Crimson Eyes

by L. L. McNeil

  Seila had to admit, it must be useful to have Familiars. Especially ones who could see things you couldn’t.

  ‘Where’s Delgo? Isn’t he coming to help?’ Seila asked.

  ‘Back at Caramond House,’ Fallow explained. ‘No doubt he’s already talking to the police, letting them know we have the situation under control. They’ll clear the area for us.’

  Seila really didn’t think it seemed under control, but she didn’t argue. ‘We’ll take the Elite by stealth, then, if not by force. Most demons don’t stand a chance if you get the jump on them.’

  She kept her attention on their surroundings lest the demon tried a sneak attack. When she glimpsed Fallow, Seila couldn’t help but notice how frail the Enchantress looked. She was a tall, slender woman, yes. But in the rain, having given up a chunk of her energy, it looked like she might topple over at any point.

  Seila was about to open her mouth and say something when the tell-tale growl of Tej’s car approached. Headlights lit the road as the Mustang drove up it.

  Damon stepped away from the tree and waved his hands, signalling. The car slowed and pulled up alongside the path.

  Tej cut the engine, he and Amber got out of the car and hurried over to them.

  Amber immediately hugged Damon. ‘You were right. You were right about needing the crossbow!’

  ‘I was?’ Damon asked, holding Amber at arms length.

  Sure enough, Tej held the crossbow at his side.

  ‘Were you attacked, too?’ Seila asked.

  ‘I wouldn’t say we were attacked, but there was an enormous demon sniffing around the restaurant. By the time we got out, it had gone. Think it was chased off by all the noise everyone made when they spotted it.’

  ‘I’ve never seen one like that before. It was huge!’ Amber said.

  ‘Thought ya said Prowlers hunt alone?’ Damon rounded on Seila.

  She shrugged. ‘Sometimes they hunt in pairs.’

  Damon shook his head. ‘Now ya tell us. So there’s at least two of these things wandering around Richmond right now?’

  ‘Whoever heard of a demon attacking in a city, though? Villages, maybe. Small towns every so often. But in the heart of London?’ Amber said. ‘Since when do they do that?’

  ‘It’s not attacking by itself. There’s another pulling at the strings. An Elite Demon,’ Fallow said, drawing everyone’s attention. ‘It’s summoning others to it. Now we’re in a prime position to respond, before any more come, and they kill someone.’

  ‘I am coming…’ A new voice. Another demon.

  Seila spun round at the voice to see a handful of Toxic Fangs scurrying along the kerb, darting behind cars and flicking rainwater up with every hurried step. ‘Look. More of them over there.’ She summoned her sword and pointed the tip at the demons. ‘Act before any more come?’ Seila looked at Fallow. ‘Think it’s too late for that.’

  ‘Oh no, not those things!’ Tej said.

  ‘They aren’t interested in us. They’re just following the Elite’s order,’ Fallow said.

  The demons disappeared into a street gutter and the sound of their clawed footsteps faded.

  ‘Tej, ya don’t still have that bracelet, do ya?’ Damon asked suddenly.

  Tej’s face darkened.

  ‘Show me,’ Fallow demanded, holding out her hand expectantly. There was such a commanding tone in her voice that even if Tej wanted to ignore it, Seila doubted he wouldn’t have been able. With an embarrassed glance at Amber, Tej pulled out the jewellery box from his pocket and placed it in Fallow’s hand.

  Seila noticed the top of the box had scorch marks across it. Those definitely hadn’t been there that morning when she’d first seen it. ‘Be careful,’ Seila warned, eyeing the box, her sword held at the ready.

  Fallow licked her lips and waved her hand over the top of the lid. A moment later, it popped open to reveal the same bracelet in dark silver that Seila had seen earlier. The gemstones pulsed with light. It crackled around them, flashing vividly.

  ‘I AM WAITING. COME.’

  Seila dropped to the floor. The Elite’s voice bellowed around her, sending up every goosebump, every strand of hair. She clasped her hands over her ears, squinted her eyes shut, tried to drown it out.

  Even Fallow flinched, leaping back and dropping the box with a clatter on the wet road. ‘Destroy it now!’

