A Den of Tricks (A Shade of Vampire #54)

Cold water splashed us from behind, but given that we were using the original invisibility spell, it didn’t do anything other than confuse the daemon that had tried to reveal us. I understood then what was happening, even though I had no way to explain how: they knew we were here. They had known we would be coming. Us being here, right up to this moment, had been part of Shaytan’s plan. I could see it on his face—the tremendous satisfaction of having drawn us out.

“We need to get out of here. Now,” Jax said.

The daemons created a circle around us, the crowd tightening as they drew closer, baring their fangs and claws and preparing to attack.

“Well, that’s strange… What sort of spell are you using, little mice?” King Shaytan growled, keeping his eyes on us through the red garnet, then barked orders at his soldiers and the daemons surrounding us. “Use the lenses and capture them alive!”

Some of the fiends took out round, red lenses, and brought them up to their eyes to see us through them. Oh, crap!

They started pointing at us, sneering as the rest of the crowd got riled up, scrambling for dirt and even drawing blood from their palms to smear and reveal us—at least partially. They came at us all at once. The tighter the space around us, the harder it was going to be to get out of here in one piece.

“Split up—we’ll meet at the top! Blaze, you know what to do!” Jax breathed.

Caspian pulled me after him as we darted out of the mass of daemons closing in on us. We dodged their attempts to reveal us with mud and blood, and ran as fast as we could. The fiends were spry, though, and stayed hot on our tails, as the ones with the red lenses kept shouting and pointing at us.

“The columns! They’re running past the columns! There!” I heard one screech, as the crowd spilled into the streets.

All we had to do was hold on and not get caught, until Blaze could get to the top of the tower and douse them all in deadly fire. We took a sharp left turn, and the daemons tumbled down the alley after us, snarling and laughing maniacally—as if they were on a fun hunt of sorts. It sent shivers down my spine, but it also riled me up.

I shot out several pulse barriers over my shoulder, enough to knock them back a couple of feet. They were fast, but they had their limits, and this sentry ability of mine was one of the few effective defense mechanisms that I could rely on. It helped put a dozen more feet between us, but they kept chasing us through the city.

“This is a coordinated effort,” I muttered as we turned right. “They know exactly what they’re doing here!”

“We can analyze this later,” Caspian cut me off, and jerked my hand.

I ran ahead, prompting him to pull me back and slip us through the crevice between two black stone buildings on the left, before the daemons turned right after us. It was his good use of that split second that got us out of their way. His quick thinking kept us hidden in that nook, while the hordes of daemons kept running forward, roaring as they searched for us.

Those red lenses must’ve only served to see invisible creatures directly. They didn’t allow them to see through the walls—otherwise they would’ve captured us already.

Caspian pushed ahead through the crevice, and I held onto him until we reached the opposite end. We ended up in a narrow little alley, with tall buildings and dozens of side streets extending both left and right. We moved through the maze of black stone giants, catching glimpses of daemons, commoners, hunters, and soldiers alike, roaming through the neighboring alleys as they searched for us.

We turned left again and found a small covered terrace, bordered by a half-wall. The crowd was moving farther from our location, but it still seemed like a good idea to duck and take cover on that terrace. We had some waiting to do before Blaze got to his vantage point.

“We’ll wait here for Blaze to do his thing,” I murmured, pulling my knees up to my chest and supporting my back against the half-wall.

Caspian pulled me close, our hearts thundering in our chests as the gravity of what was coming next finally sank in. The fate of our team… our survival was largely in Blaze’s hands. Our invisibility spell was going to wear off soon and, worst of all, it didn’t fully protect us from the daemons, given those damned red lenses.

A dozen scenarios played themselves in a loop inside my head, all at once. Few led to my survival, and that made my blood freeze. Caspian’s grip on my shoulders tightened.

“We’ll get through this,” he whispered in my ear.

The dread clawing through my stomach said otherwise.





Hansa





We shot through the tightening crowd toward the east side. I held onto Jax as he guided me toward a wide alley leading away from the square. We avoided spurts of blood and muddied hands—the daemons were trying to mark us, while those with red lenses kept pointing at us, directing the others after us.

We drew our swords and slashed our way out of the last dozen square feet of fiends trying to get between us and our exit, then kicked and elbowed left and right until we made it out of the crowd. Several bodies dropped behind us, causing a stampede as they all rushed after us.

Jax and I ran fast, our feet barely touching the ground. Hunters and soldiers were hot on our trail, along with those wretched red lens holders. It took several sharp turns to put some distance between us and our pursuers, but we eventually made it out of their sight when Jax pulled me into a dark alley.

There was an abandoned cart there, right next to what looked like a cellar door. I looked around the corner, seeing the daemons getting closer—the ones with lenses led the way, scanning the area. They were less than fifty yards from us, and approaching fast.

“What do we—” My voice trailed off. I watched Jax as he pulled the cart in front of the cellar door. “What are you doing?”

“Down here,” Jax replied, then opened the cellar door.

Without a second thought, I jumped in, followed by Jax. He pulled it shut, and darkness enveloped us. We kept close to each other. It was a small space, with barely enough room to lie down, but it would do for the time being.

The ground above thundered, but we seemed to be safe down here. I heard the crowd of daemons rumbling nearby, but the cart that Jax had moved had successfully obscured our little escape hatch. They moved farther down the road, shouting orders to spread out and find us.

My heart was beating so fast, my lungs were having a hard time keeping up.

“How… How did this happen?” I murmured, the adrenaline still making my arms and legs shake. That had been a ridiculously close call, and we weren’t even out of the woods yet. We only had a few minutes before Blaze got to the top of that tower and burned the entire area down. Only a few minutes to process what had just happened. “How did he know? How did the king know that we were there? I mean, it was a big crowd. I get that the red garnet allows him to see invisible creatures, but… how did he know we were there? Was this planned, Jax? Were we expected?”

“I don’t know, Hansa, but it’s clear that the daemons know more about us than we thought,” he replied, his voice low and raspy as he caught his breath.

“Blaze needs to come through on this one, otherwise we’re screwed…” I managed, my knees getting weak.