Right away I observed that Persallus was a hand to hand fighter in the way she positioned herself. Her stance resembled that of a grappler. No gimmicks, no tricks. At least, that was what I thought before she vanished just like Ash did. I batted my eyes clueless, but the tech here wasn’t as confusing as I thought. She’d absorbed Ash, which meant that she was given clearance to his specialties.

Talk about being broken.

First, the fourth slot scenario with Ash, now this? I wasn’t sure if absorption was a native trait or a magic trick. Either way, I had to deal with this bullshit again. But before I could fashion my flames and initiate my smoke, she tackled me down to the floor.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this!” she taunted, her legs straddled around my hips.

“Get the hell off of me!” I barked at her, readying up my fist for a close range searing shot. But Persallus was fast up close. Under a second she managed to subdue me, leading her breast against my shoulder while she tugged me forward, just so she could slip her arm under my head and snatch my collar for a headlock. She snuck her other hand between my arms to get at my neck, but I snatched her greedy fingers trying to rip my throat out.

“Ah, you are strong. Way stronger than you look.” She grinned. Persallus had Sasha’s breasts smothered on my face as she choked me out, the distraction working against me. “Aww, look! You’re turning a nice shade of pink!”

I was running out of oxygen fast. While immortality sounded great on paper, the downside of coming back with a smaller blood bar pushed me to persevere.

So when Persallus started to manipulate her hair into a sharp step drill aiming from my face, I reacted.

Direct hit—I sniper-focused my flare shot into a concentrated explosion for Persallus’ head with the spark of my eyes. It did the trick, pushing her back enough for me to break free from her headlock. But she boomeranged her way back, slamming my head back against the floor for another grapple.

This one was more horrifying. For a split second, all I saw was a half shattered skull and a scorched tongue sticking out of a bloody slag jaw. She pressed her disfigured face against mine to blind me from what she was doing over my right shoulder. My reaction time was sluggish, allowing Persallus to wrap one arm around my nape, and her forward hand along my chin.

“It’s been fun,” she whispered over my ear as I felt her face reforming. “But like I said, it started with me, and it will end with me. You’ve been some interesting fun. Remembering all of your old moves, but harboring none of your old tenacities. Which has me believing that you’ve lost your memory in this new body, making you easier to kill.”

I gasped, fighting to yank her hands off of me before she yanked my head clean off my shoulders!

“We fought before, Samael. Remember? My one weakness… isn’t it coming back to you?”

She was taunting me. My powers may have some naturally, but my memories were something I was still struggling with. I didn’t remember fighting her before. I couldn’t remember what her true demon form even looked like. If she had a weakness, it was a mystery to me.

I was desperate, feeling my neck strain as she tugged. She knew my eyes were dangerous, so she left tilting my head up, pointing my chin straight so I couldn’t make eye contact. I slammed down at my jaw and stirred flames around my body, Persallus unfazed by my heat. More heat, more pressure! I stopped trying to free my neck and focused on punching through her sides, until I realized what she was doing…

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Persallus was messing with my head…

She wanted me to freak out, make me lose my cool. When specialties don’t work, fall back to basics. She was somehow flame retardant, everywhere except her head. Let’s see how well she responded to brute strength instead.

With one hand, I dug my fingers into her elbow and ripped her arm off of me. After I loosened her grip, all the blood rushed to my head. I was light headed, but was still able to follow up by wrapping my legs around her waist and turning the table on her. With her back on the floor, I pinned her wrist and bloody elbow joint down and fire beamed the hell out of her face.

Explosion after explosion, until her body stopped resisting.

I heaved, my panting breaths shallow and rattled. While Persallus didn’t exert as much strength from me as Ash did, she still managed to tucker me out.

Shit, it felt like she dislocated something…

My hand rubbed along my nape as my body reassembled itself. All of that blood loss from Persallus started to make me weary, my eyes growing wide as she laid there motionless.

“Sasha?” I whispered, grabbing her shoulders and jerking her vigorously. “Sasha?!”

Fuck! Did I kill her?!

“No, Sasha!” I cried. “Come one, stay with me!”

My heart was racing. Persallus wasn’t regenerating. I hadn’t severed her spine, but the amount of blood she’d lost was stunting her regen. I was pulling back. I didn’t understand! I didn’t kill her… there was no way I killed her!

My hysteria amplified all of that screaming in my head. Sirens were going off, my head inflating about triple its size. I couldn’t think straight, in fact, I couldn’t move. If I really had murdered Sasha, then—

I gasped. “Sasha?”

She was regenerating… barely.

The skeletal structure under her cheekbones was forming at a much slower rate, but it was something.

“Oh, thank god,” I gasped, my phone buzzing again at my hip. It was Ava again, and this time, I answered. “Ava?”

“Isaac!” She screamed. “Isaac, the plan didn’t work!”

“Ava, what happened? Wait, where are you?” I asked her, hearing her pant heavily on the other end.

“Running down 45th Street, with an Enochian spell book in my possession! They are chasing me!”

“Who? Who is chasing you?!”

“My brothers! Please Isaac, I need help!”

I jumped on my feet. “Listen Ava, I am coming to get you, all right?! Give me a few seconds.”

“I don’t know if I have a few seconds, Isaac!”

Shit—I couldn’t leave Persallus here, so I thought about channeling Ruby telepathically and reached out to her. ‘Ruby, I need you to come here. Ava’s in trouble. Bring Persallus somewhere safe until I get back.’

‘Persallus? I thought Ash was in there?’

‘He was. Persallus absorbed him, and I took care of Persallus.’

‘I wish I’d been there to see that! Don’t worry, love. We’ll be there right away.’

Persallus wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, still I wanted to be sure. I fashioned my hands and summoned a local portal for 45th Street, and when I teleported, I felt something strike my chest immediately.

It was Ava, running right into me on the sidewalk. She screamed, not having realized that it was me. I pulled her aside and put my hand over her lips, tucking us both into the back door of Sally’s Boutique Store.

When she looked up and realized it was me, she cradled her head against my chest, smothering her tears as she continued to huddle the big leather bound book in her arms. “They were going to kill me…”

“Shh, it’s okay,” I whispered. “You’re safe now.” Without a moment to waste, I teleported us both back to my apartment.