Torn From the Shadows (23 page)

“So it’s not always killing you get hired for?”

“Nah, that’s minimal, actually.” She paused, raising her index finger in the air. “Do you hear that?”

“Are you talking about the sound of rats moving about? Yeah, I can hear it and it’s making my skin crawl.” I’d been trying really hard not to concentrate on the pitter-patter of their feet or the constant squeaking.

“Ah, it’s gone. Let’s keep moving.”

“How much deeper do we need to go?” I peered over my shoulder and noticed the large circular opening we’d entered through was now a tiny dot in the distance.

“Not much.” She sighed. “Anyway, you haven’t told me about what happened yet.”

I had a lot to tell her but decided to leave out the whole Michael-and-Papan thing, and focus on the Gareth problem instead. Now that I was certain about what was happening to him, his erratic and forceful behavior made sense. It also meant Lavie would probably be able to help with what I wanted to do.

“You know my friend Gareth, right?”

She nodded. “Cute cop who doesn’t take instructions well?”

“That’s the one.”

“What about him?”

“He’s been acting stranger than usual lately.”

“What do you mean? Oh, watch your step.”

I looked down and almost threw up at the sight of the dead rat floating past us with its tiny paws and feet up in the air. “That’s disgusting,” I muttered. If I concentrated on talking, maybe I wouldn’t focus on where we were. Why did I agree to go demon hunting with her? “He’s been saying and doing things that make me uncomfortable. I didn’t think anything of it, but today he actually came on to me.”

She stopped abruptly, splashing water on the hem of her dress and on my boots as she turned to face me. “Really? What did you do? Does Jason know?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want him to know because I took care of it.” Besides, in his own way Papan had already tried to set Gareth straight and instead wound up making the demon angry.

“So you told him you’re happy with your boyfriend and he apologized?”

“Right—that kind of shit only happens in the movies.”

“You’re so cynical.”

“Lavie, I stabbed him.”

“What?” Her eyes were wide and twinkling. “Why?”

I took a deep breath and regretted it instantly. It smelled like someone had died in here, and as I glanced at another passing rat corpse I realized
something
had. “I had no choice, he’s possessed.”

“Tell me more.” She adjusted the headlamp so it wasn’t pointed directly into my eyes.

“For the last month or so, Gareth has been hinting at having feelings for me and I’ve been telling him to back off in the nicest possible way. He seemed to take it well because he knows how I feel about Papan—”

“Not to mention that Jason will kick his ass if he finds out.”

“He already hit him, so I don’t want things to escalate. Not now that I know what’s really going on.”

“Is this where the possessed thing comes into it?”

“Yes. I need your help exorcising a demon from Gareth. But before you ask anything else, let me tell you something.” I paused, trying to get my thoughts straight. “This morning I woke up from a sex dream featuring Gareth. I felt strange about it but figured a dream’s a dream, right? But as it turns out, it’s not. When he cornered me, he told me he’d shared the dream with me, that he somehow seduced me into it. And that’s not the worst part.”

“What’s the worst part?”

“I’m pretty sure the demon that possessed Jonathan is now inside him.”

“He should’ve listened to me! I told him not to break the chain.” Lavie looked livid. “Are you sure?”

“He pretty much told me Gareth fits better than Jonathan.”

“This is bad, Sierra.”

“You’re telling me.”

Lavie opened her mouth to respond but something leaped out of the darkness and sent both of us sprawling. I landed on my butt in a puddle of water which soaked right through my jeans, the cold shocking me into action. I rushed to my booted feet, splashing water everywhere.

I squinted into the dark and found Lavie flat on the wet ground.

“Lavie!”

Something resembling a wombat sat on her chest. I stepped closer, calling her name again. The demented thing turned its flat snout in my direction, snapping three lines of sharp teeth at me. Highlighter-yellow eyes above the nose holes pierced into mine, and its leathery skin convulsed with each movement.

Nope, that’s no wombat.

With strength I didn’t know she had, Lavie shoved the thing off her chest, propelling it against the wall. The impact chipped several bricks before the creature slid down with both eyes shut.

I exhaled, leaning on my thighs to catch my breath when a group of them emerged from the water, slamming into us.

“What the hell?” I stumbled a few steps, trying to yank the cretins off my ponytail so they couldn’t use it as a rope. “Lavie, how do we kill these things?”

“No, we don’t kill them!”

“But you just—”

“I didn’t kill her, just knocked her out.”

“What are these things?”

“Sentry demons. They’re female guards for something a lot bigger.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Trust me, it’s not,” she said, plucking one off the top of her head and slamming it against the wet ground. “But it means we’re close to the imps.”

“What do you mean?”

“I forgot to mention that most imps are taken as slaves by reptilian demons called swami. This part of the storm-drain is their territory.” She grabbed another sentry demon, flinging it into the dark. “I didn’t realize we’d crossed into their turf yet. These paths are like mazes sometimes, though I was a little distracted…”

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“No way, not when we’re so close,” she said, breathing heavy. The backpack was still strapped around her shoulders and not a single one of those things was left on her.

I yanked one out of my hair and swiped the last one from my back. “Tell me how we can bag these imps, then.”

“Give me a sec.” Lavie stepped over the fallen creatures and moved until she hit a juncture. Even from where I stood I could see it led in two different directions. “I can smell them, they’re this way.”

I stalked up behind her, grabbed her arm before she could duck into the darkness. “Wait. What if we run into the bigger demons you mentioned?”

