Chapter 1
A Preview
The woods around the cabin were deep and dark—the kind of place that was perfect for filming low-budget horror movies. Or for facing real demons.
For Reese, it was the perfect setting for the game of cat-and-mouse she found herself in.
Crouching beneath a short ledge in the rocky terrain, with the roots of a pine spilling over the side and plunging back into the ground all around her, she waited in the half-light for the thing to come closer. She had split her weight between the ledge at her back and one leg. The other leg, swathed in a heavy ankle cast, was stretched out before her.
She could see the hunter moving in the treed shadows before her—movement like a spider picking its way slowly through the obstacles of the woods. It was coming after her physically, so it had chosen a body. A real spider? She wasn’t sure. Demons often caused the bodies of their hosts to grow, but this would be impressive beyond anything she had seen before. It was huge—easily twice her height.
She was glad Tyler and Jacob were back at the cabin. She hadn’t told them about the hunters.
Her sword rested lightly in her hand, as much a part of her as her own limbs. Right now, with the creature a clear shot in front her, bow and arrows might be handier. But that had never been Reese’s style.
Her heart beat a little faster as she waited for the demon to close in. She was banking on it being alone—that nothing would come at her from behind or beside. She just needed it to close the distance between them—to pounce.
It stepped into a shaft of light between the heavier woods and the ridge. Stared right at her, yellow insect eyes glaring. It was a spider—and it wasn’t. She had never seen anything like it. Had it somehow managed to merge two hosts?
The monster before her had eight arachnoid limbs and four eyes that were not those of a mammal, but its body and head were like those of a wolf. In the city, where she was used to fighting demons, demons didn’t take such creative forms.
But this was better than fighting a human host any day.
“Come on,” she said quietly. “What are you waiting for?”
The demon regarded her without moving. Its entire body reverberated with tension, ready for the leap.
She stared at it, equally still, equally tensed. This was a duel, pistol to pistol, the only questions those of nerve, aim, and timing.
It leaped.
Spider arms, sharp on their ends, skewered the ridge on every side of her. She twisted the sword, buried deep in its abdomen, and wished she could close her ears against its shrieks. The body shrivelled as the demon fled.
She pulled the sword free of the shrunken form, breathing hard.
Before her lay a dead wolf. The arachnoid arms and eyes had disappeared, gone with the demon spirit that had animated the monster.
With a grunt, she pushed herself up on her cramping muscles and reached for the crutch on the ridge behind her.
This was the fourth hunter she had dispatched in two days. She didn’t know why they were after her or how they knew where to look. It was strange for demons to be abroad in a place like this—in the forest, far away from the human evils they usually fed off of.
She wiped sweat from her brow and started her limping way back to the cabin. Her sword had smoothly disappeared—there were no more demons in the area. For now.
Why me? she asked the air. And why now?
In the old days, if something like this had happened she would have gone straight to her cell to ask for help, both in understanding what was going on and in combating it.
Straight to David, their cell leader, who had betrayed her.
She didn’t have a cell anymore. She knew the group from the village would claim her as their own—already did, in fact. They had welcomed her and made their home hers. But her own inner wounds and Jacob’s claims had turned her world further upside down than she’d known was possible, and until she had answers, she couldn’t return their embrace.
So she was alone, fighting off the creatures who were tracking her and trying to make sense of their attacks even as she hid the struggle from Tyler and Jacob and hoped they would leave the cabin soon. Coming here was Jacob’s plan. This was another of his old haunts, and he was waiting for something that he expected to happen while they were here—she didn’t know what. But she needed healing, for her ankle if not her heart, so she complied. In any case, this mountain area was much like her childhood home, and coming back here almost felt like she could find a new start.
In the meantime, Jacob told stories every night in the cabin. Stories that drove home his life’s thesis: that the Oneness had to stop fighting their battle on a spiritual plane alone and take it into the real, physical, human world.
Easy for him to say, Reese thought. He wasn’t fighting off demonic trackers every time he was alone.
She came in sight of the cabin and sighed. A small log house with a couple of bunks and a stove—really little more than a hut—it had been home for the last week. A temporary sanctuary while she couldn’t go anywhere that was actually home.
Tyler was sitting out front, whittling a branch with a rusted knife he’d found in the desk inside the cabin.
“Hey,” he said, looking up as Reese approached. “Out for a hike?”
“Yeah.”
“Can’t be easy with your ankle.”
