“Weeding out the weak,” Shax muttered.
“How many more seals do you think havefallen?” Morax demanded.
My teeth ground together. I felt the houndsstirring within me, seeking out answers as to what had happened totheir brethren, answers I wanted as badly as they did. The houndswere an intricate part of me. I wore the mark of Ziwa, the guardianof the hellhounds. I bore the hellhounds on my body and within mewhen no other varcolac had before me. They gave me strength, andthey protected me, but they also made me far more volatile than thevarcolacs who had come before me.
I welcomed the blessing and the curse thatcame with sharing my soul with them, and now something washappening to them and I would not tolerate it. The hounds weren’tdead. I would feel it through the bond connecting us if they were,but something had happened to incapacitate them while guardingthose seals. I had to find out what and I had to do it soon.
The opening of the seals must be stopped.There were many other abominations kept behind those barriers.Abominations that should never have seen the fires of Hell, nevermind the light of the human world. It had taken my ancestorsthousands of years to lock them all away; it would be impossible toreseal them all at once.
I could open a gateway now and return tocheck on the hounds, but I couldn’t leave River out here for theamount of time it would take to return. Once I found her, I couldtake her back to the wall and go, but that would only delay ourjourney to the unnatural gateway, which was something Lucifer wasprobably hoping for. I had no choice but to push on and hope thehounds could keep the rest of the seals from falling.
“What were those…things?” a woman demanded, her voice breaking andtaking on a hysterical note.
“Gargoyles,” Shax said flatly. “They’ve beentaken care of now.”
“Taken care of!” she screeched shrilly. “Lookaround you! I don’t see any of your body parts littering theground! Why are we here? We can’t do anything against thesethings!”
“Enough,” Captain Tresden said in a calmingtone.
“Were we brought here to use as decoys forher?” The woman’s voice grew louderon each word. Her brown eyes rolled in her head as she gazed at theblood and body parts splattering the street.
I had no tolerance for humans when they werebecoming hysterical, but I had to be careful not to break thetenuous trust I’d regained by reuniting them with their families.Walking away from her now would do little to help with that. “No,you weren’t brought here as decoys,” I replied.
“No? They justslaughteredus!” The woman wrung her hands beforeher and shifted her feet.
“We will be better prepared for what comesnext,” Shax said and bestowed the charismatic smile on her that hadalways made him the most popular with the females in Hell and onEarth. “Gargoyles have roosted together for thousands uponthousands of years. They most likely wouldn’t have separated oncethey were free of Hell.”
“What does that mean?” another humandemanded.
“Most likely, we just killed them all, and ifwe didn’t, then there are only a few more out there. They never hadlarge numbers.”
“We weren’t prepared for this,” the womanwhimpered.
“Yes, you were,” I replied. “You were toldwhat you might be able to expect. You were told this was a missionmany of you wouldn’t survive, but you volunteered anyway. You havethe training to protect yourselves. Even after witnessing what youalready have of the creatures from Hell, you still believed youwould easily defeat the things out here; you can’t. We had hopedthat more seals hadn’t fallen after the revenirs, but they have,and more will most likely fall too. You can either toughen up ordie. Those are your choices.”
Done with her, I turned and walked away tosurvey the damage done to the vehicles and supplies. Out of thetwenty vehicles, only ten trucks remained. We had to salvage whatwe could of the provisions before we were able to leave. The eyesof the demons bored into my back, but they all wisely chose not tomention the word tact right now.
“Gather what you can of the scatteredsupplies,” I commanded. “We’re leaving in five minutes.”
The woman began to cry; the others lookedpale and dazed as they stared at the shredded remains of theirtroop. We had chosen the best of the best from the soldiersguarding the wall, but the gargoyle attack had rattled many ofthem.
There were simply some things the human mindcouldn’t wrap itself around. No matter how well we’d trained them,there would be some who fell apart when faced with the creatures wewould encounter on our way. And there would be more creatures,maybe not as lethal as the gargoyles, but there were others outthere just as horrifying as those we fought today. We already knewthe lanavours were free, and they made the gargoyles look likekittens in comparison.
My gaze went back to the road Hawk had takento get River out of the city. I’d sent her away for her own safety.Now I had to get her back.
“Get to work!” I barked to those stillstanding around.
The humans immediately scattered to try tosalvage what they could from the destroyed vehicles and humanremains.
CHAPTER 12
River
“What do we do now?” I demanded of Corson. Igrasped my hair whipping free of where I’d tied it back and held itdown as the pickup bounced over the ruts and holes in the road.
“We go to where we’re supposed to meetKobal,” he replied.
My knees went weak with relief; at leastthey’d arranged a meeting place before Corson left to come with us.I slid down against the truck to sit with my back against the cab.“Where?” I asked.
