He spoke as if giving a bland assessment of an interesting piece of art or maybe a fancy car. That wasn’t what bothered me. What bothered me was the thinly veiled threat looming in that conversational tone. He wasn’t hiding it. It reminded me a bit of how stereotypical mobsters would threaten people.
Nice town you got here. Would be a shame if something happened to it.
Elias seemed to get the same impression because I could hear his growl as he glowered at the demon. He stepped forward, and Azaret watched him with interest. The demon’s eyes sparkled with amusement, like he was a lion watching a kitten trying to be fierce.
“What are you doing here?” Elias demanded.
“I’m here to give you a warning,” Azaret said with a smile that would have made milk curdle. “One that would be in everyone’s best interest if you accepted.”
Elias folded his arms, eyes narrowing.
“Let me guess,” I said. “It involves us leaving the oasis and never coming back?”
Azaret turned that smile onto me. “Why, yes, that is more or less the general concept. And here I was worried that I would have to spell it out for you. It seems your kind isn’t as unintelligent as I had been led to believe after all.”
“And the message is from the wraith, I’m guessing?” Elias asked.
Azaret nodded. “Right again, wolves. Yes, the wraith and I currently have an arrangement of sorts. He asked me to emphasize the sincerity of the message.”
“You have to know he isn’t on your side,” I said. “He’s going to turn on you the second you’re no longer useful to him.”
Azaret raised an eyebrow. “Shocking, and here I thought our relationship was a perfect union and that neither of us would dare betray the other for our own merit. I’m nearly a millennium old, pup. I know how these games are played far better than you ever will.”
“Then why are you helping him?” Oz asked.
He chortled, the sound seeming to reverberate all around us. “Can’t you feel the magic thrumming through this desert?” he asked. “It’s all over, and ripe for the taking.” He inhaled deeply, as if he could smell the magic. For all I knew, he could. “The things I can do once I tap into that power...”
A ripple of alarm rumbled through the watching people at the threat. Personally, I didn’t want to imagine what he might be able to do with that power, and I had no intention of his ever giving us a demonstration. At that moment, all I intended was for this demon to go home in pieces.
Azaret watched us, looking to see what sort of threat his warning had elicited. He tilted his head, one eyebrow raised as if he thought he wasn’t receiving the reaction he had yearned for as we continued staring out at him.
“You’ve given your message,” Sam said. “Now you can leave.”
Sighing, the demon regarded us, as bored as if he were sitting through a three-hour-long documentary about paint drying. “I take it that means you are going to refuse this kind offer?”
“Correct,” Elias barked.
“I would reconsider, wolf,” Azaret said. He gestured around us. “A storm is coming. You saw how easily I removed your wards. I can do so again. Leaving now would save far more lives than trying to fight before your inevitable surrender after countless deaths.”
There was some truth to his comments. He could disable our wards. With that, there was only so much we could do to protect ourselves against him. I wasn’t sure what storm Azaret was warning of, but I knew that whatever it was, we were all in danger if we didn’t prepare for it.
I glanced over at Elias, even though I already knew what he would say. I had known it the second Azaret gave us the offer in the first place.
“No deal,” Elias snarled. “Get the hell out of our town before you wish you’d never set foot here.”
The other wolves nodded, snarling their approval as Elias remained resolute.
Azaret watched the display with a raised eyebrow, his lip tilted a fraction upward, as if he found the whole display amusing. He didn’t respond as a swell of heckling rose toward him. Several of the male onlookers stepped forward, as if ready to spring forward and attack the demon.
Azaret remained unfazed as he took in the threats. He didn’t seem surprised by any of it. He had expected the refusal. The warning had been more to establish himself as a credible threat, to make us understand precisely what we were dealing with. He hadn’t expected us to pack up and leave. Part of me thought he didn’t want us to in the first place, because it would prevent him from being able to torment us. He was a demon, after all.
“Such bravado and theatrics,” Azaret sighed, then shrugged. “Very well. I offered you a chance.”
He snapped his fingers.
The sound seemed to carry over the cries and shouts, as if a gunshot rather than the small click of finger against thumb. Before the crowd had even registered that a threat was coming, imps and other lesser demons swarmed down like a flock of birds, seeming to pour into the oasis from all sides.
“Get everyone out,” Elias ordered seconds before he shifted into his wolf. He lunged for the nearest imp, jaws snapping around its neck and shaking.
