Lucas thinks for a moment. “That does make sense. Hiding the building from humans seems counterproductive.”
“Exactly. And if it moved from empty building to empty building, maybe the glamour was a last-ditch effort at keeping itself hidden. And then I found it and now it’s pissed. But that means if that thing was guarding something then it’s still out there.”
Lucas rests his forehead against mine. “Then we’ll find it.”
I double-knot the ties of my combat boots and slide the knife into a sheath on my belt.
“Something dead is inside,” Lucas tells me, smelling the air. “The blood smells human.”
“Great.” I look at the building looming ahead. We’re right along Lake Michigan on the outskirts of Chicago. “At least we can assume we found the missing hunter.”
Binx winds around my feet and the sounds of the lake echo against the large empty warehouse.
“Ready?” Lucas holds out his hand.
“I am.” I link my fingers through his, heart fluttering. “Thanks for coming with.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Callie. You know I enjoy ripping things apart second only to as much I enjoy being with you.”
“The couple that slays demons together…” I start and laugh, trying to cover up my nerves. I downplayed this the entire way here. Rats turning into demonic dogs from Hell? We can handle that. Demonic dogs from Hell merging into one giant hellhound?
Been there, done that.
We got this.
Right?
Right…
The building is boarded up, and the smell of rotted wood and animal droppings is strong before Lucas yanks the plywood off the door, letting us in. I bring my hand to my face, covering my nose. Binx shadows in ahead of us and Lucas steps in first, holding out his hand and helping me over the rubble.
This place was most recently a restaurant that closed five years ago when the owner got in trouble with the IRS. It’s been empty since then and if it weren’t for the steel mill run off in the background, I’m sure this place would have been snatched up quickly.
“Can you tell where the smell of blood is coming from?”
“Yes,” Lucas says. “We’re getting close.”
Binx checks out the hall ahead of us and comes back, not wanting to leave me in case a demon dog attacks. Lucas and I carefully pick our way down the main hall, which splits the first floor down the middle. The restaurant portion is on the side that faces the water, and the other side is full of storage.
“It’s so quiet in here,” I whisper. “And yes, I know I’m jinxing us. I’m doing it on purpose.”
“You know I don’t believe in jinxes.” Lucas tears another boarded door off the wall as if it was nothing at all. He drops it to the ground and dust flies up in the air. I wave my hand in my face and cough.
Stepping through the doorway, we find a staircase. We’re halfway up when something clatters above us.
“Still don’t believe in jinxes?” I whisper to Lucas. He reaches behind him for my hand. I slip my left hand into his, conjuring an energy ball with my other hand. Binx goes ahead of us, shadowing over broken floorboards. Lucas stops, turning to scoop me up so he can jump over the last three steps, which are warped and water-damaged, and look like they will cave away if we were to step on them.
I put out the energy ball so I don’t burn his flesh as we move up the rest of the stairs. Lucas puts me down and I conjure up a string of magic, twisting it between my fingers. It’s dark up here, with no light coming in from outside.
“Wait.” I reach for Lucas, hooking my fingers around his. I hold up my other hand, energy ball glowing bright above us. “Do you feel that?”
Lucas slowly shakes his head. “I smell blood, though. It’s fresh.”
“Shit.” Bad energy presses into me, surrounding me like humidity and making it hard to breathe. Where is the man with the blue eyes? If that demon-creature-thing is here, why isn’t he? A chill runs down my spine and I suddenly get an overwhelming feeling that we shouldn’t be here, and it was a mistake to hunt this demon.
I push my fears away and give Lucas’s hand a squeeze. If there is a demon out there killing people, it has to be stopped. And there’s no one I’d rather go into battle with than Lucas.
“There’s something in the next room,” Lucas tells me, voice barely audible. “I can hear it moving.”
“Does it sound human?”
Lucas waits a beat. “Maybe. It’s shuffling, like it’s dragging a foot.”
