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smother the flames, they’d still have to chip through all of the coagulated material left behind. The autopsy suite was an isolated, windowless room underground—no other points of entry besides that door.
    We still had the power beneath us. Granted, if I channeled too much of it, I’d deep-fry myself. But as long as I was careful, I could keep borrowing from it.
    Then something else occurred to me. Something I hadn’t thought of before.
    The equine demon had recovered its balance. It kept its eyes on the boy, who maintained his distance. I saw that the flesh around his ankles where the whip had touched them was seared black. He must have been in pain, but his expression was mechanically focused.
    I moved slowly and quietly toward Lucian. Neither of the demons was paying attention to me.
    “Hey,” I whispered. “I have an idea.”
    He looked momentarily startled to see me, as if he’d forgotten I was there. I saw beads of sweat standing on his forehead. Whatever he’d thrown at the equine demon must have drained him considerably.
    “I hope it’s a good one,” he said. “That thing’s built like a Panzer tank, and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.”
    “How many bodies are in the fridge?”
    He stared at me. “What are you talking about?”
    “The refrigeration unit at the far end of the room. It’s used to hold corpses. Is it possible for you to tell how many bodies are in there?”
    He frowned. Then his eyes narrowed for a second in concentration. I wondered how his particular senses worked. Death sonar? Or could he smell the sweet reek of decaying flesh from here?
    “Five,” he said. “It’s full. They’re all newly dead.”
    “That’s amazing. You’re like a bloodhound.”
    “What’s your point?”
    “Once, you told me that your power came from dead things—decomposing flesh, cadaverine, and compost. Theoretically, you should be able to use those dead bodies in there like batteries. Right?”
    His eyes widened. “That is possible. But drawing energy from the bodies could also consume them.”
    “They’re going to be cremated anyway. Does it really matter?”
    “It seems disrespectful.”
    “Lucian, have you noticed that we’re getting our asses kicked by something that just stepped out of another dimension? This thing has enough power to flatten all of us. The only way for us to get the upper hand is if we can stun it, even for just a few seconds. An epic blast of necroid materia might be enough to do that.”
    “I can try.”
    He stretched out his hand toward the closed door of the refrigeration unit. I felt him reaching out with his senses, like tendrils of plasma reached out from the earth during a storm, calling the lightning.
    Translucent green vapors began to flow from the steel door. The air around them turned instantly cold. I watched as the vapors swirled between Lucian’s fingertips, until his skin was rimed with frost. Cold sweat moved down his forehead as he continued to draw power, and the vapors flowed into his hand, up his arm, making his veins flare with sallow green light.
    He gritted his teeth. “This is as much as I can hold. Step back.”
    I did so.
    “Please don’t miss,” I said.
    Lucian leveled his arm. The vapors flared for a moment, like an undead star about to go nova. Then a lance of green light exploded from his outstretched palm. It screamed as it cut through the air, and the sound was chilling.
    The light tore through the equine demon’s chest, blazing out the other side and striking the wall behind it.
    The demon screamed. Blood sprayed from the glowing point of contact. It wasn’t red, since most higher-tier demons lacked the hemoglobin and iron that gave blood its rust red color. Instead, it was black, like roof tar.
    Then the light shimmered and winked out, leaving a clear hole in the demon’s sternum. Foul smoke rose from the void in its flesh, and I could literally see through it. The demon staggered. But already the vessels,