Demons Not Included: A Night Tracker Novel (Night Tracker Novels) Read online

  A scream tried to claw its way up my throat at the horror of Caprice’s death. Charging into the middle of the humanlike beings without thought would be virtual suicide.

  I knew all too well that the Demons were fast, efficient, and deadly.

  “Think. Think,” I repeated again.

  Breathe.

  Breathe.

  The cone of fight from a nearby streetlight illuminated the Demons. They could have been any crowd that had gotten off a New York subway. A rapper, two businessmen, a group of teenage girls, a muscle-bound guy, and one that could have been a male gymnast.

  The sound of snapping bones almost drove me to my knees. Dry heaves hit me as I fought to keep from puking.

  I wanted to fling myself in their midst like a jagged boulder barreling at them from a catapult.

  The hilts of my dragon-clawed daggers were smooth and hard in my hands as I slid them from their sheaths. My lower lip stung as my sharp canines grazed it just before I clenched my teeth.

  Now. Now. Now.

  My muscles coiled. I vaulted and somersaulted in the air. my knees close to my chest. I landed in another crouch, this time five feet behind the Demons.

  The Demons couldn’t possibly hear me. Dark Elves make no sounds when we move.

  A Demon raised its head and cocked it as it looked vaguely in my direction.

  My muscles went rigid as I stilled my body. It focused on the spot where I knelt on one knee and gripped my daggers. The Demon’s eyes narrowed.

  One heartbeat. Two. Three.

  The Demon turned back to finishing Caprice’s remains.

  Acid burned my chest, and the churning in my stomach wouldn’t go away.

  Calm down. Calm. Down. Fuck calm.

  Like a runner from a starting gate, I shot up, both daggers gripped in my fists.

  I gave a Drow warrior cry as I drove Lightning into one Demon’s vulnerable spot at the same time I jabbed Thunder into the weak area of the Demon on the other side of me.

  I never stopped moving. I jerked out my blood-covered daggers and the Demons dropped to the sidewalk. “Eat this,” I shouted at the same time I took out another Demon.

  A spray of blue splattered my face and clothing as the Demon’s blood burst from its throat before it toppled over.

  Killing the rest of the Demons wouldn’t be as easy.

  From the corner of my eye I saw T move in precise, controlled movements as he used his swords and dispatched two Demons to my three.

  Six Demons to go.

  My heart thundered like a storm raged inside my body The remaining Demons screeched and came after me, their poison-tipped claws extended. I wanted to chop their arms off, chop them to pieces.

  If it wasn’t for their armorlike skin, I would have torn them apart.

  The Demon that looked like a petite gymnast flipped through the air as well as I could. My heart jerked as it landed behind me. I whirled to face it while being on guard for the other Demons closing in on me from behind. The gymnast Demon dodged my daggers at the same time it sliced the air with its claws, reaching for my skin. Too close.

  I dropped and rolled away from ail of the Demons, spinning fast on the asphalt. Small, sharp rocks dug into my skin and a piece of glass sliced my arm. I lunged to my feet in time to face the musclebound Demon that looked like a bodybuilder, and was a good foot taller than me and three times as wide. The Demon roared and a gold tooth in its mouth glinted in the streetlights.

  Caprice! echoed in my mind, loud and cavernous, then hollow because that’s what I was without my friend.

  More fury tore through me and my sight narrowed in on the Demon’s vulnerable area, at its throat.

  The Demon charged toward me at the same time I ran to it. I dropped to my knees as it grabbed at empty air.

  I surged upward and rammed my dagger home, rupturing the Demon sac. More sticky blue fluid splattered my skin and clothing.

  The being toppled backward and slammed to the asphalt as I backflipped four times, stopping in the middle of the street.

  It was then that I realized we had a couple of humans watching us, wide-eyed and openmouthed.

  One of the males was raising his cell phone, just about to dial 911.1 sent a blast of my air power toward the cell and it shattered in the man’s hand.

