Corson

The demon groaned when I pulled my talons free and threw him off me. Rolling, I scrambled across the ground to reclaim the velvety, black cloak someone had wrenched from me.

A booted foot stomped on my wrist when my hand curled around the cloak. I grunted as bone snapped and looked up to find Hawk leering down at me. Blood continued to seep from the wounds I’d inflicted on him and his eyes burned with rage.

Why did I stab Hawk? My groggy mind tried to figure that out, but the more I searched for the answer, the more it eluded me. After everything we’d been through together, I considered Hawk a friend, yet when he bent to pull the cloth away from me, I knew I’d kill him for it.

It belongs to me! I’d felt its softness against my skin and the rush of pleasure accompanying my possession of it.

Hawk could not have it.

Dimly, I recalled something far more important that belonged to me. A stirring of sanity slipped through the mass of need twisting like worms in my brain. The scent of a woman and the sensation of pale blonde hair tickling my arm played across my mind.

I stumbled back when images assaulted me. The memory of love rose to the surface. She was mine; she made me better. I loved her strength, her stubbornness, and the way she cared for others.

Where was she? Who was she?

My head dropped into my hands when the world slanted precariously. I struggled to recall what I’d forgotten as the bones in my broken wrist set back into place with a click and the throbbing in it lessened. Lifting my head, I searched for that hair and smell, but all I saw was blood and fighting.

Then, my gaze fastened on the cloak again.

Have to have it! Have to have it! The words became a mantra in my head.

Fangs sprouted into my mouth. That’s not right; I don’t have fangs.

I do now. Because of her.

Who?

I took a step toward the others to jump into the fight again, but I froze when a face materialized within the tempest rolling through my mind.

Wren!

Once I recalled her, my urgency to possess the cloak lessened. I still wanted it, but I wanted her more. I spun toward where I’d left her in the woods.

How could I have forgotten my Chosen?

Wrong, this is all wrong, I realized as bits and pieces started fitting into place. There’s something else I had to recall, and I had to do it now, or we would all die.

A rock hit me in the back of the head with enough force to stagger me forward. Someone launched onto my back, knocking me to the ground. Rolling, I slammed my fist into the chest of the demon perched on me. Lifting him up, I flung him over the top of me and sprang to my feet.

All around me, demons and humans brawled. A few bodies littered the ground; I couldn’t tell if they were dead or alive, but if this continued many would die, of that I was certain. Then, the demon holding the black cloak spun around. The end of it brushed over my skin when it swung out, and the compulsion to grab it seized me.

Panting for air, I stumbled away from the fight and toward where I’d left Wren. I searched the forest but didn’t see her. That cloak was nothing to me; she was everything, and I was failing her.

“Where is she?”

Before I could stumble further toward where I’d left Wren, someone kicked my knee out from under me. My leg bent at an odd angle when I hit the ground, and the demons pounced.

* * *

Wren

I stayed low as I moved around the corner of the house and back into the trees. I caught glimpses of the melee in the clearing, but I didn’t look too long. I couldn’t be distracted by them right now, and I knew I might plunge in to help if I watched for too long. We’d all be dead then.

After we’d spent the night in the school, Corson sent most of the skelleins to the wall to speak with Kobal, and Raphael had gone with them. It had been the right choice for Raphael to go too, but right now I really wished the golden boy with his handy ‘suck the energy from things and blast them to kingdom come’ power was here.

Creeping around the corner of a large boulder, I spotted something standing amid the trees fifteen feet away from me. Ducking back behind the rock, I studied the forest for manticores, gobalinus, or some other nasty Hell creature coming my way.

I slid my knife back into its holster as a strong gust of wind knocked some of the stubbornly clinging oak leaves from the trees. One of the leaves drifted down to stick to my face. I brushed it off and cringed when it made a small, crinkling noise. Nothing could have detected the sound, but it still made my palms sweat. I took another steadying breath before peeking around the boulder with my gun held before me.

