The lanavours were still out there somewhere. Unlike the gargoyles, they would separate as they moved over the earth. They liked to attack in packs, but they would form smaller packs and spread out.
Movement drew my eye to the tree line as some of the branches and leaves rustled and creaked. I didn’t breathe as I waited for whatever was down there to reveal itself. Red flashed through the leaves before disappearing. Taking a step forward, I watched as the trees parted to reveal two humans, a man and a woman, moving amid the foliage.
All of the humans were supposed to have been cleared from this area years ago, but I’d always suspected some of them had escaped the evacuation. Given all the things the people on this side of the wall had to deal with, it was amazing any of them had survived on their own. What these people had endured, witnessed, and done in order to survive in the wilds would make them tough sons of a bitches, or complete lunatics.
Either way, I didn’t want them drawn to the soldiers we had with us. There was no telling the kind of people they would be at this point.
The couple made their way through the tree line, eventually fading from view. I remained where I was, unwilling to turn and walk away. I didn’t trust that the couple wouldn’t try to double back to get at our supplies if they knew we were here, and I believed they did. They hadn’t survived this long without learning their environment and having killer instincts.
I felt Bale near my side before she spoke. “It’s been half an hour.”
“Get the humans together and tell them to prepare for an attack; we’re going down there to make sure it’s safe before proceeding,” I replied.
“What did you see?”
“Two people, but there might be more and they could be setting a trap.”
“Just what we need,” she muttered and turned away.
I remained where I was until she returned with the other demons who spread out alongside of me. I caught a glimpse of something shiny in the foliage, most likely a rifle or scope. Yes, they definitely knew we were here, and they were waiting.
CHAPTER 16
Kobal
“They want the supplies,” Bale said.
“Yes,” I agreed.
Captain Tresden walked over and stood at the top of the hill beside us. “What is it?” he inquired.
“Humans with guns. They’ve set an ambush for us in the woods,” I replied brusquely.
“I’ll talk to them,” he offered.
“They’re not going to listen. These humans have survived out here for thirteen years. I can guarantee they care little about what you have to say,” I told him.
His mouth pursed as his eyes narrowed. The small movement of a branch about a hundred feet away and on my right caught my eye. The humans were daring enough to move in closer. I didn’t see any more glints from scopes or any movement, but the acrid scent of body odor wafted to me from the woods.
“They’re moving closer,” I said before facing Tresden. “Tell the soldiers to hold their fire unless it becomes absolutely necessary to kill these people. We’re going after these humans before they can get any closer.”
“I will,” he replied before walking away to prepare the soldiers.
“I’d prefer not to kill them if we don’t have to,” I said to the demons gathered around me.
They all exchanged startled glances. “Seriously?” Verin inquired.
I glanced at the soldiers behind us as they gathered their weapons and got into a defensive position. When I turned back to Verin, I responded to her using our native tongue. “Yes. Would you prefer to destroy them?”
“No,” Verin replied and tossed her sun-colored hair over her shoulder. “I just never thought I’d hear you sympathize with the plight of a human.”
I turned away from her. Maybe I wouldn’t have before River, and most of the time, I had little sympathy for humans in general, but these were different from the many I’d encountered over the years. These humans had managed to survive out here in the wilds all this time.
“They’re probably more demon in nature now than human,” I commented.
“Most likely,” Bale agreed.
“So how are we going to handle this?” Morax asked, his tail thumping on the ground as he cracked his knuckles.
“We’ll slip in behind them, take them by surprise. If some of them die in the process, so be it, but keep as many of them alive as possible,” I said. Turning, I strode over to Tresden and the soldiers. “We’re going to attempt to subdue them without a fight.” I switched back to the English language as I spoke. “If one of them slips by us and makes it up here, shoot to kill.”
“We will,” Tresden said.
“Should some of us go with you?” a young woman asked.
“No, stay here to defend the supplies in case something goes wrong.”
I doubted anything would go wrong. They may be more savage than many of the humans we were used to dealing with, but they were still only human. Walking away, I jerked my head and gestured for the demons to follow me into the woods as night descended. Slipping into the shadows of the forest, a small thrill of excitement went through me as I began to hunt.
***
River
I stepped out of the truck to gawk at the massive building before me. There were actually lights on inside the building, lots of them. There had been electricity at some of the gas stations on the other side of the wall, but I’d never seen one as lit up as this one was. I had no idea how this place had so much electricity fueling it, but the entire outside of the building was awash in a harsh glow that made me wish for sunglasses even though the sky was pitch black.
Clouds had obscured the moon and stars hours ago, making our headlights the only thing lighting the road. About a quarter of a mile back though, this place could be seen lighting up the night like a lighthouse beacon.
The large, metal awnings outside of the building covered at least twenty gas pumps. Some of them had hoses hanging down from the silver ceiling toward the smooth, paved parking lot. This parking lot was one of the few I’d seen where the asphalt hadn’t been destroyed by the weather or the war.
