Demon Huntress

There was a tense silence. "Our losses have affected us all," Ting finally said, as though Shu lan's snappish tone could be so easily explained. Her smile was brittle as she answered Shu lan's question. "Xiao latched onto the tracking signal you placed on him, but she lost it for a couple of hours. She picked it up again, exactly where she lost it. Now we know approximately where the entrance to the hospital must be. We traced the signal to a residential neighborhood and picked this demon up in his house. He was a shapeshifter." She sat down next to Shu lan, never taking her eyes off the body. "What was his name again? He told us, but by then, Yat Sen had broken his jaw, and it was hard to understand anything."

She didn't have the luxury or even the d.e.s.i.r.e to feel sorry for the creature on the floor, but she did feel relief that at least it wasn't Ming jie Ting was so casually talking about. She also didn't have the luxury of the truth. If they knew the dead demon wasn't Ming jie, they'd want her to get to him again. Taking out the hospital was one thing, but torturing Hellboy was another. So, as though she were overjoyed that he was dead, she smiled and said, "Ming jie."

"And that's him, right?"

"No doubt. Did you get any hospital information out of him?"

Ting shook her head. "He denied its existence no matter what we did to him. So what we need you to do is get back into the hospital. You said he gave you a way to contact them, right?"

"Yes," she said slowly, wary of where this was going. "But I'm not sure what you expect me to do once I'm inside. You said you lost the tracking signal, so we can't find the hospital that way."

"You'll call us from inside."

Shu lan gaped. "You're kidding, right? Do you think hell has its own cell towers?"

"Of course not. Yat Sen will explain when he gets back."

That's when Shu lan noticed that Yat Sen had gone, but when, she had no idea. The door opened, and he entered, carrying her leather jacket.

"All set?" Ting asked, and Yat Sen nodded, reached into the coat pocket.

He pulled out a cell phone and held it up. "This, Shu lan, is your secret weapon. Did Ting tell you about it?"

"She said I'm supposed to call from inside the hospital. But what if there's no signal?"

Yat Sen grinned, and she supposed most women found him attractive, but there'd always been something off about him, something that had never allowed her to look at him with physical attraction. Then again, very few men had ever done it for her. The one who did do it for her wasn't a man at all.

"That's the beauty of this little device. All you have to do is flip it open. There will be a countdown on the screen. Before it gets to zero, dial one-one-nine." He stuffed the phone into her coat pocket.

"That's it?"

"Yep. When you dial, it'll blast out a tracer spell. Everything within a hundred-yard radius will be contaminated, and as the demons leave the hospital, they'll leave trails that'll be visible to our diviner for days."

"Kinda like ants," Ting said. "And if the hospital is in this realm, we should be able to see it with the spell almost instantly."

Yat Sen handed Shu lan her jacket. "Once the countdown is activated, it can't be stopped, and the phone will self-destruct if the number isn't dialed."

Man, this was crazy. The words "suicide mission" kept flashing in her head. Shuddering, she shrugged into her jacket. She had to get out of here, get some fresh oxygen into her lungs and into her brain so she could think.

Ting nodded at Jagger, a tiny motion Shu lan almost missed, and Yat Sen came at her as if he'd been launched from a cannon. Before Shu lan could get her arms free of her coat sleeves, he grabbed her, slammed her back into his c.h.e.s.t, and kept her immobilized.

"Hey!"

Ting's foot crunched into her torso, and Shu lan's breath exploded from her lungs with such force she couldn't even groan at the searing agony. Yat Sen released her, and she sank to her knees, cursing herself for being so weak as to show pain, but cursing Ting and Yat Sen even more.

She clasped her hands over her stitches, felt warm, sticky blood flow into her palms. The wound itself stung, but the pain radiated deeper, so deep it felt as if her organs were shifting and imploding.

Ting knelt beside her, all fuzzy pinks and blues through Shu lan's watery vision. "I'm sorry, hon. I figured faster was better. Like pulling a tooth." She stroked Shu lan's arm gently. "I know this seems excessive, but we're at war. War means sacrifice. We're all that stands between humans and hell on Earth. Are you willing to do whatever is necessary to take these beasts down? Are you willing to give your life if it comes down to it?"

Her life, yes. Her spleen, no. She didn't have enough breath to say any of those things, so she jerked her head in a nod.

"Good. I think we all feel the same way."