Anna nodded, and Christian glared.
“That’s decided, then. Get yourselves and this place cleaned up.” I set the glass down on the counter. “You’re all hungry. I’ll be back shortly with sustenance.” At that, I snapped out of my human vessel into smoke and mist and funneled through the air vents, all pretenses of being human going up in smoke.
From above, LA lay wounded, its once throbbing heart barely ticking under the midday sun. Few cars used the roads, and fewer people walked the streets. The city would not survive for long. I reached through the air, feeling far and wide, touching fear, hunger, and anger. There were demons here too. Their dens had turned the air rancid. But they were all lessers. That was good. If we could stop this before the higher demons came, LA might quickly recover. I reached farther, seeking anything unusual or out of place.
The veil beat down alongside the midday heat, distorting my elemental feedback and distracting my mind. The netherworld. Home. So close.
No. My old home.
LA was home now.
The Dark Court and its princes were beyond the veil. How many had survived the Fall? Most had perished, hadn’t they? The king had survived. He always did in some form or another. The queen was a chaos girl trapped and driven mad by her element. Those two must exist beyond the veil for it to still be intact. Without them, the veil would have fallen. But we did not have a Queen of Chaos or a King of Control on this side of the veil. Humans barely knew about the elements, yet they believed they could harness the veil and siphon its power? Human beings couldn’t touch the veil. They did not exist on the same plane as the elements. Only elemental demons could draw from it. That was the way it had always been. But something had changed. I needed to find out what, to find the source, the beginning.
There could be no end without the beginning.
With my airborne search proving fruitless, I poured myself back into my vessel, purchased supplies and a disposable phone from a nervous market stall attendant, and put in a crackly call to an old friend.
Upon returning to my apartment, I found the mess cleaned up enough to move around freely. After handing over the supplies, I left the humans to refuel and entered the bedroom, closing the door quietly behind me.
Reaching under the bed, my fingers brushed the edges of the wooden chest. Hauling it out, I set it down on the bed and breathed into the lock to flick it open. Forty-four feathers were nestled inside. I didn’t need to count them. I knew their number the same as I knew my many names. The same way I knew there were other feathers out there, given to chosen individuals over the years. Tokens. Promises. Pieces of me.
I lifted one of the smaller feathers out, turned it over under the light, and checked the trailing edges for imperfections. Satisfied, I slipped it up my sleeve, closed the chest, and pushed it back under the bed.
When I returned to the living area, Anna was standing sentry at the windows overlooking the street outside, Noah was eating a home-made burrito made of nothing more than processed chicken and cheese, and my element told me Christian was lurking in one of the back bedrooms. Each was capable of looking after themselves and surviving, but we had to do more than survive. I had to make it right. Would any of them follow a demon?
“Noah, is the internet still accessible?” I asked.
He set the burrito down, and after wiping his hands on a towel, he dug his cell out of his rear pocket. “Yeah. It drops out sometimes. Same with the cell reception…”
“Good. Search for all the locations and dates of demon attacks. I want a timeline of the escalation.” I handed over my newly purchased phone and quietly added, “Download the security footage from the restaurant cameras the night I was captured. Transfer it onto there and keep it safe.”
He blinked and hesitated, keeping his gaze down.
“We still have the footage?” I asked.
“Yeah, I…” He scratched his unshaven cheek, his attention flicking to the windows. “I might have watched it a few times, I guess.”
“Not just the capture. Save as much of that day as you can find.”
He looked up and nodded, pressing his lips into a determined line. Whatever had caused his doubt wasn’t there now.
Anna turned away from the window. “I can’t wait around any longer. It’s driving me crazy. Tell me you have a plan…”
More than one. “Are you still working with the police?” I asked her.
She frowned, her mouth twisting. “After the military took command, most of the department left before they could close the roads. I don’t even know if there’s a PD left. Nobody is answering their radios.”
