Breed of Havoc (The Breed Chronicles #3) (25 page)

Tasha’s birthday was, surprisingly, more stressful. Chris hadn’t been allowed into New Orlando to take her out to dinner like he’d planned, so he felt guilty. She told him not to worry about it, but he felt bad all around because none of us had been into New Orlando since he’d been barred from going. (We’d all agreed not to go again until Chris could.) When that didn’t work, Linc mocked Chris and told him he’d definitely expect dinner for his birthday, which was a week after Tasha’s.

I didn’t know if it was Linc’s words that made Chris feel better or Tasha telling him they were even since she’d broken his arm, but he stopped looking so guilty after that. And I wasn’t sure how it happened, but we all ended up agreeing to some kind of double-date thing the first time Chris was allowed into New Orlando again (whenever that would be).

Two days after Linc’s birthday, Greene canceled my first Mentor Meeting of March because Linc and I had been scheduled for a priority C&C. At four in the afternoon, he sent us down to the Weapons Room. Adam and Dale were there waiting, along with a few other agents I’d seen around.

Standing at the middle console, Adam motioned us in and pointed to the screen in front of him. “This is where we’re going,” he said, jumping right in as we moved closer to him. “Residential area, not too heavily populated. Since it’s Sunday, it should be even quieter by the time we get there.”

“What demon or demons are we after?” I asked.

Adam grinned. “Apparently ones who should—we’re hoping—like you a little more than they’ll like us. Serptera demons.”

Linc glanced at me. “Was that the tentacle one?”

“No.” I shook my head. “That was the Octogator and its definitely on the Foe List since it tried strangling me. The Serptera, aka Batcoon, was the one that had bat wings.”

“Oh, yeah. The one that got the short end of the stick since it has wings but can’t fly.” He shot me a quick grin. “The one you said was cute.”

“I said they weren’t ugly. There’s a difference.” Though I probably had said they were cute—in a demony sort of way. They were related to the Sercoon, so they had the same big, monkey eyes.

He smirked. “Close enough.”

I kicked him in the shin and looked to Adam and Dale as Linc clutched his leg and hobbled up and down. “So, tell us what we’re doing before Linc makes the hunted list.”

After a quick laugh, Adam and Dale laid out the plan. Basically, it would be the same thing we’d done last Phase, except this hunt would be a little trickier. Not only were the demons in a residential area, they had made their nest inside a small church. The people discovered the demons were there when they growled, moaned, and trashed the attic (where they were living).

The other hunters went out to the van as Adam and Dale loaded us up with our weapons vests and gear. “You guys clear on the plan?”

“Don’t get dead,” Linc replied.

I nodded. “And don’t get anyone else dead.”

Dale, who’d given us those instructions, smiled approvingly.

“We’ll have more of a plan once we get there and recon the area.” Adam turned off the wall monitor as he talked. “The man who spotted the demons said they were too busy trashing the place to notice him. They were also too active to pin-point their location in the attic. He had to push the door open to get in, so it’s possible they’ve blocked it and we’ll lose the element of surprise.”

“Will we still go in?” I asked. Sometimes they canceled hunts once they were in play because they discovered something they hadn’t factored into their plan.

This time, it was Dale who spoke. “Yes. Churches are on the list of priority places, along with schools and homes. If we need it, we’ll call for backup. There’ll be a team nearby if we do.”

“You should be all we need.”

Frowning, Linc glanced at Adam, then me. “Is Jade bait?”

“Of course I’m not.” Was I? “Am I?”

“Not bait…exactly.” Adam’s cheeked flushed with color.

Dale chuckled. “We’re hoping the demons will scent you and be curious enough to come out and walk themselves into our trap.”

“I thought hunters didn’t ‘hope’ for things to happen?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Isn’t that an unwritten rule? Up there with ‘there’s no such thing as coincidence in the demon hunting world’?”

Adam’s blush deepened. Dale just shrugged and grinned. “You’d be right, normally. But now we’ve got ourselves a secret weapon. A demon—”

“If you call me a demon whisperer, my weapon isn’t going to be all that secret, but it will be used on you.” When Adam laughed, I glared at him. “And then it’ll be used on you, for giving me that stupid name.”

He cleared his throat. “So, we ready to go?”

