Jumping back down to the ground floor, she snapped the thug’s leg before he could move.
Eva surveyed the damage. Most everyone was moaning or screaming in pain. The guy with several broken ribs and a crushed wrist had actually managed to get back to his feet.
Eva shoved him to the ground and crushed a leg with a well placed stomp.
Her flames had died out on the man she had hit earlier. Despite being one of the least injured of the bunch, he wasn’t moving. He was lying still. Very still. Had she not been able to see his heartbeat and other minor movements, she might have thought he had died.
She left him be for the moment as she counted up the thugs.
Broken ribs, destroyed knee, fire guy, broken-arm-by-the-door guy, dead mage, handless guy.
Six including the mage.
Someone was missing.
“Oh leader,” Eva called out. “Where have you run off to?”
Given the fact that he had passed out right at the start of the fight, she had been expecting the least amount of trouble from him. Maybe the noise of the gun going off had woken him. Whatever the case, he couldn’t be allowed to escape.
Eva walked left. She walked right.
All, including her call, for show. For fun.
The leader had slipped away during her fight and had hidden himself behind the collapsed section of the walkway.
Eva tossed a few rocks in one direction while she tiptoed around the heap in the other. For a moment, she actually considered creating a blood-clone of herself to make the effect all the better, but that would have taken far too much effort.
Not to mention the disorienting effects that she still hadn’t overcome.
Instead, she just kept quiet as she sneaked up behind him.
“Guess who?” Eva said as she clasped her hands over the leader’s eyes.
He immediately started struggling and shouting.
“Struggle more and you might not have any eyes,” Eva said, voice hard. “Not a fun experience. Trust me. I know. How about you answer my questions instead, hmm? Doesn’t that sound far more pleasant?”
“W-what do you want?” he squealed.
“I
That calmed him back down. Slightly.
“Eddy? Shit–he helps us get into places. Helps fight rivals. That sort of shit.”
There had to be better magic-needing jobs than working for a small-time gang. It didn’t even sound like he led the gang. Eva had been calling this guy the leader just because he had been at the head of the group, but for all she knew, he was the leader.
“And what did they mean by ‘it’s one of them’ earlier?”
He didn’t immediately respond. Eva scratched one of her fingers across his forehead.
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” he screamed out. “Some people showed up a few months ago, investigating or some shit. Big guy in armor and a smaller woman. Talked to just about everyone in town, police, gangs, everyone. Wanted to know about all kinds of strange shit. Especially anyone that might have colored eyes–demons they called them. If it weren’t for Eddy, we would have laughed in their faces. He talked to them, not me. Ask him!”
“I see,” Eva said with a hum. Asking him wasn’t going to be possible at the moment. But the information wasn’t totally worthless. Someone looking for demons. Neither she nor Devon had been in the area for two years. Less depending on exactly how many months ago this was.
Were there other demons in the area that had drawn attention to themselves? Or someone following an old trail?
“Well,” Eva said, “can you think of anything else that might interest me?”
“Please, just let me go.”
“Aww, I’d love to.” Eva loosened her grip ever so slightly. “But then you might go kidnap some other poor girl. No. Best to take preventive measures.
“Besides, I still haven’t got what I originally came here for.”
Clean Up
Irene stood outside, enjoying the bright sun beating down on her skin. Brakket Academy just didn’t get enough sun. Doubly so given that the last two months had purple streaks in the sky. They were disturbing and unnatural.
Most of her time had been spent inside as much as possible.
As if that would save her from anything.
Shaking her head, Irene put thoughts of Brakket Academy out of her mind. She was back home in New York and a safe distance away from everything troubling.
Probably. Demons were involved. It was hard to tell if any distance was safe.
Irene slapped her cheeks. “Stop worrying,” she mumbled to herself.
It wasn’t like she was going back anytime soon. Normally, her parents wanted her and her sister out of the house and back at Brakket in time for the summer seminars. This summer would be different. The summer seminars were optional after all.
She would be keeping far away until the very day that school started.
“So, you going to tell me now?”
