Despite being a student, Ren was with us not because of his fighting—unfortunately, that was still mostly untested—but because of his familiarity with the stories about the cult. I hoped that there would be absolutely nothing for them to do. But I was certain, that if we hadn’t protected the school, something horrible would’ve happened. And I couldn’t bear the thought of losing Stuart and Timmy too.
“There” Eliza said, pointing to something in front of us.
At first I couldn’t see what it was. Then the native camouflage seemed to fade, letting me see the lines of a structure built against the cliff wall. It was quite a piece of architecture.
As we cautiously approached, staying low and hoping we were going unnoticed, I realized how large the structure was. I hoped that the exterior didn’t represent the size of the interior, because once we were inside, we could find ourselves in a cave-like maze of twisting corridors.
Celia had been very little help describing the interior since she only saw her small vault and the almost equally small room in which it existed.
And then, as if to eradicate any doubt we might have had that we were in the right place, a half dozen demons leaped from the trees above us, sending us tumbling to the ground and trying to get enough purchase to stand and take them out.
How did I know they were demons? Because they politely called us Hunters and told us to die.
That, and their breath, which I noticed when one leaped on me as I was flat on my back, his face close to mine. I thrust my head up to ram him in the forehead, rolling over as I did so. Then I pulled the clip out of my hair—worn for just this purpose—and rammed it through his eye.
“Damn it,” Jared said, stabbing his demon through the eye with a nearby branch, “I should have had my knife ready.”
“Yes,” I said, kicking the body of the demon that had attacked me out of the way. “You damn sure should have.”
He gave me a sideways look. “It won’t happen again.”
“I guess that was the welcoming party,” I said looking around to see that everyone had handled the surprise invasion quite handily. A half dozen demon carcasses littered the ground around us, and we had suffered no serious injuries.
“Should we dare to think this is a good sign?” I asked.
Eric shot me a stern glance. “You should know better than to tempt fate. Come on.”
It was surprisingly easy to find the front door, and even easier to enter.
“It’s got to be a trap,” Eliza said.
Jared mentally reached out again for Celia but there was nothing. “I can’t even feel her,” he said, his voice tight with worry. “What if they bugged out?”
“No. They’re here,” I said. I had no proof whatsoever that was true, but I couldn’t stand the thought of any other answer.
Eric eyed me sideways, but I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to hear it.”
He gave a curt nod, and we continued on.
Once again, demons attacked as we entered the cave-like structure, and once again, we defeated them easily. My guess was that they were the away team, meant only to guard Celia, about whom Lilith didn’t really care.
Meanwhile, she and her demonic minions—including the one with her essence—were taking Allie to some ritual site to perform the ceremony.
And the thought had me totally freaking out.
“We need to hurry,” I said, running through my theory. Eric scowled, clearly agreeing with me.
“Go,” Jared said. “I’ll get Celia. Just go.”
“No,” Eric said. “We don’t know where Lilith is taking her. We’ll help you, we’ll all go back, and we’ll figure this out.”
“She has the tracker,” I said, referring to a necklace that had a small tracking device. We hadn’t been able to see it before—I’d assumed that was because Bruce had stripped her jewelry. But maybe it was because of this freaky cave. Maybe as soon as we were out of here, we could track her.
A mother could hope.
Ten minutes later, this mother was starting to lose that hope. We were going in circles, Jared had no contact with Celia, and he could find a scent for her or Allie.
“Keep trying,” I said.
