“Oh, well, I appreciate the offer, but no thank you.” I nodded to one of the agents near me and jerked my head towards the victim on the ground. “Get him out of here,” I said quietly.
The guy seemed hesitant, because my request would take him out of the fight, but when I lifted my brows meaningfully, he hopped to action and dragged the injured man out of the alley. I waited until they were both gone and was about to speak to the demons again, when I saw something near my feet where the edge of the pit had been.
A small remote.
The kill switch for Harold’s collar must have fallen out of my pocket when I climbed out of the hole, and now it was sitting there, mere feet away, happily glinting at me in the moonlight as if to say, “Let’s do something dangerous.”
Yes, little remote. Let’s.
With the pit closed, the smoke in the alley had begun to lift into the night sky, and I was able get a much clearer view of the group on the other end of the passage. Tyler and his three men had their weapons trained on the demons, and Harold still hadn’t made a break for freedom. He was out of the path of any bullets if shooting started, but also looked poised and ready to fight.
The freedom from his collar meant he was bigger and more menacing than he’d been when we arrived, owing to the demonic ability to alter their form at will, or at least make themselves take up more room when they wanted to be scary.
See exhibits A and B clogging up the alley yelling at me.
I bent over and picked up the remote, holding it in my hand and jiggling it. The demons saw what I was up to, which I’d hoped they would.
“What is that?” Red asked.
/> “Command start for my car,” I replied. “Going to get the AC going so I can cool off when I’m done with you guys.”
The two demons looked at each other incredulously, then back to me. Belphegor chuckled. It was one of the worst sounds he’d made yet. Add demon laughter to the list of things I never wanted to hear again, right under Nickelback.
I glanced at Harold, hoping he understood what I was doing. He must have, because he was scanning the ground near the head of the alley, looking for where he dropped the collar.
The thing was big, and Lily had designed it to be used on any demon, so I had to hope it would be big enough to fit on one of these two. I’d have rather taken Belphegor down first, but size-wise it would be a much easier task for someone to get the collar attached to Red.
He was shorter.
Harold found the collar, lifting it over his head in silent triumph, his long claws making the gesture slightly unnerving, especially with his big pointy-toothed grin. I liked the guy, but I couldn’t forget the fact he was a demon, and demons were…well, they were scary.
Says the woman who spent her formative years killing vampires for a living.
“Sorry about kicking your friends out,” I said. “Thing is we’re full up on demons right now. It would be a health code violation if I let them in. You understand, don’t you?”
They did not look like they understood.
“You talk too much,” Red said.
“You are not the first person to mention that to me.”
“I will shut you up permanently.”
I grinned. “You aren’t the first one to say that either.”
Harold seemed to be assessing which of the two demons to take on, and I decided to help him narrow the options down.
I raised my rifle and took aim, silently praying I wasn’t about to risk everyone’s lives around me. Breathing through my nose, I disengaged the safety and pulled the trigger.
In full auto, the AK-47 unloaded about two dozen rounds into Red’s knees before I’d let up on the trigger. He was howling as he fell, and when he landed in a kneeling position, all of his substantial upper body weight put pressure down on the fresh wounds.
His agonizing bellows shook my soul to the point I thought I might never get the anguished, rage-filled shrieks out of my head. Harold didn’t think twice, which meant he was either immune to the noises or ignoring them for the better good.
The agents around me were all recoiling from the shrieks, and one had even lowered his weapon to cover his ears. Red saw an easy target and struck, slamming his huge fists into the man in a burst of blind rage. The agent crumpled to the sidewalk, unmoving.
Tyler, knowing it was pointless to avoid firing now, turned his weapon towards Belphegor and started emptying rounds into his knees as well. The remaining agents followed suit, aiming their weapons and spraying bullets at will.
The sound was terrible, endless, and unstoppable.