Lincoln nodded. “Demons love blowing shit up. You’ll learn that. This area of the city is pretty deserted, so it’s considered somewhat safe, but ten miles out it’s still an active war zone.”

“People live out here?” I asked, horrified and suddenly super grateful for my cushy life at the academy.

He nodded, looking out into the wasteland of burned homes. “Most couldn’t afford to leave. Then Angel City erected the wall and started filling up. By the time they decided to join us, the demons had taken hold.”

Oh God. Are they trapped out there? I felt sick just thinking about it.

The bus pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned industrial building, the number four spray-painted on the side. It rose up four stories high, some windows were blown out and the roof looked ready to cave in.

“This is us. An old sewing factory. A big staircase splits the building in two. Tiffany’s team will take the left, and Brielle’s team will take the right. The demons were released in there about an hour ago, and are magically bound from exiting any of the doors or windows, so they’re going to be pretty pissed,” Lincoln stated.

Great.

The bus doors opened then, and Lincoln started to walk out.

I stood, looking down at my team. “Double-check your weapons, and make sure your suits are fully zipped up. We’re bound to encounter another Snakeroot demon.” They nodded, making sure their skin wasn’t exposed where it didn’t need to be.

Tiffany rolled her eyes. “Let’s go. Don’t screw up,” she barked at her lackeys.

Her three teammates jumped up and trailed after her, pushing past us as they went.

When Tiffany passed Luke, I saw him visibly flinch as his hands balled into fists.

“Don’t worry, she’s going to get her payback.” I whispered to him.

He took in a deep breath and nodded.

We all stood, and exited the bus as the rest of the Fallen Army soldiers trailed after us. They started to take up a perimeter around the house, pulling out their weapons, and looking up at the ominous building. I glanced up at one of the windows, and saw a shadow pass across it.

Lincoln threw a duffel bag at my feet, and another at Tiffany’s. “Headlamps, glow wands, and lanterns. The building has no power.”

Awesome. Fan-freaking-tabulous.

I knelt down and unzipped the bag, distributing the items to my team before I put on my headlamp, and then stuck two glow wands in my outer thigh pockets. I used a carabiner to hook one of the lanterns to my waist.

“Luke, beast out. I want to go in full power,” I instructed, and he nodded.

Lincoln looked at me with a slight grin. “Good call.”

“Thank you, sir.” I raised an eyebrow.

That only made him grin wider. God, he’s so gorgeous. Why won’t he deflower me already?

“Can we start now?” Tiffany asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Maybe I could hurt her during the training exercise, and make it look like an accident.

Lincoln scowled at her. “We’ll start when I say we start,” he snapped.

Each and every member of my team sported a gleaming smile at his words.

Tiffany’s mouth popped open in shock as she stared at Lincoln, then turned her back to him.

Lincoln clearly didn’t want anything to do with her, and she needed to learn that real quick. Their families might’ve been friends, but that’s where it stopped.

Luke walked around the other side of the bus to strip down and shift. I noticed Donnie, Chloe’s brother, break away from his place, near the front door where he’d been talking to another soldier.

“Good luck, sis,” he said, pulling her in for a side-arm hug. He was super good-looking, not the least bit feminine in demeanor, but Luke swore he was gay. I guess that would teach me to stereotype.

She smiled. “Thanks. Did Mom make you request to watch over me?” She put one hand on her hip.

He looked down at her with a wicked grin. “Of course.”

She chuckled, showcasing her fangs. “Well, we’re going to do great. We have a solid team.”

Just then, Luke padded out from behind the bus. His huge brown bear, with large black curled horns always had me awestruck and terrified simultaneously.

Donnie’s gaze swept Luke up and down. “Yes you do,” he agreed appraisingly.

Walking over to Luke, I fitted a headlamp around his horns.

“All set?” Lincoln asked me.

I nodded. Now or never. I was either about to become a member of the Fallen Army, a cocktail waitress at Chloe’s dad’s club, or… dead.

Lincoln barked an order at his team, who readied their weapons, and stood in a rigid stance, clearly ready to break into the building and save our asses at a moment’s notice. Then he walked over to the steel door and opened it. Only lurking darkness shone inside, which sent my stomach roiling.

Tiffany walked up to Lincoln, sashaying her hips, and he handed her a key. “Stay on the left side. Good luck, and don’t forget to use your button if needed.”

