Cresil listened carefully to his surroundings. Groggy from going days without food and water, he found concentrating difficult. Try as he might, he could not distinguish many sounds, though the distinct crunch of gravel under heavy boots told him he was not alone.

  “I see your cage is made of silver.” A slight hint of viciousness emphasized Nergal's words. He stopped his pacing and knocked on the metal bars. “I bet its light enough to shake. I could jostle you around, make you hit the bars a few times. Tell me, what would that do to you exactly?”

  Cresil knew better than to say anything; The man's sadistic nature would only be fueled if he did. Instead, he remained calm and continued to listen. One of the horses scraped the ground with his hoof. A woodpecker knocked on a tree a small distance away. “Where is Cresil!” he barely caught it. The wind carried Keshiema's voice to him gently. While his hearing was above average for a demon, he struggled to hear more. Nothing came.

  “Are you even still alive in there? Maybe I should shake it, just to make sure.”

  “I’m alive.” Cresil confirmed, refusing to give the man a reason to shake him up. The pacing started up again, the crunch of gravel drowning out most other sounds. 'Kesh, I really wish I had your hearing right now. Or your telepathy.'

  Nergal chewed his nails, impatiently waiting for Keshiema. 'She may already be up there. He looked towards the steep hill Tobias had walked up. Too many large boulders blocked his view of the top. Pacing helped ease his cluttered mind. Playing the kindhearted Jimmy was wearing him down. He looked back at the prisoner again and wondered who it could be. 'Would it hurt my chances to ask? Sonneillon failed to gather that information.'

  He set his hand on the cage again. “So, do you have a name, demon?” The prisoner remained quiet, irritating Nergal even further. Looking up the hillside again, Nergal spotted a small group navigating down the twisting path. He smiled when he saw the young demon woman among them. ‘That must be her.’

  ***

  Keshiema walked by Zack's side, with the other two leading them, despite Mia's objections. The hill sloped down steeply. A heavily eroded stairway and severely rusted pieces of chain-linked fencing littered the path, old scars from ancient times. 'Adramelech’s preservation magic must be weakening. She recalled the map of land the king had claimed for his capital during the apocalypse. The entire expanse was remolded to his liking and then preserved. The area she was in now had contained a man-made lake. Adramelech had the dam destroyed to flood the original city. After that, he never touched it. She was surprised the king had preserved the land at all.

  As they approached the cage, she studied her environment carefully. The large pine trees and overgrown underbrush provided great cover if she needed to escape. However, the direction she needed to go left her open to attack once she reached the dry lakebed. Four humans, all armed with guns and, presumably, well trained in hand-to-hand combat, meant protecting a weakened demon would be difficult. She could survive a couple of bullet wounds, but it would slow her down immensely. Cresil would be lucky to survive the bleeding if hit when she could not stop to heal him. She needed to play her cards carefully.

  The guard, pacing back and forth, stopped when he saw her. Immediately, he drew his gun. As Keshiema stared him down, she felt an odd tingling sensation, like someone tickling the back of her eyes with a feather. After a moment, a subtle glow formed around the human. Slowly, an outline took shape around him. Her eyes widened in realization as she saw the ghostly image of a platinum-haired demon surrounding the human guard.

  “Boss, I mean Zack, sir. Is there a reason we aren’t trying to kill this thing?” Outwardly, the man sounded nervous, but Keshiema could hear a second, much more vicious voice behind the human fa?ade.

  “Relax, Jimmy, she's a friend.” Zack reassured him. Mia huffed in disagreement, but otherwise kept her mouth shut. Tobias seemed to remain indifferent.

  “Alright, seems like you’ve got this under control.” Jimmy walked over to a fallen tree and took a seat, but did not take his eyes off the group.

  Tobias tossed a small set of keys to Zack, who caught them without looking. Keshiema followed him to the back of the cage. As Zack went for the lock, she placed her hand over his, signaling him to wait. “Cresil?” Keshiema asked quietly. The prisoner's head shot up, but he did not speak. “Are you strong enough to walk?” she asked just loud enough that she hoped he heard her. The prisoner nodded slowly. 'There is a demon here that wants me dead,' she projected clearly to everyone, except for Jimmy. 'He's disguised as the human guard.' Tobias and Mia gave each other concerned looks, but Zack’s eyes were full of doubt as he stared at her. 'He can disguise his aura.' She lifted her hand from his and let him make his choice.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Hey, boss?” Jimmy’s shout startled Zack. “Everything okay over there?”

  “Just having some trouble with the lock!” Zack answered quickly.

  “You’ve gotta wiggle the key around a bit.” Tobias chimed in convincingly.

  Releasing the lock, Zack opened the door. They both stood there awkwardly. After a moment’s contemplation, Keshiema held her hand out for the keys, and Zack handed them over. She walked over to the side of the cage. “Cress, can you unlock the chains if I give you the keys?” Once he nodded, Keshiema tossed the keys into his open palms.

