Page 98 of Wicked Deeds

I tugged at his grasp. “I should go.”

Magic pulsed over me and I gasped. He stepped back. “Some strength for your ward. Now go.”

I ran, every nerve straining as I headed in the direction Usuriel had told me to go, searching for Gwen’s magic, hoping like hell he wasn’t somehow double-crossing us. Whatever Callum had done had strengthened more than my wards. The lingering effects of Jack’s drug and breaking out of the VR had vanished. As I worked my way through a confusing tangle of interconnecting corridors, I caught glimpses of the grounds outside the building, a fleeting impression of a weedy stretch of grass sloping down to a footpath in one spot and more empty parking spots in another. No glimpse of anyone else. If Damon’s security guys were out there, they were doing a damned good job staying out of sight.

I pulled my attention back to my surroundings. Good guys out there, but bad guys in here. Concentrate on them. And Gwen.

A noise up ahead brought me skidding to a halt, arms flailing to stop myself from crashing into the wall. It sounded like something thudding against a surface. Like someone trying to force a door open.

I set off again, scanning the door handles and straining to hear more. I knew I’d found the right one when I spotted one with the lock on the outside, like mine had been. But that made life easy. No need to pick a lock. A quick check for wards—clear, thank God—and I yanked the door open. Gwen nearly fell through, tumbling into me.

I caught her and pulled her close for a hug, feeling her trembling against me, breath shaky. I gave her thirty seconds, then pushed her gently back, to look at her. “Are you okay?”

Her face was tear-stained, her blue eyes bloodshot, the pupils wide with fear. Her hair looked wild as though she’d been pulling on it.

“Yes. It was Jack. Jack’s here. He woke me up, but I couldn’t move. He said something about behaving like a good daughter. You were right, he’s an asshole.” Fury briefly replaced the fear in her eyes. “Then he put a headset on me and he…he locked me into VR. Like you said. But I got out. Thank God. That was awful.” She swallowed hard, stopping her stream of words. “But I couldn’t open the door. Where are we?”

“I’m not sure. But help is here, we’ll be fine.” I tried to sound sure about that, but if Callum and Usuriel didn’t stop Jack, we were all probably dead.

Don’t think about that. We were going to make it out. And I would be making sure Gwen learned how to pick locks, and half a hundred other things to keep her safe, once we did.

“Help? The Cestis?”

“Yes. And Callum. And…Lord Usuriel.” I didn’t want her to panic and try to run if Usuriel suddenly appeared. “They’re here to stop Jack.”

“Good.” She nearly spat the word. “He’s…crazy. He was talking about demons and there was this thing…with him.”

I froze. A thing. “An imp?”

She shuddered. “No. Bigger. It was awful. Kind of gray looking. Gray and wrong. It wanted to touch me, but Jack said ‘no’. It didn’t seem happy.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. A lesserkind. If lesserkind were already involved we were in deep shit. New plan. Get the fuck out of the building.

This corridor ended in a dead end, but I remembered the exit sign I’d seen before Callum had grabbed me. “We’ll figure out what it was later,” I said. “We’re leaving. This way.”

I half-dragged Gwen after me as I broke into a run, trying not to sprint flat out in deference to her shorter legs. She kept pace with me easily enough, making me vow to copy her more dedicated approach to time on the treadmill.

I retraced my path as best I could, trying to keep the feel of the demon magic on my left, so we were heading away from it. I’d faced a demon on my own once. I knew damned well I’d only survived through desperation and pure luck. And it had cost me the closest thing I’d had to a sister at the time. Nat’s death for my life.

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake. This time, I would save my sister and let the experts deal with the demon.

But all my good intentions came to a screeching halt when we turned into what I thought was the final corridor to find a lesserkind blocking our path.

Gwen’s cry of shock cut off as I shoved her behind me, raising my hands. I had to fight to keep them steady as the lesserkind’s acrid rotting scent, worse than a thousand imps, hit me and it blinked void-black eyes at me. Those eyes were pure evil. Pure malice. They made Usuriel’s seem perfectly human.

“Not so fast, witch.” The words were rough, the s’s hissing faintly over a mouthful of sharp black teeth. Not exactly like the one who’d controlled Ajax. But similar enough. Taller than animp, built more on human lines, but every angle and curve of its body subtly wrong even without the gray skin and lack of hair.

Bile rose in my throat, sick terror flooding through me.

No.I had to save Gwen. No time to be scared.

Could I kill it? There was a chance. With enough fire, a lesserkind would burn. But I didn’t yet know how to call the kind of white-hot fire the Cestis had used to deal with Ajax’s. But I reached for my magic anyway. If I didn’t try, we would die.

“Foolish witch.” It lifted a hand, its claws glistening like an oil slick under the flickering lights. “You cannot kill me.”

“I can try,” I said.

“Not unless you want the girl to die, too,” the lesserkind said. Its mouth turned up in something that couldn’t be called a smile, but was viciously triumphant. Was it bluffing? I risked a glance over my shoulder, keeping my hands up.

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