That awkward moment when I forgot that Kevin had a broken arm. It's back now, haha.
"For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Leo
Leo wrinkled his nose. "That looks bad."
Kevin offered a wry smile as he rolled his pant leg back down. "It feels bad, too. Better than it was, though."
Leo nodded, holding down a gag. Kevin's calf was a mess, a healing infection that was hard to look at. Chase's nose had been dead-on, it seemed. Kevin was in bad shape between that and the sloppy sling his arm had been thrown in. "You need to see somebody about that. I think the army – "
"It's as good as it's going to get." Kevin sat back in his chair, sighing. "They found antibiotics in the destroyed hospital. It's fine." Kevin waved Leo's concern away with his good arm.
Leo's eyes followed the wave to see Bree, Ysthry, Yahn, and Oly standing in the corner. Bree was staring a Hunter down as he stood guard, fidgeting with his gun. He wasn't comfortable with a weapon in his hands, Leo guessed. Or maybe it was Oly, who was perched on Bree's shoulder and waving a claw at him, claiming that she wasn't touching the guy. Yahn hid behind Bree's legs, his eyes darting around. Ysthry was curled up on the floor, her stingers tapping the tile as her tail twitched. Having them corralled in a corner was strange, but Bree standing guard over them was stranger.
Leo hoped a fight didn't break out. Bree could slice through a rifle with that hidden sword, but if ten people were shooting at her, it wouldn't matter.
Turning his attention back to Kevin, Leo forced a smile. "Deus ex hospital, huh?"
Kevin snorted a laugh. "Exactly." The smile faded from his face after a second. "They wanted to cut it off for a while there, so I'll take it. At least I'll actually survive."
Leo nodded. Silence descended on them for a few seconds before Leo blurted out a question that had been eating at him since they found Kevin. "Why didn't they shoot you?" Leo had heard so much about the threat of Hunters over the past couple of months. They would kill Summoners, demons, and traitors on sight, right? They even enabled Kevin's addiction to get him to cooperate. They were horrible people, so how did Kevin survive?
Kevin winced, looking down at the floor. "I told them I knew how to kill Soad." He hesitated, then looked up and turned his palm towards the ceiling, holding it around shoulder level while he shrugged. "I mean, I have an idea of how, but it's more of a hunch than anything. We couldn't use magic because of Azazel's Bane, so…." Kevin took a deep breath, looking down again. His leg started bouncing as he continued. "I refused to tell them the theory I had. I figured they'd get desperate and listen to me after a while. Instead, James went for Douglas."
Leo watched Kevin, frowning. "And Perry?"
"Left for dead." Kevin shifted his weight in his chair, still focused on the floor. He rubbed his eyes, hissing through his teeth. "James is…." He dropped his hand, sighing again. "She didn't deserve what happened to her. James should've shot her instead of leaving her buried under rubble with a broken back."
Leo flinched back into his chair. "How did she get there?"
"Xaranthi resented her Master. She shoved us both into a bunch of stuff Soad sent flying."
Leo sucked in a breath. Perry could handle everything…except an afrit that resented her. He glanced at Ysthry for a second at the idea that Xaranthi killed Perry indirectly. Ysthry almost got Leo killed once. She had convinced him that spying on the Hunters himself was better than having Kevin do it, knowing full well that the Hunters would catch him. Ysthry claimed it was because Leo didn't let her sleep on his pillow, but was that true? It was such flimsy reasoning, especially now that he was really thinking about it. Was she trying to kill him, too?
Did Leo want to know the truth?
Kevin nudged Leo with his elbow, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Are you okay?"
Leo swallowed, nodding. "Yeah, just thinking."
Kevin nodded himself, watching the group in the corner. After a second, Kevin leaned closer to Leo, lowering his voice. "She's bionic, too?"
Leo's eyes flicked to Bree now. At least Kevin knew how to keep his voice down. Leo leaned closer himself. "Yeah. She has super speed and agility. She can stick to the ceiling like Spiderman. It's awesome."
Kevin sank into his chair, swallowing as his leg bounced. "Anything else?"
Leo shifted his weight in the chair, nodding. "She can imitate voices and sounds, too." He shrugged, smiling at Kevin. "Chase has super-intelligence, if you wanted to know about him. It's like he has a computer in his head."
Kevin offered Leo a tight smile. "That explains so much."
