Page 42 of Warrior Unraveled

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It was easy to find the spot where they’d jumped out of the demon’s vortex the night before. It was just as easy to find the trash and debris behind which they’d hidden the dead demon’s body. Unfortunately it wasn’t at all easy to find the body itself: it had vanished.

“That’s impossible!” Virginia ground out.

Wesley scratched his head. Maybe the wound Virginia had delivered hadn’t been fatal and the demon had only been unconscious, not dead. “What if he was still alive?”

Virginia spun her head to him. “When I kill a demon, he’s fucking dead.”

He put a hand on her forearm. “Hey, easy. Nothing personal, okay? I saw you kill him. And he looked dead to me. I just wonder whether he could have played dead in the hopes that he’d get a chance to escape later.”

She slanted him an assessing look. “That might make sense for any creature other than a demon. But a demon doesn’t plan ahead that far, not in a situation of life and death. If there’d been any life left in him, he would have continued fighting. It’s an instinct. I’ve fought enough demons to know that. I hacked a demon’s arm off at the shoulder once, and he was staggering, losing blood faster than an open faucet, and he grabbed a dagger with his other hand and lunged for me. He didn’t have a prayer, but he tried with his last breath.” She met his gaze. “That demon was dead.”

Wesley let her words sink in. Admiration for the warrior in her collided with the fear that one day Virginia would come across a demon she couldn’t defeat. He didn’t voice either thought. Instead, another concern pushed to the forefront. “Then I think we have a problem. Somebody disposed of the demon’s body. And if it wasn’t you or me, or any of your colleagues, then it must have been another demon. If a human had found him, this place would be swarming with police.”

Virginia sucked in a visible breath. “Which could mean one of two things. And I don’t like either.”

Wes lifted his chin. “Meaning?”

“Either another demon knew where he was heading and came looking for him, or somebody followed us.”

“I don’t see how the second scenario is possible. How could they have tailed us? And if they had, why not follow us to the motel and kill us in our sleep?” After all, he and Virginia had been rather distracted while in bed. Anybody could have snuck up on them. He made a mental note to surround them with a guarding spell next time—though in his defense, he didn’t have his tools on him. They were probably still in the Baltimore compound, since Virginia hadn’t brought them along to the council meeting.

“Do you remember back in the Underworld when the guard at the vortex asked our friend to state his business?” Wes asked, suddenly remembering something.

Virginia’s eyes widened as the memory came back to her.

“He said he was going up top on somebody’s orders,” Wes added, though he couldn’t remember the name the demon had mentioned.

Virginia nodded. “On Vintoq’s orders.”

“Exactly. So whoever this Vintoq is, he knew where our dead demon was heading. And when he didn’t return, he must have sent somebody after him, or maybe even come himself.”

Virginia let her gaze roam. There were trees and bushes in the vicinity, an old shack maybe a quarter mile away, and a water tower in the distance. When she turned her gaze back to him, she leaned in.

“What if they’re still here watching us?”

“What for?”

“So they can follow us.”

“Why would they even suspect that we’d come back here? To the scene of the crime, so to speak.” Only an idiot criminal would do that—and he and Virginia, apparently.

“They’d expect us to return to dispose of the demon’s body because we can’t afford to let humans know what we’re dealing with. It would cause widespread panic.”

“But wouldn’t they assume that you’d remain invisible?”

She shook her head, and her red hair picked up the sunlight and shimmered like it was on fire. “Not necessarily. Cloaking takes a lot of energy. Even the demons know we can’t keep it up all the time. And out here, without any human around to witness us burning a body...” She shrugged. “They’d know there’s a good chance we wouldn’t cloak ourselves.”

“I see.” And considering what they’d gone through in the Underworld—and later—he was certain that Virginia was exhausted. “We should leave now.”

She nodded. “We have to be prepared that they might follow us.”

“That’s why I think it’s a bad idea to return to the council now.”

Virginia slanted him a suspicious look.

He sighed. “And, no, it’s not because I don’t want to land in that lead cell again.”