Kobal
“Have you ever considered staying on Earth if we close this gateway?” I asked Bale as I drove the truck.
I barely paid attention to the ruts and holes in the roadway as my teeth clacked against each other and my head bounced off the ceiling numerous times. Most of the bullets had worked their way out of me and my flesh was repairing itself, but the jarring of the truck caused some of the wounds to tear and spill fresh blood over my clothes.
“I think we all have,” she replied. “But that is your choice to make. It would be your decision to allow us to remain.”
I glanced over at her before swerving out of the way of a hole in the earth. The tires spun in the grass and dirt lining the side of the road, pinging the undercarriage with debris before I corrected the truck back onto the road.
“Are you thinking about it?” she asked.
“I’m considering it.”
“Because of River?”
“She would be part of it,” I admitted.
“And the other part?”
“We’ve been screwed over by angels and humans for thousands of years. I see no reason to be locked away in Hell again if we don’t have to be. Before it was necessary to keep our existence secret because that was the way our world coincided with the human world, but that isn’t necessary anymore. We no longer have to live in secret. Granted, a good chunk of the human population still doesn’t know we exist, but I see no reason why these desolate areas can’t become ours when this is over.”
“You’ll have demons around you all the time, looking to pass back and forth in order to feed and retain their immortality. You won’t be able to keep your gate open to allow us to survive on Earth. There are still things living within Hell that should never be allowed to roam free here,” she said.
Hunger seared through my veins and made my gut clench at the mention of feeding. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d fed. It had been longer than my customary week, but I couldn’t stop now, even if it would only take a few minutes to find some wraiths to feed from.
“There will be a lot to work out in the beginning, but I see no reason why we should be denied a world of light when we’re the ones helping to keep it that way,” I said. “Most will probably prefer to return to Hell, but some would probably stay.”
“Most will probably stay here,” she said quietly.
I glanced questioningly at her.
With a sigh, she rose up from where she’d been leaning against the door to sit straight in the seat. “Many of us prefer it here. It smells better. The humans can be annoying, but a few of them are enjoyable, and you have to admit, Earth is just an overall nicer place to be. We’re the monsters here, and I’m okay with that. Lucifer has to be stopped, the gateway has to be closed, but afterward, many would stay if they could.”
“Why didn’t you express this opinion before?”
“I never believed you would ever consider it. You were always so adamant about defeating Lucifer and returning to Hell. It is your throne.”
“It will be my throne here too.”
“What if the humans object?” she inquired.
“They won’t have any choice as far as I’m concerned.”
Bale’s mouth quirked in a smile. “No, they wouldn’t. We all would return to Hell with you if that was what you decided, but I’d prefer to stay. Hell was the only home we’d ever known for centuries, but I actually like this planet. Our queen is also here, and she’s one of the few humans I actually respect and admire, as do the others.”
A muscle twitched in my jaw as we bounced over another rut in the road. “If I could, I would take her mortality from her now, but I can’t try to do it until this is over. I can’t take the risk she won’t survive it while the gateway is still open.”
“I know.”
I focused on the road again as the headlights bounced over the broken asphalt before us. “We’re getting close to Pearl’s.”
But would it be in time?
***
River
“Come on,” Corson said.
He kept his back against the building as we made our way toward the trailer-less Mac trucks I’d seen parked beside the building when we first arrived. Slipping past the front tires of one, we knelt by the bumper of a large blue truck to survey the parking lot while Erin, Vargas, and Hawk kept an eye on the building behind us.
I could see our white pickup parked about a hundred and fifty feet away. It was so close yet so unbelievably far away. “Are we going to make a run for it?” Vargas inquired.
“They were right behind us inside the building. We might be able to make it,” I said.
“And if they split up before entering the building, or after they entered, and one of them is out front now?” Corson inquired. “Bullets hurt us, but they don’t stop demons, and your abilities are too sporadic to rely on right now.”
“They’ve gotten better,” I reminded him.
“They have, but are you willing to run out there and expose all of us to someone who may be waiting? These aren’t the same as the creatures we’ve seen so far. These are Lucifer’s followers, and if one of them isn’t a lower-level demon, then he has abilities.”