  Seila didn’t need telling twice. Gritting her teeth against the noise, she raised her Seiken Blade, paused to aim, and drove it into the bracelet.

  It exploded. Bits of silver and random gems flew in all directions, dark smoke curled out and into the air.

  Seila shut her eyes against the blast, felt fragments of the bracelet shatter against her skin.

  And the demonic voice disappeared, the last echoes of it fading from her mind.

  When she opened her eyes, she saw the others had covered their faces against flying debris. A chunk of silver had fallen to the floor by her feet. It lost its lustre, fading from silver to black, and then into dust. It disintegrated in the rain, and disappeared.

  ‘I told you it was demonic,’ Seila said, her voice cold. She wanted to hunt down the Prowlers. Hunt down the Elite. It had to be incredibly powerful to create something like that. Power that she could use.

  ‘What was that!’ Damon gasped.

  Rage flashed in Fallow’s eyes. ‘There’s nothing to stop this Elite creating more jewellery like that bracelet. Summoning more and more Lesser demons to him. We have to put a stop to the Elite before it does.’ She faced Seila. ‘Now the voice has gone, can you hear the other demons? The Prowlers? The Stingers? Anything else that was making its way to the Elite?’

  Seila turned her face away from them and listened. London was too noisy for her to pick out much, but she could detect the faintest trace of the Prowler she’d attacked. It would have to be enough. ‘I can track the Prowler.’

  ‘Good. It’ll be our only lead.’ Fallow had shifted from kindly Enchantress to Kouzlo Leader in the space of a few heartbeats. ‘It is the Kouzlo’s job to protect humanity and this dimension from demons. With the bracelet gone, the Elite’s summons have been stopped. For now. We have an opportunity to track it down and put a stop to it before more demons rally to his side. I will help secure the area. We can’t have innocent bystanders accidentally walking into its claws.’

  Seila frowned. Considering Tej had bought the bracelet from a shop, there was no telling how many other bracelets or bits of jewellery were currently in and around London.

  And besides, she wanted to hunt down the Prowler because it was powerful. She could find it within minutes. Damon, Tej, and Amber would only slow her down.

  ‘Don’t you want one of us to come with you?’ Damon asked, voice full of concern.

  Fallow shook her head. ‘It’s my job to keep this city safe. It’s my territory. These are my people. And if there are two Prowlers lurking near the Elite, you’ll all be needed to take them down.’

  Seila agreed with the sentiment, but wasn’t entirely convinced Fallow could even walk down the street without toppling over..

  Tej looked at Amber, his eyes red with emotion. ‘Sorry, Amber. I didn’t know—’

  ‘It’s fine. How were you supposed to know? It isn’t like we’ve encountered anything like this before, is it? But now we can stop it. We have a chance.’

  ‘Damon?’ Tej asked. ‘Are you coming, too?’

  Damon sighed, hands flopping to his sides. ‘We can’t get away from it, can we? Who we are?’

  ‘I’m afraid not. Until we rid ourselves of every demon that walks this plane, they will always be a threat,’ Fallow said. ‘I’ll send Sierra with you as an extra pair of eyes. Soto, let’s go.’ She wheeled around, her skirts dirtied by the rainwater and grime, but she seemed unaffected. A shadow at her heels, Soto followed with another meow.

  ‘It’s heading north,’ Seila said. The smell of the demon’s blood was unmistakable, now she knew which direction to search. If they had just a little mor
e moonlight, she’d be able to see the blood glistening on the path.

  ‘What’s north?’ Amber said.

  ‘Kew Gardens. Lots of open space there for demons to roam around in. Perfect for a small army to gather, if that’s why the Elite has been summoning more demons to him,’ Tej said.

  ‘They’ve been closed for refurbishment for a couple of weeks now,’ Amber said. ‘Is that where they’ve all been going? How come no-one’s noticed?’

  Seila took to the air with a powerful beat of her wings, uninterested with the specifics of how things came to be. All she cared about was what was happening right now, and what she needed to do about it. ‘I can’t have it escape, I might lose the trail. We’re wasting time.’

  ‘Wait!’ Damon called, but Seila had already flown away.

