Vanished. Maureen Child

air. Long, thick fingers curled around the base of her throat, cutting off another breath and burning into her skin as if each of those fingers was a living flame.

      Aly stumbled, then was brought up hard and flush against the body of her captor, standing behind her.

      “Lovely.” A voice sighed out around her, sneaking into her bones, sliding through her blood. Both hot and cold seemed to wash over her as she stared ahead of her into the darkness, straining to see Rogan.

      Fear was alive and well and crouched in the pit of her stomach. The being behind her lifted her off the ground until she struggled to keep her toes on the cobbled street beneath her. Anything to maintain the narrow passage of air struggling to fill her lungs. She yanked at the hand at her throat, but it was like trying to pull a steel bar off a blocked door. Power hummed around her, and that voice came again, close, as her captor dipped its head to her ear.

      “You follow me. You and the Guardian. Is he training you? Are you a sweet young thing only learning to fight us?”

       Demon.

      She shook her head wildly and gasped as the demon’s fingers tightened on her throat like a well-tied noose. Where was Rogan? He hadn’t gotten that far ahead of her. What kind of Guardian was it who would leave her to be killed? Hadn’t he noticed the demon? Hadn’t he sensed its presence?

      Fingers on her throat tightened further, and small black-and-white dots danced in her vision.

      “Release her.”

      The demon holding her spun around so awkwardly that Aly lost her tenuous balance and hung limply in the demon’s clutches. Deliberately, she lifted both hands to the viselike grip on her throat, taking her weight up a bit so she could fight for the air she needed so desperately.

      Through narrowed eyes, she stared at Rogan, standing only a few feet from her. His black hair lifted in the wind, and his green eyes flashed a warning so bright it was easy to read even in the darkness.

      “I think not,” the demon cooed and bent its head to sniff at Aly’s throat. She shuddered as its cold, rough skin scraped along her jaw, her neck.

      Rogan’s big hand fisted on the hilt of the sword he held, and his body seemed to vibrate with menace. “You think to save yourself by hiding behind a woman, then?”

      The demon laughed softly, and somehow that made it even worse. Aly closed her eyes, and a single tear squeezed out from behind her lids and traced down along her cheek. Her grip on the demon’s hand was fading as her strength slid away.

      “I don’t hide, Guardian.” The demon stroked one hand down the line of her body and with the last of her strength, Aly tried to move away from that touch. “I take what I find and I use it. I found her. She’s mine.”

      “As well you know, not a thing on this plane of existence is yours, demon. So let’s be at it and leave the woman.”

      A snarl and snap of teeth hissed into the night as the demon spat at Rogan. “I’ll leave her when I’m done with her and not before. If you go now, Guardian, I might let her live. After.”

      The river rushed past her on her right. From a distance, Aly heard the faint beat of music. A cold wind ruffled her hair and made her eyes tear as she opened them to look helplessly at Rogan. She was dying. She felt her sluggish heart slow. Felt her own end coming and knew there was nothing she could do about it. But then she looked into Rogan’s eyes.

       When I go for him, drop to the ground and stay there.

      His words rumbled through her mind, but that wasn’t possible. She was psychic, not telepathic. But maybe she was hallucinating. Maybe she was hearing what she wanted to hear. She was dying. She knew it.

      An instant later Rogan howled, his voice rising into a bellowing shriek of justice as he charged the demon holding Aly so tightly. The demon, startled, loosened its grip for a second, and with her last ounce of energy, Aly pulled free, dropped to the ground and stayed there. Her lungs greedily sucked in air, the blurriness of her vision cleared and the pounding in her head eased back into just a memory of the pain she’d had moments before.