Page 104 of Terror at the Gates

Those were heavy thoughts, and I wasn’t ready to add them to the burden of my grief.

I turned away from the window, looking up and down the street. I’d come to the right place, but as I scanned the pavement, I didn’t see any sign of the glowing demon blob or its many children.

It was possible it was too bright. I assumed by the way it had reacted to my flashlight it preferred the dark. I wandered a little farther down the sidewalk when I heard a noise coming from the alley between the celestial shop and another abandoned building.

I shifted, my boots grinding on the concrete as I pressed myself against the front of the shop. I slid my backpack off and took out the stun gun and my only two cartridges, shoving one in each pocket, before peering down the alley. There were dumpsters and round metal trash cans overflowing with garbage. It was mostly dark, save for a greenish-blue light blazing over a shadowed side door.

For a moment, I saw nothing, but then I noticed a lid leaning against one of the trash cans, wobbling. I inched closer, readying the stun gun, though I’d have to put some distance between me and the demon if I wanted to do any real damage.

As I neared, I didn’t feel afraid but angry, determined to see these fuckers hurt as much as they’d hurt me, though I didn’t think that was possible.

I kicked the lid aside, only to find a large rat. Its eyes were hazed in violet, and when it hissed at me, black tendrils unfurled from its mouth, fluttering like a forked tongue.

An undignified shriek left my mouth. Before I couldthink, I jumped back and pulled the trigger of my stun gun, but the rat made its escape, diving between the trash bags where the two darts had landed.

Fuck!

I retrieved a new cartridge from my pocket. My heart was still racing as I tried to make sense of what I’d just witnessed.

A rat. You just saw a rat possessed by a demon.

For now, I didn’t let myself think about what that might mean for Nineveh—for Eden. With my new cartridge loaded, I shoved the bags aside and kicked over trash cans. Not that I expected the rat to still be there or that I could use the stun gun on it, but I had to check.

Call it due diligence.

I even shoved the dumpster, but nothing scurried out.

It had probably slipped into a drain. I wondered if the demon could reproduce on its own, if that single rat could infect multiples. There were millions of rats in the city, which meant millions of ways for that demon to travel.

Maybe that was how it had gotten into Esther’s house.

“Fuck!” I yelled as I kicked one of the fallen trash cans.

I stood in the silence, anger winding through me, feeling completely helpless. How was I supposed to fight something like this?

Rat poison?

I shrugged. It was worth a shot.

Honestly, I’d try anything, so long as I eradicated thisthingresponsible for Esther’s death. Though I wondered if that would be enough. As much as I wanted to annihilate them, I also wanted to know where they came from. They looked like something that had escaped from a sci-fi movie or a mad scientist’s evil lair, and while I called them demons,I didn’t think they were the ones Archbishop Lisk warned us about.

Maybe it was some kind of curse gone wrong or a spell cast by learned magic.

Whatever it was, I had to find the source.

I took a breath and let it escape slowly between my lips before turning to leave. I suspected I’d made enough noise to chase away anything holed up here, and I knew from last night that those demons could move incredibly fast for something that looked like a slug.

Then a drop of water hit my face.

Or at least, that’s what I thought it was until I reached up to wipe it away.

That’s when I realized it wasn’t water at all but gel.

I tilted my head back. Against the neon-tinged sky, I saw the pulsing mass of a demon stretched across black wires overhead. It had yet to ignite, appearing gray instead of violet, until it realized I had spotted it. It gave a horrifying cry that made my ears ring and then lit up like lightning in the sky. As it did, sparks erupted from the lines where it nested, and the light behind me flickered.

I stumbled back, raising the stun gun as the demon launched itself at me, black limbs bursting from its pulsing body. I pulled the trigger, but only one of the darts hit my mark, sinking into the demon’s gelatinous body.

It let out an awful cry, but I didn’t think it was in pain.