But here he was, descending to the pavement in front of Elsi, in all his obnoxious glory. A man who everyone believed dead, very much alive.
“E
vening witch.” He stood there, right in the air, casually with his hands lost somewhere in the deep pockets of his loose black trousers, as if they were about to have a civil conversation.
Elsi was silent, her tongue lying thick and forgotten somewhere in the back of her throat.
“What’s the matter, witch? Cat got your tongue? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He tilted his head one way, then the other, and sneered.
“Tenuxhal.” When she finally found her voice, Elsi’s tone was distinctly unfriendly. Tenuxhal despised her. Elsi shared the sentiment. She had fought to control the shaking in her voice.
“You’re dead.” It was a demand. A desperate plea. A blatant lie.
“You really think a couple of cuts and scratches or a staff through the heart you bitch, would be enough to bring me down, Elsi Rhoads?”
Elsi shook her head in denial. “What the hell do you want, Tenuxhal?” She scowled, her body language becoming every bit as unfriendly as the demon's.
“Well, I ain’t fucking here to talk, witch.”
To drive home his message, the demon bolted forward and threw a strong left hook at Elsi’s face. Caught off guard, she had barely managed to dodge it, feeling the air brush past her cheek.
She quickly distanced herself, staff at the ready, and demanded an answer.
“You’re here just so you can fight me again? For real Tenuxhal?”
“I’ll tell you what, witch. You said you’d fight me whenever I wanted. I owe you one for not allowing Beelzebub to kill me, and so I’m only coming after you, not your friends and family.”
Shit! What kind of screwed up logic was that? Elsi’s mind raced, but there was no way she could follow Tenuxhals damaged train of thought.
“Ain’t I good to you Rhoads? You better thank me now, ‘cause you won’t be able to later.”
It made perfect sense to Tenuxhal. He wouldn't use Elsi’s friends or family as bait to kill her. He’d seen the results of that already. He didn’t want to risk tangling with that thing that wasn't Rhoads, that thing that had walked all over Beelzebub. Her Dark Wisp form. No way. Tenuxhal was sadistic but not suicidal. He’d learned something about his own limits. Just because he hated someone, didn’t necessarily mean he could beat them in a fair fight.
“I am not going to fight you, Tenuxhal.” Elsi dropped her staff until the tip was pointed downward toward the pavement. She was still floating midair, legs spread out in a defensive stand as if she were standing on solid ground. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, threatening to break out from behind it’s protective cage of bone. Apparently she had a suicidal streak that she hadn’t been aware of until now.
Tenuxhal stepped towards Elsi, stalking her like a large, predatory cat, slowly closing the distance Elsi had put between them, and wondering how long the witch would dare to hold herself unguarded. She seemed to have a death wish. Tenuxhal was more than happy to grant it.
The 22-year-old watched the graceful movement of the demon as he edged closer, with a strange mix of loathing, horror, and ultimately a sense of fascination so completely consuming that she almost forgot that she should be doing anything about it. There was a certain captivating grace and fluidity in his movements when he fought, and in the way the knight had always carried himself that Elsi had only understood when she had finally seen him fight up close and very personal.
Beautiful or not, Elsi knew she was dealing with one seriously pissed off tomcat.
Tenuxhal moved closer still. He had come for a rematch, to settle things between them, and if he died in the process, well, that was just a penalty for losing. He hadn’t technically lost last time because the fight was never really over until somebody died. One of them was going to die here tonight, and he didn’t intend to lose this time.
The whole point of a witches existence was to make sure the creatures of Hell stayed in their place, away from the living population. They also keep an eye on renegade angels who seem to have a second-death wish by screwing around in the world of the living, drawing attention onto themselves from hungry demons who may decide to open up a bridge from Hell to the mortal realm, all for the chance of a delicious sparkly angel meal. Angels were beings of pure energy, something demons absolutely lusted for. Humans were considered delicious meals as well but had nowhere near the amount of spiritual energy an angel has.
It was all part of the balance the planet and the three planes of existence required to function properly. Sometimes the archangels, those that opted out of being reborn, would help the mortal witches in their various tasks, but it was best to just assume they couldn’t, or rather, wouldn’t help.
