by Krista Walsh
All the research Zach had managed to dig up on Mayes and Wenzell had come back clean. He didn’t trust them — their headshots on the company website looked too polished and suave by half, with white hair on both, one with a neatly trimmed mustache — but that wasn’t saying much. He didn’t trust anyone. But he also had no reason to think they were in any way associated with Karl.
The Topan demon’s smug face floated in the front of Zach’s mind as he snarled. Enough time had passed since the noise outside that he figured whoever had set off the trap was gone for the night, and if they planned to leave him alone, for now he’d return the favor.
Tomorrow, he’d see about installing more traps around the place. If it deterred Karl from his stalking, it was worth the effort.
He poured boiling water into a French press beside the stove, careful of the cracked lip. The water turned black as the coffee grounds dispersed.
While the coffee steeped, Zach’s thoughts shifted toward the human girl Karl had not-so-subtly threatened. Just as they had at the time, his hands involuntarily curled in on themselves, and the red rush of his anger created patches of scales that covered the skin on his arms.
So far, he knew, they hadn’t gone near Molly, but how far would their infuriating determination take them? Especially if they thought she was in any way important to him.
Which, of course, she was not.
A year ago, she’d stepped in when Jermaine was torturing him and saved his life. She hadn’t meant to do it — she hadn’t even known he was being tortured at the time — but that didn’t matter. She had shown great courage for someone of her age and ability, and he was in her debt. He had vowed that he would watch out for her until he had an opportunity to save her life in return, and he fully intended to see his oath through.
He hadn’t anticipated his watch would stretch on as long as it had, but the girl did not live a high-risk life. She was a high school student with, from what he could tell, regular high school interests. She went to school and she came home. Some days he found himself wishing she’d step in front of a car so he could knock her out of the way and wipe the debt off his plate.
Most days, though, he didn’t mind having someone to watch over. It gave him something to fill his time and provided some sort of contact with two-legged beings, even if he had no interaction with her or her family.
And if he had to observe anyone, he supposed there were worse options than someone as interesting as Molly.
Over the months, he’d come to realize how similar they were in many ways. For one thing, they were both loners. The only difference was the reason. He chose to stay alone for the sake of his sanity. He’d been born a freak, a hybrid unwanted by any part of the otherworld. Half angel and half demon, he possessed the strongest qualities of both species. Unfortunately, the qualities of either could be catastrophic when unleashed, and he didn’t trust himself to keep his strength restrained if provoked. Instead, he kept to himself, taking sips of power instead of gulps, ensuring he was never in a position where he could lose control.
Molly, on the other hand, appeared to be on her own because of people’s inability to expand their minds past what they perceived as normal. Whatever the hell that meant. She was both deaf and blind, and those challenges seemed to put a wall between her and many of the people she encountered.
When Zach had first started guarding her, he’d expected it would be like watching a newborn kitten, that she would be wobbly on her feet and uncertain about her world. It had taken half an hour for her to prove him wrong. If it wasn’t for her white cane and the cautiousness with which she moved, he wouldn’t have known there was anything different about her.
That was never more true than when she went into her backyard and practiced her archery.
Even after a year of replaying his rescue in his mind, Zach still didn’t understand how she had delivered the two perfect shots that had saved him. At the time, Molly had lived across the alley from Jermaine’s apartment. Zach remembered screaming at the top of his lungs as his demon half had been torn from the corner of his mind and forced into dominance, his will bowing to Jermaine’s as the warlock attempted to enslave him.
Out of nowhere, the first arrow had struck the large domed window that had lined the wall facing the alley. It had hit with such an impact that the glass had shattered across the floor. That hadn’t been enough to stop Jermaine, but the second arrow had flown true a moment later, smashing into the computer monitor where he’d been reading his spell.
Two incredible shots, released at such an immense distance, from a young woman who only had the use of electronic hearing as a guide.
If Zach were the sort to believe in miracles — which, oddly enough considering half of his heritage, he was not — he would have no other word for what she had done.
And yet, it didn’t appear to be a one-time event. Every time he watched her practice, he was awed by the way she seemed to move with her bow as though she knew exactly where she needed to aim, the exact angle, the exact pressure. Her coach or her parents helped her use her tactile sighting aid to steady her aim and arrange her stance, but in recent months he’d observed her practicing without it. She’d move the target to various positions in the yard, and still she never missed.
It was enough to make him wonder if she possessed a supernatural ability herself, but nothing else about her life or her family’s life suggested it.
The longer he watched her, the more he felt a begrudging admiration. Eventually he’d given up complaining to himself about his oath.
Now, however, his reluctance had returned. Although he didn’t think Karl was any kind of threat to himself, he couldn’t make that guarantee about Molly. She was human and could be torn apart as easily as a sheet of paper, no matter how incompetent the demon who was doing the tearing. To continue to stand as Molly’s protector would only put her at increased risk. Leaving her on her own, however, would not only break his word but also leave her vulnerable if Karl acted on his threat to come at him through her.
Zach pushed down the top of his French press and poured the coffee into a mug the size of his palm. The bitter aroma wafted toward him on clouds of steam, and he inhaled deeply, allowing it to soak into his thoughts and relax some of the tension building inside him.
