Thirty minutes passed rather quickly while I walked around the room and browsed the items hidden in here. There was nothing like the Mona Lisa or any valuable Ancient Greek statue, but I liked it anyway. However, my mind wasn’t really on what I was looking at.

The demons were here. Omi was here.

Why were they here? I remembered those two demons looking straight at me and shuddered. Omi couldn’t know about me, could he? We had been careful. Brock was dead. Nobody knew who we were.

Even if they weren’t here because of me, they were here now and could find me if they got too close and sensed my aura. We couldn’t stay here much longer, trapped in a basement. We had to leave the city. The question was, how?

I eyed Keisha. She sat on the floor, her back against a wall near the door, playing with her sword as if she did that every free minute of her life. When I first laid eyes on her, she looked like an elegant teacher or law student. Determined, yes, but also ladylike and delicate, even with her tall, strong body. Then her eyes flashed—I wasn’t imagining things again, was I?—and she transformed into this brave warrior who didn’t care about losing a pair of expensive pumps or ripping her skirt so she could fight better. It was almost as if she had changed right in front of us.

Keisha and her mad fighting skills were probably our only way out of here.

Directly in front of our precious personal ninja, Raisa sat on a wooden box. She rummaged in her bag, but I could see her hands trembling from here. Oh God, how I wished Raisa hadn’t been here. How I wished she were at her parents’ house as they wanted, unharmed.

I frowned. I didn’t know if the entire country was under attack. My stomach twisted into dozens of knots. Oh God, no, no. I couldn’t bear to think about what could be happening to my family right now.

I took a deep breath and pushed those troubling thoughts aside. One problem at a time. First, we get out of town. Second, I send Raisa to her parents. Third, I somehow get to my own parents.

In the corner, Greg kept messing with the walkie-talkie trying to listen for more details and find out what was going on, if this was a random attack, what the creatures were, and which places were safe. However, the voices and the stories grew gorier by the minute, and it didn’t seem as if anyone would leave New York alive.

Not even us.

I shuddered.

Keisha shot up to her feet. “I’ll be right back,” she said, before slipping behind the door. Not even a minute later she was back. She opened the door wide. “I think we can make it now.”

Greg pushed away from the wall, Raisa jumped up from the crate, and I made my way back to the door. We picked up our stuff from the floor, and Greg checked his gun.

“Counting my second cartridge, I should have about twenty-four bullets,” he said.

“Make them count,” Keisha said. She glanced at the daggers Raisa and I were holding. “Be careful with that.”

As opposed to what? Not being careful? I was actually trying not to think about how I was holding a weapon capable of killing a person.

Raisa shook her head. “Are you sure we can’t stay here longer? Maybe we can wait for a couple of hours. Perhaps by then they will have left the city.”

Keisha took a deep breath. “I don’t think they will leave the city with anyone alive in it. They’ll scour inch by inch, even if it takes weeks.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“I don’t. It’s just a hunch. It’s like they are looking for something, and they will keep killing and destroying until they find it.”

I swallowed. Damn.

Doing the noble thing crossed my mind. Surrendering myself. But … they were demons. They wouldn’t back out of destroying the city and killing everyone in it just because I had given myself up. And there was my family to consider. If I surrendered, who would take care of them? Who would send them money every week? Who would make sure they were okay?

Although now with NYU and the entire city destroyed, I wasn’t sure how that would work anymore. I shook my head. One problem at a time. First, getting out of here.

Greg turned off his radio. “Let’s do this.”

Keisha opened the first door. “Okay, we’ll go up to the alley. Try to stay in the shadows along the walls and make no sound. As far as I can tell, these monsters are dumb but they have good ears and noses. We’ll approach the street and make our way out of the city, sticking to the shadows and hiding in alleys or courtyards.”

“You do realize we’ll have to cross a bridge or a tunnel to exit the city, right?” I asked.