Tenuxhal sensed it now, though, the change in Elsi’s power. Normally the human oozed with intense power, her energy always leaking out unchecked. Had the witch finally learned to control her energy pressure, he wondered, the same way Tenuxhal had? It still felt rough, and untempered, licking at his senses in a taunting, teasing fashion, but the strength of it, the power that should be there, wasn’t. Maybe she’d just regressed and wasn’t worth fighting anymore. That couldn’t be right, though. Witches didn’t regress. Perhaps she just needed a gentle push like before.
He was about to ask her what her fucking deal was, but as he got closer, he saw it, that look. That bitch had that fucking look on her face that said she was better than Tenuxhal, that the knight was going to be beaten, wasn’t worthy, wasn’t a demon at all. And suddenly, with renewed determination, and as sure as the moon never wavered from its spot in the night skies of Hell, the demon wanted her dead.
And it still wouldn't be enough. It would never be enough.
Whatever Tenuxhal thought he saw in Elsi’s eyes was twisted by his own neurotic ideas of power and respect. What those hazel eyes really held was instinct and determination and no small amount of stone cold fear. This wasn’t the same feeling Elsi had had that day eight months ago. She’d had friends around to support her then. Her heart was with them.
Now here she was, caught completely off guard in the middle of an empty street in Boulder, in the passing dusk of nightfall, entirely alone. Pissing herself.
Tenuxhal had already drawn Zareite, his giant silver Claymore before he fired his first Infernal Tempest because Elsi was strong and he would need it, but his injured pride wouldn’t let him use it now, and he casually replaced it as Elsi watched in confusion.
“I don’t need my sword to beat you,” he said darkly. “Besides...”
Elsi braced.
“I prefer the hands on approach.”
Elsi brought her staff up easily in time to block Tenuxhals bare arm, the sharp, jagged staff coming to a blistering stop against his powerful thickened skin. Her arms shook with effort as they pushed against each other, locked together for a moment, Tenuxhal’s face looking down at Elsi’s.
“Better get your Wisp out,” the knight whispered with a twisted parody of a flirtatious grin. With that, he teleported behind her and kicked her hard enough across the back to send her tumbling down the street, asphalt splitting apart with an echoing crack whenever her body made contact. Her dress was beginning to tear, the energy re-enforced threads splitting where she’d been hit.
Tenuxhal watch from where he stood as the flash of telltale blue energy lit up the buildings around the space where the witch had finally come to a stop. At least she was in her Wisp form now. Tenuxhal scowled. Why was Rhoads always such a pain in the ass to fight? She was so goddamn stubborn and resistant. Fucking bitch. There was only one more thing left to make her bring out and then they could really get things started.
He was about to shift after her, but instead he stopped and held himself in place as an unexpected scene unfolded in front of him. He watched, bereft of words as Elsi Rhoads came stomping down the street in her Wisp state and waving the sharp, pointy tip of her staff at Tenuxhal, not stopping until she was standing directly in front of the knight and yelling at him.
“What the hell is it with you? You became a knight, one of the top ten most powerful beings in all of Hell. Now that they’re all gone you’re the strongest. You’re powerful, Tenuxhal!”
The woman was so pissed off that she’d turn red in her glowing blue face. For a split second Tenuxhals rage vanished and he almost wanted to laugh out loud.
“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? To get rid of everyone who looked down on you? And you still want to fight me? What’s your bloody problem?”
Elsi was furious. That bastard, Tenuxhal, thought he could just show up uninvited and start shoving Elsi around like some schoolyard bully, because really, wasn’t that all he was in the end? Well, she wasn’t having any of it. She needed to stop this before things got out of hand and half of her town ended up being destroyed.
The knight only smiled lopsidedly and tilted his head, his voice deceptively calm.
“So, you really wanna talk? Fine. How yah been? How’s your mother? Doing well?” With speed to fast for hazel eyes to register, he rotated his body fully around, his leg sweeping upwards in a graceful arc, slamming into Elsi’s ribs and spinning her, forcing her to claw at the energy in the air around her to catch herself as she tumbled through the air over the street. The knight followed.
Well, shit. That hadn’t worked. Tenuxhals fighting style may have been unpredictable, but his disposition remained as reliable as ever. As far as Elsi was concerned, the demon was a temper in search of a tantrum.
