“Jokes about what?” Daniel asked.
“It doesn’t matter. They make stupid jokes at my expense.”
Daniel scowled, shifting to face him. “Do you trust them on patrols?”
Nicolas ground his teeth together and didn’t respond. His fingers tightened around the steering wheel, and it didn’t go amiss. Daniel knew him too well.
“You shouldn’t be patrolling with people you don’t trust.”
“I can’t tell Sloan I don’t trust them. If I tell him about any of it, it’ll just make him think I’ve given them some reason not to trustme. I don’t want to draw his attention. For anything. I’ll make do, okay? I don’t want you to worry about it.”
Daniel nodded and fell quiet. They drove for ten minutes in silence before he asked, “Has he said anything else to the captains about those bodies?”
Seven withered bodies and one who’d died of a stabwound were discovered outside the main gate a month ago. Four more people had been killed on patrols since then, all found withered and gray just like Wallace’s squad. They’d all been on high alert, but whatever was killing them hadn’t been seen yet. The deaths were unlike anything they’d ever seen.
He shook his head. “No. The four who died were alone and discovered by the squad when they didn’t return to the meeting point after patrol. No witnesses to their actual murders. Sloan has ordered us not to split up into pairs anymore. Better if squads stay together.”
Daniel nodded. “That’s what Elijah told us today, too. We’ll draw more attention from civilians that way.”
“But maybe we’ll be able to fight off whatever this new demon is that’s hunting us.” And it was huntingthem. There had been no reports of civilian deaths, which was a mixed blessing. He’d never want to see an innocent get hurt, but it verified that whatever this thing was, it was targeting paladins.
“Have you… talked to…” Daniel trailed off. “Do they know what it is?”
The Sentinels. Ex-paladins who’d left the guild and formed their own hunting business because they’d all fallen for demons. Six humans, six demons, working together to keep the streets safe. On paper, it sounded like a good idea. If immortal demons were willing to actually help protect the innocent, where was the problem? Commander Sloan didn’t see it that way, though. He thought the humans were traitors, wallowing in the muck with monsters. Never mind that they were still hunting, still killing the actual monsters, while fending off furious paladins in the process.
Wallace’s squad had tried to kill one of them—JulianHeroux, Nicolas and Daniel’s best friend and former squad member. He’d left the guild of his own accord. Turned in his ring and demanded to be left alone. The paladins took that as a personal insult. Nicolas, Daniel, and others who knew Julian were warned away from him. Their phones were confiscated, his information erased, and they were told they would receive harsh punishments if they tried to contact him. He was dead to the guild for daring to leave, and Wallace took that a step further. He and his squad hunted him down and tried to kill him.
It was no coincidence Wallace and his squad were dead, and Nicolas wasn’t the only one who suspected that the Sentinels were involved somehow. He just didn’t know how they did it. He’d never seen bodies like that before. What kind of demon could do such a thing?
“I haven’t spoken to him since that one night.”
Wallace bragged for days about killing Julian outside the restaurant where he worked. Sloan congratulated him on weeding out the rot. And then Julian reappeared on the guild’s radar, making a statement to the police and his insurance company about his burned-down house. Wallace was humiliated, Sloan was furious, and Nicolas couldn’t stand idly by while they plotted his friend’s murder. He’d gone to the skating rink where the Sentinels operated, followed Julian and a gargantuan man on patrol until they were well and truly alone, then warned him that the paladins were coming for him. It was great to see him again, but Nicolas hadn’t risked reaching out a second time.
“I hope he’s okay,” Daniel murmured.
Nicolas kneaded the steering wheel. “Me, too.”
Not long after the bodies were found, Julian had gone off the radar again. They didn’t know where he was staying, andhe was rarely seen outside the skating rink. They all seemed to be hiding out, or they’d found a way to move around without being followed. Nicolas had heard a rumor that someone tried to break into the place while everyone was gone, but it was warded and wouldn’t let them cross the threshold.
“When do you patrol again?” he asked, grasping for a subject change.
“Tomorrow night. You?”
“Tonight.”
Daniel looked stricken. “What?”
Nicolas cut a hand through the air. The last thing he wanted was for Daniel to worry about him patrolling with those assholes. He could take care of himself. “You know what? It’s fine. I want to eat dinner with my baby brother right now.” And pretend their world wasn’t falling down around their ears.
Daniel scowled at him, then relented. “Fine. But I want to go to that good Chinese place by your apartment. They make the best sesame chicken.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The drivefrom HQ to Sector 93 that night was silent. Nicolas pointedly ignored the other three passengers of their SUV—Jacob, Evan, and Ross. Evan, in Nicolas’s completely unbiased opinion, was a poor replacement for Daniel. He spent more time making jokes and scoffing under his breath after everything Nicolas said than actually doing his job. He also wasn’t half the fighter Daniel was, but that didn’t seem to bean important factor for determining success in the guild these days.
The taillights of the second SUV glowed brightly up ahead as they pulled into a darkened grocery store parking lot. Nicolas desperately wished they could still pair off and patrol the sector separately—at least then he’d only have to deal with one of them—but Sloan’s orders were explicit. The squad was supposed to stick together now, which meant he couldn’t escape them.
They met at the back of the two SUVs, and Nicolas waited until all eight of them had their swords and knives strapped on before he spoke.