Through the trees, the end of a horse’s red tail swept aside the leaves on the ground. I followed that tail up to the vibrant red of the horse’s legs, higher to its black body, and toward its front. My breath caught when I spotted the two heads attached to the horse’s long, muscular neck. The red stripe down the center of both the heads matched the red of its tail, mane, forelock, and legs. Four strange, fluorescent green eyes watched the clearing from the horse’s heads.

The rider on the horse’s back sat proudly in the saddle, his shoulders back and his blond hair falling around his shoulders. The pale skin stretched taut over his high cheekbones and pointed chin gave him the appearance of a living skull.

On the rider’s right hand, rings covered all his fingers and thumb. I couldn’t see his left hand from where I hid, but I recalled seeing him before with the other horsemen and knew his left hand also had rings on it. Each of the golden bands held a different colored jewel. The rings were so large the bands took up the entire bottom half of his long, big-knuckled fingers.

This horseman had also worn a black cloak when I last saw him. I recalled that a jewel, the same fluorescent green as the rider’s eyes and those of his horses, had fastened that cloak at his throat. He didn’t wear the cloak now.

My heart sank when I realized the others were busy trying to kill each other over that cloak.

The horseman ran his hand over his thigh, causing the jewels in his rings to flash in the sun filtering over his body. A rainbow of light reflected off the trees and ground as his hand moved.

The sudden need to possess those rings almost caused me to burst out from behind the boulder and charge across the clearing at him. I’d bite his fingers off if it meant getting my hands on those rings. Not once had I ever wanted a piece of the jewelry before; if I couldn’t eat it, it was of little use to me, but suddenly those rings were everything to me.

Mine! I want them! Mine! Mine! Mine!

The words screeched across my mind; my body shuddered as my survival instinct warred with my craving to possess them all. I’d wear them, run them over my body, hold them close, and never ever ever would anyone else be allowed to touch my rings.

You will die if you go for them!

Somehow my survival instinct won the war, but barely. I ducked away again and pressed my back to the rock as my body shook like a jolt of electricity had hit it. My fingers clawed at my palms, tearing away the skin. The pain helped me to focus on something other than the rings as I forced myself to remain where I was.

Somewhat back under control again, I uncurled my fingers and twisted my hands into the dirt to coat the gashes I’d inflicted on myself. Hopefully, the soil would be enough to staunch the flow and smell of my blood until I could make my move.

I was pretty sure I knew which horseman I was dealing with. It had to be Greed sitting over there, proudly creating anarchy between a group that had fought and killed for each other until he rode into our midst.

I hated these twisted horsemen as much as the fallen angels. Maybe more so. The angels couldn’t manipulate us into killing each other, as far as I knew. However, there was no way to fight a monster who could hide in the trees while he turned people and demons against each other with such ease.

I poked my head out around the boulder again. My teeth grated together when I saw the smile curving the corners of Greed’s lips. That smile, and the obvious joy he took in inflicting hurt on those I loved, pushed aside my lingering avarice.

My grip shifted on my gun, and leaning further out, I lifted it. Squeezing the trigger, I fired three rapid shots. One took Greed in the shoulder, the other in his temple and the third in the center of his forehead when he turned to look at me. His head barely moved an inch from the impact of the last bullet.

I gulped when those hideous green eyes fastened on me with a rapacious greed that opened an endless pit within my belly.

Greed can never be satisfied, never be filled. It always wants more and more and more.

This thing wanted all of me, and when it was done, it would still seek more. My hand shook on my gun as something sinister slithered through my mind. The empty pit of need swelled inside me until it threatened to possess me in a way no one should ever be possessed.

I opened my mouth to beg him to make the awful hollowness stop, but I closed it again. I would not beg this thing. No matter how empty I felt, I would not give it the satisfaction of seeing me plead.

Lifting my wobbling hand, I fired another bullet. This one went straight through Greed’s throat, spilling more of his black blood. Blinking, I tried to stand, but my knees gave out. All four of the horse’s eyes fastened on me when Greed turned his mount. With a kick to his horse, Greed came for me.