Page 133 of Demon Defeat: Part One

Fate was a cruel thing. It had taken Katie so long to give in to Ted, and he’d been taken shortly after. And now to have a baby from that brief encounter?

“Head in the game, Andie,” Roni said softly.

“It is. I’m just thinking about how much I don’t like the game anymore.”

“Same.”

“I don’t like it either, but I’m not ready to be done playing,” Katie said, sounding more like herself. “We just need to do the best we can with what we’ve got.”

Roni and I shared a look.

“Fine. You’re right,” Roni said. “I’ll stop complaining about Brog not giving up the goods and focus on what’s important.”

“Staying alive,” Katie said with resolution. “I’m looking forward to seeing their caves. Ben told me a little bit about them.”

“You actually talked to him?” I asked, glancing back.

His face wasn’t in the back window anymore, so I nodded to Katie that she was safe. She stood and went to look out the window again.

“Not really. He told me about it through the door. I think he heard me crying the first night. It sounds like a pretty place, minus the hounds, of course.”

“Of course,” Roni agreed with barely any sarcasm.

“He did warn me that we should stay away from the pools of water when we first get in there. Some of the pools have fish that will try to bite your face off. Mya almost learned that the hard way when she went there. Ben says they have homes in their trees. They’re that big.”

“I wonder if they compare to our redwoods,” I said.

The hours dragged on even when Molev pushed for us to drive as fast as possible. Whatever danger he was feeling had to be increasing. Yet, from our standpoint, nothing seemed any more dangerous than it had before.

We primarily stuck to Interstate 35 until we neared Oklahoma City. Knowing that the bombs would have destroyed most of the road, we skirted around it. We still ran into a fair number of infected. However, unlike Loveland, I didn’t see any burned undead. Just the fast ones that ran after us for too long.

The backroads around the city slowed us down a little, due to the turns and backtracking, but once we found our way to the highway again, we made up for it.

Near dusk, we reached the outskirts of the northern Dallas area. The bombs had turned the suburbs into impassable rubble.

Molev signaled for us to stop just before we reached it.

Roni, Katie, and I quietly geared up and got out to distribute the light bags and spears to the rest. Two of the fey stayed with the vehicles while the remainder went with us. The fey didn’t balk at carrying any of the men. And for my team’s part, they didn’t bat an eye at the ride either. We moved quickly and quietly toward the apex of what had started the downfall of our world.

There was barely any light left when we reached the crater. Molev put me down but kept a hand on my shoulder to keep me close as he looked around the area and at the gaping black hole.

“They said they left the ropes,” Molev said.

“Here,” another fey said, kneeling to pull up a rope. He paused then leaned in to sniff it. “Blood.”

“It may be Uan’s,” another said.

“It’s not,” Molev said.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Steve said.

Molev grunted. “Brog, Nero, Ben. Go down first. Once it is safe, I will send half the team.”

Roni snorted. “He means the women.”

The three fey went down. After a few minutes, one reappeared.

“There is nothing waiting for us.”

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