by A and E Kirk
“You are the most difficult human to help.” Eros looked affronted. “I saved you from imminent attack and brought you here to rescue Tristan. It is simple. Get a vision of the demons holding him, then track the demons to Tristan.”
“Tristan’s being held by demons? You didn’t mention that!”
“Didn’t I?”
I growled, then squeezed my eyes shut. Waited. Come on, vision. I glared with frustration. “No visions.”
“Then start with him.” Eros pointed to a blond man sitting on a bench under a group of trees. “Tristan’s father. The last to speak to him. Hurry. Time is running out.”
“Me?” I squinted for a better look at Tristan’s dad. “You go talk to him. Then find the guys. Are they here yet?”
I looked around. Nothing but the fading haze of pink smoke.
“That’s just perfect.”
CHAPTER 42
I hyperventilated. A lot. But made it down to the group of trees a few yards away from Tristan’s dad without getting snagged.
Someone had left a white jacket with the Novo logo on a lawn chair. Mr. Grant and the patients were wearing the same, so I put it on to help me blend in. To further my madwoman persona, I undid my ponytail and shook my curls into a crazy mess half-hiding my face. Hey, maybe I was good at this undercover stuff. Or maybe I was really good at looking crazy.
I headed toward Mr. Grant who was ignoring the book in his hand, constantly glancing around with a sad, hopeful look.
Someone grabbed my arm.
“Can I help you?” A woman in a logoed blazer turned me toward her. “You look lost and scared.”
More like panicked and petrified. I coughed to cover the squeal. “Uh, no, I’m fine. But…thank you.” I turned to leave.
She tightened her grip. “Where did you get a backpack? Are you new? Know what, I’ll get your nurse. Who is it?” At my silence she gave me a comforting look. “It’s okay. I’ll take your picture and fingerprint to match it up.” She started to fiddle with the same kind of wrist computer that Eros had worn. “Do you know your name?”
Right now? Dead in the Water. “Ummm.” I started to shake. “It’s…”
“Aurora?”
I jumped so hard the woman let go of my arm.
“Aurora?” Mr. Grant walked over with a big grin. “It is you.” He wrapped me in a bear hug.
“You know this patient, Mr. Grant?” the woman asked.
“Patient? No! She’s an old friend of the family.” He kept an arm over my shoulder.
“But she’s wearing a patient jacket.”
Yeah, so clever. I yanked it off and handed it to her. “Sorry, um, someone gave it to me.”
“My son told me she was back.” Mr. Grant gave me a squeeze. “Even showed me a picture. Just didn’t tell me she’d be visiting. What a great surprise!” He laughed and led me away. “Did you come with the other Boys? Did you find Tristan yet? I can’t wait for you all to meet my new doctor. He’s the reason I’m finally…remembering things. But enough about me, how about you?”
“I’m—” Over my shoulder, I saw the woman staring, but then she folded the white jacket over her arm and walked off. I let out a breath. “I’m good. Do you know where the Boys are?”
“No. They went to check with the girl’s nurse.”
“What girl?”
“The one Tristan went to talk with last night. I haven’t seen him since. Guess he’s quite the ladies’ man.” He chuckled and looked around. “I thought he’d be back.”
My vision came fast. My mind lurched from the garden, zigzagged through the resort, and slammed to a stop in front of a particularly hideous creature.
Leathery, burnt gold skin thick with green veins. A hunched, oversized brow riddled with warts sloped steeply down to deep-set eyes. Mouth split horizontal and vertical, opening in a star shape, overrun with sharp teeth and a mass of jutting, tentacle tongues, like he was spitting worms. So gross. Thick raptor feet and hands. A long tail swished across the tile floor.
It reminded me of some Jurassic wannabe. It was freaky and creepy, and worst of all, it was talking with Ayden and Jayden.
I pulled back into my body and said, “I think I know where they are.”
Mr. Grant smiled with relief. “Then let’s go find those Boys.”
Sure. The Boys…and a demon.
