Epilogue

Epilogue 2.21

---Em---

Lanky, Portly, and Muscled nearly have their eyes pop out of their heads when they see us making our way towards the lot with our kravlar demon captive in tow. Muscled swallows a big lump in his throat. Lanky dabs at the sweat on his forehead. Portly just stands there gawking at our blood-soaked, battle-ravaged bodies like an idiot.

Topher locks eyes with Portly, the veins in his forehead pulsing. He takes a deep breath and shakes his head. We're not going to have a problem-not now at least. He was surprisingly cool about the fact that we knocked him out and tossed him in a dumpster.

"Home sweet home," Ace mutters.

What a sick joke. We went through all that just to end up back here in crapsville. And we won't be leaving anytime soon, not with these self-destructing parasites doggy-paddling through our bloodstreams. The prospect of spending the rest of our destined-to-be-short lives here leaves a foul taste in my mouth. Gets me nostalgic for my zombie apocalypse days. I get a sharp pang in my chest when I remember how it felt. How it was almost worth it just to have Gail by my side. Funny how much a difference that makes.

I glance over at Rex, who's pissed off for no apparent reason. Like anyone needs a reason these days. It's all I can do to stop myself from asking him about Ganeden. Now's not the time. But soon. He's our ticket out of this place, assuming we ever make it out of here at all.

We push past the peanut gallery and march across the lot. We don't exactly get a warm reception. Maybe that's a bit of an understatement. We've barely taken our first few steps before Wates storms over to us, Liluye hurrying after him. Liluye ignores the rest of us and leaps into Ace's arms. He winces-still hasn't fully healed from his battle wounds. Comma's not in any shape to be giving blood, so we'll be recovering the natural way this time. The slow, painful, natural way.

"What do you think you're doing bringing a demon down here?" asks Wates. Not so cool, calm, and collected now, is he? I wonder what's eating him. He looks like hell-dark circles under his eyes, forehead drenched in sweat, skin sickly. You'd think he'd been bitten by a zombie or something.

"Hey!" Rex glares at Wates. "What makes you think I'm here against my own will?"

"You don't travel anywhere without your posse." Wates points at the crowd of survivors gathering outside of the subway cars. He looks at me. "Are you aware that this demon is responsible for killing the parents, siblings, friends, boyfriends, and girlfriends of just about every single member of my group?"

"We'll be gone before he can cause you any trouble," I say. I'm not sure where exactly we're going to go, but I'll be damned if I'm stuck here in this musty, stinking underground lot. "We're just here for Gail."

"Gail?" Wates rubs his eyes. "She's putting in extra hours at the lab."

"Lab?" This is the first I've heard of it. "What lab?"

"That's none of your business."

Comma and I exchange a look. We've been through hell and back-all of us-these past couple days. I'm not exactly eager to come to blows with Wates if we don't absolutely have to. Besides, the whole going up against supernatural entities routine made much more sense when I still had powers of my own. Now it's just me and my trusty severely-dented baseball bat.

Wates sucks in a mouthful of air. He shakes his head. "So what happened?"

"Dante flew the coop," Ace explains, still trapped in a Liluye bear hug. "Long story short, Dante's posse is dirt juice. Except for our pal Rex here."