Chapter 19

Vance

Vance grimacedas his foot slipped on something slimy. His shoes would never recover, and just when he’d gotten them broken in. Fucking demon shit not only corroded everything it touched, the stench of it also never fully faded.

“How much farther do you think?” he asked Cain.

“Not a fucking clue. These tunnels go for miles. Who knows where they took her.”

Strange how fate brought them together after so many years of not seeing each other at all. There used to be a time they called each other brother. And then Claire came along. Convinced them both that she loved them, pitted them against each other, had them scrapping to the point Cain had said, “No woman is worth this. You want her, have her. I’m done.” At the time, Vance saw it as a victory until he’d gone to see Claire and found her in the arms of another.

The realization she’d played them didn’t mend the friendship. On the contrary, humiliated and angry, Vance had been unable to apologize to his best friend. Unable to get past the fact they’d let a woman destroy their friendship.

And now here they were, working together again because of a woman. Vance couldn’t say he loved Sadie, but he wouldn’t deny being attracted. An attraction he saw reciprocated in Cain. Oh sure, the big guy tried to hide it, but Vance could see it in the way Cain worried at each intersection. How he snapped when the reapers moved too slow.

He cared about Sadie.

Which meant Vance couldn’t. Not easy, given he’d been intrigued from the moment they met. Her expression had been shell-shocked, and yet she wasn’t a blubbering mess. He’d never been more stunned than to hear her claim she’d seen demons, an admission she’d later retracted. He couldn’t blame her for that. Those who couldn’t see the monsters never believed.

“Dead end,” announced Beau, one of the younger reapers who’d joined them. “We have to turn around.” The tunnel ended in a wall with a channel cut into it for water to flow.

“I don’t think so.” Cain shook his head. “The demon tracks lead here. They must have gotten into the water to cross.”

“Demons don’t like to get wet,” Beau insisted.

“But they can if necessary,” Cain reminded. “It’s not like it hurts them.”

“Or they’re trying to fool us.” Beau remained stubborn.

“I think Cain’s right.” Vance sprang to his defense. “The tracks only go in one direction.” He pointed to the scat on the floor, the prints with the distinct toe marks.

“I’m not dunking myself in shit water to check.” Beau grimaced, and Vance couldn’t blame him. Swimming in the sewers wasn’t anybody’s idea of fun.

“Then don’t. You can stay here,” Vance stated, even as he also didn’t want to get in the murky, smelly channel of grossness. However, nobody ever said being heroic would be clean. Besides, his entire outfit was already ruined. What did he care at this point? A woman’s life was more important than being squeamish about shit water.

Before anyone else could argue, Vance jumped in, the splash being a little more than needed to prove a point—and drenched the kid arguing. Vance waded a few paces, far enough to show the fluid stopping at his waist. “Watch your step,” he advised. “It’s slippery.”

Cain sighed. “Why can’t demons ever stay in clean places?”

“Because they’re demons. I’ll go first and crush a light bulb to light the way.”

“As if I’m opening my eyes in that,” muttered Silas, an older reaper.

Vance steeled himself against the knowledge of the mire in which he’d be submerging his head. It would suck. It would be gross beyond belief. He’d live. Sadie might not if he procrastinated.

He sank into the murk, mouth sealed, eyes shut, huffing through his nose as he traversed the hole in the wall. He stretched out his hands, one to trail on the tunnel to his left, one overhead to feel when he passed far enough to find an air pocket.

It didn’t take long. He popped his head out of the other side to pure darkness. He immediately crushed a magic bulb to illuminate the space.

And cursed as eyes reflected the light.

The gathered demons hissed before diving for him. He didn’t have time to grab the mini dagger in his pocket or warn the others before getting dunked by two monsters. He ended up back underwater, blind and under attack. He did his best to fend off claws and teeth.

When rescue came, it took a second to realize he could stand and breathe. Cain had arrived and swung his scythe with difficulty, given he stood in the narrow channel and the demons had the high ground.

Cain lopped off enough flesh the monsters retreated out of reach to the far end of the tunnel, where yet another hole passed through a concrete wall. As the reapers all gathered, Cain muttered, “It’s almost like they’re guarding that entrance to the next section.”

“Not like. They are.” Meaning that was where they had to go.

“Let’s go see what they’re protecting.” Cain slogged through the channel. Vance remained close with his dagger out. The narrow confines of the tunnel worked for and against them.

The good? The demons had to cluster and couldn’t flank. The bad? The demons had clustered, and the reapers couldn’t flank. It came down to Cain and his long-bladed reach, slicing through the monsters who had no sense of self-preservation. They ran almost headlong into death.

“Shit, there’s more!” Beau squeaked.

A glance behind showed more demons surging from the hole they’d just crossed, bobbing up and throwing themselves to the narrow ledges on either side of the channel, a few choosing to cling and scuttle across the low ceiling.

Surrounded by three times their number, the reapers could only fight. Vance stood with his back to the swinging Cain and waited for the first ceiling-scooting demon to drop. When it did, Vance was ready and slashed.

