Chapter 30

Dylan

In the end, the plan is a simple one. We don't need anything fancy—not with two higher demons on our side. When Gus expressed concern that his grandfather has circles set up to trap demons who might sense the presence of their kind and come poking around, Marc actually smiled in amusement, while Raum nearly choked on his laughter. Apparently, there isn't any human strong enough to create a circle that could contain Marc, even if they had his true name. Which is outright terrifying, even if he is on our side.

Gus makes a list of all the branches of the company and several other companies, adding numbers of how many demons will be in the "dorms" at each, and which of his family members will be there. They seem to be concentrated more at their head office, with the satellite branches usually only having one adult hunter-capable human, or a married couple with their children. That's going to make things simpler—once we take down the bigger group, the rest should fall like dominoes. The most complicated part is going to be erasing the electronic trail of their existence. As far as the rest of the world needs to know, this family is going to disappear into thin air, and their companies never existed.

I'll be working on that for a couple of days.

Raum makes a quick trip back to Crm?rdinesgh to prep his team for an influx of traumatized demons who'll need to be properly identified, gently debriefed, and then returned to their families.

With all that, it's just before midnight when we arm up—Marc retrieves our gear from the house—and even though Matt keeps looking at me like he wants to suggest I stay behind, there's no fucking way I will. We need all our eyes and ears, and I'm the most sensible option to stick with Gus. Marc and Raum vouch for his trustworthiness, but he's still pretty much an unknown.

So's Raum, for that matter. If he didn't have so much respect for Marc, I'd worry about him going rogue on us.

It's too late for worries now—we're in the "compound," as Gus calls it. Looks like a posh mansion on a dozen acres of land to me, but this is where the family live and keep the "local" demons. The office location is where they do the actual summoning, though. If we'd stormed that building, it would have raised alarms here, giving them time to take the demons and flee—though Marc got offended at the idea that any alarm system could outwit him. We'll go there next—the circle needs to be destroyed and all evidence of any demonic activity erased. But first…

"They're all asleep," Marc murmurs. He looks at Gus with the same surprising compassion he showed before. "They will simply not wake."

Gus's nod is short and sharp. He assured us that only family members lived here and visitors were strongly discouraged—which makes sense, since the staff are demons. "I'll show you where the safe is," he says, moving through the shadowy entrance hall toward a door.

"Coming," Ian says, then leans in close to me and whispers, "Stay with Marc."

I don't have time to question that before he and Matt are herding Raum after Gus, while Marc hangs back slightly, then gestures me toward another door. Following, I'm only a tiny bit surprised when we enter and see an old man dozing in an armchair.

"As undeserving of mercy as he is," Marc says softly, "I will give it, and you'll witness that. But his victims deserve that he know fear before he dies."

Ah. "Gus's grandfather?" The one who killed his own daughter for daring to suggest that trafficking demons wasn't ethical. "I wouldn't be upset if he knew more than just fear. Pain, maybe. Lots of it."

Marc's smile isn't a nice one. He crosses to stand in front of the armchair, folds his arms, and waits.

A second later, the old man jerks awake. He blinks a few times in confusion, and then his eyes widen in alarm. "Who are you? Get out of my house!"

Still smiling, Marc lets his demon presence show, and alarm turns to outright terror. This man, so determined to fly under the radar, has probably never faced a higher demon, but he knows that what he's facing now isn't something he can beat. Not alone.

Which is why he opens his mouth to call for help—maybe even call on some of the visier demons in his control.

Not a sound emerges.

"I have frozen your vocal cords," Marc informs him conversationally. "In a moment, I will stop your heart and you will die. First, understand that your family and its barbaric legacy will die this night. None who take pride in the centuries of abuse will live to see the dawn. Those enslaved will be freed and returned to their homes and loved ones, and every atom of proof that Geoffrey Martenson and his descendants ever existed will be wiped away. You will be the nothing that you sought to make others."

The old man is perfectly still, but the frantic movement of his eyes makes me think it's not by choice.

"By your deeds, you have sacrificed enough of your soul that you will never reincarnate. These are your last moments of life. I hope you loathe them."

From the way his breathing begins to saw and sweat breaks out on his skin, I'm guessing Marc's messing with his brain. I want to care—this is another human being—but knowing what he's done to so many innocents who were just trying to live their lives makes that hard. Instead, I watch as the freakishly still and silent man slowly dies, racked with pain that has no cause and that he can't express.

