“Where's Jared?” I asked.
“Behind me. We don't have much time,” Claire explained, tearing the cloth around my wrists and feet with a flick of her finger.
“I'm on the floor, bleeding, and you save her first? I'm hurt,” Ryan said to Claire.
Claire freed him, and then lifted Ryan to his feet. She pushed back his head to inspect his wound, overly rough. “You'll live.”
Ryan winced. “Thanks, Honey, I love you, too.”
I walked over to the window, searching through the dark for Jared. “I thought you said he was behind you.”
Claire chomped on the large wad of gum in her mouth. “He had to calm down. When he sees that knot on your head and that hand print on your cheek, he's going to freak out all over again. Back up.”
I took a step back, and Bex appeared in the window, barely making an effort as he pulled himself through. “You smell like beer,” he grimaced.
“Nice to see you, too,” I frowned.
“Where's the safe?” Bex asked.
“Where is Jared?” I said with an impatient tone.
“Right here, Baby,” Jared said, crawling into the window behind Bex. “I'm right here.” I didn't wait for him to crawl all the way into the room before I grabbed him. After a few awkward maneuvers to stand while encapsulated in my arms, he kissed my forehead, and then inspected the remnants of my brush with Isaac. His jaws fluttered under his skin. “I'm going to enjoy killing him.”
“The safe!” Bex said, intent.
“Behind the desk,” I said, pulling Jared with me. “It's there,” I pointed.
“But,” Claire said, bending down to touch the wall. “It's just wall.”
Bex twitched, and then closed his eyes. “They're coming.”
Claire ran her hands over the drab paint. “I don't feel anything.” She knocked. “It doesn't sound like anything's back there.”
“Are you sure? Maybe we're in the wrong room?” Ryan said.
I looked around, seeing the same paintings on the wall. “No, I'm sure. I've seen this a million times; the safe is right there.”
Bex looked to Jared. “We have two minutes.”
Jared sighed. “Claire? Move.”
Claire obeyed, and Jared rammed the wall with his fist, pulling back broken sheet rock. Claire helped him, and within seconds, the entire panel was open, revealing the safe, three feet inside the wall.
Thousands of dust motes flurried in the air.
“That explains why you always saw them waist-deep in the wall,” Jared said.
Claire held up her hand. “Quiet.” She leaned her ear close to the safe, and then moved the dial back and forth, nodding intermittently. Within moments, the safe clicked open. Claire seemed stunned. “That was too easy. It's rigged with explosives or something.”
Jared shook his head. “I don't smell anything, do you?”
“No,” she said.
“Shax is notoriously pretentious, Claire,” Jared said. “I'm not surprised.”
She stood. “This whole thing is too easy. They take our bait, sit Ryan and Nina in the room with the safe, knowing we would come after them...and then leave?”
Bex pulled out the book. “Got it!”
“Make sure it's the real thing,” I said.
Bex flipped through the pages. “It's real, all right.”
Jared grabbed my hand. “They left because Shax is bringing his legions to end us, Claire. They wanted us to come here and give them a reason to take us all out. Heaven can't step in if we provoke them.”
Bex took a few steps toward the door, his head jerking in every direction. “Legions is right. I think the whole of Hell is coming. We should get them out. Now.”
“The roof!” I said. “They always used the roof!”
“Who did?” Ryan asked.
“We don’t want to repeat what Jack and Gabe did, Nina. That leads to the same end,” Claire said, looking out the window, planning an escape.
“Maybe not,” Jared said, looking up. “Maybe she had the dreams to show us how to get out.”
“Fine,” Claire said, grabbing the book from Bex.
Screeching from below echoed throughout the halls, turning my blood cold.
Ryan’s eyes darted in every direction. “Is that…?”
“Yes. Let’s go,” Claire said, shoving the book into her hot pink duffel bag. “Bex?”
Bex nodded, running across the room and diving out the window.
Ryan’s expression was a mixture of disgust and alarm. “It sounds like a dying animal…a thousand dying animals.”
Claire pulled her sidearm from its holster. “You should hear one when you send it back to Hell.” She gestured to me, “Show us the way, Nina.”
The howls and screams of Shax’s minions grew louder. Jared turned to me, cupping his hands on each side of my face.
“This is it, isn't it?” I said.