Demon Hunt

by A. Blythe

  As I passed the jaguar, I leaned against the glass wall for support. It wouldn’t take them long to find me. I needed a plan.

  They’re coming after you. Reed’s tone was urgent.

  Thank you, Captain Obvious.

  I was not in any condition to keep fighting. In fact, I was about to pass out from the pain. If I fell unconscious, I was as good as dead. The sight of Rose’s lifeless body rushed back to me. More blood on my hands.

  I’m on my way, Reed said. Don’t die.

  Wasn’t planning on it. I didn’t have the strength to send a mocking mental reply.

  The sound of shouting brought me back to life. I had to pull myself together now or I was going to die right here in Big Cat Falls.

  I did the one thing I never expected to do. I slipped the ring onto my finger. Made of gold and set with four jewels, it wasn’t particularly pretty. It would have appeared clunky in a group of sleek Tiffany rings. An image of its seal flashed in my mind and I knew we were now linked. A surge of energy rushed through my body.

  I do not want to control the other djinn, I reminded myself. I’m in a jam and I just need a little help. Although I knew taking control of Nightshade would end this battle more quickly, the scope of the ring’s power worried me. What if I couldn’t stop? Power was like an addiction. Or maybe I’d watched Lord of the Rings one too many times.

  We can help you, a voice said. I whipped around but saw no one.

  “Who’s there?” I asked. “Uncloak yourself.”

  We are not cloaked, the voice replied. We are right here beside you.

  The only living creatures in view were the big cats.

  Holy Plasma Plane.

  I looked at the jaguar behind the glass. “You’re talking to me, aren’t you?”

  And finally you are listening. Well done.

  I pressed the tips of my fingers against the glass. I’d need someone with magic to dissolve the barrier, which was basically everyone at the zoo except me. And Luciano, if I was counting the getaway bus.

  But you have magic at your disposal now, the jaguar said.

  I examined the ring. The four jewels gleamed at me.

  Four jewels. Four realms.

  Spirits, animals, water, and wind.

  I stepped away from the glass walls and closed my eyes, not entirely sure how necessary closed eyes were to commanding the wind, but I didn’t want debris in my eye, in any case. No part of me was operating at full capacity, including my eyelashes.

  “I summon a wind so strong as to shatter the glass of these enclosures,” I said. It was more dramatic than my usual snarky tone.

  Although the wind grew stronger, I remained firmly rooted without difficulty, as though I stood in the eye of a hurricane. Glass fragments exploded in all directions. My hands shot up to protect my face. The wind settled down and I addressed the animals now assembled before me.

  “Brave cats, you will serve me this night. Defend my friends from those djinn who wish us harm.”

  Three pumas, seven lions, three Amur leopards, and five Amur tigers ran from Big Cat Falls. The lone jaguar stayed by my side.

  You are injured, he said.

  “A healer can fix me,” I said. “As soon as we take care of Nightshade. Join your brothers and sisters.”

  The animals plowed ahead of me, attacking each Nightshade djinni in their path. Although I heard the shrieks and roars, I didn’t pause to observe the carnage. I had to get out with the ring.

  Reed, I called loudly in my head. I’m busting out of Big Cat Falls with the help of some feline friends.

  No response. That didn’t bode well. Even in the heat of battle, Reed was good for a mental chat.

  I ran toward the rhinoceros pen. “All hooves on deck,” I yelled. I wasn’t even sure if the rhino had hooves, but I figured he’d get the picture. “Everybody out. My friends and I need help.”

  The animals of the African Plains burst out of their enclosures. Two hippos, the giraffes, zebras, and gazelles. Even a river hog. I kept running, leaving them behind me to form a defensive wall. My breathing was labored, but I forged ahead.

  As I passed Tortoise Trail, I heard the ancient calls of the tortoise.

  We wish to help.

  Thank you but no, I said. Stay where you are. Stay safe. They were old and slow and I had no interest in spilling any more innocent blood tonight. Rose was more than enough.

  I passed the kangaroos and heard the trickle of the water fountain. The exit was nearly in sight.

