The Hunter's Curse (Monster Hunter Academy Book 2) Page 20

  “Why?” she whispered, sounding truly agonized. “Demons are our friends.”

  Then she disappeared as well.

  Zach and I dropped to our knees on the open landscape, alone. I leaned heavily on my thighs, my lungs burning as I breathed in the sulfurous air. “She’s so gonna need therapy after this,” I muttered, and Zach snorted.

  “She’s not the only one. I’m not sure what condition those other students will be in. This is a portal realm, what most would consider a kind of purgatory, a way station between their interpretations of heaven and hell. But it’s not a world for humankind. It’s the kind of place that best belongs in horror movies and dreams, not memories.”

  “Will they remember it?”

  “Probably not consciously, but I can’t say something won’t break through.” He shot me a weary smile. “At least we’ll have something legit for the demonology students to do once the smoke clears. There’s enough data to unravel from this little possession attempt to keep them occupied for years. Not to mention the fact that Bellamy Chapel is a portal. I might be the next person out in front of it to pick up a sign and chant ‘burn it down.’”

  “Yeah…” I blew out a long breath, squinting out over the landscape. “It still smells like fire, you know? At first, I thought it was sulfur, but it’s different now. More…burn-y.”

  Zach frowned, also peering around. “You know, you’re right. I don’t know why, though. I would have thought—”

  Before he could say anything else, the air snapped tight around us, and then a hole appeared in the smoke-filled sky. A blast of color and energy hurtled into view, crashing to the ground and rolling several feet before sprawling wide.

  “I knew it!” Liam howled, scrambling to his feet and whipping around to us. “I knew Grim was talking about Bellamy. I fucking knew it.”

  We stared as he ran up to us, his face alight with excitement. “Did you do that? The flame-throwing shit? Or was that the demons? It sure as hell wasn’t the students. The few of them left in the area were practically catatonic.”

  I blinked from him to the rip in the clouds, finally noticing the flames licking through from the other side. “What are you talking about?” Zach managed.

  “Oh, come on,” Liam protested, waving his arms. “You have to know. Bellamy is on friggin’ fire.” He grabbed Zach’s unresisting hand, then turned to me, hauling us both to our feet.

  “We’ve got to get back to the library, though. This is going to be awesome!”

  He raced back into the flames.

  29

  We burst back into the chapel, which was, as Liam had said, ablaze with flames. “What happened?” I gasped.

  Liam gestured for us to follow him, bending over nearly double as he scrambled down the center of the chapel, flames licking along the pews. “The few students who were still coherent had no clue. Place just went up like it’d been doused in gasoline, and you can bet your bones it’s—whoa!”

  He leapt back as a section of the floor gave way, briefly illuminating the chamber below. There were several shelves visible, stacked high with metal boxes, before another blazing crossbeam fell from the ceiling, obscuring our view.

  “Dude,” Liam dropped to his hands and knees, leaning over the hole without any concern for the heat. “There’s shit down there we need to get out. You gotta believe nobody knows anything’s down there, and we have to—”

  “Liam,” Zach ordered, not only with his mouth but with his mind, and Liam spun around, his eyes sparking with new interest as his dark brows climbed high.

  “You’re right. Out we go first—but this way.” He darted down a charred row of pews, slowing as he approached a side door. “Firefighters are out front. We don’t want any part of that.”

  I blinked. Firefighters? When had they shown up?

  “How long have we been gone?” I asked as Liam slowly opened the door. We peeked out into bright sunshine.

  “I don’t know—a few hours, maybe? Long enough for us to lock down the library, not long enough for us to figure out how to free the demonology students while keeping the demons trapped in there. We’re at what you’d call a standoff. And then, you know, came the next round of crazy—be careful. Stay out of sight.”

  He gestured toward the trucks that had pulled up to the front of the chapel. Men and women in heavy gear and firefighter helmets were braced with heavy hoses, spraying huge arcs of water toward the main part of the building. As we watched, Liam reached into his pocket and produced three small metal cylinders, flipping them all on before handing two off to us.

