Route 666, page 1
part #5 of Imp World: California Demon Series
Route 666
California Demon
Book Five
Debra Dunbar
Copyright © 2022 by Debra Dunbar
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
28. Chapter 28
29. Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Debra Dunbar
Chapter 1
Five days after the massacre, LA burned.
Since we didn’t have a bat signal, Juke had been calling me every time they got a 911 call involving demon attacks, and Bishop would teleport us to the scene. But even with Juke running triage and only sending us to the worst of the attacks, there were too many for the two of us to handle. We couldn’t go on like this.
My phone rang. I knew who it was even before I looked at the screen.
“We’ve got a situation downtown,” Juke said, her voice somber.
I ignored Bishop’s raised eyebrows, and immediately went to the giant bank of windows at the back of my living room so I could look down at the city.
The downtown area glowed red, fires clearly visible even from this distance.
“What’s going on?” I asked, as if I didn’t know.
This was the new normal in LA. Bands of demons attacked neighborhoods, looting, murdering, and stealing. The rich had abandoned their homes, knowing that even their hired security and purchased magic wouldn’t protect them from the violence. The middle class had fled, driving to the border and bribing their way across. The poor were trying to escape, loading up any vehicle they could with their belongings and begging an unsympathetic U.S. for asylum.
I’d pleaded with Bea to leave with the girls, but she’d refused. She had her house, still had a job, and knew as well as I did what their chances would be at the border. Nevarra and Sadie could be taken away, placed with some foster family across the continent with Bea in detention awaiting her hearing. I understood her decision, but I still fretted about their safety.
“Groups of demons have attacked downtown,” Juke told me. “They’re bombing and burning buildings. Little Tokyo is rubble. The Fashion District is burning. Everything is either bombed, burning, or being looted.”
I caught my breath. It wasn’t just the loss of some amazing art and cultural centers that worried me. Skid Row was downtown, and that’s where the poor and disadvantaged were along with the missions that served that community.
“We’re evacuating,” Juke continued. “Getting people moved to the arts district where we’ve got transport. The demons are slaughtering any human they find—slaughtering or taking them.”
“Where do you need us?” I asked.
“Seaton and Palmetto at the Wisdome,” Juke told me.
The Wisdome was an events center that I’d driven by but never actually been to. I assured Juke I was on my way, then turned to Bishop.
Guilt swept through me in a wave. And it wasn’t the first time this week I’d felt that emotion. This wasn’t Bishop’s fight. If it weren’t for me, he’d be up at his bar or his house. He’d had a deal with the demons—until he’d broken that deal for me.
“Teleport me downtown?” I asked as I disconnected the call. He’d come to stand beside me, looking out the windows at the fires. I knew he’d heard both sides of the phone call. “You can sit this one out. It’s just evacuation security.”
Bishop shook his head. “I’m going to fight by your side. I’m not teleporting you into a war zone full of demons and leaving you there.”
He’d been by my side throughout this whole mess. As nervous as I was about being underpowered and unprepared for this task, having Bishop with me made me a little more confident that I’d at least come out of a fight involving a group of demons alive—even if I might not be the victor.
I nodded to Bishop and he reached out, putting his other hand on my shoulder.
In a flash we were out of my living room and in downtown LA. The smoke blinded me, choking me with a weird sulfur smell, and the sound of gunfire practically deafened me.
Bishop grabbed me, curling his body over my back and taking a hail of bullets. His wings extended their full width, and the gunfire halted.
“Angel!” someone shouted.
Juke ran forward, holding her badge up in the air and yelling, “Cease fire!”
“They’re angels. Allies,” she said as she reached us. “They’re here to help.”
I still wasn’t sure I was an angel, but she could call me anything she wanted as long as it kept me from getting shot.
“Where do you need us?” I asked.
“We’ve got the humans gathered together inside Wisdome,” Juke told us. “A group of demons attacked us, so we had to move the vans to Mateo and Conway. Once we get everyone loaded, we’re taking them to Lincoln Heights where we’ve set up shelters at the rec center and the youth center with overflow at the high school. The demons are all over the downtown area, but if you two can clear a path for us to bring the vans back around and get these people out of downtown, that would help.”
I turned to Bishop. “Would it be better for us to stay close to the vans, or to lure the demons away? Will the demons be more liable to flee when we attack, or come together to try and kill us?”
“Initially they’ll flee, especially because there’s two of us. But then they’ll group together and attack.” Bishop looked around. “Let’s clear the area around the vans, then move west down Palmetto. If it seems we’re drawing more demons toward us, I’ll lure them off while you guard the vans.
I nodded. “Once the vans are back here and loaded, I’ll escort them until they’re clear.”