  I focused fully on the Demons again, especially the one closest to me that was holding up an enormous chunk of cement and asphalt as if it were a pebble. The Demon snarled, its sharp teeth at odds with its pretty-boy face.

  Skin along my back tingled. Another Demon had managed to creep up behind me. The gymnast Demon. I turned just enough to see them both coming at me at the same time.

  My heart raced as the two Demons closed in.

  I swung one dagger upward and it clanged against the armor-skinned wrist of the Demon that had come from behind. I only managed to knock its hand away, keeping it from touching me with its claws. My heart spasmed when its poisonous claws swept past me by a hair’s-breadth.

  At the same time I tried to dodge the concrete block that the pretty-boy Demon pitched at me.

  The block hit me solidly in my right shoulder and I went down.

  Screaming pain shot through my shoulder and arm, all the way to the hand that was holding Lightning.

  It would cost me, but I needed to use my elemental powers or I wasn’t going to survive.

  My air power felt like a storm rushing through my body as I used it to propel myself from the ground. Instead of moving away from pretty-boy Demon, I went straight for it. It was obvious it didn’t expect my move from the shocked look on its humanoid face.

  My muscles tightened as I sliced my dagger upward. The blade skimmed the hard armor of its skin near its throat, but I thrust my dagger home and wasted the bastard.

  As blood welled from my stinging shoulder wound, the red of it mingled with the blue of the Demon blood that coated me. I did everything I could not to look at what had been Caprice, the remains near me now. Again acid burned my throat. I didn’t know what was going on with T. All I could hear were the shrieks and screams of the Demons he was battling.

  Every vein in my body pounded with blood as I started to go after the gymnast Demon.

  The Demon flipped over my head and landed next to scaffolding on a building.

  Oh, my Goddess was all I had time to think as the scaffolding came down on me.

  Several bars of the scaffolding slammed me to the ground.

  My lungs burned as my breath left in a whoosh.

  Air! Dear Goddess, the scaffolding’s weight was too great to move, and I fought for my next breath.

  Was my left leg broken? Pain was shooting through it, up to my hip.

  My right arm ached from the pressure where it was pinned to the asphalt. The only part of me that was free was my left arm, but my dagger had slipped from my hand and lay inches from my fingers.

  Laughter came from the Demon that had brought the scaffolding down on me.

  A buzzing sound grew in my ears as I struggled for another breath. In a rush my mind sifted through the elements at my command, and which ones were available. No fire, but the others—yes.

  The Demon came into view. It was smiling.

  It reached for me with its hands, its poisoned claws coming for me.

  “Not on your life, you slimy pile of trollshit.” I managed to squeeze the words out as I prepared to use my power over the water element. Waste from sewer drains, as well as the water main running beneath the street, were at my bidding.

  Just as the Demon’s claws almost touched me. I made my mental command. Water exploded up beneath the Demon, in such a powerful geyser that it flung the Demon away from me and slammed it against the brick wall on the opposite side of the street. It landed on its back and started to roll over to get up.

  But I’d already called to the sewage water, and it rammed through the asphalt straight at the Demon.

  Along with the sewage, I forced the water geyser at the Demon, too. and both drove into the
Demon’s face so hard they pinned the Demon against a building. Water and sewage filled the Demon’s orifices, while at the same time they pounded the Demon’s head against the wall.

  I didn’t know how long I could hold it there.

  Still pinned beneath bars of the scaffolding, I stretched out my left hand, my fingers trying to grasp the hilt of my dagger. Its blade glinted in the light and I focused my air power to bring it to my hand.

  Goddess, but it drained so much energy from my body when I used any elements to such extremes.

  Yet I had to use more. Before the gymnast Demon broke free of the hold I had on it with my water powers, I had to get out from under the scaffolding that had flattened me.

  I closed my eyes and a rush of power rose through me from the earth. My head swam. Focus.

  Focus.

  The ground rumbled beneath my body Dry, hard-packed earth tore through the asphalt to either side of me.

  With my forced concentration, the power of the earth shoved the scaffolding off my body and pelted me with rocks, pebbles, and dirt.

