12. Seth
Chapter twelve
Seth
My breath caught.
Riverside.
Erebus took her to Riverside.
I smashed my fist into the counter, sending the damned scrap of paper careening through the air and pieces of granite crumbling to the floor. “Son of a fucking bitch.”
Josh tsked. The fucker. “I would save that rage for when we find exactly where in Riverside they are keeping her, Seth. There’s no point in wasting our energy on outbursts. You need to use that thick head of yours if we’re to retrieve Miss Snow unharmed, I imagine.”
I glared at him. Although what he said was true, Josh’s pretentious tone did nothing but deepen the burning rage coursing through me. My body trembled, searching for an outlet.
The corner of Josh’s mouth tipped slightly upward. He knew he got under my skin.
Derik squeezed my shoulder, probably to distract me from clocking Josh upside the head. “He has a point, Seth. We need to be level-headed about this. We don’t know what their plans are or why they took Erin,” his dark eyes pierced mine, knowingly. “And…they might have the people who went missing.”
The color that had returned to my complexion in my fury paled once again. My jaw tensed, the vein in my neck straining against my skin.
Fuck.
I shook Derik’s hand off of me as I swiveled my head back toward Josh. “How do we know that’s where they took her?”
“After Miss Libby called, I took it upon myself to hunt down my informant,” his cold eyes gleamed with satisfaction. “Took a bit longer than it should have to retrieve the information out of him, but he was able to scratch it onto…that paper for me. After some…negotiating, of course.”
Meaning you blinded them and tortured them until you got what you wanted out of them.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Are you sure that it’s accurate?” I shifted my stance, squaring my shoulders. Josh returned my glare, clearly agitated that I doubted his talents. For a good reason, too. There had been several instances where lesser Demons, the lackeys, had binds placed on them that would keep them from spilling information, no matter how much power Josh threw at them.
Far too many lives were lost because of it.
And I wasn’t about to allow that to happen again with so many of them on the line. Including Erin’s.
Josh slipped his hands into his front pants pockets, rolling his shoulders back, suddenly the perfect picture of nonchalance. “Well, of course, Seth. I wouldn’t dare risk taking a chance with Miss Snow’s safety.” The look he gave me read loud and clear, unlike you.
I nodded, as if I hadn’t registered the jab. “Fine,” I turned to Libby. “We need a plan. Can you and Josh run back through what he gathered?” Libby glanced sideways at Josh, forming a smile, not quite reaching her eyes.
“Of course!” She chirped and moved to stand with him. She lifted her hands, palms up. Josh placed his hands in hers. As her head snapped backward, her eyes glazed over, fading from their usual emerald green to a ghostly white. Libby’s gift was far more tame when she replayed a person’s memories through them versus what an affected environment had taken in, but watching Libby use her ability was always intense.
She gasped, bringing herself out of the vision of the past. Her eyelids fluttered, returning her irises to their normal shade of green. She stared at Josh a moment, then faced Derik and me. “What Josh gathered was as helpful as it was going to get. They have Erin at Riverside, in one of the abandoned factories up in the mountains. There's no telling if the others that went missing are there, but Erin is. At least…last the Demon was aware,” she glanced over her shoulder at Josh and he nodded, his face vaguely grim. “It might…be their headquarters. Josh gathered from his intel that it’s pretty guarded and…that she’ll be dead before we would even find it.” It was like a knife was plunged through my heart and wrenched downward right into my gut. Libby shot me a pained look.
They’re going to kill her.
I swallowed the budding suffocation. Ice-cold hatred saturating my very core, injecting itself into my tongue. “Then we make it before she’s dead.” My footsteps thundered as I stormed toward the locked closet beside my kitchen pantry. I aggressively plunged my lock pin into the tiny hole in the center of the iron door handle and wrenched the door open. Reaching in, I pushed down on the top shelf, causing the closet’s back wall to shift backward and slide to the right, revealing my weapon room. Various swords, knives, daggers, and switchblades lined the walls. Even a few claw-shaped blades. In the center of the room stood a long island of sorts, stocked with fighting gear, all lined with blade-resistant fabric.
