Page 63 of Demon Hunter

Chapter 27

Matt

Ian’s wordsfall like stones. “That’s pretty conclusive,” I say through a tight throat. “I mean… it’s not a stretch to assume that the guy who summoned demons to abuse them was also willing to enslave them for profit and pass that mentality down through his family.”

Dylan makes a humming noise, and I know him well enough to know what he’s thinking. “We need more.”

Yep.

“He’s right.” I clench and unclench my fists, hating what I’m about to say. “If we want to make use of Collective resources to break this up, we need concrete evidence that they’ve been summoning demons and exposing humans to them for centuries.” I cringe. “And even then, I think it’d need to be a classified operation. I want to believe nobody else would think this is a good idea, but…” I’ve lost my faith in the Collective, my fellow hunters, and humanity.

The awkward silence that follows eats at me. I don’t havetimefor this. Dylan called us back in before Marc could explain what he meant when he said I’d evolved.Evolved. What the fuck? Like some kind of science experiment? I need to question him about this some more, because it sounds to me like he’ssaying I’m not a demon but I have superpowers, and I’m not sure where that fits on the scale of possibilities I’m okay with.

Plus… it all still could be a coma dream. There’s no way to know.

“I will defer to you in this,” Raum says finally. “We have the location and the names of those we believe are involved. My preference would be to go there immediately and put an end to this barbarity and free those enslaved. However, I understand the need to work in partnership within the confines of the truce.”

Marc’s face is stone, but his chest heaves with a deep breath. “Dylan, you said the company has more than one branch?”

Dyl nods. “Columbus was the first one—well, the first officially registered one. The second is in Cincinnati. The third and fourth are in Kentucky and Michigan.” He hesitates. “It’s worth noting that this company hasn’t been around as long as hundreds of years. My guess is that they move around and change company names every few decades to stay under the Collective’s radar, as well as running an unofficial side business.” He grimaces. “If technology hadn’t gotten to the point that it has, and if they hadn’t decided to take their business online, there’s a chance we never would have found them.”

“So they could have other branches in other states under different company names,” Ian says bitterly. “And there’s no way of knowing exactly where all those demons are being held.”

“Not without getting into their files—and hoping the information is all there, and that I can get to it without anyone noticing.”

“But their tech person sent us this,” I point out. “Maybe… maybe they’d be willing to be our mole.”

“Can we trust them?” Dylan counters. “This could still be a trap. They know I’ve been looking into the company, but there’s no way for them to know that we just learned about the kidnapped demons today. They might think we’ve known allalong. They might think we don’t know at all. What if they’re trying to lure us to go there, only to be met by their thousands of demons being compelled to destroy us?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Marc says darkly.

“Not even thousands of lesser demons could stand against a higher demon of Marc’s stature,” Raum adds. “I would assist if he requested, and I have a team I could call upon also. But we would not be required.”

Annnnnd I’m back to thinking Ian is completely insane for getting into bed with a being that powerful.

“Okay, but that still leaves us in the position of not knowing where all the kidnapped demons are. We could go there, Marc could wreak destruction, and then when I get into their system, what happens if there isn’t a digitalized list?”

“So Marc keeps a few of them alive until we know.” I shrug.

“Which ones? What if the one we need dies in the melee?”

I know he’s trying to be reasonable and problem-solve this logically, but right this second, I don’t want to be talking about this. I want to be grilling Marc on whether I’m radioactive or something and Dylan’s going to leave me anyway.

“I think we need to talk to whoever sent that email,” Ian says slowly. “It’s a risk, and we don’t know if we can trust them, but six years ago we didn’t know if we could trust Marc either. Sometimes risks pay off.”

“And you’re in a better position this time,” Marc adds smoothly. “Since I’m here.”

Dylan pulls a face, but I can tell he agrees. “I’ll send a message via the chat and see where that takes us.”

We spend the next few minutes arguing about what that message should be before finally deciding on:

Interesting genealogy. Is it yours? Family heritage can be tricky. Ever met Matt Coates?

Dylan argued strongly against bringing my name into it, but the rest of us agree that we need to show we’ve made the connection.

Someone knocks loudly on the front door. “I think our food’s here.”

“What?” Ian asks. “How’d—” His phone rings just as I spot Marc subtly shaking his head at me. I guess that knock wasn’t as loud as I thought. “Hello? Oh yeah—sorry. Doorbell’s broken and we’re at the back of the house. I’m coming.” Ian ends the call. “You were right, Matty. Food’s here.”

---