Chapter 11 Kane growled at the adolescent when the girl tried to stab him with a kabob skewer. He reached out and grabbed her by the wrist to keep the makeshift weapon at a safe distance. From what he’d noticed so far, it looked like the shadow demons were picking on anyone under the age of twelve and that worried him. He racked his brain mentally, checking off what types of demons were known for picking on children. There were many actually, and all of them tended to have different personalities anyway, so the type probably didn’t even matter. This child was among the odd ones though. She had something most of the others he’d encountered didn’t… she had a pet. It seemed the ones with snakes wrapped around them weren’t interested in playing anymore, unless you counted games like operation… and he wasn't talking about the board game. Kane reached his other hand out so the snake would attempt to bite him. As soon as it struck, he grabbed at it, missing when its body turned to

Chapter 13 Michael felt the demon’s approach a mere second before the thing streaked past him with amazing speed. Oddly enough, it had looked like Peter Pan being chased by a bunch of those shadow beasts, just like the one that bit him earlier. He wished he’d had a video camera rolling when one of the snake-shaped shadows plowed right through Damon’s back and came out his chest. Damon froze in his spot when he felt something cold press into him and glanced down just in time to see it shoot out of his chest. He reached for it, to snatch it out of the air, but the thing was already gone. “What the hell,” Damon complained softly, not enjoying the cold sensation the passing left behind. “It happened so fast that I didn’t even get a chance to warn you,” Michael stated, with an apologetic shrug. It was all he could do not to laugh because that had actually been very entertaining to watch. Damon frowned in the direction it had gone, then turned to face his mate, who seemed to b

Chapter 15 Crouched on one of the high shelves out of sight, Shinbe was growing restless. This fight was lasting much longer then he’d anticipated, and he had to give credit to the demon’s side… there was, after all, power in numbers. The fact that there were more shadow beasts coming out of that deep hole in the floor was only making it worse. Causing a cave in wasn’t an option either, since it would take everyone with it… including the crystal he had come to retrieve. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully then glanced down at the beads that were wrapped securely around his wrist and palm. He closed his fingers over the protective barrier the sacred beads created. If he released the cursed void, it would even the odds in no time, by sucking up the army of shadow beasts and allowing the brothers to focus the fight back where it belonged… on the demon. But there was a down side to using such an awesome weapon. The cursed void was not picky as to what it sucked up into the black ho