THIRTEEN JAY
THIRTEEN
JAY
It was pure chaos to get out of the building and there were already cops and firemen at the scene to deal with the aftermath of the bomb.
It had been big enough to take an enormous chunk of the building out since it was on the top floor.
What was odd though was the cops weren’t really concerned about controlling the area.
They were looking for something or someone.
I paused, having a gut feeling that we were the ones they were looking for.
Clearly, someone had leaked our location, that’s the only reason Arno would have a bomb in his laptop.
The Dark Lord knew we were here in Cape Town and he didn’t like that we were getting close to his army.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he tried to do whatever he could to get rid of us.
“Over there!” one of the cops shouted, pointing at me.
Fuck! My hunch was right. They were looking for us. There was no way we could go back to the hotel with them searching for us. I had to hope Lailah and the others would be safe there, and the leak came from inside Pride.
“Guys, we gotta go,” I snapped as the other two hadn’t registered the danger yet. “We aren’t out of the trap yet but I know where we can go.”
“What the hell do the cops want with us?” Parker growled as he took off after me.
I glanced at him over my shoulder. “Not sure I want to stay and find out but if you do, by all means, I won’t stop you.”
“Fuck you, Jay,” Parker sneered.
In an effort to stay out of sight, we headed for the thick of the crowd who was rushing into the streets to get away from the burning building.
We ducked down a side road and then ran full out until I veered off to a parking lot of cars behind a building.
“If they’re looking for us, we can’t go back to the others. ”
“No, we can’t leave them behind. What if they’re going after them too?” Micah challenged as he pulled out his cell.
Lunging forward, I grabbed it out of his hand and chucked it to the ground, slamming my heel on it.
“All we know right now is that they knew we were coming here to meet with Arno. If there is a chance that the others are safe in the hotel, I don’t want to draw attention to them.
There’s a leak but we don’t know where it’s coming from, so it’s better to keep contact to a minimum.
I can get us somewhere safe and then send people out to get Lailah and the others,” I explained as I dismantled my phone and Parker did the same.
“How the fuck do you know someone in Cape Town?” Micah demanded.
I glanced up at him knowing his anger wasn’t really meant for me, but if I could hold back the fury that I felt at how things went down, he could too.
“My father has a base here. It’s not well known, but we needed a foothold in Africa since there is so much corruption and smuggled goods in and out of the country.
South Africa seemed like a safe bet to put a training base that wasn’t really for training but intel gathering.
It’s in another town closer to the mountains. ”
“Well fuck, haveing that kind of equipment at our use makes things easier. For tracking down who the hell is selling us out I mean,” Parker pointed out. “How do you plan on us getting there?”
Pulling a knife out of my boot, I slammed it into the back passenger window of a car, shattering the glass.
Quickly, I unlocked the car and got to hot wiring it as the other two hopped in.
The car rumbled to life easily enough, and we were off, heading in the opposite direction of the Pride building.
Once there was enough distance, I headed inward toward the mountains.
My heart ached knowing that Lailah would hear about the bombing and not know if we were alright or not, but I would do anything to keep her safe and alive.
At the moment, whoever was hunting us was on our tail.
I would draw them away from her and once it was safe, let her know we were fine.
“Did we get anything from that meeting?” Micah asked, rubbing his head. He’d used a lot of power to keep us safe from the bomb blast. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was feeling drained.
Parker snorted. “Dude, do you really not realize that he told us a shit ton of information?”
Micah twisted in the front seat and glared at him. “Obviously not or I wouldn’t have asked, you fucking moron.”
“Nice to know you aren’t as amazing as you think you are,” Parker taunted with a smirk.
“One good thing is that the Dark Lord doesn’t know we caught onto him or that he is the owner of Aplite.
It must be his shell company to fund everything he’s doing to take over the world.
Even demons need cold hard cash to make things happen.
Arno also told us that he’s the Dark Lord’s supplier and sends him all the serum he needs.
I thought it was guns, but that’s when I started to lose my hold on Arno.