“You kept fighting to gain more power, Rhoads,” Tenuxhal finally replied flatly as he moved through the air towards the witch, hate running undisguised and rampant in the way he emphasized her name. “Well, so am I.”
“I did it to protect my friends and everyone I love. What’s your excuse?” the brunette haired woman persisted.
“Or have you just got nothing better to do - demon?”
Elsi cringed inwardly at her own caustic reply. She had intended to try and talk her way out of a fight with the insane man, not antagonize him. She bit the inside of her lip to stop herself from egging him on. She had a feeling she was only going to keep digging herself another foot further into the ground every time she opened her mouth. She just couldn’t keep the snide remarks from rolling off her tongue. This always happened to her when she was around Tenuxhal. They were like fire and ice.
Tenuxhal stilled, then bristled.
Elsi tightened her group around the lower half of her staff, raising it well above her shoulders. Well, it appeared she had hit a nerve.
Hazel eyes remained locked with liquid silver in a battle not to look away. A tense silence reigned, and it seemed to Elsi that Tenuxhal wasn’t going to muster an answer. The demon was almost motionless until he finally bared his unnaturally sharp teeth and spoke slowly, so dangerously, his tone edged with such a cold fury that it sent every inch of Elsi’s skin crawling for safety.
“You looked down on me back then.” His jaw muscles tensed and twitched. “And you’re still doing it now. You piece of shit.” He tilted his head slightly, and with a sharp jerk, audibly cracked his neck. “That ain’t happening... Anymore.”
Shit. Shit!
Tenuxhal vanished with a low sizzle as the air rushed to fill in the space where he’d just been hovering.
Elsi’s mind whirled, her head whipping around in a panic as adrenaline flooding into her heart, throwing it into overdrive. Memory flashed; she was was standing in star littered black sky high above the lights of Boulder, Colorado, then there was pain, disorientation, falling from the sky, colliding with hard concrete. It was their first fight, all over again.
In almost the same instant that he’d left, the demon reappeared behind Elsi, lashing out with a powerful roundhouse kick aimed for her head. Elsi barely had time to raise her staff to block the attack. Tenuxhal’s foot struck the wands thin top half, the length deflecting some of its energy, but it wasn’t enough to keep Rhoads from being thrown back and pushed off balance.
Tenuxhal was a vicious opponent, a natural fighter, brilliant in hand to hand, relentless in his attacks. Elsi’s defensive abilities had always been strong, but her own forte lay in her speed and brute strength unusual for the human woman, even for a witch of her status, and neither seemed to be enough tonight. The knight had it in spades over Elsi in a dirty street fight, throwing bruising punches and bone breaking kicks at random. He was hard as hell to read, and with more than enough power to back it up and make it hurt so you didn’t forget. Lord knew Elsi had certainly tried to forget.
Elsi knew she couldn’t win. She wasn’t at the level she needed to be at to take on the demon and actually walk away unscathed, or at all if the ferocity of Tenuxhals attacks were anything to go by. What Elsi lacked in strength without the full use of her Wisp, she made up as much as she could with speed and her familiarity with Tenuxhals fighting style. Avoiding being struck was her biggest concern at the moment.
She knew the demon would be quick and dangerous, despite his size, and she couldn’t afford to show Tenuxhal just how far she’d regressed. She could only hold her Wisp for about two minutes after the war and she hadn’t trained more than a few times with it since. But she could, if she were careful, release it early before it began to suck her dry of energy, and use it again seconds later. It was a ridiculous way to have to fight, but the technique was her only choice. If Tenuxhal realized how weak she really was, he would drop all of his defenses and focus entirely on the kill. That scenario sent a surge of panic through her. She had her life back and she wanted to keep it.
Elsi dragged slender fingers down in front of her chest, right below her collarbone and between her cleavage, and formed her Wisp form, encasing herself in the pure light blue light that seemed to melt onto her entire figure. Only her eyes held any detail and remained the same as before.
A feral grin slowly stretched out across the demons angular face, sharp teeth otherwise hidden behind snarling lips and slit eyes making him look almost rabid with the desire to kill.