“Yes, but I’m trying not to think about that yet. One problem at a time,” she said, repeating what I had been telling myself. She looked at us pointedly. “Ready?”

We exchanged glances, and my grip tightened around the hilt of the dagger I was holding.

Keisha led the way. Raisa was second, I was third, and Greg was last. Once I stepped into the dark corridor, I felt sick to my stomach. Oh God, we were going out among the demons.

Without ceremony, Keisha reached the top of the stairs and opened the door. She put her finger over her lips and beckoned us out. Following her lead, we plastered our backs to the wall of the dark alley, and I had a hard time staying calm.

I couldn’t see the demons because of the darkness and the fact that we were trying to stay hidden, but I could hear them. Shrieks and grunts reached our ears, and I could only assume it came from demons crossing the street at the end of the alley.

I slowly breathed in and out, concentrating on staying calm.

The alley was wide and long. There were boxes and litter spread on the ground from an open garbage container, and it smelled almost as bad as the demons.

“Come on,” Keisha whispered. Tiptoeing along the wall, she pulled the bow and an arrow from her back. “Be prepared.”

“P-prepared for what?” Raisa asked.

“Anything,” Keisha responded.

Raisa whimpered, and I reached for her hand. It seemed to have helped before, and I was in need of some reassurance right now too.

A gust of wind surged into the alley bringing a chilly breeze around us. I shivered. If I knew we would spend a long time outside, I would have worn warmer clothes. Jeans, a dark green sweater, knee-high brown boots, a brown trench coat, a scarf, and gloves weren’t cutting it. But what else would I have worn? A blanket?

Crap, where were my thoughts going?

Eight feet from the alley’s exit, Keisha raised her hand indicating for us to stop. Still plastered to the wall, we didn’t dare to breathe.

Grunts and screeches grew louder, and my heartbeat rose with each taloned footfall scratching the concrete. My palms became sweaty, and I closed my eyes willing my fear and nervousness to back away. The alley was wide, which meant whoever crossed by its entrance had a good chance of looking in and seeing us. There was enough light coming from the entryway to illuminate our position. I just prayed the boxes and garbage hid us well.

I didn’t believe we would get out of the city without engaging demons, but the less attention we attracted, the better it would be, especially because Raisa and I didn’t know how to fight or even how to wield a weapon.

The first demons appeared through the alley’s opening, and Raisa squeezed my hand. Two demons jogged across, no problem. A third walked slowly. He stopped and howled to someone or something behind him. Two more showed up, and the third one grunted at them. The three of them resumed their walk. Five others ran past us. Then two others came by. One of them stopped, eyeing the alley. He sniffed the air and grunted. The second one stopped and smelled the air too.

Raisa let go of my hand and clamped her mouth.

One of the demons pointed to the wall on the other side of the alley. Three human bodies laid there. Blood dripped from the gashes across their faces and chests.

Raisa swayed to my side, squeaking.

The demons’ attention turned to us.

“Shit,” Keisha muttered. She pulled the string of her bow and let the arrow fly. The arrow pierced the demon’s forehead, and it fell back.

With a loud growl, the second one darted to us. By then Keisha had another arrow poised. She let it go, and the arrow ripped through its chest. The demon stumbled and fell.

Holding our breath, we waited. The others had heard us. There was no way they hadn’t. Ten seconds passed. Twenty. Thirty.

A full minute later, Keisha exhaled loudly and turned to Raisa. “What the hell?”

With her back to the bodies across the alley, Raisa crouched, one hand still over her mouth the other on her stomach. “I’m sorry.”

I rubbed her back. “It’s okay. Just breathe in and out.”

“It’s not okay.” Keisha paced in front of us, her eyes hard. “There are hundreds of demons out there. Maybe thousands. I would rather hide quietly than fight them all, and that means you can’t whimper or squeak or gasp.”

“Hey!” I glared at Keisha. “She has a sensitive stomach, okay? This isn’t easy for her.”