  12

  Seila had never been to Kew Gardens before, but considering Tej had said there was plenty of open space to the north of their location, she didn’t have any trouble finding it. A huge green splash in the middle of the built up city, it was easily spotted from the sky.

  She could smell the roses even from fifty feet in the air. Though their scent was powerful, it couldn’t mask the acrid stench of demon’s blood.

  Landing on the edge of the rose beds, Seila drew her sword and looked around. In the darkness, shrubbery and flowers blowing in the wind looked like demons scrambling over one another, ready to strike. She needed to calm down. She didn’t want to be caught off guard again by the damned Prowler.

  She walked among the flowers, following her nose, her gaze darting left and right, constantly on high alert. It didn’t take her long to see the sticky tar-like blood darkening a few rose petals. Seila extended her fingers to touch it. ‘Still warm.’

  The Prowler must have passed through here only a few minutes earlier. She kept low, following both the sight and smell of demon’s blood. Had it collapsed somewhere? Was it lying injured among the shrubbery?

  The enormous glass Palm House loomed to her right, throwing peculiar shadows across the flowers. Rain, blood, and darkness mingled, and Seila measured each step before she took it. She didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. For such a large place, the Gardens were incredibly quiet and still. She couldn’t even hear the crickets chirping as she passed by.

  She followed the blood to the edge of the roses and paused a short way in front of a large skip and a pile of rubble and concrete. It had been haphazardly taped off, the fluorescent yellow and black stripes bright in the darkness. Construction tools and waste leftover from the renovations, no doubt. Plenty of places for a demon to hide—even one as large as a Prowler.

  She wondered whether the Elite had chanced upon a closed Kew Gardens or had been waiting for the opportunity to move in. If it was sophisticated enough to create jewellery, hide a Leech inside, and summon Lesser Demons to it, perhaps it was also able to engineer the perfect conditions for his demons to move in.

  Wrinkling her nose, Seila approached the building site.

  ‘Feed!’ The demon’s excitement at the thought of a meal gave away its attack.

  Seila leapt into the air, narrowly missing the Prowler’s extended claws. She slashed with her sword, but the demon had already landed, and her blade missed by several inches.

  It was smaller than the Prowler from the theatre, and this one had no blood on it at all. Damn them hunting in pairs.

  She kept one eye out for its partner, but hoped if it was the same one that she’d injured at the theatre, it would be less likely to try and attack her, even with a second Prowler helping it.

  The demon lunged again, leaping straight up towards her. She flapped her wings to avoid the attack, the demon’s jaws snapping shut on thin air. It landed heavily, snarled, and stalked Seila from the ground.

  She found its presence unnerving. It didn’t have eyes that she could watch, didn’t speak very often like Leeches and Stingers did. This was a pure predator, built of muscle, sinew, and claws.

  It lived to stalk and slay humans,

  Seila dived suddenly, hoping to catch the demon off guard. But the noise of her wings must have given away her attack, as the demon darted to the left, avoiding her blade again and again. It lashed out at her with claws and tail, hoping to knock her from the sky, but Fallow’s energy had rejuvenated Seila. She knew its tricks, and knew how to keep herself out of danger.

  And she did not want to be on the receiving end of its claws again. Fallow wasn’t around this time to heal any other wounds she received by being overconfident or stupid.

  She whirled around, diving and swooping, keeping just out of range and lashing forward with her Sieken Blade whenever she spotted an opening. The smaller Prowler was faster than the one in the theatre had been, and its growl rumbled deep in its chest. It struck aggressively, trying to knock Seila out of the air just as much as it tried to rip her open.

  Her sword skimmed off the demon’s hide time and time again. Every strike deflected.

  Seila scowled. She just needed to get a couple of good, strong hits and then it’d be hers. All she had to do was keep wearing it down. Then she’d have a real boost of power.

  She twisted around for another slash when a sudden attack came out of nowhere.

  The second Prowler caught Seila’s right foot with the tip of its claw, and sliced through her boot like it was made of butter. She brought her sword down on its nose and it let go with an angry snarl.

  Ambush thwarted, both Prowlers stood together, their heads lifted to where Seila hovered, their nostrils flaring as they scented the air and kept their attention on her. Her toes throbbed where they’d been caught, but they were all intact. Thank goodness.