  “What are these?” Zach asked, peering down at his with interest.

  “Think of them as signal jammers, only the signals are for eyeballs. They cause enough light distortion that—never mind. It’s kind of a cloak of invisibility.”

  “Sweet.” Zach grinned.

  Slipping out the doorway in a tactical crouch, Liam led the way, practically crab-walking along the side of the church. When we reached the cemetery, he broke in a low run, and we did the same. I practically squeezed the life out of my jammer, but no one challenged us or cried out. In another five minutes, we were deep into the campus of Wellington Academy, keeping to the trees as the smoke billowed up behind us from the burning chapel.

  “Eyes forward, boyo,” Liam announced when Zach paused to look back. “You’ve got a date with Lowell Library, fifth floor, where your demonology buddies are now assembled…and, as it turns out, the scati as well. Even smaller than before. Serious bugsville. We’ve got no idea how they got in, but they’ve driven everyone to the top floor, and someone broke a window, so God only knows what else has flown in there now.”

  “The scati? What are they doing there?” Zach demanded as we started forward again.

  “Apparently waiting for their lord and master, who came bursting out of the fiery inferno with Merry Williams in his claws as I was pounding up to the chapel. News flash, I don’t think they’re going to have a second date.”

  I jerked my gaze toward Liam, stumbling. “Merry?” I panted. “She’s hurt?”

  “If she is, she’s currently finding comfort in the arms of half a dozen brawny firefighters. They caught her as she fell out of the front door of the chapel, allowing me to skate right by to get to you guys. Fortunately or unfortunately, big bad demon boy managed to bypass the firefighters as well, or they just didn’t see it. Which is insane, but seems to be the case.” He turned and pinned Zach with his bright, river-stone eyes, and we all slowed to a fast walk as his voice dropped. “That’s one of your family demons, right? Ugly guy, curved horns? You got just the one?”

  “It changes all the time. I have no idea,” Zach said. “But why do you think it’s going to Lowell Library?”

  Liam grinned. “Other than the fact that most of the demonology students are still stuck in there, including some guys possessed by round-horn’s buddies? I don’t know. But that’s our headquarters, and your stink is all over it. Probably not surprising that the big dude would home in on it.”

  “All those students.” Zach winced. “They’ll be sacrificed as collateral damage.”

  “Not if we have anything to say about it,” Liam countered. “Turns out those demonology guys don’t completely suck after all. They’ve got all sorts of spikes, mirrors, and these goofy silver beads they swear can take a demon out at twenty paces, though they don’t know how to use them yet. Claim they found them in the back closet of the demonology department and haven’t had a chance to try them out, no clue where they came from.”

  I frowned at Liam. Silver beads—was that where Grim had found them? If so, why had one been lying on the sidewalk blocks away from the campus? “Yeah, but if the demonology students have them and they’re still trapped in the library, clearly they can’t be all that good,” Zach pointed out.

  “Au contraire, mon frère,” Liam chortled. “Frost ordered the students to lie low—not get dead, but not strike out until we could all be there in force. And then, of cours
e, he got pulled away, him and Robbins…after they tied up Garrison and stuffed him into the war room to sleep off his possession.”

  “What do you mean pulled away?” I asked, all of us still walking quickly. “What could Frost have to do that’s more important than getting a demon out of Lowell Library?”

  Liam grinned. “As it happens, entertaining his ass off in Cabot Hall for a parade of dignitaries who descended on campus outta nowhere to check out the doings of the monster hunting minor. Or at least that’s where he was before Bellamy Chapel went up in flames. Robbins was supposed to go in solo, but he was completely freaked after our little demon throw down and won’t let Frost out of his sight, so off they went. Grim and Tyler are holding down the fort at the library, and they sent me to get you. It’s been quiet for a while now, but things are starting to heat up again. Something’s changed, and it probably has to do with our man Round-Horn the Magnificent, Zach’s own personal demon, hitting the scene.”

