Savannah spread her legs a little wider and squared her shoulders. “Really? You don’t think so? Then you’re either suicidal or delusional. Never fuck with an all-powerful—”
Azi laughed again, this time louder. “All-powerful?” It sucked in a deep breath. “You’re barely able to conjure a simple curse.”
She blinked, and some of the fierceness drained from her expression. “You’re wr—”
Jax’s arm lashed out, grabbed the witch by a handful of her shirt, and yanked her downward just seconds before a carnivus soared over their heads. She screamed in surprise and struggled against his hold until she caught sight of her new guest. That’s when I understood what the demon had meant by too late.
They’d found us.
The beast landed between Azi and me. With a single snap of its imposing jaws in my direction, it pivoted and charged the other way, directly at Savannah. Azi let out a guttural growl and hefted the girl roughly from the line of fire. She stumbled across the floor and crashed into the small end table just as the carnivus touched down at the demon’s feet.
As Azi tangled with the thing, I raced for Savannah. “You have to listen to me.” I dragged her off the floor. She wasn’t looking at me, her attention glued to the colossal dog-like creature trying to gnaw on Jax’s body a few feet away. I snapped my fingers in front of her face. “Focus!”
“What the hell is that?” Her voice wobbled.
“That’s something that would love nothing more than to use your bones as chew toys. That’s why we’re here. We’re trying to help you.”
That time she looked at me, and her expression morphed from terrified to suspicious. “Help me against what?”
“You and I are kind of in the same boat right now. Hell is itching—”
“Samantha Merrick!” The carnivus that had attacked Azi moments ago was down, but it was no longer the only uninvited guest at this little party. The Tracker—or, rather, Trackers since there were now two—had appeared in the doorway. They took a step forward, into the room, eyes trained on the witch. Azi positioned Jax’s body between them and us and roared, “Get out!”
Savannah cursed. “More? There are more of those things?” Before I realized what she was doing, before I could stop her, she stepped around me and extended both arms. Something like static electricity filled the air, and a burst of light erupted from the tips of her fingers, a trail of it seamlessly skating around Jax’s body and zeroing in on each Tracker. The moment the light touched them, they collapsed, like someone had flipped their off switch and shut them down.
“Stupid human!” Azi roared so loud that the walls quaked. “What have you done?”
“Took care of the problem—feel free to thank me now.”
The demon reached out and, glaring at the girl, dragged me away from her. “You can’t kill a Tracker like that. All you’ve succeeded in doing is pissing it off and multiplying our troubles.”
The girl backed away a single step. Her gaze fell from us to the bodies of the two Trackers on the other side of the room. As we watched, their fingers began to twitch. “Did that thing—”
Azi snorted and grabbed the girl’s wrist. Watching in horror as the Tracker started to split down the middle, she allowed the demon to drag her to the doorway. “When you fail to kill a Tracker, it becomes two. Thanks to your carelessness, we now have four Trackers to contend with.”
Chapter Thirteen
Azirak/Jax
As soon as we made it out of the apartment building, the girl jerked out of Azi’s grip. The demon was furious about what she’d done to the Tracker. It’d been concerned about the carnivi tracking us down and getting in the way, but this was an entirely new level of bad. Now instead of two, we would have four on our asses. One was hard enough to deal with. “We need to leave this place quickly. Before they reassemble.”
The girl straightened and squared her shoulders, putting on an air of confidence that she couldn’t quite sell. “Good luck and all that, then.”
“You misunderstand,” Azi said. It moved my body to block her escape. “You’ll be coming with us.”
Why don’t you drag her to the car by her hair and stuff her in the trunk? Asshole. Let Sam handle this.
She looked from me to Sam, then back again. “That so?”
Azi wasn’t concerned. It was confidant she was coming with us—one way or another. “It is, witch.”
“I already told you,” Sam said, eying me with an obvious irritation that Azi found alluring, “we’re here to help.” She jabbed a finger at the building, then turned it on the girl. “Those things in there are literally from hell.”
Savannah slapped Sam’s hand away. “You have no idea what I’m capable of. Get in my way and you’ll find out.”