Chapter 88: The Party Chaos Continues...

Drew forced himself up off the ground almost as soon as he stopped rolling. He hurt all over, and suspected he was even more beaten up than he realized, but there wasn't time for that. He had to get to Taylor. Drew scrambled to his feet, looking around quickly to find her. He was distracted momentarily by the successful crash of the SUV into the front of the mansion.

She was in the grass not too far away, rolling up and clutching her shoulder. He spotted her mainly because of the headlights of Wade's pick-up coming up from behind them. There were screams and crashes from inside the house. Drew fought past the pain to rush over to Taylor.

Then he heard that terrible roar again. The monster that had attacked the SUV came flying out of the mansion – literally flying – engulfed in flames and fixated on Drew. He ran, hoping to put some distance or at least a bad angle between himself and his obvious doom, but the thing merely landed on its feet and spun to charge him.

There was a flash of bright, white light against the beast, followed by a sudden wave of wind, dirt and torn-up grass. Wade's pick-up braked hard and spun into the demon, striking it with the rear side and sending the monster tumbling away.

Jason was at the wheel. At Wade's bark of, "Down!" Jason curled up to allow Wade to lean over him with the submachinegun pointed out of the window. Wade blasted the whole clip at the stunned monster, clearly hitting with at least some of it.

"Hit 'im!" Wade shouted. He pulled back to reload as Jason came up, reached out of his side with Wade's own pistol and started shooting at the demon.

The combined firepower clearly had the monster battered and staggered, but it didn't really put the thing down. It still fought to get to its feet, shaken by every successive bullet but not at all finished off.

Drew already had Taylor up. "I'm okay," Taylor coughed, sounding not at all convincing but able to move on her own two feet.

"Gotta go, girl," Drew managed. He pulled her toward the back end of Wade's pick-up, grabbing onto it and heaving her up over the tail gate and into the hard metal bed. He didn't even really have a plan; he just knew there was a demon here too big to fight, and a friendly vehicle potentially offering escape.

As Drew pulled himself up and in, though, the pick-up shook. Drew looked up to see the thing standing over the cab, with the claws on its feet puncturing the windows to help it gain purchase. Wade reached out of the cab with his submachinegun again, only to have it swatted away by the demon's tail. "I am Harrow," it snarled, "First warrior of Ba'al!"

Drew didn't really listen to the introduction. He didn't really care, either. There was only one thing to do with the giant white demonic thing leering at him as if it were about to eat him: he punched it straight on in its nasty snout.

The blow did seemingly more damage to it than any of the gunfire had. Harrow's head and shoulders were knocked away, blood erupting from his face. It lurched back, waving its wings and all its limbs to steady itself, and then turned its attention back to the mortal who had so grievously assaulted it. It's clawed hands and slashing tail drew back to take advantage of its reach rather than let the mortal wound it again.

It never had the chance. Drew and Taylor looked up at their inevitable deaths, only to see a flaming blade erupt out of its chest in the split-second before it was carried off of the truck and into the air above them. They saw a flash of white wings and black pants. Harrow let out an unearthly cry of pain, but despite it, they heard a woman's voice shout, "Go back to hell or this thing goes up your ass, motherfucker!"

Drew looked on in awe. "What the fuck was that?"

"Rachel," Taylor said, similarly stunned. "That has to be – " she winced as Harrow was shoved off of the angel's blade right where he would fall through the roof of the mansion. Then the blonde dove straight in after him. "Has to be Rachel," she finished.

Wade jumped out of the car to pick up the gun again. "Nothin' better than timely air support," he muttered.

************

His arm was gone. It was severed at the shoulder, cast aside in a mess of ash and soot. It lay lifeless against one wall of the hallway.

She had clawed out his eyes, pounded his chest until his ribs were a shattered ruin, and slashed him open a dozen times. He screamed, or at least did until she tore out his throat, but that wasn't the end of her assault. Ba'al had put up a fight as best he could – indeed, he should have had every advantage here, being both naturally more powerful and with Lorelei already beaten and weary. Yet her rage was too great to overcome.

