Page 40 of Fallen

“Good. Let’s hunt a demon, then.”

The closer theygot to the old factory, the tenser Alex became. By the time the car came to a halt outside the building, his knuckles were white on the steering wheel. Talon eyed him carefully for a moment before he reached for his seatbelt.

“Would you like to wait here while I look around?”

Alex blinked at him in surprise. “No. No, I want to go in with you.”

Talon nodded, reaching for Alex’s hand and drawing it to his mouth. He kissed the scarred knuckles softly. “You know I’ll protect you, right?”

Alex smiled faintly. “You know I’m a warrior, right?”

He nipped the skin with his teeth, and Alex’s smile widened. “This is different for you, and you know it.”

The happy smile faded, and Alex nodded bleakly. “Yeah. You’re right. But I’m not waiting here. I want to face this thing head-on.” He unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed his door open, arching a brow as though to say,see?

Talon followed him to the building, squinting in the dappled sunlight. The door was unlocked, and Alex opened it without fanfare.

The scent of old blood and sickly-sweet decay hit him first. His nose wrinkled as he pushed his borrowed sunglasses atop his head. It was a faint scent, likely undetectable to a human.

“When did you say you last came by here?” he asked.

“Five days ago. Why?”

Talon’s mouth tightened in distaste. “There’s something dead here. Maybe on one of the upper floors. Did you check those out?”

Alex blinked. “No, I didn’t, actually. I found the mozgoran in the production room at the end of the hall and chased it outside. I didn’t even get a chance to look at the rest of the building.”

“Let’s go there first and then work our way up the floors. Whatever it is, it’s been here for a while, and it’s not going anywhere.”

Alex paled. “Are you saying there’s a dead body up there? And I justmissed it? They could have family looking for them. If I’d been able to kill the demon, maybe I could’ve prevented?—”

Talon clapped a hand over his mouth. Alex’s brows twitched—disapproving or pleading, Talon didn’t know. Either way, he didn’t push Talon away.

“Relax,” Talon said. “We don’t know that it’s a human. And whatever it is, it’s been dead a lot longer than a week. There’s nothing you could’ve done. Don’t do that holy guilt thing you Catholics do.” He slid his hand from Alex’s mouth, pausing to stroke his stubbled cheek. A kiss would be nice, but he didn’t want to do something so nice in a place so unpleasant. “Come on.” He took Alex’s hand, tangling their fingers together and tugging him down the hall.

In the detritus of the production floor, Alex pulled him past stacks of cardboard and forgotten machinery.

“I saw it over here,” he said, pointing. “It took off running this way and ran outside through that door there.”

There was a faint trace of sulfur in the air. Not all demons smelled of it, but some of the lesser demons, the ones more prone to wallowing in the muck, so to speak, had the distinctive scent of Hell on them. Talon couldn’t hide the wrinkle of his nose as he followed the scent toward the door, dragging Alex along with him.

“I chased it out here, but I didn’t see where it went,” Alex continued.

Talon hummed, following his nose. Too far from the door, the scent disappeared into sun-warmed pavement, car exhaust from the road nearby, and fresh greenery from the brush growing up around the rusted fence. He backtracked toward the building, his gaze trailing up the brick wall to an open window on the third floor.

Alex followed his gaze, shielding his eyes with his free hand. “What?”

“It didn’t disappear into the night,” Talon said. “You ran outside, and it climbed up the wall while your back was turned. It probably went in through the window up there, hid until you were gone, and then left.”

Alex shivered despite the heat of the afternoon sun. “It was right behind me? Why didn’t it attack?”

“Because you’re a paladin,” Talon said simply. “In a fight, you’d win. You have holy weapons and special training. It’s an animal, little bird. You’re the apex predator between the two of you. Easier to slink away and disappear than to face you and risk losing.”

Alex looked doubtful. “Even if it could’ve taken me by surprise while my back was turned?”

Talon nodded seriously. “Mozgorans aren’t in-your-face aggressive. They’re more like vultures. Yes, they stalk and hunt their preferred prey—in this case, families of five who don’t know how to protect themselves from demons—but they won’t fight unless they know they can win. Sneaking into a house and killing their prey poses little threat. Most humans don’t have weapons that can truly harm a demon. Guns and blades can’t really hurt us. But a paladin, you have weapons and knowledge that pose a real risk. Therefore, it’s not worth it. Come on.” He tugged Alex toward the door. “Let’s get this over with. The smell leaves something to be desired.”

The building was silent as they made their way up the dusty staircase, nothing but the whisper of wind through broken windows to remind them that the rest of the world awaited them outside this ruin. The second floor held offices, and a quick pass through revealed nothing of note.

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