Turning away from them, my fingers rested on the cool stone as I draped my arm over my knee and scented the air once more. If we didn’t uncover all the humans soon, I’d torch these woods in order to flush them out. I may prefer not to kill them right now, but every second I wasted searching for them was another one River was out there without me.
“Do you smell them?” Bale whispered.
“Yes. This way.”
I climbed off the rock and followed the scent of the humans through the woods. Crouching low, I paused when I spotted a red shirtsleeve poking out from around the corner of an oak tree. Without having to speak, Shax slipped past me and strode forward. Having all fought together for centuries, communication wasn’t necessary to know what was expected of each other.
Shax was a few feet away from the shirt when he stopped and frowned at it. Stepping forward, he grabbed the clothing and pulled it toward him.
“Shit!” I hissed when I realized he was holding a shirt but there was no human wearing it.
The crack of a twig jerked my head around as three people slipped out of the hollow logs where they’d been hiding. Mud and dirt streaked their faces, and they were covered in leaves and branches. They were just a few feet away from us, but I could barely detect their scent as they’d covered themselves with as much of the aroma of the woods as they could.
Yes, they had definitely learned a lot from their time in the wilds.
They raised their guns and fired as one. I snarled when one of the bullets took me high in the shoulder and another tore into my gut. Pain seared hotly through my body as the humans continued to fire their weapons.
CHAPTER 19
River
I rose from my seat as Corson headed for the swinging doors with Ethel close on his heels. He tilted his head back to look at the flickering light before continuing through the doors. The other ghosts separated around me to let me pass as I walked forward.
“Could you try talking to the angels for us?” the pervy guy in the tie-dyed shirt asked me.
“Believe me, the angels don’t want to hear from me, and if they could hear me, they’d probably laugh at me,” I answered him. “I’m far from a saint, and I don’t think they’d be overly appreciative of my existence to begin with.”
They had kicked Lucifer out of Heaven in the first place. I doubted they wanted much to do with his last descendent.
“That can’t be true,” Pervy insisted.
“I’m sorry, but I have zero contact with the angel crowd.”
They’re getting what they deserve, I reminded myself. I still hated the way his face fell at my words. Most of them are anyway.
My hands left a streak on the dusty surface of the metal swinging doors when I pushed them open. They creaked but moved with relative ease as they swung inward. The stainless steel appliances within the kitchen were too covered in dust to sparkle in the overhead lights, but I could see the silver metal peeking through the grime. Corson was inspecting the fridge and appliances on the other side of the room with Ethel floating close behind him. She watched him as if she were convinced he would steal something.
I tilted my head back to look at the lights above his head as he walked. “How are the lights on?” I asked.
“Ghosts can’t do much, but they can produce a small light,” Corson replied, trailing his fingers over the corner of a cabinet. “Before the veil fell, humans sometimes caught sight of that light at night, or in your pictures. When enough ghosts are grouped together, they can produce more of that light and focus it into lightbulbs and such. Since they’re afraid of the dark, they often like things brightly lit.”
“Ghosts are afraid of the dark?” I demanded.
“They are. I guess it reminds them of those minutes or hours, or however much time it was, between when they died and their spirits rose. Is that it, Eth?”
She completely ignored his question.
“I think I’ve heard it all now,” Hawk said from behind me.
I glanced at him over my shoulder. I hadn’t heard him enter the kitchen, but he stood in the doorway with a disbelieving look on his face that likely mirrored my own.
“You don’t know what it’s like to be stuck in the in-between,” Pompadour said as he floated around Hawk. “The darkness there is absolute, unending. You wake up not knowing what is going on with you, but knowing that you died. Then, finally, you see light again and realize you are a ghost stuck in between. You wouldn’t like the dark either if you’d ever gone through it.”
I imagined the feeling of panic they experienced would be like waking up in a casket, six feet under the ground. Chilled by the thought, I rubbed at my arms as I turned away from him.
“Before everything changed for us, many ghosts would go from place to place to stay in the light without anyone ever knowing they were there. Now, we can no longer do that without being seen, and there isn’t enough electricity to always be able to stay in the light. Besides, those of us who have been here longer usually overcome our fear of the dark,” Ethel said defensively.
“That must be why you’re at this amazingly bright truck stop then,” Corson replied.
Ethel flew at him with a screech, stopping just inches short of where he stood. Corson lifted an eyebrow at her before turning away.
“It’s true!” she snapped before turning to me. “We overcome our fear after a while, or at least some of us do, but where else would we go, if not here?”
I had no answer for her. Helplessly, I lifted my hands and shrugged. I would have stayed around other ghosts too, rather than wandering off on my own. Misery loves company after all.
Pompadour hovered by my shoulder, as I moved around the kitchen. I turned to find his hazy eyes focused on me. “I can’t help you,” I said in exasperation.
“You’ve been marked,” he replied.
Corson stopped walking and turned to face us. “I told you to leave her alone.”
His gaze shot to Corson. “Not by you.”
Pompadour moved so close to me that, if he’d been human, he’d be on top of me. I took a step away only to have him crowd me once more. Yep, I disliked ghosts, or at least the pushy, annoying one staring at my neck.
