Page 47

FOURTEEN

Sorsha

We held our second interrogation in the back room of a funhouse. The summer fairgrounds had shut down for the season a few days ago, but they left enough supply trailers and other structures on site year round for the camper van to blend right in.

Omen stalked back and forth in front of the chair where we’d plunked our now perfectly willing captive down. “The docklands, the bridge in the park, and the strawberry-picking place south of the city. Are those really the only rifts your people check regularly? You never go farther afield?”

The Company of Light guy let his head list to one side as he considered with a frown of concentration. Once Ruse had chatted with him long enough, he hadn’t even minded having his arms and legs tied to that chair. Bossypants was insisting on extra caution.

“I went out to a town just north of Pittsburgh with the guys once,” our captive said, “but I wouldn’t call that regularly. Covering those three every week takes up plenty of time as it is. We don’t catch many of the monsters, but the Company is happy with what we bring in.”

An edge of frustration was creeping into the hellhound shifter’s voice. “All right. Let’s run through all the Company higher-ups you’ve dealt with. Names, descriptions.”

“It’ll make helping them so much easier,” Ruse put in with a twinkling of charm, shooting Omen a look of warning not to get too brusque in his questioning.

Pickle, who’d been watching the proceedings with me where I was standing beyond the glow of the single overhead bulb, scrambled from one shoulder to the other with a prickle of his claws and a nervous twitch of his tail. Tension hummed through the small, barren space, most of it wafting off of our leader. After everything we’d risked, this captive wasn’t proving much more useful than the first one.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I stepped out into the evening air with a little relief at the excuse to leave. It wasn’t much fun listening to the Company jerks spout off about eradicating “monsters”—and even though they appeared to all be prejudiced and potentially murderous assholes, seeing them in that charmed daze for hours on end unnerved me.

I had my protective badge pinned to my undershirt to ward off supernatural powers, and I trusted Ruse not to use his on me anyway, but still… under certain circumstances, he could . He had on at least a few innocent people who had no opinions about the shadowkind whatsoever in the past couple of weeks in the service of our cause.

The phone’s screen glowed in the deepening darkness outside. It was Vivi calling. My heart leapt. Kicking at crinkly concession-stand bags, I wandered farther across the desolate concrete yard that had held a Ferris wheel a few days earlier and brought the phone to my ear.

“Hey, Vivi. Did everything go okay?”

“Oh, yeah. They ate up my posh persona like I was caviar with a cherry on top. I told you I could work a crowd.”

“You did,” I agreed, and I’d known it was true. Vivi’s brand of poise seemed to endear her to people almost as well as Ruse’s charm. She’d been out this afternoon at a fundraising event. Between the connections the Fund had started tracing and the information we’d gotten from our local hacker, we’d been pretty sure it was a front for the Company of Light. “No one asked any awkward questions?”

“Nah. I’ve been around this kind of crowd before—just like the folks my uncle would schmooze with when he was running for state office. As long as you look the part, they assume you’re some rich professional like them. And they do like to talk. I think I might have picked up a couple of tidbits your little team will find useful.”

I perked up, ignoring Pickle nibbling at my ear. “Oh, yeah? What did you get?”

“Well, I made friendly with some of the catering staff and was able to sneak a look at some of their paperwork to check the billing name and address. Not sure how far that’ll get you, but it should be worth tracing. And there were some pictures in this slide-show they did—they were claiming they’re raising money for a special treatment center for kids with cancer. Maybe Ellen and Huyen should reconsider the whole ‘no outright lying’ policy for our appeals, because man did it work?—”

“The pictures?”

“Right, yeah.” Vivi laughed at herself. “I wondered if they might have used any from their actual buildings, since they wouldn’t want anyone to recognize a place they know isn’t really a cancer treatment facility. So I snapped as many pics as I could of their pics with my phone. I’ll email all that and the billing info stuff to you. I know it’s not a ton, but I didn’t want to get too pushy my first time out.”

“You shouldn’t get pushy, period,” I reminded her, but a smile had touched my lips despite the desolate atmosphere around me. We were building a real team here. With enough people—mortal and shadowkind—on our side, eventually the Company wouldn’t stand a chance.

“I know, I know. Safety first. I did find out they’re holding another event like this next month, so I can try to dig up more leads—in non-pushy fashion!—then.”