Then she was all-in with me. Good. I needed her focused, not running off at every call from her station. If we didn’t act soon, there wouldn’t be much left of LA to police. “You mentioned how lessers attacked public places?”
“Yes. The city zoo was the first.”
“There’s a reason they swarmed that location. When exactly did it happen?”
“I’m not sure. About six months ago. They planned on reopening, but I don’t know if they did.” Her gaze drifted along with her thoughts. “We could go take a look?”
“I’m coming with you,” Christian announced, striding into the room from the rear hall.
“Neither of you are coming,” I said, shutting him down. “I travel faster alone, and it will be dusk soon.”
The hunter folded his arms and made a dismissive sound at the back of his throat. “You’re just going to go off and do whatever you want?”
“That’s generally what adults do.”
Noah looked up from the phone I’d given him, dark eyebrow raised, likely wondering if Christian had bitten off more than he could chew. Shrugging, Noah took a bite of his burrito and got back to work. A fluttering muscle in Christian’s cheek gave his frustration away. “We had a deal.”
“I haven’t forgotten our deal, demon hunter.”
Noah spluttered, choking on his last mouthful of burrito. “Now I remember you! You’re the soldier who caught Li’el! I saw you on the security footage.” He huffed an incredulous laugh, the ironic kind, and shook his head, muttering, “You are one lucky son of a bitch.”
Christian frowned at Noah. “We have a deal,” he repeated, jabbing a finger at me while speaking to Noah. “One that demon won’t wriggle out of.”
Noah didn’t rise to the bait. He stood and headed for the elevator. Under his breath, too lightly for anyone to hear but me, he muttered, “Jackass.”
“I don’t wriggle,” I corrected Christian. “And you’re welcome to try to stop me from leaving.” I opened my arms, presenting a demon-shaped target for the rifle slung over his shoulder.
He opted to glower instead. “I don’t trust you.”
Clearly.
Sauntering after Noah, I added, “Help yourself to the cocaine. What’s mine is yours, demon hunter.” I purred the last words, adding a seductive lilt, and chuckled at his disgusted grunt.
Chapter 12
The Los Angeles Zoo sprawled over one hundred and thirty acres. It wouldn’t take me long to sense something unusual if I filtered through the grounds as air, but on arriving, I noticed a small European car parked by the entrance, its engine running.
Anna was behind the wheel.
I remade myself into a man and took a few moments to ground myself in flesh. Traveling as air was my natural state, but every time I crafted my vessel, I expended energy I couldn’t afford to use. How else was I supposed to get around? I was not designed to pack my magnificence into tiny vehicles.
Anna scanned the overgrown entrance, likely looking for me. I should have realized she wouldn’t let me come alone. If I found anything of use, she would want to see the evidence herself. Christian wasn’t the only one who didn’t trust me.
“Did you leave the trigger-happy sidekick at home?” I asked as I stepped from the bushes.
She scowled through the window at my sudden appearance. I much preferred her smile. “How long were you hiding out in
there?”
“Hiding out?” I snorted. “Girl, you have much to learn about me.”
She blinked at my easy tone. The casual accent had thrown her off balance, as I’d known it would. The clothes threw her off too. I’d crafted jogging pants and a slim-fitting shirt. I knew exactly how I looked without having to read the surprise in her eyes. As I’d told her, everything I did was an art. That included how I looked and talked at any given second. None of it was a happy accident.
She climbed out of the car, still frowning. That wouldn’t do.
“I just arrived,” I admitted.
“Did you er… fly all this way?” she asked, falling into step beside me as we made for the entrance.
“Fly? Yes and no.”
A few more steps, a few more seconds for her to consider her words. “Do you ever answer straight?”
“When you ask the right questions.”
Police tape sealed off the entrance gate. Ramírez ducked under it and approached the chain binding the gates closed. “Do you have a key?” she asked, lips tilting up at the corner.
I took the padlock in my hand and blew into the keyhole. The lock fell open.
