Page 7 of Fallen

He didn’t want to go back inside his empty apartment. There had to be something more he could do. All his life, he’d longed for the chance to find the demon that killed his family, and now here it was, killing again in the same city where he’d trained to kill creatures just like it. It felt like fate. But instead of going after it with everything he had, he was being ordered to stand down. Why?

Did they think he would be reckless? Did they think he wasn’t good enough to kill this demon? He knew how to hunt monsters. He wouldn’t lose his head or get anyone hurt. He could do it. But they’d told him no.

What if he hunted the demon anyway? They didn’t have to know. What he did in his free time was his business, right? He could hunt the demon when he wasn’t doing official paladin business. If the guild found out, he’d probably be reprimanded. Maybe they’d suspend him or put him on desk duty for a few weeks. It would be worth it if he could cut that demon’s head from its shoulders.

The car was getting warm under the baking sunlight. He needed to make up his mind. Go inside and let cooler heads prevail? Or disobey a direct order and do the one thing he’d always wanted to do?

He looked down at the guild’s signet ring on his left ring finger, a ruby inlaid with a pearl cross. Every guild member received one when they graduated. It was a symbol of their devotion to the cause.

Could he still be devoted to the cause and yet disobey an order like this? For the first time in his life, he didn’t want totrust in God’s plan. He wanted to take matters into his own hands. He couldn’t deny the little voice in his head that told him it was wrong, but it didn’t change how he felt. Hell, maybe it was part of God’s plan for him to disobey this order. If he wanted to be the one to bring the demon down, he’d have to do it himself and deal with the consequences after the fact.

The only question was: would it be worth it?

Yes, he decided. It would be worth it. He didn’t think he would ever feel at peace without revenge.

He got out of the car, breathing easy now that he’d made a decision. There wasn’t much he could do until after dark. There were places in the city where demons gathered, demons called halflings. For the right incentive, they could sometimes be convinced to give valuable intel to the paladins. There was no loyalty amongst monsters, after all. He’d go there and see if he could uncover any clues about the demon who placed its victims in the shape of a pentagram.

Going into his apartment didn’t seem so bad now. Having a plan settled the restless need for action within him. He could bide his time until nightfall, and then he wouldn’t rest until he had his revenge.

Chapter 3

Alex

The pentagram demonkilled five other families besides Alex’s, sixteen years ago. Many years after he’d been adopted into the guild, he’d looked them up and read the old news articles about them. Authorities had suspected it was a serial killer, but after the sixth one, the kills stopped, and eventually it became a cold case. Six families, six pentagrams. If the demon stuck to the same sick ritual, it would still be in the area. It would be hunting for its next family of five.

The most recent murders were just the first. The demon would be back, and he needed to be ready. He just needed to know where and when, which was why he was going to In Extremis, a nightclub owned, operated, and frequented by halfling demons. If anyone knew something about this demon, it would most likely be them. According to the guild’s history books, halflings had once been human souls that went to Hell and were twisted into something demonic. When they made their way back to Earth, they did Hell’s bidding, tempting humans to sin. They weren’t overtly aggressive or violent to innocents, so the guild often left them alone, provided none of them grew too bold and drew the guild’s attention.

He’d heard stories about the kinds of things that went on at In Extremis, but he’d never personally set foot inside the club himself. It was forbidden for a paladin to go there without backup. This alone would land him on desk duty. It was just one in a series of crimes he planned to commit. But it wouldn’t matter how long he had to sit at a desk or file papers in the archives, as long as he succeeded. He had to make sure it was worth it. Failing wasn’t an option.

He dressed in something he thought would help him blend in—simple jeans, sneakers, and a dark blue T-shirt. He doubted he’d be able to get away with carrying a blade inside, not if he wanted anyone to talk to him, but he put them in the backseat, just in case.

Nerves fluttered in his stomach as he drove across the city. The moon was a sliver in the starlit sky, smiling sinisterly as he hurtled toward his uncertain future. If something happened to him, no one at the guild would know. He was walking into a den of serpents tonight, and he could only hope he would walk back out—and with the information he needed.

In Extremis was located inside an old, converted warehouse on a deserted street. The windows were all covered with black paint, and a lone figure stood outside the main door, his hair a shock of white-blond that looked ethereal in the moonlight. Alex parked across the street and paused, gathering himself. The idea of going in there completely unarmed sent anxiety coiling through him. It was bad enough to set foot in there without his squad. Going in without anything at all to defend himself if they grew hostile would be suicide.

He hooked a sheathed holy knife horizontally in the back of his jeans—it came with a clip designed for exactly that. It was better than nothing. With one last fortifying breath, he got out and locked the car behind him.

Up close, Alex realized the white-haired bouncer beside the door was taller than him and thick with muscle. He gave Alex a thorough once-over, his red irises raking over his body. Those eerie eyes lingered on his guild ring, on the crucifix hanging around his neck. He hadn’t thought to take them off and fought the urge to squirm, setting his jaw and squaring his shoulders. There was no going back now.

Something about that was amusing, because the halfling smirked and opened the door. “Your funeral, holy man,” he said, waving Alex in.

Entering was an assault on every sense. The door opened up at the top of a set of stairs, giving him a disorienting view of the whole club. It was almost pitch black, but streaks of multicolored light cut through the hazy air. Everything smelled like smoke and sweat and liquor. On the dance floor below, bodies writhed in time with the pulsing music, haloed by glossy black tables and booths. Pale light behind the bar drew him like a moth to a flame. On his way through the thick crowd, he saw men and women in the throes of passion, some with lips coated in red that he didn’t think was lipstick. From all sides, crimson eyes bored into him. They all knew what he was, as surely as he knew what they were.

He found an empty barstool and sat down mechanically, carding his fingers through his hair. The bartender was ridiculously tall, with long, ash-blond hair pulled back in a braid like a Viking. He had the same red eyes as all the others. All halflings had either red or black eyes. As far as the guild knew, the black-eyed ones were stronger than their red-eyed counterparts, but they didn’t know why. He hoped he didn’t see any of those tonight. They were much rarer than the red-eyed ones, so maybe his luck would hold.

The crowd seemed to drift away from him, like they thought he’d start flinging holy water at any moment.

“You’ve got balls coming in here,” the bartender said.

Alex pursed his lips. “I’m not here to cause trouble.”

“Youbeinghere is trouble,” he said bluntly. “Order a drink or go.”

He swallowed hard. “Just a beer.” He didn’t drink, but he could pretend.

The bartender eyed him distrustfully for a moment, then reached under the bar for a beer and popped the lid off. Alex tossed a bill down on the bar to cover both the drink and a generous tip and dragged it over, turning sideways on the stool to study the crowd. He needed to find someone who might know about the demon, but he didn’t know where to start.

“Who would I talk to about finding someone?” he asked the bartender.

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