Page 58 of Demon Hunter

“Columbus… wait… Jesus, when you said you could pinpoint the location, you weren’t kidding. Are you sure that’s it?”

“As sure as I can be without seeing it personally,” Raum replies stiffly, and I wonder if Ian just insulted him.

“Well, a street address is pretty damn good, even if you’re off by a few blocks. Dyl, you still recording?”

I glance at my phone. “Yep. What’s the address?” My search won’t be that specific, of course, not to start with, but it won’t hurt to have the information.

Ian rattles it off, and an alarm bell rings in my head. “Say that again?”

“What’s wrong?” Matt asks. He reaches toward me, but stops short of touching me, like I might be contagious or something. I don’t have time to devote to relationship problems right now.

“What was it again?” I demand, and Ian exchanges a troubled look with Matt but repeats it.

Fuck me. I switch apps on my phone and search for a website. “Ian, does that location have a business name?”

He blinks. “Uh… yeah. SuperTask LLC.”

I turn my phone so they can all see the website for SuperTask, and more importantly, its slogan:Our staff work like demons to get the job done!

Chapter 25

Matt

“I need a goddamn computer,”Dylan snaps. “Motherfucker! I knew something wasn’t right about that site. Iknewit. But I had no reason to dig into it and other priorities… goddammit!” He stomps around the room, waving his arms in pure rage and frustration. “I should have done something. I should havelooked, even if…” He trails off, then lets loose with a string of profanity that’s so impressive, Ian whistles with admiration.

“I don’t understand,” Raum says, and while I’m not sure I like him, I have to agree.

“Walk us through it, Dyl,” I suggest. I want to go to him and give him a reassuring hug—and kiss the fuck out of him, because he’s so sexy when he’s all riled up—but I’m still not trusting myself to do that. The doorframe actuallycrackeda little when I was holding it before.

Dylan stomps a few more times, then takes a deep breath. “We have web searches and crawlers set up,” he explains. “They search for anything that might indicate demonic or demon-summoning activity. We get a lot of bullshit—a shocking number of romance novels, for one thing—but the system calculates probabilities, and we look at the ones most likely to be problems first, then go through the rest when we get the chance.”

“So you’ve seen that website before?” Ian asks, and Dylan nods.

“Yes. They also advertise on several platforms, including Craigslist and Airtasker. I saw it… Jesus, I don’t even remember. Over a year ago—maybe two. It had been flagged as really low priority, but I’d blocked out an hour that day to go through the ‘slush pile.’” He shrugs. “There was nothing I could see that warranted a proper investigation. The site’s code is clean, and the business is registered and has been for decades. But there was something about it that bugged me, so I put it in my ‘when I have time’ folder, just in case.” Balling his fists, he says, “One of my team even sent me the Craigslist ad recently. He said the same thing I thought—it looked fine, but there wassomething.”

“Hunter instincts,” I murmur. Shit. The online team probably isn’t used to following them anymore, since so much of their jobs require logic and mathematical thinking. Those of us in the field tend to rely on our gut for pretty much everything.

“I should have paid more attention.” Dylan continues verbally berating himself. “Every once in a while, I’ll poke around in the code on the site, but without knowing what I’m looking for…” He makes a growling sound. “We have to go back to the compound. I need my computer and notes so I can have another look.”

I start to stand, but Ian pulls a face. “We can’t bring Raum back there. I could explain away Marc being there if anyone noticed, but even the whiff of another higher demon hanging around is going to raise questions. No offense,” he tacks on belatedly, glancing at Raum.

“None taken. The truce is still new.” He looks at Dylan. “Is there a way you could do what you need here? If you must go, you must, but I would prefer to be kept informed at all stages.”

“Doesn’t Marc have a computer?” I suggest. I’m mostly joking—no computer Marc has will compare to Dylan’s setup—but surprisingly, Dyl looks like he might go for it.

“I only need to look at the code, at least initially,” he says slowly. “I don’t need heavy security for that.Doyou have a computer?” he asks Marc.

Marc huffs. “Of course. This way.”

We follow him out of the room and down the hall like ducklings, and just before we reach his wicked awesome theater room, he opens a door and gestures inside. “My study. You should find what you need in here.”

Dylan goes first, but I’m right on his heels, eager to see what a demon’s study looks like. So when Dyl stops short, I run into the back of him and send him staggering forward.

“Shit!” I grab him as gently as I can and steady him on his feet, then drop my hands. “Sorry.”

He doesn’t even appear to notice, too busy staring at the desk. “What is that?”

Behind us, Marc says, “That’s my computer.”

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