text: Sister Mariam's sword fell in an arc of silver, severing the black, spindly Demon as it crawled over the corpse of its fallen brethren. The stairs were choked with their corpses. They led down into the University Bookstore's basement where the Hellgate had been opened, vomiting out the Demons. She would buy Rochelle and the rest the time they needed to escape and save Sophia.
  
  Death rushed up the stairs for her, and she faced it with all the strength of her conviction. This was her Gethsemane, and she would not flee the coming soldiers and her own sacrifice for the world.
  
  "Feast! Fuck!" chittered the vile Demons as they clawed over their fallen, lust shining in their red, yellow, or black eyes.
  
  She cut another one down, trying to ignore the burning fatigue in her limbs. Another slash, another dead Demon. There seemed no end to them. A limb severed, a headed parted, a body maimed. Her sword was a blur. Sweat trickled down her dark face.
  
  "He is my refuge and my fortress!" she recited.
  
  Slash. Another dead Demon.
  
  "In whom I trust!"
  
  Slash.
  
  "He won't save you," a woman purred.
  
  Daevia mounted the stairs, a chain of black in her hand, black feathered wings spread out behind her, cruel delight burning in her blood-red eyes.