Demons (Darkness #4) (2 page)

Jack stepped forward with balanced grace, something I didn’t expect from a stocky, barrel-chested man swinging muscular arms. His gold-hazel eyes connected with mine, giving me a weird kind of thrill—like being stalked on a prairie somewhere. “It was a pleasure fighting beside you.”

“Or under you, like a pony,” Jonas rumbled from beside the door, staring straight ahead in his “I am ignoring all things human or
Mata
” default pose.

I rolled my eyes. To Jack I said, “Don’t mind him, he’s just mad no one likes him.”

Jonas clenched his jaw.

“And
Ann, whom you know, I believe,” Tim went on with a smirk.

Ann stepped forward with a beaming smile, her customary shock of blue hair, and a hug. “Hi! Long time no see.”

“It’s been a week,” I laughed.

“Yeah.
A week without a girl my own speed to talk to. I just have these grim party poopers.”

Tim cleared his throat, eliciting an evil smile from Ann.

“Well, cool,” I said, bobbing my head, happy to be alive. I had friends, a clan, a handsome boyfriend and a guy that wanted to adopt me—my life was turning out a-okay.

To Ann I said, “At least I have someone that gets my sense of humor.”

“
Everyone else will come around, trust me,” she replied.

“Doubtful.” Jonas stepped forward, suddenly action. “Let’s get going. I got things to do.”

“I
am
your things to do,” I shot back as Jonas grabbed me by the arm and hauled me toward the door.

“I know.
And you’re getting behind.”

“Our working relationship is not exactly professional,” I muttered as
Jonas walked me out of the house and left me at the driver’s side door of a giant black Hummer.

“What, not going to open the door for me?”
I asked sarcastically as I pulled open the door and scrambled up inside. The responding glare shut me up.

We rolled up
to a decrepit building in the industrial part of town. The structure stood in the middle of the run-down block, crumbling and abandoned. Jagged windows dotted the face, littering broken glass on the dirty sidewalk lining its front. Boards covered the doors and graffiti marred the pockmarked brick.

We go
t out of the car and surveyed the building for a moment, waiting for Tim and the others to pull up. “Quaint,” I said in a hush, scooting closer to Jonas.

Jonas stalked toward the boarded front door, his feet crunching glass and debris
into the hard pavement. The sounds echoed along the quiet street, pinging off the walls and disintegrating into the silence. I followed, knowing that with him around, the only people in their right mind who would pick a fight with us were his kind of people. I could handle magic workers; it was the gun carriers I was concerned about—my kind.

“You okay?” Tim asked, stepping beside me and rubbing my back to calm my nerves.

“
No sweat. Kinda. So…why are we here, again? Territory breach?”

Jack and
Ann split up, each walking in a diagonal line toward the opposite corners of the building.

“
Stefan had reports of a breach, but we have two pack members missing. Last we know, they were in this part of town. We’re wondering if the two are related,” Tim informed me, his acute focus scanning the building in front of us.

A loud screech echo
ed down the street as Jonas ripped off the board across the front entryway. His arms and back bunched with thick, lethal muscle. The wood groaned as it bent, hanging on with steel claws. It was no match for Jonas’ strength, though. A moment later, the board flew to the side, jarring my teeth as it banged off the concrete and slid to a stop.

I took two loud breaths as silence once agai
n descended on our surroundings. If anyone was around, we’d just made our presence known.

Jack disappeared beyond the corner o
f the building. A moment later, Ann did, too.

“Sasha—
“ Jonas motioned me near. He stepped into the gaping black of the doorway.

“Oh
man,
” I whined, tiptoeing closer.

Tim stayed at my back, eyes scanning the street and then the darkened face of the building. Jonas spared him one irritated glance before honing in on me.

“I need you to sense for magic. Something doesn’t feel right, and it
certainly
doesn’t smell right. It’s too subtle for me to pick up, though.”

“Do I have to go inside?” I whispered
. I rubbed my arms as the lifeless building pressed down around me. It felt hollowed, somehow. Gutted and left for dead.

Jonas stared at me for a long
, stern-faced beat. “Yes.”

I pushed the air out of m
y lungs, a swear riding the wave. I could sprint into danger with a grin and a rape whistle, but this slow creeping into the unknown was not high on my list of loves.

Goosebumps spread
across my arms as I crossed the threshold, a feeling of disquiet smearing over my skin like lotion. I barely heard Jonas’ voice speaking to Tim as the cold, dank air washed over me. “Your magic will throw things off, mongrel. Stay outside.”

Tim growled out some sort of threat, but I couldn’t focus on that now. Prickles dotted
my exposed flesh, foul magic eating through my senses. Jonas had it right: something was definitely off.

I put out my hands in front of me like a blind person feeling their way in. The rush of power, slippery and hard to control, filled my body as I called the elements, combating the polluted power in the room with blissful joy. My foot went lopsided on a discarde
d board, popping it out from under my shoe, skittering across the floor in a dull collection of tinkles.

T
he shadows crouched in the corners of the enormous, empty space, watching me. Moonlight filtered in from jagged, broken windows along the outside of the structure, casting an unearthly glow. My breath rang through my ears, unnaturally loud, interrupting the stillness of a tomb.

This was a very bad idea. I could feel it. How did I land myself in this job, again?

Filling my lungs and then holding it, I inched closer to the back of the warehouse. Large beams crossed above me and touched down periodically, keeping the sagging ceiling in place far above my head. A ring of black along the side wall advertised an old firepit for someone down on their luck. I kept my eyes pointed down, wary of needles and other items lazily discarded after a night of partying.