Leo raised an eyebrow as Kevin wiped his palm on his jeans. "How are you going to date Douglas if you're so scared of technology?" It had been bothering Leo since he first heard of Kevin's anxiety. Now that the guy knew about bionics, Leo was surprised Kevin was around at all.
Kevin shrugged a shoulder. "It's complicated, you know? Douglas is…complicated." He hesitated for a second, then sighed. "It's not technology that's the problem. It's robots specifically." He glanced at Leo. "They're going to take over the world someday. You watch."
Leo felt that Kevin had watched The Terminator one too many times. Maybe it was a fear born of drug abuse. He couldn't be sure. Leo leaned forward in his chair, nodding towards Bree. "Okay, but these guys aren't robots."
Kevin sat forward. "But – "
"They aren't robots," Leo repeated. "They'll explode if you call them that. They're people with bionic enhancements, like – " Leo struggled for a second, trying to think of a comparison. He looked around the Lab, eyes flitting from tool to tool until he saw a soldering iron. Last he saw, Douglas had been using it to repair his fake wrist. "Like Douglas' hand."
Kevin looked skeptical even as he nodded. Leo figured it would take a long time for Kevin to accept that Adam, Bree, and Chase wouldn't lose their humanity. He was just relieved that Kevin wasn't reporting everybody to the authorities about it.
The man in question opened his mouth but snapped it shut again as Mr. Davenport stormed into the room, two Hunters cowering behind him. Trevor skirted around the group, running towards Leo and Kevin with a small object in his hands. Meanwhile, Mr. Davenport waved at sealed crates of supplies piled up in the middle of the Lab. "If any of those are silver, get them next," he ordered with a scowl. The Hunters scrambled around him, scooping up a couple of boxes and turning to follow him back into the tunnels. Mr. Davenport was displeased that his Lab had been infested by Hunters – he was less pleased that Kevin had led them there – but he hadn't sent them packing. Sarah said they had refugees from the attacks that destroyed the city, and Mr. Davenport wasn't willing to turn them away.
They had worked out a deal: everyone could stay until the people were evacuated safely, but Mr. Davenport was in charge of where and how everything was organized. It was his Lab, after all. Sarah had stipulated that only Hunters were allowed to touch their supplies.
Trevor slid to a stop in front of Kevin and Leo, waving a metal can around in the air. Leo's eyes widened. He didn't think that had survived Douglas blowing the first Lab up. Trevor shook it towards the two men, trying to catch his breath from the climb up from the Lab basement. "What's this thing?"
Leo reached out, tapping it. This was the start of every problem they'd ever had, as far as Leo was concerned. He suppressed a scowl at the memory of Marcus smashing his own guitar, the fucker. "It's a Concert in a Can."
Kevin frowned as Trevor climbed into a chair by Kevin. "A what?"
Leo held out his hand for the can, the corner of his mouth twitching. How much did Kevin really know about Douglas? "It's a long story."
Chase
"Djinni, two o'clock."
Sarah's head whipped around at my words, raising her gun. Her companion – some young guy named Anthony – ducked behind her, his rifle shaking in his hands. He grabbed the crucifix on his necklace only for Sarah to bark a sharp, "Don't."
I didn't spare them more than a glance, but I flicked an ear at Sarah. The last thing we needed was for Anthony to set off that fear spell the Hunters did. We might as well light a flare for the rest of the demons in Mission Creek to find us. The second he dropped the effect, they'd be closing in for the kill. Meanwhile, Adam ignored them, squinting into the distance. My tail twitched as he leaned forward, climbing on the pile of rubble I had perched on. "Where?"
I wasn't surprised by the question. He only had one eye to work with, and my pupils were better at filtering out light noise than his were. If I added in bionic sight, I had an advantage over these people and their puny vision. I pointed towards motion in the distance. "See that dark spot up there? Djinni." I couldn't make out a ton of details, but it was too large to be an imp and too small for an afrit. That said djinni to me!
Rubble crunched and shifted as Sarah appeared on my other side, looking down the sights on her weapon. "What's it doing?"
"Digging through something, I think." I flicked my ears, standing up straight and hopping off the rubble pile. "I don't think it knows we're here."