Her slightly raised eyebrow was a step up from her frown.
“One of my many, many talents,” I explained.
“Uh-huh.” She walked on ahead through the abandoned tollbooths and into the plaza. Trash and fallen branches cluttered the pathways. The power was off, leaving various vending machines and booths cold and dark. To our left, the path veered off toward the Sea Life Cliffs exhibit. Crickets chirped. Gulls called, and far in the distance, something howled. Not demon. Likely a dog.
Ramírez shrugged off her rifle. I considered telling her the most dangerous thing in the park was standing right behind her, then reconsidered those words.
“They moved all the animals on,” she explained. “The ones that survived the attack.”
“Animals were killed as well as people?”
“Yes.” She glanced behind her. “Is that significant?”
“It could be. Do you know which animals were killed?” I drew up alongside her.
“No, not really. The news reports were all about the people, but there was mention of big cats being killed.”
“Do you know where their enclosures are?”
“Sure.” She smiled, and that curious flutter tickled me somewhere inside. “I used to come here a lot, you know… when I was little.”
“You were a little girl? I don’t believe it.”
“It’s true.”
“Next you’ll tell me you had dolls and played dress-up.”
“Kinda. My sisters did the dressing up. We played cops and robbers.”
“Ah.”
“I always got the bad guy.”
I did not doubt that. We walked on, passing through the abandoned elephant enclosure. Many fences had fallen or been pulled over. Claw marks on some of the enclosure walls didn’t go unnoticed by either of us. Anna tightened her grip on her gun.
Daylight had faded to a warm orange hue as the tiger enclosure came into view. Much of the fence was buckled and bowed. A section had been completely torn away, the links severed by claws sharper than those belonging to the enclosure’s former resident. The information board proclaimed the enclosure had been home to a four-year-old Sumatran tiger.
I leaned against the concrete barrier and counted at least fifteen pairs of claw marks breaching the walls. Lessers had gotten in and out. But a young tiger in its prime would have been a challenge for lesser demons to take down. Why had they attacked this animal?
“Do you remember if any other animals were killed?” I asked.
“The elephants, I think. There may have been others, but the reports were chaotic.” Her gaze drifted down to where dark stains had been baked into the pathway.
“And this was the first attack?” I asked, keeping her thoughts on track.
“That I’m aware of.”
“Wait here…” I vaulted over the concrete wall and landed inside the enclosure in a crouch. The air carried a mixture of smells to me. The pungent odor of a big cat and the equally overpowering smell of lesser demon, but something else inside all that was difficult to separate. I straightened and passed through long grass to where blood and fur lay crusted in the mud. Much of the tiger’s body was gone, either removed or decomposed. Its lower jaw lay in the grass. Crouching, I picked up the bone and examined it. The bone was smooth, no signs of any breaks or fractures. Something had torn it out. A lucky strike by a lesser, perhaps. Or by something bigger, with far more strength and coordination?
“Li’el…?”
Straightening, I turned to see Anna leaning over the wall.
“What is that?” she called.
High in the tree behind her, demon eyes glowed through the foliage. Instinctively, I reached outward with my element, swirling air through the branches to get a feel for what was watching Anna, but the air current rustled the leaves.
Anna turned.
Fear jolted through her. She lifted the rifle with a shout.
The lesser leaped, jaws wide.
I reached for the air it breathed, but the beast had too much momentum. It slammed into Anna, jaws closing around her throat, going straight for the kill. Part mist, I spilled into the air between them, wrapped my grip around the beast’s upper jaw, and yanked, pulling both it and Anna against me. Claws dug into my side and dragged downward. Pain flared and was just as quickly extinguished. As long as I was between the lesser and Anna, she was safe. My vessel could be rebuilt. Hers couldn’t.