I shuddered at the implication of his words and the calculation our trackers were probably using. One of them would be waiting for us up front somewhere, and I had a feeling I knew who it would be. I felt trapped, pinned to the spot, as I glanced at the door behind us before turning back to look at our pickup again. Why couldn’t I have a vision when I really wanted to have one?
“Do you hear or see anything back there?” I asked.
“No one has come out yet,” Erin replied.
“They won’t be much longer,” Hawk said.
Vargas crept closer to the rest of us. “We can’t continue to sit here.”
“We wait to see who comes out the back,” Corson replied.
“And if they have split up and pin us in between them?” I asked.
“They’ve already pinned us if that’s the case.”
“What if we went around to the back of the building and out the other side of it? We’d have to leave the truck, but it sounds like we may have already been forced to abandon it.” As soon as I said this, my fingers curled with the compulsion to wrap them around the angel I’d left on the dashboard of the truck.
No such thing as a good luck charm.
Maybe not, but I wanted it back.
“We won’t have enough time to get by the door before they come out,” Corson said.
“We could get in one of these trucks and wait for them to come by,” Hawk suggested.
Corson’s head tipped back as he studied the doors above our heads. “Do it. You two, get in that one,” he pointed to Hawk and Erin before pointing at the blue truck to our left. “You get in that one,” he said to Vargas and pointed to the red one on our right. Finally, he turned to me. “You, come with me.”
The three of them rose and cautiously pulled open the doors of the trucks. Hawk waited for Erin to climb in before following behind her. Vargas didn’t bother with the door, but climbed up the side of the wheel well and in through the open passenger window. I followed Corson around the front of the red truck and over to a black one. Rising up, Corson slid his hand under the handle and cautiously pulled open the passenger side door before stepping aside and waving his hand for me to enter.
I scrambled inside. He climbed in behind me and noiselessly closed the door. “Stay down.”
He gestured for me to sit back so he could move in front of me on the bench seat to the driver’s side. Lying down, he tilted his head so he could watch the driver’s side mirror. I pushed my back against the seat and turned so I’d be able to see out the passenger mirror.
From my angle in the mirror, I saw more of the other trucks in the alley than anything else. I couldn’t see the door into the garage bay, but I could see enough of the alley that I would spot the demons when they were twenty feet away from the truck.
My heart pounded against my ribs, and sweat trickled down my forehead and temple. I steadied the tremor in my hand when I held my gun against my chest. I felt like I’d turned into a piece of stone as all of my muscles froze, and I barely breathed while time seemed to stretch on endlessly.
The interior of the truck reeked of mildew and something feral, probably mice or some other wild creature that had made this truck its home. Cracks lined the seat beneath me and springs jabbed me in my back and ass. Tufts of yellow cushion poked through the pieces of vinyl seating, which had been chewed off completely in some places. Light from the front of the building dimly illuminated the dashboard.
Something squeaked beneath the truck, causing Corson’s head to snap around and adrenaline to rush through me. When another squeal sounded, Corson relaxed and my shoulders sagged at the realization it was some animal making its way through the night. I lifted my head a little over the top of the dashboard, but I saw no shadows or movement on the brightly lit pavement in front of me.
Corson grasped my arm and jerked me down. He pointed at his ear before laying further down in his seat once more. My attention returned to the mirror as the first boot and pant leg stepped into view. I tensed and gritted my teeth together.
Another leg materialized and then a third and fourth, only two demons. I glanced at Corson, reading the truth in his eyes. The other one, and I knew it was Handsome, was at the front of the building, waiting for us.
The demons didn’t speak as they moved past my line of vision in the mirror, but stone crunched beneath their boots when they stopped beside the truck. I could almost feel them through the metal separating us, standing there, searching the night.
My lungs burned, but I refused to so much as breathe while I waited to see what they would do.
Then I heard the stone crunch again as their steps continued on. I didn’t kid myself into believing they would leave or think we’d somehow managed to escape them. No, they would be coming back and there was only one place for them to look when they did.