Adam's attention shifted to Sarah as she watched the distant demon. He kept a close eye on her and Anthony since we left the Lab to find Douglas and Tasha. I couldn't blame him; this was a tense arrangement. I was sure the only reason Sarah had agreed to let me come along was that she wanted to see Adam's Charming nonsense in action. That, and I argued hard that I could see a demon long before she could.
Sarah saw four planes; she was on par with an imp. I saw nine. Nobody was sneaking up on me.
Speaking of Sarah, she turned away from the demon, skirting around the debris pile. "If we don't bother it, it shouldn't bother us."
Adam shrugged, still watching her. "If it does, don't shoot. I can handle one djinni."
I resented that, but only slightly. It was too easy to fall into Adam's words if I wasn't paying attention. Besides, there was a look in his eye as he said it that I didn't like. It was like he was wary of the djinni in the distance. That was strange for someone who used to talk to all kinds of demons. I frowned, perking my ears in his direction and cocking my head. Adam smiled at me, the effect oddly lop-sided. He could still smile, but the corner of his mouth couldn't rise as high on the scarred side of his face. It took a couple of seconds of staring at that for Adam's reluctance to click.
A djinni had done that to him despite his musical voice, if I understood the story correctly. That had to leave a mark.
Sarah focused on me, looking me up and down as she answered Adam. "I sure hope so."
I pinned my ears, resisting the urge to growl. I wasn't going to snap on them without reason. I looked like a monster, but I wasn't one.
Sarah stepped over a few bricks, jerking her gun a bit. "Go."
Now, I'm sure you know that I'm not one for blatant orders like that. 'Go,' my ass. I had all kinds of training on navigating a disaster zone, and Sarah wasn't Mr. Davenport. I drew in a breath, opening my mouth to protest when Adam nudged my lower back. "Come on. The sooner we find James, the better."
I let my breath out in a hiss at Adam's words, lowering my shoulders. At least I could lean into his soothing aura to get over the sting of listening to a Hunter. The idea was beyond annoying, like Douglas when he rubbed my fur in the wrong direction to ruffle my feathers. I wanted nothing more than to take Adam and hunt for James and his posse ourselves, but it was essential to work with Sarah. For starters, she knew where James would be entering town again.
More importantly, I kind of wanted to see what Kevin was planning with this whole 'talk to a Summoner' thing. Spineless traitor that he was, Kevin wasn't an idiot. There was more to this than the two sides getting along; there had to be. Summoners and Hunters would never see eye-to-eye on the subject of demons. I doubted Kevin had the holy grail of a solution, but if he had something to stop the fighting for even a little while, I wanted to know what it was.
I stumbled over some drywall as I followed Sarah, yelping as I caught my balance. God, this place really was destroyed. I had no idea where I was, and I'd lived in Mission Creek my entire life. I nudged a rock with my shoe, sighing. Why here? Why couldn't Soad wreck some other place? We were doing just fine without him, thank you very much. Could people even rebuild this place now? Would they even try? I couldn't imagine going through a town's destruction and coming back. So much trauma had to be involved with that, and that was assuming that people could tolerate digging up the corpses in the rubble here. I could sure smell them. Could the others, or were we all ignoring it for our sanity?
Not for the first time, I caught myself being grateful that I wasn't here to see it. Don't get me wrong, I felt a surge of guilt that I wasn't here to help anybody survive this, but that little part of me always balked from dangerous, horrifying things.
I was human, after all. Anybody who lacked that sense of self-preservation was a liar, as far as I was concerned.
Sarah was all business as she wound through debris, holding her rifle like she knew how to use it. It wouldn't surprise me if she was ex-military or something. At the very least, she knew how to lead and shoot. Anthony, on the other hand, was nervous as all hell. He glanced around, jumping at every sound he heard. Sarah was training him on this patrol, if I was right. I would rather have a more experienced person with us, though. Anthony might shoot his own foot on accident with how he was handling that rifle of his. He hopped over a large sign on the ground, the burnt shell proudly proclaiming this as the Red Cross.
The first place I'd ever seen a Hunter. Ironic that I was following them through the area now. I took several steps sideways towards Adam, who patted my shoulder.
Anthony glanced at me, then at Adam. "Why do you treat it like a pet?"
Adam's jaw ticked as he clenched it. "He's not a pet. Don't say that again."
I stuck my tongue out at Anthony, pinning my ears as Sarah slowed down to watch us. "You're not wrong; that's not a pet." She avoided looking at Adam as she went on. "It'll probably tear your other eye out, given a chance. Why do you keep it around?"
