text: Bill swung with a heedless rage. He was not going to let this fucking Demon touch any of his wives. He would see her dead a thousand times over. His sword seemed to hum, vibrating to him, feeding on his sudden, desperate fear for the women he loved, and it guided him, whispered suggestions on how to parry, slice, dodge, slash, riposte, and deflect.
  
  The sword was love.
  
  It had been birthed out of the horror Cynthia felt when she had been forced to stab him yesterday, and it had grown more powerful when Bill had dived into Hell to rescue that same woman. Reciprocation. The more he loved Cynthia, the more she loved him, the greater the power of the sword.
  
  "You will not touch a hair on any of their heads!" he roared, battering her chain out of the air every time she swung at him, then he lunged in for the kill.
  
  But the Succuba was nimble, leaping and jumping, using her wings to propel her in one direction or the other faster than Bill could move. She dodged his next attack, launching herself into the air and flipping over his head, landing gracefully behind him.
  
  He turned, too slow.
  
  Black chain lashed out at him.
  
  Sophia was there, trailing white feathers like a comet trailed dust, her flaming sword held thrust out in front of her, straight for the Succuba's back. Daevia, sensing her peril, flicked her wrists, changing the arc of her chain's attack, the black metal snapping back at the Seraph. White wings flared, halting Sophia's momentum as the chain slammed into the gravel parking lot just inches before Sophia's feet.
  
  "You'll pay for every last harm you did to Cynthia!" Bill roared, slashing as he turned.
  
  Daevia flapped her wings, using the force to propel her out of Bill's swing and right into the deadly arc of Sophia's flaming sword. Daevia snapped her chain up, tangling around the Seraph's blade, knocking it to the side and saving her head from being parted from her body.
  
  "I will see you are punished for every human you degraded," Sophia declared in righteous anger, her sword glazing white hot. The chain tangled around it began to glow.
  
  "How?" Daevia gaped as her weapon began to be consumed by the Seraph's blade. "You can't have this much power."
  
  "I love all mankind," Sophia answered.
  
  The Demon jerked her chain back, flinching as the flames on Sophia's sword grew hotter and hotter.
  
  "You forced a mortal into acts of degradation, lust, and murder to satisfy your petty desires. You abused them, hurt them, castigated them. I am their champion." Her sword burned like the sun, warming Bill's skin. "I will fight for those that you enslaved with lust and set them free with love!"
  
  For a moment, Bill saw a pair of figures standing beside Sophia, a man and woman, arms wrapped around each other, staring at Daevia with anger. They were hard to make out beneath the sword's glare, but the man seemed almost familiar to him.
  
  The sun rose, appearing gold above the church.
  
  "Dawn!" Daevia grinned in triumph.
  
  Rochelle's warning tumbled in his head. We didn't kill her fast enough. The plan had been a gamble. They had wanted to catch Daevia when she would be the most surprised — the moment the shield collapsed right when she would think her victory was assured. They had hoped it was catch her off-guard, maybe even rattle her.
  
  But the plan didn't leave them long to kill her before dawn.
  
  "Night has died!" cackled the Succuba, her black wings spreading out wide. "Change has come to this world! Twilight is upon us. Death marches here. I call upon those that have died! Gather and live again. Let a Nephilim once more walk the earth."
  
  A great wail issued from the corpses of the Lemures piled around the parking lot. They had been felled in the hundreds by Cynthia, Hikaru, and their bodyguards. The corpses slid across the ground, tumbling and sliding, drawn by some unseen force.
  
  "Monstrous!" Sophia screamed and swung at Daevia, but the Succuba seemed to have found a renewed strength, empowered by the death of Night.
  
  The corpses whirled about, merging into a blob that grew more massive as more and more Lemures corpses were drawn together. Bill gaped in astonishment as a body grew, a torso standing on legs thicker than a tree trunk, rising higher and higher up, until it towered twenty feet above them. Arms formed, as thick as the legs, ending in fists the size of boulders.
  
  "Slay my enemies, Nephilim!" laughed Daevia.