Page 34 of Fallen

At midday,HQ’s cafeteria was brimming with people, but it meant the library was mostly empty. Alex was meeting his squad in an hour for drills, and he intended to use that time to research leviathans. He found a computer in a quiet corner and pulled up the archives.

But to his chagrin, there was precious little about leviathans. One scribe from the twelfth century suggested that they were sea creatures at the bottom of the ocean. Another posited that leviathans roamed the abyss of Purgatory, feeding on lost souls. They seemed to rely on rumors, and Alex wondered exactly how rare it was for a leviathan to reveal themselves.

None mentioned that leviathans could look human. None mentioned their soulful black eyes and warm, consuming kisses.

According to the guild’s texts, black-eyed halflings were older than the red-eyed ones. They were supposedly physically stronger and healed quicker when injured. They could disappear at will. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when the guild had decided that black-eyed halflingswerehalflings. How much more had they gotten wrong over the years? Had someone just looked at a leviathan, assumed they were a halfling because they looked human, and written that down as fact? Did they question a demon at some point in the past who fed them false information about leviathans? How many other human-shaped demons were there that had gotten lumped in with the halflings?

Talon would know, a traitorous part of his brain suggested. He quickly dashed the thought away. He was avoiding him, so he couldn’t very well ask him. It was better, safer for everyone, if he let this insanity pass and went back to hunting the mozgoran alone. He had a lead. He would go out to Santa Ana tonight and search for abandoned places where the demon could be hiding.

A storm rolledin that evening, and by the time Alex was ready to venture out to Santa Ana, rain was coming down in sheets, pelting the windshield of his car. Streaks of lightning left abstract afterimages on his eyes, and he sighed as he neared the community where they’d found the murdered family. This wouldn’t be his first hunt in the rain, but it might be his most miserable.

He worked outward from there, moving in a spiral pattern away from the house. He stayed in the car when he could, following the streets back out of the neighborhood and keeping an eye out for any places that looked old or abandoned.

The first place, a gas station with boards over the windows, was occupied by three homeless guys who were so drunk they didn’t even hear him come in. He went back outside and grabbed an emergency blanket from his car to cover them with. It was cold tonight, and they needed it more than him.

The second place was an old grocery market that was home to nothing more than rats and roaches. The scent of old food hung in the air as he crept through the building. Empty shelves and bent shopping carts were all that remained of what was probably once a bustling store.

Soaked to the bone by the time he returned to his car, he debated calling it quits for the night. This was a long shot, anyway. There were probably dozens of abandoned places in the area, and there was no guarantee the mozgoran was actually in one of them. It might be staying somewhere outside its kill radius.

Eventually, he decided one more stop wouldn’t hurt. It wasn’t like he could get anymoresoaked.

He expected to come across another small building with a craggy parking lot like the others. Instead, he rolled to a stop outside a rusted chain-link fence. A darkened factory loomed before him, old smokestacks stretching toward the lightning-streaked sky. His headlights shone across a crooked sign hanging on the fence that read, ‘CONDEMNED.’

What better place for a demon to lay his head than in a forgotten ruin where humans dared not tread?

He drove around the complex until he found the gate, which was latched but not locked—most likely because the last people here had figured there was nothing worth stealing and no reason for anyone to enter. He pushed the gate open and then quickly returned to his car, driving through the overgrown parking lot and stopping near one of the doors. Before he left the safety of his car, he grabbed his sword and knives. Something about this place felt different than the others, and he wanted to be prepared.

He didn’t rush to the door, despite his body’s instinctive urge to get out of the rain. No, he let the pounding rain and rumbling thunder mask his steps as he approached the decrepit building. One of the dirty windows was broken out, and he slipped his hand inside, wet fingers fumbling the lock open with barely a sound.

The door creaked open, and he stepped inside, turning on his flashlight and aiming it forward. The floor was dirty, beige tile, the walls wood-paneled. Cobwebs gathered in the upper corners, and the stale scent of old paper and leather hung heavy in the air. He eased forward, peering in open doorways at old offices and meeting rooms.

It appeared to be an old shoe factory, he realized as he walked deeper into the darkness. A staircase appeared on his left, the black rubber stair treads scuffed and faded. He craned his neck to look up the stairwell. It turned halfway and disappeared overhead. Dust floated in the beam of his flashlight, winking almost like starlight.

A quiet sound drew his attention to the hallway ahead of him, like the scuff of a shoe, and he jerked his flashlight toward it, abandoning the stairs and creeping in the direction of the sound.

At the end of the hallway, it opened up into what must’ve been the factory’s production floor. It was mostly empty now. Some of the tall, checkered windows on either side of the room were broken, and a cold breeze whistled through, carrying droplets of rain that landed on the concrete floor. Stacks of compressed cardboard boxes dotted the room, along with forgotten dollies, some old machinery that Alex couldn’t identify, and a smattering of metal chairs.

Was this where he’d heard the noise? Perhaps a bird had gotten in through one of the broken windows, or maybe he wasn’t the first one here. It was easy enough for him to break in; someone else could have, too. There were thousands of homeless people in LA and the surrounding areas. This was as good a place as any to get out of the rain for a night, if one had nowhere else to go. It was out of the way and unlikely to draw attention. How frightened would they be if Alex came across them, wielding asword? He needed to tread lightly, just in case.

He wandered through the detritus, lit only by the narrow circle of his LED flashlight. Turning around a stack of cardboard taller than him, the light beamed across afacestaring back at him.

Sickly black eyes. A too-wide, grinning maw, stretching from ear to ear.

Fear and adrenaline surged through Alex. One moment the face was there, and then the figure moved, turning and sprinting away.

“No!” He drew his sword and rushed after him, weaving between the broken machinery and forgotten packing materials.

Up ahead, a door banged open, letting in the sounds of the storm. He raced out into the night, raising his sword, but there was no demon waiting out in the downpour. His feet slowed to a stop on the craggy pavement, heart pounding below his breastbone. The demon was nowhere to be seen. Heaving for breath, he turned a slow circle, squinting in the falling rain.

That was the mozgoran. Definitely. But now it was gone.

He trudged back to his car, alert but disappointed. There was no sign of it now, and by the time he made it back to his car he was well and truly soaked. He sheathed his blade and slipped it off his back to stow in the backseat. The knives were less cumbersome, so he left them on his belt as he slid into the passenger seat with a sigh, staring out the windshield at the dark factory.

He’d beenso close.A part of him was tempted to stay, but he had a feeling the demon was long gone. It had all happened so fast.

Against his will, he wondered whether the outcome of the night might’ve been different if Talon had been with him. Would Talon have sensed its presence sooner? Would they have been able to take it by surprise?

He shook off the thought. It didn’t matter. He was done with Talon. He was a demon just like the mozgoran. Alex was better off without him… wasn’t he?

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