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The battle was over, at least for the moment. The surviving daemons and their daemonite controllers had fled, though I was under no illusions that they’d gone very far. I could still feel them watching us, peeking out from the buildings that lined the street.

Some of the Val Kyr had been injured during the fight, though fortunately, none had been killed. The jatta were quickly checking on the injured and infusing them with extra jatta energy in order to speed up the healing process. Most of the injuries would be completely healed by the time we returned to our fortified school stronghold.

The local men who’d come with us on this hunting trip were unharmed, except for a bruised knee and some scrapes that one of them got from falling while trying to run away from a daemon. However, all of them were stunned by the vicious battle that they’d just lived through, though my dad was showing it the least. Then again, my dad was a combat veteran, but even he was a bit shaken.

Mr. Rosewald, Julie’s dad was staring at her as though she was a stranger, and I could understand why. She wasn’t the same person she’d been the last time he’d seen her. She was Val Kyr now, and he’d finally gotten a glimpse of what that really meant. It was a lot to wrap your head around, and I was amazed at how well my own dad was managing to do that.

The Marine, whose name I’d learned was Jim, grimly looked over all the dead and dismembered daemons that littered the streets. A few were still twitching, but a couple of Val Kyr were walking through the mess to finish them off. “Damn,” he said, shaking his head. “I had no idea there were so many of those things in town…”

“They’ve been keeping a relatively low profile,” Shannon commented thoughtfully. “And building their numbers.”

“Those things are horrific,” Officer Kyles stated with a shudder. “It’s like they came right out of my worst nightmares…”

“Like Michelle said earlier,” Lindrell told him with a scowl. “Daemons are like rabid dogs.”

“How can anyone help those things and still call themselves human?” Officer Kyles demanded. “Those daemonites…”

“Most daemonites are…not quite sane,” Natalie added with a wry smile. “It’s the nature of their power…”

Cassandra nodded at that, looking sad as she explained, “They don’t start out that way. I knew a daemonite once…before she became one. She’d been a good woman…and accepted the offer to become a daemonite just so she could have the power to protect her family from the gangs that terrorized them. She did just this for a time, but that power meant she could see inside a daemon’s mind…feel their emotions as her own. Before long, she began to identify with daemons more than humans…began to see humans the same way the daemons did.” Cassandra shook her head sadly, making me suspect that I probably didn’t want to know what happened to this woman or her family.

After this, we all started the walk back towards the school, moving more slowly than we had while coming out. The men were all exhausted and shaky, and weren’t moving quite as fast. Admittedly, one of the Val Kyr had broken her ankle during the fight, and she was moving a little slower as well.

When we’d come out this way, we’d walked in two groups of Val Kyr, with the six men being in a group between us. But now, everyone was intermingled. I noted that Jim was walking beside Natalie, giving her sidelong looks of appreciation while trying to appear as though he wasn’t. Simon, the young guy who was barely older than I was, was doing something similar, taking a position right behind Julie and myself. And then there was my dad, who was walking by Lindrell’s side. Neither of them really said anything to each other though. I imagined that this reunion had to be pretty awkward for both of them.

We hadn’t even made it halfway back to the school when Gretchen exclaimed, “Sheisse!”

“Daemons are starting to gather again,” Shannon explained a moment later. Her expression was grim, and the moment she’d finished with those words, everyone else wore a similar one.

“Again?” Mr. Rosewald blurted out with a look of fear.

“We already kicked their asses once,” Simon stated confidently, conveniently forgetting that it was the Val Kyr who’d done most of the damage. “We’ll do it again.”

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and it hadn’t come from any of us. Simon let out a gurgling gasp and dropped to the ground as a rapidly growing pool of blood began to spread out around him. There was a second gunshot, then a third, coming from two daemonites who’d taken up sniper positions.

“This is a new tactic,” Natalie snarled, even as she was creating a wall of concrete to use as cover.

“Incoming,” Jass yelled, referring to the daemons that were rushing towards us.

There weren’t nearly as many daemons as with the last swarm, only about a dozen of them, but most of them seemed to be flying ones. I silently cursed the fact that I was out of arrows and drew my sword, hoping I could get within cutting distance.