“I’ll distract the higher-level demons, leading them into the air,” Bishop told me. “You handle the ones on the ground.”
“Are you sure they’ll follow you?” I asked. “According to Juke, these guys seem pretty fixated on killing or taking the humans.”
“Yeah. I’m sure. The lesser demons and Lows will still go for the humans, but the higher-level demons will come after me. There’s a bounty on my head. They’ll want not just the money, but the prestige of taking me out.”
Guilt rolled through me. Again. That bounty on his head? That was because of me.
“Let’s do this,” I told him. It wasn’t the time for me to mourn the situation I’d put us in—not when there were people who needed our help.
Bishop and I jogged two streets down, while Juke stayed back with the other officers at the Wisdome. As Bishop and I approached Mateo, we saw the evacuation vehicles. The “vans” were armor plated tactical transport vehicles, and four demons were doing their best to pop tires and set them on fire, shooting electricity and stabbing at the vehicles with claws and spiked tails. I’d seen demons blow one of these vehicles sky high, incinerating both it and the occupants, so I was assuming these weren’t particularly high-level demons.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Get out of here right now!”
They turned to face me and I sent a bolt of lightning toward the one farthest from the vehicle. He absorbed it without injury, but my attack gave Bishop time to dash in and grab the demon who was trying to stab the tires. The demon dissolved from the feet up into sand. The other three demons turned their attention from me to Bishop, rushing him.
I launched forward as they piled onto the angel, pulling my gun out as I ran. Jumping on one, I shoved the muzzle against his head and pulled the trigger. The demon’s head exploded into a mess of flesh and blood. I leapt from him as he fell, turning toward the other two. Bishop was grappling with them, all three lit up with electricity and that weird energy I’d come to associate with demons. I grabbed one, yelping as the energy scorched through my body, singeing my spirit-being.
The demon sent more energy through me, and this time I was prepared. I absorbed it. Then I slammed my fist into his chest, bringing my knee up to his head as he bent over. Grabbing his horns, I beat his head repeatedly into the side of the tactical transport vehicle until he dropped to the ground.
Bishop had turned the demon he was fighting to sand. He stooped, grabbed my opponent off the ground, and did the same to him. Then he spread his wings, rising up above the street so he could be seen. His feathers glinted in the firelight: salmon, orange, and indigo.
From his vantage point, Bishop could clearly see any nearby demons as well as they could see him. As lightning an
I pulled my other pistol from my hip holster and took off, Bishop flying overhead as I ran. When I burst into the middle of Palmetto Street, I started shooting. Two demons fell by bullets before they started taking defensive maneuvers. Instead of head shots, my bullets were either missing or hitting the demons in their torso or limbs. Those might have taken a human down, but the demons were repairing their injuries as quickly as I could inflict them. With the element of surprise over, I switched to lightning attacks, which didn’t do much more than the bullets. One of the demons threw that explosive energy at me. I grabbed it, ran forward, then slammed it back into him. Bits of flesh flew everywhere. The one remaining demon squawked in alarm and took off. I followed him, putting on a surge of inhuman speed and tackling him before he’d reached the end of the block.
The demon thrashed about, pummeling me with alternate bursts of electricity and demon energy. I held on to the demon energy, knowing I’d need to use it later, and instead blew a sizable hole through his head with a shot from my Glock.
I continued to straddle the demon, waiting for a few seconds to make sure he was truly dead. Head shots usually did the trick, but Blister had told me there were a few rare demons who were able to survive that, continuing temporarily as a freakish demon zombie, or recreating their head in a flash of light.
This guy stayed dead, so I climbed off him, my pistol and the demon energy I’d stored at the ready as I checked my surroundings. The vans had followed me, no doubt instructed to do so by Juke. I led them back to the Wisdome and the police sprang into action. I circled the area while people ran from the building, loading as quickly as possible into the vehicles. When the last human was on board, the cops hopped in, and the vehicles took off.
I looked up as they started down the street, realizing that Bishop was no longer directly above me, and that he was no longer the only one in the skies. Six other beings flitted around him with giant bat-like wings. A pair dove toward Bishop and he dropped low, darting to the side and grabbing one of the other demons. They tumbled in the air for a heart-stopping second before the demon exploded. Spinning around, Bishop deftly dodged another attack as the sand from the demon’s corpse rained down onto the street.
I could have stood there forever, watching the beautiful dance of Bishop’s aerial battle, but I needed to ensure the evacuation route was clear, so I reluctantly turned away. Never once did I doubt Bishop’s ability to handle six flying demons—or more. I knew he hadn’t wanted this endless stream of battles or the price on his head. He’d been happy living a semi-human life as a bar owner and a “finder” of lost things, but when he vowed to help me guard the city, when he’d broken his contract with the demons, the gloves were off.
