Page 95 of Terror at the Gates

Zahariev moved toward the window, his gun still drawn. I followed, but as I looked over the edge, all I could see was broken glass glimmering in the yellow security light.

“Where did it go?”

“There,” said Zahariev, nodding toward the fence.

The creature had landed on the rolled barbed wire, blobs of its gelatinous body dropping to the ground, and it no longer glowed with that strange, purple light. Was it dead?

I pulled away from the window, leaving Liam’s room and heading for the front door. I wasn’t surprised when Zahariev followed. We headed down the hall to the elevator.

“I thought I imagined it,” I said, still a little breathless. My heart hadn’t stopped beating out of my chest. Zahariev looked at me.

“What do you mean?”

I met his gaze. “The night the enforcers attacked, I thought Burke’s eyes were glowing with that same violet light.”

“Why didn’t yousayanything?”

“Because I hit my fucking head,” I said, not to mention what I’d seen had been there one minute and gone the next. “Don’t act like you would have believed me! Look at that fucking thing!”

Zahariev didn’t say anything, but we both knew I was right.

We made it to the ground floor and headed outside.Zahariev drew his gun, but as we neared the wall where the creature had fallen, most of it was gone. A few pulsating globs remained, crawling through the grass like strange, glowing slugs. They must have sensed our approach, because they shrieked in unison, projecting several short, sticky limbs. Unlike the larger one, they only managed to roll in the grass like tiny wheels.

“Are you telling me that thing was amother?” I asked as Zahariev squashed them with his boot.

“Not a mother,” he said. “But it can definitely multiply.”

“Then stop squishing them! What if you’re makingmore?”

“You think they can come back from this?” he asked, lifting his boot. The sole was covered in slime.

My stomach flip-flopped. “Gross.”

Zahariev scraped his shoe in the grass, leaving behind a trail of jelly.

“Do you think we can catch it?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think we cancatch it,” Zahariev snapped, his voice raised. “What are we going to kill it with? I probably just infected my entire city with some goddamn alien virus.”

“I realize I’ve given you a lot of reasons to yell at me, but I am just trying to solve a fucking problem, unlike you, who made thisa million times worse!”

There was a moment of silence before Zahariev spoke. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was yelling.”

“It’s fine,” I said, suddenly feeling the weight of my exhaustion. It had been a long twenty-four hours.

“I should get you home,” Zahariev said, looking at his watch, but neither of us moved. The thought of returning to my apartment felt almost foreign, especially with so manyunanswered questions. I shifted my gaze to the slime-covered grass.

“Do you remember when Lisk would preach about demons in church?” I asked.

I knew the witch said demons didn’t really exist, but I thought these things made a pretty good argument to the contrary.

“Are you telling me you actually paid attention?”

“I didn’t become a heathen until my magic surfaced,” I said. “What’s your excuse?”

“I was born this way,” he said.

“My point is,” I said in an effort to redirect the conversation, “what if that creature is a demon? Lisk said demons were spirits that could possess people. Those things possessed Burke and probably Esther too.”