The nearly pristine surface was more disturbing than reassuring. Why is this place so untouched?
To my left, a flickering neon sign reading Pearl’s stood beside the building. The light of the sign and the glow from the building blazed through the fog creeping low over the land.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“I believe they used to be called truck stops,” Corson replied.
That was when I saw the darkened words beneath Pearl’s reading Truck Stop. The bulbs used to illuminate Truck Stop must have gone out over the years.
“Is this what we’ve been heading for?” I asked Corson.
“Yes,” he replied at the same time something moved behind one of the slated blinds covering the floor-to-ceiling windows making up the entire front of the building.
“What was that?” Vargas lifted his rifle before him and settled the butt firmly against his shoulder.
My hands rested against the guns holstered at my side as I caught a flash of motion behind one of the windows again. The reassuring weight of the katana rested against my back, but I reminded myself that my greatest weapons lay within my own hands.
The lights outside and the dazzling lights spilling out from between the cracks in the blinds made this place entirely too attention grabbing for my liking. How could we possibly hide out in this place until Kobal and the others arrived? There was no way anyone within a quarter-mile radius would be able to miss it.
Why did Corson bring us here of all places?
I strained to see past the blinds, but I couldn’t make out what was moving beyond them.
“Your guns won’t work on what’s inside.” All of our heads shot toward Corson as he uttered these words.
“Why does that not sound reassuring?” Erin asked.
“It’s not meant to be,” Corson replied.
“What are we walking int
o?” I demanded.
“Nothing deadly. It won’t be pleasant inside, but there most likely won’t be any humans or demons in there.”
I didn’t think any part of this journey was supposed to be pleasant, but if Corson found this unpleasant, we were probably going to hate every second of it. At least whatever was in there wouldn’t kill us, always a bonus.
I followed Corson toward the door with Hawk beside me. Erin and Vargas kept watch at our backs. Our footsteps slapped over the asphalt as we moved toward the building; they were the only sound in the muggy night.
Despite all the light out here, to my right were the shadowed recesses of an alley next to the building. Not much of the light spilling out of the windows and beaming on us from the awnings overhead pierced the darkness beside the building. The grills of a few Mac trucks parked in the alley sparkled in what little light fell over them. If their flat tires and rusting bodies were any indication, they hadn’t moved in years. From what I could see, none of them had trailers attached to them.
Reaching the door of the building, Corson grabbed the metal handle on the door and pushed it open. A bell rang on the other side. The crisp, clear sound of it was extremely loud in the hush surrounding us. The jarring bell wasn’t what startled me most about the door opening, it was the way Corson strolled in as if he owned the place.
The rest of us exchanged baffled looks while we remained standing outside the doorway. We were nowhere near as nonchalant about entering as Corson had been. I pulled out my gun as Hawk put his foot against the bottom of the closing glass door and gently pushed it back open with the toe of his boot. The bell didn’t ring again but rather made a tinkling sound this time. I edged past Hawk, swinging my gun from side to side as I did a brisk search of the interior while the others entered behind me.
Corson stood before me, a smirk curving his lips when my mouth dropped open at the spectacle that greeted me. Sitting in the booths of the diner we’d stepped into, some of the occupants turned sideways to see us, others swiveled away from the counter, and still more stopped in the act of moving down the black and white tile covering the floor.
There were at least fifty individuals within, maybe more, and all of their expressions mirrored the same shock I knew was on my face. I almost took a step back, but Hawk’s breath warmed my neck as he blocked my retreat. Vargas kissed his cross, and Erin looked as if she would rather be facing a gargoyle again.
“You don’t belong here!” a woman shouted at us and rested her hand on her plump hip. Everything about her was gray, from her coloring to her gingham dress to the apron over it. Her gaze swept disdainfully over all of us. “None of you belong here.”
No shit.
“Only resting for a bit,” Corson told her with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“This isn’t your place!” the woman insisted.
Corson waved us toward the stools at the counter. “Have a seat.”
The occupants of those stools shot him nasty looks and folded their arms over their chests. They weren’t going to vacate their seats, and I wasn’t about to try to make them. We didn’t move. I didn’t think any of us dared to as the woman approached us with a thunderous expression on her face.
“You’re not welcome here!” she yelled.
“You have two choices,” Corson bit out at her. “You let us sit and wait peacefully, or she,” he thrust his thumb over his shoulder at me, “burns this place to the ground. Pick your poison.”
“Corson!” I hissed, unwilling to piss off anything in this building. I had no idea what they might be capable of doing if they were pushed.
He shot me a silencing look over his shoulder. The woman stopped advancing on us and swung her faded gray eyes toward me. Her other hand went back to her hip as she glared at us. If she started stomping her feet like a bull, I would be out of here before she could charge us.
“She isn’t capable of that!” the woman declared and thrust a finger at me.
“Believe what you like, but I would suggest not pushing your luck. Go back to your business and leave us be,” Corson said. “We’re just waiting for some friends, and then we’ll be gone.”