A soft meow at his ankle informed him that Dusty had come out of hiding and was once more looking for dinner. Zach reached into the plastic bag he used for his scavenging and pulled out a loaf of stale bread, a half-finished carton of French fries, and a box of day-old donuts.
It wasn’t bad for a morning’s hunt, but it wouldn’t last him long. He hadn’t had time last night to head to the river for any fishing.
He finished the fries and set the box down for Dusty to get her sodium fix, then he worked his way through the loaf of bread. Wednesdays were always bad for scavenging. The garbage trucks had toured his area this morning, which meant there was only breakfast fare left behind in the restaurant dumpsters, and he hated eggs.
After dinner, Zach nursed his second cup of coffee. Dusty jumped up on his lap, curled into a ball, and settled into a steady purr of black fur on black pants.
“What do you think?” Zach asked. “Do I check on her?”
Dusty pointed her green eyes at him and opened her mouth in a wide yawn.
“If bozo out there is still knocking things around, I don’t want him following me.”
Dusty mewed, and Zach bowed his head. He had his reasons for being alone, but sometimes he thought about how nice it would be to share a space with someone who could voice an actual opinion instead of making him interpret nonsense.
Zach rolled his head until his neck popped, then he looped his shoulders to set off a series of smaller cracks down his spine. He scooped Dusty into his arms, then rose to his feet.
“You stay here and watch the place,” he commanded, setting the kitten on his bed. The cat shifted to the spot closest to the stove and closed her eyes, her tail wrapped around her to cover her
nose. Zach snorted. “I’m glad to see how unaffected you are by all of this. I’ll be back later. Maybe with a fish. Maybe I’ll even share it.”
Dusty’s ears twitched, but she made no further movement.
Zach paced the length of their small room — an old storage space tucked into the western corner of the basement. Despite its cramped size, it had proved a perfect hideout. Much better than the one he’d stayed in while Molly lived in the high-rise. At least this one gave him a roof over his head.
Because of the city officials’ regular visits as they determined what to do with the empty college, it wasn’t a popular spot for squatters. The only reason Zach had gone unnoticed was due to a certain amount of creativity. Using some of the leftover equipment from the college’s contracting classes, he’d blocked off the hallway that led to this corner of the basement, leaving a narrow opening you could only see if you stood at the right angle. The passageway let him move about the basement with ease, providing a secondary avenue of escape if needed. Another bit of drywall and a few coats of paint had hidden the remaining entrance, a door tucked next to the defunct furnace in the boiler room.
There had also been the service elevator in the boiler room, but Zach had taken the steps to dismantle it. The elevator car was now stuck in the basement, ideal for storing odds and ends he found that he wanted to clean up or repair. Sometimes he even made a few bucks off his work, although he’d been too distracted over the last couple of weeks to get started on anything new.
Those damned demons. Zach had so few pleasures in life, and they were stripping them away one by one.
He growled and grabbed his leather coat from the hook on the wall.
He refused to let these guys have so much power. He would go and make sure Molly was all right one last time, and then he was getting away from this bullshit. One day, he would come back and see that his debt was settled, but for now, he would skip town. Maybe take Dusty with him to make sure she had someone looking out for her. But he had no life here, no reason to stay, and these jerkoffs had finally given him a reason to leave.
He passed through the boiler room, climbed the stairs, and pushed through a side door that led to the service driveway beside the college. Then he struck out through the maze of alleyways and side streets toward the residential area of Haybrook, Molly’s new neighborhood.
No one passed him along the way, but that didn’t stop him from keeping a close eye out. If he’d been right that Karl or his lackeys were tailing him, he couldn’t be sure they weren’t still around somewhere. The last thing he wanted was to give them the impression that they had an advantage over him.
Harsh sounds caught his attention from an alley down the street. He hesitated, angling his head to pick up more detail. Shouts and screeches filled the night air. It sounded like someone was getting his ass kicked. He debated the wisdom of going in the other direction to keep from being noticed, but something drew his feet toward the noise.
The street here was empty. Most of the lights in the houses were off, with a few blue flickers in the windows from some late-night television viewings. A quick scan of the windows showed none of the neighbors peering into the night trying to see what was going on, so he guessed the source of the fight was far enough away that their regular human hearing hadn’t picked up on it.
He turned into the alley and went deeper into the shadows, the grunts and shouts getting louder as he went. The path cut behind a row of shops, the wall lined with dumpsters and half-open trash bags.
Then a harsh squeal cut down Zach’s spine like fingernails on metal, and he burst into a lumbering run. That sound hadn’t been human.
A dark gray spindly creature burst from the darkness and swerved to avoid him.
Ghoul.
Its bald head was bleeding, and Zach did a double take at the object sticking out of the monster’s shoulder. An arrow.
Molly?
Zach reached his arm out and caught the ghoul in the chest as it flew by, sending it stumbling backward into a puddle of something Zach didn’t want to think about. He yanked the arrow out of the ghoul’s shoulder and rammed it into its throat. The monster hissed, gurgled, then melted from a mass of congealed flesh into an ooze that was soon washed away in whatever it had fallen into. Holding on to the arrow, Zach sped up, his steps soundless on the concrete in spite of his massive weight.
