Jeremiah’s presence seemed to swell in the space, pressing against the walls. He smelled rotten, vile — his scent wasn’t remotely human anymore. When his eyes moved, they were too quick. They jerked from thing to thing, as if he was unable to take in all the things he was aware of at once.
“You’re looking a little twitchy, Jeremiah,” I said. “Feeling overwhelmed, perhaps?”
The men at his back were dressed in tactical gear: padded jackets, helmets, face shields, and of course, guns. They had their sights fixed on me, unwavering, far better prepared than their unfortunate comrades had been.
Jeremiah looked around — at the blood on the walls, the puddles seeping into the carpet, the intestines draped over the lampshade like cheerful party streamers. He took it all in, nodding slowly.
And he smiled.
“What do you think you know, demon?” The cadence of his speech was drastically different, easy to notice considering I’d followed him for a whole damn day. “How long have you been creeping around?”
“Long enough to know you’re in over your head.”
He narrowed his eyes. Recognition flickered in his gaze, and he said, “You were at the party. The…the bartender guy.”
“Yeah, the one who gets all the pussy.” I gave the body beside me a shove, pushing it away. The blood was getting cold and sticky. “Tell me, Jeremiah…how are your reflexes?”
I had already condensed the wall of energy in front of me. Right as his eyes widened in suspicion, I pushed it out, and it slammed into him and his men full-force. They were blasted backward against the wall, the impact so hard they burst straight through it, sending their bodies sprawling onto the lawn in a hail of splintered wood.
I chuckled as I got to my feet and strode over to the damaged wall. Jeremiah lay flat on his back on the grass, and two of his men were trying to roll over to their sides. The third seemed to have been knocked unconscious. Damn, and here I’d been worried. That blast probably shattered Jeremiah’s ribs.
Or at least…it should have.
Maybe I got a little too cocky. Maybe I let my guard down way sooner than I should have. I walked across the lawn, ready to crush Jeremiah like the little bug he was.
But he leaped up, and he moved far faster than I’d thought possible. No human body should have been able to move that fast. His fist connected with my face, snapping my neck back — he gripped my shoulders, wrenched me down, and tried to follow up his fist with his knee. But I twisted, gripped his leg, and used it to wrench him to the ground.
His strength was shocking. He’d attacked me in a mere second, hitting me hard enough that I’d felt something crack. I tried to scramble into a better position and get on top of him, but he was grappling with me, somehow managing to hold me back.
“What — what kind of fucking — freak are you?” I snarled, squeezing his throat as he shoved against my face. His teeth were bared, his eyes were wild and bloodshot. Something thick and black dripped from his nose, and he snarled as he twisted, trying to switch our positions. I thrashed, breaking his grip and leaping back, putting some distance between us.
He got up, cracking his neck. He wasn’t breathing hard; I couldn’t smell any fear on him. Every inch of him was tense, his muscles bulging, veins rigid beneath his skin. He spat a thick glob of black stuff onto the ground, and I wrinkled my nose.
“So you’re just fine with the whole rotting from the inside-out thing?” I said. “That’s gross, dude. You smell.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “So carefree, aren’t you? Not like the last demon I met. Honestly…I expected him to be creeping around out here. But you…what the hell is your game?”
“My game is simple: kill Rot Boy, go home, have a smoke. It’s been a fun game so far.”
I attacked again, but he was ready for me. He deflected my strike, slammed into my shoulder and shoved me back, twisting my arm as he did. I barely managed to maneuver myself out of a nasty injury as I slipped away from him, pausing again to reevaluate my approach.
The popping sound of rapid gunfire sent me dodging back again, sprinting to avoid the bullets. Two of Jeremiah’s men had found their feet, and they had their weapons aimed at me. It would take a hell of a lot of bullets to kill me, far more than they had. But enough bullets could still slow me down, and that was the last thing I needed.
Jeremiah was faster than I’d thought. Stronger than I’d thought.
I slipped around into the garden at the side of the house, and crouched down into the shadows. Footsteps ran past, with a second set walking slowly behind.
“You’ve run right past him, you blathering fools.”
Shit.
Jeremiah was on me before I could run again. I got my arm around his throat, gripping him tight as he flailed and tried to claw at my face. I squeezed his neck in my arm, until the breath was wheezing out of him and his movements became frantic. Fuck, he was hard to control. The strength I was using should have crushed a human’s windpipe and if that somehow didn’t kill him, the lack of oxygen to his brain should have. But Jeremiah kept struggling. He thrashed his entire body against my hold, and I lost my footing, grappling with him on my knees —
More gunfire popped, and this time I couldn’t dodge it. The bullets peppered my back, my neck. I flinched at the sting, and Jeremiah took advantage immediately. He twisted free and shoved himself back, right as more bullets peppered my back.
I could take out the two gunmen quick enough, but Jeremiah…
He didn’t give me a chance for that.
He kicked me in the chest, so hard and so fast that it slammed me back through the garden wall. Bricks collapsed around me and I dodged his incoming fist, caught his wrist and snapped it. But there was no satisfying scream of pain, no hesitation. It was like the pain didn’t even register for him, and that caught me off guard. Off guard enough that his next strike made contact.
He slammed his fist against my back, right where one of the bullets had pierced into me. It was far more fucking painful than it should have been.
I tried to dodge back out of range and get some space between us, but I suddenly felt as if lead was pumping through my veins, every limb unbearably heavy. I shoved Jeremiah away, stumbled, and clutched for my shoulder where he’d hit me. But it hadn’t just been a punch: my fingers encountered something small, something metal, sunk deep in my skin. And fuck, it was burning.
