“How did he know where to look?” Maddock asked, as if he hadn’t even heard Devi’s question.
“You were on the news in New Temperance.” Finn shrugged. “That probably told them where to start. They followed the degenerates flocking toward Grayson to narrow it down.”
“Okay.” Maddock closed his eyes, the pistol hanging at his side. “Kastor will send more. I need to think.”
“Maddy, what’s going on?” Devi demanded.
When he seemed too lost in his own fears to answer, I turned to Finn. “Who’s Kastor, and why does he want Maddock? And does that have anything to do with him taking Carey James from a Church caravan?”
“Carey, Grayson’s brother?” Devi scowled at me, clearly irritated that I knew more than she did.
Finn gave us an apologetic glance. “Just give him a second to process.” He turned back to Maddock. “We have to tell them. They’re all involved now.”
Maddy nodded slowly but made no reply.
Eli slid the long end of the crowbar through a belt loop on the left side of his jeans, evidently satisfied that we weren’t a threat. “I don’t know any Kastor, but I can tell you exactly where this demon child was taking you.” He pulled a rag from his pocket and began scrubbing at the blood on his hands. “The Lion’s Den. And no matter what it says in the Bible, nobody walks out of there alive.”
“The Lion’s Den. The Meat Market. Pandemonia.” Maddock thumbed the safety on the pistol and tucked it into his waistband. “Whatever you call it, we’re headed as far away as we can get, as fast as we can get there.” He turned to Finn and me. “Get everyone packed. Devi and I will help Reese and Grayson with the gas run—we turned back when we saw Eli headed this way.”
“I don’t think I’ll be much help with the packing.” Finn stepped closer to the nearest window and held his hand in the pool of light. The red mark across his palm had widened, and the surrounding tissue was already turning a dark blue. “Damn it!”
“Why did you catch the crowbar?” Eli asked. “It would have put a sizable dent in that little demon’s skull.”
I suppressed a shudder at the thought, even though we’d never actually met the child. “Killing demons just releases them to look for another body,” I explained. “Finn was trying to stop you from releasing Aldric, so I could send him back to hell.”
Finn groaned, trying to flex his fingers. “I think it’s broken.”
“How did you catch it?” Eli began wiping blood from the crowbar with his rag. “I’ve never seen anyone move that fast.”
“I spar with exorcists.”
“So you’re really an exorcist? Atrueexorcist?” Eli qualified. “We didn’t think there was any such thing.”
“But you’ve been following us for days,” I pointed out. “How did youthinkwe were burning holes straight through degenerates?” They hadn’t come close enough to actually see us fight, but surely they’d seen the results.
Eli shrugged. “We assumed your guns were some new technology.”
And our disposal of the mutated monsters wouldn’t have convinced them that we weren’t possessed. Church demons kill degenerates too, to keep them from killing humans, which they saw as a waste of precious resources.
“Areallof you exorcists?” Eli asked, and I realized that the nomads hadn’t just been following us. They’d beenwatchingus, probably trying to decide how many of us were possessed, like his poor little nephew.
“No. Just me, Maddock and Devi…” I gestured to each of them as I said their names. “And Reese. The big guy.”
“Soon Grayson will be too,” Maddock added. “She’s the little one, with curly hair.”
“And your other two women?”
“Anabelle and Melanie are human,” I said, grateful that neither of them had come to investigate whatever noise our confrontation had made. And if Grayson were there, she would have come running and might have gotten hurt.
“Which one is pregnant?”
“Mellie. She’s my sister.” And the thought of losing her or her baby terrified me almost beyond words. “I’m so sorry about your nephew.” And even sorrier that Eli had been prepared—by necessity—to cave in the poor child’s skull himself. “I assume he’s the reason you and your army were following us?”
“Not just for Tobias.” Eli stood straighter and shoved his blood-smeared rag into his back pocket. “When we were kids, my brother, Micah, and I swore that if either of us was ever taken by the Unclean, the other would personally find him and free his soul.” Eli’s fingers traced the short end of the crowbar hanging from his belt, as if touching it brought him comfort. “They took my brother and my little nephew four days ago.”
His gaze fell heavily on the demon who’d snuck up on me. “Today, I’ve fulfilled my childhood oath.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s broken, but it’s badly bruised and swollen.” Devi sat on the marble floor across from Finn, examining his hand more gently than I’d have thought her capable of. “What we really need is some ice to ease the swelling. A couple of months ago we could have just given him a handful of snow.” She glared at me across the candle lit in the middle of our circle, as if Finn’s injury were somehow my fault. “But for today, we’re out of luck.”