And then he's gone.

Before my eyes, his body crumbles to ash that breaks down further into dust, until it truly seems that nothing is left of him.

I clear my throat. "Good work."

Marc turns and strolls back toward me. "Better than you know. His mind was a cesspit—truly, he is a descendent of the man who devised this scheme."

"Are the other family members here just as gone as him?" I jerk a thumb toward the lack of evidence that a body even existed.

"Yes. Once we've searched the house thoroughly for evidence, I'll ensure all the furnishings meet the same end. It will look as though they moved out and abandoned the house."

We can do better than that, but it's a discussion for another time. "Let's get the ledger, free some demons, and move on to the next place."

We find the others in what looks like a study, crowded around a wall safe. "I swear I can crack it," Ian's insisting. "Let me try."

I roll my eyes. He's such a bad actor.

"Or you could get out of my way," Marc suggests mildly. They turn to look at us, and the safe door swings open. "There."

Gus's jaw drops. "Fuck. Why is that weirder than the teleporting thing?"

"Dude, you have no idea," Matt mutters. "Is that the ledger?" He reaches for the heavy-looking leather-bound book.

"Yeah."

We crowd around the desk as he opens the ledger and explains how it works, paging to the most recent page to show which demons are currently on-site here in the "dorms." He also finds the latest updated information on which demons are still unaccounted for, and it seems to be closer to fifteen hundred than we hoped. There's no way to even be sure if that's all of them—at least, not until we, or rather Raum, can interview the demons we're freeing to see if they can give us more names.

This operation is going to require a whole lot of data management.

"We might run out of time tonight," Matt says, studying the list of demons here. There are nearly five hundred of them. The other branches collectively have about twelve hundred more. Then there are the ones who've been "sold" whose locations are known—over a thousand more. "If Gus has to individually take the necklaces off each demon, we won't even get to the next branch for hours."

"Do we take out the family first, then, and come back to free the demons after?" Ian grimaces. "I don't love the idea of leaving them undefended and unable to leave in the event of an emergency."

"Absolutely not," Raum snaps, then holds up his hands when Marc glares at him for using that tone with Ian. "Respectfully, I cannot leave these demons behind. Not even with the plan to return in a few hours. It's difficult enough to accept that not all will be freed tonight."

"We better get started, then," Ian says. "Gus, lead the way. And remember, these demons will be angry, but Marc and Raum will ensure you come to no harm."

Gus swallows hard. There are dark shadows around his eyes now and a gaunt, haunted quality to his expression. He knows that his relatives who lived in this house are all dead. That can't be an easy thing to process, even if it was the only way.

Outside, he directs us across a lawn, pointing over to a pool house as he says, "That's where I live—lived. My equipment's there." He darts a guilty glance at Matt. "I have your kit too. They were going to destroy everything, so I told Granddad I wanted to keep it as a trophy. I-I'm sorry."

"As long as I can have it back, I don't care what you told him," Matt replies mildly. Gus doesn't seem convinced, but nobody jumps in to reassure him that Matt really is that reasonable. The guy orchestrated the attack—it won't hurt for him to sweat a little.

"Uh—those are the dorms." He gestures down toward the trees, where the bulky outlines of three long buildings can be seen. "They're not very nice inside—just bunkbeds."

Demons don't have the same bodily needs as us, but still—that's disgusting. I don't know why I continue to be surprised by how awful this family is. Was.

At the first bunkhouse, Gus steps back and takes a deep breath. "They'll probably be more comfortable if you go first," he says to Marc, who nods and reaches for the door. Inside, he flips on a light, and nearly two hundred demon faces turn toward us. I resist the urge to take a step back, and in the next moment, when I see how worn down and unhealthy they are, I'm glad I did. Here in their "home," they don't need to maintain any kind of glamor to hide their demonish features, and while I'm not an expert on demon health, I know they're not supposed to be like this.

The fleeting hope when they see Marc and Raum, though… Jesus. What Marc did to the old man wasn't enough. If there was a way for me to bring Geoffrey Martenson back to life and give him to these demons to torture, I would.

Marc nods to Raum, who steps forward and, speaking in a very calm voice, identifies himself and Marc, then introduces us as representatives of the Collective working under the truce to protect and prevent demons from mistreatment. "You may also recognize August," Raum continues in that measured tone. "He's our inside agent, and he is going to free you now. He's the only one who can, which makes him the most important person in this room. Once your necklace has been removed, you will return via gateway to Crm?rdinesgh, where my team will treat any medical needs you have and ensure you reach your homes as soon as possible. Does anyone have questions?"

