The rooster blood struck the place Quinn indicated, and a thin cloud of black smoke immediately hissed into existence around Ozhin’s body.
There were no violent sparks like those produced by the salt or crucifix, but the reaction proved the blood wasn’t completely useless either.
Quinn watched the demon recoil only slightly before settling again, as though the attack had irritated it far more than it had actually hurt.
If Ozhin had been capable of making normal human expressions, Darius suspected it would have been laughing at him.
Unfortunately, the demon also seemed to learn something from the exchange.
Since the first salt barrier had fallen to water, there was no reason it couldn’t destroy the second one the same way.
Ozhin lifted both arms and made a violent pulling motion through the air.
Almost immediately, Darius and Quinn heard pipes rupture somewhere deeper inside the house, followed by the unmistakable roar of water spraying across tile.
The bathroom had gone first, and seconds later another burst from the direction of the kitchen confirmed the demon’s intentions.
If enough water flooded the living room, the remaining salt ward would either dissolve or become useless.
Ozhin didn’t even need to attack Quinn directly; it could simply wash away everything keeping it outside.
Darius tightened his grip around the container of rooster blood and forced himself to think faster.
Salt worked.
Rooster blood had some effect.
The crucifix definitely worked.
And while the plastic wrap had absolutely no exorcism value, it was waterproof.
Darius’s eyes lit up.
“I’ve got another idea.” Quinn looked at him immediately.
“What?” “Cover yourself.” She stared blankly.
Darius spoke quickly.
“Use the rooster blood on your exposed skin, put glue over your clothes, then stick salt to the glue.
After that, wrap as much of yourself as possible with the plastic without restricting your movement.” Quinn clearly wanted to ask whether he’d finally lost his mind, but the sound of water rushing closer reminded her that they had no time for arguments.
Every ridiculous idea Darius had tried so far had at least been based on something they’d already confirmed.
She took a breath, grabbed what he handed her, and started.
The rooster blood was easily the worst part.
Quinn grimaced as the sticky liquid smeared across her face and hands, the metallic smell making her stomach twist whenever it came too close to her mouth.
Darius did the same while repeatedly reminding her to keep moving, and within minutes both of them looked more like survivors of a slaughterhouse than people preparing an exorcism.
Next came the glue, spread across their shirts and pants in enough places for the salt to cling instead of falling immediately to the floor.
By the time they were done with that stage, even a fly landing on either of them probably would have regretted the decision.
“Salt next.” Darius kept one of the remaining bags and handed the others to Quinn.
She tore one open and poured it over her shoulders and clothing, rubbing the grains into every section covered with adhesive.
Darius copied her, leaving both of them streaked with white crystals over dark, blood-smeared clothes.
The effect was so bizarre that if the lights had been working normally, they probably would have stopped and stared at each other in disbelief.
Instead, neither had the luxury of caring how ridiculous they looked.
Only one step remained.
Darius pulled out the plastic wrap.
“Wrap your torso, arms, and anywhere else you can without making it hard to move.” Quinn finally understood.
The wrap wasn’t meant to repel Ozhin.
It was meant to keep the salt from being washed away.
They quickly wound the plastic around themselves, sealing much of the salt-covered clothing beneath a thin waterproof layer.
Their faces remained smeared with rooster blood while crosses, salt, and other protective items rested beneath or above the improvised covering.
The finished result looked completely insane, but Darius had long since stopped caring about appearances.
If this worked, it worked.
Quinn looked down at herself, then back at him.
“So what now?
We run?” Darius smiled.
“No.” He tightened the cross around his hand.
“We stop defending.” Quinn stared at him.
Darius had learned enough from the previous confrontations to understand Ozhin’s limitations.
The demon could manipulate perception, move objects, interfere with electronics, and appear or disappear almost instantly, which made it terrifying under normal circumstances.
At the same time, salt harmed it, crucifixes and prayer could drive it back, rooster blood at least caused a reaction, and the curse itself restricted how freely Ozhin could kill unrelated people.
Their defensive strategy had worked, but the house was now flooding and the remaining ward couldn’t last forever.
Waiting passively meant eventually losing.
Darius looked toward the water beginning to creep from the hallway.
“The barrier isn’t going to survive this indefinitely.
Once the living room floods, the salt on the floor is finished.” He tapped the plastic wrapped around his body.
