The shadow came forward, moving through the trees with a silent grace. I had never thought I would be considered a short man, but this guy had a good two feet in height on me and was massively built. It seemed that he favored the raw physical, intimidating type of power. If it came down to a fist fight, I would be in trouble. His eyes were a deep red, darker than Angel’s and his hair the same black. He was rubbing his palms together as he walked.

“Did you think you could hide from me, Angel? I have so many new ideas to try out I am going to enjoy our next session.”

A nasty looking grin spread across his face as he looked to her. His eyes turned back to me. and I felt the full weight of his presence on me. I could understand why Angle was so frightened of him. His size and demeanor made me question how bad I wanted a punch or two in the face.

“Where did you find this insect at, and why haven’t you marked him yet?” He started to say something else but paused for a moment before speaking again. “Oh, you weren’t thinking of getting him to help you escape, were you? You wouldn’t do that because you know how angry that makes me and you have seen me angry. Haven’t you my little Angel?”

I heard a soft moan of terror from the woman beside me. For some reason that made me stand just a little bit straighter. Even more confusing for me I stepped forward just enough to get in between this clown and Angel. Putting myself into harm’s way over a woman was not something I thought I would ever do. Especially a woman that happened to be a demon that I wasn’t certain had my best interests at heart. This would need to be played carefully.

“You hear that wind, Angel?” I asked looking at the newcomer with that smart arse smirk I wore when I was getting mouthy with somebody. “My mistake, that wasn’t the wind. It was this blowhard sack of horse dung.”

I could almost hear Angel’s mouth drop open in astonishment at what I had said. The nameless demon looked almost as surprised as I was for a brief second. The look turned to anger, but I didn’t let up on him.

“You know this guy?” I glanced at her as I casually flicked a thumb at her progenitor. Being a flippant jerk was something I knew without a doubt was something I had always been good at

“Toy, I will allow you to call me Marchenko,” his voice rattled with barely constrained anger.

“I don’t give a damn what you call yourself. You are nothing more than the dirt beneath my feet. If you have nothing worthwhile for me to listen to, waddle off back to the cesspool you call home,” I replied and added in a dismissive wave for effect.

That one surprised even me, I couldn’t help but smiling at that one. The snort of surprise Angel let out was just the icing on the cake for some reason. Marchenko on the other hand, was almost purple with rage. I doubt few demons talked to him like I had been. It was also pretty far down on the list of my greatest ideas.

“Angel, be a good girl and tell this wretch what I am about to do to him. Then when I am done with him, I am going to find the one who holds his mark and break them too.”

His command dripped with hate. I knew that he wasn’t very far from his breaking point. Time to push him over the edge.

“First, she is done listening to your useless babble. Second, I’m going to rip that tongue out of your mouth so you can stop wasting that hot air.”

There was no way I could let this bag of hot air beat me. I had too much at stake here. There were too many unknowns. Had Marchenko been using Angel to get to me? If he had, did that make him afraid of me? I realized that the walls of my will were holding. Marchenko looked to be straining harder than I had to hold him off. Then I thought of what Angel had said about power. The biggest part of Marchenko’s power was in his physical size. He was intimidating to look at, but that made him nothing more than a neighborhood bully. I knew how to deal with those. Or at least I thought I did.

On my face there must have been a hint of fear because he laughed at me. One the inside though I felt a like a spring ready to break loose. I was ready to put this guy down, and more than likely take a beating in the process.

Marchenko struck first. Not all that surprising since he had been practicing this sort of thing for far longer than I have. It wasn’t a physical attack that came my way. His energy hit me with the force of a tsunami behind it. I stumbled backwards a yard or two from that first strike. He didn’t wait long to strike out at me. Again, I was driven backwards. I had no experience as a demon to compare this with, but I already felt like I was twelve rounds into a fifteen round title fight. Sweat rolled down my face and got into my eyes.

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“Rip out my tongue?” He sneered; his voice was full of contempt for my pitiful defence.

I saw the next attack coming. It started with him pulling strands of power from the air around him and push it into a ball of crackling energy in his hand. It was the same thing I had tried to do with the demon fire in the city. I saw him doing it and I understood. When that energy came my way, I was able to roll to the side.

As I rolled, I pulled on that same power, but I didn’t wait as long as he had waited. I came to feet hurling strike after strike. None of them were all that powerful on their own. Marchenko was still forced to dodge or defend himself or he would take a bunch of small blows.

