Goddess in the Middle by Stephanie Julian Read Free Book Online

demon.
    Amazingly, the demon avoided being cut by the huge blade and the wolf set on it with another attack.
    “Run, Amity!” Rom shouted at her. “We’ll take care of this. Go!”
    Scrambling to stand, Amity managed to hold her knees steady when they wanted to fold under her. Proximity to the demon sapped her strength at an alarming rate.
    She tried to run but could barely manage to walk. And when she heard the wolf yelp in pain, she couldn’t help herself.
    She stopped and turned back to the fight.
    Remy’s wolf lay sprawled on the ground, unmoving as the man cried out, raising the sword above his head. He looked wild, his expression grief-stricken. And he’d left himself wide open to attack.
    The demon smirked, sensing an opening, and tensed to leap.
    “No!” Her cry made no impression on the demon but Rom flashed her a quick look.
    And in that second, the demon saw its opening.
    Rom had no chance to save himself from the demon’s attack and took the full brunt of its charge. Demon claws caught him in the side, and Rom cried out in pain as the sword fell from his hands. But he managed to get his hands up and around the demon’s neck to keep its teeth and, more important, the deadly venom those teeth produced away from his throat.
    The demon hissed, his clawed hands readying for another slash as Amity, reacting on pure instinct, scrambled for the sword.
    She’d just wrapped both hands around the hilt when she heard the wolf snarl. The wolf moved so fast, he looked like a passing cloud as he shot to his feet and jumped on the demon’s back.
    The wolf’s jaws opened, aiming for the demon’s neck. As if anticipating the move, the demon wrenched hard to the right, trying to roll onto his back and bring Rom on top of him.
    She realized then that Rom and the wolf had played the demon but she’d messed up their plan.
    “Amity! Leave the sword. Run.”
    No, she couldn’t run. If the lucani defeated the demon, they would need her help to heal because they were taking a beating. And if the demon won, well…
    She wouldn’t get far enough away for it to matter. The demon would run her down.
    Instead, she struggled to lift the sword. It weighed a ton. She should run, get far, far away. She couldn’t.
    Adrenaline pumping, muscles straining, she lifted the sword as far as she could, only a couple of inches from the ground. It would have to be enough. She just hoped like hell she didn’t hit Rom or the wolf.
    The tangle of bodies rolled again and the wolf lost its grip on the demon. The demon shoved at the wolf, raking its claws along its flank.
    This time, Remy’s wolf wasn’t faking the injury. He struggled to maintain his feet but he couldn’t get his left back leg to move properly.
    Still, the wolf went back at the demon, biting down on its arm and trying to drag it away from Rom. Which only caused Rom to cry out in pain, because the demon had its claws sunk in his side.
    Seeing her opening, she pointed the sword at the demon’s back. Ignoring the fact that she was about to cause mortal injury to another living creature, something that went against every cell of her being, she stabbed the demon as hard as she could with the pointed end of the weapon.
    The demon roared as it lashed out, grabbing the sword and trying to rip it from her hands. Stupidly, she held on and was tossed to the ground along with the sword.
    The demon howled, the evil sound cutting through the night like a siren. Surely someone had heard that and would come to investigate.
    Would they believe what their eyes were seeing? Maybe it wouldn’t matter.
    “The sword. Lady, get me… the sword.”
    Rom’s voice sounded strained and weak but he reached out to her with one hand. The other barely held the demon’s snapping jaws at bay.
    As fast as she could, she got to her knees and crawled toward him, pulling the sword along with her. It seemed to have gained a hundred pounds since she’d first picked it up.
    Remy’s wolf made another lunge