“An angel marked by a demon,” Pompadour murmured.
“I’m not an angel!” I retorted.
“You look like one with your eyes.”
“How do you even know what an angel looks like?” I demanded.
“We may not be allowed to enter Heaven or Hell, but sometimes we can see through the veil, and all of the angels have your eyes.”
So I’d been told. “Leave me alone.”
“Hey, back off, man,” Hawk said. He stepped forward and tried to push Pompadour away. His arm only went straight through him, causing Hawk to shiver.
Pompadour danced away and started back toward me, but Corson came at us. His claws extended, his eyes burning with citrine fire. Corson may not be able to touch them, but Pompadour floated back a few feet from me anyway.
“I said back off of her!” Corson spat.
“You can talk to the angels, even if you’ve allowed yourself to be tainted by a demon, they’ll still answer you,” Pompadour pressed.
“I’m not tainted!” I snapped. “And the only things I talk to are in our dimension.”
I turned away from him, but he moved to float in front of me. I was pissed and tempted to punch him, but I’d look ridiculous swinging away at mist.
Before I could say anything, Corson lifted his hand, stretching his palm out. I saw only a hint of something white in his palm before he blew it at Pompadour. The ghost shot back and kept on going as Corson approached.
“Back off,” Corson growled at him.
Pompadour turned and fled back into the dining area.
“What was that?” Erin asked from the doorway. I hadn’t realized she and Vargas had walked over to stand there with the doors open. “He’s sulking over in the corner right now.”
“Salt,” Corson replied and placed a
blue container on the counter. “They don’t like that either, do you, Eth?”
She scowled at him before fleeing into the other room.
“What does it do to them?” Vargas asked.
“Stings their foggy asses. They’ll leave us be for a while, but I have a feeling they’ll be pestering you again,” he said to me. “I didn’t realize they would figure out who you are.”
“It makes sense they would know,” I muttered and glanced back toward the main room.
“Why is that?” Corson asked.
“Because, like me, they don’t fit in anywhere anymore either.”
Vargas, Hawk, and Erin exchanged confused looks. Corson rested his hand on the counter, his claws retracting while he watched me. “We should return to the front,” he said.
I started for the swinging doors but stopped when the world around me faded away and I found myself standing in the center of the parking lot staring at three demons who were watching the building.
In the glow of the building, the eyes of two of them shone red and their teeth gleamed when they pulled their lips back to reveal their mouths full of pointed, razor-sharp teeth. The third had pure black eyes, but unlike Kobal’s, his were more like a human’s eyes with the white surrounding the black iris.
The demons couldn’t see me, but I felt as if I were standing right in front of them, inspecting them closely. The two with the red eyes had pig snouts and lobster-looking claws instead of hands. Kobal had once told me that if I ever had the misfortune of encountering a lower-level demon, I would instantly know the difference between their animalistic appearance and that of the upper-level demons who had horns and tails. Staring at these two, I knew he’d been right and that these two hideous creatures were lower-level demons. Which meant they were as physically strong as a demon, but they didn’t possess abilities like many demons did.
However, the other one with them with the black eyes was breathtakingly stunning. His silvery blond hair framed features so sculpted I found myself unable to stop staring at him. Handsome and lethal, perfect and soulless. I knew it instinctively, felt it in the marrow of my bones. He would smile beautifully and laugh while he plucked limbs from bodies and absently tossed them aside.
“Ghosts,” one of the pig noses snorted.
“According to that ghost we just saw, the one we’ve been searching for is in there,” Handsome replied. “Perhaps the specters serve a purpose after all. Come.”
The vision ended with an abrupt jerk back into my body. My foot, frozen in mid-air when the vision took over, hit the ground. I tried to clear my head of the lingering images and the sense of betrayal creeping through me. The ghosts had no reason to be loyal to anyone of us, but to betray us outright to these monsters cut like a knife. I hoped whoever it was that had betrayed us spent an eternity trapped in-between.
“We have company,” I said to the others. “And one of those free-floating bastards out there told them we were in here.”
“What kind of company?” Corson demanded.
“Demons, three of them. Two lower-levels with pig snouts for noses and one who is… well, he’s stunning.”
“If I ever figure out how to exorcise a ghost, I’m coming back here for all of you!” Corson shouted toward the front.
“It’s not possible to exorcise them?” Erin asked.
“Not that I know of,” he replied briskly. “They simply move somewhere else. Follow me.”
He hurried through the kitchen, stopping by a counter and bending down to pull out more containers of salt from underneath. It hit me then that this was why he’d been exploring all the shelves. He grabbed two more containers of salt and stood up. The young girl with the bonnet came flying into the kitchen.
“There’s something coming,” she whispered frantically as she stopped to float before me. Her troubled eyes darted around as she rang her hands before her. “You must run.”
“I don’t run,” Corson grated before he glanced at me. “Normally,” he amended.
“The ghosts will give us away if they follow us,” Vargas said.
“I told you not to taunt them,” I said to Corson who shot me a look that clearly said he’d choke me if he could.