The two of us dodged through the trees and underbrush. Fist size balls of that crackling energy streaking back and forth as we attacked each other again, and again. It was more mentally exhausting than anything I had ever done. The effort began to show on me way to soon for my liking. Then I stumbled over exposed root. In itself that wouldn’t have been a problem, but I had to switch my focus to staying on my feet. A blob of energy sent me face first into the ground.

Marchenko was on top of me in an instant, his fists were on rapid fire. Each hit bringing with it a wave of pain and nausea. I tried to burrow deeper into the earth with each hit. That was the only way to get away from that flurry of fists. Except it didn’t work. I felt everyone of those hits, and they all hurt like hell.

The brute grabbed me by the back of my shirt and lifted off the ground enough to toss me into a tree. My body bent backwards as my spine slammed into the tree. A grunt of pain escaped from my lips as the impact paralyzed me for precious seconds. I tried to roll away from the tree and the attack I knew was coming. I was too slow and the kick to my face flipped me over. I tasted blood and my vision went black briefly.

“You haven’t begun to taste my wrath, my power!” he bellowed as he picked me up again. I was still too dazed to think straight, but I knew enough that this fight had gone wrong somewhere and that I needed a new plan. Getting my face punched or kicked in was not working out for me. He held my face level with his and sneered again.

“You are going to watch me turn Angel into a blubbering mess. Then she is going to get to watch as I make you hurt like you have never hurt before.”

There was loud crunch and pain jolted through me as Marchenko flung me into another tree. I had a vague awareness of one of my collar bones breaking. I still struggled to get up even with my right arm hanging limply at my side. There were far too many cobwebs in my head, and my eyes refused to focus. Another foot connected with my head, followed by another crunch as my head bounced the tree I had just hit.

I ended up laying against the trunk of the tree with my face in the dirt. Blood was coming out of my mouth and nose as I struggled to breath. Sometime in the beating Marchenko had dished out to me he had broken some of my ribs. Every panting breath sent pain through me.

I flinched as I heard flesh hitting flesh once more. This time it wasn’t directed my way. I couldn’t see who was getting hit this time. I tried to shift my position to see. The shock of trying to move while laying on top of a broken collar bone and some messed up ribs glued me in the position I was in. All I could do was concentrate on taking one breath at a time.

Time crawled by as I lay there. I could hear some sort of fight in the trees around me. Multiple people were out there doing whatever they could to inflict a massive amount of pain on each other. The sounds would get louder as they got closer, then fade away as the fight moved away from me. At one point somebody fell on top of me.

Realization slowly set in that I could feel the fight. Whoever was out there fighting was throwing around a massive amount of energy. It created a noise that was inaudible, but easily sensed if one knew what they were looking for. I understood what Angel had meant before about angels and demons being attracted to that noise. Had the fight between Marchenko and I attracted someone else or multiple people? I started to get a feel for the rhythm of the battle going on around me.

Then it dawned on me that if I could feel that energy couldn’t I draw on it and use it myself? I was one hell of a third-rate demon if that hadn’t occurred to me. After all I used it against Marchenko when I was still in the fight. So, I did.

Slowly at first, just a small trickle that I fed into my broken body. I gasped as my ribs and collar bones pushed and pulled themselves back into their proper places. My mouth and nose righted themselves as well. I was able to breathe properly for the first time in what felt like forever. Once I had felt my body become whole once more, I stopped pulling on the energy. The last thing I wanted to do was alert whoever was fighting that I was back and ready to go.

After a few moments of laying there listening and feeling that battle rage in the trees I pulled my legs under me and pushed myself up to all fours. Then I quietly got to my feet, looking around to see if there was anyone close to me. I heard a bellow of rage from somewhere in the trees, but there was nothing near me. At least, nothing that I could see, but I could still feel that energy being used.

In the darkness I heard a snapping twig. I froze, still standing beside that tree. Then the soft sound of leaves being rustled as something moved them, and this was close. I wasn’t smart enough to work out where the sound came from. I was still trying to figure that out when a bag of some sort was popped over my head. I tried to draw some energy from the world around but all that got me was a dazzling display of bright lights in my eyes.

“You are a stupid one, aren’t you toy?” a voice hissed in my ear. “You can’t even tell what is real and what isn’t.”

I knew that voice. This night had not gone according to plan at all.