  “You know, you really shouldn’t be enjoying this so much,” Zach muttered, but Liam merely laughed.

  “The fifth floor has balconies, right? Like terraces?” I put in. “If any of those students get out and try to make a run for it…”

  “Already happened. Grim, because he’s a baller, was able to break the guy’s fall, but the kid was pretty beat up. Next over the side was some freshman chick. She fared a little better, but finding herself wrapped up in Grim’s arms may have given her permanent psychological damage. After that, Tyler was able to put a spell of holding on the building, and its illusion wards are going strong, but that’s not going to do us much good if we don’t get in there and defuse the problem. The only thing worse than a bunch of dead students…”

  “Is a bunch of possessed ones,” Zach said.

  “Kind of unfortunate for recruiting, not gonna lie.”

  We took off running again.

  30

  We reached Lowell Library five minutes later, and Liam was right. By all outward appearances, the library looked perfect and pristine, late afternoon sunlight streaming off its many leaded windows, hiding away any chaos going on inside. I peered up to the roofline directly above the fifth floor.

  “How do we get up there?” I asked.

  “We can’t go in the front doors. Tyler’s spell of holding’s doing a good job of deadening the senses of everyone inside, including the demons. But if we breach that barrier, all bets are off. He didn’t know if he’d be able to maintain the spell once the energy balance was disrupted. So we climb.”

  “Excellent,” Zach said, while I jolted.

  “Climb?” I asked.

  They didn’t take the time to explain more. Liam led the way to the rear of the building, where thick vines bristled along an ornate trellis that had been affixed into the wall.

  “Medieval fire escape, recommended by the Montagues, the Capulets, and forsworn lovers ever since,” Liam explained over his shoulder as he started climbing, hand over hand. Below him, Zach turned back to me with a troubled expression. Liam looked down at both of us and nearly fell off the side of the wall.

  “Whoa,” he gasped, his eyes lighting up as he swayed wildly on the trellis. “My man, what happened to you?” His gaze moved immediately to me, and a wide, delighted grin broke out on his face. “But how—when? Like what was that, a purgatory hookup?”

  “Can it, Liam,” Zach said, his expression hardening. Whatever he was going to say to me could wait, as he turned back to the wall and started up. I had no choice but to follow him. I sure as hell wasn’t going to hang out on the ground.

  We could hear the screams from the third floor on. Zach shot forward, overtaking Liam and leaving me a distant third. Liam waited for me to catch up, then stopped me as I tried to climb farther.

  “Hang on a sec,” he murmured. “Seriously. I don’t need to know how it happened with Zach, but I know something happened. Now that I’m finally looking at him square, Zach’s lit up from the inside out. I bet if we studied it, we’d be seeing some pretty major leaps in his mind-meld power, since that’s his jam. We can use that.”

  “Well then, let’s—”

  “Hold up, I said.” Liam’s expression hardened, his eyes brooking no bullshit. “Frost was able to pull out some of the smarter demonology students from the scrum, and I got a crash course. If this is a personal vendetta against Zach’s family, and it is, we’ve gotta steer clear. Anyone he loves can become weapons against him, and that helps no one.”

  “I don’t think so,” I argued. “We’re linked to Zach psychically now. And um, based on what we tried in…I guess purgatory, I can even channel some of his ability, sort of borrow it, you know? Because of that connection, I think we can help.”

  Liam’s eyes narrowed as I turned back to the trellis and continued climbing.

  “All of us, or just you?” he asked as he started climbing too. “Because we’re going to need to test that out. I don’t want to be the wimpy little brother here.”

  I snorted a laugh as he scrambled up beside me. “You’re insane. You’re the first to throw yourself into the middle of danger and the first to figure your way out of it. You’ve never been wimpy a day in your life.”

  The comment must have caught Liam off guard, because he flushed as Zach shouted above us.

  “I’m going in,” he called down. “Tyler?”