  Almost at once the rumbling stopped and the dirt that had been in the air dropped back down to the asphalt. The scaffolding was now tilted up enough to free me.

  Was I crushed? No, thank the Goddess. Only parts of my body had been hit by the scaffolding, and my Drow half was too strong to break easily. Yet my lungs hurt as I drew in breath and got to my feet. My leg ached like a steel rod had been rammed through my foot ail the way to my hip, but my leg wasn’t broken.

  The sharp pain in my shoulder caused me to wince as I clenched both daggers and headed for the Demon that was trying to escape my water trap. I pushed myself forward, limping as I walked toward the Demon.

  It flailed as it worked to get itself free of the water pounding against it, pinning it to the wall. Just as I reached the Demon, it slipped from my trap.

  The Demon was mine. With all of the force I had inside me I thrust my dagger so far into the Demon’s sac that it touched the back of its armored skull.

  I jerked my dagger out and the gymnast Demon dropped to the ground with a dull thud. I kicked it as hard as I could—then regretted it as pain shot through my foot from the impact against skin no blade could penetrate. I gritted my teeth.

  Prickles skittered across my back. I whirled, every muscle in my body prepared for an assault, then came up short.

  A little girl, maybe five years old and dressed all in pink, had a dazed and frightened look on her face. She had long blond curls, big blue eyes, and she was clutching a Barbie in her left hand and had her right thumb in her mouth.

  What was she doing here among the wrecked street, the shooting sewage and water, and the Demons’ bodies? My head was spinning from the elemental energies I’d used, and my body was weak from the battering it had taken. I couldn’t connect any dots.

  I blinked.

  The little girl’s frightened expression gave way to a sweet smile and she stepped closer “I lost my mommy” she said in a voice that was neither childish nor any other age I could define.

  The urge to pick her up and carry her out of this mess overwhelmed me. I reached out my arms—

  Just as her hands turned into claws.

  Her face morphed and she widened her jaws, her mouth now filled with spiked teeth.

  I stumbled back. A Demon? Dear Goddess.

  The child-Demon flung her Barbie aside and rushed toward me.

  My mind couldn’t compute. My hands wouldn’t work to dispatch the child-Demon with one of my daggers.

  A flash and someone jerked the child-Demon back by its neck a second before its claws would have dug into my skin. I snapped my head up and watched T hold the Demon under its chin and ram a knife up into its throat.

  Horror at the sight of T thrusting a knife into a child’s throat rushed through me even as blue fluid splattered the alleyway.

  Not a child. A Demon.

  T released its body and it slumped to the ground, looking like a murdered child.

  More bile rose in my throat and I turned away.

  I stumbled away, blocking the image of the child from my mind.

  No. A Demon. Not a real child.

  Dizziness from using additional elemental energy, as well as all my injuries, had me feeling like I’d just been well blended on high speed. I couldn’t look at T as I did what I had to do next.

  Despite the incredible drain on my body, I still managed to cut the water and sewage off by using air to repair the holes in the pipes by bending the pieces back into shape. A little static from the air gave me just enough power to meld the metal together as I did it. I was soaked with sewage and Demon blood. And I didn’t give a Goddessdamn about it.

  All was quiet except for the now familiar sound of T’s boot steps as he came closer toward me.

  We had destroyed the Demons.

  I saw in my mind’s eye the pretty little girl in pink, looking up at me with innocent eyes.

  A Demon playing the part of a child. A Demon that would have killed me if it wasn’t for T.

  I closed my eyes and tried to center myself. Let my senses come back into focus.

  Everything that went through my head in those moments was to help me fight the images still imprisoned in my mind. I didn’t want to see Caprice’s mutilated body, or hear the echoes of her screams that had met my ears even when I was far away.

  My wet hair slid over my face as I bowed my head. I had failed my friend.

  Caprice was gone.

  CHAPTER 14

  Everything that happened next was like being on a carousel that was spinning out of control, a total blur.