Linc tried—and failed—to turn his laugh into a cough. “Ready here.”

“Ready.” I shot Linc a sidelong glance as the others moved out. “He’s lucky I don’t have any Knock-Out gloves this time, cause I’d’ve used them on him.”

“Better him than me.”

I grinned as the others chuckled in the hall. “They think I’m kidding.”

Linc laughed again. “C’mon,” he said, taking my hand and pulling me toward the door. “Let’s go hunt some demons. We’ll worry about hunting hunters tomorrow.”

“Deal.”

*~*~*

The ride out was long and bumpy, even with the pillow I’d bought for my head. (A pillow I was mean and didn’t share with anyone but Linc.) By the time we got to the church, the sun had completely set and the sky was dark.

We all jumped out of the back and stretched before checking our weapons vests and coms.

Adam sent the other two agents—Robinson and Martinez—to secure the area. He pointed to the church. “No one’s been inside since this afternoon when they found the demons, so we don’t know if any have come or gone.” He paused. “It’s not ideal intel, but these aren’t hunters who are trained to keep a lookout. They have a few cops patrolling the area, but if too many of them wait outside, people will start to talk and that would’ve caused panic.”

“And an escaping demon wouldn’t have?”

Adam shrugged. “They’re not prepared for this kind of job, Linc. The town’s the size of the CGE, for crying out loud. But the locals did set up a large perimeter around the general area and were prepared—mostly—to try to capture the demons if they left the church.”

The town was bigger than the CGE (barely) with two traffic lights and more four-way stop signs than I wanted to count. The police station was next to the post office, which was probably the bigger of the two buildings.

Dale made a sound. “We can’t rely on their intel, but we’ve got instincts and training instead. Use both.” Pulling out his tablet, he brought up a blueprint of the building. “We’ve got three exits: here, here, and here,” he said, indicating spots on the map. “There’s a window in the attic, but as you can see, it’s too small for demons—or us—to fit through. So, that leaves us with one simple plan. We’re going to set up a Pop ‘n Drop net. If things go according to the plan, we’ll trap and tranq the demons and be done in time for dinner.”

Adam pointed to the attic door. “That’s your job, Jade. We want you to put out the P&D net just outside the door, where the demons can get your scent. If there’s movement, you fall back. Linc, you’ll be here, behind me and Dale, keeping an eye out for any surprises, like other visitors showing up.”

“What happens if the demons stay inside?”

“If they don’t respond to you after a few minutes, we’ll send Adam outside and see if he can’t shoot something through the attic window. That ought to scare them out. We’re hoping it doesn’t come to that, though. A trapped demon is a vicious demon, and these ones have nowhere to go but down and straight through us.”

Adam double-checked his vest and pulled out a netting gun. He looked it over, then put it back in its place. “We’re first line of defense, you two are second.”

Dale fixed us with a hard look. “So run if we say run and jump if we say jump.”

Linc and I nodded.

Adam looked around the side of the van, toward the church where a few people waited. “The guy who found the demons already knew about them, so that works in our favor. He’s part of a Demon-Watch program in the area. A few of the others know, but for the most part, the rest are oblivious. They think it’s some homeless, drug addicts up there. That’s why we parked so close to the doors, so we can get the demons out unseen.”

“And what are we supposed to be?” Linc asked.

Dale smirked and flashed a badge. “Cops. You two are trainees here for a ride-along. The state police know what we’re doing and they’re keeping the locals out of the way. If anyone asks, they’ll cover for us.” He clapped one hand on my shoulder and the other on Linc’s. “You two good?”

“We’re good,” I answered for us when Linc nodded.

Dale and Adam moved ahead with Linc and I trailing behind. I studied the newish-looking church. It was white and small—two stories, or three if you counted the attic. There were only a few lights on that made the stained-glass windows shine with different colors. It was a little foggy, so the lights shone brighter and made the mist rainbow-colored.

A dog, or maybe a wolf, howled in the distance.

Picture perfect, with a side of eerie.
Even the moon was creepy looking, with clouds floating over it and a circle around it.

My stomach tightened and my palms went sweaty. On the drive here, I was fine. But as soon as a hunt started, the nervousness set in. Like now.

“Wonder if the priest—reverend, or whatever—knows about demons,” Linc whispered. “I mean, our kind of demons. Kind of ironic, don’t you think?”