Lorelei didn't stop until it was finished. As long as he moved, as long as there was any sign of life in the body, there was the likelihood that some vestige of Ba'al remained within. If there was anything left of him in the body, then even that small portion could feel pain.

When the body finally stopped reacting, Lorelei pushed herself to her feet. She breathed heavily, trying to maintain the energy that had brought her this far. All she wanted to do now was collapse, preferably into Alex's arms but the floor would do just fine.

The hand that gripped her leg from behind was much too large to be any man's. Too large, too powerful, and with too fierce a grip. Lorelei stumbled and fell, twisted as she felt herself being dragged back, and then screamed.

Where there should have been a long, empty hallway, there were flames and smoke and the overwhelming stench of sulfur coming from a portal. There were dozens of pairs of bright red eyes, near and far, gathered around the hall of a castle built from burnt bone and rotting flesh. In front of them all rose a tall, vaguely humanoid monstrosity with great horns, black wings, three heads, and a tail. Tight muscles rippled across its body. Its baleful red eyes promised only eternal pain.

Atop Ba'al's human head, as always, was his iron crown. "I told you that you would come back with me, Lorelei," Ba'al said with ashen breath.

Lorelei lashed at the hand, finding the strength in her terror to fight on even as she screamed.

************

"Gnrgh," Molly grunted. She stood completely still, held in frozen place by Woods's spell.

"Make a move and she dies," he snapped bitterly at Onyx. It was enough to stop her from throwing a spell of her own. The components were already in hand, but she couldn't risk him moving faster. By this point, Woods was clearly on the lookout for hostile magic.

Vampires, members of the Brotherhood, and now even the servants were scattering everywhere to get out of the building. Many had opted for the front entrance, only to see a fierce battle going on outside between demons and someone around a pick-up truck. Others wanted to avoid the panicked crowd.

Still others seemed intent on standing and fighting. Back down beneath the stairway, the two heavy-set vampires in the antebellum dresses were hunched over a suit-wearing man whose cries for mercy had been reduced to garbled, burbling noises as they feasted upon his blood. Stefan and Blackthorne had gotten into it up on the landing, while Molly and Onyx could still hear the noises of combat directly above them that were likely from Lorelei doing her best to kill Ba'al.

"Do something to her and you die," Onyx replied.

"Then we're at an impasse."

"Not really," Onyx said. You kill her and then I kill you, or you let her go and we let you walk. Either way, I walk out of here. Only I should warn you that if you kill her and then I have to kill you, I'll spend the rest of my life performing every fucked up necromantic experiment I can think of on your ghost."

"You're bluffing," Woods sneered. His eyes were still on Molly. "You two couldn't even stand to let one of the servants here die."

"That was Molly," Onyx reminded him darkly. "Not me." Inside, she felt rising fear for her lover, but their earlier spells of deception still held.

Woods hesitated. He blinked, glancing at Onyx, and then back again, but it was all Onyx needed. She pitched a handful of sea salt at him. It was more than enough to disrupt his spell and throw all of his energies momentarily out of whack.

Molly staggered and fell, dazed by the effect of Woods's spell. Onyx rushed to her side, hurriedly working another cantrip as she moved, but Woods had other tools at hand besides magic.

He pulled a gun from his jacket and leveled it at the two. Onyx threw herself in front of Molly to shield her. There was a loud racket that seemed completely out of place for his gun.

Blood and bone erupted from all over Woods as bullets passed through him.

Alex was standing there across the foyer on the other side of the burning SUV and the fire that it was steadily creating. The Thompson was still in his hands. There was blood all over his shirt and neck. A ragged woman in jeans and a flannel shirt followed behind him. "What the hell are you two doing here?" he yelled.

"We came here to rescue you!" Onyx called back. "Your – Lorelei is upstairs!"

Alex started to run to her, but then stopped. He raised the gun and pointed it directly at the two witches. "Alex, no!" Onyx yelled.