He’d fought in the war between the angels millions of years ago. He’d guarded and protected the Nephilim and the shifters for ten thousand years. He might downplay his abilities, saying he was just a middling angel of no particular skill, but Bishop was far more than middling. That angel was one scary dude. I’d seen him face down an archangel, and I had no doubt that when he truly cared about something, he was darn near unstoppable.
I ran, circling a two block radius around the transport vans, shooting at demons and getting updates from Juke about the evacuation route on my phone. Most of the demons took off when they discovered I was more than a human with a couple of pistols.
After the vehicles had cleared the 4th Street bridge over the river, I kept up my protection, darting ahead to clear the path, then ducking behind to ensure they weren’t attacked from the rear. The vehicles moved fast, and even with my paranormal speed, I was getting winded and tired trying to keep up. Even before this particular power had kicked in, I’d been quick and had incredible endurance, but racing around a bunch of trucks speeding down city streets was proving to be a strain.
There were fewer demons as we passed the 10. Juke had said they were evacuating the humans to Lincoln Heights, and for the first time I wondered if they expected me to escort them the entire way. I hoped not, because I wasn’t sure I could keep up this speed for the three to four miles it would take us to get there.
My phone beeped and I slowed to glance at it. Juke had texted that they were in the clear, but asked if I could return downtown to do another sweep, just in case they’d missed any humans or if there were any of the police there in need of assistance.
Will do. Be safe, I texted back, grateful to be able to stop and catch my breath.
The armored vehicles speeded ahead, making a left on Brittania as they headed to safety. Turning around, I scanned the skies and saw nothing but heavy cloud cover with the flash of lightning in the distance. I’d always welcomed storms before the demons came, but now I eyed the lightning, wondering if it was a natural occurrence, or a battle above the clouds.
I’d lost track of Bishop. A slight trickle of worry ran through me. He was powerful, but as he’d said before, there was only one of him and tens of thousands of demons. Pushing those thoughts away, I jogged back toward downtown. This time I was going slow enough to actually take note of my surroundings as I passed.
Past the Wisdome, the arts district was almost unrecognizable. Buildings that had stood tall this morning were piles of rubble, broken electrical wires sparking across concrete, rebar, and steel beams blocked sidewalks. Cars were melted blobs. Huge chunks were missing from the road, some of the holes going down six to ten feet. Street lights were smashed, signs twisted. Broken glass and shards of metal were scattered across the road and sidewalks, and everything was coated with a thick layer of white cement dust.
I slowed to a walk, trying to determine my location from the ruined landmarks. Finally I saw something I recognized. It all miraculously remained standing even though the building façades were pockmarked with damage and blackened with scorch marks.
It was an open-air shopping mall called the Bloc. As I approached I began to see groups of demons smashing in neighboring store fronts and looting the merchandise. I held back, watching and looking to see if there were any humans in need of my help. I really didn’t care about the thefts, and while I wasn’t happy about the damage, I wasn’t going to risk my life to save a Nordstrom from being trashed. Corporations had insurance. And they knew the risks they took continuing to operate in a demon-controlled New Hell.
Looking around, I saw the darkness was only relieved by the glow of small nearby fires. The electricity here was completely out, and whatever backup system these high-end stores usually had in place to allow for alarms during a power outage must be out as well. The only sounds were smashing glass and the gleeful shrieks of the inhuman looters.
Greed demons, I thought as I watched the horned, scaled, and furred beings carting off expensive clothing, jewelry, and accessories. It was kind of funny to see something that looked like a cross between a vulture and a goat walking out with a Louis Vuitton bag on its shoulder.
Blister had told me that all demons were greedy, but there was a certain type who’d taken avarice to an art. Some demons loved spreading rot and disease. Others fed off sexual energy of their human partners, like a parasite. Others thrived on destruction and violence. These guys were kicking down doors and smashing windows, but they were clearly focused on grabbing the goods.
The demons had stuffed their loot into a box truck that looked like it had been rolled over a few times, then they ran into the Bloc. I was about to move on, assuming any humans in this area had long since fled when the piercing sound of terrified screams filled the air.
Shit.
I took off for the mall entrance, thinking that some idiots had probably holed up inside, hoping to protect their inventory rather than evacuate when they should. Now I’d have to fight a dozen demons, all while trying to keep what sounded like another dozen humans alive. Running into the entrance hallway, I smacked into something with scales and fur and bounced into the wall. As I turned I saw that it was a fleeing demon who’d hit me.