  “You are not planning to leave without saying goodbye?” Katrien materialized in my path with Wilhelm by her side. Stampede survivors.

  I skidded to a halt. They were both in their half-djinn forms—their upper halves appeared human and their lower halves swirled like mini-tornadoes. There would be no way around them.

  “I’m wearing the ring,” I said, and held up my middle finger. “Oops, wrong one.” I showed them my ring finger where the ring of Solomon shone in the darkness.

  “We did not think the animals acted of their own accord.” Katrien extended a hand. “Join us, Alyse. We will promote you to commandant. With the ring, we can help you shed these cuffs that are slowly killing you. Do you not prefer life to death?”

  “Think of the power we can wield,” Wilhelm said, his voice dreamy as he gazed at the ring. “The entire world will be at our mercy.”

  “But that wasn’t the reason you wanted the ring in the first place,” I reminded him. “You wanted to control PAN, remember? So that you were part of a leadership that made better choices. Now, suddenly, you’re talking about the world being at your mercy.” Instinctively, I reached for my yantoks and realized Farah still had one of them. “You don’t even have the ring and you’re already corrupted by its power.”

  “They will never get the ring,” Dragon Mage said, appearing beside me. She was covered in a thin film of ash and dust.

  “How many did you kill?” I asked in disbelief.

  The Chinese albino mage licked the debris from her fingers. “Enough.”

  Wilhelm struck first, directing his anger at Dragon Mage. She easily blocked his blow with a protective shield.

  “What about your fancy laser beams?” I asked, huddling behind her. “Shoot one out of your mouth or something.”

  “Use the ring,” Dragon Mage countered. “Instead of cowering like a child behind her mother’s skirt.”

  I didn’t want to use the ring any more than necessary, and definitely not to control djinn. Dragon Mage wasn’t a djinni—she wouldn’t understand.

  Katrien began to spin and I quickly realized she was shifting into a tornado. Her skills seemed to rival my own djinn magic. The protective barrier likely wouldn’t hold against the power of the wind.

  Wilhelm was a Jann—he lacked the ability to tap into Mother Nature, Extreme Edition. He opted to go the masculine route and summoned a larger weapon than the one he had earlier. He wasn’t winning any intelligence contests with that choice. Any rounds he fired would get blown in all directions thanks to Katrien’s tornado.

  Dragon Mage began to struggle against the force of the wind. “I am not able to hold much longer,” she said through gritted teeth. “Use the ring.”

  A shiny copper and iron bolt whizzed past my head and landed squarely in the center of the tornado. The wind came to an abrupt stop. A cloud of mist hung limply in the air, a sure sign that Katrien was injured.

  Sensing an advantage, Dragon Mage dropped the shield and lifted her hands toward Wilhelm, blasting him through the air.

  “Finally,” I said. The laser beams were back.

  Another bolt shot past us and cleared the mist. Katrien’s human body reappeared and she staggered sideways before falling to her knees.

  I raced toward her as another white-hot beam burst from the mouth of Dragon Mage. Damn, she scared me. I was glad she was on my team today.

  “Katrien,” I said, grabbing her under the arm before she hit the ground.

  She struggled to spe
ak. “You did not use the ring.”

  “I beg to differ,” I said. “Have you seen the animals running amok?”

  “To control us. You could have avenged your mage.”

  Rose. I would mourn Rose, yes, but I had no desire to seek revenge. The blame for her death was mine and mine alone.

  Katrien coughed and blood splattered on my shirt. “There is something you must know. To give you peace.” Her voice was weakening, but I knew we could still save her. She was a Marid. It took a lot more effort to kill a member of our caste.

  “Don’t talk,” I urged. “We’ll get you to a healer.” As much as I disapproved of her actions, she deserved a fair trial.

  Katrien’s fingers dug into the smooth flesh of my wrist. “Listen to me, Alyse. It was I who killed your handler. Wilhelm and I.”

  Her admission knocked the wind out of me.

  Jamie. They killed Jamie. Not the Shadow Elite. Not my enemies in pursuit of me. Not PAN.

  Nightshade.

