Descent - Tara Fuller Page 0,62
I’m pretty sure getting the job done was lingo for killing. I didn’t know how I felt about that. The guards were demons. Awful, terrifying, soulless demons, but it didn’t make disconnecting the idea of them as living creatures any easier. And I was going to play a part in their end. It went against everything I was.
“Time to do this, guys,” Scout murmured, peering around the corner.
Easton grabbed me by the shoulders and reeled me in with his intense gaze. “Stay at least six feet away from them. Don’t get any closer. And if this goes badly, get out, hide, wait for me. Okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay, as in you’re actually going to listen to me this time or okay, you’re going to throw caution to the wind and do the opposite of what keeps you safe? Again.”
I sighed. “I’ll be safe. I swear.”
“Good.” He didn’t look good. He looked as if he wanted to throw me over his shoulder and haul me back to my father. Back to the confined safety of my little box of a world. I didn’t give him the chance. I turned and darted around the corner, exhaling a long breath as I stepped through the shadows and into the glow of light coming from the lit torches hanging from the doorway to the building.
Ahead of me, two demons took turns passing what looked like a piece of flesh back and forth between them. They snapped and growled and cursed. And I was willingly walking closer. Sky was right. I’d lost my mind. A gust of brutally cold wind slapped my face. I coughed, and their yellow eyes snapped up, zeroing in on me in a second. I froze in place. How many steps away was I? Ten maybe? Yes. Ten. Four more. I hesitantly took one step closer, and one of the demons sniffed the air. A crooked, wicked grin slid into place on his face as he hobbled a few steps closer.
“What have we here?”
“She smells delicious. So…fresh,” the second demon hissed, eyes lighting up with hunger. “She smells like him. But better. So pure…”
Him? Oh God…they were talking about Tyler. They really did have him. That fact alone gave me the courage to step closer into the light.
“I’m lost,” I said not knowing what else to say. It wasn’t a lie. I’d never been so lost. I wasn’t sure I’d ever find my way back from Hell. Back to a world of light and joy. Back to the Gwen I’d been meant to be.
“And now you’re found.” The demon grinned and licked his lips. “Oh, your pain will taste sweet. I can tell.”
They moved forward like a pack of wolves, practiced and predatory. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Easton cutting through the dark, followed by the glint of his blade. He blended with the shadows, melting into them as if he were made for darkness. As if he were made for this. Scout slid around the corner, watching everything that moved.
In a flash, Easton leaped from the dark and a scream ripped through the night. A demon’s head toppled from his body and rolled across the cobblestones. His counterpart hissed and spun to see Easton strolling casually into the light. He wiped his blade on his pants and glanced down at the head.
“I’m no doctor, but I’m thinking he might wake up with a headache tomorrow.”
In the glint of torchlight, I could see Easton’s cocky grin. Scout inched into the swell of light, eyes darting around frantically.
“There were three,” he said. “Where’s the third one?”
Easton twirled his blade and raised a brow at the remaining demon. “How ’bout it, sweet cheeks. Want to tell us where your boyfriend ran off to?”
The demon hissed, and tiny thornlike points broke through his glistening red skin. His yellow eyes seemed to be split between the two reapers closing in on him.
Easton stopped a few feet from him. “Strong and silent type, huh? Oh, well. I suppose we’ll find him soon enough.”
A slow smile spread across the demon’s mouth, all sharp teeth and black drool. He laughed, but it sounded wrong, taunting and hungry. Easton’s gaze narrowed on him and he gripped the handle of his blade, tensing.
Behind them a pair of yellow eyes shone through the darkness, and the missing demon leaped at Easton, a feral growl tearing up his throat. Easton spun around a second too late and the demon’s claws sliced into the flesh of his arm. The sharp