“Only a fool doesn’t read my invoices,” Asmodeus declares before nodding to the right. “Wildlife.”
We all look—well, besides Landon, who is stuck on Asmodeus’s back—at three deer and a fawn who are watching us closely.
“Aww, look at the fawn!” Lex says.
“Aww! I want to see! Deus, turn around so I can see them!” Landon cries, but instead, Asmodeus deposits him on the ground.
“Deus, dammit!”
I freeze when I see something behind us, just the shadow of someone moving. I press a hand to my chest and rub it as I slowly step away from the others.
Hesitantly, I walk into the brush, where I see them rush off before disappearing. “Hey,” I say a moment before I hear a noise behind me. I turn, expecting one of the others, when someone darts up to me and pain tears into my chest. With a simple thought, my illusions burst out, putting a barrier between me and whoever that was. They were dressed in black, so I didn’t get a good look at them, and now that my illusions are here, they’ve drawn back. I grab my chest as pain eats into me. I know I need to send one of my illusions after them, but I can’t even seem to focus. And when I lift my hand, I discover that my fingers are coated in blood.
CHAPTER FOUR
DEUS
The fawn is curious but the mother is wary. No one is moving so she’s standing frozen, thinking that it might cause us to leave without taking note of her. Then I see the way her ears flick and her eyes shift to something beyond us. Whatever she sees, she deems it scarier than us.
The adult deer bolt and the fawn struggles to keep up as they disappear into the underbrush.
Landon reaches for me, obviously expecting that I’m returning to carry him, but I put a hand up that his face smacks right into before I push him away.
“Deus,why? I loved you!” Landon cries but stops complaining when I pull my rifle off my shoulder and dash into the trees.
I lift my gun, but all I see is Ellison’s back and the illusions stretched out around him.
One turns and looks at me before reaching out to me and then they’re all gone.
“What happened?” I ask, but Ellison drops to his knees.
I rush in, the scent of blood hitting me as I realize that blood is dyeing the shirt he’s wearing. A single slice runs right across his chest, cutting through his suit and his flesh.
How could I have not heard someone? How could I have missed them? Can they go invisible like I can? But still. I can always sense them. It doesn’t matter what type of illusion or invisibility someone uses, I can always find them.
“Oh my god,” Landon says, the others having followed me. “What the fuck happened?”
I drop my bag and retrieve the medical kit. I pull a large bandage out and begin winding it tightly around his chest, but Ellison grabs me to stop me.
I still his hand. “We can’t have you bleeding out. Who attacked you and where did they go?”
“I have enough cell service to call someone,” Lex says.
“Ellison?”
Ellison isn’t responding. He’s in shock and seems to be a bit out of it.
How could I have let this happen?
“Asmodeus, this is why people died—because you weren’t good enough. Do you understand? Their deaths are because of you. Because of your incompetence. This is why you need to be better. Look at them! You sit here and you look at their bodies until I tell you that you can leave. Look at what you caused and think about the lives they’d have lived if you weren’t such a fuckup.”
I snap out of my memories as I buckle the strap then pick Ellison up.
“Oh fuck,” he groans.
“The ambulance is heading here,” Lex says.
I grip Ellison tightly as I start to move, hurrying back toward the parking lot where the ambulance will hopefully be by thetime we reach it. Ellison groans again and his hand clenches on my shoulder.
