Angels of Darkness

invisible Radha had been in the way.
    Aiming for Marc. And Ines was still in the other bleachers—
    A wet, horrifying thunk . Marc jolted forward. His arms went limp. Radha tumbled from his grip, onto the snow. A crossbow bolt was embedded in his upper back. He hadn’t been struck through the brain, but through the spine.
    Almost as bad. He couldn’t walk. She couldn’t fly.
    â€œGrab them, Miklia!” Jessica shouted—and dragged a sword up from beneath the snow. “If you hold on to them, the Rules say they can’t get away!”
    They couldn’t. And these girls knew exactly how to slay them. They’d planned it perfectly. Her own sword in hand, Miklia scrambled toward them, her determined gaze narrowed on the back of Marc’s neck. No wooden stakes now, because to kill a demon—or a Guardian—they needed to cut through the heart or chop off the head.
    Marc’s power shook the ground. Unable to move, but still able to use his Gift. Yet if he hurt these girls with it—even inadvertently, while taking Radha and himself away from here—he’d break the Rules. He’d break them protecting her.
    â€œNo need,” Radha whispered to him.
    Rising to her knees, she circled his shoulders with her uninjured arm, easily supporting his deadweight. Miklia and Jessica were almost on them. Not fast enough. Radha could form a hundred illusions before they took another step.
    She usually didn’t like to remember past hurts, but Marc had a bolt sticking out of his back—and her illusions were always best when based on something real.
    Discovering a demon’s collection, bodies gathered from graveyards and put on display for his sick pleasure.
    Radha and Marc burst apart in an explosion of putrid gases, maggots spilling out of rotting flesh. With a shriek, Miklia skidded to a halt, began gagging. Jessica didn’t waver.
    Almost falling beneath a demon’s sword.
    Too quickly to avoid, a blade sliced through the air, through Jessica’s wrist. Blood spurted, melting the snow. Eyes widening in terror, she stared at the exposed flesh and bone. Then disbelief vanished, and she began to scream.
    Her sword dropped from her real—and still attached—hand.
    In the bleachers, Ines was reloading her crossbow, but Radha had a brand-new wound to share. Surprise crossbow bolt through the shoulder. The girl cried out, dropping her weapon. A moment later, Lynn did the same.
    For thirty seconds, she let them scream and cry—and wanted to cry herself when she tore the bolt from Marc’s back. She gathered him close, then vanished the illusions.
    Always fun, except for when it was horrifying.
    â€œGo,” she told them. “Run now, straight to the sheriff, and confess what you’ve done. If you don’t, I’ll hunt you down, and I’ll give you nightmares that a demon couldn’t dream of.”
    They only stared at her, sobbing. Enough. She rose up, thirty feet tall, eyes blazing down on them with the fires of Hell. Lightning streaked the sky behind the whirlwind of her hair. The ground shook beneath her steps.
    Her voice thundered. “GO!”
    They ran.

CHAPTER 6
    R adha hadn’t been able to fly, but her one uninjured arm was more than strong enough to lift him, and her legs could run as fast as her wings could fly. Marc couldn’t say that he was proud to have been carried off the playing field and into the empty high school gym, but the tenderness with which she’d held him as they recovered from their wounds more than made up for it.
    Her injury had healed within a half hour, but she remained snuggled up next to him on a blue wrestling mat. As soon as Marc was able to, he slid his arm around her. He could have gotten up then. He liked this better—because Radha was there, and because he had plenty of time to think.
    â€œWe were almost killed by four human girls,” he said.
    â€œIs that the way you look at it?” She lifted her head from the pillow of his shoulder and peered down at him. “It wasn’t even close. I could still run and carry you. You had your Gift. What were you planning to do with it? A dirt wave to ride us out of there?”
    Not quite. “Just a wall to protect us, thick enough that they couldn’t knock it down.”
    â€œOh. That would have been simple.”
    He was a simple man. “I’d have used it if your illusions failed.”
    She gave him