As I got halfway through the open space, a
vulgar feeling began to crawl up my skin like tiny insects. The sickly sweet smell of rotting flesh tickled my nose.

“I’ve never felt anything like this before,” I said quietly,
passing my hands through the air. “Although, granted, I haven’t had a lot of experience.”

Shapes took form within the shadows toward the back wall the closer I got.
On the right, near the corner of the building, lay a pile of grayish sticks, charred and blackened by fire. Scorched fabric was glued to the various elements of the pile.

Three more steps had me halting, sucking in a huge breath.

It was a
body! They weren’t sticks, they were bones coated in masticated skin!

Did that moan come from me?

A face, twisted in an endless scream of agony, lay on the backside of his calves. One arm had been ripped out of the socket and lay flat under his back. One leg, cracked at the thigh, lay over the other. He was broken and twisted, as if he’d been made of matchsticks and sporadically snapped and tossed to the ground.

“No human could have done this
,” I whispered. “His back was broken in half.”

“A bear could have,” Jonas
’ voice echoed around the crouching walls.

“Not without opposable thumbs,” I retorted into the hush.

A few more steps and I could see another fire site, only this time, there was a large black pot overturned against the wall. A round camping stove, smudged with soot, half lay under it.

“This has got to be a few days old, at least…”

“You’re not here to investigate,” Jonas growled. “You’re here to feel for magic. We have an experienced clan that’ll go over this site and give us more conclusive findings.”

“Oh. Well, you could’
ve made that more clear before I looked at the body.”

I
let my magic drift, sensing for spells and pitfalls within the area. This was something I practiced every day per Toa’s instruction. A large part of my job was sensing other magic and possible dangers. I still had trouble doing this on the fly, but here, in the quiet settings, the building almost feeling as if it was holding its breath, I had nothing else to do but concentrate.

The black glow
of my magic, hardly discernable in the gloom of the warehouse, drifted over the overturned pot. Like a match to kerosene, a circular fire lit up, climbing into the sky. Sparkles danced and played in a shimmering orange halo lazily drifting toward the right. Toward the body.

I could not help that squeak.
Or holding my breath afterwards.

Still it drifted.
Reaching for that death. What would it do when it got there?

I didn
’t want to know!

A blast of
rotten stench crawled up my nose, prompting a gag. That smell didn’t come from the body; it came from the disgusting magic corroding this area. Magic that was still active. Lingering, waiting. But for what? Whatever spells had been laid, they weren’t used to create rainbows. They were also extensive and intricate. Beyond my training.

“
Not good magic over here…” I mumbled.

My magic spread like a fog over the body.
For a second, nothing happened.

“Sasha?” Tim asked into the din.

“Don’t go in there, mong—”

Jonas’
voice cut off as my magic started to sizzle and pop. Like water splashing into hot grease.

“What’s it doing?” I asked Jonas with a quiver in my voice.

“This isn’t normal…” Jonas’ voice drifted away.

“Back out of there, Sasha,” Tim urged from the door.

Something tugged at my magical senses. It was like undertow, rolling and fierce, sucking. Consuming. As fast as magic surged into my body, elements desperate to get in, something in that area stole it again, using my draw to fuel itself.

“Crap
,” I mumbled, scrabbling to pull my power back.

“What is it?” Jonas asked, stepping into the building, his tattoos lighting up like a Christmas tree. A great, gleaming sword swung
into his hand, the blade glowing orange.

“Get out of here, Jonas! I need t
o tie off this weird spell. It’s sucking magic to it.”

Jonas took a hasty step back, his body once again receding out of the doorway.
Tim backed out with him, but hesitantly.

I got to work, sweat beading
my brow, fighting the draw both of that corner, and from the elements fighting to rush into my body.

“Nasty spell-working, this,” I said under my breath, sensing the elements within the casting. “They’re, like,
reaching
for me. Feeding off my magic. I’ve never dealt with a spell like this. I didn’t even know this was possible.”

“Dark magic,” Jonas whispered.
“Hard to work. Harder to control. Someone has balls of steel.”

“Well, it’s not me,” I wheezed.

I snubbed out the elements that made up the spell, like soldering wires, closing the spell in a sort of circuit.

“I don’t think the wielder knew exactly what he was doing,” I murmured, analyzing the lacy structure of the
orangey incantation. It hovered within a shaky line spilled on the cement floor.
Spilled
because it looked suspiciously like blood, sticky and slick, gleaming in the soft light from the window.

As I was about to turn away toward Jonas, want
ing to talk about what I’d done, the lacy spell cleared away like mist. In its place grinned the head of a black monster, staring at me like a hungry lion would a fresh steak.

“You did not call me.” Sharp, ragged teeth filled a mouth too big for its face.

Terror jolted me back as a stringy leg stepped forward.

“Sasha?” Jonas’
voice held hard fibers of alarm as it echoed through the cavernous space.

The monster slapped into an invisible barrier. Orange sparks rained down on its head
as a tall circle flared to life around it. It glanced up, and then around, noticing the hazy orange circle trapping it. And then its face straightened out, staring right at me out of black pits instead of eyes. In a raspy voice that shivered across my body, it said, “We can rule, you and I. Our power, combined, will be indestructible. Join me.”

“Oh lovely, one of you.
Fantastic.”