself becoming tired, he felt James' strength flow through him, giving him a second wind. He felt very grateful to have a Parabatai in that moment. The four of them kept fighting and slashing at the demons until the last of them were gone and all of the Downworlders had fled.

Matthew wiped off his rapier on the handkerchief he always kept in his pocket and looked over at James. He was glancing down at his left forearm which had a nasty gnash across it; blood leaked from the cut and was dripping on James' clothing.

Matthew swore and he hurried over to his best friend. "You idiot, why would you not tell me that you needed an iratze?"

"It had not yet started hurting." James seemed amused as he looked at Matthew. "You do not need to worry so much, Math, it is only a cut."

Matthew only shook his head as he produced his Stele and drew a healing rune on James' arm. Within moments, the wound began to heal itself; iratzes given to someone by their Parabatai were always more powerful rather than if they gave it to them self.

"We must go." Cordelia spoke as she and Lucie approached them. "We should tell your parents about what happened here." She was looking at James.

"But how can we?" Lucie inquired. "We cannot tell them that we attended the Hell Ruelle to ask Hypatia Vex to raise Belial for us."

"We can simply tell them that I dragged you lot to the Hell Ruelle with me and we were unfortunately attacked by another pack of demons." Matthew replied. "They will believe the story, especially if I tell it."