“So instead of protecting the battlefield, we turn ourselves into the protection.
Salt, blood, crosses, waterproof covering—everything that affected it gets carried with us.” Whether that combination could seriously injure Ozhin remained uncertain, but it should at least make physical contact unpleasant enough to force the demon away.
Quinn finally understood what he meant.
“You’re going to charge it.” “Exactly.” “You can’t even see it.” “That’s where you come in.” Quinn immediately shook her head.
“Then let me do it.
I can see where it is.” “No.” “Darius—” “You’re the target.” He pointed toward Jordan, still sleeping on the sofa inside the protected area.
“You stay with her and tell me where Ozhin moves.
If it catches you outside the ward, everything we’ve done becomes pointless.” Quinn hesitated, clearly unhappy with the idea.
Darius continued before she could argue.
“It can mess with your head far more easily than mine.
I don’t have Countdown, so its hallucinations haven’t affected me the same way.
You give me directions, and I’ll handle the charging.” After several seconds, Quinn reluctantly nodded.
She removed her crucifix and handed it over, leaving herself with the other protective items and Jordan’s cross nearby.
Darius wrapped the second crucifix securely around his hand and stepped toward the edge of the salt symbol.
Ozhin watched from beyond the ward without trying to stop their preparations, largely because it still couldn’t cross the boundary to interfere directly.
Instead, the demon kept manipulating the broken plumbing, making the water spread faster across the house.
Darius looked at Quinn.
“Where is it?” She focused into the darkness.
“Left side.
Near the corner.” Darius took a deep breath.
Then charged.
Ozhin vanished before he reached it.
Quinn immediately shouted, “Behind you!
Six o’clock!” Darius spun around and lunged again.
The demon disappeared.
“Eleven o’clock!” He changed direction.
“Now eight!” Darius turned again.
“Five o’clock!” For several minutes, the living room turned into one of the strangest battles imaginable.
Quinn stood beside Jordan calling directions while Darius repeatedly charged at an enemy he couldn’t see, trusting her voice to tell him when and where to turn.
Ozhin kept blinking from one location to another, refusing to let the salt-covered human wrapped in plastic make contact.
Anyone watching from outside would have assumed Darius had completely lost his mind.
He didn’t care.
The strategy was working.
Darius’s breathing grew heavier after several minutes of sprinting and turning, but the water flow had noticeably weakened.
Ozhin couldn’t concentrate on manipulating the plumbing while constantly relocating to avoid him.
Every second the demon spent dodging was another second Quinn remained alive, and that was all Darius needed.
He wasn’t trying to win some glorious supernatural duel.
He was buying time.
Unfortunately, Ozhin eventually realized that too.
After dodging another charge, the demon stopped trying to outrun him.
A violent invisible force suddenly struck Darius from the side.
His feet left the floor.
“Darius!” He slammed hard into the wall with a heavy bang, pain exploding through his shoulder and back.
For a moment, his vision blurred badly enough that he nearly blacked out, and he had to brace one hand against the floor to keep from collapsing completely.
Ozhin might have been restricted from outright murdering someone unrelated to its countdown, but that didn’t mean it had to tolerate interference.
Apparently, won’t kill you and won’t beat you senseless were two very different rules.
Quinn tightened her arms around Jordan and stared toward the demon in horror.
“It’s coming toward us!” Darius forced himself upright despite the pain.
Ozhin turned away from him and stretched one hand toward Quinn.
An invisible force swept across the living room.
Nothing happened.
Quinn remained exactly where she was.
The inner ward absorbed the attack like an unseen wall, preventing Ozhin’s power from reaching her directly while she stayed inside the protected symbol.
The demon tried again, but the result was the same.
It could flood the room, manipulate objects outside the barrier, and assault Darius once he stepped beyond it, yet the protected space still neutralized its direct influence.
Darius wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and slowly stood.
That was enough information.
The ward still worked.
Quinn was still safe.
And Ozhin had finally been forced to fight him directly.
Darius tightened both crucifixes around his hands and stared toward the place Quinn was watching.
“Good.” A grin slowly appeared on his face.
“If you want her, you’re going through me first.” (End of Chapter) [Milestone: [Milestone: 10 Reviews = +1 Chapter] Enjoyed this chapter?