Vengeance of the Demon (Kara Gillian 7)

“I needed to see her. To talk to her.” Knight tried to look beyond me, toward the valve. Frantic. Distressed. “She was here.”

She? “Hang on. You mean Jill’s baby? The bean is the twelfth?” I tried to make that fit into the larger picture but my brain had put up the No Vacancy sign.

His head lolled. “Tried . . . to get here.”

Four men approached carrying a litter, and I quietly died of relief. “You did good, Marco. Real good.” I gently disengaged from his grip and stepped back to give the pros room to work. “These guys are going to take good care of you now.”

Near the collapsed section of the police station, workers wrestled a rescue litter up through a hole in the rubble. Who didn’t make it out? I mustered energy and clambered over minivan-sized chunks of concrete toward them. Scott Glassman grabbed hold of the litter along with two others and heaved it to the surface. My breath caught. Cory. Strapped to a backboard, head immobilized, and too much blood.

I looked to Scott in horror as they carried him away. “Is he . . . ?”

Scott dragged a hand over his face, smearing soot and grime. “They don’t know. Head injury, and his legs were pinned.”

Acid filled my mouth. This was too real, too close to home. “He cleared the building! I saw him.”

“He and Dustin went back to get the prisoners out. Dustin’s trapped but says he’s okay.”

Throat tight, I nodded. “I have to take care of some stuff. Can you keep me posted? Please.”

“No problem.” His eyes flicked toward the valve then back to me. Now that slaying demons wasn’t a priority, he had questions. Lots.

“Glassman!” the chief called from the still-standing corner of the building. “We need your help.”

“Duty bellows,” Scott said with a We’ll talk later look, then jogged that way. He could ask me all the questions he wanted after I showered and slept for a million years.

“Hey, Kara!” Tim Daniels climbed over a fallen light pole, uniform filthy and face scraped. “I don’t know if you heard.” His face was sad and serious. Aching fatigue settled on me like a lead blanket. I couldn’t handle any more bad news. “It’s your aunt’s shop,” he said with a sympathetic wince. “Everyone got out safely, but the place was completely destroyed. I’m so sorry.”

The lead blanket lifted to be replaced by a chorus of sparkly singing birdies. I slapped both hands over my mouth and did my best to make my hysterical laughter look like sobs. Tim gave me an awkward pat on the shoulder.

“Thanks, Tim,” I finally managed. “She’ll be so upset. I’ll have to think of the right way to break the news to her.” Stripper-gram?

I left the wreckage of the station and made my way back to the truck. Idris gulped water from a bottle, pale but appearing more grounded. Bryce passed the Malibu key to Pellini and pointed down the side street. “It’s parked by the Kwik-E Mart. Can’t miss it.” He looked to me. “We’re good to go.”

“Works for me.” I glanced at Pellini, dismayed to see how bloodshot his eyes were. “According to Knight, something big happened near Ruthie’s Smoothies.”

Pellini straightened. “That’s where Knight and I went the day I left you at the diner.” He winced and shuddered. “Maybe that’s why my bones are itching like crazy.”

“Mine too,” I said, “though not as bad as earlier.”

Bryce shrugged. “Not me,” he said. Idris nodded in agreement with Bryce.

Just Pellini and me. Weird. I pulled my hands over my face, sighed. “As much as I hate to say it, we need to go check it out.”

Pellini held up the key. “Idris and I can handle it. We have to check the node for this valve anyway, and Ruthie’s is on the way to the warehouse. Bryce is heading home in my truck with Jill.” He made a shooing motion with one hand. “You should go with them.”

Bryce spoke before I could argue that Pellini needed a break as much as I did. “Good plan,” he said. “Jill needs the support.” He graciously didn’t add, and Kara is an exhausted mess who’ll be more trouble than she’s worth.

Fine. I knew when I was beaten. “Let’s get out of here.”

Idris slung his messenger bag over his shoulder and headed off through the rubble with Pellini.

“I’ll drive,” I said to Bryce when he opened the back door for me. “I need the distraction. That is, if you’re okay with sitting by Jill.”

He hesitated, no doubt wondering if I was up to it, then climbed in the back. “Get us home in one piece.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah yeah yeah.”

My cockiness aside, it took every remaining shred of my focus to navigate through the affected area. Debris was everywhere, and gaping fissures split the pavement in places. I gave emergency vehicles right of way and spent minutes at a time waiting to drive the next leg After a three block drive that felt as if it took an eternity, we rolled out of the devastated area. Like night and day. No gradual dissipation of energy and destruction as in an explosion. A sharp line of demarcation. Even some buildings were half wrecked and half pristine. Un-fucking real.