The woman didn’t look at all pleased by this notion. My stomach churned with acid as everyone in the building focused on me. The hair on my nape rose, and my hand on my useless gun became so sweaty I had to slip the gun back into the holster before I dropped it. I hated that Corson had used me as a threat, but she didn’t come any closer to us.
The woman continued to study me like a dissected frog before her brow cleared and her hand fell away from her waist. “I know who she is,” the woman murmured.
Around us a ripple went through the crowd, some moved closer to me. Their interest beat against my skin as they scrutinized me. “It is her,” another one whispered. “The demons have found her.”
I could feel Vargas, Erin, and Hawk’s gazes burning into me. “How do you know who I am?” I inquired.
“Word gets around. The afterlife is smaller than people think, especially on this side of the barrier between our worlds,” the plump woman replied.
So, there was an afterlife gossip vine. That was a strangely un-freaking-believable realization.
Corson stepped aside and gestured toward the counter once more. This time, the stool’s occupants hurried to get out of the way as Corson walked toward the vinyl-covered seats. The four of us remained where we were for a full minute before cautiously following him as he settled on one of the stools.
I turned sideways to avoid brushing against someone. I had no idea what would happen if I did, and I didn’t want to find out. I was almost to a stool when my arm passed straight through a man who rose to let us pass. Goose bumps broke out on my chilled flesh and full realization finally sank in.
We were standing in a truck stop diner full of ghosts.
CHAPTER 17
River
I sat hunched over on my stool, unwilling to move as ghosts hovered near my elbows. And hover they did. Their feet never touched the ground as their heads turned curiously back and forth while they inspected me. I tried not to gawk at their gray, transparent forms, but the longer I sat there, the more they gathered around me.
“Are you really what they say you are?” a man with sideburns and a pompadour asked me. He wore a pair of bellbottoms and an older-looking, button-down shirt left partially open to reveal the upper part of his chest. His shoes were flat with rounded fronts and only a couple of shoelaces on them.
“I don’t know what they say I am,” I murmured, leaning away from the one with a pompadour when he floated closer.
“The key to it all. The answer we’ve all been seeking to put to right the world again.”
No pressure though.
I resisted waving my arm at him to get him to move away, but I didn’t want to touch one of them again. “Not so sure about that,” I said instead.
“Do you really think it’s her?” another one of them whispered to some of the others.
“The demon said she could burn this place down with her bare hands, but she’s not a demon. She must be the one everyone has been talking about,” a young man wearing the shredded remains of a gray uniform said. He’d been a Civil War soldier judging by his clothing and wide-brimmed hat.
Apparently, I was the hottest topic on the afterlife gossip vine. Even after everything I’d seen over my lifetime and these last couple of months, this was one thing I’d truly never seen coming. I dimly recalled my mom sitting around watching talk shows when I was a child. Right now, I felt like one of the people sitting on the stage as the audience judged them. All I needed was for someone to stand up and yell at me, Lucifer is her creator!
I shivered at the notion and tried to move away from an old man who floated by with round glasses perched on the tip of his bulbous nose. He inspected me as if I were the freak show. Oh, who was I kidding, I was a freak, but they were freaking ghosts for crying out loud. They could cut me a break.
“Don’t yell at her, Et
hel,” another one said and floated over to the woman who had first spoken with us. “She could help us.”
My eyebrows shot up at that statement. I looked to Corson who leaned over the counter and waved at the ghost with the pompadour. The image of his hand moving back and forth through the man was about as comforting as sleeping on a bed of glass.
“Shoo!” Corson said to him.
The man pouted, but he floated away to stand by one of the tables. “What is this place?” Vargas inquired in a low breath.
“They can hear you,” Corson replied. “No reason to whisper. Ghosts may have the form of mist, but they can hear a gate opening from a mile away, isn’t that right, folks?”
There were many disconcerted comments from the ghosts such as, dick and asshole, following his statement, which only confused me more. Corson swiveled on the stool so his back was to the counter; he leaned against it casually with his elbows propped on the smooth surface behind him. He actually smiled as he surveyed the disgruntled forms staring back at him.
“It’s the truth,” he said to them. “It’s why you’re all here.”
“I don’t understand,” Erin said.
“A few of them are here because they were scared and didn’t pass on to Heaven when they were supposed to. Souls can balk against entering Heaven. They have no such choice when it comes to Hell.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Heaven is a place where the good get to reap their rewards. If they chose not to, then that is their choice. However, no one avoids the punishment of Hell if they rightly deserve it. Those souls who chose not to move on become trapped on Earth until they’re granted another chance to go to Heaven. However, most of these ghosts are here because they didn’t quite have what it took to make it into Heaven or Hell. So they’re stuck here because they didn’t have the balls to be bad enough for Hell, and they didn’t have the decency to be good enough for Heaven,” Corson explained.
Carved (The Road to Hell Series, Book 2) Page 12