I stopped, my half-tail whipping in the air. "Okay, both of you line up. I have to kick both of your asses now."
"Take it easy," Adam muttered, grabbing my arm as Anthony's eyes widened. I growled even as Adam turned his attention to Sarah. "I know him. He won't hurt me."
Sarah arched an eyebrow, stopping herself now. "Are you sure about that?"
Adam nodded, but Anthony took a step back and clutched his gun tighter. "I don't trust it."
I glared at him, crossing my arms. "You'd be stupid if you did." I left out the part where he'd be stupid to trust any demon he didn't know. It was more satisfying to watch his face pale. Adam didn't say anything to correct me, either. Summoning 101 had a long chunk of rules about not trusting demons.
Sarah cleared her throat. "If you're done scaring our youth, we should move."
Scaring the youth? Really? I perked my ears towards Anthony as everyone started moving again. "Wait, how old are you?"
Anthony shuffled closer to Sarah, narrowing his eyes. "Nineteen. Why?"
Adam laughed, holding up his fist for a bump. "No way! I'm eighteen!"
I slowed down again, blinking as that sentence washed over me. According to my calculations – Otherworld time factored in and everything – I was eighteen now, too. Hell, Bree was nineteen. Adam wasn't the oldest anymore. They'd only been a few months apart to begin with, but now Bree was a year ahead of him. On Earth, though, it'd only been a month, right? Technically, I should still be seventeen. Was Bree still eighteen since her physical body was here the whole time? How would all of that work?
Anthony glanced at Adam's hand and smiled, clutching his rifle again. "Neat."
I shook my head to clear my thoughts, focusing on Sarah. "You brought a nineteen-year-old as backup?"
Sarah fixed me with a stern look. "It's not your business what I do."
That wasn't a good answer. I hissed, shifting closer to Adam to escape Sarah's scrutiny. It mattered if they were training kids for war, yeah. I would know all about that; Mr. Davenport had done it to us, and it destroyed one's psyche. Anthony was nineteen, sure, but I doubted he was the youngest. Yet another reason to tear this organization down, as far as I was concerned.
Sarah ruined the glaring I threw her way by not caring at all. Instead, she squinted ahead, frowning. "I see someone."
Anthony raised his gun immediately, sucking in a breath. Adam squinted and stepped forward as I raised up on my tip-toes. A slight breeze blew long strands of hair across my face as I saw what Sarah was looking at. "It's a group." I ran through the planes before I added, "Humans, all of them."
Adam took hold of my uninjured wing gently. "Is it them?"
"I think so." I hesitated to get closer in case I was wrong, but details were coming into focus. The group stumbled through the ruins, dragging their feet like they'd walked all night. As moments passed and they approached, I could see why now. They looked like they went through Hell on the way here. Then, a familiar face swam into view. My head jerked back a bit as my eyes widened. "Sam?"
"Sam?" Adam wrinkled up his nose, scratching behind an ear. "Are your eyes working?"
Hell yeah, Sam was a survivor! I didn't lose a friend in all of this! I swatted Adam's arm. "Yeah, my eyes are fine." I ignored Sarah swinging her gun towards me for a split second before she lowered it. "Douglas and Tasha are with them, too. They're with four other guys."
"James took five with him," Sarah said, frowning herself.
"It's four now." I shrugged, dropping down from standing on my toes. "They're leading one around, Douglas is limping, and one guy's shirt looks burnt, so something happened." After a second, I turned towards Sarah and pinned my ears. "You better hope they're okay."
Sarah snorted. "You won't – "
"You better hope they're okay," Adam parroted, glowering. It was one thing to have me growling at you, right? You know, demons and shit. It was something else to have Adam staring you down. Nothing was scarier than the gentle giant threatening to tear you in half! Anthony swallowed, slipping around to Sarah's other side to get someone between him and Adam.
As for Sarah, she pressed her lips into a thin line. "There's only one way to find out, then." She held Adam's eyes for a few seconds, then started for the group. Anthony scrambled after her, clutching his weapon against his chest.
Before Adam could follow, I grabbed his arm and lowered my voice. "Hang on a second."
Adam turned towards me, scowling. He fidgeted from foot to foot, glancing between Sarah and me. "What?"