  With a small amount of fumbling, the shackles popped open. Getting his hands free, Cresil tore the bag from his head and took a deep breath of fresh air. With excruciating care, Cresil carefully crawled out of the silver cage. As soon as he was clear, Keshiema rushed to him.

  Wrapping her arms around him tightly, she felt a weight lifted off her shoulders. His uniform was torn and filthy, and his hair was the greasiest she had ever seen it, but she did not care. She was glad to have him back. As quickly as she hugged him, she pulled away. “I’m not safe here, none of us are.” She glared at the demon disguised as Jimmy.

  “Who is it kesh?” Cresil asked softly.

  “Nergal.” As if responding to his name, Nergal stood up, stretching before walking towards them. Keshiema handed Cresil her canteen. “You look parched. I can’t heal dehydration if you don’t have any water in you to use.”

  “I’m an Impure, Kesh, we're lazy, but we're efficient.” He held the canteen in a bottoms-up motion and downed it. As he drank the water, color returned to his skin, and his eyes brightened. Letting out a refreshed exhale, he traded the empty canteen for the nutrition bar Keshiema held out to him. He looked towards the guard, making his way towards them while he finished the bar in a few large bites.

  “Stop.” Tobias pointed his gun at Nergal as he approached. “Don’t take another step.”

  “So, what? You’re just gonna trust her?” Mia asked furiously.

  “No need to get hostile,” Nergal put his hands up. “I see the demons are pitting us against each other. Who’s next after you kill me?”

  “Kesh, we need to get out of here.” The urgency in Cresil’s voice gave her pause.

  “I can't leave them here with him. I’m sure he's here because of me.”

  With a heavy sigh, Cresil caved. “Well, I know there’s no arguing with you.”

  “Do you need a weapon if things get ugly.”

  “If? I’m sure he's already ten steps ahead of us. But no, I don’t need a weapon.” A bright green aura radiated from his clenched fists up to the radioactive-biohazard symbol on his right forearm and Merihim's bat on his left. As she saw the tattoos, she realized she had never seen him wear short sleeves. His uniform always covered his arms.

  “I think we're getting ahead of ourselves.” Zack walked closer to Nergal. “If you really are Jimmy, tell me when and why you came to my settlement.”

  “A year ago, I came home to my family being slaughtered by a demon. I managed to kill it but I realized I could no longer take a passive role in the fight for humanity. That’s when I set out to join a rebel faction.”

  With an unnerving calm about him, Zack pulled his gun and fired at the shifter. Grabbing his wounded shoulder, Nergal ran into the trees. Mia started to run after him, but Zack caught her by the arm. “Don’t. He's a shifter. If we get split up in there, we won’t be able to trust each other.” Mia tore her arm away and growled in frustration.

  Keshiema listened carefully to the sounds around her. Nergal was still near, hiding within the forest. “Cress, take this.” Knowing he needed to regain his strength, she handed him another nutrition bar. “I need you sharp.”

  As Cresil ate, Keshiema cautiously approached the siblings. “It’s getting late, there won’t be any light left within the hour. We need to take care of Nergal before he gains an advantage. Shifters can transform into a shadow and blend in with the darkness. We won’t be safe if he's out there.”

  “You expect us to trust you?” Mia tightened her grip on her pistol but left it aimed down. “For all we know you’re with him.”

  “Mia,” Zack interrupted, “if she were she wouldn't have warned us about him.”

  “Tobias, you’re with me, right?” Mia pleaded.

  “I mean,” Tobias hesitated. “I did take her messenger hostage and you even attacked her on sight. Still, she didn’t try to hurt any of us.”

  “I saw the way she handled you, Mia. She spent most of the time avoiding your attacks.” Zack's frustration showed through his tone.

  “Look,” Keshiema interrupted their bickering, “I don’t want you to argue about this. If you can’t all agree then I’ll leave and hopefully Nergal follows me out.”

  “Didn’t you want to talk to us about something important?” worry filled Zack's voice.

  “I’m not going to come between the three of you.”

  “Mia, I think we owe Keshiema at least a small amount of trust. She could have left us here with the other demon after we released her friend. Instead, she revealed who he was and gave Zack a chance to wound him.”

  “If any of us were in her position we would have taken our comrade and hightailed it out of here. But she’s still here and ready to fight. Even her friend...” Zack’s words trailed off as he looked towards the cage behind her. She turned around to see Cresil was no longer present.

  “He must have gone after Nergal alone.” She sighed.

  “So now what?” Tobias asked her.

  “I’m the only one who can see through Nergal's disguise. I’ll go into the forest to back up Cresil. You three stay here. And stay on your guard.”