“I don’t know. I kept all the demons away from the new volunteers this time. That whole screaming and running thing is a real turn off.”
“Don’t want a repeat of last time?”
“No.”
The last time, some of the new recruits had gotten a look at some of the more obviously demon kind among us before we could keep them penned in, and they had run screaming into the night. We found four of them, but two had been lost to the nightmare of the world the humans had created.
It was often quite a shock for humans to learn of our existence, and our appearances didn’t help much, or at least some of our appearances didn’t. Some of us, like Corson and myself, were more human in appearance than others, but some of us were what humans would consider nightmarish.
Personally, I considered the humans all pussies, but then I had little use for their species. Except for one, and if we ever located thatone, I’d do everything in my power to make sure they accomplished what had to be done, even if I had to drag them kicking and screaming into the fray.
“How do you know there is a possibility with them then?” I inquired.
“There is someone riding in the cab with Mac and Bernadette.”
A person separated from the other volunteers and riding with the soldiers was a good indication they had not come here willingly. Rising to my feet in the tent that stood over seven feet high to accommodate my size, I strode toward the flap that had been pulled back to allow air to flow through.
“Take those earrings off,” I said to Corson before slipping outside.
The cool air brushed over my skin as I surveyed the town nestled into the valley below us. There was far more going on down there than on a normal night at the military compound. The headlights from the newly arrived trucks were still on and facing what I’d been told was a human development.
The dwellings all looked the same and had the same square yards. Apparently, this was what humans had once liked and strived to live in. To me, the development was just like humans, they all looked the same and possessed rather flat personalities.
I watched as the new volunteers climbed from the back of the trucks. They stretched their muscles as their eyes darted around, trying to take everything in.
“So young,” Corson murmured from beside me and pulled the last earring from his ear. “They seem too young for this.”
“They’re not.”
I spotted Bernadette standing by the door of a truck. She stared into the cab as she spoke with another. From inside the truck, a slender hand rested on the door before the person moved forward. I caught sight of raven-colored hair as a woman emerged into the night.
“A woman,” Bale said. I turned to watch as Bale made her way across the ground toward us with a natural grace I’d become well familiar with over the years. She and Corson were the two demons who had been with me the longest and through the most battles. Bale stopped beside me to stare down the hill toward the new arrivals. “I had bet it would be a woman.”
“We don’t know if she’s the one we’ve been searching for,” I reminded her.
Bale lifted a delicate shoulder. “Go find out.”
I shot her a look, but she only smiled back at me, revealing all of her teeth. She didn’t have her razor-sharp fangs descended, but then, I’d only seen them when she was in a full-on rage. Her mischievous, lime green eyes shone brightly in the dark surrounding us as she watched me. The fiery color of her hair tumbling to her ass wasn’t the only reddish color about her as her skin had a scarlet hue to it that some humans believed to be a sunburn.
“Who’s in charge here?” I inquired.
“You know you’re as curious as the rest of us about her, and you won’t make her run screaming.” Her gaze raked me from head to toe as she pursed her lips. “Well, maybe you won’t. We should get you some contacts or sunglasses.”
“That will never fucking happen.” It was bad enough we wore the humans’ clothes and tried to adapt their mannerisms and ways in order to keep from scaring the delicate little mortals; I’d be damned if I hid my eyes from them too.
“Don’t think contacts would work anyway,” she replied.
“You’re the one who suggested coming back to this area of the wall. Do you think she’s the one we’ve been searching for?”
Bale’s smile slipped away. “I don’t know. All I know is something instinctual pulled at me to return here. It could be because there might be an attack on this section of the wall, or maybe it was because of the impending arrival of a possibility. For all I know, it could have been to enjoy the spring weather. We know how my intuition goes.”
“You’ve had no visions about her arrival or anything else?”
“I’ve had no visions since the one four years ago telling me the progeny lived and could be the key,” she said. “You know how those things work for me. I could have visions ten times a day for ten years and then go a century without. I’m only shown what I’m meant to see.”
I turned away from her to focus on the people milling about below. Bale and Corson may be two of the oldest and most powerful demons in existence, but Bale’s premonitions were often sporadic, and Corson had turned into a pincushion for the humans. They were also my two most trusted advisors. If Bale had suggested coming here, then there was a reason, and I wanted that reason to be the progeny.
I had to see the possibility the humans had brought back with them. Breaking away from the two of them, I strode down the pathway winding toward the human dwellings below. What few humans I encountered on my way stepped quickly aside to let me pass.