One daemon made me think of a bloated squid that had been inflated with helium. It was a floating air sack with tentacles, and when Dad shot it, the thing exploded into a ball of fire. Everyone ducked down to avoid getting singed, and the rest of the daemons took advantage of that to rush in even closer.

“Oh no you don’t,” Bethany exclaimed, swinging her sword at a pigeon sized daemon that was buzzing back and forth. The thing wasn’t very large, but it was fast and maneuverable.

A winged daemon flew towards me, and as I began to swing my sword, there was another gunshot and a burst of pain through my leg. I gasped, and in that moment of distraction, the daemon spat out a spray of green goo. I saw it coming in time to dodge and avoid it…barely. The pain in my leg slowed me, but I was used to sparring while injured and in pain. When the daemon turned and came at me again, a single well aimed strike was all I needed to slice it in two.

“I got one of the snipers,” Dad called out.

“I just got the other,” Gretchen added a moment later.

Then there was a loud gasp of pain, drawing my attention to Jass, who had two daemons on her. One was a gaunt dog-like daemon that had charged in and tried attacking her legs, and while she’d been trying to deal with that one, a flying mass of tentacles had landed on her back and was beginning to strangle her.

Dad was close to Jass, and without a word, he opened fire on the dog daemon, killing it with several shots to the torso and one to the head. Then he used his weapon as a club to swing it at the mass of tentacles. It released its grip on Jass enough so that she was able to tear herself away from the thing.

“I’ve got it,” Julie called out, impaling the daemon with her spear, then sending a wave of essence down through the mass of tentacles and incinerating it.

Jass glared at the dead daemon and gave the body a swift kick before suddenly snapping around and glaring at Dad. “I didn’t need your help.”

“I never said you did,” Dad responded in an even tone.

The small swarm of daemons had already been wiped out, along with the two daemonites who’d been behind this ambush. However, I couldn’t feel very triumphant about this one when I looked at Simon, who was dead on the ground.

Julie suddenly cried out, “DAD,” drawing my attention to her dad, who was on the ground, crying out in pain as the gunshot wound on this thigh bled profusely.

With that, my dad looked to me, or at least to my bloody leg, and stated, “You’ve been shot…”

In spite of the pain, I gave him a forced grin and responded in a bad British accent. “Tis but a scratch.”

“She’s fine,” Lindrell assured Dad, rolling her eyes and putting her hand on my shoulder where she gave me a surge of jatta. “We give each other worse than that in our daily training.”

Dad gave me a look that was hard to read, then carefully said, “That sounds rather intense…”

“Puts that pansy-ass Army training to shame,” Bethany said cheerfully.

I might have had fun watching Bethany tease my dad, but my attention went to Mr. Rosewald…and to Julie who was bent over him looking frantic. Dad limped over to him, calling out for the first-aid kit.

“He’s losing blood fast,” Dad said grimly. “We need to stop the bleeding immediately…”

Officer Kyles pulled a first-aid kit out of a back pack and began pulling out bandages. I didn’t know if we’d be able to stop Mr. Rosewald’s bleeding fast enough with bandages or a tourniquet, but I realized that there was something I could do to help.

“I can stop the bleeding,” I announced, dropping down beside him.

Dad had already used a knife to cut Mr. Rosewald’s pants away from his wound so it could be bandaged, but it was hard to make out the hole itself through the blood. I gulped, feeling a little shaky as I tried to remember everything Ionne had taught me.

“What are you doing?” Officer Kyles demanded.

“Dad,” Julie cried out, tears running down her cheeks as she held his hand.

I took a deep breath, then began to push out a mixture of essence and jatta, trying to mix and fuse the energies evenly as I sent them into Mr. Rosewald’s leg. In just a moment, I could feel his flesh beginning to respond, the same way water did when I infused it with essence. The hole went all the way through, so at least I didn’t have to worry about removing the bullet.

Someone started to put a hand on my shoulder, but Lindrell snapped, “Don’t distract her.”