“Perfect.” Next month—that felt like forever away. Of course, it felt like it’d been at least one forever since my shadowkind trio had barged into my life in the first place. I was already down an apartment, most of my belongings, and my sense of certainty about who I was.

That thought led me right back to the insinuations Omen had been making—the last thing I wanted to dwell on. As I shook my uneasiness off, Vivi kept talking.

“I stopped by our favorite bar too—a certain someone there wanted me to pass on a message. I guess whatever she wants to tell you, she didn’t feel comfortable talking about it except in person? She wants you to meet her in the FoodMart five blocks east of her place at eleven thirty tonight.”

Jade wanted to meet at a grocery store? Well, I’d had dealings in weirder places recently… like right now, looking up at the giant clown face on the front of the funhouse. The shadowkind woman might have come through with something for us. I checked the time on my phone—I wouldn’t have to rush to make it there. “I can do that. Thanks for letting me know.”

“If there’s anything else I can help out with in the meantime…”

“I know, I know. You’re eager to get in on the action.” But I still wasn’t in any hurry to pull my best friend that far into the fray, as hungry as she might be to get a taste of adventure. “I’ll keep you in the loop.”

I ambled back around the funhouse and slipped through the back door just in time to see Thorn plunging his fist into our captive’s smiling face.

Plunge was absolutely the right word. His crystalline knuckles caved in the guy’s forehead and nose with a sickeningly wet crunch and squelched at least a few inches farther into his skull. The man’s body slumped—a body that was still tied tightly to the chair. It wasn’t as if he could have been any threat.

My stomach lurched. “What the hell!? Since when were we going to kill him?”

Thorn stepped back, blood and gore dripping from his hand to patter on the floor, his mouth tightening as he looked at me. Beside him, Omen—who must have given the order—offered only a casual shrug.

“Since he was a genocidal bastard out to destroy all shadowkind?” he said. “He coughed up everything useful he knew, and some of his colleagues saw us take him—they’d never believe he escaped before we’d raked him over the coals. From the sounds of your past exploits, they’d have killed him for being a loose end. This way he ends up in the same place without spilling anything about us.”

He was still spilling—spilling brains all over the concrete floor. I averted my eyes, swallowing down the bile that was rising in my throat.

Omen had a point. The Company had murdered their own people before for compromising the organization through no fault of their own. I’d seen Thorn himself murder several Company employees in the past couple of weeks. They’d just always been actively trying to murder us at the same time, so it’d been easier to keep down my dinner at the thought.

“Well, I’m going to need a ride downtown in about an hour,” I said. “I think I’m going to tour the sights outside until then.” I turned on my heel and marched back out before any more of the fleshy stink could reach my nose.

Meandering around the vacant fairgrounds didn’t do much to lift my mood, even with the good news I’d gotten from Vivi. I lobbed discarded pop cans at a target game that had been left in place while Pickle rummaged for treats by a snack stall with empty racks. Exerting my muscles distracted me a little, but that gnawing uneasiness lingered in the back of my mind.

I let my voice carry across the concrete yard. “In a messed-end town in a dread-sent world, the beast-blend boys can stress their girls…” Nope, even warping lyrics was taking me in a gloomy direction.

This was my life now: murder and mayhem and never setting my head down anyplace any other human wanted to be. Maybe I wouldn’t have anything like a normal life back in a month—maybe I wouldn’t next year.

It’d been easier not to think about long-term plans during the hunt for Omen’s captors when we’d had no idea who we were up against, and then when it hadn’t seemed all that sure I’d even be alive in a few days’ time. Easier not to wonder if I was meant for a normal human life at all when I hadn’t had an obnoxiously domineering shadowkind insisting I had some kind of supernatural power.

That was impossible, wasn’t it? The uneasy quiver rose through my chest again, but the memory of Omen calling me a coward hardened my resolve. I glared at a tattered popcorn bag drifting across the concrete and pictured it going up in a burst of flames.

Burn. Burn!

Not so much as a flicker of heat wavered off the paper shell. With a surge of relief that maybe was a tad cowardly, I shook my head.

Of course I couldn’t set a piece of trash on fire with will alone. The rest… it had to be a string of coincidences. Heck, when you played with fire as much as I did, was it really surprising that now and then something strange would just happen to happen?