She grabbed the key and rolled her eyes. “Save your recovery team for Archie. We’ll be fine.” Then they started into the building.

Every time she opened her mouth, my hatred of her grew deeper and deeper, like a cavern.

I was next. With one last settling breath, I took the key from him, his fingers caressing mine. Looking up, I met his gaze and wished I could kiss him.

“Your wristband has a GPS tracker so—”

“We’ll be fine. See you soon.”

He nodded, pulling his hand back, but looking anything but convinced.

“Let’s do this,” I told my team, then walked into the dark opening.

A bunch of first-year students were about to take on four demons.

No big deal.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The moment we slipped the key into the door on the right side of the stairs, I smelled it. Sulfur and oil. Demons.

“Good luck, Archie,” Tiffany’s catty voice called from above me, as her team slipped in the door across the hall.

“Watch your back, bitch!” Shea spat venomously, Luke growling at her side. A big-ass scary-bear growl.

Tiffany’s face tightened in fear for a second, but then she slammed the door shut.

“Whoa, okay. Got the aggression going. I like it. Now let’s take it out on the four demons inside,” I said to Shea, then pushed open the door.

Luke was the first one in. He brushed past me, head down and horns ready to ram anything that got in his way. His spotlight spread out through the space, but I saw nothing but dusty half-broken sewing desks.

Chloe was in next, Shea beside her, and I brought up the rear, closing the door and locking it behind me. I didn’t want any of these suckers getting out and failing us. Magically locked or not, I wasn’t taking any chances.

I opened the carabiner at my waist and pulled the lamp out. Clicking it on, I rolled it into the middle of the room.

“There!” Chloe shouted as movement crawled along the far-right edge of the wall. The little bastard passed into the light, and I saw tiny bat-like wings for a split second.

“It’s a Yew demon!” I shouted, and then Chloe was off, like a hawk seeking prey as she cut through the room.

Yew demons spit fire. If you got them going, they wouldn’t stop until the whole place was up in flames. Their only weakness was that they were pretty much blind and super slow, going off sound.

Chloe was fast enough to distract him, zipping to his right. When he heard her coming, he spit a stream of fire into the air ten feet from where she’d been standing. He didn’t even sense her as she reached up and yanked him down by one wing. With a screech, he flapped madly as she pinned him to the ground. The little bastard spit fire onto the old hardwood floors but nothing alighted, and then Luke was there. Chloe maneuvered the Yew demon so Luke could take the small bat-like creature into his mouth. Then he shook his head vigorously until we heard the snapping of the demon’s neck.

I knew there were three more in the building, so I didn’t pay too much attention to the Yew demon. Luke and Chloe had him. Instead, I spun in a circle and scoped out the rest of the space. The front area was pretty open, and led to a main room full of sewing desks, but the back part, past Chloe and Luke, seemed to have an office and another stairwell.

Luke glanced up from his kill, and I walked over to pat his round rump. “Good boy,” I cooed.

He reached around, head-butting my leg, and I laughed. “Okay, okay. Sorry. Awesome job, you badass mutha.”

He hated being treated like a pet, but I wasn’t sure how else to talk to him in his animal form.

“Come on. I think this place is four stories high, so there’s probably one demon on each floor,” I said to everyone.

I grabbed the lantern, and we walked slowly to the back of the room where the office was. Pulling Sera from my boot, I peeked inside the office room. A quick scan told me it was empty.

“This is going to be easy-peasy,” Chloe announced as she started up the stairs.

“Don’t get cocky!” I shouted after her, running to catch up. “Hang back a second.” I placed a hand on her chest, and stepped in front of her.

The lower-level demons were Yew, Snakeroot, Larkspur, and Castor, the latter being more dangerous than the others. Though any one of them could kill us, burn our faces off or make our lives a living nightmare.

“You did a great job with the Yew demon, but let’s be cautious,” I urged. We’d reached the top of the steps, where there was an opening to another level.

She nodded, and let me take the lead into the room. I gripped Sera firmly in my right hand, then stepped inside.

The second I crossed the threshold, nausea rolled into me, making my mouth water as bile churned in my belly.

“Lark… spur,” I said between dry heaves as the rest of my team burst into the room, flashlights shining.

Larkspur demons made you physically ill while in their presence, weakening you the longer you stayed near them. Ten minutes in the room and I’d be puking my brains out, unable to do a damned thing to defend myself. I already felt the body aches setting in, like a really bad case of food poisoning, or the flu.