CHAPTER 43
We reached one of the expansive pools made up of aesthetically pleasing curves and arcs. I smelled the chlorine, felt the light spray from one of the waterfalls. The water trickled with a melodious tone into what was meant to be a tranquil setting. But I was nervous.
Ayden and Jayden were at the far edge still talking to the demon as if it were a regular person. The creature kept shaking its head and shrugging. Two more demons came up next to him. None of the hellions were possessing humans. They were just straight up demons, no hiding, but the Boys didn’t seem to notice. Just like back at the country club.
That wasn’t good.
I wanted to warn them, but couldn't get too close because sometimes demons could recognize me as the Divinicus Nex. So I sent Mr. Grant while I hid behind a tree.
The Boys were reluctant, but finally followed Tristan’s dad.
“We’re really interested in the surprise, Mr. Grant,” I heard Ayden say as they got closer. “But right now we need to keep looking for Tristan.”
“You will, but humor me for one more minute.” He brought the Boys around the tree. “Ta-da!”
When both Boys saw me their jaws dropped. Ayden went pale.
“Aurora!” Ayden finally blurted. “What are you—?! Why are you—?!” He turned his back on me as he sputtered, glancing around nervously and trying to shield me with his body. “Wait here!” He ordered, then disappeared for a moment and came back with a baseball cap which he shoved onto my head, bunching up as much of my hair into it as possible. He spoke through gritted teeth. “Explain.”
“Ero—” I shot a look at Mr. Grant. “Uh, Rose brought me.”
The Boys looked shocked and horrified and bursting with questions, so we left Mr. Grant lounging by the pool, promising to be back shortly with Tristan, and I got the guys up to speed.
Jayden’s thumbs popped furiously in and out of joint. “The demons must be using the cloaking devices. There is no other way for them to be here, out in the open. For Eros to be able to teleport within the perimeter of a secure Mandatum facility. This is worse than I imagined.”
“You sure we were talking to demons?” Ayden said.
“Positive.” I gave him a description of what I saw, then asked, “Would that be a haptogian mol?”
“Yes,” Ayden said. “But how would you know that?”
“This.” I handed them the printout I’d gotten from Luna and Lucian. The Boys read it over, looking less happy by the second.
Ayden wiped his brow, beaded from heat or the frightening developments, I couldn’t be sure. “And Eros is sure they have Tristan?”
“So he says.” I shrugged. “You know how unhelpful he can be, but we can’t take any chances. I’ve got a lock on the demon you were talking to. You say he’s Heather’s nurse, and Mr. Grant says when he last saw Tristan he was talking to Heather. So let's follow the nurse in the hopes of finding Tristan.”
“No,” Ayden said. “We’re getting you out of here. Now.”
“I’m staying until we find Tristan.” I gave him a look. “How better to track him but to use my visions? Where are the other guys?”
Ayden narrowed his eyes, but didn’t argue further. “Checking security footage, talking to people, searching. Not sure where they are, and we can’t call them. Just like at your aunt’s office and the warehouse, our cell phones won’t work in here. You need one of those wristband computers. Or a walkie-talkie. We’ll have to go find them.”
“No time,” I said. “I’m not sure how long I’ll have the mental link to the demon, and Eros said Tristan didn’t have much time.”
Ayden sighed. “Jayden,
what do you think? Jayden?”
Jayden had been popping thumb joints and muttering to himself the entire time. It was a moment before he focused on us. “What? Yes, I am highly disturbed about the situation. I’m missing something. Something vital. But Tristan is our first priority. Aurora, lead the way.”
The two raced after me as I sprinted across the lawns and into some kind of storage building on the perimeter, then down, down, and down following my Divinicus sense to the basement under the basement. A scary sublevel where they kept the mental hospital horror show.
Musty air choked thick with the taste of misery and despair. I ducked under buzzing florescent lights hanging broken and twisted, flickering shadows on decaying walls, paint peeling. Ceiling crumbled onto filth-littered, cracked-tile floors. Abandoned wheelchairs and IV stands. Doors hanging off hinges. Ripped curtain dividers draped between old hospital beds which had leather restraints for strapping down arms and legs.
