Chapter 21
Ifinished up that group of demons quickly. Nobody was a match for my strength. The demons here were strong enough to keep their farm of humans running, not to defend against someone like me.
The Demon Lord likely thought of this area as secure enough that he didn’t need a powerful overseer, or I hadn’t managed to attract his attention last night.
When I turned around, I found a seething Venthra as we moved to the other side of the camp, dripping with demon blood and dismissing the shadows now that we were alone.
She stormed up and grabbed me by the collar. "What the fuck was that?"
I shrugged. “It worked."
She scowled deeply, the shadowy visage my talisman had placed on her disappearing.
"Will you warn me before you do something like this?" She wagged the talisman in my face.
Ah. She thought I’d planned this and hid it from her.
"They’re normally for stealth. This was just a fun alternative," I clarified.
“The idea to use them to pretend to be demons had been an absolute last-minute thought.
But if because of it these people realized the danger they were in from demons, perhaps they'd take better care of themselves.” I considered it a win-win situation.
"Warn me next time," she said, stepping back and away from me, letting go of my collar and glancing at the others. "Do none of you mind?"
The question hung there like there was really only one acceptable answer.
Nyx shrugged. "It was effective, wasn't it?"
"That's not the point. Planning and preparation are the point." Venthra scowled. "Clearly not the kind of thing you appreciate as a surprise.”
“I bet you hate birthdays." Nyx smiled.
Venthra twitched. Oh, there was a sore point there, and we all realized it.
"It was good," Almeria said. "Not only did we kill demons, which was our primary goal, but we had a solid secondary success.
People will be more wary of demons, and perhaps, they will even use ways to try to alert others.
I imagine options that may have been avoided before will be taken to prevent another instance of this. "
Venthra was still scowling at me, even though the other two were making solid points. Almeria leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, and it was immediately clear that didn't help Venthra's mood. Her scowl deepened.
"You can jump him and show off later," Venthra said, waving a hand. “The outcome doesn’t always justify the means. I have to work here as a spy, and you come in boiling the pot.”
Almeria looked up at me. "Hear that? I have permission," she said, completely ignoring the other part of Venthra’s words.
"I don't think you needed her permission," I said with a grin.
Almeria tilted her head. "It's good for all my sister wives to get along. Life isn’t going to be perfectly harmonious, but there's no need to make it worse."
"Who's your sister wife?" Venthra spat.
"You," Almeria answered plainly, making Venthra's cheeks turn nearly as red as her hair.
The assassin snorted and turned around. "Well, if we're going to go and make a mess of other places, then perhaps we need to hurry before word gets out." She threw up the hood of her cloak and reactivated the talisman.
I suppose killing was a good alternative to her stewing in some embarrassment. The blood might even hide some how rosy her cheeks had become at the thought of a relationship.
"I did good?" Almeria turned to me with a bright smile.
"You are trouble," I offered, only to be met with fluttering eyelashes and a woman far too proud of the mischief she'd caused. Leaning down, I kissed the top of her head and ran a firm hand from her neck down her back until I pinched her rear. “But you did good.”
Almeria melted against me.
Merlin and Nyx were pointedly not watching, and I stood up straight, clearing my throat.
"Let's go," I said, waving a hand forward.
***
Throughout the night, we followed a similar strategy as our first clearing of demons. We were rather busy working through all the demons we had identified over the day. In the end, we attacked four large camps belonging to both Marco’s side and Guadalupe’s.
The next morning, I sat on the steps of the church while Venthra went about trying to calm some of her contacts.
News of the "demon raids," as they were calling it, had spread quickly, and the nuns were already holding several meetings with the people in the square, trying to reassure them of their own safety.
Meanwhile, those dastardly, dangerous ‘demons’ were sitting in their midst, having a simple breakfast of bread and fruit.
Venthra sat down next to me. "Look how much trouble you've caused."
I shrugged. "I see a bunch of people finally focusing on the right thing." I looked up to meet her green eyes.
"Just because you're so concerned about the demons, it doesn't mean everyone else needs to be." She gestured around the square. "Could these people even put up a fight to help you?" she asked in the kind of way someone did when they already had their own answer figured out.
I paused, giving her a moment to breathe before I answered her question calmly. "Not everyone's job in a war is to take the front lines. Even if it's simply getting them to stop helping the enemy, I'd consider my choice a success."
Venthra narrowed her eyes. "They're not soldiers, and they aren't offering their bodies to demons willingly."
I shrugged. "It doesn't change that they're actively helping demons simply by being part of the food chain that supports them. Allowing them to keep their heads in the sand and ignore the demons isn’t viable.
And I certainly don't think it goes against their own interests to help them avoid being turned into demonic hosts. Their lives aren’t exactly great when they are puppets that would kill their own friends and family. "
The fight against demons had to be something that every member of humanity understood and rallied for. Otherwise, the demons would find a notch to wedge themselves into and grow into another problem.
