Chapter 9 Des #2
a person every now and then.”
Des grunted noncommittally. Daisy was too soft on the junior lieutenants. That was why they all flocked to her, and why she’d been partnered with Jasper, who was almost as hard on people as Des.
“So you did save her?” Gareth pressed.
Demons take him, would the boy never learn to shut up? “Yes.”
“Daisy said we’re to keep an eye on her until the dean returns.”
“Blood and bones,” Des groaned. “Is there anything Daisy doesn’t tell you?”
Gareth ducked his head at Des’s tone. “That’s all she said.”
Des shifted against a tree, grateful the conversation was over.
“What was she like?”
“For fuck’s sake, Gareth. Why do you care? She’s a young woman. She’s short, and soft, and she spends all her time in her
office, apparently.”
Gareth, far from being disappointed in this information, smiled moonily to himself. “She’s like the girls I went to school
with before my parents died. They always smelled so good. Unlike the guards. We all smell bad.”
Fair enough. That was probably why Des found himself trying to recall the scent of her soap. Not lavender, he knew. It was
something floral, but not rose or lilac. Something a little citrusy, almost verdant, but not quite . . .
He realized Gareth was staring at him and cleared his throat. “Yes. Well. She may not smell bad, but she’s a waste of my time.”
Gareth was about to respond when Des caught the scent of brimstone nearby, chasing away all thoughts of soap. He held up a
closed fist to let Gareth know to be quiet.
“What is it?” Gareth whispered after a few minutes.
“I’m not sure. I smelled brimstone.”
The sun was setting, and most of the students had left by now. Just when Des was about to give up and step out of the shadows,
he saw something trot across the road toward the gates.
It was that same demon they’d seen the other night. The verita thrall. It was more like a wolf than a sheep, he realized now, its legs too long and bending the wrong way. It had a pointed
snout and horns curling back from its head. Its red eyes glowed in the twilight.
A chill ran up Des’s spine. Was it a verita? It kept its head low to the ground, as though it were tracking something; all the verita he’d encountered were in a frenzied state, behaving recklessly in pursuit of a meal. The tall man was nowhere in sight.
Of course, the guard was nowhere in sight either.
A woman’s voice called something behind the gates, and Des watched the thrall disappear into the shadows near the guard’s hut while none other than Aurelie Blake crossed the courtyard to her uncle’s cottage.
She waved to an older woman, probably a professor, and stopped to talk for several minutes, unaware of the demon lurking on
the other side of the gates.
She really was oblivious, wasn’t she?
“Do we attack?” Gareth asked, clearly hoping for a negative.
“Not yet,” Des said, but he motioned for Gareth to follow him. Lieutenant Commander Grayson was off duty today. He’d passed
the man in the training yard on his way here. Which meant no one was tracking this demon at all.
Once she disappeared into her uncle’s cottage, the demon took off into the city.
“Come on,” Des said. The demon might lead them to the tall man, and he knew Commander Yew would want to know where he lived, even if he wouldn’t let Des take this case. Aurelie Blake could handle herself for an afternoon.
They kept their distance, not wanting to alert the demon to their presence. Several times it turned down one street, paused,
and doubled back, and they were nearly discovered. Fortunately, it seemed singularly focused on whatever it was hunting. After
over an hour of darting around the neighborhood, the demon stopped, sat down on its haunches, and let out a long, mournful
howl. Des felt goose bumps rise all over his body. Gareth looked like he was about to piss himself.
What was this thing? Des had never seen a demon behave in such a strange manner, making him more convinced than ever that it wasn’t
a verita, though it was clearly a thrall. Not of the girl, however; she wouldn’t have been able to hide this for so long. And though
he knew she was trouble, he couldn’t bring himself to believe she could have anything to do with a creature this vile.
Finally, the demon led them to a row of townhouses, trotting up the stairs of a tall, narrow building Des was certain he’d
never seen before. In fact, his eyes kept wanting to skim past it, as though the house didn’t want to be noticed. He had the
strange sense that if he looked away, he wouldn’t be able to find it again.
The door opened, and Des only had a momentary glimpse of the tall man before the door closed behind the demon.
Gareth slumped against Des, and for once, he didn’t yell at the boy. He sensed that his legs had gone out from under him,
and there was nothing else for him to lean on but Des.
“Are you all right?” Des asked, nudging him.
“I don’t know why I was so frightened of that thing. There was just something so—so profoundly wrong about it.”
Des didn’t say so, but he was in complete agreement. “It has to be a thrall. At least we know where it lives now. We’ll report
it to Commander Yew immediately.”
“Who do you think the man was?” Gareth asked as they headed back toward the Iron Fortress.
“No idea. And I have no idea why he was visiting the dean’s niece last week. Apparently she invited him to dinner.”
Gareth shuddered. “I wouldn’t dine with that man even if it was for my mother’s famous pot roast. He gives me the creeps.”
This time, he nodded in agreement. The man was decidedly creepy. And try as Des might to forget Aurelie Blake, he couldn’t
fight the feeling that he wasn’t finished with her yet.