No. That wasn’t true.
She had expected a shipping container or a bus. Something large enough to carry a dozen demons comfortably. In that sense, she had guessed perfectly.
A bus rolled up to the edge of the plaza. One of the larger charter buses that would look more at home in Florida than around Brakket City despite the bold text on its side stating the name of the academy. Eva could see and sense a number of demons inside.
What she hadn’t expected was for the bus to look like something out of a junkyard. The sides were dented inwards as if someone had taken a shovel all up and down the length. The windows weren’t faring much better. Not a single one was unbroken. Most were missing entirely.
The top of the bus had been peeled back like the lid of a sardine can. Shards of metal, fiberglass, plastic, and whatever else went into the making of bus roofs all stuck out at odd angles. A portion was gone, but the rest looked as if it had been through a blender.
“I hope they have insurance.”
Eva glanced over to Irene and just shook her head.
“Probably best to sell it for scrap at this point.”
Despite the condition of the bus, none of the demons inside appeared alarmed in the slightest. Their heart rates were calm and their gazes around were cool and collected.
Most of them, anyway.
The poor driver—the only person on the bus with an elevated heart rate—was unable to open the door. Whatever mechanisms opened it had been damaged enough that there was only a slim crack. The first demon to the door just turned into a misty form and slipped through, reforming on the other side.
One demon objected to being forced through the small opening and took matters into his own hands. He tore the door from its hinges, tossing it out to the ground before stepping out of the bus as if nothing had happened.
Three demons elected not to take the door at all. One phased through a shattered window, gliding down to the ground. He solidified, brushing off some imagined dust from his shoulder as another used leathery wings to fly up and out of the bus. She landed with enough grace to make Eva think that she was a succubus of some type. Another demon hopped through the hole in the roof, following after the succubus and landing with a heavy thud against the ground.
At least she didn’t crack the bricks making up the ground when she landed. All the effort gone into restoring the dormitory and plaza area would have gone to waste.
As the rest of the demons filed out of the bus, Eva started to notice something.
Every single demon paused for a moment after getting out to stare at Eva. At first, she thought that they were merely looking in her direction. Idle curiosity at the group of humans and demons that had come to greet them.
She quickly decided that idle curiosity was not the reason for their stares.
They were staring at Eva and no one else. Not Ylva. Not even Arachne or Catherine.
Really, she should have expected as much given how Catherine, Qrycx, and Arachne acted around her. But it was still somewhat shocking to see.
And she didn’t quite know how to react to it. Should she go up and say hello? What would they say in response? Surely they wouldn’t try attacking her. If they did, Arachne would jump in without a doubt. Maybe Ylva and Catherine as well, though with how they left Daru out to hang while the demon hunters were around, Eva wasn’t too sure about them.
The last of the demons made it off the bus. They were quickly joined by Anderson, who gave a light pat on the shoulder of the bus driver before stepping through the doorway. He looked around, passing straight over the group of humans and demons as he searched the area. Whatever he was looking for, he didn’t find it. Which seemed to please him for some reason, if the smile he turned towards Eva was any indication.
Catherine stepped forwards first and Eva followed after. Arachne, Juliana, and Irene took a minute but followed along as well. Ylva stayed where she was, not moving forwards or away.
“Trouble on the way?” Catherine asked as soon as they were close enough.
“Demon hunters.” Anderson glanced back to the bus with a sorry sigh. Before Eva could ask who the demon hunters were, he responded as if he had known her question was coming. “A small group of four, not the same ones that attacked earlier in the summer.”
That was somewhat disappointing. Eva hadn’t seen any evidence that the two hunters were still around. If the female had even survived, that was. If she hadn’t, then perhaps the armored knight would run off.
Which, every passing day, was looking all the more likely.
Of course, Eva wasn’t letting her guard down. She had shown up to ruin Sawyer’s day completely unannounced and entirely successfully. The demon hunter might be planning the same.
“I take it you fended them off without issue?”
“They are dead. Though, I expect that they won’t be the last group to come after us in the coming months. How they found out about the bus schedule is a much more interesting question.”
