Page 52 of Demon Unleashed

“Take her back to the cell. And then call a meeting for all lieutenants. We’ll meet in twenty minutes. I want everybody there on time. Is that clear?”

Silvana motioned to Enya. “And who’s guarding her?”

Zoltan narrowed his eyes. “You’ve got plenty of men at your disposal. Choose someone, for fuck’s sake! And then get your ass down to the conference cave.”

“Right away, oh Great One,” Silvana replied, and grabbed Enya’s shackles to pull her along the corridor leading to the cells.

Zoltan followed them with his eyes. With a little luck, his plan might just work out. All depended on a carefully choreographed sequence of events. Zoltan turned into another corridor and let his memory guide him through the labyrinth of tunnels. Many a newly minted demon got lost, but he’d grown up here. As a boy, he’d played hide and seek in the many corridors, tunnels, and caves. He knew every dead end, every shortcut, and every crevice that could be used to hide.

He used this knowledge to reach the tunnel that led to right behind the cave that housed the cells. He heard the distinct, heavy footfalls of Silvana and the decidedly lighter ones of Enya, though not the virtually silent ones of the dog. Moments later, there was a hushed conversation, then the cell door was opened. More rattling of chains: Silvana was taking Enya’s shackles off, which meant she was now in the cell. A few more seconds, a few more sounds, and a key was turned in the lock.

Moments later, Silvana’s boots clacking on the ground echoed against the rock walls and grew fainter and fainter. Then silence. Zoltan waited another minute to be certain that she’d turned into another tunnel from where she couldn’t look back to see what was about to happen in the cell cave. One hand in his coat pocket, Zoltan emerged from the tunnel and marched into the cave. The demon who stood guard outside of Enya’s cell was an experienced one. It didn’t matter. Next to him, the Doberman sat at attention, its head turning toward the sound of Zoltan’s boots.

“Oh Great One,” the guard said.

“Todd, is Silvana not here?” Zoltan asked, and approached as quickly as he could without causing suspicion. “She was supposed to wait for me here to walk to the meeting with me.”

“Oh Great One,” Todd replied, and turned his head to the tunnel in which Silvana had disappeared. “You just missed h—”

The dagger Zoltan stabbed into the guard’s heart cut his sentence short. “Yeah, I know.” He twisted the blade, making sure the man was dead, then pulled it out and wiped it carefully on the guard’s clothing, then let the body fall to the ground. He reassured himself that no blood had splattered on his own clothes and put his dagger back into his pocket.

The Doberman whined, and Zoltan turned to him. The good thing was that all dogs in the Underworld were trained to protect the Great One. They wouldn’t turn on him. He pulled a piece of sausage out of his other pocket and gave it to the dog.

“Good boy, Rex.”

The Doberman swallowed the sausage and what it contained: a fast-acting powder Zoltan had stuffed in its center to put the dog to sleep. In a few hours, Rex would be as lively as ever. While the dog grew calmer and lay down, Zoltan searched the dead guard’s pockets for the key to the cell and retrieved it quickly, then turned to the door. He cast a last look at the dog and noticed its eyes closing, before he unlocked the door and pulled it open.

“Enya, quickly,” he said.

She emerged from the dark cell. “You kept your word.”

“You still doubt me? Enya, Enya. I have the feeling I’ll have to pound it into you how much you mean to me.”

“And by ‘pound,’ you mean…?” She dropped her gaze to his crotch.

“Don’t look at me like that, or we’ll never get out of here.” He pulled his shirt from his pants, then pulled out a second shirt he’d stuffed underneath and handed it to Enya. “Put this on. It’s unwashed and has my scent on it. It should help with the dogs.” While Enya pulled the shirt over her top and buttoned it, he adjusted his own clothing. Then he looked back at the dead demon. “Take his dagger.”

Enya retrieved the weapon from the dead guard and bent down, then stopped herself and pointed to her bare feet. “You wouldn’t have a pair of shoes my size lying around, would you?”

“Afraid not. But maybe that’s a good thing. Nobody will hear you walking.”

“Okay.” She slid the dagger into one of the pockets of her cargo pants, then pulled her phone from another and switched it on. “No signal.”

Zoltan nodded. “Just like I told you. Good thing is you won’t need a signal. Make sure it’s on silent.”

“Already set. I’m ready.”

“Stay as close to me as you can at all times. My shirt will distort your scent, but not entirely.”

“Don’t worry, I’m gonna stick to you like glue. You’re my ticket out of here.”

He bent his head to her and smiled. “I hope that’s not all I am to you.”

She kissed him quickly, then stepped back. “I guess you’ll have to figure that out later, won’t you?”

“Tease.”

“That’s how you like it,” she murmured, and in the middle of her sentence, she became invisible.