Eva wasn’t sure why she felt the need to don a surgical mask. Maybe she thought that she would be operating on Lucy.
Upon seeing her when first entering the nurse’s office, Eva actually had to do a double-take. Both Nurse Post and the woman who had likely kidnapped Lucy had eye patches. It was such an unusual trait that Eva’s eye had been drawn to it first while her mind jumped to conclusions.
Stupid conclusions. Nurse Post had much darker hair. The woman’s was red. Their facial structure was different. Nurse Post lacked that somewhat disturbing smile as well.
“She?” the nurse asked, face still wrinkled in a mixture of confusion and discomfort.
“Oh. Right.” Eva rested a hand on the bed near Lucy. “Meet Lucy. The security guard,” she added when Nurse Post failed to show any recognition. “This is what she looks like when not doing her poor impression of a human.”
Narrowing her eye ever so slightly, Nurse Post said, “that should surprise me. Somehow, it doesn’t.” She sighed as she shook her head. “She and the other specialist went missing. Shall I prepare to receive another wad of tentacles?”
“Oh no. Daru looks like a human for real. Lucy is something of a special case.” Eva paused for just a moment before continuing in a more somber tone of voice. “Also, we haven’t found him yet. I don’t even know if he is still… around.”
Something of a depressing silence fell over the group, only to be broken by Lucy knocking a tissue box off a table next to the bed.
Eva turned to find Lucy squirming a whole lot more than she had been just a moment ago.
Figuring that there was no harm in asking, Eva said, “I don’t suppose you know where Daru is?”
The thrashing tentacles stilled. Eva took that for a negative, but that was mostly a guess.
As Eva watched, Lucy started trying something. Her few remaining tentacles were winding around each other. Lips, or something vaguely resembling them, started to form as the tentacles tightened together. Unfortunately, as she tried to form a throat and some lungs, the lips started to come unwound.
Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t form enough of a face to speak while still having lungs to draw in air needed to create the sound of words.
So much of her body was missing that she couldn’t even put together half of a head to speak. It was amazing that she was still alive at all. Decentralized nervous and circulatory systems were awe inducing.
Eva grimaced at the sight. Absently, she noted Juliana glancing off to the side while trying to not look like she was disturbed. Nurse Post placed a hand over her masked mouth after gasping.
“Alright stop,” Eva said, placing her hands over Lucy. “You’re not helping. If you could write, that might work better.”
The tentacles ceased their formations of various organs, instead just flopping out onto the bed. Eva, once again, took that as a no.
“Just focus on getting better.” Turning back to Nurse Post, Eva said, “you should know that she was taken by demon hunters. They might not be so excited that she got away.”
“So you bring her to a school?”
Eva shrugged. “Summer time. School is out. Most students aren’t even back for the summer seminars yet. If they come back at all. Besides, I can feel Zagan nearby. I doubt that they’ll come here. Still, something to be aware of.”
“And if they do come back?”
“Hide. Let them take Lucy. She won’t die even if they kill her. You will.”
There was a bit of squirming from Lucy at Eva’s suggestion, but Eva paid it no mind. A thought entered her mind about whether or not her statement was true.
“I think, anyway,” Eva said. “The red eyes throw me off, are you a demon or are you not?”
Eva couldn’t sense anything from her. That didn’t necessarily mean anything. Zagan was nearby. Probably just down the hall in Martina Turner’s office. With him so close, Eva could barely feel Lucy and they were just about touching. Inexperienced in her ability to detect demons, it was entirely possible that one she hadn’t known about would slip through.
“I’m not a demon.”
“Then leave her to the hunters.”
If she caught wind of the hunters coming after Lucy again, Eva would jump in without hesitation. Asking the same of a school nurse was not really something that she could do. She was counting on the fact that Zagan was fairly intimidating when he wanted to be.
“Now,” Eva said, “I don’t supposed you know if Martina Turner is around?”
“Last I heard, she was in her office.”
With Zagan, Eva thought with a nod of her head. “Right.” She glanced back towards Juliana. “Coming along?”
“I–Yeah.”
As they headed out into the hallway, Juliana let out a long sigh.
“Figures,” she said, “I’m back and in less than half a day, big things are going on.”
“I imagine your little vacation wasn’t quite so eventful,” Eva said with a chuckle.
“Not really. Aside from Zagan showing up, about the only interesting thing was watching this town on the news.”
“About the sky?”
Juliana glanced around the empty hallway. “I know it isn’t some agricultural thing,” she said in a low voice. “What is it?”
Eva shrugged. Juliana had been there when Zagan had explained about the situation with Hell. Of course, her mother had a hole in her chest at the time, but Eva was fairly certain that she had heard enough to get the gist of it. As such, she didn’t feel a need to explain all that.
“Don’t know for sure. The idea that Wayne, Zoe, Devon, and Ylva came up with is that it is some form of attack on Void. It and the enigmas–” Eva cut herself off as a thought occurred to her. “The creatures that your dad came to inspect are the enigmas. I can’t remember if they had their name when you were here last. The idea is that they’re designed to weaken the barriers between the mortal realm and Void. Whether the sky is the cause or a side effect is still up for debate.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“I try not to worry about it.”
“That seems…. irresponsible.”
“It’s sort of like knowing that a meteor is careening towards the Earth. What am I really supposed to do about it? Devon and Zagan don’t seem particularly worried. Devon is a coward as well. If he isn’t running around like a chicken without a head, I don’t know why I would.
“I prefer to focus my energies on things that I can actually affect. Sawyer, for instance. These demon hunters for another.”
Juliana made a small humming noise. Not really one of agreement or derision, just of acknowledgment.
Inside the main office area, Eva paused with a frown on her face.
Catherine’s desk was empty.
She could sense her somewhere. That probably meant that the demon hunters didn’t have her. But she wasn’t nearby. At least, she wasn’t inside Martina Turner’s office. Zagan was. Now that Eva was closer, she could sense someone else inside as well. A demon that Eva found familiar, but couldn’t quite place. It was probably her imagination. She hadn’t run into very many demons since her latest treatment anyway.
With no one around to wave her into the dean’s office, Eva pushed open the door without hesitation.
“–can’t allow them to–”
Martina’s voice cut off as soon as the door opened. She turned away from Governor Anderson to glare at the interruption. As soon as she saw who it was, her face twisted. As if she couldn’t decide whether to soften her features or to glare harder.
For his part, Anderson merely turned to regard Eva with a raised eyebrow.
Zagan was leaning against the wall just to the side of the door. His golden eyes were already staring at Eva as she entered, obviously expecting her. He hadn’t needed to turn his head.
One of his hands was fiddling with the cufflinks on his other wrist. His hands dropped to his sides as he spotted who was behind Eva. His lips split to reveal teeth that a dentist would be hard pressed to find a flaw in.