  She had the advantage, now. They weren’t going to get away from her.

  Seila moved to the left as quietly as she could, trying not to give away her position. But the Prowlers were too used to hunting without vision, and the rain was beginning to let up. They followed her movements, turning their bodies so she could never get behind them—or even to their sides.

  There was nothing for it, then. With a flourish of strength, Seila dive-bombed the two demons, sword held at her side. When she was almost upon them, she careened off to the left, dragging the Sieken Blade along the hide of the nearest Prowler. She immediately smelled its blood, and wheeled around for another strike.

  The uninjured demon lunged at her, meeting Seila’s attack head on, swiping with outstretched talons. Seila dodged them, but the Prowler crashed into her, chest-first. She gasped from the impact and brought her sword up against it, shoving it away and digging the tip into the demon’s side.

  Both split apart, Seila to the air, and the Prowler to its companion.

  The injured Prowler growled, blood oozing from its side and onto the grass below, sending up columns of steam.

  Good. She had at least one of them on the run.

  ‘Flee.’

  Seila smiled.

  The injured demon turned away from her and charged off, heading towards the construction site. It kicked up dust, grass, and plants in its haste to get away. She flew after it as quickly as she could, closing the distance between them in just a few powerful wing beats.

  But before she could deliver the final blow, it disappeared into the darkness of a tunnel well-hidden below a sack of bricks. Seila pulled up abruptly and cursed, landing on the ground in front of the opening, careful not to put too much weight on her right foot. She’d lost the chance to give herself an edge.

  Her shout echoed back to her, reverberating from the tunnel below.

  Nothing to be done for it now without more risk.

  Seila whirled around, sword up, but the second Prowler had vanished, and she couldn’t see anything in the darkness. The rain had stopped now, barely a light drizzle.

  She clenched her fists, annoyed that she’d let them both slip through her grasp.

  But now she’d discovered the entrance to the Elite Demon’s lair. Her next challenge was only steps away.

  13

&nb
sp; Now the gardens appeared empty of demons, Seila approached the construction site. Her slow steps were part limp, part caution. She could only see part of the tunnel’s mouth hidden amongst the tools and debris, but the Prowler couldn’t have disappeared into thin air. The tunnel had to be far wider than it appeared.

  ‘Seila!’ It was Damon.

  Seila rose into the air to face the approaching footsteps. She could just about make three figures running through the flower gardens towards her, their arms raised. Scowling at how silly they were, she flew over to them. ‘Hush. There are demons hunting here.’

  ‘Nice to see you as well,’ Damon said, hands on hips as he panted. ‘Why d’you go off like that for? That’s the second time you’ve left me behind! We had to scale the bloody walls to get in!’

  Seila didn’t see any issue with that. ‘I was hunting. I told you.’

  He paused to catch his breath. ‘If it weren’t for Sierra, we’d never have found you!’

  Seila glanced upwards, but she couldn’t see the white owl anywhere. Damned Enchantress and her Familiars. Couldn’t she do anything alone anymore?

  ‘Fallow said it was an Elite Demon. Don’t you think we’d stand a better chance if we were together?’ Amber asked. ‘Especially after what happened with you and the Prowler at the theatre!’

  Despite the pain in her foot, Seila didn’t think so. ‘I thought you weren’t interested in fighting demons.’

  ‘I’m not. But I can’t sit by while my friends race off into danger. I can see what that Prowler did to you!’ Amber pointed at the half dozen cuts and bruises dotted around Seila’s arms.

  Before Seila could argue, Tej slunk his rucksack off his shoulder and unzipped it. ‘Here. Take these.’ He pulled out several walkie talkies, switched them on, and handed them out. ‘They have a twenty mile range, so we can keep in contact if you fly off again.’

  Seila didn’t want to take it, but Tej gave her no choice.

  He thrust it into her hand. ‘Clip it to your belt if you don’t wanna carry it. Just press here to talk. We’ll hear you.’ He demonstrated it twice for her. ‘I did a stupid thing before. With that bracelet. Don’t you go off and do something stupid now. Let me help you take this thing down. I’ve killed demons before. Protected myself, my shop.’