Venthra shook her head but didn't argue. Part of me thought she was simply too stubborn to agree with anything I said. "Fine. But I'm not cleaning up any of their bodies." She stood, crossing her arms.
"Never asked you to," I shot back more quickly than she could respond.
It seemed she was a little more soft-hearted than I'd realized. It wasn't a bad thing. In fact, it might have been her own way of healing from Vidar's manipulations.
She was still dealing with the fact that she had been taken advantage of for so long.
I could see it being natural for her to then become concerned with how her actions might affect the world.
A bitter part of me would have liked to point out that her caring for people could have occurred sooner in her life, but I could admit that was a petty thought.
"What are we doing next?" Venthra asked.
"I think we avoid immediate suspicion by going on another raid.
The one problem last night caused is that it's certain to get back to the Demon Lord himself.
" I had a feeling I knew what his reaction would be as he found out someone pretending to be him was mowing through his own forces.
"I'm certain he'll be furious, and he'll begin to dig for his new opponent in the region.
That means combing back through the city. "
He was, if nothing else, prone to eliminating any and all competition. I couldn't imagine him doing anything other than going scorched earth on anyone he thought responsible.
"Are you afraid of him?" Venthra asked, and my eyes must have narrowed a touch dangerously, because she swallowed and looked away. "Just asking," she clarified quickly.
I cleared my throat and waved a hand. "It's fine, just...
not the question I was expecting. No, I'm not afraid of the Demon Lord. He should be afraid of me. But I do need to be cautious. I care about those around me and would not put them at risk. He still has a large force to wield, and with his fragments, he will be hard to kill. He’s also not afraid of killing his own to further his ends. "
Venthra glanced at me over her shoulder. "You sound a little like him sometimes."
The ‘him’ was ambiguous, but I somehow knew who she was talking about. "Are you comparing me to Vidar?"
She nodded, without an ounce of shame. "He was pretty dedicated to his cause, even if you didn't agree with his end goal.
At one point, my father was insistent that he was going to make the Borrson Clan a better place.
Of course, eventually it became clear that would only happen through his leadership, and taking over the clan became his ultimate goal. "
I sniffed, not exactly liking being compared to a man who eventually gave himself to the demons. "And how does that make him and me alike?"
"The passion, the goal, the drive," she said.
"I hope, just as much as you do, that you don't turn out like him in the end.
He was better once, before he started using less scrupulous methods.
But you have to understand that all threats to him becoming leader of the clan were the same as threats to stop him from spreading what he believed to be prosperous times to his people. "
I was starting to piece together what was making her follow this train of thought. "You didn't like what I did last night?"
"It worked well enough," she said, "but I would have preferred something that endangered fewer innocent lives.
And I would have preferred knowing about it before it happened so I could make my own choice on participating.
" She narrowed her eyes, and I suspected that last part was actually the most important part she was communicating.
Vidar had left her out of the planning and sent her on missions where she blindly followed orders. I could understand how she might be self-conscious about the same outcome potentially happening with me.
"I'll do better," I promised. "Can't say the plan won't change on the fly again, but I can give you at least a little heads-up before we start killing demons."
She paused, then gave me a short nod. "I'd appreciate it."
Her eyes went back to the project in her hands.
She had a small feather she was twirling between her fingers, rolled back and forth.
A dexterity exercise, if I'd ever seen one, and it was a fairly difficult one at that.
I'd often seen people roll knives or coins.
The feather was stiff, but also fragile and uneven.
"So, if you want a heads-up on what I'm thinking about next, I should tell you that I plan on trapping several of the demons in the instances we've already completed," I said.
She glanced up from her exercise.
“We completed a high-level instance while attracting a large number of demons, luring them in and killing them while Merlin and Nyx held the outside, making sure any stragglers were dealt with,” I explained.
"Merlin gave me a report," she said, nodding.
"And now we've left the instance as a trap," I said.
"We have eyes on it, ready to go in should the demons continue to pursue it.
Instances make wonderful traps. I intend to use this one as long as I can.
Yesterday was an opportunistic target where I was able to kill demons and hopefully make people in the city more wary of them.
I'm sure we didn't get them all. We'll have to make more passes for that. "
Venthra nodded, pausing her twirling of the feather. "Thank you for the heads-up. I'll do what I can to continue hunting demons here. I assume that'll be my role."
"You have options," I said, feeling like her understanding that fact was important. "Here, or in the forest. Either place, I'd welcome your assistance."
She paused, something on the tip of her tongue, before she shook her head and instead nodded. "I'm better off here. You've mentioned the tribes, and I don't think I'm going to fit in there. It's not exactly as if I'll blend in." She pulled at a shock of red hair with a lifted eyebrow.
I chuckled. "No. You'd stick out like a sore thumb. One that just got pounded red by a hammer."
She gave me a glare for that comment, and I had to admit I deserved it. But I still thought it was pretty funny.