Chapter 35
The witch’s lips twitched into a dark, wicked grin, then he vanished with all the others. Elsie whirled to face the compound she’d just run from.
“No,” Saint groaned.
“Those sirens mean that whatever those witches woke up has pushed through the barrier, Saint. It’s in the compound! They need me.”
“Just an hour ago they abandoned you,” he stressed. “Mistress, those people back there cut you out of their lives the second you no longer perfectly squeezed yourself into the mold they made for you. They made their choice, now let them live with it!”
“That thing was Cornick’s latest gift for me. If anything happens to them because of it, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“There’s nothing to forgive! You didn’t ask for this any more than you asked for me.
Stop accepting blame for the evil things that asshole does!
Elsie, please. We don’t have to do this.
” His eyes pleaded with her. “Let’s use this as a distraction and get the hell out of here.
It will take hours for anyone to figure out we’re missing, and even longer to discover if we’re among the casualties. We’d have a head start.”
She said nothing, but the stubbornness on her face told him what he needed to know.
“You won’t,” he sighed in resignation.
“Mordane is the strongest person in this compound, and he’s not here. I know you don’t understand it, but I have to make sure my squad survives whatever the fuck those witches released.”
“They’re not your people anymore. And any one of them could captain their own squad by now, they’re capable of taking care of themselves.
I need you more than they do. Please, we don’t need anything but ourselves, let’s go!
We’ll run as far as necessary, finish our bond, and finally be free,” he pleaded.
He took her hand and gently tugged her away from the compound.
She let him pull her for several steps, a confused tug of lust centering in her belly with his mention of sealing their bond.
Gods, she wanted him and their life together.
It didn’t help that he stared at her with the most dejected expression she’d ever seen on his beautiful face.
She almost gave in and threw caution to the wind, deciding to figure it out as they went. Almost.
She couldn’t walk away from sixteen years of living among these people without at least making sure they survived.
“Even with our differences, they’re still my family.
I can’t walk away from the last sixteen years of my life without making sure they survive.
We’ll go after. We’ll run away and never look back, but first I need to do this.
” Elsie shook herself free and stepped away from him, eyes begging him for understanding.
She walked backward as he stalked after her.
“This isn’t your fight. Go to our room, grab our weapons, and pack us a bag. If we’re doing this, we should have a map and proper supplies. Get a head start, and I’ll catch up to you after.”
“Don’t be obnoxious,” he growled. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“Then let’s hurry and get this over with. The sooner the threat is taken care of, the sooner we can go.”
They jogged back toward the barrier, the sirens and shrieks growing louder. Bursting through the trees into the dead zone, Elsie’s heart skipped a beat. The barrier’s blue glow was gone. The demon hadn’t pushed through; it had torn the whole thing down.
Hunter soldiers scattered everywhere, younger recruits running away from the training grounds while seasoned veterans ran toward them.
Something dark and massive reared up against the sky, giving another shriek and plunging downward, moving too quickly for Elsie’s mind to process what the hell she was looking at.
“Elsie!” Marley ran up to them, with her sawback blade in hand. She shoved a radio and earpiece into Elsie’s hands. “In the absence of Mordane and the administrators, you’re the highest-ranking person left. Congratulations on your promotion, Commander.”
Elsie scowled—perfect timing for the higher-ups to take an unscheduled walk around.
“Cornick sent this fucking thing to kill her, right after you told her not to come to you for any future missions. Tell me why you think you deserve her help,” Saint growled, slowly turning to face the healer. The demon refused to put up with Marley’s bullshit any longer.
“What the hell is this bastard talking about?” she demanded.
“We met some witches in the woods, Mar. They summoned this thing as a gift from Cornick.” Elsie slid between her demon and the healer, settling a hand on his chest to keep him from pouncing on her.
Marley’s face hardened, but she kept her mouth shut. This wasn’t the time for arguments, accusations, or apologies. Elsie glanced back to give Saint a meaningful look, then strode off, expecting them to follow.
“Any idea what it is?” she asked.
“No, but it’s huge. And it might be a bug.”