My restless rambling led me back toward the funhouse. As I skirted an ancient-looking transport truck someone had left parked between the building and the now-deserted go-kart track, voices reached my ears. I paused out of view to listen. Hey, long-time thief here—why would you expect me to be above a little eavesdropping?

The first voice was Thorn’s, even more somber than usual. “—pick them off a few at a time, and it hardly seems to make any difference.”

“We’re getting there,” Omen replied. “Even I didn’t know how complex this mortal conspiracy was going to be. But all that picking away at them will get us closer to shutting them down completely.”

“It’s not the kind of war I’m used to fighting. They’re not the kind of opponents I’m used to going up against. To kill one who’s been talking to us cheerfully as if we’re his comrades…”

“Just because they don’t fight the same way as the armies of times past doesn’t make them any less formidable. If anything, they’re more so, don’t you think? If they came at us in a horde with swords swinging, you’d make mincemeat of them in an instant, and we’d be done with it.”

“That’s true.”

My hackles were starting to rise at the thought of Omen badgering Thorn into acting against his conscience when the shifter’s voice softened.

“I do appreciate all you’ve offered to me and this cause already, old friend. I wouldn’t have called you out of your seclusion if I didn’t think you could save so many more now than were ever at risk back then. Not that I believe you owed anyone more than you gave all those eons ago. You definitely don’t owe me anything. While you stick with us, we do things my way—but if you need something from me to make the sticking easier, just say the word.”

Thorn sighed. “It feels as if time has passed so quickly and yet so little of it has gone by. Someone needs to stand up for our kind, and I’m more equipped than most. I’d just wish for a clearer way if one were available.”

“Wouldn’t we all?” Omen said with a chuckle, and then paused. “How do you think the others are holding up? You’ve spent more time in their company than I have by now.” To my surprise, he sounded honestly concerned, as if he cared about Ruse’s and Snap’s well-being beyond how well they could carry out his orders.

Thorn took a moment before answering. “The incubus is difficult to read, but he’s seemed happy enough. Maybe a little too merry at times, if anything. The devourer remains steady as long as he’s not prodded about his greater power. He has more resilience to him than I might have expected.”

“All right. If you get the sense either of them is faltering, let me know. I didn’t start this crusade to ruin the only shadowkind willing to stand with me.”

Holy hiccupping hellfire, the boss had a heart and a conscience after all. What would he say about me when he thought I couldn’t hear?

As much as I’d have liked to indulge that curiosity, I had a covert meet-up to get to. I strolled around the truck as if I’d only just arrived back at the funhouse.

Omen’s expression immediately sharpened at the sight of me. Thorn drew himself up even straighter as if he felt the need to look extra imposing after the doubts he’d expressed to his boss, but I’d stopped being intimidated by his size days ago. Mostly.

“I’ve got to get back to the city now,” I said. “Important news from a friend—something too delicate to be passed on over the phone. Who’s driving?”

I hadn’t really figured Omen would volunteer, no matter how much heart he’d hidden behind that authoritarian attitude. “Ruse,” he barked. “The mortal needs someone inhuman to drive that human vehicle.”

“Hey,” I said. “We can’t all learn everything. Unlike some of you, I’ve only been in existence for twenty-seven years, and for all but eleven of those, driving would have gotten me thrown into juvie.”

Omen ignored my attempt at defending my honor. As Ruse materialized by the camper van, the hellhound shifter motioned to Thorn. “You go too. Make sure our walking disaster doesn’t cause any new catastrophes.”

Snap poked his head out from the funhouse doorway. “I can?—”

“You,” Omen said, “are going to sample that corpse like you did the man that led you to my prison. Maybe he’ll be slightly more informative now that he’s dead. Let’s get to it.”

Snap shot me a pained apologetic glance, but he couldn’t exactly claim he’d provide more protection than the warrior. I hopped into the passenger side of the van, and Thorn vanished into the shadows in the back. It held two padded benches—one of which was going to serve as my bed tonight—and various cupboards Pickle darted off to continue exploring.

Ruse arched an eyebrow at me. “What are we up to tonight?”

“The thrilling art of grocery shopping,” I said.

“Hmm. Maybe this is more Snap’s area after all.”

Despite his initial joke, he flipped on the radio and drove from the fringes of the city toward the downtown core without attempting any additional conversation. When I made a wry comment here or there about the passing buildings, he offered a smile and a quick response, but nothing to encourage his usual flirty repartee.