"It's not me!" he grunted. Onyx looked up to see Stefan on the landing of the stairway, watching Alex with his hands out as if he were controlling a marionette. Blackthorne lay at his feet, a wooden wand shoved through his heart like a stake.

Alex fired, screaming out in vain defiance of the control over his body. There was a rush of wind then, so strong that it whistled deafeningly through the mansion's foyer and blew out the flames of the SUV and everything it had set alight. Alex was knocked to the floor, as were Onyx and even Stefan up on the landing. The bullets never landed. Molly was sitting upright, blowing hard and releasing leaves into the air.

Onyx pulled an ebony wand from her knee-high Doc Marten boot and pointed it at Stefan as he struggled to stand again. She winced with reluctance and regret, but there was nothing for it; he had to be put down, and he was too powerful for half-measures. There was no incantation, nor any flash of lightning or blast of flame. There was simply Onyx, her wand, and her will.

Blood spurt from his ears. More came from his nose. Stefan's eyes went wide. He stumbled, coughed once with a release of even more blood, and then collapsed.

Alex was on his feet then, the wind having died off as suddenly as it came. "Oh thank God," he sighed when he saw they were both okay. He rushed to their sides. "You've got to get the hell out of here!" he said.

"As do you!" demanded the woman beside him.

"Oh fuck off!" he snapped.

"Who's this?" Onyx asked. Molly was on her feet then, checking Alex's neck and shoulders.

"Just someone else they were holding prisoner." He looked at the woman, then at the giant hole in the entrance. "Think you can probably get away now," he grunted.

Then Harrow came falling through the ceiling to land with a crash on the SUV. He twitched, seemed about to rise, and then suddenly Rachel dropped through the hole he had made to drive her flaming sword straight into the demon's neck.

Alex looked up to her, about to call her name but was interrupted by his own yelp of pain. "Gah! What was that?" he asked.

"You're healed," Molly grunted. "Sorry, I didn't have time to be gentle."

Alex blinked. The pain where Lydia had slashed at his neck and shoulders certainly seemed to have lessened. "You two are witches or something?!"

Onyx opened her mouth to answer, but there was an awful scream from upstairs. Alex didn't wait for an answer to his question. He vaulted up the staircase. "Help Rachel!" he yelled.

"What?!" Rachel yelled to him. Harrow used the distraction to grab at her arms, but she slammed her foot down on his snout right where Drew had punched him to such surprising effect. The demon let out a pained and exasperated cry, but it continued to fight.

Molly and Onyx looked to the staircase and started running after Alex.

"Good luck to you, then," Diana murmured. She threw off her flannel shirt as she rushed for the doorway. In moments, she was in wolf form, running out into the night.

Harrow got his tail wrapped around Rachel's leg. It tugged her off-balance just long enough for him to bring one of his arms around to swat her roughly back, striking her at both head and shoulders. "You know how this ends," the demon hissed. "There is no victory here. There is only a slightly longer span of recovery for one of us, be it in Heaven or the Pit."

Rachel swung her blade at him again, only to have her strike blocked at her wrist by Harrow's own hand. The other one punched her, sending her falling off of the SUV. Battered but not finished, the demon crawled off its back, crouching on the vehicle as if to pounce. "One would have thought that you would learn from the example of this city's protector."

The angel got to her feet, looking up at the demon with a sneer on her lips. "Oh, believe me," she huffed, grabbing onto the side of the SUV with both hands as if for support, "Vincent's taught me all about how not to be a total pussy." With that, she heaved the wrecked vehicle over, crying out at the effort as she flipped it end-over-end onto the stairs with Harrow under it. It was one more thing the demon never saw coming; his eyes went wide just before he found himself crushed under the vehicle.

"Really is a waste of fuckin' time fightin' you here, though," Rachel spat. She snatched up her sword again, vaulted up onto the ruined banister of the staircase and then onto the steps above the landing to hustle after Alex and the witches.

She didn't linger to see Harrow's hands reach out from under the vehicle as he fought to claw himself out again.