Page 10

Rome

I tapped my fingers impatiently against the door, watching dawn lighten the horizon.

My eyes were gritty from lack of sleep, I wanted coffee in the worst way, and I’d been in a bone-jarring car wreck. And to top off such a stellar night, the girl I cared for was imprisoned in a Diabolical market and in danger of being sold to who knew what.

As my rage grew, my fingers tapped faster and hard enough to leave tiny dings in the metal framework. I clenched my hand into a fist to stop, then shrugged. The entire side of the car was a mass of dents. A few more weren’t going to matter at this point.

As much as I wished I were in Kerry’s role, I knew the kid had it under control and could infiltrate the traffickers’ lair to get Mira and Gigi out as quickly as possible.

But it irked my honor and stung my pride to hide in a car while a kid rescued my woman.

I made a frustrated noise and glanced at Jax, who was close to chewing his thumb right off. Yeah, he wasn’t in any better shape.

“What is that ?”

I looked to where Chance was pointing and saw a skeleton hopping from one mud puddle to the next.

He was about four and a half feet tall, I guessed, and pearly light threaded through his bones and padded his joints like gel.

His skull was huge compared to the rest of him and his dark eye sockets each had a purple dot in the center.

“Is there a Diabolical creature that looks like a child’s skeleton?” Jax craned his neck for a better look. “Not that I know of,” I said.

“It looks like it has writing carved in its radial bone.” Chance reached for his door handle. “Let’s take a closer look.”

“No. Kerry said to stay in the car.” I reached over the seat and grabbed his shoulder. “Curiosity could get someone killed right now.”

“But how many times in your life are you going to see something like that ?”

“We can ask Kerry about it when he gets back.” Jax obviously didn’t want to do anything that might put his girl at risk, either. “Maybe they’re common around here or pets or something.”

“Pets.” Chance’s tone was flat. “I hope not.”

Finally, I saw them coming out of the front door. My eyes went straight to Mira, and I growled when I saw she had a black eye and was limping.

“Thank God. Gigi looks okay.” Jax seemed to relax all at once.

I wanted to do the same, but I couldn’t. Not until Mira was in the car and I had a look at her.

Kerry stopped the parade when the little skeleton dashed over to him. He patted the thing on the skull.

“Look, Kerry made a friend,” Jax said.

“Pop the trunk,” Kerry called as he brought the girls over, skeleton in tow.

Curious now, I turned around, but couldn’t see much. I had to content myself with listening as Kerry opened the trunk and shuffled things around.

“What took you so long, Kerry?” I didn’t recognize that voice and figured it was the skeleton. “You said thirty minutes.”

“I had to talk to Robideaux.” “Did you kill him?”

“Not yet.”

“What do you have for me? It had better be something good since I waited so long. What is it? Tell me! Come on!”

“Gah! You’re so annoying! Here.”

“ Gremlin teeth?” The skeleton screeched with what I could only assume was joy. “Thanks, Kerry!”

“Yeah, yeah. Go show Bit.”

“Right! I’ll catch you later.”

“Stay outta trouble, you little monster.” Kerry slammed the trunk closed.

Then the back door opened and he told Mira to get in. She obeyed without a word, her face blank and eyes dull. A bruise spread across her cheek and she panted in short, shallow breaths.

“Mira?”

She didn’t look at me or respond.

Did Kerry enthrall them to keep up his ruse?

I didn’t like it, but knew he wouldn’t have done that if it hadn’t been necessary.

“Chance, I’ll drive now,” he said. “You need to do some healing.”

The bottom fell out of my stomach. Kerry’s driving was … exciting. In the way that an earthquake is exciting.

Under Kerry’s direction, Mira got in and sat next to me, and Chance followed her in.

Up front, Gigi slid across the seat next to Jax, who started talking to her in a low voice.

Kerry got behind the wheel, pulled his door closed, put the car in gear, and drove out of the parking lot before speaking again.

“Gigi, Mira, take off the slave bracelets and drop them on the floor.”

Almost immediately, Gigi climbed into Jax’s lap with a sob, but I was more concerned about Mira. As soon as she removed the bracelet, her head fell on my chest and she squeezed her eyes shut.

“It hurts,” she moaned. “Rome, it hurts !”

For the first time since I was kid, my control slipped and power began to frost my skin. It took way more concentration than it should have to pull it back in before it could bite her.

“What’s the worst?” Chance asked.

“Ribs.”

“May I?”