Desperate handprints smeared into the dust on every surface. A demon’s talons scraped along the floor. My imagination filled my head with the fading echo of tortured screams.
“Glad it’s not creepy down here,” I muttered.
“We have a conundrum to crack, a demon to track, and a dear friend to get back.” Jayden rubbed his chin. “I’ve been practicing poetry to promote a whimsical, less logical side of my brain. Perhaps it will help get me past this mental block I’m currently encountering.”
“Quiet, Dr. Seuss.” I closed my eyes and concentrated on the demon. “This way.” I tiptoed past shattered glass and edged around a corner.
“So glad you could join us,” rasped a voice from behind.
Jurassic loomed, tongues slithering out. That wasn’t possible. I could feel my connection to it, way ahead of us, so how was it here?
Behind it, Jurassic clones stepped out from all the shadowy doorways and into the hall. At the other end, behind us, more crawled along the ceiling. Scuttling like lizards, a few dropped down with a ceramic crunch as they hit the brittle tiled floor.
A whole pack of haptogian mols. Or a “multitude” as noted in the printout. And only three of us. We were surrounded.
CHAPTER 44
“You guys see the demons this time?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah.” Ayden’s arms lit on fire.
A snow storm seemed to erupt around Jayden as a flurry of knives swirled about for him to snatch and throw. He and Ayden began shooting in one direction, flames and ice knives turning demons into black mist just before they vortexed into the ground. The Boys cut a clean line down the middle, but behind us, demons stalked forward.
“Guys,” I said with rising panic.
“Don’t attack them, Aurora,” Jayden said.
“He’s right. Blake’s not here to—” Ayden whirled around, his arms acting like flamethrowers, taking out the first line of demons behind us, then he whirled back around, “—keep us from getting buried alive.”
Oh, goodie. I was considered a bomb at the building’s foundation. I tried not to take it personally. The good news being that my powers weren’t activating. The bad news being that my powers weren’t activating, and worm-tongued, fang-filled mouths were rapidly advancing on our backs.
“When we’ve secured a hole through this horde, we run through the gap,” Jayden said.
“Ok.” I was quivering.
Scratch that.
Something around my neck was quivering. The umbra stone necklace. It almost jumped off my chest. “Not now!” I shoved it back in my shirt, then eyed with rising panic the demons coming toward us. “Guys.”
“Just a few moments more,” Jayden said.
And we’d be dead.
My backpack started bouncing around like it was full of fish out of water struggling for breath. It took me a second, but then I ripped it off my shoulders, rummaged through, and yanked out the engineering book which contained the three silver spheres. The small but potent weapons jittered and clickity-clacked around inside, begging to be set free so they could inflict their particular form of mayhem.
“What is that sound?” Ayden asked.
“Deliverance,” I answered.
From behind us, one hellion made a fast break in our direction. I flung the spheres. The little balls clinked upon the tile, spun, rolled and…
The lone demon raging toward us slipped on them.
Not kidding. His flappy, raptor feet fumbled then flew into the air like some slapstick comedy. He flopped onto his back on top of the metal balls, momentarily stunned, but basically unharmed.
The advancing horde stopped and stared at the fallen hellion. So did Ayden and Jayden who then looked at me, unimpressed.
“Hey,” I shrugged, “I thought it would—”
A howl echoed. The demon’s body shook, shuddered, then spurted into splattered bits as the flaming spikey balls burst through its gut, lifted into the air, and brutally slashed their way into the rest of the demon pack.
I pointed. “I thought it would do that!”
The demons on the other side bellowed in fury and raced toward us.
“Go!” Jayden pushed me to follow Ayden as his flamethrowers cut a path through the mob of demons.
I ran through the swirling mists of Black Death, again, and coughed against the strong stench of sulfur. We skidded left around the corner. Another swarm of Jurassics thundered at us. Ayden reeled to a stop, nose to nose with one of them. The demon’s many tongues lapped at Ayden’s face. Fire suddenly shot from Ayden’s eyes, and the creature’s whole head burst into flames.
