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.
Jared looked deep into my eyes, as if he wanted to pass the truth through them instead of just saying the words. But he said them, anyway. “I won't let them touch you.”
“I'm afraid,” I said, shaking. The fear was so intense I felt powerless to control my own body. As the screeching grew closer, it became a physical effort to avoid slipping into a flew blown panic. I looked to Ryan, then. “Remember what we talked about.”
Ryan nodded once. “I remember.”
I grabbed Jared’s hand and we fled, climbing the staircase, and then sprinting down the hall.
“This way!” I yelled. I stopped in front of a closed door at the end of the hallway. It was pointless to whisper, with the deafening shrieking of the demonic filling the air. I pulled on the knob, but it was locked. Jared moved me aside, and then landed a lethal blow with his foot. The door swung open, and hit the concrete wall, wooden pieces splintering and then falling to the ground.
“Come on,” he said, pulling me up the crumbling staircase.
On the roof, the wind mercilessly whipped all around us, and the night sky crowded even the brightest lights below.
Jared ran to the edge. “Which building?”
I lifted my chin in the right direction. “That one.”
Ryan frowned at Claire, unsure. “You’re going to jump the length of a football field?”
She smiled. “Yes. And you're coming with me.”
Ryan shook his head. “I’ll take the fire escape.”
I grabbed his coat, and then pushed him into Claire’s arms. “Thousands of those things are going to swarm this roof in about seven seconds. You won’t make it to the landing.”
Jared wrapped his arms around my waist, and then took three long strides, grunting when he leaped from the edge. My fingers locked around his neck. I didn’t dare look down, afraid the second I realized we were doing something impossible, his powers would fade, and we would fall five stories to the ground.
He made the same grunting noise to land as he did when we departed, but the landing was not as rough as I had anticipated.
I could hear Ryan’s yells somewhere between our building and Shax's. His voice grew louder as they approached, and when Claire's feet hit the ground just ten feet away, she let him go.
He fell to the ground, rolling onto his back. “Let’s never…
Claire grabbed his hand and yanked him to his feet. “Don’t be a baby,” she grinned, pulling him to the roof access.
After two flights of stairs my lungs begged for air, but the adrenaline surging through my body made my legs feel they could go on forever.
Jared stopped, looked above us, and not a second later, a loud crash sounded on the roof, followed by the sounds only demons on the hunt could make.
“We’re not going to make it,” Jared said, looking to me, and then to Claire. “Take Nina and Ryan out.”
“No!” I said, gripping his arm.
“There are too many, Jared!” Claire said. “Half of them will slip past you.”
They both looked to Ryan, and then Jared grabbed Ryan’s coat with both fists. “Get Nina out of here. Get her to the alley.” Ryan looked at Claire, and Jared jerked him again, demanding his full attention. “Get Nina out! We’ll hold them off.”
Jared pushed Ryan back, pulling two Glocks from their holsters. Claire threw the duffel bag to me. “Make sure he doesn’t get himself killed, all right?”
“Okay,” I said, tugging on Ryan’s coat.
We descended the stairs, leaving the Ryels behind. Ryan didn’t take his eyes off Claire until she was out of sight, and then he focused, taking two steps at a time.
The screeching grew louder, more excited, and then the gunfire began.
Ryan stopped, held his pistol to his chest, and then slammed his back to the wall. “Shit!”
“We can’t stay here! We have to go, Ryan. We have…to…go!” I pleaded, tugging on him with each word.
“I can’t leave her,” he said, looking up.
“The only way you can help her now is to stay alive!” I said, emphasizing each word.
He closed his eyes tight, and then grabbed my arm, pulling me down the last two flights of stairs.
“This is the door to the alley!” I said, pointing.
Ryan tugged on the handle a few times. When it wouldn't open, he aimed his gun, shooting a few rounds into the handle. I looked away, protecting my eyes from splinters flying in every direction.
