Daisy bit on her bottom lip and straightenedher shoulders. She visibly wavered, or what I took to be a ghostshaking, before vanishing from the floorboard. I braced myself forher reappearance, but my pulse still did a little two-step when herhead emerged a foot in front of mine again.
“You can get out,” she whispered.
“Thank you. Go back inside, Daisy.”
She visibly quaked again before disappearingin a blur I could barely follow with my eyes. I didn’t think I’dever get used to seeing ghosts go through things; it was too weird.I took a deep breath as I rested my hand on the handle beforesilently opening the door.
I slipped from the truck and scurried aroundto the back of it before Corson spotted me and lost his mind. Iknelt by the back left-hand corner of the truck and poked my headaround the rusted bumper as Corson stepped out from around thecorner of the building. Lifting his fingers to the side of hishead, he gave a brief wave before firing three shots from his gunat something I couldn’t see.
“Hey you fuckers!” he shouted. “I’m guessingyou’re as stupid as you are ugly!”
He just loves to tauntthings.
Corson spun back toward the alley. Going tomy hands and knees, pebbles bit into my flesh as I rolled under thetruck and across the ground to the front tire. Rising, I flattenedmy back against the cracked rubber of the tire. My lungs burned asmy breath remained trapped in my chest.
Corson may like to taunt things he probablyshouldn’t, but it worked as the two demons with the pig snoutschased him into the alley. Their feet slapped over the dirt androck as they followed him past the entrance to the garage andaround the back of the building.
I remained unmoving, frozen against the tireas I waited for Handsome to show himself. I didn’t have to waitlong. His black pants and shiny boots stepped into view at the headof the alley. He appeared to have no interest in chasing afterCorson. I didn’t think Corson had expected him to, but was goingfor a more divide and conquer plan.
“I know you’re here,” Handsome called downthe alley in a singsong voice nearly as beautiful as he was. “I cansmellyou.”
The strange inhaling noise he made after thisstatement made me cringe. I had no idea who he was, but he wouldnever get his hands on me; I’d die first. Which might be apossibility.
No, I realized, these creatures would doeverything they could to take me alive, and that may end up beingfar worse than death. Kobal had told me that if his marks upon mybody faded away, demons would still sense them and know to whom Ibelonged. Did they scent Kobal on me now, or would they have to seeme in order to know who had marked me?
My fingers dug into the dirt beneath me. Mybiggest fear had been the Craeton demons capturing me and taking meto Lucifer to use as a weapon against Kobal, and now it may cometrue. Taking a deep breath, I adjusted the katana on my back as Isteadied myself. I would not allow that to happen.
And what will become ofhim if you die? He brushes off your questions about what happens toone Chosen when the other is gone, but Corson’s mother killedherself when his father died.
That may be true, but right now, it didn’tmatter. All that mattered was trying to survive a confrontationwith this monster without being taken.
I pressed closer against the rubber, wishingI could somehow melt into it like Daisy. I listened to Handsome’sfeet crunching as he strolled down the alley; the annoying littletune he whistled set my teeth on edge.
My fingers dug into the tire as I turned towatch him, rotten bits of it broke off beneath my fingers and clungto my flesh. He stopped on the other side of me, so close that if Ireached out I could touch the tip of his black boot. I remainedmotionless, waiting for my opportunity to make a move. I’d onlyhave one chance against him.
Power radiated from him; his life forcecrackled against my skin. My fingers itched to feel the pulse ofhis life. He’d be enough to fuel a big ball of ‘I’m going to kickyour ass’ life, but he’d never allow me to hold onto him for enoughtime to really get the ball to grow. He didn’t give off as muchlife force as Kobal did, but it was more than Corson and the otherdemons.
“Come now, girl, let’s not play this game.It’s beneath you.” His voice sounded abnormally loud in theunnatural hush surrounding the truck stop, or maybe my senses hadkicked into hyper-drive.
He turned away from me, and before I couldguess his intentions, the sound of metal ripping apart screechedacross my eardrums. I winced at the grating noise seconds beforegunfire erupted. The door of a truck fell onto the ground, kickingup dirt and pebbles as it bounced against the tire where I remainedhidden.
The gunfire stopped. Vargas grunted, and theman’s heels came off the ground as he leaned into the truck.No!I wouldn’t let anyone else betaken or harmed because of me.
Rolling out from under the truck, I emergedas Handsome pulled Vargas out of the truck by his ankle and dangledhim in the air like a child’s doll. This creature would pluckVargas apart one body part at a time.
Snatching up the door Handsome had dropped onthe ground, I lifted it up and swung it into the back of thedemon’s knees. This close, I could see he had some kind of blackprotection or armor shielding his back to mid-calf. His kneesbuckled, but somehow he managed to stay upright. Rising to my feet,I lifted the door again and crashed it onto his back. This time, hefinally released Vargas, who fell on his head.
Vargas’s body slumped to the ground,unmoving. I couldn’t tell if he was dead or unconscious, and Ididn’t have time to look as my attention was focused on hisattacker. My hands, jarred and partially numb from the impact ofthe second hit, lost their grip on the door.
Handsome turned toward me, but he wasn’tquite so good looking now as the bullets Vargas had fired hadpierced his forehead, taken out a chunk of his cheek, and embeddedin the back of his jaw. His tongue wiggled back and forth in hismouth against the place where his cheek had been.
As I watched, his body pushed the bulletsout, making them squirm backward like worms rising from the earthduring a rain. I had no idea if Kobal or any of the others could dosomething like this; I’d never seen any of them get shot. He’d saidhuman weapons could hurt them, but it would take a lot to killthem. Apparently, it took more than three bullets to the face, andI had no idea how many others had pierced this guy’s body beforehe’d succeeded in disarming Vargas.
Handsome’s black eyes blazed with malice whenthey latched onto me. A shiver went down my spine, and a sense ofdéjà vu washed over me as I gazed into those black eyes. Eyes thathad once held color and warmth, now held nothing but malice andcruelty within their coal-colored depths.
Azote.I hadno ideahowI knew this, but whenhis name blazed across my mind, I knew it was right, and with hisname came the realization,Not armor! Notdemon!My breath froze, and my blood turned to ice as Irealized he was one of the angels who had fallen from Heaven withLucifer.
“Shit,” I breathed.