I twisted, slipping free of flesh and turning fully into air, and yanked the lesser back, away from Anna. It clawed and screeched and writhed, teeth flashing and gnawing against my hold. I flung it aside and whirled. Anna had stumbled against the wall. She was fine. Shaken, but—
Another lesser sprang out of the undergrowth, a scorsi—part hominid, part scorpion—accompanied by a deafening hiss. It arched its stinger high. I poured all of myself into the space between the demons and revealed my true demon form, damaged wings spread wide. Agony snapped across my back. I shunned it and bore down on the scorsi.
A warning growl rumbled through my chest. Mine. The scorsi shuddered. Its rattling scales hissed louder. Back down.
Gunfire raked the bushes, and a quick glance revealed why. The flora writhed with lesser bodies. So many. Too many.
“Run,” I barked at Anna. “Go, now!”
“I’m not leaving you.” She swept her rifle in an arc but didn’t fire. The lessers held back.
Foolish human. “Go, Anna. I’ll distract them.”
Anna’s glare locked on mine. “I’m not leaving you again.”
Why, when she had been so keen to see me captured before?
Whatever her reasons, it didn’t matter. I was immortal. Whatever they did to me, I would heal. She was fragile and precious. There was just one Marianna Ramírez, one of her among billions of people. I couldn’t protect her from all the lessers. One might get through. She could get hurt or worse. Already, blood soaked her shirt, but there was fire in her eyes.
Stubborn human.
The lessers surged forward. Anna fired her gun. And then all around there was a volley of beasts, all clawing, snapping, charging.
“Go,” I hissed, seeing an opening.
Anna darted through, but the lessers spilled in, blocking my line of sight. With a snarl, I reached into their bodies and yanked out the air from inside them. They stumbled and collapsed. I sailed on through, down the path to where I expected to find Anna. She wasn’t there.
Lessers howled into the dusk.
No, no… She had to be here.
A lesser landed on my wing. I whirled and roared into the wave, blasting them back. Wings spread, I presented all of me, filling the path and blocking the way.
“You want me?” Arms spread, I summoned my element, yanking the air down from above and mixing it with LA’s warmth, stirring up a storm. “Here I am.”
<
br /> A surge of air tore up the pathways, bowing trees and rattling abandoned cages. It scooped up the lessers and swept them back on themselves, and with one final push, they washed over the side of the tiger enclosure.
A horn honked, and a car engine revved.
The wind settled. I turned to see Anna’s car plow through the barrier and skid into a turn. It rocked to a halt. “Get in!”
Get in? Was she insane? I flicked out my wings, frowned, and thumbed over my shoulder. “You do see these?”
“Li’el, get in this car right now. Don’t make me shoot you.”
“Baby, I don’t do cars.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Look behind you.”
I did. Lessers. The paths, the borders, the bushes, the trees. Demon glares everywhere. I wasn’t strong enough to fight them all. I would survive, but they would hunt Anna down.
But a car?
“Li’el! Move!”
In a blink, I’d funneled in through the window and into the front passenger seat, turning my wings to air to avoid the logistics of packing them into the tiny vehicle.
Anna planted her foot on the throttle, spun the car around, and launched it out of the plaza, leaving the zoo and the lessers far behind.
I slumped in the seat and pinched the bridge of my nose. The engine rumbled, the metal shell rattled, and outside, the almost empty city blurred by.
“You okay?” she finally asked in a quiet voice.
“Am I okay?” I wanted to spread my wings, to turn to air, to leave the car and sail through the air. No, I was not okay. “I’m fine.” Opening my eyes, I looked at her, and didn’t acknowledge how we were hurtling along the road in a steel trap. Her hair was a knotted mass of darkness strewn about her shoulders. Her cheeks were pale, lips touched with pink, and her eyes were a startling blue. Cuts dashed her chin and several deep gashes raked over her collarbone. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m… No, I’m okay.” She glared ahead. “Was that normal? All those lessers there like that?”
“No, not at all normal.” Her grazed knuckles turned white as she gripped the steering wheel. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
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