Page 33 of Place of Torment

“So, what you're saying is you want to use them and then kick them back to hell?” Dominic started laughing. “Would you look at that, the human has changed. What happened to the nice and kind Alice?”

“We are at war here, Dominic.” Frowning at my mate, she slapped both hands on her hips. “What happened to that kind and nice Alice.” She mocked him. "She took a vacation, how about that? And while we are at it, are we ready?”

“Ready for what?” But I was already pushing off the table and standing standing up.

“To kick some ass, what do you mean what?” Alice rubbed her hands excitedly with an evil smile to make the demons step away from her.

I truly believed at that point that we created a monster.

She fit right in.

21

Brooklyn

Ishould've known that something was off from the start.

It took us exactly two days to come up with a plan that all of us agreed on. It's astonishing how difficult everyone can be in a group of people where everyone was used to being in charge.

Well, not me.

I don’t care if I'm in charge or not mostly because I make sure that I always work by myself.

“Does it feel off to you?” Alice fidgeted next to me, tucking her face in the collar of the jacket she was wearing.

“I have never seen the place so quiet.” My mate agreed with her.

Squinting as if that would make things appear better, Dominic ushered us deeper into the shadows until we all but hugged the walls of the building. We watched the area from across the street, all of us tucked into the wrecked structure of an abandoned warehouse, enjoying the smell mold, decomposing carcasses of dead animals and what unmistakably was stench of human feces.

“Maybe it’s just the smell making me feel antsy.” Alice muttered through the fabric of her jacket. “But we can totally make this an endurance exercise. Me, for example? I can hold my breath for like a minute straight. Now you try it, Brooklyn.”

Echo stuck her head out from a few feet away to give me a look that said, ‘What in the worlds is the human doing?’

“She prattles when she’s nervous.” I told her with a shrug, loud enough so that only she could hear me.

I didn’t care if the demons liked it or not. If babbling nonsense made my friend feel less stressed, she could talk all she wanted, and they would listen. Or they could go away. Having my mind taken over by the bloodlust and the fog clouding my head after it, so that Echo could jump me unaware made sure that I set my priorities straight.

Alice was one of my priorities.

The demons were not.

“Should we wait a little longer, or call it a night?” Rowen slinked up next to us from the back of the building silent enough my heart skipped a beat when he spoke. “It looks like no one is here.”

“And you know this because you entered the area, searched everywhere and established it has been cleared out?” watching him steadily over my shoulder, I waited.

“Well, no.” The witch frowned at me. “It will be hard to hide the Guardians if the place was still in use. Not even the grass is moving, Brooklyn. There is nothing there.”

He lost me when he mentioned the grass because I was already fully focused on the building across the street as well as everything around it. That uneasy feeling gnawed at my stomach, getting stronger the longer I stared.

“You are absolutely right.” I muttered, while my eyes were flicked frantically from one object to another. “Not a grass moves.”

“I know.” He sounded confused that I’m repeating his words back. “I already said that. We can spread out and start reconnaissance missions from tomorrow to find where they have holed up.”

Alice replied to the witch, but I stopped listening to their back and forward. The whole situation was perturbing, but I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was unsettling me so much.

“Do you see it?” I mumbled for Dominic’s ears only.

“What are you looking at?” As always, he didn’t question me, only needed more detail on how he could assist me better to solve my problem.

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