That wasn’t a particularly helpful answer, but it was mildly horrifying. Too many insect demons were venomous. They tended to wield any combination of earth, metal, air, and water magics, with a handful of the older species harnessing the dark moon.
Elsie slipped the earpiece into place and broke into a sprint, listening to the chatter and gathering information on who was already on the ground.
Her squad would take point, with the other squad leaders moving on her command.
They’d trained for this enough that she could easily maintain control of up to one hundred individuals while fighting whatever was strong enough to push its way through.
Horrible shrieks and the rending of metal ripped through the air before a section of a storage building’s roof flew through the air, followed by a strange clicking and repetitive booming sound that pounded in Elsie’s ears.
Trenton and Banks joined them as the full training field came into view. Her second-in-command gave her a terse look and a nod of acknowledgment.
Marley skidded to a stop, and the others followed her lead, making Elsie step around them so she could see, her shorter height a disadvantage.
“Holy shit,” Marley breathed.
“Holy shit,” Elsie agreed. “Daggers aren’t going to cut it. Saint and I are going to need our swords.”
The source of the rapid booming revealed itself one exoskeletal limb at a time.
Each one of the creature’s legs stretched as tall as a building and was thicker than the trunk of a matriarch tree.
Moving too fast to count, the creature had at least a hundred legs on each side of its body.
Dust clouds rose around her, obscuring the soldiers already in action, and the number of those who’d already fallen.
It was a centipede, a type of demonic bug that researchers had reported as extinct.
Its proportions were laughably outlandish. The demon’s length could easily wrap around the entire training field with enough tail left over to curl stories above their heads.
Its front end had been hunched over, the massively long body writhing like a knot of snakes, hiding the monstrosity that revealed itself as the demon straightened up. Rising high above the demon hunters below, the centipede’s body flowed into the torso of a woman.
Human in shape, with heavy breasts protected by the same armor-plated black and brown shell that encased the rest of her body, she was a twisted, horrible thing.
In place of human lips, she had two pairs of mandibles to scoop prey into a wide, gaping mouth.
Her arms were ridged with sharp, bony protrusions, and each side of her head boasted four eyes.
This beast had stepped right out of the history books, a creature who’d disappeared before humans had ruled the earth. The centipede was ancient, and angry.
“Looks like she’s got a personal vendetta against us. How did Cornick know this monster lay dormant here?” Elsie spat.
“What does Cornick have to do with this?” Trenton asked, eyes widened as he watched the demon’s destructive force. Marley looked at Elsie as if she’d lost her mind.
“Does it matter?! Worry about the hows and whys later!” Marley snapped.
“This is ridiculous,” Saint muttered under his breath.
“Have you ever seen anything like her?” Elsie asked, and he shook his head, curls bouncing.
“Look at how much magic it’s throwing around,” he said seriously. “Those shiny legs and body plates? That’s not a typical shell, she’s alchemized that armor into actual metal.”
“She just woke up and is already this powerful.” Elsie frowned.
“And who knows how long she’s been asleep,” Trenton added, catching on to where the conversation was going. Elsie nodded her agreement.
“She’s hungry, cranky, and discovered a whole bunch of snacks wrapped up inside a barrier. She’s probably not at her full potential after such a long hibernation. This is our only chance to take her down,” Elsie finished.
“Hunger might be part of it, but you’re right, this seems personal.” Saint followed closely as Elsie’s squad started running toward danger once more. The centipede ripped through another building, breaking through steel beams like twigs.
Elsie reached up and tapped her earpiece.
“This is Field Commander Chantraine. If anyone is still in the barracks, bring me the pair of swords in my room. Break the door down if you have to. Everyone else, sound off,” she said urgently. “Who do I have?”
“Squad Two, Commander Chantraine!”
“Three, Commander.”
“Eight! And Six is on the way.”
Elsie cursed under her breath. Eight was a relatively new, pieced-together squad, since two of their members had retired and a third had been killed in the line of duty.
They hadn’t had long to work together, and Elsie had no idea who’d been tapped to fill the roles.
She’d have to trust that Eight’s squad leader had made good decisions.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime type of fight, and she didn’t want to lose newly promoted recruits to the demon.