Age of Demons

Chapter 20 - Ashlyn

Detroit Safe House

I didn't get a chance to get a word in with Des. All too soon, Niko was bringing Des and me to Zamara. Now her—she intimidated me. I felt like I was pretending to be this person I wasn't. I wasn't heroic, I wasn't special.

We arrived at a room inside the asylum. A long table stretched in the middle, and five people encircled it. Zamara stood at the front. It reminded me of a conference room.

She appeared just as stoic and intimidating as the first time I had seen her.

"Ashlyn. Des. Good to see you both," she said.

A large window took up the whole back wall. Through it, the sun was sinking, sending out its last desperate rays of orange as the sky descended into dark purples. And just beyond the horizon were black smudges writhing. Demons. Not one. Not even three. But dozens upon dozens. They devoured the landscape.

I froze.

"I hope you don't freeze up like this every time you see a demon miles away." Zamara snapped me out of my focus.

I pointed out the window. "The demons... There's..." I trailed off as I forced my eyes away from the window to the people in the room.

"They're always there. But as you can see, they can't get in here. I'm sure your safe house had a similar design?"

I was gaping at her, struggling to form words to explain how startling all of this was.

"We had an electric fence," I said lamely.

"Ah, well ours is like that, except underground. Imagine an invisible fence you would have around your home for a dog. It's kind of like that, but much more advanced," she explained.

I was stumped. Did she not know that away from this area, demons were sparse but still a big threat? "We didn't have dozens trying to get in."

Zamara looked like she didn't believe me. "We'll discuss this later. For now, I want to introduce you two to the people you'll be working alongside."

This whole time, Des had been silent, quietly examining everyone in the room. What was he thinking?

"That's Corin over there." Zamara pointed to the guy nearest us, to my right. He was the tallest one. A hat was pulled over his long red hair, framing pale freckled skin. He waved. "He's got good eyes. Can spot one of the monsters before everyone else, so I advise to keep him close."

The guy next to Corin snickered. He was probably the shortest, but he was pretty buff.

"That's Kole," she said.

"With a K!" Kole exclaimed. I saw one of the girls rolling her eyes.

"Over there is Mara." Zamara pointed across the room to a tall, very skinny girl. She had her dark brown hair pulled into a braid. I recognized her—she was the guard who had escorted Ley and me to our room last night. She pursed her lips in response to her introduction. "She's the best shooter we have on the team."

"Next to her is Tia." Zamara indicated a much shorter girl, but just as thin, with pale features that contrasted with straight midnight hair.

"And that's Vince." Vince was poised with his arms crossed, muscles bulging. He was all dark features—black curly hair and dark eyes. He nodded at us.