Keisha turned to me, her eyes hard. “Do you think this is easy for me?”

“You’re the one who just took some swords off a table and used them as if you were a knight out of a medieval tale. It does seem easy for you.”

“Are you insane?”

“Enough!” Greg muttered, though I could see he wanted to yell instead. “We can’t argue among ourselves, and we can’t waste time.” He turned to Raisa. “Please, can you try to take this all in so we can keep moving?”

“You gotta do it,” I whispered. “It’s the only way to get away from here.”

She looked into my eyes, terror visible in them. She had always been sarcastic and free-spirited, yet now she seemed scared to her bones. Well, she never thought she would fight in a demon attack and see bloodied, dead bodies.

I helped Raisa up. She pressed both hands over her stomach.

“Please, all of you, try to bottle your feelings up and let’s do this.” Keisha grabbed a new arrow from the quiver on her back. “All right. Let’s move.”

“Do we know which tunnel or bridge we are going to cross?” Greg asked, putting the safety of his gun back on.

“The Holland Tunnel is the closest one,” I said.

Keisha gave a curt nod. “Then that is where we’re going.”

She spied out of the exit and gestured for us to come to her. We crossed the street with hurried but muffled steps, looking side to side to make sure no one was coming, and hid under a store’s entrance. I recognized Houston Street. We were close to Sixth Avenue and closer to the tunnel than I first thought. We could do this. Finally, I had a glimmer of hope.

Bat demons soared through the sky every couple of minutes, and wingless demons rushed down the streets even more often.

“How about that car?” I asked, pointing to an abandoned car thirty yards from where we hid.

“That would attract more attention,” Keisha said.

“If we can outrun them, who cares about attracting attention?” Greg said.

Keisha thought it over for a moment. “All right. Stay here. I’ll see if it’s working.”

She checked the street for demons and then rushed to it. The door was unlocked, and she was able to slip inside before a group of demons hurried by. She waited until they were gone and tried the engine. It worked! She tried driving it, but it rolled like a beaten wagon for ten feet, and then stopped. Keisha opened the passenger door and spied out. With a disappointed expression, she came back to us.

“Two flat tires,” she said. “And almost no gas. It wouldn’t get us far anyway.”

Still, if it could have gotten us through the tunnel, it would have helped.

We walked three blocks without any problems—two south on Sixth Avenue, and one west onto Spring Street. Closer to Hudson Street, the sounds and movements increased. Shrieks echoed through the air, and more demons ran past our hiding spots.

“There’s something going on,” Keisha said, pulling us into an alley two buildings from the corner of Hudson Street.

We took in as much as we could, trying to find out what was happening. After a couple of tense minutes, I gave up looking out and leaned against the alley wall. I was tired. I was hungry and dirty. I hadn’t felt like this in three months, and I had hoped I would never feel this way again.

“If I didn’t know better, I would say the monsters are gathering for a parade,” Greg said, peeking around the corner of the alley.

It did look like that. But why would demons get together for a parade?

A bat flew by right when Greg was retreating into the alley.

“Fuck,” he swore, aiming his gun at the coming creature.

The bat landed in the alley’s entrance and shrieked. The creature was tall, taller than a human, with a bony body covered by viscous gray skin. It bared its sharp teeth and recoiled its large and bristly wings.

Its putrid stench of rotting flesh reached my nose, and I breathed through my mouth before I puked.

“He’s going to call more monsters!” Raisa yelled.

The bat took two steps into the alley, scratching its talons along the concrete and screeching. Keisha pointed her bow at him, but Greg was faster. He shot the demon twice—between the eyes and in the chest. Trembling, the bat fell to the ground, and green liquid poured out of its wounds.

Beside me, Raisa doubled over. I rubbed her back, thinking she would throw up, but she only gagged. I gagged too.

With a lethal expression, Keisha pointed an accusing finger to Greg’s gun. “If the demon’s scream hadn’t been enough, I’m sure your shots were.”

