Trustless Shadows, CH 22 (Patreon)

Cline, the woman medic, and another woman I don’t know the name of take their aim off Claws and put it onto me. The other eight haven’t moved. Claws is growling at them.

“What’s going on?”

“They would not let me go help you,” Claws says.

“Why don’t you tell your pet demon to calm down?” the captain says, almost at the same time.

I rub my face. I am getting so tired of this. “We don’t have the time for this. We need to go kill Adam and put an end to his—”

“Not until you tell us where you ran off to. Went to tell him we were coming? Going to betray us again?” He takes a step toward me and Claws tries to get in front, only to be stopped by the soldiers.

He’s letting them stop him. He could cut a path through them if he wanted to, even as tired as he is. He’s being reasonable about all this. More so than the soldiers.

“Of course not. Why would I do that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Because you’re more them than human?”

“That doesn’t make any sense. I heard a demon so I went to take care of it.” I can’t look at Claws.

“On your own? Why didn’t you tell us? Looks like you could have used our help.”

“No.” Anger slips in my voice. “You couldn’t have.” I calm myself. “You’re too loud and too slow.” I see Claws out the corner of my eye, head canted. He can tell something’s not right. He knows.

I swallow hard. “Let’s just get moving before Adam goes on the offensive.”

“Not until I’m certain this isn’t a trap.”

“I went down, not up.”

“There’s an elevator down there—you said so.”

I sigh. “Why would I have told you about it if I was planning on using it?”

“Because that civilian also knew about it. She would have told us. You got ahead of it.”

I grit my teeth. “Well, I didn’t.”

“If you expect me to just move because you say it’s safe you’re mis—”

“I had to kill someone!”

The hall becomes silent.

“You killed a human?” Cline asks.

“Of course not. It was someone who mattered.” I force myself to meet Claws’s eyes. “I’m sorry, he didn’t give me a choice.”

His face doesn’t move, doesn’t change in any way as I approach him. The soul stone feels hot in my hand. I take his hand and put mine over it, the stone between them. I try to pull it away, but he’s holding it.

He knows who this is.

“It’s Runs the Forest,” I say. “I did what I could not to kill him, but he… He wouldn’t stop. It was him or me. I know you’re probably angry at me, you’re right to be, but can we wait until this is over?”

He turns our hands over and lets go.

I look at the stone, still in my hand, and I my heart sinks. “Claws, you have to take him. You have to send him on his way.”

“I’ll show you how, when this is over.” His voice is even. His face shows none of the emotions he has to be feeling. I can’t imagine the amount of control it takes him not to strike me. Not to strike down his son’s killer.

I put the stone in a pocket. I compose myself and turn. All the guns are now aimed at us.

“We’re heading to kill Adam. You guys can come or not. I’m past caring.”

“You’re not going anywhere. As far as I know, you’re going to bring all the demons in here down on us.”

“You can’t stop us.”

“Just watch us.”

“Enough!” Claws roars.

There’s the flash of a gunshot, and a window shatters somewhere behind us.

“Weapons down!” the captain yells. “Weapon’s down!”

Valerie’s voice comes in the following silence. “Are you people insane? I have injured people back here. I thought you’re supposed to be protecting them, not putting them at risk!”

I look at Claws while the soldiers look at the man with the smoking submachine gun. I don’t want to think of the damage he could have done if it had been set to auto-fire.

“What were my orders, Lewinsky?”

“Sir, he—”

“What were my orders?” the human growls.

Lewinsky swallows. “Not to fire until you give the order, Sir.”

“And did you hear me give that order?”

“No, Sir.”

“Then care to explain why you fired?”

“He was about to—I was defending us.”

The captain’s face is becoming redder.

“There is something wrong with him,” Claws says. “With all of you.”

The captain whirls on us. “We’re perfectly fine.”

I shake my head. There’s something about their scents.

“You smell sick.”

“I’m telling you, we’re fine. We’re just on edge. You two are the reason for that. I don’t trust you.”

“You think you can kill Adam by yourself?”

“You think I need you? You think I haven’t taken down enough things like you in my career? I swear, every time one of those scientists tell us they’ve finally made the perfect weapon to kill demons, it falls on my team to stop it.”

I want to ask what others like me he’s referring to, but Claws places a hand on my shoulder.

“How certain are you that you can kill Adam?”

“Entirely, so long as neither of you is there to betray us.”

“You will need—”

“No, I don’t need you. I don’t need a demon to help me, and I certainly don’t need something like that.” He points at me. “You two want to make yourselves useful? Protect the people here.” He glares at me. “That’s what you were made for, right?”

He turns and heads for the stairs. 

The only thing keeping me from running after him and smashing his head in the wall is Claws’s hand on my shoulder, and he’s gripping me tight enough I’d have to rip it out to go anywhere.

“I thought you wanted to be the one to kill Adam?” I hiss. 

