Torch swept his arm, spraying a cloud of blessed salt into the air. The observer recoiled, the particles burning holes in its skin, each one sizzled like acid. It backed up, howling, then opened its mouth wide enough to swallow a cantaloupe whole and spat a glob of blue fire at us. I dove behind a pew; the flames hit the wall and stuck, burning hotter and whiter than a welding torch.
We traded glances from opposite sides of the aisle. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” he called.
“Trip it, then take the head,” I said.
Torch grinned, and I hated how much I liked it.
He went left, zigzagging through the debris. The observer tracked him, hunched and ready to pounce, but that’s when I charged, all speed and rage, claws out and aiming for the neck. I caught it off-guard, scoring a line from collarbone to jaw, and the flesh peeled back like citrus rind. The smell was rank and sweet, like a fridge full of dead flowers.
The observer swung, backhanding me into a column, but the hit left it open for Torch, who leapt up and threw the chain around its throat. He yanked it down, pinning it to the floor, and drove his knee into its back. The observer bucked, shrieked, then twisted with impossible strength, slamming both of them into the side wall.
I shook off the vertigo, wiped the blood from my mouth, and stalked in, letting my human skin drop a little. I felt the scales pulse under my flesh, iridescent and violet-black, and the teethin my mouth doubled in number, each one needle-sharp. I pounced, hands locking around the thing’s head, and bit into the back of its skull.
It tasted like battery acid.
The observer fought, but the holy iron was burning into its neck, and every time it tried to wrench free, Torch tightened the noose. He was bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow, but the look on his face was pure murder. He locked eyes with me, and for a moment, I swear he liked what he saw.
The observer’s hands scrabbled at my shoulders, claws digging deep, but I held on, crunching down until I felt bone give. I ripped the top half of its skull away, black jelly spraying across my face, and spat the chunk onto the ruined altar.
Torch let go, and the demon’s body convulsed, then went limp, the weight of it pinning him to the ground. He rolled out from under, chest heaving, and for a second, we both just stared at the steaming corpse, unable to believe it was done.
I wiped the slime from my lips, fingers shaking.
Torch staggered to his feet, ripped off a piece of his T-shirt, and staunched the blood above his eye. He looked at the mess, then at me, and smiled again—softer this time.
“You okay?” he asked, and it sounded more real than anything I’d heard in a century.
I checked my arm. The wrist was already popping back into place, the skin stitching itself up, leaving only a line of silver. “Better than that thing,” I said, voice still thick with adrenaline.
We stood there, staring at each other over the wreckage. My scales slid back under the skin, but the eyes stayed wrong for a moment—deep violet, rimmed with red. His scars pulsed, blue-white, brighter than ever.
For a second, I wanted to rip his throat out. For another second, I wanted to fuck him on the altar.
I did neither.
“Was that what you wanted?” I asked, voice low. “A test run?”
He shook his head. “Just wanted you alive. Even if it means Hell keeps coming.”
We circled each other, slow, wary, hands never fully unclenched. The observer’s body sizzled on the stones, leaking a pool of black tar that ate at the salt and left behind a sweet, chemical reek.
“You ever think this ends?” I said.
Torch stared at the corpse, then at me. “If it does, it won’t be pretty.”
I wanted to say something smart, something cold and final, but the words failed me. Instead, I let the silence stretch, the heat from the fight still crackling in my bones.
We were both predators, both poison, both too stubborn to let the other have the last move. I took a step back, hands up, surrendering nothing.
“Next time, you buy the drinks,” I said.
Torch laughed, and the sound was almost human. “You got it.”
We stood there another minute, breathing in the ruined air, letting the adrenaline taper off. The observer’s body was already starting to dissolve, the edges going soft, the middle caving in.
Eventually, I slumped to the floor.
“Jasmine,” Torch called after me. He looked at me, eyes bright and unblinking. “Stay alive, yeah?”