It had been passed down to me from Nicholas. He’d been the only family I knew after my mom had passed. He took me in, trained me, taught me everything I knew. He was the closest thing to a father figure I ever had. Nicholas had taken me in when I was a teenager, claiming he was my long-lost uncle on my mom’s side. Turned out…he was so much more. As my strength flourished, he gave me the reigns and I became the leader around here, he was my second in command. And then…Erebus took him from me, ripped the only person in my life I didn’t have to hide myself from, away from me. The only thing I had left of him was the vast weaponry collection he attained over his long three centuries fighting Demons. A collection I refused to allow them to get their grubby, murderous hands on.
Libby and Derik followed me through the threshold and beelined for the daggers. They each had their own weapons at home in case of an emergency, but they both had a few they favored here. Derik leaned toward an elongated silver dagger with an onyx hilt, engraved with serpents along the edges and a single jade gemstone embedded in the center. Libby gravitated toward a pair of twin blades, handles coated in gold, the daggers themselves silver.
I reached for my harness, shrugging it over my shirt. Turning, I walked to the far corner and pulled a sword from the wall. The blade was made of high-carbon steel, handcrafted by one of Nicholas’s old friends about a century before he was murdered. The blade was black as night and sharp enough to slice clean through the neck of a Demon. I sheathed it into the harness on my back then grabbed a couple of fighting knives, fastening one to each of my hips.
We each pulled black leather arm guards from the island. Libby and Derik slipped on their blade-resistant long sleeve jackets, designed to be form-fitting to keep our torsos and arms protected while also being able to move freely during battle. Josh came up and grabbed one as well. We fastened the arm guards and rechecked each of our weapons, making sure they were secured and ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice. I looked at Libby, then Josh, and finally, Derik. We nodded to one another.
“Let’s go.”
We’re coming, Erin.
We raced to Riverside. Once we reached the outskirts of the town, we began trekking up into the forested mountains on foot, avoiding the extra attention driving any of our vehicles would draw. We kept to the shadows, listening; our senses on high alert.
The sun dipped below the horizon by the time we spotted what I hoped was the abandoned factory we were searching for, nestled atop the mountain ridge ahead of us, the roof barely visible from where we stood. The light provided by the moon was our only guiding light. Even with heightened vision, it was damned difficult to see through the dense forest.
Derik threw his arm out, stopping us in our tracks. I scanned the trees around us, searching for whatever set him off. I heard a branch snap then a thud behind me. I whipped around, coming face to face with a Demon.
Its face wasn’t visible except for a bloody grin spanning the full width of its head. Razor sharp teeth glinted in the moonlight as its yellow eyes shot open, pupils absent. The Demon stepped closer and his full frame became visible. Jagged crimson wings spread from his hunched back, hands spread wide as they transformed into claws ready for the kill, each one extending several inches beyond the tips of his fingers. The Demon menacingly licked his lips and howled, lunging forward and aiming for whoever was closest. And right then, that was Libby.
She stepped back, luring the Demon in before she launched her daggers upward, landing them right through the Demon’s neck. Black blood spurted erratically from the lacerations. She yanked the blades out, the Demon began choking on the tar pouring from its wound. He grabbed for his throat, trying to stop the blood. And in its panic, it must’ve forgotten about its claws as they dug into the gashes, opening them further. The Demon shot his ochre sockets in Libby’s direction and lunged again, catching Libby in the stomach with one of his claws.
I hurled my body into the Demon’s side , sending him flying into the trunk of a tree. I pulled one of the blades from my hip and rammed it into his chest, right through to his black heart. Tendrils of fear seeped into the yellow of the Demon’s eyes as the reality of its death became apparent. I pulled it back out, the blade scraping against his chest cavity, and shoved it back through his neck. For good measure, I withdrew the blade once more, the corner of my mouth twitching, and sliced it clean through what remained of its throat, sending the head falling to the ground. I resheathed my blade, my chest heaving with adrenaline. There was coughing behind me.