“There’s something wrong with them.” 

“That’s pretty obvious. I can smell it too.”

“It’s affecting their minds.”

“So? What happened while I was down there? Why are you giving up on killing Adam?”

“Nothing happened. They threatened to kill me, but I did not kill them.” He walks toward the stairwell. “We need to hurry.”

I can hear gunfire above us.

I follow him in, but instead of heading up, he runs down. “Where are you going?”

“There is an elevator going to where Adam is.”

“Why don’t we just follow them?”

“I do not trust them to know me from the others of my people there, or care not to shoot you. Let them spend their anger while they distract Adam.”

I look up and try to catch up to him. I’m not fully healed. “You know elevators need power to work.”

“I seem to remember you being able to climb. Have you forgotten how?”

By the time I reach sub-ten, I hear him ripping the doors off the elevator. I reach it as he goes inside. The elevator cage’s ceiling comes down with one yank, and he disappears into the darkness above, his body heat evening up with the still air.

I have an easier time keeping up with him now. Neither of us can see much; everything is the same temperature, and the dark is absolute. 

The higher we go, the louder the sounds of gunfire, roars, and screams get. I’m surprised they aren’t all dead yet. It’s been a few minutes, and Adam has to have many demons there.

A flash of light timed with the gunfire comes from the open elevator door above us. Claws stays low, only his head in the opening. I join him.

With the gunfire, I see a mass of demons fighting the humans, but also more demons dead than I expected. Were there irradiated rounds in those weapons?

“Adam is in there,” Claws growls.

“Then let’s go get him.” I pull myself up, and I’m running at the demons’ backs, unfolding my sword. I cut, they scream, I push further in until demons are all around me. 

Demons don’t know how to fight in groups. I block a blow, redirect it so it stabs a demon instead of me. Claws said they only hunt in small numbers. I cut the legs out from under one, then dodge a strike that leaves a long gash in the one behind me. On their own they wouldn’t be fighting like this. Adam is forcing them.

Slash, block, dodge. Demons go down as I head closer to the gunfire. I can tell they’re separated in three groups. The one I’m heading for is the smallest one, one soldier, maybe two. They need the most help.

Pain accumulates throughout my body. A stab here, a slash there, but for every cut I get, two or three demons go down. It’s just not enough. It feels like Adam has every demon in this room, stepping over their dead without care.

A roar erupts, louder, and any others falter.

Leave, the roars orders. Claws’s roar.

The fighting slows as the demons seem to realize where they are. They are confused. Some step away, look around for the exits.

Through all that, the gunfire continues.

Then their eyes become vacant, and I feel the order too. Stay, fight, kill. It isn’t a roar, just an undercurrent, but it’s more effective than Claws’s. The fighting picks up again.

I make it to the soldier as a demon is about the stab him in the back. I cut the arm off, then the head.

“You,” the human says. Cline. “The captain ordered you to stay out of this.” The machine gun clicks empty, and another one is raised to his hands. There’s a second soldier at his feet, injured but not dead. She takes the empty gun and reloads it.

“I’m not a soldier.” I stay at the soldier’s back, cutting limbs and heads as they get close.

“You want a gun?” the woman asks. The medic.

“No thanks; I prefer my sword. Did either of you see Adam? He’s commanding them, forcing them to keep fighting regardless of the cost to them.”

“You think he’d still be alive if any of us knew where the bastard was?” Cline empties another clip and switches guns.

“He’s got to be somewhere with a vantage point,” the medic says, slamming a clip into the machine gun.

“What—” I’m tackled, and the demon at my side tries to dig his claws into me, but he’s on my right side. My skin’s covering most of that at the moment.

I roll on my back, shove him off me, catch sight of something red above, then scramble to my feet to avoid being buried under demons.

I cut left and right as I try to work out what I’d seen. A claw rakes my back. I wince and turn, then a head goes flying. It can’t be a demon; they don’t generate their own heat. Every demon here is the same temperature as their surroundings.

I stab something, pull the sword up, and cleave him in two. The only heat sources are the humans, and if that was one of them, there would be gunfire. As I slash the next demon, I notice my own hand and how it registers as red. Not as hot as the humans, but still warmer than anything else.

I glance up again.

“He’s in the rafters!” I yell as I cut the arm off a demon. “Someone shoot him!”

“I can’t see him!” Cline yells back. Still, I see the flash of bullets hitting the metal ceiling. Whoever is firing isn’t aiming anywhere close to Adam.

I have to focus on the demons around me, and when I look up again, Adam has moved. He’s heading away from the center toward one of the sides. Which one?

I cut a hand off, then an elbow. A claw leaves a gash in my arm before I cut the head off. I can’t tell where I am in relation to anything.

Still, one thing is clear: Adam is trying to get out of here.

“No you don’t,” I whisper as I run after him, cutting and pushing demons out of my way.