Page 22 of Demon Hunter

“If you’ve hurt him?—”

“He’s entirely unharmed. He arrived before you did, on the first night. Ian had dozed off, and Dylan was in the bathroom.” He pauses. “I can assure you, he wasmostdispleased that nobody had bothered to inform him of what was happening.”

“But he left?” Gabe shakes his head. “That doesn’t sound like Norval.”

“Once he saw Matt for himself and heard what our plan was, he and I agreed that his presence would be a distraction with so many… normies… around. He requested that I keep him updated, and in return, I was permitted to conveniently forget he ever visited, and thus enjoythismoment.”

Ian stares at his boyfriend. “You’re an asshole.” Weirdly, it sounds like that turns him on.

Connor, on the other hand, isn’t turned on at all. “I’m going to kill you,” he threatens, his fists clenched.

“Chill, Con,” I order. “He’s keeping me alive. So… keep him alive.” I glance back at Marc. “For now, anyway.”

Marc smiles beatifically at me. “Norval has decided his presence will be more effective after you leave the hospital and are fully healed. Something about needing to supervise you for a while, until he’s certain of your competence.”

Uh-huh. “Now you can kill him, Connor.”

“I’ve got it,” Dylan announces, and I’m ashamed to say it takes me a minute to remember what he was even doing. The prospect of an angry Norval—or babysitter Norval—wiped all other thoughts from my mind.

“Got what?” Gabe asks. “Did you figure out why there was no notification?”

My boyfriend gives my brother an “are you an idiot” look. “There was no notification because the job wasn’t created by anyone on the online team,” he reminds us impatiently. “We’ve been hacked. They even had code there that was supposed to delete the job sheet completely, but it failed.”

“Why?” Marc asks, surprising me. I can’t remember if I’ve ever heard him sound curious before.

Dylan makes a humming sound. “I think it’s because Ian’s an idiot.”

“Checks out,” I agree, even as Ian lets out a strangled exclamation of outrage. “But please explain.”

“The job was supposed to wipe itself five days after Matt was attacked. I’m guessing that’s so that when he went missing and someone checked to see what he was supposed to be doing, we’d get his location, but that if we got suspicious about the job later and logged back in to have a look, it would be gone.” He hesitates. “Given the condition he was found in, I think we all agree that whoever did this planned for Matt to be dead when the Collective finally tracked him down, right?”

“Wait, maybe I am an idiot,” Ian begins, and I grin. Wish I’d recorded him saying that. “But are you saying someone hacked the Collective and set up a fake job specifically to kill Matt?”

“I believe you need more sleep,” Marc observes. “Perhaps some vitamins. What do you humans need to maintain mental capacity?”

“Shut up.” Ian’s face is white. “This isn’t an accident or a coincidence?”

Dylan shakes his head. “I can’t be sure yet that they targeted Matt. That’s the only reason I’m not telling Marc to do whatever he has to so we can get him out of here right now. They might have been after any hunter, and Matt was just the unlucky one.”

“You said yet.” Gabe leans forward. “You can’t be sureyet.”

Swallowing hard, Dyl shrugs. “I have to check the rest of the code. But someone definitely hacked the Collective, they definitely created this job sheet, and if what Ian said before is right, the demonic situation they created it for doesn’t exist. So they wanted a hunter to come to Reno, to a place of their choosing. It seems an awfully huge coincidence that after all that, Matt also just happened to end up beaten nearly dead at a location he had no business being in.”

“He’s never alone,” Connor orders. “Until Dylan can check the code, at least one of us is here at all times.”

“Relax,” Marc murmurs. “I can keep him safe from any danger your fellow humans might pose.” He pauses. “Though I much prefer Dylan’s idea that I do whatever I have to.”

“What if it’s not a human who did this? What if it’s a demon?” I ask. That seems like the obvious question to me. Who else would want to hack the Collective and kill a hunter?

Who else would even know the Collective exists?

“No lower demon would be capable of such a feat,” he scoffs. “Much less pose a challenge tome.”The silence that follows speaks volumes.

“Could it be another higher demon?” Ian’s the one who asks. “Is hacking something you demons can do?”

“There are very few things higher demons cannot do.” His eyes narrow thoughtfully. “But this plan is too circuitous for one of us. If the outcome was to kill a hunter, there are far easier ways than… hacking… to lure one out. Even if the deed needed to be done in Reno, for whatever reason, it would be easier by far to locate a hunter, transport them to the required location, and kill them.” He shakes his head. “This is not the plan of a demon. Beating him near death? Why, when we could crush the mind or cause internal organs to liquefy? Far more satisfying.”

I suddenly regret every nasty comment I’ve ever made to Marc. Dylan reaches out and twines his fingers with mine, face a little green.

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