Reese laid her crutches aside and lowered herself beside him, using the cabin wall to steady herself. “It isn’t. But the ankle’s healing.”
Tyler nodded. “Good.” He frowned. “You okay? You look like you just ran a marathon.”
“It’s a workout, getting through the woods on crutches.”
“Okay.” He seemed less than convinced. “Y’know, if you want company, all you have to do is ask.”
She didn’t say the answer that ran through her head. No good. It’s not safe to be with me right now. They’re after me, and I’m not sure why. Better you don’t get yourself killed being company.
Tyler was a good kid with a good heart, but he had no battle training. She was happiest having him far away while she fought off the attacks.
“Where’s Jacob?” she asked.
“Off somewhere. Like usual.”
Overhead, the sky was darkening. Reese looked up and frowned. Clouds were blocking out the open spaces between the pines—clouds and something else.
“Tyler,” she said, “get inside.”
“What? What’s going on?”
“Just get inside,” she said, reaching for the wall and getting to her feet. Tyler jumped up but didn’t make a move to go in. She went to glare at him and saw a sword in his hand. He held it up.
“What’s going on?”
“Would you get inside?”
“No. I’m going to help you.”
“Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “But whatever happens, it’s not my fault.”
Inwardly, she laughed with derision at her own words.
Was anything not her fault?
Gathering out of the clouds overhead was a small, tightly circling flock of birds. They grew in size as she stared up at them.
Multiple demons this time? Or just one, spreading itself thin? They did that sometimes, using birds or insects—anything that would stay together in a tight flock and act as one.
Instead of diving as she expected, the flock tightened its circle and kept spiralling. The clouds were growing darker, plunging the cabin into a premature dusk and then shadows almost as deep as night. Thunder rolled.
“Holy smokes,” Tyler said. “I can’t see anything.”
“Just keep your eyes up there,” Reese said. “They’ll come from there. Keep your eyes up.”
She and Tyler angled themselves so they both stood with the cabin at one shoulder and each other at their backs. Swords ready, eyes up.
Not that eyes were much good in darkness this thick.
“What’s going on? Reese?”
“I don’t know. Stay focused.”
An instant later, light broke through the clouds—and the flock dispersed.
Jacob stood at the edge of the clearing, one eyebrow raised.
“Care to explain this?” he asked.
* * *
They sat around the card table in the cabin, Reese’s crutches leaning against the wall behind her. “I’ve been picking them off one by one,” she said. “They only come for me.”
“And you thought it was better not to tell us because . . .”
Tyler’s tone was hostile, but she knew it was only because he cared. She hated the sulkiness in her own reply.
“Because I’m enough trouble by myself.” She sighed. “I don’t know what the demons want or why they’re coming after me now, but until that cloud, they’ve been easy to spot and easy to dispatch. They’ve come one at a time, in animal forms—sort of. Grotesque, but not hard to take care of.”
She shot Tyler a look. “Tyler, that doesn’t apply to you. You don’t have enough experience. You see a demon, alert us immediately. Don’t try to be a hero on your own.”
“You’re assuming he can handle himself,” Tyler said, pointing to Jacob. “Have you ever seen him fight a demon?”
“He’s been in the Oneness a long time. He will have learned.”
“Doesn’t seem all that smart just to tell me not to fight,” Tyler said. “I have to learn sometime.”
She sighed and pushed away from the table. “What are you saying?”
“Teach me,” he said. “Give me some training. God knows I’m going to need it, hanging out with you two.”
“I’m not exactly in coaching form,” Reese said, glancing at her crutches.
“I am,” Jacob said. “I’ll train him.”
* * *
Reese watched Jacob and Tyler duel. The older man was hard on the younger, giving him few breaks and little mercy, but he coached as they fought, drawing out the best in him. Tyler had broken into a sweat within minutes and found himself on his back three times in a row. Each time Jacob extended a hand, pulled him back to his feet, and resumed the fight with a few words of instruction.
Reese sat on the front step of the cabin and let her mind rehearse her own battles. Watching Tyler fall made her wince, and question. She was wounded. And alone, or choosing to be. The creatures had come to her in powerful, frightening forms. Yes, she was a good fighter, and yes, she could normally handle a few demons without too much trouble, but it didn’t make sense to her—not really—that she was still alive.
Why didn’t they come in greater force? Or more strategically, to catch her off guard?
It was almost like they were approaching her this way on purpose. Like—
Jacob drove Tyler up against a pile of rocks, and he tripped and sprawled backwards, yelling this time. That had to hurt.