  I remember draining myself of the last of my elemental energies as I sent Caprice’s remains deep below the asphalt to await a fitting good-bye.

  I remember T raising his hand and shooting black and orange fire at every Demon body and incinerating them.

  I remember staring at the ashes of what had been the child-Demon and asking T why he couldn’t have burned them to nothing before we killed them.

  I remember his response, that the sac of blue fluid that kept them alive protected them from fire magic.

  I remember T wiping the memories of the several humans who had gathered around us that I hadn’t noticed before.

  I remember sirens in the distance.

  Then nothing. I remember nothing that happened after that, or how we made it to the Pit and Rodán’s office.

  My head swam as I found myself sitting in front of Rodán’s desk. His mouth was moving. He was saying something, but I didn’t understand his words. I couldn’t make sense of anything.

  I was numb. Everywhere.

  Thoughts of Caprice’s death sent blow after blow to my chest. My belly churned and the room’s dim lights blurred. What would it be like, not having Caprice around to laugh with? To talk to?

  Empty. Sad.

  Anu, I thought to the Goddess, please guide Caprice to her ancestors and their ancestors, and allow her to live in peace and joy.

  A whisper of a song flowed through me and, inside Rodán’s office. Something like a breeze raised my hair from my shoulders. I shivered at the thought that it might be Anu herself answering me.

  Caprice had so easily slipped into my life and had become a precious friend. When I first came to New York City I hadn’t even known what it was like to have a friend, besides my mother, until Caprice and Nadia, and then, eventually Olivia.

  “Nyx,” Rodán said quietly, his words penetrating the fog in my mind. “Caprice’s death was faster than you think. She didn’t suffer.”

  “Don’t try that with me.” My words came out harsh, angry, and I felt the flash of white fire in my eyes. “It’s disrespectful to Caprice. She was eaten alive.”

  “Caprice had a special gift,” Rodán said, his tone still serious. “That gift was to block pain. It made her so strong it would have been impossible to torture her if she had been taken and interrogated.”

  “No.” I stared at the earthen walls of his
office, my gaze trailing the purple leaves winding through the moss. “I felt her pain. I heard her screams.”

  “Only in her very last moment.” Rodán’s voice was soft, gentle. “For that fraction of time she no longer had control.”

  “Bullshit.” I flung my words like a lash as I turned my head toward him, and my focus was finally clear. “It was more than a fraction.”

  Rodán looked at me for a long moment and I wanted to come out of my chair and kill something.

  More Demons. Every Demon.

  It was then that I realized T was sitting in the chair next to mine. And I remembered the child-

  Demon.

  I turned my attention to T, and my throat felt dry, scratchy as I spoke to him. “It almost killed me. That Demon that looked like a little girl.”

  He met my gaze, his eyes like gray flint. “You let yourself be caught off guard.” His voice was coarse and harsh. “Never take anything at face value, especially in the middle of a battlefield.”

  His words and the tone of his voice were like a slap, and I jerked my head back. I wanted to scream at him. Better yet, decapitate him.

  But he was right. And he had saved my life.

  My throat worked as I swallowed down the urge to say anything and I looked away I should have thanked him, but everything was too raw and I might have screamed at him instead.

  “Would you like a hot cup of nanath?” Rodán said to me as I brought my attention to him. “The tea will soothe you.”

  At the suggestion my body tensed even more than it already had been. “I don’t want to be soothed.”

  I brushed my hands up and down my arms, feeling a chill that didn’t have anything to do with the cool temperature of the room. “Caprice is dead. Why should 1 allow myself to feel any release from pain after the pain she endured at the end?”

  “Caprice has moved on to Summerland.” Rodán’s expression was unreadable. “She feels only peace and joy now that she’s with her ancestors.”

  I bowed my head. It was true that Caprice would live on in another plane of existence. “But what she went through—”

  Rodán stood and brought his chair closer to me, then sat, and his knees pressed against mine. He took my hands in his so that I was no longer rubbing my arms. His palms were warm, and somehow that warmth traveled through my body. Some kind of Elvin magic, I was certain.