  Liam put his hand over his left wrist, activating his psychic link to Zach, while my connection with Zach was already wide open. Tyler’s response came through loud and clear.

  “Welcome back,” he said tersely. “Grim says the congregation is pretty screwed up. Demons are doing a number on them, getting into their heads. He just tackled another kid to the ground and says he’s not in the mood for any more.”

  “You can drop whatever wards you’ve got on the place?”

  “Long enough to get you guys in there, yeah. Go.”

  Zach catapulted over the side of the balcony, disappearing from view. A second later, the flood of Zach’s thoughts nearly swept me off the side of the library wall. In an instant, I saw what he saw, in all its horror. A room full of smoke, miniature flying demons, and students pressed against the walls or huddled in heaps together on the floor, and in the center, the tall, powerful demon from beyond the Bellamy Chapel portal, its horns curling back from its elongated face, its burly body braced on heavy legs as its tail lashed furiously around it.

  “Make the sacrifice,” howled the demon, its gaze fixed on Zach as it shifted, becoming first Zach’s father and then an older man with a long, sad face and wispy beard, a floppy hat perched on his head and a tattered duster swirling around his body. He looked almost like a hobo, but a prosperous one. The demon shifted again as Liam and I reached the balcony. We slipped over onto the terrace as well, no one paying us any attention. We opened the door to the interior room. “It’s time.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” Zach said, his voice carrying with its peculiar resonance across the room. “You can let these people go. Your quarrel is with me. Fight me, and let’s finish this.”

  As Zach spoke, he glowed, practically incandescent, causing gasps and shouts from the students. They turned toward him, hope springing up, and the demon flung out its hands.

  “These are whom you would impress? These are whom you love?” it demanded, exasperated. “Look at them!”

  It gestured sharply, and the students cowered back again, even those gripping their crosses and religious totems. Their belief was being tested to the limit, and I could see their fear crest in their wide eyes, their trembling hands.

  Zach stepped forward, and Liam pushed me to the side, waving me away—

  But it was too late.

  “Ahhhh…” the demon breathed, and the entire room went electric with tension as it turned and focused on me. Liam used the distraction to edge over toward a knot of cowering students, dropping to one knee. I tried not to stare directly at the demon, but it seemed to grow to three times its size in my peripheral vision, loo
ming over the room with quivering glee. “Here she is, at last. Behold, the light of your affection, the female you claim above all others.”

  “Your fight is with me,” Zach insisted again, but the demon lifted its taloned hands, stretching its arms wide as if drawing in all its power.

  “Now and ever more, you and your line will pay for the power you stole from us,” it hissed.

  It dropped its hands.

  Swooping down from the rafters of the fifth floor, the scati descended in a screeching torrent. Over near the students, Liam spun around, instantly overcome by the horde of flying demons. Despite his thrashing, he was beaten to the floor by the swarm. He lurched forward and flung something across the room toward me—the silver pellets. The beads struck several of the scati before they reached me, to absolutely no effect. He might as well be hurling marbles at them. I lunged for a handful of the beads anyway, grabbing maybe a dozen, then staggered back upright as the head demon turned to me.

  “And your woman still stinks of you,” it chortled into the chaos, curling its lip. “I suppose congratulations are in order, except that she doesn’t know the wedding gift you’ve given her, does she?”

  With that a burst of pint-sized demon lieutenants erupted out of nowhere in plumes of smoke, joining the brawl. Dimly, I was aware of Liam staggering upright, Tyler and Grim racing into the room, but it was Zach who held my attention.

  Words flowed from his mouth as his hands slashed and tore, slicing through the wall of scati. I closed my left fist around the beads, then leaned down to pull my dagger out of its ankle sheath, while Zach shoved the students back into their own confused rabble. He finally reached the main demon, who erupted into flame as Zach laid his hands around it. I followed right behind, thrusting my blade at everything demonic I could reach, still gripping my magic pellets like my life depended on it.