This part of the street had once been residential. I almost ran into a fallen mailbox as I veered right at the last second, cutting through a front yard.
It was so fucking dark. I tripped on something and faceplanted, crawling until I could stumble to my knees. In the distance, I heard Daimonion’s pleased laughter.
I slipped around the back of the house and used my good arm to scramble over a waist-high fence. I could feel eyes on me, waiting to pick me off. Hopefully they’d wait just a little longer.
“Free drinks for life,” I hissed. “At Meredith’s. My bar. You’ll be treated as honored guests if you give me safe passage and kill the demon instead.”
They couldn’t really kill him. But maybe they’d be pissed off enough to try.
A ripple of awareness, the sound of scuffing feet. The driveway spat me out back onto Pervis, and I ducked around the corner. I was dead center in redcap territory now. Rumor had it their den wasn’t far from here. They might kill me just for daring to come this close.
“Meredithhhhh,” Daimonion sang out. I closed my eyes. He’d just confirmed who I was to the redcaps. They knew I could give them many nights of fun on the house.
Laughter sounded behind me. Near Daimonion.
“What are you doing, Meredith?”
There was an overturned car a hundred feet away. I didn’t have time to deliberate. I flew toward it, thighs burning, lungs aching like I’d been knifed.
My knees hit the ground and my wrist howled at me as I collapsed behind the car and mentally reached for the phone, still close to a mile away. My breath came out in rough sobs.
I speared tendrils of magic into the phone. It was 8% charged. My stomach spiraled, but I held on, sending an SOS with my location to my phone, and through it, to every single number in my contacts.
Someone would come. I just had to stay alive.
My vision went white, and I fell on my ass. I pulled the KA-BAR from its sheath, wishing it were bigger. In the distance, Daimonion let out a gleeful laugh.
“What are these tiny creatures? Did you think they’d stop me, Meredith?”
A howl ripped through the night. Several miles away. It was a full moon. The wolves were on their way. I slapped my good hand over my mouth to suppress my relieved sob. I just had to hold on a little longer.
Something screamed. One of the redcaps. Several more screamed right after, and the smell of burning flesh drifted toward me.
“There you are!”
I screamed as a hand grabbed my arm, right above my broken wrist, dragging me out from behind the car. I was about to die. I had nothing left to lose.
I shoved my knife into Daimonion’s gut. He released me, stumbling back a couple of steps.
“You hurt me.” He suddenly sounded young, almost innocent. I made eye contact with a redcap behind the demon, watching as twenty or thirty of them gathered, horrifyingly sharp teeth bared, their caps a dark, rusty brown-red.
Daimonion pulled the KA-BAR from his stomach and dropped it on the ground in front of us. Then his hand whipped out.
It slammed into my face like a sledgehammer.
I flew back, the world spinning around me.
I attempted to get up.
I couldn’t feel my legs.
Daimonion stalked toward me. The redcaps hissed. And the world went black.
22
VASSAGO
Iflew toward Mere. Toward my heart, currently unprotected outside of my chest. Kyla let out an eerie howl, filled with anguish. The wolf was running below me, still several miles away. I glanced at my phone, until I was hovering right above the GPS location it had sent. Nothing. I scanned the roads, desperately seeking movement.