The next few moments were a chaos of battle as the numerous demons threw themselves at the reapers, but given they couldn’t swarm, killing them proved easy.

In short order, the demons lay dead or dying, and Cain glanced back at him to say, “Thanks for watching my back.”

Startled, Vance nonetheless managed a nonchalant, “Whatever.”

“This time, since I’ve got a better reach with the scythe, I’ll go first.”

“I’ll be right behind you,” Vance promised, while at the same time mentally conceding that perhaps he should invest in a pocket-sized weapon a little less useless than the dagger. The gun, his favorite weapon, wouldn’t have been ideal in this tight space. Not just because of the water fucking with the mechanics of it but the noise, which would have deafened.

Having dunked once in the muck didn’t make the second time any easier. At least when they surfaced, they didn’t have many demons to contend with. A handful threw themselves at their heads. Slashing with the dagger protected his face and drew his attention from the menace in the water.

It was Nasir who screamed, “Something bit me.”

Then Silas added, “What’s that glowing in the water?”

Indeed, a faint hint of light moved in and around them. Cain reached down and grabbed, pulling from the murk a dog-sized rat with an unhealthy hue.

“I hate rats!” Nasir hissed. “Reminds me of my childhood.”

Vance had heard the sad story. Nasir’s dad, a widower with five kids, working two jobs, one of them being as an exterminator, used to bring home rodents to feed his family. Nothing technically wrong with it other than Western sensibilities, but it left Nasir with a rabid hatred of the creatures.

“Ow.” Silas stabbed at the water. “I swear to fuck I better not get rabies. I hate that shot in the ass.”

They all did. Vance had only gotten it once, because of work. A foaming raccoon had attacked him while he was checking out a disturbance call. Teach him to poke under a deck.

The water frothed and churned as they jabbed and killed the rodent menace. Again, nothing difficult, just annoying.

It didn’t take long before they’d eliminated the threat, which led to Cain suddenly remarking, “These attacks feel like distractions.”

“From what?” Vance mused aloud, his gaze taking in the chamber, empty of demons but littered with pieces of their victims.

“Finding Sadie. She was here. And recently too.”

Vance didn’t question Cain’s certainty because he shared it. His gaze went to the corner of the room with a cleared spot. Had they just missed her?

“They can’t be that far ahead. Let’s move out.” Cain slogged to the far end of the room and dove, the reapers following as they travelled to the next tunnel. No demons awaited, but they did have to deal with an oversized, one-eyed sewer gator. Poor Koa had to be left behind as his chomped leg wouldn’t hold his weight.

“Sorry, boys. Good hunting.” Koa used his talisman to return to the castle, while the rest of them went on.

When they reached a large chamber ringed in a narrow parapet with water rushing down the middle in a waterfall that drowned out sound, Vance pursed his lips. “Which way?” Because the demon tracks they could see split left and right around the oversized space.

Cain planted his scythe and looked both ways before craning to look up.

Vance followed his gaze. “What are you looking at? There’s nothing up there.”

“My gut says there is.”

“In case you didn’t notice, no ladder, no stairs.”

“And? If we’re following the daemessorum, he can use magic to get to places we can’t.”

A good point. “Even if it did escape through the ceiling, we can’t exactly fly.”

“I’m aware,” Cain growled. “But there must be a way to get above.”

“Let’s split up then. Half of us left, the other half right. If anyone sees something, shout.”

Vance and Cain stuck together, choosing to go right. Three reapers came with them: Sylas, Nasir, and Beau. They lost Beau as they passed a very narrow hole in the wall, too small for them to climb in but just fine for a demon. It shot out of the hole like a rocket, slamming into Beau and taking him over the edge.

“Fuck!” Cain bellowed. “Watch the holes!”

He no sooner gave warning than more demons spilled out. While the monsters had lost the surprise element, the narrow parapet made it hard to fight and further delayed them.

It became obvious the demons were being used as stalling fodder, which meant they most likely had little time to rescue Sadie. The daemessorum would have taken her for a reason. A reason Vance doubted would end well for her. “We’re wasting time,” he grumbled.

“I see a way up.” Cain pointed to a rusted ladder bolted to the concrete wall. Rickety, most likely dangerous, but they had no other options.

“You go first,” Cain stated. “I’ll guard your back.”

Vance wasted no time, pulling himself up the rungs, doing his best to ignore the ominous creaking. When he reached the halfway point, the whole thing groaned. He looked down to see Cain following.

He kept moving upward and noticed the ladder entered a chimney of sorts, narrow and round but with a manhole cover at the top. As he reached to touch it, the ladder shuddered.

“It’s coming loose,” Cain yelled.

Fuck. Vance shouldered the manhole cover and pushed it aside before heaving himself out. Cain joined him a second later. They’d escaped the sewers and, in good news, weren’t immediately attacked by demons.

In bad news, they couldn’t move. The demon wizard, wearing a smirk and not much else, floated in the air a few paces from the manhole and used magic to snare them in some kind of air fist that prevented all movement. Vance’s eyes, however, still worked, and that meant he saw Sadie alive, naked, and bound to a picnic table.

It appeared they’d arrived in time to watch her die.