She shrugged. “I can take care of them. I’ve been meaning to rid the area of those bastards but could never get my bearings right. This is the first time the sentry have struck, which gives away their location. It looks like we’re going to bag us a little extra cash on this job.”

“
We?
I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Sure, you do. And if in doubt, pull us into your dark patch.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

A loud and sickening screech echoed out from the path on the right.

Her eyes glinted with a murderous shine I’d never seen before. “You’ve got to stop thinking about the dark patch as a bad thing. It’s saved your life a few times, right?”

“Yeah…”

“So what’s the problem?”

The problem was that I hated using the dark patch because it reminded me of how different I was. Mace, the
Obscurus
, and now the Alliance all wanted me because of the power I would supposedly inherit, but the one I already had was freaky enough. How did stepping into the dark patch affect my humanity? Did it make it easier to accept that I’d continue to cause death in order to survive? No, I’d made the decision myself. Still…

“Sierra, are you ready?”

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll help you with these demons if you help me exorcise Gareth later.” So much for easing her into what I’d decided was our only option.

“Whoa, you want to do it today?”

“He needs our help.”

“I know, but—”

“The sooner we separate the demon from Gareth, the better.” I looked her in the eye. “Like you said, the dark patch is my safety net. If anything goes wrong, I’ll take over.”

Lavie thought about it for a few moments before finally nodding. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” She swung the backpack around to her front and rummaged inside until she found what she was looking for, which happened to be a mean-looking battle axe. “Now, let’s go kick some demonic ass!” She stormed off down the tunnel like a bullet with her weapon high above her head, dress flying around her legs, and a war cry spilling from her mouth.

I pulled my silver dagger from its boot sheath, lagging behind so I could scope out our surroundings. In case something lingered in the shadows.

We hit a clearing, much wider than the tunnels we’d been wandering. The walls were lined with a multitude of glowing eyes. It took me a second to realize they were those sentry things, watching us. Directly behind them were a group of bipedal, green scaly dudes with a single horn protruding from their foreheads, like some freaky rhinoceros.

I counted six, but the clearing opened up into several tunnels behind them.

Lavie stepped forward. “Where are they?”

The horned demons glared at her through their black orbs but didn’t respond.

“Where are the imps?” she yelled. When no one responded she added, “Looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

Lavie rushed forward, kicking her left foot in front of her and literally sending the sentry demons flying left and right like soccer balls. Some hit the walls, others landed with a splash on the other side of the chamber. She even stepped on a few.

The scaly demons didn’t respond fast enough and before they had a chance to strike, she’d already chopped off two reptilian heads.

“Take that, you swami bastards,” she cried, as she kicked the feet out from under one of them, and smacked the other with her weapon.

Weren’t there six of those things? If she kept this up, they’d soon be wiped out, but I didn’t want anything to surprise her. I started to check the dark corners, but lost my footing when something impacted with the back of my head.

It took me a few seconds to register I’d been hit. I spun around and stabbed my dagger into the demon’s neck. I wasn’t sure if I had to stab them anywhere specific, so I embedded the blade as deep as I could until it collapsed in a heap at my feet, twitching.

I yanked the dagger out and turned to look for Lavie. One of the demons had an arm wrapped securely around her waist while she kicked another in the face, sending it right in front of me. I ran up behind it and with as much force as I could summon, cut my blade along its neck, severing the head and leaving it dangling by a leathery thread. The demon fell to its knees, the head looking at me upside down, before it crumbled.

The squat demons scurried into the tunnels as their masters were being slaughtered.

I stood with dagger in hand and demonic blood all over my sweater, watching as Lavie swung the axe above her head and sliced the last demon’s head right off its shoulders. She stood over it, breathing heavy while the weapon at her side dripped blood into the water at her feet.

“Are we done?” I asked, finally regaining my breath.

Lavie’s chest was rising and falling fast. “Yeah, we’re done.”

“Where are the imps?” I looked around and couldn’t see anything else.

She pointed a finger to one of the tunnels. At least a dozen rats swam out of the dark, and sitting on their backs were some of the cutest beings I’d ever seen. They couldn’t be more than fifteen centimeters tall and looked like albino stuffed toys with big heads, huge black eyes and slim bodies.

“Are those the imps?”

Lavie nodded. “Come on, sweeties. I’ve come to offer you freedom.” She dropped to her knees, oblivious of the water as she unzipped her backpack. The imps didn’t protest or hesitate, simply jumped off the rats’ backs, patted them once and filed into her bag like lemmings. Once they were all inside, she stood, made her way towards the fallen demons and crouched near one of the heads to dislodge the protruding horn.

“What are you doing?”

“Removing their horns—”

“Yeah, I can see that…but why?”

She made her way to the next one. “These horns are worth a lot of money and have medicinal uses, as well as decorative ones.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

As she continued her hack and slash routine, I sheathed my blade and turned to look at her backpack. One of the imps was standing just below the zipper, holding the fabric above its head like a hood and staring at me. It was so cute, I couldn’t help but smile.

The imp winked at me and ducked back inside.

“There we go,” Lavie said, appearing with the six horns and her weapon bundled in her arms. She kneeled down and threw everything on the ground before shoving the wicked axe into her backpack.

“You’re not going to stick the weapon in there with them, are you?”

“It won’t hurt them. I have a bunch of compartments.” Lavie stuck the horns and headlamp inside before zipping up the bag. When she got to her feet she said, “Let’s get these imps to their new home so you can finally meet Saul.”