“Binx, go check it out,” I tell my familiar. His dark shadow disappears, slipping through a crack in the wall. No sooner does he vanish from sight, something else moves behind us. Lucas whirls around and dashes in front of me, protecting me from whatever is lurking in the dark.
Whatever it is lunges at him. I hold up my hand and the blue string of magic I’m holding turns bright white. The creature lets out a shriek of pain, and Lucas shoves it away. It hits the wall and falls apart into a dozen wriggling pieces.
“Fucking rats again!” I throw the energy ball at them and they go up in flames. Lucas hurries over to me, fangs bared. “If this demon wants to confuse the hell out of me, he’s succeeding.”
Lucas looks at the smoldering pile of dead rats. “Something about this is familiar.”
“Deranged creatures turning into rats?”
His brow furrows. “No…the smell of the blood and the rats.” He shakes his head and takes my hand again. My heart is racing and adrenaline floods through me.
“Do you hear anything else?” I flick my eyes to Lucas’s face. “There’s no way this is over yet.”
“No,” he agrees. “It was too easy. Almost like it was testing us.”
“And now that it knows it’s up against a vampire and a witch, they’re going to pull out all the big guns.” I close my eyes and shake my head. “Let’s just hope it’s not hellhounds again.”
The floorboards creak and Lucas turns, looking at something I can’t see in the dark.
“I was wrong,” he starts. “You did jinx us.”
Chapter 24
A low growl rumbles through the dark. Lucas, growling back, pulls his lips up over his fangs and sprints forward. I conjure an energy ball, lighting up the room. Long shadows are cast on the walls, and that thing is only yards from us. It looks just like the other hellhounds, and blood-tinged saliva drips from its yellowed fangs.
“Lucas, duck!” I yell, bringing my hands together, feeding the energy ball. It glows bigger and brighter. I throw the energy ball at the creature, aiming for its shoulder on purpose. It hits right where I wanted and burns through the creature’s skin and down to the muscle.
I don’t waste any time. Planting my foot down, I thrust my hand forward and throw it against the wall behind it. It cracks against the drywall, splintering the frame, and then slumps to the ground.
Lucas moves so fast I can’t tell what he’s doing until a sickening crack of bones rings out, twisting the creature’s head around. As soon as he drops it, the thing explodes into rats, all dead expect one.
“Wait,” I yell as Lucas goes to stomp on it. The thing writhes around on the ground, trying to get off its back. “It might go back to—I don’t know—a home base or something.”
Lucas nods. “A pied piper, so to speak.”
“Binx,” I call, thinking we might need him to shadow through small spaces. “Where are you?” The ra
t struggles to get to its feet and starts to limp away, jumping over the bodies of other rats.
My familiar shadows down the hall.
“Follow it,” I tell him, and he takes off, slipping through another crack in the wall.
“Can you sense him?” Lucas asks and I nod, raising a finger and pointing to the wall.
“They’re in there. Binx says they’re moving down.”
Lucas picks me up and jumps down the stairs in one leap. We’re back in the restaurant portion of the building, in the main dining hall. White sheets cover the tables, and chairs are stacked against the wall. I mentally call out to Binx, getting a feel for him.
“The kitchen.”
Lucas takes my hand and starts forward. We’re in the middle of the large room when something jumps down from the ceiling, landing on Lucas’s back. He falls to the ground and I jerk back, bumping into a table. I throw out my hand at the last second, sending a wave of energy at whatever the hell is on Lucas.
The creature has a strong hold on him, and instead of being blown off Lucas’s back, it pulls him with as the magic shoves it back. They tumble through a glass window and fall several feet onto a warped and broken deck.
“Lucas!” Strings of magic sizzle around my fingers and I take off, running after them. I skid to a stop at the broken window. The glass is jagged and sharp. Heart in my throat, I freeze for a second, taken over with panic.
Then I shake myself, grab a dusty sheet from the table and throw it over the glass. Glass still bites into the palm of my hand, but I make it out more or less unscathed. Every nerve in my body is on edge, and I’m breathing so hard I’m on the verge of hyperventilating.