Narvari scrunched her nose as the stench of antibiotics and blood assaulted her senses. She had barely entered the massive New Life Hospital yet was ready to get out — how she hated hospitals. But duty called.
A cry of terror from behind garnered her attention. She quickly leaned her back against the wall as a bed accompanied by four doctors wheeled by her. A man bled so profusely it soaked the sheets and made them crimson. He wouldn’t stop shouting. Narvari grimaced at the sight of the screwdriver sticking out of the man’s left eye.
“Jesus.” She rubbed her left eye. She had to hurry and get the hell out before she lost her mind.
Narvari got into an elevator. Seconds later, she was on the eleventh floor. Her team had divided the twelve floors of the hospital among themselves to cover more ground. She was in charge of the eleventh and twelfth floors while the others took the lower floors.
She peeked at her xuul. It was supposed to give a warning if it sensed any demons within a two-hundred-meter radius. But so far, the xuul was still inactive. That didn’t mean she could lose her guard. Xuul sensed demon energy, not the demons themselves. Greater and royal demons could easily conceal their demon energy so even if there were greater demons around, her xuul would not sense it unless the demon released its demon energy. She needed to be prepared for anything.
She wasn’t sure what they were searching for, but Azmel said they had to look out for something out of the ordinary. What could be out of the ordinary here? Certainly not a man with a screwdriver in his eye.
She sneaked past the wide hallways of the hospital. This floor wasn’t as crowded as the lower floors. There were only a couple of people and patients around. It was also a lot more quiet here unlike the literal chaos on the ground floor.
Narvari halted at the sight of the two men in black suits and dark sunglasses guarding the door. Bodyguards. This must be a VIP ward or something, thought Narvari. She casually walked past them.
A nurse quickly filed past her, too much in a hurry to give Narvari a second glance. Other than that, nothing else was happening on this floor. She sighed as boredom took over. Perhaps, her team would find something on the lower floors. She found an empty waiting lounge. A silent TV played in the background.
Suddenly her fingers went numb as goosebumps flooded her arms. Her eyes widened, sensing a slight change in the atmosphere. It was subtle, but it was there. She could feel it worming its way on her skin like insects.
Demon energy. Her eyes darkened. There was something odd about this demon energy. Too weak, too diluted. No wonder the xuul could not detect it. She had to act now. This was their biggest lead so far, even if it was a small one.
She took a deep breath. Once she sensed the direction of the demon energy, she bolted towards that direction. Along the hallways, she went, then up the stairs to the twelfth floor. The closer she got, the stronger the energy felt, although still too weak to be sensed by the xuul. Not even a first-order demon had such weak demon energy. How could she even sense it in the first place?
She halted when she heard hushed voices coming from the left hallway. The demon energy seemed to be diffusing from that hallway.
Narvari leaned against the wall, peeking through the hallway. A group of people waited in front of the elevator. A man and a woman, who Narvari assumed were doctors because of their pristine white lab coats, stood behind a sickly man in a wheelchair. A third person, a bearded bald man dressed in an immaculate green blazer, was speaking to the doctors. There was something vaguely familiar about the man. But she couldn’t worry about that. Right now, what had gathered her curiosity was the demon energy, and it was coming from the man in the wheelchair.
His face was a sickly gray color with thick black veins running across the left side of his thin hollow face. Why was she sensing demon energy from him? Was he a demon? He looked so sick and helpless. Could he really be a demon?
The doctors walked away just before the elevator door opened. Two men in black jackets came out of the elevator before wheeling the sick man back inside the elevator. The man in the green blazer suddenly turned around his deep brown flashing a tint of gold as he glared in Narvari’s direction. Narvari quickly pressed herself to the side of the wall away from his gaze. Her heart hammered in her chest.
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What the hell was that? Did that man’s eyes change color? Had she imagined it? Was it the lighting? Okay, that was ridiculous. That man was definitely a demon. She couldn’t sense his demon energy, but she was sure of it. She took a peek. The elevator was already moving.