“Right!” I yanked Ayden back and shoved him in the opposite direction. “We go right!”
We darted down the right turn. The demon packs crashed into each other at the intersection behind us. It bought us a few seconds and just enough space for Jayden to turn and shoot his hands in the air.
Pipes along the ceiling burst. Water gushed down. Jayden shoved his hands inside the flow, and the water current accelerated at a rapid rate, becoming a frothing torrent as gallons upon gallons rushed in. Jayden backed up, and when the first line of the slobbering demons ran into the deluge, the liquid crackled and solidified, trapping them in a thick wall of ice. It splintered against their squirming bodies, but then held firm.
Several clawed limbs stuck out and slashed at the air. With a flick of Jayden’s wrist, a vertical slab of ice pulled away along the top of the frozen wall. It glittered thin and wicked sharp. Kind of reminded me of a—the sheet of ice dropped and neatly sliced off all protruding demon appendages—of a guillotine.
The slice of ice hit the floor and shattered into a million twinkling diamonds. Thick black liquid spurted from the severed body parts still stuck in the ice. Holding my nose, I backed away from the gruesome sight.
“It’s only a matter of time before they reroute.” Jayden shook slush off his hands. “We must hurry. Aurora, how could you miss such an agglomeration of demons?!”
“Hey.” Ayden used a grimy green curtain room divider to wipe black goo off his leather jacket. “Give her a break.”
“You are the most atrocious Divinicus Nex ever,” Jayden groaned.
“Pfft, you’re telling me,” came a voice from behind the curtain.
I moved the fabric aside. Tristan lay strapped to a grubby hospital bed. His freckles stood out against sickly pale skin. Blood clumped his butterscotch locks. He had a split lip, and one of his baby blues was bruised. I felt a violent surge of anger.
“A little heads-up would’ve been nice.” Tristan’s speech was slurred, his eyes glassy. “You know, before I walked into a building infested with haptogian mols. I thought I didn’t have to worry about this stuff with a demon detector living next door.”
“I agree,” I said, trying to quell the fury at myself and those who’d harmed my friend. “Let’s file a complaint with the guy who gives out the manuals on powers.” I started unbuckling the straps holding him down while the other two Boys when out into the hallway and scouted for demons. My hands we
re numb and shaking so it took a few tries. “Maybe I was a bit distracted trying to stay alive while Cristiano was trying to kill me at school because someone couldn’t figure out the Sicarius team was already in Gossamer Falls days ago.”
Tristan jolted upright. “Cacciatori?!”
“Oh, no worries. You know how I like to cram a month’s worth of drama and doom into one day.” I filled Tristan in on what had been happening, then helped him off the bed. He winced when I put his arm around my shoulder, and we gimped out. Ayden and Jayden came around the corner.
“All clear,” Ayden said. “This way.”
“They tend to keep Heather isolated and drugged,” Tristan said. “Although, when I finally found her, she was with a girl who does nothing but draw the same necklace over and over again. It looks like the one Eros gave you.”
“The umbra stone?” I pulled out the necklace.
“Yep, that’s the one. This girl started screaming when I was trying to talk to Heather, then the stupid nurse and his buddies showed up, jabbed me with a needle, and I woke up down here. But I did see Heather again. She’s…” Tristan shook his head. “It’s not good.”
“Wait,” I paused, a vision was coming in. “Eight demons. Coming at us from behind.”
“Only eight?” Ayden looked at his brother with a heartless smile, then motioned Tristan and I toward a broken doorway. “Wait here. We won’t be long.”
I lugged Tristan into the room while the other two ran silently down the hall with eager anticipation. Tristan called after them, “I’ll guard Aurora.”
“Please,” I said. “I’m the only reason you’re standing. I’m guarding you.” I leaned him on the warped, sheetless bed which had another shabby curtain hanging behind it.
Something squealed, emerged from behind the curtain, and grabbed my waist.
CHAPTER 45
I screamed and thumped at the beast, ripping the curtain from the ceiling.