I perked my ears up, holding onto his arm still. "I don't know what Kevin's doing, but don't ruin it by hurting somebody…yet. Okay?"
Adam crossed his arms, his fingers flexing as he held his forearms. "I wasn't going to start punching people or anything." After a second of me staring at him, Adam stomped a foot. "They kidnapped Mom and Douglas. You expect me to be happy about that?"
I shook my head. "Of course not. I expect you to be smart about it." I raised a finger to make my point. "Look, we're outnumbered, okay? I doubt Douglas, Tasha, or Sam are in any condition to fight. All of them have silver bullets, guaranteed, so I won't get very far. And you – "
"I'm bionic," Adam muttered. "You're bionic. You have a forcefield."
"A bullet will still put you down, dumbass," I hissed. I squeezed his arm for emphasis. "I can't guard everybody with that forcefield." I took a breath, then started over. "Look, I get it, okay? I don't know what we'll see when we meet them. Just don't go in there and start snapping people in half. We can get everybody back to the Lab and go from there, okay?"
Adam's good eye glowed red, firing a laser into a pile of rubble beside me. I guessed the djinni's claws wrecked the bionics in his blind eye. Colorful eyepatches were on the table for Adam then. He'd probably love that in the long run. "Fine," he spat, rubbing his eyes.
I let go of Adam's arm, straightening out my shirt. "Thank you."
Sarah's voice reached us from several feet away as she called out to us. "Get up here before I put you down, demon!"
Adam ground his teeth. "Chase – "
"Later," I growled, pinning my ears. Sarah was pushing my buttons, for sure. I started after her and Anthony, my tail twitching in the air. "We just need to get back to the Lab."
I saw the second everyone in James' group recognized who they were looking at flick across their faces. Douglas and Tasha were in disbelief, both calling out first my name, then Adam's. Sam looked ready to bolt as we closed in, and three Hunters were focused on me in an instant. The last one had a blood-stained cloth tied around his eyes as he reached out, finding Tasha's shoulder with his hand. She tensed, glancing at his fingers, but she couldn't do anything about it. Her hands were tied behind her back. Douglas and Sam were in the same state, bound so they couldn't use their arms. It was a good thing I warned Adam not to break people. I raised my hands as three rifles were trained on me. Anthony bolted to the other group, working his way into the ranks of men with visible relief. Sarah stayed with us, though, holding up a hand herself. "Stand down, stand down."
Two of the Hunters glanced at each other, then at the one with the burned clothing. That guy didn't move until Adam put himself between the guns and me like an idiot. The man glanced between Sarah and me. "What's going on?"
Sarah waved at Adam. "He's a demon charmer of some kind. They like to listen to him." She smiled at the guy – James, I presumed; he looked like he was in charge of these guys. "We moved from the sewers. We're here to escort you to the new base." She gave James a challenging look. "So stand down."
I rolled my eyes even as Tasha cleared her throat. "So…when did you guys get back?"
Douglas was less subtle about it, favoring his leg in a way that bunched up some torn cloth around his waist. He was way paler than I remembered him being. It undercut the hope in his voice as he asked, "What about Bree? Is she back, too?"
I grinned, nodding with my thumbs up. "Mission accomplished. We're back."
Sam slunk behind Douglas, trying to vanish into the background. I frowned, perking my ears as I watched her. Wasn't she happy to see us? What was her problem?
Tasha broke into that line of thinking. "When did your hair get so long, sweetheart? Why is your wing wrapped up like that?"
I lowered my ears, smiling as I let out a purr that drew a startled look from more than one Hunter. "It's a long story." It'd probably be easier if Bree was around to tell it, anyways. I pointed at Douglas. "What's with the bandages?"
Douglas glanced at James, then at Adam. "Long story short, someone can't fight fair." He winced. "Where are we going? I want to sit for a while."
Tasha nodded, blowing out a breath. Everybody else in that group looked like they wanted to take a long nap. All except James, who was staring at Sarah with wide-eyed fury. "What do you mean, 'stand down'? You can't – "
"I mean, you're temporarily relieved of command," Sarah answered, calm as ever. When James opened his mouth, Sarah cut him off yet again. "Yes, it's a coup. Just until we figure out what's about to happen."
Adam leaned close to me, whispering. "Was this part of the plan?"
I frowned, watching James' eyes practically bug out of his head at that. "I have no idea what's going on."
