Darien
I kneeled beside the rubble. Cain positioned himself behind me, one hand resting casually at his side in a way that said he could have a weapon drawn in under a second. The two soldiers from the second vehicle spread to the flanks.
I moved a section of collapsed wall. Then another. The debris shifted. Beneath it, wedged between a support beam and a section of stone foundation, something moved.
Not a wolf.
The creature's skin was the color of dried blood, cracked and peeling, with veins of dull orange pulsing beneath the surface like cooling lava. Its limbs were too long for its torso, bent at angles that didn't follow human anatomy. One arm was pinned under the beam, crushed. The other was free, its clawed fingers twitching weakly against the stone.
A demon.
It was dying. The
