Dead Harvest

  Beside me, another cry – this one from Kate. I wheeled toward her in time to see the woman beside her writhe as a demon overtook her, spilling sick across the floor as her eyes filled with dark flames. She reached toward Kate, who stumbled backward into me, narrowly avoiding the demon's grasp. My hand went to my shirt pocket, fumbling for the last remaining cat-shard, but it had been pulverized in the crash – that, or my fight with Bishop – and nothing remained of it but dust. Instead I dragged Kate through the crowd, the demon trailing behind.

  Screams reverberated off the station walls, and the yellowed tile was streaked with blood. One by one the commuters fell, or worse, were possessed as yet more demons joined the fray. One by one the lights went out, smashed by accident or design I didn't know. Soon, though, it would be black as pitch, as death, and there would be no one left alive but me and Kate. If that happened, we were as good as damned, and this world was damned as well. The problem was, I couldn't see any way around it.

  My foot came down on something soft and round beneath me – a leg, limp and unmoving – and I pitched forward, dragging Kate with me as I fell. I braced myself for the impact against the concrete, for the sudden grasp of the demon just behind us, but neither came. Instead we just kept falling, eventually slamming to rest some six feet beneath the level of the platform. Something hard and uncomfortable jabbed into my ribs – a subway rail, I realized. Above, the slaughter raged, but down here, all was quiet, with nothing but the occasional discarded body to keep us company.

  I climbed gingerly to my feet, and extended a hand to Kate. She took it, and I lifted her wobbily upward. She was filthy, and a little dinged up, but she looked mostly OK. I looked around. Two sets of tunnels extended outward to our left and to our right – a commuter rail nearest the platform, and beyond it the express. We stood atop the tracks of the first of them, closest to the platform, the tunnel's overhead lamps a string of Christmas lights, disappearing into the gloom on either side of us. For the first time since the demons had arrived on the platform, I allowed myself a ray of hope. If we could reach the tunnels unnoticed, we might just get out of there alive.

  But as the demon on the platform spoke, I knew that we'd have no such luck. It was the messenger again, or what was left of him, now that the creature inside had had his way. Again, it said only one word, but this one I understood just fine.

  "Collector."

  My eyes met the demon's, but this time, I did not freeze. I wrapped my arms around Kate and pulled her close. Her jaw was set in fierce determination, but she was shaking like a leaf, and her heart fluttered in her chest.

  The demon eyed the two of us and smiled. "Give us the girl, Collector, and you and I have no quarrel."

  "Go fuck yourself," I said.

  "Actually," the demon said, "I had a certain someone else in mind." It licked its lips, and a chill worked its way along my spine.

  "You don't know what you're doing," I said. A cool breeze buffeted my face, and I realized the chill I'd felt was not from the creature's words alone.

  "I rather think I do. The two of you have brought war upon us. I intend to set things right – to restore the natural balance. They shall sing my praises in heaven and hell both. And all for the pleasure of devouring this lovely little morsel."

  "The girl is an innocent," I said. My eyes were filled with the grit of dust suddenly disturbed. I blinked it back, tried not to react. "These skirmishes you've seen are gonna seem like a holiday compared to the world of shit that'll rain down on you if you devour her soul."

  "Do you dare attempt to deceive a deceiver? I know what the girl has done. Nothing you say can change her fate. The only hide you can save today is your own."

  "Actually," I said, as the rush of air became a roar, and the glare of headlights kissed my face, "I think I'm gonna have to disagree with you, there."

  I threw Kate backward with all I had, lunging after her as the train roared past the place where we'd just stood. It screeched to a halt at the platform, blocking the demon's path, and the walls shook with a wail of fury so pure that there was nothing Kate and I could do but cling to each other, trembling, as we lay sprawled across the second set of tracks, its darkened tunnels stretching off to either side around us.

  But as the echoes of the demon's cry faded into nothingness, we found our feet, and sprinted hand in hand into the darkness.

28.

Keep running, I thought. Don't stop. Don't think. Just keep running.