Everyone should be that smart.
The former charcoal outline on the alley floor was now a literal hole that looked like a cross between the opening of a volcano in Hawaii and the pits of Mordor in Lord of the Rings. It was a simmering, glowing cesspool, and I could feel the waves of heat coming off it from here.
Embers had started to eat away at the concrete, little chunks falling into the chasm below. But the weirdest part of it was that the thick lines from the ritual were still there, hovering in midair over the hellfire. They burned brightly, lit like barbeque coals, getting red hot briefly before settling back into an ashy gray. In the center of it all was the body of the captive victim. He appeared suspended, hovering over nothing, but the lines of the ritual circle kept him from falling into the pit below.
I had never seen anything like this.
I sat back from the edge of the building, gathering my thoughts. It was one thing to say you were going to close a portal to Hell, but that wasn’t th
e sort of activity that came with a handy how-to guide. To be honest, I hadn’t been sure what to expect, but I had been hoping I’d just need to smear their charcoal line with my toe and call it a night.
This was a lot more complicated than what I’d envisioned.
I sighed, steeling myself, and realized I had another major roadblock in my way before I even had to worry about the gate. I still needed to get back down to the alley.
Which meant, for the second time in two days, I had to fall off a building.
Hey, at least this time I’d be doing it to myself, rather than being tossed by Harold, but that was only the most minor relief, because at the Hotel Beverly I’d been able to fall into a pool. Here, it looked like the only thing available to break a twenty-foot fall was the open garbage can on the opposite side of the alley.
So, in order to save the world, I needed to jump off one roof, over the burning mouth of Hell, and into a stinky, festering, open garbage bin.
Best night ever, am I right?
I double-checked the safety on my rifle. The last thing I wanted to do was land wrong and accidentally shoot myself in the head. When I was sure I was as ready as could be anticipated, I took a deep breath and climbed up on the edge of the rooftop.
It was a good ten feet across, which would have been insane if I was hoping to jump from one roof to the other, but I just wanted to hit the garbage can, which meant a downwards trajectory was precisely what I needed.
I was hoping my moderate grasp on physics had thought this out the whole way through, otherwise I’d fall short and literally right into the open gate.
I’d seen The Rock do this a thousand times in movies, so it couldn’t be that hard.
“Fuck it, let’s go,” I announced to myself, forgetting everyone else could hear me thanks to the mic.
I confirmed the angle I needed then backed up about fifteen feet. I took a running start and vaulted myself off the edge of the roof, silently praying I hadn’t messed anything up.
I’d know for sure in about half a second.
I dropped directly into the garbage can, though my aim was off just enough that I smashed my shoulder hard on the metal lip of the bin, sending a searing pain through my body and making me bite out a swear.
“Echo, you okay?” Tyler asked quietly.
“Never better,” I replied through gritted teeth. It felt like my entire arm had been made of glass and was now shattered in ten million pieces. The same arm I’d broken about six months earlier in Bolivia and had needed some special Lily-branded aid to put back together quickly.
I didn’t think it was actually broken this time, but goddamn it sure hurt like a motherfucker.
Wasting no more time feeling sorry for myself, I climbed out of the bin and dropped onto solid ground. For the time being the two demons were still distracted by Harold and my team, but in the depths of the pit I could see shadows stirring, and a cacophony of voices that sounded like the dried wings of beetles was rising up to give me a serious case of the shudders.
I needed to work fast, or we would have way more than two demons on our hands, and two demons was more than enough trouble, thank you very much.
Skirting the outside of the ceremony circle, I was trying to assess my best approach when the poor guy lying in the center of the pentagram turned his head and looked me right in the eyes.
I froze, because I’d been absolutely certain he must have been bled out fully in order for the circle to open. But he was still alive, and judging by the expression on his face he wasn’t having a great time.
Fuck, I needed to get him out of there.
I placed a tentative foot on the burning ashy lines of the pentagram, and though it almost immediately started melting the rubber soles of my shoes, it somehow held my weight.
Just think of it like that thing where people run across hot coals to prove how tough they are.