“I always knew my father wasn’t using that thing the way he should have been.” Jeremiah laughed, watching me gasp as I tried to pull the wretched metal thing out of my flesh. My fingers kept slipping on my own blood. Whatever it was, it was sucking up my strength so fast that my vision was darkening at the edges. Fuck…fuck this was bad…what the hell had he done?
“Tell me, demon: did you happen to leave something behind on Halloween? A trinket, perhaps? Something you stole, something you buried before you killed my father?”
Something stolen…something buried…fuck. The amulet Kent had worn. I hadn’t even thought of it since then. I’d been so distracted — Juniper had buried it, and neither of us had thought to go back for it.
“Ahh, so it was you then,” Jeremiah said, acknowledging the stunned look on my face. I glared at him and swallowed hard, trying to muster up any strength I could to go after him again. But the effects of that damned little amulet were nauseating. I couldn’t even see straight.
“Boys, give him a few more.”
The gunfire rang in my ears, and this time the bullets hit my chest and one struck my face. Their aim was terrible and I wanted to tell them so, but the sarcastic remark died on my tongue. I lurched, coughed, and spat up blood.
Oh, this was bad. Very, very bad.
I wasn’t healing. I wasn’t fucking healing.
I tried to grasp the amulet again, but when I reached for it, I could only feel its edge. It had sunk deeper into my back — it was burrowing into my flesh like a fucking leech. The damn thing was made to sap the strength of supernatural beings, and it hungered for it like a starving animal.
Jeremiah seized my throat and dragged me. I clawed at his arm, leaving deep, jagged cuts in his flesh, but the gashes didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. He hauled me up, both fists knotted in my shirt, and pinned me against a tree.
“And here I’d been blaming the wrong demon all along,” he said. He chuckled as he watched me struggle, thick black goop staining his teeth as he grinned at me. “I thought Leon killed my father, but he’s too distracted doting on that little sacrificial lamb, isn’t he?” He slammed me back, so my shoulder struck the tree again and the amulet did too, pressing it in even deeper.
I blacked out for a moment. I felt like I was falling. When I dazedly returned to consciousness, Jeremiah was glaring at me with a look that was far too clever, far too shrewd. “Who do you serve?” he said softly. “Whose bargain are you fulfilling?”
I spat in his face, grinning as it hit his cheek. “Fuck you. You’re a pathetic boy hiding behind a pathetic God. You can’t even slow me down without some old witch’s trinket.”
He released his hold on me, and I fell to my knees. I didn’t hear him give the order this time — the bullets struck me without warning.
“Tell me your name,” he said calmly, as the gunfire finally stopped. “And who you serve.”
The influence of the God slammed against my brain, screaming to get in. But It couldn’t get my answers by force, not even as weakened as I was. Gods couldn’t invade a demonic mind like They could with humans. I just laughed as I shut It out.
“How long can you keep this up, Rot Boy?” I said. “Your body can’t take that parasitic God flexing so much strength forever.” His face twitched, fury warping him as he leaned close to me. “Go on and keep trying. Your body will break down before you manage to kill me.”
His expression turned cold. He tipped his head, squatted down, and reached out his hand to pluck at the tear his guards’ bullets had ripped through my shirt. He narrowed his eyes, staring at me hard, as if he could find the answers he sought written on my flesh.
I stiffened. Shit. Shit.
I grabbed his wrists but he pinned me again, wrestling me to the ground. My limbs were locking up, the burning pain growing worse the more I tried to fight. Jeremiah’s eyes fogged over, a thick mist clouding them as he shoved my arms down, and ripped my shirt open.
He laughed, and it was the most vile, unnatural sound I’d heard come out of a human. When a God laughed, you could hear the screams of all the souls They’d taken, crying out in such agony it made one sick just to hear it. Those screams were in Jeremiah’s laughter, too.
He traced his fingertips, blackened with rot, over my shoulder — over the scarred letters of Juniper’s name. “So she’s back after all,” he said softly. “Victoria was right. Dear Juniper has come back to Abelaum…and got herself a demon.”
“She’s not here,” I growled. “She’s not even in Abelaum. Why do you think she’d come anywhere near this place?”
“Why indeed?” He pulled back his fist, and his knuckles slammed against my face. I shook my head, dazed, and Jeremiah got off me, leaving me there on the ground. He paced around me, raising his voice. “Why indeed would Juniper Kynes come back to Abelaum? Could it be that she’s a vengeful little bitch who doesn’t know when she should just fucking lay down and die?” He screamed the last few words. He was staring into the trees, scanning the edges of the yard.
Fuck, Juniper had better be running. I knew she could see what was happening, and I could only hope she didn’t get any brave ideas.
“I don’t know what you’re rambling on about,” I said, shoving myself up to my knees. “You’re getting boring. Try smashing my face again to spice things up.”
But he didn’t care about me anymore. His fingers twitched bizarrely as he continued to stare into the darkness, his breathing growing heavier. “I can smell her out there. Oh, Juniper, Juniper.” He laughed. “I can fucking smell you.”
My body felt so heavy. So goddamn heavy and weak. I had to get to my feet and find a way to dig the amulet out.
“She’s out there,” Jeremiah said coldly. “Find her. Find her, and bring her to me.”
“Should we kill her?” one of the gunmen asked.
“No.” Jeremiah shook his head. “Bring her alive. She needs to learn what happens when you defy God.”
