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“If it was in your handbook, it’s not what we’re after.” I smile grimly. “And if itwasin your handbook, and it comes after you, you know how to deal with it.”
I look around the small group once more. “Wecan’t kill demons, only destroy their corporeal bodies, so do not hesitate if your life is in danger. We’re aiming to protect, and if that means sending some energy cores back to the demon plane, so be it.”
Mayn pulls a long sword from the trunk. “It is a good day to hunt.”
“You heard her,” I bark. “Gear up!”
My officers race back to their parked cars, pulling on bulletproof vests and swapping out their civilian rounds for the magical ones we reserve for big monsters.
While the newer recruits look nervous, I’m proud to see that none of them flee the scene. I had chosen them to come with me this morning so they could get their feet wet right off the bat.
They needed to see for themselves that we don’t operate the same as the Clearhelm Police. Magic is a part of our lives during every single case, something they haven’t been exposed to much under Bailey’s command.
Or if they were, they were told to look the other way.
Of course, I hadn’t thought I’d be taking them into the Bone Yard. But if the city council has their way, this will become part of our daily beat.
Which means we might as well start protecting it now. The demons who remain within the Bone Yard need to know that we’ll protect them every bit as much as we’ll protect the humans who come to gawk at them.
I check my gun and return it to my shoulder holster, then watch while Flint does the same with the revolver he straps to his belt. After the incident with the Beast, I started keeping a spare set of everyone’s weapons in my squad car, and I’m glad now that I prepared for this eventuality.
Flint gathers a few magical explosives the size of lipstick tubes into his pockets, too, before his hand drops to Anny’s head. “Stay close, okay? No heroics.”
A laugh escapes me, easing some of my tension. “I’m pretty sure I remember her running from the last big battle.”
Flint pinches her ear. “No cowardice, either. I can’t reach you for the ley line if you’re hiding on the other side of a wall.”
She lets out a sharp bark and wags her tail.
Flint frowns. “I’m not sure if that’s reassurance or not.”
She barks again and wags her tail harder.
“Take it as agreement until proven otherwise,” I advise.
A few minutes later, my officers rejoin us, and we weave through the throng of panicked pedestrians. Humans have joined the fleeing demons, abandoning their cars, many with the engines still running.
As we pass a vehicle with a dog trapped inside, Troy breaks the window without hesitation, freeing the small Pomeranian.
When the others look at him, he shrugs. “We protect those who can’t protect themselves. I’m not leaving a dog trapped in a car in this heat.”
I nod in agreement and use my sleeve to wipe the sweat from my brow, missing the downpour from yesterday. At least then I didn’t feel like I was being baked alive.
“They ride with death, and the world burns!” The shriek cuts through the other noises, and my head jerks around to find a thin man in rags standing on top of a car.
I recognize him as the same madman we arrested before and locked up in the Ward for disturbing the peace. His disjointed prophecy has kept me up more than one night, puzzling over its meaning. But I can never pin it down.
His wild eyes meet mine, and his mouth gapes open in a display of broken teeth before he shrieks, “When one falls, another rises! You can’t stop it!”
A shiver rolls down my spine, and I force my attention away from the mad prophet. If he’s still here when this is over, I’ll haul him back to the Ward, where he can at least get food and a fresh change of clothes.
The stream of fleeing pedestrians thins as we near the archway to the Bone Yard, where the smell of burning wood fills the air, the smoke warring with the exhaust fumes of the cars we pass.
Heart pounding, I draw my gun and carefully step up against the wall to lean to the side and peer through the archway.
At first, my mind can’t make sense of what I see. Broken chunks of the street litter the ground, blackened with scorch marks. Thick roots push up through the large cracks, moving with a life of their own, like a giant octopus reaching up from the depths of the earth.
Blood soaks the ground, but no bodies lie within view, and unease rolls through me.