Barely sweating, Jacob extended his hand again. Tyler stayed on the ground, panting, not reaching for the outstretched hand. He shook his head, too out of breath to say anything.
“If this was a real fight, you’d have lost right here,” Jacob said. “Never lose track of your surroundings. You do, and any obstacle becomes a trap.”
Tyler nodded and struggled into a sitting position. He mopped his forehead, streaking it with dirt and blood from a scratch. “Can we take a break?” he asked.
Jacob looked disgusted, but he let his sword dissolve from his hand. “Fine.”
Tyler kept his own sword balanced across his knees. “Whaddya think?” he asked Reese. “Did I learn anything?”
“I hope so,” she said, putting her own thoughts aside for a minute. “I can work with you too, if you want.”
Tyler nodded in Jacob’s direction. “Not necessary. You can’t possibly school me worse than him.”
His face grew more serious. “You think we’re going to get a bigger attack?”
“Maybe,” Reese said. “Maybe the others have been scouts. Either way, we’re not going to be here for them to find.”
She shot Jacob a look at that statement. It had been his idea to hole up here, and he’d been resistant to any suggestion that they should leave.
“We’ll go,” he said, nodding. “Soon. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Not now? Tonight?”
“I’m not ready to leave yet.”
“This isn’t just about you,” Tyler shot out. “Reese could be in trouble.”
“I doubt leaving here will actually get her out of that trouble. And I don’t want to stay here just for my own sake. I’m doing what I do for you—both of you.”
Tyler rolled his eyes and looked questioningly at Reese. She didn’t answer. She didn’t know what Jacob was waiting for and didn’t want to press him for an answer. His answers to the questions she did ask were challenging enough.
* * *
He offered another of those answers that night as she sat in the darkness, losing herself in the pine shadows with only the bright pinpricks of stars high above to offset them. The inside of the cabin felt too constricting; she wanted air. And to watch for trouble.
Her hands were empty; the sword didn’t materialize. She assumed the woods were likewise bare. For the moment.
She didn’t welcome his presence as he came out and sat down beside her, but he didn’t seem to care.
“These may not be attacks,” he said abruptly.
“What are you talking about?”
“The demons. They may not be attacking you.”
“They do attack me.”
“Because you’re meeting them with your sword drawn. You’re confronting them as for battle—provoking them. They have no choice.”
She shook her head. “Sometimes you talk like a crazy man.”
“Has there been anything different about these entities? Anything . . . unusual?”
“You’re talking about demons.”
“Even the demonic has its own normal. You’ve encountered enough to know what is and what isn’t.”
“Yes,” she said finally. “They’ve been . . . like animals, but not . . . not like they usually are.”
“Describe them.”
“They’re a pastiche. The last one, it was a wolf. But a spider too. I’ve never seen a demon in a form like that.”
He nodded. “It makes sense. They’re coming to you like this for a reason, Reese. And it isn’t to fight you.”
Her eyes flashed as she turned to face him. She could barely make out his features in the darkness; the cabin was dark on the inside too, with no light escaping from cracks in the door. “What are you trying to say?”
“Demons that embody like you say these are doing are not working for anyone. They’re taking on forms as they please, trying to establish an identity or personality. They don’t do that if they have a master, because they simply allow the master’s personality and identity to inform theirs.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’m being approached by demonic mutts?”
“They see a master in you,” Jacob said. “They’re offering their help.”
She was on her feet before she knew what she was doing. Shaking.
“Don’t just reject this gift, Reese,” Jacob said, his voice rising. “They’ve never come to me like this. They’re offering themselves to you because you’re a warrior and a power they can recognize. Most of us have to earn their allegiance. You already have.”
She turned on him. “I don’t want that! I don’t want anything to do with them!”
“Don’t you?” he asked. “What if they can help you get what you really want?”
“And what is that?” Reese asked, trembling even harder now. The sword was beginning to form in her hand, but it was only half-there, a response to her anxiety.
“The same thing I want,” Jacob said. “Justice.”
He stood. She heard the boards creaking under his weight. He paused at the cabin door and turned back to her.
“They didn’t trust you to deal with him,” Jacob said. “They were afraid you would demand justice if he didn’t change. So if he doesn’t—if he hasn’t—they will simply let him go on, unchanged and unrepentant, and gloating over the damage he’s done you. Think about that.”
He went through the door and shut it behind him.
And Reese still shook.