There's a long silence, then a broken whisper. "Is this a trick?"

"No trick," Marc declares, and the way his voice rings through the room makes it a promise. "You will be home and free tonight." He turns to Gus and speaks more quietly. "I can feel the power of the necklaces, and I believe there may be a faster way than you physically removing each one."

My ears prick up.

"The necklaces are circles attuned to the bloodline. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but a circle is usually broken by disrupting it—a smudged line or the like?"

"Yeah," Matt confirms. "And anyone outside the circle can do it—unless the creator guards against that."

"But the circle can only be activated when a hunter uses their power to do so, correct?"

"Depends on the circle," Ian says, pulling a face. "Plenty of non-hunters have created summoning circles. Anything beyond basic, or that you really wanted to keep a demon controlled, would need a hunter."

"And hunters who raise complicated circles with their power can… defuse them by discontinuing that power, correct?"

"Huh." I glance toward Ian and Matt. "This is more your department than mine, but that checks out. Especially if you marry it with intent ."

"I'm so lost," Matt says, but Ian's nodding.

"It's worth a shot. Gus, try reaching out with your power—can you sense the circles?"

Gus nods. "Yeah. They're… I don't like them."

"Can you sense just the ones in this room or in the other dorms too?"

He thinks about that. "All of them, but these ones feel closer. There's a location difference."

"That's good," Marc says dryly, "Since we haven't spoken to the other demons yet and don't need a riot."

Ian ignores him, staying focused on Gus. "Concentrate on this intention: You want all the circles in this room to be deactivated. In this room ," he emphasizes. "Put some power into it."

Gus takes a deep breath, and I feel his power reacting.

A chorus of gasps rise from the demons nearest us, and it moves like a wave through the room.

"Well, something happened," Matt says.

"They're inactive now," Raum confirms. He approaches the nearest bunk. "May I?"

The demon nods, and when Raum reaches out to remove the necklace from their neck, pure joy spreads over their face. "I'm not compelled to resist," they breathe.

A demon in the next row hesitantly lifts hands to the necklace, pauses, then removes it. "Free," they say shakily. "I'm free."

Around the room, other demons catch on quickly, fumbling to get the chains of their ordeal off. Raum opens a gateway and begins ushering them through, counting heads as they stumble, some openly weeping, away from Earth.

Gus buries his face in his hands. "I should have done something sooner," he mumbles, and I let go of my resentment over Matt's attack and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You're doing it now."

The rest of the night follows the same pattern: Teleport to a branch location, Marc instantly kills family members, Gus frees demons, Raum sends them home. I'll never say this out loud, but if you're going to undertake a dangerous sting operation, you really need to have a higher demon on your side.

Finally, we get to the last branch, the one in New Hampshire. The one where Gus's cousin Rachel lives, the only one he thinks might be redeemable. Dawn is on the horizon, so we need to move quickly now, and Marc teleports us directly into Rachel's bedroom. I try not to feel creepy about it and hover at the back, close to the door.

Gus kneels beside her bed and gently shakes her awake. "Rach?"

She blinks, then bolts upright. "Gus? What the fuc—" Spotting the rest of us, she grabs for the blade on her nightstand.

"Rachel, no, it's okay. I need to ask you one thing," Gus pleads. "Just listen, please. If you could, would you end this? Our whole family legacy? Would you send the demons home?"

Rachel's eyes flicker around the room. Light is filtering in around the blind, enough for me to tell that her eyes are brown. "Gus, what is this? What have you done?" she whispers.

"Please just answer. Would you?"

It seems like eternity before she nods.

My gaze shoots to Marc. Is she being truthful, or?—

"Rachel will come with us," he says, and relief makes me sag. At least Gus will get to keep one relati?—

The opening door shoves me off-balance. "Rach! Time to— Fuck!" Hard hands grab my arm, and a blade is suddenly against my throat. "Get away from my daughter!"

I roll my eyes and begin the necessary self-defense moves to free myself, but with a roar, Matt crosses the room faster than my eyes can track. I hear the snap of the man's arm and then he's flying back into the hallway and—fuck. Matt threw him through a wall—no, two walls. I can see through the holes in the plaster.

Blinking, I look at my boyfriend. "Dude… what the fuck?"