Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex Demonized #1) - Annette Marie Page 0,54
corrected you.”
My hands tightened and pain flared. I’d balled a few tissues against my cut thumb to stanch the bleeding, but it hurt a lot. “Why didn’t you explain champions to me before?”
“I forgot you didn’t know,” she replied grouchily. “But don’t you think it’s kind of obvious? Controlling a demon in a fight takes concentration. Contractors can’t defend themselves at the same time, so they need a protector.”
And that protector was their “champion,” a mythic partner who guarded the contractor’s back.
“It’s a good thing your crazy demon can fight on its own,” she added, “because I’ll be a useless champion. But remember”—she leaned close and lowered her voice—“if he fights, he can’t use any magic. It’ll be a dead giveaway that he’s not—”
The door behind us opened, causing Amalia and me to jump. We exchanged alarmed looks and I vowed to be more careful about what we discussed in public.
Tae-min stepped outside, accompanied by another man—almost as thick and muscled as Burly, but several inches shorter. “This is George. We’re partnering for the search. Let’s go.”
Since Tae-min was a sorcerer—he’d been waving around sorcery artifacts earlier—that would make George a contractor. The guild was half contractors, half champions.
The officer led us out of the alcove, and I pulled my jacket tighter around me as I followed him into the cold rain. His car was parked in the alley adjacent to the guild and we piled into it. As the vehicle pulled out onto the quiet road, I hunched in my seat, wishing I could wake from this nightmare.
Thanks to Zylas, there was a demon loose in the city, and every combat mythic from every guild was hunting it. The Grand Grimoire, as the city’s primary Demonica guild, was crucial to the hunt—and Amalia and I were now part of the search effort.
The wipers swept across the windshield, chasing the rain. Six months ago, I’d been living with my parents, going to college, and studying mythic history in my spare time. Two weeks ago, I’d been losing sleep over Uncle Jack stealing my mom’s grimoire.
Now I was bound to a demon, newly inducted into a Demonica guild, and about to hunt the most dangerous adversary a mythic could face. And until I dealt with that, I couldn’t do a thing about the missing grimoire.
Glumly, I wiped rain off the lenses of my glasses.
Oblivious to the downpour drenching the abandoned intersection, Tae-min squinted at the MPD app on his phone for the “grid” we were supposed to be searching. The entire neighborhood had been cleared for the combat teams hunting the demon, and the MPD was coordinating every team’s search zone.
“Our grid is three blocks,” Tae-min declared, pocketing his phone. “We’ll search it from west to east, then they’ll assign us a new grid.”
“I can’t believe we don’t have central communication yet,” George complained in a chain-smoker’s gravelly voice. “We should have headsets.”
“That’s not in our budget,” Tae-min muttered. “Anyway, let’s split up. Check everything, then come back here. Remember, unbound demons are fast and in full command of their magic. Shout if you see any sign of it.”
With that, he and George strode away.
I stood blankly in the middle of the street. Um … were we supposed to just … walk around, then? Uncertainly, I started in the opposite direction. Amalia followed me onto a narrow street lined with businesses, then ducked under the awning of a health food store.
I stopped, cold water pattering on my head. “What are you doing?”
“Waiting here.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m not wandering around in the rain, searching for an unbound demon. It’s suicide.”
“But,” I spluttered, “your dad is the one who summoned it. If anyone should be—”
“Yeah, but I didn’t summon it. Look, Robin.” She put a hand on her hip. “We’re no match for an unbound demon and you know it. It isn’t killing people, so let’s just chill and let the pros handle things.”
“It isn’t killing people? Then what’s it doing?”
“No idea. Demons on the loose usually go on killing sprees, but this one is just lurking around the Eastside.” She waved her phone. “Either way, I checked the latest MPD update. The demon has injured a few mythics but no one’s died. We don’t need to get involved.”
“We’re already involved, and we have a responsibility to—”
“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes. “Knock yourself out, then. I’m staying here.”
Huffing, I marched down the sidewalk. I would search for the demon, especially since I was partly responsible for its escape.