“Anything to make it stop.”

As he went to work, I carefully gathered her into my arms. She came willingly, which was a surprise, burrowing her face into me and fisting her hands up in my shirt.

She belongs here. Something inside me tightened to a painful degree. She belongs right here.

“Three broken ribs.” Chance tut-tutted. “Your right ankle is fractured. Oh, and your cheekbone, too.”

“My poor girl.” I laid my cheek on her head. “I bet you made your attacker regret it.”

“If she didn’t, I did,” Kerry growled. “Kas gave him a good working over for damaging his merchandise, but I made sure that Robideaux won’t be doing nothing but healing for a good, long while.”

I glanced at his hands on the steering wheel and— Yep. His knuckles were busted open and bloody.

I wanted to reprimand him for the disaster he could have caused, as well as the time it cost us, but I didn’t. I figured either he wouldn’t care about a lecture, in which case it would be a waste of my breath, or he’d get mad. Since his anger was too expensive to risk, I let it go .

As Chance’s power flowed over her, Mira’s bruises faded and her breathing eased. She tolerated me holding her for a few more moments, then moved away. I let her go, but felt like I’d lost a piece of me.

Patience. Just keep showing her she can trust you. Someday she’ll believe it.

At least, that was my hope.

“Better?” Chance asked with a smile.

“Much.” Mira smiled back.

The spear of jealousy that ripped into me was a shock.

She can smile at another guy, idiot. Especially one who just ended agonizing pain.

“Are you hurt?” Chance looked at Gigi, whose face was buried in Jax’s neck.

“No.”

“Did they … Did they molest you?” He had the balls to ask the question I couldn’t.

They both shook their heads, and I could breathe deeply again for the first time since we were run off the road.

“Kas said not, and I believe him.” Kerry, busy pulling into traffic, hadn’t seen their response. “He castrated one of his raiders a few years ago, and rape hasn’t been a problem since.”

“What about these bracelets?” Chance nudged Mira’s with the toe of his shoe.

“Don’t touch them!” Kerry barked. “Not with bare skin, at least. They’ll dissolve into dust in an hour on their own, anyway.”

“Sounds pretty chintzy. Cheap ones, huh?”

“Once you get to a party, favors usually don’t last long.” Kerry shrugged, then seemed to realize what he’d said. “Never mind. You don’t need to know.”

“Yes, we do!” Gigi sniffed, but sat up. “I’m tired of being so ignorant!”

I understood the kid’s hesitation to shatter his friends’ innocence. I didn’t particularly want to know, either, but we needed all the weapons we could add to our arsenal.

“All right.” He sounded like he’d decided to test us. “When greater demons have parties or whatever, they give the highest-ranking guest a treat to consume.”

“And nephilim are those treats?” I knew the answer, but asked anyway.

“And other things.” His eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror. “It has to be a pretty special guest to rate a neph, even down to Fifths.”

“By consume, you mean—” Gigi couldn’t seem to finish the sentence.

“You told me it means eat.” He glanced at her. “Did I use it wrong?”

“No, you got it right.” My hands tightened into fists.

“I may vomit,” Gigi moaned.

“Not in here.” He shot her a look. “Anyways, I have tons of information.”

“Share later,” I said through a yawn. “For now, I think you should get us to the safe house.”

Everyone agreed, wanting breakfast and sleep. He nodded, and the car lurched forward as the sun broke over the buildings.

#

Mira

The Council’s safe house took up a whole floor of an upscale apartment building somewhere in Brooklyn. After we found a spot in the building’s parking garage, I forced myself to get out of the car, trudge over to the elevator, and stay awake until we reached our destination.

Jax and Kerry took all our bags, found bedrooms, and dumped them off while the rest of us piled into the kitchen and scavenged for breakfast. There wasn’t much to choose from, and Jax began a grocery list.

When I nodded off over my bowl of milk-less cereal, Rome took my elbow, made me stand up, and dragged me off toward the bedrooms.

“Don’t get used to bossing me around.” I yawned as I followed him. “I’m too worn out to fight, that’s all.”

“I know. I promise we can fight later if you want. I should get some points on my impress-you score for taking care of you, though.”

“All right. Five points.”

“Five whole points, huh? Jeez, baby girl. That’s harsh.”

He opened the bedroom door and gently propelled me through with a hand at the small of my back.

“I didn’t get to finish my cereal,” I mumbled as I fell onto one of the room’s two queen beds.