Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized #1)(51)

The leader appraised the empty street. “Where’s your team?”

“Back that way.” I waved over my shoulder.

The leader made a swift gesture at his teammates. Nodding, they broke into a jog, heading in the direction the sorcerer had fled.

“I’ll escort you back to your team,” the remaining mythic told me. “It isn’t safe out here alone.”

I hunched my shoulders, embarrassed. I knew it wasn’t safe, but what was I supposed to do? Tell Tae-min he had no idea how to lead a team? I started down the street, the man matching my pace. I could feel his gaze but kept mine on the ground.

“I admit I’m curious,” he ventured. “You don’t seem like the usual contractor type.”

Watching my mud-splattered shoes, I said nothing. What could I say? “Stop stereotyping contractors”? Or maybe, “Petite, bespectacled bookworms can be power-hungry, soul-selling contractors too”?

He tried again. “How long have you been a contractor?”

I almost said, “Twenty-four hours,” then remembered my fake paperwork. “Six months.”

“Robin, are you done—” Popping out of her alcove, Amalia spotted my new comrade and froze. “Oh! There you are, Robin! Why didn’t you wait for me? We’re supposed to stick together.”

I glared at her.

“Would you be this young lady’s champion?” the man asked.

“Uh, yeah.”

The leader directed his full attention at Amalia. Her careless defiance, which I’d only seen falter when Zylas had threatened to kill her, crumbled under this man’s stern disapproval. Her guilty stare flicked away.

With slapping steps, Tae-min trotted out of an alley, George trailing after him.

“What’s going on? Who—oh.” Tae-min slid to a halt.

“Tae-min,” the man said. “Unpleasant circumstances under which to meet again. How are you?”

“I—I’m fine, thank you, Darius.”

Darius smiled. I blinked, amazed by how he could look so warmly amicable and like a panther about to pounce.

“I’m delighted to hear you’re well. Before that changes, may I ask why you’re failing to follow basic protocol?”

Tae-min cringed. “Uh—”

“No mythic should be alone in the combat area, and team members should remain within each other’s sight lines at all times. I assume you’re leading this team?”

“I—yes, I am, but—”

“You’re responsible for the lives you expose, and as an officer of a Demonica guild, you should understand the intense danger present on these streets—but what I’m seeing suggests you don’t.”

Tae-min stiffened.

“How much of your shift do you have left?” the mysterious mythic demanded.

“We—this is our last grid.”

“Then you are dismissed, Tae-min. My team will cover this grid.”

The officer’s eyes blazed. “You can’t just—”

“Escort these two young women back to your guild,” Darius continued without pause, his commanding tone silencing the officer. “All else aside, I expected you and your GM to have better sense than to—”

“We know what we’re doing!” Tae-min cut in furiously. “That girl”—he pointed at me—“and her demon will be the ones to take out the unbound demon. I’d bet my guild’s treasury account on it.”

“That isn’t much of a wager. Take them back, Tae-min. I will be speaking with your GM about this as well.”

Tae-min glowered, his jaw so tight a muscle was twitching in his cheek.

Darius offered me a warm smile. “I commend your bravery, Robin, but there will be other opportunities to test yourself against dangerous opponents.”

To my surprise, I found myself returning his smile. As he strode back the way he’d come, Tae-min growled in the departing man’s direction.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Darius King,” the officer answered grudgingly. “The guild master of the Crow and Hammer.”

The Crow and Hammer? Damn it. Why hadn’t Amalia and I joined Darius’s guild instead of the Grand Grimoire? He knew what he was doing.

“The Crow and Hammer is a joke.” Tae-min pulled his beanie off and wrung it out. “A lecture on following protocol from him? His guild is notorious for breaking rules and skirting regulations.”

“Yeah, but all the same,” George remarked, “they take a big share of the bounties around here.”

Tae-min sneered. “Let’s get back to the car.”

As I followed the others, my thoughts spun, replaying Darius’s lecture. The lives you expose. The intense danger present on these streets. How many mythics were out here, risking their lives to hunt the escaped demon? How many people, like Darius and his comrades, like that other team I’d observed, were putting themselves in terrible danger?

Zylas could mow through a room of contractors in less than a minute. What damage could the winged demon do to the mythics on the streets? Or humans who crossed its path? Though Tae-min hadn’t known what he was saying, I was the one who needed to stop the escaped beast. Or rather, Zylas was the one.

I was no pro, but Zylas was lethal—and unlike properly contracted demons, he could wield his unstoppable magic. He had the power to defeat the winged demon. If he stopped it, no one else would get hurt. No one would have to die.