Libby.
I jogged back to where Derik held Libby up by her elbow. She was crouched on the ground, clutching her stomach as blood coated her fingers. Derik’s eyes met mine, jaw tight, concern rippled across his face. I knelt down in front of Libby. “How bad is it?”
“He got her pretty good. Went right through her gear and into her stomach. I got most of it closed and she should be good by the time we make it up to the factory.” Derik pressed his lips into a thin line, helping Libby stand with his grip tight around her arm.
“Are you sure you’re good enough to keep going?”
She shouldn’t be bleeding this much. Not between Derik’s ability and the rapid recovery time from being Nephilim.
“I’ll be fine. We need to go.” Libby grunted as Derik slipped his arm around her waist, offering her support. She slung her arm around his neck, leaning into him. I gave everyone a quick once-over before we continued our trek upwards through the dense woods and toward the flattened peak of the mountain.
We neared the top, evading any additional Demon run-ins the remainder of the hike. The abandoned building finally in sight. Parts of the roof were caved in, piles of rubble scattered the leveled plot of land, broken windows lined what remained of the outer walls. A massive security fence outlined the perimeter, the only thing not run down or wrecked. In the center of the metal coils, was a single gap, wide enough for us to sneak through.
As we drew nearer, I pulled my sword from my back, bringing it to my side slightly angled as we stalked toward the abandoned building. The others followed suit. Derik clutched his onyx-handled dagger, and Libby drew her gold-plated twin daggers. Josh played lookout, searching for any Demons who may have been lurking on the hunt for their next victims.
I slipped through the opening first, sword at the ready, and scanned the inner perimeter. Libby and Derik followed quickly behind; Josh pulled up the rear. I crouched down as I inched forward until I came to a stop behind several large piles of rubble. I signaled for the group to follow me.
A slight breeze snaked its way across the nape of my neck, chilling the sweat slicked against my skin. A shiver shot down my spine. I swung my arm out, stopping Libby and Derik in their tracks. “Something’s not right. There should be Demons out here patrolling. They never leave their shit unguarded.”
Libby stiffened next to me.
“Move!” Josh shouted, pushing us out of the way. A massive burst of fire erupted into the ground where we’d been hiding, shrouding us in a blanket of dirt and cement debris. Josh had landed on Libby and Derik, taking the brunt of the forceful blast. I, on the other hand, had pricks of pain along the backs of my legs. I rolled onto my back and pushed myself onto my elbows, taking in the fit of flame still licking the ground. “Holy shit.”
I heard Josh grumble, his voice muffled by Derik’s shoulder. Libby took that moment to wiggle herself out from under the two of them. She pulled herself into a sitting position and dusted some of the dirt off her fighting gear. Derik grunted and knocked Josh off his back. “Fuck me, dude. What the hell just happened?” He shook his head, utterly pissed.
“They know we’re here. That’s what happened,” Libby said, her voice on edge and expression grim.
“That’s why we only ran into one Demon hiking up here,” I whispered as I mentally chastised myself for not suspecting the mostly quiet hike to their territory. There should’ve been more out there. My eyes widened, and a sudden realization hit me. “It’s a trap.”
Leaves crunched behind me. “Well, well, well. Look who we have here.” A macabre sneer sent chills down my spine.
I whipped my head around and launched myself upward onto my feet, arm shooting for my sword. Derik and Libby scrambled to their feet on my left. Josh readied to my right.
“You seem to have finally arrived. Your friend has been waiting for you. Well, she was.” They cackled.
I felt my face pale and then a throbbing pain encapsulated my skull, snaking its way through my body. And everything went black. The last visible thing as my vision disappeared was the Demon who stood before us. Smiling.
Erebus.