The most he spoke was when he had me call up our hacker ally and put her on speakerphone so he could bolster his supernatural influence before I sent her the address and photos Vivi had passed on. “Everything you can find out, as soon as you can find it,” he said, his voice dripping with charm. “Your help has been absolutely invaluable.”

As I hung up the phone after our next steps were all set, I studied him from the corner of my eye. Maybe this newfound reserve of the past few days meant he was starting to take our current circumstances more seriously than Thorn had given him credit for.

Or maybe, despite all that initial flirting and the heat I’d thought I’d felt between us just a few nights ago in the barn, he was bored of my mortal companionship already. He’d been with who knew how many other women before me, after all, and he didn’t usually stick around for much chitchat after the deed was done. I should have felt honored he’d invested as much attention in me as he had.

But to tell you the truth, it only added to the uncomfortable hollow in the pit of my stomach. Call me greedy, but it seemed I liked each member of my trio more than was probably wise.

Any worries about Ruse’s interest in me or lack thereof vanished when the glowing windows of the FoodMart came into view up ahead. The downtown grocery store took up half a city block, open from the wee hours in the morning until midnight. I guessed even Jade might use it for purposes other than covert meet-ups—shadowkind might not need to eat, at least in the traditional mortal way, but many of them enjoyed doing so simply for the pleasure of chowing down. It was just hard to picture the bar owner’s sleek, green-haired form amid the aisles of canned veggies and jars of pasta sauce.

There she was, though. I spotted her within seconds of heading inside, Ruse and Thorn following invisibly through the shadows. Her dark hair swallowed up the artificial light, turning the green almost black.

She caught my eye for just a second and then drifted farther down the aisle to contemplate the cereal boxes. Lucky Charms were on sale—now that was lucky. I picked up a box and pretended to be fascinated by the nutritional information. What vitamins did they stuff into those marshmallows?

“What’s up?” I asked quietly.

Jade turned and inspected a container of peanut butter. “I know this is ridiculous, but we’ve had a few mortals come into the bar asking rather pointed questions. I think it’s best you steer clear of the Fountain until this situation you’ve gotten yourself into is… cleared up.”

My throat tightened. I’d already suspected the Company might have asked around about me at Jade’s, but I hadn’t meant to bring more trouble to her doorstep. “Understood. I’ll be a stranger until it’s safe again.”

“I do have some—well, possibly—good news too. A couple of occasional patrons stopped by yesterday talking about a conflict with mortals, and I told them you were working on something like that. They seemed interested in joining forces. I’ll let you figure out how to reach out to them. Here’s Glisten’s number.”

A shadowkind named Glisten? What sort of shiny being would that turn out to be?

“Thank you,” I said with intense gratitude as she surreptitiously passed me a slip of paper.

The corner of Jade’s mouth quirked up. “Wait to thank me until after you’ve met them. They might be of some use. Take care of yourself.”

With that, she set the peanut butter back on the shelf and walked away. I gazed longingly at my box of Lucky Charms for several seconds longer, but that was made for people who had things like bowls and spoons and, y’know, fridges in which to keep milk. A.K.A., people other than me at the present moment. Sighing, I put it back and headed for the door.

I came around the corner by the cashiers and stopped in my tracks with a stutter of my pulse.

A lanky man with shaggy black hair was just handing his credit card over to the woman at the counter. A man I’d recognized from his posture in an instant, but he turned his head enough for me to see the profile of his face and remove any doubt.

I’d lived with that man for almost a year, until I… hadn’t. It’d been years since I’d last seen Malachi. Our paths hadn’t crossed since he’d left—mostly by his design, I suspected.

I’d been as over our relationship as I could have been without any kind of closure, but seeing him out of the blue sent a flush that was half shame and half anger surging through my body. No way in hell did I want to deal with him now of all the possible times I could have run into him. A significant part of me would have liked to run him over . I spun around and darted for the entrance before he finished paying.

As I clambered into the van, Ruse reformed on the driver’s side.

Thorn loomed over my seat with a worried frown. “Are you all right? It looked like?—”

“I’m fine,” I said quickly. “It has nothing to do with… with anything important. Please, let’s just get out of here.”

Ruse took one look at me and shifted the van into drive, and I left yet another piece of my old life behind.

Good riddance.