Pride definitely supplies everything that the Dark Lord needs for his training camp, as Arno called it, but it seems they aren’t relying on human weapons.
This could be a good thing or a bad thing. ”
Glancing back at Parker through the rearview mirror, I frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
“That, I think cock nugget could explain better than I could,” Parker said, nodding to Micah.
Micah slouched down in the seat, crossing his arms like a child pouting after they were told they couldn’t have something. “Sorry, I thought I wasn’t all that amazing. You sure you want to hear this from me?”
“Micah!” I growled. “This is bigger than the two of you and our personal issues—spit it out.”
Letting out a sigh, he sat up straighter but kept his gaze fixed on the surrounding scenery.
“If they aren’t going to use human methods to bring us down, it means they’ve found a way to channel their demonic powers.
It will be like fighting an army of Tabithas, only some of them will be far stronger than her.
That also means we might not be able to bring in any backup to this battle.
Humans wouldn’t stand a chance against them and there aren’t enough holy weapons to supply everyone. ”
“Fuck,” I swore, slamming my hand onto the steering wheel.
“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Micah muttered.
“How could they have found a way to do that? Everyone we’ve encountered so far has been unable to use their demonic nature, even Lilith. Yeah, she had some powers, but they weren’t anything close to what I’m sure she could really do,” I questioned.
“Those weren’t fully possessed people. They were conduits where the demon was still trapped in Hell,” Micah shared.
“I’m thinking they found a way to get demons fully out of Hell and into the person’s body, allowing them to have all their powers.
Lilith and the Dark Lord are too powerful, which is why they needed Lailah for it to work, and she banished Lilith back to Hell.
The Dark Lord would need to go for one of us if he wanted to really be on Earth.
Unless they found a way to create enough dark energy for him to survive off of here on earth without a body. ”
“You mean like in spirit form or something?” Parker asked, leaning closer to the front to hear better now that we were on the highway. The wind was loud through the broken window.
“That could be one way, or if they created a sacred circle for him to use, trapping him in one spot. There might be another way but not one that I can think of. If only they hadn’t killed off our demon expert!” Micah grumbled in frustration. “Mr. Creed would know the answers to all this shit.”
“Guess we all should have paid better attention,” Parker mused.
The car fell silent as we all thought over the years of training and how we didn’t really appreciate it the way that we should have.
Now, when we really needed it, there were holes in our education.
At this point, we didn’t know who to trust and ask.
Brayden and Hudson’s parents were working tirelessly to find a way to neutralize the serum, but we didn’t know enough about demon venom to move things along as quickly as we’d like.
So far, from what I heard, it was all dead ends with backtracking to learn more about demon venom itself.
Was this how Lailah felt all the time? At a loss for what to do and not having the slightest clue where to even start looking for the information?
I knew she had to be worried about us and cursing the fact that we talked her into separating.
After this whole ordeal, I knew we wouldn’t hear the end of it, but after this was over, I wouldn’t mind being attached to her hip.
Glancing back at Parker, my mind couldn’t seem to wrap itself around the fact he left Lailah to protect someone else when she needed him.
I would let the world burn if it meant I could save the woman I loved and who held my heart in her hands.
Pulling my thoughts out of that downward spiral that just made me mad, I took in the road signs noting we were over halfway to Paarl.
The traffic was light since it was the middle of the day, which I was thankful for.
Reaching over, Micah turned on the radio and flipped through the stations until we found one that was speaking English.
“This just in... a rogue tsunami level wave has hit the east side of the peninsula, wiping out a large section of scenic road R44. This wave then resulted in a landslide but thankfully,as far as we know, no one has been injured in this random catastrophe. It will take some time for the road to be repaired so we suggest avoiding that area for the time being. More reports on the bombing that happened at Pride Resources. The police believe they know the people who are behind this and are actively searching for them. No terrorist groups have claimed reasonability for the bombing so we will just have to wait and see what the police have come up with. Now, on to traffic...”