He drew to a halt at the end of the alley and stood in awe at the sight that greeted him.
A dozen ghouls were crowded around the center of an empty store parking lot. The sign for a nail salon hung above the building’s back door, its lights off. One of the ghouls had climbed the wall and was using the sign to swing toward a human girl. By the mop of blond curls, Zach knew his suspicion was correct.
Stupid brat.
As though she had heard the beast coming, Molly twisted on one foot, raised her bow, and released an arrow into its chest. It collapsed to the ground in a heap. As Zach watched, it oozed into a soft puddle and seeped down the sewer drain.
In the space of those brief seconds, Molly had already turned to another ghoul that had been creeping up on her left side. She struck out and used the tip of her bow to stab the beast in the eye. It cried out and flung itself at her, but she already had an arrow in hand and lodged it into the other eye, directly into its brain. Like the first ghoul, this one melted into goop on the ground.
Zach couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.
What was she doing here? How had she come all this way on her own and gotten herself neck deep in monsters?
One of the ghouls spotted him and paused, clearly unsure whether to keep pressing the attack.
Zach made no move.
The desire to fulfill his debt and save the girl was paling in the face of his desire to remain unnoticed. Maybe Karl’s demons had spotted Molly wandering around and set these ghouls on her to tempt Zach out of hiding. If they were watching, this could be the moment that ruined his chances of getting out of town without any hassle. He was so close to making it out without giving them the extra desire to stop him. If Molly were losing, it would be different, but she was handling them well on her own.
The ghoul staring at him stood about four feet tall. Its joints were large and round, making it easy to move each part of its limbs independently from the rest. Ghouls were dexterous and agile, quick and lethal. Yet Molly was tearing them down.
Then she stumbled and fell to her knees, a ghoul perched on her back. Zach could see that the quiver strapped to her leg was empty, and that the other ghouls she’d forced away were regrouping.
Let it be. See if she can get out of this, he told himself, but his hated instinct was already taking him over.
Red filled Zach’s vision as his demon blood boiled and ran down his arms. He tried to hold back, but at the sound of Molly’s scream, his demon burst free.
3
Molly screamed as something landed on her shoulders and forced her to her knees. With her heart in her throat, she struggled to free herself, but her spine strained against the weight pressing down on her. She couldn’t raise her hands to defend herself without toppling over. Her bow was trapped under her hand and her arrows were spent.
She knew she should have kept to the main streets instead of cutting through the alleys, but one too many cars had passed her along the road, and she didn’t want anyone pulling over to ask what she was doing out so late at night, especially with a bow slung over her back.
Figuring in this part of town she’d be in no particular danger — nothing exciting ever happened in Haybrook — she’d cut through one parking lot and then another, winding through the back streets. She’d navigated her way without trouble, using her cane to check for obstacles in her path and allowing her unusual spatial awareness to gauge where the turns were. She’d sensed the walls of the alleys when they’d closed in around her, and the openness when she’d stepped outside the maze.
At the time, her nerves had been taut with all the possibilities of what might g
o wrong. She wasn’t the sort of teenager who sneaked out of her house on a regular basis. Part of her had hoped she’d feel more confident once she started, but that hadn’t happened. She reminded herself that she’d been through stranger things, but her heart kept banging against her ribs.
When she’d heard the sounds of movement behind her, her first thought had been raccoons. Except they’d sounded larger than the ones that rummaged around the garbage at home. And instead of running away at her presence, they’d crept closer. The air had changed around her as they’d approached, growing thicker, ranker. Warnings had screamed through her mind to get away, but her feet had hesitated on the cement. To back out now would be to head straight into whatever was there. Licking her lips to work some moisture back into her mouth, she’d focused on taking steady breaths. She’d pulled her bow free with a clammy hand, praying she’d be able to keep a firm grip. Then she’d tightened the fingers of her other hand around her cane, ready to wield it or drop it to grab her arrows if it became necessary, hoping whatever was following her would leave her alone instead.
That hope had held out until she’d turned a corner into another alley, stepping into the narrow passageway before she’d realized it was there. Suddenly, the space around her felt smaller, as though the walls were closing in on her.
She’d backed out as quickly as she could, but the creatures behind her had chosen that moment to attack. One of them had thrown itself on her back, its sharp claws digging through her jacket and shirt, its weight no greater than when she gave her four-year-old cousin a piggyback ride.
Biting back on a scream, she’d swung around so fast that whatever it was lost its grip, and in the moment’s delay, she’d dropped her cane, grabbed an arrow, and loosed it at another shape she’d sensed was moving in on her. A bone-chilling shriek had rattled her auditory nerve as it hit home. Her heart had raced as another one had come up beside her, its musty odor reaching her before she became aware of the faint push against her side that told her something was nearby. Not giving it a chance to touch her, she’d kicked in its direction as hard as she could. When it backed off, another one took its place. She’d struck out with her fists and come into contract with something skeletal and greasy.