  I stared into her dark eyes and saw no malice there. She wasn’t trying to hurt me with her confession. She wanted what everyone wanted when the end seemed near.

  Absolution.

  “Why?” I choked out.

  She fought for breath. “I told you I tracked you here from Dubai, but that was not true.”

  “M-Rod?”

  “I have crossed paths with him in the past. I knew you and Flynn met him in Miami and that Flynn was here. I did not actually know Flynn was in touch with you until I arrived.”

  “Then how did you find me?”

  She coughed again. “When I heard you had disappeared, I assumed you had taken the ring from Aladdin and fled. I used every contact I had to find your handler.”

  “He didn’t tell you anything.” It was a statement of fact. Jamie never would have betrayed me. Never.

  “No.” She winced from the pain. “But he insisted you would never want to possess the ring. That you would have been uncomfortable with its power.”

  A testament to the fact that Jamie knew the real me. A small comfort.

  “So when he refused, you found someone who remembered Flynn from the Academy,” I said.

  She nodded. “It would have been too suspicious if I had known your location. Once the locator spell revealed the ring was here, it was easier to use Flynn.”

  I fought back tears. “Why kill Jamie then?”

  Katrien swallowed hard. “It was not our plan. He worried for your safety. Because of the cuffs, I suppose. He did not tell me about them.”

  And it took her time to believe they were genuine. All the moments she seemed to be testing me, she was.

  “He tried to fight you?” I couldn’t picture Jamie taking down a squirrel, let alone two djinn.

  Her eyes squeezed shut. “Stupid man. He was only human. What did he think would happen?”

  Jamie was the best kind of human. A lone tear escaped and slid down my cheek. I had caused his death after all, just not for the reasons I believed.

  Dragon Mage stood beside me. “The German is no longer a threat.”

  “Neither is Katrien,” I said, cradling her head. I couldn’t explain this urge to protect her. Maybe the ring had connected me to the spirit world. It was as though Jamie was begging me to show mercy. He would never want me to avenge his death. I knew that with every fiber of my being and I had to respect it.

  “Step away from the Marid, Winters,” Dragon Mage ordered.

  I thrust out my arm in a protective pose. “She’s already dying. Let me get a healer. Captain Reed has one on call. Or we can ask Melania for help. She deserves a trial.”

  “No healers,” Dragon Mage insisted. “That is my order.” She shoved me aside and lifted her knee-high boot. A sharp copper blade popped out from the heel and she jammed it into Katrien’s throat. Blood bubbled out of the puncture wound, a deeper and deeper crimson until it turned black. Black veins appeared all over her skin and the human shell crumbled into dust.

  So much for mercy.

  A strong, familiar hand reached down and I grabbed it. Reed raised me to my feet. He was still holding the crossbow.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Don’t be. You made the right call.” I tried to remember which Protector had taken the crossbow in the warehouse. “Where did you…?”

  “Oh, Lieutenant Musgrove is fine,” he said, following my thought process. “I grabbed it on the way to you. A sword doesn’t do me much good at long range and I couldn’t use fire when you were standing between us.”

  “Any casualties on our side?” I asked.

  “Only Rose.”

  Pinky rushed forward and threw her arms around me. “Alyse, you’re okay.”

  I winced at the pressure of her body. Everything still hurt. “I’m alive, if that’s what you mean.”

  Reluctantly, she released me. “I don’t know how to thank you. You’re the best mentor a girl could ever have.”

  “That’s all the thanks I need.”

  Pinky glanced over at Dragon Mage, who was watching the bonobos with casual interest. “So are you two, like, friends now?”

  I thought of her brutality when it came to Katrien’s fate. “Sadly, I don’t think friendship is in our future. I’m trying to be on a better path and that means choosing my friends wisely.”

  “Why would Mommy hire someone like her?” Pinky asked in a whisper. “I mean, she works for the Dragon. Not to mention she’s pretty scary.” So Pinky believed Dragon Mage worked as some kind of mercenary. I decided to run with it.

  “I guess your mother wanted someone pretty scary to come and save you,” I said. “She didn’t trust me to do the job.”