The others all took a step away from him, but I held my ground. The girl drifted closer to me. “No, they won’t follow you. They don’t like him.” She flicked a pointed glance at Corson. “They don’t like any of his kind. They like you. They believe in you and think you’re the key,” she said with eyes that looked as though they were watering.
Was there anything on this planet that didn’t have its hopes pinned on me?
“Ronald never liked any of us,” she continued. “I think that’s why he went to the demons. He didn’t care about any of us.”
“Ronald?” I asked.
“The Union soldier who left.”
I recalled the pant-less soldier who had left through the wall earlier. “And you are?” I asked the woman hovering before me.
“Daisy.”
“It’s good to meet you, Daisy.” I actually meant that. I wasn’t so fond of her ghostly companions, but if I ever did talk to an angel, and that was a pretty big if, I’d definitely put in a good word for Daisy.
“You also, World Walker.”
“Excuse me?” I blurted while the others exchanged startled glances.
Daisy opened her rosebud mouth to reply, but the ringing of the bell on the front door stifled what she would have said. We all froze, our gazes locked on the swinging doors leading to the dining room as Ethel shouted at the demons that they weren’t welcome here. At least it was her universal greeting and we hadn’t been singled out.
“Where are they?” Someone demanded from up front, and I immediately recognized it as the voice of the handsome demon.
Daisy jerked her head at us and fled toward the swinging doors at the back of the kitchen. She disappeared through the doors without causing them to move a centimeter. Corson’s hands clamped around the salt, but he nudged me to go before him.
I snatched a container of salt from the counter and followed Daisy toward the back of the kitchen. She said the ghosts wouldn’t follow us, but I wasn’t going to continue on without the only sort of deterrent we had against them.
Taking a deep breath, I braced myself as I rested my hand against the cool metal door. I didn’t know if the doors were going to squeak or not, but it wouldn’t matter if they did, we had no choice but to move deeper into the building. Pressing against the door, I slowly pushed it open as I waited for some noise that would give us away.
Thankfully, the door didn’t make a sound and I went through it with the others close on my heels. Once on the other side, I stopped to shove the container of salt into the waistline of my pants, tucking it securely against my hip.
Tugging my shirt over it, I pulled one of my guns from the holster and held it pointing down in front of me. My hands may be my most lethal weapons, but I didn’t want to give anything away too soon. No, it would be a complete shock to them when I lit their asses on fire or shot a ball of life harnessed from the earth into them.
We moved down a small hallway before stepping into a cavernous room. I looked up to search for Daisy and froze. My heart plummeted at the sight of the thousands of transparent faces that turned to look at us when we entered the warehouse filled with boxes of supplies stacked from floor to ceiling against the walls.
All those eyes stared at us as some of the ghosts floated forward. Most of their heads tilted in curiosity. Some of them looked completely bored, while others bounced up and down with the energy of a five-year-old who’d just eaten their entire birthday cake in one sitting.
The salt tucked against my side felt woefully inadequate as they drew closer and closer.
CHAPTER 20
Kobal
Two more bullets slammed into my shoulder, causing me to stagger back a step. I spun, leaning back and toward the side when the whistle of a bullet sliced through the air toward me. A small breeze tickled
my cheek as it went by. It would have hit me dead between the eyes.
“Fuck!” I snarled.
Bale cried out when blood pooled across her thigh to soak her pants. Morax leapt on top of Verin and pulled her down beneath him. His body jerked as it was pummeled by bullets. Intending to draw the human’s attention away from them, I dodged to the side as another round of gunfire pierced the air.
Racing through the forest, bark exploded around me as the bullets smacked into the trees near my head. My claws extended, and my fangs pricked and lengthened. I should end this now, but still I hesitated to kill them. These humans had survived this long; I actually admired the cunning and strength it had taken them to do so, and I had promised River I would restrain myself from killing unless it was absolutely necessary.
However, if this didn’t end soon, I was going to torch these assholes and call it a day. The bullets in my body burned as they worked their way out while I raced through the woods, circling around them.
The woman kept her gun trained on me as she followed my movement through the forest. Moving too fast for her, no more of the bullets she fired at me pierced my flesh. Resting my hands on a boulder, I vaulted over it. Bullets smacked off of its solid surface and shards of rock shot into the air. I ran behind the boulder and burst out the other side, jumping over a log before turning and charging at the woman.
Her bullets sliced over my skin but none of them directly hit me. I was almost on her when a man stepped in front of her and lifted his gun to aim at me. I grabbed the end of his rifle as he fired. The bullet tore a hole into my palm and out the back of my hand as I yanked the gun away from him.
His mouth fell open before I drove the butt of the rifle into his forehead with a loud crack. Blood exploded from his skin, his head jerked back and he crumpled to the ground.
“No!” the woman cried.
Spinning the rifle around, I pointed the gun at her. Warm blood oozed from the hole in my hand and dripped onto the forest floor as the woman stared defiantly back at me with her gun aimed at my chest. “Drop it!” I barked.
Carved (The Road to Hell Series, Book 2) Page 14
