Devon’s already dark countenance took a turn for the worse. “
“I don’t think he knows,” Eva said. Given how often he appeared out of nowhere knowing things, she quickly amended herself. “At least, I haven’t told him. And I don’t think that Zoe showed him the letter either.”
The letter that was a torn, crumpled mess back in the women’s ward.
Zoe, meeting Eva’s eyes, shook her head. “Unless Ylva or Juliana went to tell him.”
“That is a possibility. But if they didn’t,
Zoe glanced around the old sandstone buildings, looking over the wall of the prison and off into the distance towards the center of the complex. “Unless we’re already inside of a larger trap.”
Eva started, jumping slightly. Not so much at Zoe’s suspicion, though the idea that the trap had already been set was a worrying one, but at the loud scoff from Devon.
“If you’re thinking that there are some shackles around the prison, don’t. The strongest shackles will become worthless graffiti at the first mistake. Shackles large enough to ring in the prison would have many points of failure.”
“Not to mention the time setting up something so large would have taken,” Eva added. “Surely Devon, myself, the carnivean, or someone else would have noticed a few demon hunters running around outside.” Though she had been gone for a few days. Still, Devon wouldn’t have dropped the vigil quite so hard. “And no one has been inside the prison. My wards prove as much.”
Devon scoffed again, putting on a light sneer as he spoke. “Are these the same infallible wards that kept the nuns out?”
“They worked just fine until the nuns took them down. I would have noticed had someone taken them down again.” Glancing back to the plastic crate, Eva shook her head. “Speaking of, I need to get back to work.”
“Do we tell Zagan or not?”
“No,” Devon snapped. “He’s been here enough.”
“And he didn’t do a single thing against you,” Eva said. “I’d say tell him. But up to you I guess.”
Eva blinked away, straight to the next blood ward. She had no desire to get into yet another argument with Devon about Zagan. Especially not when half the prison was still unprotected from the secondary array.
After a few minutes of discussion between Zoe and Devon, Zoe teleported away. Probably to go find Zagan, though Ylva and Juliana were other possibilities.
Eva paid them no mind, watching Devon skulk back to his cell block as she rounded a corner. By the time she had finished traversing the perimeter of the prison, the sun had climbed the sky. Noon.
Still no sign of any demon hunters.
— — —
Martina Turner propped her elbows up on her desk and clasped her hands together just beneath her nose as she stared at the wall of her office.
She was not having a good day.
Most days weren’t good, these days. Tolerable was about the best that she could hope for. Days where nothing happened, where Governor Anderson held his tongue on any reports that he may have, where
Those last ones were the worst. People should mind their own business.
Of course, it hadn’t helped that she had personally had to chase away some of the journalists over the past week.
Catherine, her
Martina did not consider herself a slave driver in any sense of the phrase. Both her familiar and her contracted demons were free to go about whatever it was that they got up to in their spare time, so long as they did as she asked when she asked. Having Catherine just up and disappear for most of a week had Martina pulling hair from her head in large clumps.
Not literally, but the stress was there.
Just when she had reeled in the wayward succubus, the current situation sprung up.
Two of her security team murdered. Two demons missing.
Worse, the murders had not been behind closed doors. Not when both bodies had been lying out in the courtyard between the dormitory buildings in the early morning hours, ready for any students still around to wake up and spot them. It was a great deal more difficult to cover up public killings.
Two demon hunter related killings.
