Page 150 of Finders Reapers

The ground began to shake and undulate.

I didn’t know how I knew, perhaps it was a dream or just a feeling, but I knew what was under the sand. “Run!” I screamed, the word was in Enochian, but the guys got the message as they began to sprint back to the road as fast as their legs could carry them.

Oriax threw his head back and laughed, his voice carrying over the thunderous sound of the ground parting.

“When God decided to send the devouring beasts to hell, to eat the demons and to kill Mara. When the Bhakshi and the Shayati ate the world whole and swallowed every demon they could find—who do you think created them? Who do you think told them what to do?” His laughter grew to gasps as if he couldn’t contain his glee. “I am the Master of Metamorphosis! I can create beasts from worms and nightmares from shadows! You will all bow to me as I rule over Hell.”

“This isn’t Hell!” I shouted back. “This is Nevada!”

Jamal had gotten out of the car and stood by my shoulder. “I’m guessing that Ollie was the one that has been taking the contracted souls.” Jamal glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

I nodded.

“Let me guess, he’s been eating them?” Jamal added dryly.

I shook my head.

Maddox, Fletcher, and Rome made it to the road.

“Did you manage to start the car?” Fletcher pleaded.

“It’s dead.” Jamal winced.

“Let me guess, the Master of Metamorphosis over there turned the engine into spaghetti noodles?” Fletcher gestured over his shoulder.

“Close enough.” Jamal shrugged.

Maddox turned back to the road, his tanned skin ashen, and a line of blood traced the edge of his hairline. “We’ve got to get out of here. We’ve got to call Charon. Someone, anyone, to come to deal with this guy. We’re outnumbered, outgunned, and the only reason we aren’t dead yet is that we can’t die.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” Rome pushed his dark hair out of his face and pointed towards the desert where Oriax was circling like a vulture overhead.

The ground began to part, raining thousands of pebbles into the widening sinkhole. A screech echoed through the air, like steel being torn apart.

I knew that noise from my nightmares.

The devouring beasts that Oriax had so proudly boasted about creating. The creatures that had destroyed every living being in Hell were about to be unleashed less than two hundred miles from Las Vegas.

The guys seemed to come to the realization at the same time I did.

Rome pulled out his phone. “No reception? How does a phone that predicts when people will die have no reception?” He growled incredulously.

Fletcher gestured towards the angel in the airspace above us. “I’d wager he has something to do with that.”

“We have torunback to HQ.” Maddox tilted his chin. “We have to run until we get some cell reception. I don’t know if we can outrun those beasts, but we've got to try.”

Rome, Fletcher, and Jamal agreed. They did a silent count as they prepared to run, not even checking to see if I agreed with their plan—just expecting that I would go along with them.

After all, I had gone along with them since the moment we had met.

I had gone along with whatever they had told me. Maddox had told me that I couldn’t be a demon even though I had laced right in front of them. When Maddox lied to my face about my father’s cryptic words. When Fletcher and Jamal assured me that whatever I was feeling for them was part of the magic that connected the Grim together. When Rome had picked me up on the side of the road, rude as hell, and delivered me to death's door—lying about knowing who I was.

They didn’t realize that I wasn’t following them.

That was okay.

There wasn’t anything they could do.

I turned back to Ollie.