Page 35 of Knight’s Salvation

Chapter 9

Zenon heardKryos coming through the night sky before he landed.

“What’s up?”

Zenon turned as the warrior folded in his pure white wings, so white they glowed under the streetlights.

“I can only sense one. Go home. I don’t need your help.” Kryos was a good guy, a lethal fighter. But after what happened with Mia, he was in no mood for company.

As usual, though, he struggled to find the right words, and Kryos assumed he was being difficult.

The big male shook his head, hands going to his hips. “Jesus, Zenon. When are you going to get it through that thick skull that we’re in this fight together? You don’t do shit on your own. I don’t give a rat’s ass where you were born.”

Zenon hated how strongly those words affected him. He didn’t let any of it show on his face, though, and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Kryos muttered something, but thankfully that was the end of it, and he fell into step beside him. “This place gives me the heebs. It’s so damn dark out here.”

Zenon snorted. The pair of them were the scariest things out there, far as he could tell. “I’ll be sure to get you a night-light for your birthday.”

“Shut it. You know what I mean. It’s creepy as fuck.”

The glow from the streetlights did nothing to illuminate the cemetery, and instead caused long shadows to sprout from the headstones dotted all over what would have been prime real estate if it weren’t for all the corpses.

They grew silent as they moved deeper into the grounds. He fucking hated Ibwa demons. This whole thing was way off. They were usually a lot more discreet when it came to feeding time, but for some reason this nasty fucker had decided to dine in rather than take out. And it sure as hell wouldn’t do for a late-night visitor, or some poor homeless bastard looking for a quiet place to sleep to come across what was sure to be a grisly sight.

The sloppy sounds of something chowing down reached them in the darkness and Kryos pointed to the right, his face screwed up in disgust.

They moved up behind a shiny new headstone, the smooth white marble almost fluorescent in the dim light. Probably belonging to someone important, the monstrosity stood at least four feet tall with an angel perched on top, at least the same height again, its white wings curled into its back. Without a word they split, taking a side each.

“Fuck me,” Kryos said, looking down.

The Ibwa was in full-on munch mode, so engrossed in the act of stripping rotting flesh from bone it didn’t look up. Not a normal reaction. Totally screwed up.

The guy was half in the hole he’d dug with his bare hands. His fingernails were torn and bleeding, his suit covered in mud and other more unpleasant things. These guys might eat the dead, but they usually did the digging with a shovel, and they sure as hell didn’t do the eating in plain sight.

“Hey,” Kryos called down.

Nothing.

Zenon shoved its shoulder with his boot, not in a hurry to touch the guy at this point. The demon glanced up, chewing furiously, and Zenon had to fight to keep the last meal he’d had in his stomach. The Ibwa’s glazed eyes were unfocused and looked right through them.

“Shit,” Kryos muttered. Zen looked across to the other warrior. “He’s like the others. No one’s home.”

The demon didn’t try to flee. Instead it looked back down and continued to eat. “We have to get him out of there.”

Kryos took a step back. “Reverse dibs.”

“Are you shitting me?”

Kryos screwed up his face. “Nope. It’s been called. And according to the international rules of reverse dibs, the guy’s all yours.”

“Jesus.” Zenon didn’t waste time. He leaned in, gripped the demon by the pits, and hauled his disgusting ass out of the grave.

That set the guy off. He went gonzo, lashing out and trying to take a bite out of his shoulder. Zen shoved him with one hand and reached back with the other. Gripping one of his ax handles, he pulled it free and swung out as the Ibwa came in for a second bite.

The demon’s head landed with a dull thud at Kryos’s feet, and the knight kicked it back into the hole.

The body ashed out seconds later and they quickly got to work cleaning up the grave site.