With the singular thought of not losing sight of them, Narvari sped towards the stairs, running as fast she could without sacros. She would be faster with sacros, but she couldn’t risk releasing her presence to the demons. The elevator stopped on each floor but the men didn’t come out. This continued until they got to the basement. Narvari stayed hidden behind one of the many cars parked in the wide dimly lit space. Footsteps approached.
She peeked from behind the side of a black truck. The men emerged, one of them wheeling the sick man into a white minivan with the logo of Winfield Research Institute. Narvari narrowed her eyes. Winfield?
What the hell was going on?
Then a notification from her phone startled her. Shit shit shit. Her blood ran cold. The men stopped, their eyes searching her direction. Narvari stayed hidden.
Shit. They were coming closer. Their hands hovered around the gun on their waist. She clenched her jaws, as she crawled beneath the truck. She inhaled slowly to keep her breathing steady. Feet appeared next to her.
“There’s no one here,” one of the men said.
“That’s odd,” said the other. “I was sure someone was following us.”
“That’s enough,” said another more demanding voice. It must be the man in the green blazer, thought Narvari. “We’re already behind schedule. Let’s go.”
The heavy footsteps diminished until Narvari was sure they were completely gone. But she stayed there for another few minutes. She could take them, no doubt she could, but doing that could alert any demons involved about the vanquishers and give the demons the chance to put things in order before the vanquishers came knocking.
Narvari crawled from beneath the car and fished her phone out of her pocket.
The message was from Zemeron:
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The team had not gathered much at New Life Hospital. Other than Narvari’s report about a man who could likely be a demon and the strange demon energy she had sensed from the sick man, there had been nothing else out of the ordinary. How lucky was it that Narvari had spotted those men?
Zemeron, on the other hand, had fared much better than they.
“I spoke to Joshua Nnamdi,” said he. “He confirmed that his wife was admitted to New Life Hospital when she had leukemia. He said that some officials at the hospital came to him and recommended a new treatment with a higher success rate.”
The hospital promised to take care of all the expenses and all Joshua had to do was sign off a few documents to begin the treatment. The treatment however did not work, and his wife later died. Even then the hospital refused to release his wife’s body to him. He didn’t know he had signed that he could not claim the body if the treatment failed.
Narvari tilted her head as she suddenly thought of something. “Zemeron, did Joshua describe how sick his wife became during the treatment? Did she… I don’t know… did she become pale with thick black veins all over her face or something?”
Zemeron paused. “How did you know that?”
“The man in the wheelchair looked exactly like that.” She shrugged. “They drove him away in a minivan with the Winfield logo on it.”
“The man you sensed the weak demon energy from?”
Narvari nodded. But then she realized that everyone was watching her with horror on their faces. Had she said something strange? And then it dawned on her.
“Oh my god. Joshua’s wife and that man are both human. How the hell do they have demon energy inside them?” This was insane. “Isn’t it toxic to humans?” Could that be what killed Joshua’s wife? Was that what had happened to all the other victims? All those people. Narvari rubbed her temple. “Did all those people get killed by that demon?”
“I think it’s a lot worse than that.” Azmel balled his fist, his eyes hardening. “Much, much worse.”
What could be worse than that?
“I believe,” he said, “humans are being turned.”
“Turned?” Narvari blurted. “Into what?”
Yanvirrak gaped at her as if he could not believe she would ask such an inane question.
Then she understood. “Oh, shit.”
“Shit is right,” said Yanvirrak. “Only royal demons can turn humans into demons.”
Narvari froze. She knew they had gone on this mission because of the increase in the activity of royal demons. But this wasn’t what she had expected. This was worse. Much, much worse.
“I’m certain it’s taking place at Winfield,” said Zemeron. “We need to stop them. It can’t be a coincidence that royal demons who have been keeping a low profile all this while have suddenly become sloppy.” His voice chilled. “This is going to be dangerous. If any of you ran into a royal demon, escape at once. I’ll inform Trixan of our progress before we leave. She’ll send a backup if we need any. Any questions?”
No one moved or said anything.
“Good,” said Zemeron. “Eat and rest. We leave at midnight.”