Kobal
I moved noiselessly through the forest as I scented the air and searched for the humans. In the distance, an owl screeched, but I couldn’t see it through the canopy of branches stretching over my head. The moonlight filtering through the trees caused shadows to dance across the pine needles and leaves lining the forest floor.
Following the potent aroma of body odor, I came up behind a human lying on his stomach on the ground. Branches stuck out from his hat, and dirt streaked his face and clothes as he stared at the road with a rifle against his shoulder. Halting, I gestured for Morax to go around to the man’s right while I went to his left.
Gliding through the trees across from me, I spotted Morax moving with his tail curled over his head and a lethal expression on his face. He broke away from the trees and slipped up behind the human as I emerged from the other side. When the man’s eyes shot to me, he gasped and spun to aim his rifle at my chest.
Morax swung his fist down, driving it into the human’s temple before the man ever knew he was there. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped to the ground. Morax ripped the rifle from his limp hands. He glanced between the man and the rifle, his muscles flexing as he looked about to bash it into the man’s temple. My command from earlier held though. He lowered the rifle and rested the end of it on the ground at his side.
“Leave his weapon,” I ordered. Morax tossed the gun a few feet away at the base of a small oak tree. “Let’s go.”
I slipped deeper into the woods, moving through the forest with ease. After centuries of maneuvering the treacherous pathways of Hell, Earth and any of her many obstacles were easy to get through.
The coolness of the shade within the woods brushed over my skin. The decaying odor of the leaves and pine needles littering the forest floor filled my nose, but I could still pick out the aroma of human sweat. It drew me onward to where the other humans were hiding.
Behind me, the demons moved soundlessly through the brush. This dimension was not our home, but over the last thirteen years, we’d become accustomed to it. We’d adapted in ways I’d never believed possible when we first arrived here, and now Earth had become as much a part of us as Hell was.
Climbing onto a small boulder, I perched at the top and knelt to survey the forest. All I’d ever wanted since arriving on this plane was to destroy Lucifer, return home, and claim my throne. After meeting River, I still wanted all of that plus her by my side. The more I contemplated our future though, the more I realized I’d prefer to keep her out of Hell as much as possible and away from everything that went on there.
I had never envisioned staying on Earth, but as I looked over the surrounding wilderness, I realized I wouldn’t be leaving it behind after Lucifer was defeated. Not for good anyway. This was River’s world, and I would make my home here with her.
The humans had unintentionally set us free, but I realized now there would be no more locking ourselves away in the bowels of Hell again. Maybe it hadn’t been meant for demons to walk freely in the human realm, but many things had happened in the six thousand years since the angels threw Lucifer out that were never meant to be.
The angels had started the chaos, the humans had accelerated it when they’d torn open the gateway, and we were the ones cleaning up both of their messes. We would reap the benefits of staying on this plane if we so chose, and we didn’t have to live among the humans. There was plenty of land for us to occupy in the areas that had been ravished during the war.
Glancing back, I looked at the others perched on the boulder behind me. How many of them would choose to stay here if we succeeded in closing the unnatural gateway? We would have to return to Hell occasionally in order to maintain our immortality and to feed, but would these demons choose to live their life here instead of there?
All those who decided to remain here would have to stay close to me in order to cross back and forth. I would still be able to maintain control of my kingdom by controlling the only gateway again, as I always should have. Life here might be unsettled in the beginning if the humans were against it, but they would have no choice in the matter. They would have to accept it as we would not be giving this world up.
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.