  “Mommy doesn’t know you as well as I do,” Pinky said. “You’re plenty scary. She’ll learn to have faith in you…eventually.”

  It wasn’t her faith in me that I was worried about. “You should check in with Melania. Let her determine if you need a healer.” Melania may not like me, but I still recognized her value.

  “Seeing the animals out of their pens was so cool,” she said. “No zoo visit will be the same after this.”

  I’d forgotten about the animals on the loose. “Are they wreaking havoc?”

  “No.” She said and laughed. “Greer’s been trying to guide them back to their enclosures. It’s a riot.”

  “I’ll help with the clean up in a second,” I said. “Go see if you can find Melania.”

  I joined Dragon Mage at the bonobo exhibit. “I didn’t peg you for a bonobo fan. I thought you’d be more at home with the tigers.”

  “Do you know anything about bonobos?” She didn’t wait for me to respond. “The females dominate their environment. Each new female to the group is welcomed, despite their lack of blood ties. They become integral to the community.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  “Yes. I admire them greatly. The strong females will bite off the fingers and toes of a male to keep him away from food.”

  Okay, that sounded less nice.

  “You had the ring,” I said. “Why didn’t you just wear it and wipe us all out in one fell swoop?”

  “Those were not my orders,” she said.

  Her ability to follow orders would have put the Nazis to shame. “So what? You could have gotten away with it if you’d really wanted to. So why not put it on?”

  “Same reason you took it off, I think. We are not so different from each other as you would like to believe.”

  A badass with scruples. I was familiar with the type.

  “Why didn’t you try to take the ring back from me?” I asked. “I imagine your orders were to kill Nightshade and retrieve the ring for your boss.”

  Her lip curled. “You understand her better than she realizes.” She turned away from the bonobos and faced me. “I think in the American vernacular, you say ‘now you owe me one.’”

  “So it’s not a simple matter of girl power?” I queried. Damn. I was hoping her cooperation would be stringless. I hated strings.


  Dragon Mage patted my cheek. “Fear not. My employer will be most unhappy with me when I tell her I failed to retrieve the ring. I will pay a price for my incompetence.”

  I actually felt a pang of guilt over her impending torture. What was wrong with me? I felt the cuffs, tight around my wrists. I seemed to be more human with every passing day. Good gods, if I was like this now, what would I be like in ten more years?

  “I’m off to give my report,” Dragon Mage said. “She will be quite pleased her daughter is safe.”

  “We all are.”

  Qiao strutted away from the bonobos, the young female immigrant going to pay her respects to her adult alpha female.

  With the help of my team, we finally returned the last cat to its enclosure. The jaguar turned its yellow and black head toward me.

  Many thanks, mistress. This is the most fun I’ve had in ages.

  “It was my pleasure.” I took a step backward and gestured for Oscar to work his magic on the missing sheet of glass.

  One spell reformed the glass fragments into a wall.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Thank you for coming to Pinky’s aid. Again.” His expression was grim and I knew what he was thinking.

  “I’m sorry I got Rose involved,” I said. Flynn had apparently volunteered to take the body back to the city where the Enclave would make proper arrangements for her. “I never should have risked her life.”

  “Why did you?” he asked. “What made you believe that Katrien would crumble at the sight of her deceased lover?”

  “I spent a lot of time with her,” I explained. “Despite her actions, I sensed goodness in her. And Lily was her world. I thought if she saw her again, it would remind her of her humanity.”

  “And put a stop to her crusade?”

  I nodded.

  “I’m no psychologist, Alyse, but do you think it’s possible that the goodness you thought you glimpsed in Katrien is actually the goodness you sense in yourself?”

  I had no answer. “Either way, Rose’s blood is on my hands.” And Jamie’s.

  Oscar didn’t argue. Instead, he zeroed in on the ring, still on my finger.

  “What do you intend to do with it now?” he asked.

  I tugged off the ring and held it in my palm. “Make sure no one ever has possession of it again.” Although the influx of power was quite the thrill ride, I didn’t think it was a good idea to repeat the experience.