The Unlikeable Demon Hunter (Nava Katz #1)(87)

I grit his teeth and pulled free. For the second time on this trip, I found myself in a stone tunnel. No monsters showed themselves as we hugged right wall. It wasn't a hard slog, just a boring one. I sang "I Will Survive" on repeat loudly in my head so I couldn't dwell on anything. Eventually, a soft glow spilled from up ahead.

We followed it into a large opening, the walls and floors made up of rough salt crystals, the smell sharp enough to clear my sinuses. The ceiling was something else entirely. All around me lights twinkled in soft clusters. An incredible phosphorescence.

"Cool, huh?" Logan sat in a busted lawn chair, a silhouette, his head tipped up.

Drio ran the flashlight over him. Logan wasn't even in demon form, though he didn't look too great. His face was puffy and bruised. His nose had been broken and dried blood crusted his nostrils. A half dozen beer bottles littered the ground around him.

Logan pulled a fresh brew out of a torn box. "Want one?" He cracked it open without waiting for our answer, chugging it back and then tossing it on the ground with a soft clunk, accompanied by a belch. "Cheap shit. Couldn't pony up for the good stuff, bro?" he asked Drio. Then he eyed me up and down. Me. Not my body. "Bet you like the good stuff, Lolita," he leered. "Heard you were pretty willing to play musical cock for a sweeter gig." 

I had the blades of Rohan's left hand extended in an instant, but Drio punched Logan on the side of his head before I could get close.

The demon flickered.

"Why'd you have to wreck it?" He asked in a whiny voice. Not Logan's. T-Roy's. He sat there in the same seat, the same position that Logan had been in a second before, his leg jittering.

"Shut it," Logan snarled, appearing once more as T-Roy disappeared.

What. The. Unholy. Fuck.

"A gemini." Rohan didn't sound scared. Just mildly irritated.

"Astrological signs are demon types?" I really didn't want to meet a cancer.

Logan placed his foot over a bottle. I tensed but all he did was roll it back and forth under his dirty sneaker. "Having a twin sucks balls." Had to disagree with you there, bro.

"Switch them back, Logan." Drio spoke in his normal voice.

Logan squinted over at Drio. "What's up with the weird accent?" He got himself a fresh drink, waving it drunkenly at Drio. "I'm already dying. Not a lot of incentive to do as I'm told."

I snuck closer to Rohan, picking my way over jagged salt clusters. "Dying?"

"His duality has collapsed."

"All his energy was going into maintaining his two forms," Drio explained to me. That explained the boys' lack of bad behavior.

"Switching you two accelerated the process," Logan said. "No choice though. Tied to the fucker's well-being. Soon as I felt Samson take his true form, I had to rush to his rescue." He drowned his bitterness with another drink.

Rohan walked over to Logan, kicking his legs off the beer bottle. "King's dumped you, hasn't he?"

"Asshole. Said he could save me."

"Maybe he can." That was T-Roy, back for a desperate second.

A beer bottle whizzed past my head, shattering on a fat bunch of crystals behind me. "It's your fault," Logan raged. "Weak. Pathetic." He punched himself in the head. This took twin dysfunction to a whole new level.

Drio rolled his eyes. "Ro." Nobody moved. "Rohan body," he said pointedly. "Encourage Logan to behave."

Rohan poked me in the back to get me moving. I crossed over to Drio who tapped a spot on the back of his own neck.

I snicked out a blade, pressing the tip into the same spot on Logan. "Where's Samson?"

"Like I'd tell you."

"Your loyalty is touching." I dug the blade in hard enough to draw blood. "Misplaced but touching."

Logan made a sound that almost sounded like a laugh. "Fuck loyalty. I don't want that psycho coming after me in whatever afterlife I'm doomed to." He pressed his neck back against the blade. The tip slid in.

I smacked him on top of his head. "What is wrong with you? Why aren't you fighting?"

Logan took another sip.

"Suicidal," Drio said. "Chemical side effect of his collapse. Change them," he ordered again.

Logan ignored him and kept drinking.

Rohan fired a blast of electricity into Logan's crotch. The demon fell out of the chair, doubled over, howling in pain. We waited for his cries to die down.

"A girl Rasha? Fucking hell, bitch. You're crazy." In his pain, he seemed to have forgotten he was really speaking to Rohan.

Rohan rolled him over with my foot, a ball of electricity crackling off of my fingertips. "You have no idea." Damn, I was impressive. Also, was Rohan's agreement some not-so-veiled commentary on the real me?