Protect Her: Part 11 Read Free Page B

the last week,” Klein said. “But the number has spiked exponentially after each of the inciting events. I think it’s safe to say that he’s been collecting recruits practically since he started.”
    The idea that Riley was intentionally putting demons in human hosts was revolting. “He knows there is a mystery plague going around affecting demons. Implanting them in human hosts would ensure that they lived longer.”
    “What do we know of that?” Viho asked. He had been intrigued by the whole thing since the first time I had off-handedly mentioned it. He had me combing through every moment I had spent with Riley looking for clues as to where he had gone.
    The lights of Kansas City burned brightly ahead of us. We were only twenty minutes from Alice’s doorstep. It was a place where Alice had taken in lost and damaged souls and tried to help them over the years. I wondered if it would be safe for anyone there anymore.
    The change of topic was welcome. I didn’t want to focus on all of the bad things that Riley had been up to any more than I had to. “Not a lot. When Bruno captured me and was holding me prisoner, he said that I had special healing abilities. He had two of his best soldiers implanted in Gabrielle and Joanna. He was going to have me try to heal them.”
    “Let’s hold that thought for a bit. Focus on the virus.”
    “He didn’t call it a virus,” I said. “He said it was a plague that affected demons only. The first case was a few years ago. An otherwise healthy and normal demon dropped dead. It was in its natural form. They figured out pretty quickly that if they put their essence in a human host after the symptoms developed, the impact was significantly slowed. It’s not like there are doctors for demons, ya know. Bruno seemed as mystified as anyone else.”
    “So a disease that strikes demons was something that he thought an instrument of the light could heal. Intriguing,” Viho said.
    “I hadn’t thought about it that way,” I said.
    “Instrument of the light. That makes you sound like some kind of superhero,” Klein said. “I think I might write a book about all of this. I’d probably make a million dollars.”
    I knew that humor was Klein’s defense mechanism when he was scared or overwhelmed. I understood the feeling. But I couldn’t just escape into sarcasm and stand idly by as the world seemed to be collapsing around me. I needed to do something.
    “It’s time to examine everything we think we know and build it back up again,” Viho said. “The rules as we know them don’t seem to apply anymore. By all indications, you should have been dead forever, Paige. Riley banished Bruno Proctor to the ether, and yet apparently has been able to call him back into his service. Demons, a hearty and difficult foe to kill, are dying through a mysterious means that no one understands.”
    “If we don’t know the rules, it’s going to be pretty damn hard to play the game,” Klein said, stating the obvious.
    “We’re going to have to figure them out and fast,” I said. Now that we were in the city proper, it felt as if there were a thousand eyes on us. I didn’t see anyone in the streets. It was four o’clock in the morning, but there should have been some signs of life in the streets. “I feel like we’re being watched.”
    “No doubt we are,” Viho said. “Klein, perhaps you’d be good enough to select some of the more impactful weapons at our disposal.”
    “Do you think he’s here already?” I said tightly. This wasn’t even close to the kind of reunion that I had planned with Riley. I thought that we would find him alone and confused, not leading an army from Hell with Bruno Proctor at his side.
    “Even if he is not, I am certain that he has eyes and ears on the convent,” Viho said. “Which was another reason that I was reluctant to come here. On the off chance that he wasn’t headed here already, our presence will draw him out. That’s what your archangel is