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liquid fire. She dropped the knife and fell to her knees. She trembled and rolled on the ground. The stench of burnt flesh burned her nostrils. Was she going to die? For good this time?
    She heard a faint cry and lifted her head. With a final ingestion, the creature sucked up the rest of Tom’s life form until he was no more. Tom the rookie had vanished.
    Kara stared in disbelief, unable to move. The demon threw back its head and released a revolting moan. It shuddered in ecstasy. It turned its misshapen head turned her way. Its eyes grew wide and flashed with white-hot energy. Its body shivered, twisted and cracked, as its severed leg grew back. The face of her nightmares grinned hungrily at her with a mouth full of pointed teeth.
    With the will of life still strong in her, she struggled to her feet and staggered into kitchen. But something hit her in the back. She fell hard, and her vision blurred with the burning pain.
    I’m on fire! She rolled on the ground. She was covered in the demon’s acid blood.
    She felt her M suit melt away, like ice-cream on a hot summer day. She wasn’t going to make it. Black vapors rolled off of her mortal body as her M suit’s skin melted like wax. She watched in horror as clumps of her human flesh roll off and exposed the bright luminance beneath. Whatever new demon this was, Kara knew she was no match for it. If only she could use her elemental power somehow? But she still didn’t know how it worked. And she didn’t think she had enough strength to summon it.
    She shut her mind from the rest of the world and searched around inside her. She willed the power to come. A tiny spec of warmth lingered in her soul, like a small ball of light. She reached out to it, but it didn’t come. It wasn’t answering her call.
    Desperate to escape the pain, she wanted the darkness to take her. She couldn’t bare it anymore.
    She was dying—yet again.
    The demon twitched and moved towards her, a sickening smell oozed from it. Kara’s eyelids grew heavy. Her body crumbled to the floor. If only the pain would stop. Blackness crawled at the edge of her vision. She felt herself letting go—
    Kara … said the voices inside her head, Kara … don’t give up!
    It was like listening to a radio far away, where the sounds were scratchy and hard to hear. The same voices who had given her the strength to vanquish Asmodeus, were only a memory now. What energy she had left she used it to open her eyes. She would stare death in the face, she decided.
    Like a fly cleaning its front legs after a meal, the demon clicked its forelegs together in anticipation. Hunger flashed in its lifeless eyes.
    The creature opened its unnaturally elongated jaw. It spit. Long black tendrils hit Kara. She felt her body lift in the air and spin. She could feel thick sticky strands wrap themselves around her. She felt her limbs press against her body. The creature was packaging her in a cocoon. The spinning stopped and the creature grabbed her by her feet. It dragged her like a body bag down the hall.
    She felt another sharp pain at her side, and she was thrown against a wall.
    The demon wailed a sound that was primal, of something that had been human long ago. Then blinding white light engulfed the demon. It dissipated and through squinted eyes Kara recognized David.
    He and two other GAs rushed through the damaged doorway. They stabbed and sliced the demon with gleaming silver swords. Black liquid sprayed the walls. The taller of the angels sliced off one of the demon’s legs. But with incredible speed the demon lunged at him and knocked his sword out of his hand. In the next second, it opened its mouth and sprayed him with its acid-like puss.
    David’s companion screamed and desperately tried to wipe it off. But it was no use. His entire body dripped in the demon’s blood. A moment later he fell over like a bowling pin and was still.
    The demon whirled around and locked eyes with Kara. It made its way towards her.
    “Over