Týr frowned, glancing at the vagrants near the fire. “The people who run this place mentioned the disappearances, but I don’t think it’s been reported to the local authorities. Maybe we should check with Blaéz and see if he’s heard anything. He’s got a contact at NYPD.”
“Not unless you want your ass handed to you for disturbing him on his honeymoon,” Dagan drawled. “But it’s doubtful he knows, or he would have alerted us.”
Right. “See if you can pick up anything here.” Týr gave him a description of Tomas and headed for the vagrants, hoping he’d get lucky with them. The craggy, bundled-up humans looked up with rheumy eyes at his approach, and got a noseful of reeking, unwashed bodies. “I’m looking for a boy.” Týr added a compulsion to his tone to ensure answers. “Skinny. This high.” He brought a hand to his waist. “About eight years old, light brown skin, and curly hair. Sometimes wears a blue baseball cap. Goes by the name of Tomas?”
“No, ain’t heard of him,” the one with the tattered coat and cap muttered.
Damn. Týr glanced around the gloomy backstreet then took a shot in the dark. “You hear about any kids disappearing from the streets or this shelter?”
“Missing, leaving, same thing. Them brats always moving about,” the older human rumbled, stirring the fire with a twisted piece of wire.
“Cemetery,” the smaller one said, hunching down closer to the flames, his woolen hat pulled low over his brow. “By the river. Heard one say he be there with da boy.”
“Thanks.” Leaving the homeless, Týr headed into the shadowy thoroughfare and dematerialized, a cold anger settling in his gut.The cemetery,he telepathed Dagan.
Yeah, Nik just informed me. He’s detained two demons who had a kid with them.Can’t pick up anything here of the boy—too much traffic.
They took form on the snow-covered graveyard. Týr strode past Nik to the scourges the warrior had secured near a craggy mausoleum. Layers of ice bound them from mouth to feet. But no sign of the boy.
With flash of his hand, Týr set free a flare of reddish-orange heat. In a hissing steam, the ice melted off from the scum on the right. Before the blight to human existence shot off, Týr grabbed him by the neck and rammed him face-first into the vault wall. The demon roared, blood dripping down from his split brow.
“Where’s the kid?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,Guardian?” The shithead sneered.
A local demon, then. And he knew the rules. Too bad his time on this realm had just ended.
“Iwillknow, but either way, you’re dead.” Týr smashed his fist into the blight’s face. Bones crunched. A brutal kick in the belly followed and the scourge dropped to his knees, groaning, blood streaming from his busted nose. Týr hauled him up by his shirt. “Give me a reason to gut you like I want—”
The demon spat, spraying blood all over Týr’s face and clothes. “Fuck you!”
Good enough for him. A deep chill settling in him, Týr summoned his obsidian dagger and plunged it deep into the demon’s belly, twisting the blade and leaving the weapon in to stop scourge from flashing. A scream ricocheted in the eerie night.
“Watch him,” he snapped at Nik and crossed to the other ice-trapped scumbag.
Swiping his face free of the spit and blood, and with another blast of flames from his hand, Týr melted the ice restraints on the other demon, revealing the hatchet job Nik had already done on him. His body riddled with wounds, the demon moaned and fell to the ground, unable to flash. He curled into a ball, whimpering incoherently. “S-someone from the-the Dark Realm s-sent in the order for the kids.”
“Shut up, you fuc—oomph!” A dull thump sounded, the guttural snarl brutally cut off.
Týr crouched in front of the shuddering, fallen demon. “Names.”
“W-we don’t know. We’re meeting his go-between t-tomorrow at midnight—”
“Why do you care about these insignificant beings anyway?” the fucker behind Týr snarled. Apparently, Nik’s fist did little to stop his shooting mouth. “We’re supernatural, powerful. All this should be ours, but we’re forced to kowtow to these weak humans byyourrules.”
Silent, Týr rose to his feet.
“With any power comes responsibilities, dumbass.” Dagan strolled over, stopping near him. “We protect not hurt the frailer species. When will you shits learn that?”
“It could be a little hard to do,” Nik drawled, yanking his captive’s arms tighter behind him, causing him to snarl in pain. “You havta account for the fact that it’s probable they possess one brain cell.”
“We don’t rip children from their families or their world.” Týr summoned his Gaian sword. In a gust of gray mist, his mystical weapon took form, gleaming briefly as it connected with his fiery power. Nik let the demon go.
Týr wheeled around. With a lethal swing, he sliced off the demon’s head, then ripped free the dagger from the scourge’s disintegrating chest and wiped it clean on his decomposing shirt.
Týr’s attention shifted to the other moaning demon.
“Tempting, but don’t,” Dagan cautioned. “We need him.”