I continued to focus all of my attention on Mr. Rosewald’s flesh, concentrating on controlling both the energies I’d infused his leg with and on moving the flesh itself. I held back the blood, long enough to force the severed artery to heal. The muscle tissue and skin were next. By the time I was finished, his wound was closed and no longer bleeding, but it wasn’t fully healed. He’d have to be careful so as not to tear it open again while he healed the rest of the way on his own.

As soon as I released my energies from Mr. Rosewald, I collapsed, feeling badly drained from the effort. It was a good thing that his wound hadn’t been much worse, or I probably wouldn’t have been able to heal it.

“Are you all right?” Lindrell asked me, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“Just peachy,” I responded with a wry grin.

“It’s healed,” Dad exclaimed in surprise. “It’s scarred over already…”

“Thank you,” Julie exclaimed, grabbing me in a hug, and to my surprise, she gave me a kiss on the cheek before quickly turning her attention back to her dad.

I slowly got back up, with Lindrell’s help. She gave me another surge of jatta, and it definitely helped me regain my strength again. I took a deep breath, then looked around, noticing that most of the people gathered were staring at me.

“How did she do that?” Cassandra asked, staring at me with a look of surprise.

“She mixed essence and jatta energies,” Gretchen answered, giving me a curious look.

“An atra trick,” I answered, feeling both proud and self-conscious at the same time.

Officer Kyle’s blurted out, “If you guys can all do that, then we have a lot of injured people back at the school who can use help…”

“That isn’t something most Val Kyr can do,” Lindrell told him with a shake of her head. “Some of us can help other Val Kyr heal more quickly, but our powers have no effect on those who are not Val Kyr. Michelle is…unusual.”

“A freak,” Jass muttered.

“I can try with a few of them when we get back to the school,” I told Officer Kyles, glancing to my dad as well. “But it took just about everything I had just to do that much.”

“My leg still hurts,” Mr. Rosewald complained weekly, though have gave me a look of gratitude and smiled at Julie.

Mr. Rosewald was no longer bleeding, but he’d already lost the blood and was too weak to continue walking back to the school. Several people quickly ran into nearby buildings and scavenged the materials to create a makeshift stretcher so we could carry him the rest of the way. By this point, my own leg was mostly healed as well and felt like no more than a bruise.

Just as we began to move again, a loud shriek filled the air. “Incoming,” Shannon called out a warning.

I looked up and let out a gasp of surprise at the sight of the daemon that flew through the air. It’s large scaly body and wide leathery wings was somewhat familiar from countless movies and books. It was some sort of sickly, greyish colored dragon.

“Wyvern,” Lei exclaimed with a look of annoyance, probably because her hammer wouldn’t do much good against something that far away.

The dragon…wyvern suddenly dove towards us, revealing that it actually had a human rider…a daemonite. Obviously a binder since they were the only people who’d think that riding a daemon was a good idea.

“Take them down,” Lindrell shouted, though guns and arrows were already being fired at the pair.

The wyvern swooped down and belched out a thick black smoke which flooded the streets as it dove past, making me gag at the stench. It was like rotten eggs, raw sewage, and the Bog of Eternal Stench…all rolled up into one ungodly scent. And while everyone was just trying to breath, the creature came back again.

Just as it was difficult to breath in this stench, the thick fog also made it more difficult to see through. Still, I kept my eyes on the daemon as it came down for another pass, letting out a second belch of this disgusting fog, which thickened it up even more.

“We’ve got another swarm coming,” Jass called out.

More daemons came swarming out of the buildings nearby, but there were only half a dozen lesser daemons, ones who normally wouldn’t be considered much of a threat at all. However, with this fog making it more difficult to breathe or see, these daemons were suddenly much more dangerous than they would be otherwise. I absently wondered why the daemonites hadn’t used the wyvern during the first swarm when it could have turned things in their favor…unless they hadn’t brought it over from the Twilight Realm until just now.

I had my sword out and was trying to deal with a Pac Man daemon when the wyvern came by for another swoop. I expected him to belch out more of that stench but instead, it suddenly came right at me, grabbing me in the large claws that dug into my shoulder. I screamed in pain as the claws tore right through my armor and my flesh, then yanked me right off the ground and into the air.