The Stars Never Rise

My heart dropped into my stomach.

There were thousands of ghost towns in the United States alone—entire communities wiped out nearly a century ago during the war. Most of the smaller ones had been completely swallowed by the demon horde right at the beginning, every single citizen either killed or possessed. Some towns had been razed, burned to the ground by the occupying horde or by the army fighting it.

Most of the towns that were still standing at the end of the war had been abandoned in favor of cities and larger towns, which had managed to build strong walls and post armed guards to keep out the remaining, roving degenerates. Now those “ghost towns” dotted the vast expanse of the badlands, in what used to be the heart of America.

There were four ghost towns within an hour of New Temperance by bus. We’d been to two of them—one razed, one standing abandoned—on school field trips, and they were beyond creepy. The only thing scarier than living in a town ruled by the Church would be living in a town not ruled—thus not protected—by the Church.

“Seriously?” My pulse raced and my legs ached to move. “You’re just going to abandon me in a ghost town?”

“No.” Reese smiled at me in the dark, and moonlight shone on his teeth. He had a friendly smile. “I’ll stay with you. You’ve only got eight or ten more hours of transition, and after that we’ll meet everyone else at home base.”

Finn took my hand. “Stash her if you want, but I’m staying with her.”

“Damn it, Finn,” Devi whispered. “You are not taking Maddock with you.”

“Wait. What’s the point of stashing me if we’re going to have to kill any degenerates that surround the place anyway? Can’t we just kill them now and not get followed anywhere?”

Devi’s brows rose, and she seemed to be reassessing me. “You up for that? Have you ever faced a degenerate?”

“Yeah.” I shrugged, and a can from my satchel poked my spine. “It didn’t go so well, but if anyone has a spare gun, I’m sure I can point and shoot.”

“No guns,” Reese whispered. “Even if the noise wasn’t a problem, you can’t shoot degenerates. Well, you can, but that only releases them to find a new host in our world. You have to exorcise demons to send them back to their world.”

Oh yeah. “Then why does Finn have a gun?”

“Because you can’t exorcise regular people.” Devi’s grim focus narrowed on me. “Answer the question. Are you ready for this?”

The brain-rattling squeal of stressed steel ripped through the night, a block over at the most, followed by a familiar screechy roar. That burning sensation in my legs flared, and my hands began to flex as if they wanted a weapon. “No choice,” I mumbled, and the three of them were instantly on alert. They headed for the east end of the alley at a jog, though no one had so much as pointed in that direction. I trailed behind, as close to Finn as I could get without stepping on his heels.

“How many?” he asked, and Reese cocked his head, moving silently on concrete even in heavy boots.

“Three within a block. Maybe three times that trailing behind, in the main wave.”

“I thought only exorcists in transition could feel degenerates.” I tugged my satchel strap higher on my shoulder and tried to make my feet as quiet as theirs, but my sneakers seemed to crunch on every loose bit of asphalt.

“He’s not sensing them.” Devi paused at the end of the alley to glance both ways. “He’s hearing them. Reese’s ears are like a cat’s.” When she saw no traffic—or demons—she waved for us to follow her across the dark street and into the next alley, where the stench of rotten food emanated from a restaurant’s trash bin. “I used to think he was brain damaged because he was always staring off into space, but it turns out he was just listening to stuff we can’t hear. Handy in moments like this. Not so much when you want privacy.”

Fascinated, I glanced up at him as we ran, which only made it harder for me to keep up. “Cat ears?”

A monstrous screech-roar rang out from behind us, bouncing off buildings and concrete, and my legs began to itch and burn again. Any early risers in the area would have heard that. Fortunately, the nearest neighborhood was more than half a mile away.

“Shouldn’t we move faster?” Our pace had slowed, and my body wanted to run.

“We want the ones in front to catch up with us so we can kill them. Then we’ll draw the rest to a location of our choosing. Someplace away from the residential areas where people might hear the commotion and call the cops.” Devi glanced at Finn without missing a step as she jogged. “There’s a junkyard on the north edge of town, about a mile from here. Industrial district. Should be pretty deserted this time of the morning.”