Age of Demons

Chapter 16 - Leyla

Shivers raced up and down her skin. That place was far behind them, but she still couldn't quiet the apprehension fizzling inside her body like static electricity.

They were forced to stop. Warren was losing a lot of blood. He grasped his abdomen, blood pumping through the hole in his body.

She could taste metal on her tongue.

Malorie was trying to patch the wound. Des was barking that we needed to continue, get to the next safe house. Ashlyn was back with the living, her eyes empty. Ley had pestered her enough already, asking if she was okay, asking what had happened. Leyla was used to her panic attacks; she knew she had to give her some space. But they also didn't have a whole lot of time to digest everything that had happened. Leyla knew Ash held the encounter as her fault, something Ley wanted to vigorously shake out of her.

"How much farther?" she asked Des. At the sound of her voice, Carter looked over at her.

Des pursed his lips. "A day's walk." He shook his head. "We might be able to save him, but I don't..." he trailed off.

He'll bleed out.

She stared at Warren. His face was pale, a soggy sheet of paper. Sweat rolled down his temples as he wheezed and grunted in pain. From the wound, she couldn't tell if it hit anything major, but the blood trickled out continuously. Even if the bullet hadn't ruptured anything important, he would die bleeding out.

She found it almost ironic that as a scavenger, he hadn't been slain by demons, but by another human.

Malorie and Jace supported Warren, who grew paler. Pulling him along made them much slower. But she knew they couldn't leave him behind, not when there was a chance of his survival.

The sky morphed from a light blue to a deep purple. They had left behind the cluster of neighborhoods and now walked on a highway. Large buildings crowded around them, giant monsters from the past.

A couple cars littered the road. Potholes consumed the concrete like a contagion.

Leyla took in the trail of bright red blood that snaked behind them. It would be easy for anything to track them.

Ashlyn stayed behind her. She stared off to the side, at the towering buildings. Leyla didn't dare speak, afraid her voice would carry on the wind and be one more thing to send a signal to the predators.

But it seemed Carter didn't think that way.

He bumped her shoulder with his. "Hey, you okay?" he asked.

She sighed. "Yes, I'm fine. I can handle myself, Carter," she snapped. Sometimes, he handled her like a glass doll, close to breaking, and she hated it. She hated being seen as that. She wanted the opposite: to be like the scavengers, facing danger but never backing down.

He held up his hands in defense. "Hey, I'm just looking out for you."

She ignored him. She tried sharpening her focus to the landscape around them, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of ominous movement.

"I'm sorry, Ley. I've just missed you," Carter said. Ley's throat constricted, and she looked away, at the ruin of a civilization, instead of at the ruin that she created. Sometimes she hated how honest he was with her, how his voice still made her insides twist and her defenses lower.

"I..." She almost said I miss you too, but in a way, she would be lying. She loved him, she knew that, but their relationship was more than just a roller coaster: it was a roller coaster in a hurricane with no one there to stop the ride. "I know. I just can't get into this right now. Besides"—she observed Mal and Jace supporting Warren between them—"we have more pressing things to deal with right now."