Page 67 of Demon Hunter

“Please stop insulting me.” Marc turns his scariest expression on the guy. “August Wentworth?”

Gus, having done a pretty quick evaluation of his situation, folds his arms across his chest and cocks his hip. “What’s it to you?” His gaze scans us, and then he does a double take on Matt. “You don’t look injured.”

Matt shrugs. “I heal fast.”

“Nobody heals that fast.”

“Turns out, I wasn’t as injured as the doctors first thought.”

“Bullshit. I know your boyfriend fixed it to look that way, but I’ve seen the pictures.” He shudders. “I saw what they did. I thought it was a miracle that you survived, but you should be in a hospital still.”

My gut roils. Pictures? Those motherfuckers tookpicturesafter they beat Matt? Ian’s gone rigid beside me, but oddly, Matt’s still relaxed.

“Yet here I am.” He smiles. “And so are you. In California, by the way. Far away from your home in Ohio, where you were two minutes ago.”

Gus pales and darts a glance at Marc as the full extent of Matt’s meaning sinks in. Now he knows that Marc brought him here, that Marc had something to do with saving Matt. He swallows hard and looks over at Raum. “I don’t know you.”

Raum and Marc exchange glances, and then, just for a moment, Raum lets his higher demon essence out, allowing us all to sense him—the power of him. He shields it again just as fast, but Gus’s eyes have widened. “Two?” he croaks. “There are two higher demons on Earth?”

I shrug. “Possibly more. Humans are still summoning, no matter how much we try to tell them not to. We haven’t officially met, but I guess you know I’m Dylan. This is Ian, and you obviously recognized Marc and Matt. That’s Raum. He’s the special investigator into the kidnapping and trafficking of demons that’s been occurring for the past few centuries.”

This is it. If all this is a trap, this is when Marc and Raum will be able to sense it. Everything hinges on Gus’s reaction.

What I’m not expecting is relief. “They know?” he whispers. “They know.” He sits on the coffee table, and a strangled sound of outrage erupts from Marc’s throat. Gus doesn’t seem to notice. “They know.” He stares at the carpet for a long minute, then looks at Raum and asks, “Can you stop them? It has to stop.”

Raum nods curtly.

“They’ll be stopped,” Marc adds, his voice grim, and I let go of another fear. Gus truly is on our side, or Marc wouldn’t just be standing there still. “Get off my coffee table.”

“Huh?” Big gray eyes blink behind his glasses.

“There is a chair right there.” Marc points to one of the armchairs. “Chairs are for sitting on. Not coffee tables.”

Ian snickers. “The ambassador is kind of fussy about his furniture, and we’re in his home. It might be best if you move to a chair while we talk.”

Gus complies, still seeming a little overwhelmed. “You really can stop them? Because I never realized what it was when I was younger, but when we turn twenty-two, they tell us, and by then it… it just seems…” He shakes his head. “I grew up being told that demons lacked higher intelligence. That they were animals like… like horses or cows. That as long as we made sure they were properly sheltered and fed, we were being responsible—” He seems to choke on the next word, but I can guess what it was: Owners.

Beside me, Matt inhales deeply. “I think you need to start from the beginning. How long can you be away before they miss you?”

“Uh… all night, I guess. I live alone. Nobody’s likely to even call me until tomorrow during business hours, if they have a tech issue.”

“Okay, that’s great. Have you eaten? We’ve got some leftover Indian food we can reheat for you.”

Matt’s kindness seems to confuse Gus even more. “Why don’t you hate me?”

“Who says I don’t?” Matt leans forward. “Hating you doesn’t mean I can’t do my job, and my job right now is to protect the truce. That means saving all those kidnapped demons, andthatmeans talking to you. So… Marc is going to play host and get us all some coffee, and if you’re hungry, we’ll feed you, but everything else is gonna wait until after we learn what we need to know.” He looks Gus dead in the eye. “I made an oath to protect and serve, and I don’t betray my word.”

Fuck, my man is hot.

Chapter 29

Matt

Gus,the guy who pinned a target on my back and sent out a death squad, looks shell-shocked by my statement, but then he rallies. “Let’s do this, then. What do you want to know?”

“Is there a list of all the demons taken and their locations?” Raum speaks first, his urgent gaze burning into Gus, who flinches.

“Not anymore. I’m sorry. Not all of them. The ledger that had all that information was destroyed during the Great Chicago Fire.”

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