The figure ran right out into traffic and they almost instantly heard horns and squealing brakes up ahead of them even as they watched the action on the camera. The Helbourne ran right up to a braking tanker truck, jumped onto the driver’s side step, and ripped the truck door open with a single yank of one thin arm. “Hey—” was all the driver had time to say before a fist smashed into his jaw with enough force to visibly knock his lower mandible out of alignment.

The demon attempted to unbuckle the instantly unconscious man, but the camera view got real close, filling the frame with the red plaid shirt of the demon, as the drone shot forward and hit it at least as hard if not harder than it had hit the driver.

Justin heard the car door open, looking up in time to just catch the barest glimpse of Chris jumping out of the vehicle and running flat-out for the action. Following as fast as he could, which was just behind Awasos, he arrived at the stopped tanker in time to see the Hammer of God yank the demon person out of the truck and throw him twenty feet like a rag doll.

The Helbourne jumped to its feet just as Chris blurred to a stop in front of it, the Hammer of God grabbing it and proceeding to hold it in both arms off the ground as if it was a hollow plastic mannequin. The demon-ridden started to shake and buck like fifty thousand volts was running through it, and then a black crud came bubbling out of its mouth and nose, pooling up around Chris Gordon’s left hand. A second later, he dropped the limp body and held the black-coated hand over his head.

Something popped into existence, the noise of its entry almost like that of a big bubble bursting. Giant wings flapped as the smoky form of a gargantuan eagle or hawk descended, plucking the putrid excrescence from Gordon’s upraised hand, flapping hard twice before disappearing with another audible pop.

“One down,” Chris said, turning to Justin. A loud scream back up toward the campus and another sharp squeal of brakes snapped both of their heads around to look. Justin noted that the second black SUV with Nika and her crew was missing.

“They could use your assistance back up in front of the Billings Library, Chris,” Omega said through the speakers of the five closest cars simultaneously. But Chris was already gone, disappearing in a pop of air.

Chapter 30

The center of the chaos was a cluster of students outside the front of one of the older buildings set almost diagonally from the Waterman building where this had all started.