“What did you want me to do?” Greg said, his voice rising. “It’s what I have and what I know how to use.”

“You brought an axe!”

“I don’t know how to wield an axe!”

“And what do—?”

Keisha stopped yelling once we heard them. The shuffling of wings, the screeches. Bats appeared in the sky, close to the ground, as a new group of demons rushed to our alley. Even if we had time to hide, it wouldn’t matter. They knew we were here.

I couldn’t count fast enough, but there were easily eight wingless demons coming toward us and about five bat-like demons hovering above us.

Holy shit.

“What do we now?” I asked.

“Charge!” Keisha shouted.

She shot two arrows at the bat-like demons. Both fell to the ground dead. Then she unsheathed her long sword and engaged in battle, while I stared amazed at how warrior-like she was.

At once, the demons spread out and hovered around her. Two demons charged at the same time. Keisha stepped aside and ducked while they stumbled into each other. Taking advantage of the two seconds of confusion, she swung her sword and slashed open the back of one of the demons causing it to fall on its stomach, shrieking. Before she could even blink, the other demon was on her. Keisha parried a strong blow and dodged another. The demon kept coming, and Keisha kept stepping back, avoiding it.

The demon swung its claws toward Keisha’s chest, but Keisha was able to deflect it. With a low growl, she kicked it back using as much force as she could. The demon staggered back, and taking advantage of its confusion, she lunged at it. But the demon had already recovered and waited for her. It stepped aside and lacerated her left shoulder with his sharp claws.

I gasped and she sprang at it, as if nothing had happened. It parried her attack, and after she landed a blow that made it raise it arms to ward the weapon off, she spun around and cut its stomach open. Gooey blood gushed out of the wound as the demon fell on the ground writhing.

She barely had time to catch her breath as more demons came at her, and one of the bats dove at Raisa and me. Greg shot it, and Raisa yelled when it fell at our feet, swiping its claw one more time before dying.

A wingless demon was able to weave past Keisha and Greg, who were deep in combat—Keisha with her sword, Greg with his fists and attempting to use the axe. The demon snarled at Raisa and me. Raisa hid behind me, and I raised my dagger trying to remember how I had fought against this kind of demon before, when Brock had Morgan and me as prisoners at that abandoned school.

I inhaled deeply. I could do this. I really could.

The demon charged, and I stepped aside, pulling Raisa with me. Because of their bulk, these demons were slow, and if I wanted to win this fight, I would have to play the speed game. I just hoped I was fast enough.

I pushed Raisa to the side, and she stepped away and fell flush against the wall. I adjusted my grip on the dagger. The demon came at me. I stepped aside again, but this time it saw my move. It reached with its arm and pulled me to it. I yelped as my back pressed against its chest, and it snapped its teeth near my neck. I was sure it would bite me and rip my throat out. I elbowed its stomach. That didn’t do anything. So I did the next natural thing. I turned the blade of the dagger around and pierced its stomach. The creature screamed in my ear, and I thought I would faint from its fetid breath. Its hold on me loosened enough for me to elbow it again, push against it, and set myself free.

I turned to it with the dagger high and aimed at its chest. The demon growled. Advancing, it swiped its claws toward me, but I ducked and stepped back until I had my back to a wall. With what sounded like a growling laughter, the demon lunged at me. I kept my dagger high, stabbing the air and hoping the demon was dumb enough to run toward it. But it just swatted its hand at mine. What looked like a simple slap forced me to stumble to the side. The dagger went flying, and I fell to my knees. The demon grabbed me by my shoulders and yanked me up. It opened its mouth, and I closed my eyes and waited. It howled and let me go.

Wide-eyed, I leaned against the wall so I wouldn’t fall again and looked at the demon, wondering why it hadn’t taken my head off with its big mouth. Then its body fell forward with my dagger buried in its back.

A guy stood behind him.

“Hi, darling. Did you miss me?”