Dale opened the door and went inside first, followed by Adam. They did a quick sweep of the first floor, and then Adam motioned us inside. He shook his head at Linc. “And to answer your question, yes the priest knows about demons.”

“Think he’d want to try an—”

“No, he didn’t try an exorcism.”

“You watch too many movies,” I said quietly.

“This way,” Dale said, leading us to the back of the church, between the pews.

They did another quick scan of the area. “Weapons out, coms on,” Adam said. As we did what he asked, he added, “Jade, normally we’d check the floor first but these things have a great sense of smell. If they smell us first, they might try to escape. We want you to go up and set the trap.” He held up a three-inch wide bar, and when I tried to reach for it, pulled it away. His eyes were hard. “Without getting yourself killed.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“This is a Pop ‘n Drop net.”

We’d trained with nets before, but not that kind. I’d never seen one before today. “What do I do with it?”

Instead of Adam or Dale answering, Linc did. “Just press this button—” He pointed to a red latch on the side. “—to activate it, then toss it to the ceiling and it’ll attach by itself.”

That sounded easy enough. “How do I spring it?”

“We can use it remotely.”

Adam and Dale stared at him.

“What? I hang out with Charlie sometimes and he shows me some of his inventions.” Linc shrugged. “He’s been working on this one for a year.”

Charlie Monroe—Tasha’s dad—was the head of Research and Development for the CGE. Linc liked to rub it in that he got to see the future CGE weapons before I did (the jerk), and I hadn’t even met him yet. When Linc’d told me Charlie was the head of R&D, he’d neglected to mention Charlie was the head of R&D for
all
the CGEs in Florida. He didn’t spend much time here because of that, and he only came back some weekends to visit Tasha. Somehow, I’d always missed meeting him.

I shot Linc a quick smile as I took the Pop ‘n Drop from Adam. “And you call me a nerd.”

Dale and Adam both grinned before their expressions sobered. “You ready, Jade?” Adam asked.

I took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “Yup.”

I could do this, couldn’t I? It wasn’t like I was going after the demons alone. I was only getting a trap ready for them, and then I’d just wait for them to fall into it. Batcoons weren’t too aggressive, so it was little risk, I hoped. If Dr. Cherry’s theory was right, they would be fine around me, like the ones she’d tested from the facility.

If her theory was right, they wouldn’t try to eat me.

If.

Why that bugged me now, I couldn’t say. I’d been the one telling her to add demons to the Friend List, hadn’t I been? So why was I now questioning her theories? Why was I worried she was wrong? Why—

“Um, Jade?”

I turned around and found everyone watching me intently. “What?”

Adam’s eyebrows were drawn together. “You okay to do this?”

“Going. Just…listening for sounds,” I lied quickly. And then I did listen for sounds. Thankfully—or maybe unthankfully?—I didn’t hear any that seemed out of the ordinary.

“Stay safe, Hall,” Linc said.

Wordlessly, I nodded and started up the stairs. My footsteps seemed louder than anything, even though I knew they weren’t. Even though I knew I was being as quiet as possible. I kept my breathing steady, my pace slow, and my ears strained for anything abnormal. Other than my quiet-but-not-so-quiet footsteps, I heard nothing.

No one had turned on any lights on the second floor, so it was nearly pitch black with only a small amount of light from the first floor. I paused on the stairs long enough to give my eyes time to adjust.

The attic door was only a few feet away. The string for the ladder dangled from the ceiling. Holding my breath, I took a few steps forward. Above me, the floor creaked. I stopped, still holding my breath, and silently hoped the demons stayed where they were long enough for me to—

The ladder dropped down, narrowly avoiding my head. Four orange eyes stared down at me. I blinked at them, trying not to let my not-so-sudden fear show.

Put the bar up and move. It’s three steps.
I raised the hand with the Pop ‘n Drop and pressed the button. Metal bars unfolded from it, looking like an oblong, upside down mechanical spider. The demons, still watching me, growled.

I might’ve been on their friend list, but even friends attacked if you pissed them off, didn’t they?

Not happening,
I thought. Slowly, I set the Pop ‘n Drop on the ground and kicked it behind me. It clattered down the stairs. The demons stopped growling almost immediately.