by Nick Freo
“She’s fine,” I said, irritation creeping into my voice. “Tessa, I’m here on Arbiter business.” I raised my hand briefly to show her my mark. “This case is personally important to me, and a lot of lives have been lost surrounding it. We tried to approach the coven on McGill Street before, but they wouldn’t talk to us. Do you know what happened to them?”
Tessa averted her gaze. “I heard.”
“They wouldn’t talk to us, and now they’re dead. We were too late. I couldn’t stop what happened to them because I didn’t dig hard enough for information. I’m not going to make that mistake twice. You need to cooperate. Don’t test me. I won’t let your prejudice lead to something like that happening all over again.”
Part of my speech was only meant to guilt trip Tessa into giving me information on Serena Foster, but as the words came out, I knew they were true. I could have stopped what happened to the coven. I could have stuck around and forced them to cooperate. After my father’s murder, I should have foreseen that danger was coming towards them. I had let other people decide my actions. I wasn’t going to do that anymore.
Tessa set down the knife and the potato. “For someone who’s demon-aligned, you seem a bit concerned about what happened to the coven.”
“My alignment doesn’t affect my humanity,” I said. “It was vile. It was worse than violent and worse than murder.”
Tessa nodded. “I’m glad that your heart is still good. I appreciate your sincerity.”
“Where is Serena Foster?” I asked. Tessa tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“She mentioned that she was going to this demon-owned strip club, Second Circle,” she said. I heard Cara and Lilah shift behind me. My own fist clenched up and my stomach nearly flipped. “I tried to dissuade her, but she was determined to go.”
“It sounded like she was angel-aligned, though,” Cara said.
“She was. She is,” Tessa said.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“The part where it’s the same strip club that the abomination asshole wants Kyle to meet him at, or the part where Serena is staying in a place run by demons?” Lilah asked. “Personally, I find the first point a bit more strange, but the fact that the demons hate her and have a running streak of wanting to kill her makes the second point downright suicidal. Suicidal or exceptionally stupid.”
Tessa tapped her finger against the handle of the knife, watching Lilah.
“Do you know why she went there?” I asked Tessa. She snapped out of her trance, placing both of her hands in front of her.
“I didn’t ask many questions. When it comes to talking about demon-owned establishments, I find it best to change the subject.”
I took a deep breath, trying to keep my disappointment from changing into anger. “Is there anything else you can tell us?”
She shook her head. “I truly wish I could help you more. I could ask around more, but Serena seemed like a private individual.”
“No, we’re good,” I said. “Thank you, though.”
“Of course.”
“Well, thank you again,” I said. I held out my hand, and she shook it. Her hands were a little wet from the washed potatoes, but they were soft and she gave my hand a small squeeze.
“Any time,” she said. “If you want creamy bacon potato soup, it’ll be here tonight. I’d love for you to come by and try it. You seem like someone with a good palate.”
“Maybe next time,” I said.
“Well, just come by and tell me what you like. I’ll make sure to keep it warm for you.”
I gave her a quick smile before turning around. I led the way back out to the front of the soup kitchen. As we moved to the front door, everyone’s eyes trained on us again. It felt like a slightly friendlier version of the hotel, which brought back the memory of the witches’ corpses and the scent of metallic blood.
I took a deep breath as soon as we were outside, trying to shake the memory. I tried to focus on figuring out Serena’s actions, but my mind kept snapping back to the way Tessa looked at me. I turned to Cara.
“Did you think Tessa was acting a little strange?” I asked.
“Nope,” Cara said, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“It always seemed like demons preferred talking to demons and angels preferred talking to angels. Tessa preferred talking to me. You didn’t think that was weird at all?”
“Nope,” she repeated, giving me a quick grin this time. “Maybe she’s just heard some good things about the man acting on behalf of the Arbiter.”
“What good have I done?” I asked.
She covered her mouth, barely suppressing a laugh. “Maybe good isn’t the right word. Maybe I meant naughty.”
Her words sunk in, diving right after each other.
“What did you tell her about us?” I asked. She uncovered her mouth, still grinning and winked. Lilah made a gagging sound. She wrapped her arm around mine.
“I told you—angels are filthy gossips. The only way you can get them to keep any secret is if the Celestial Court forces them to.”
“Oh, Lilah,” Cara said as we crossed the road. “We aren’t hurting anybody. You’re so small-minded.”
“And you’re small-chested, so how—”
A noise reminiscent of material being ripped tore through my ears. A wave of heat blasted me before I witnessed flames erupt out of my BMW’s windows like a violent blooming flower. Like a bomb. Like an all-consuming warning.
Chapter 22
Cara threw herself on me as the ripping sound pierced my ears. As I hit the ground, flecks of metal scattered around me. Lilah’s knee-high boots ran past me. I grabbed Cara’s arm, pushing her off me while pulling her back. Lilah moved around the burning BMW, ducking down to look inside it. She disappeared around the other side of the vehicle, the flames close enough that it could have burned her.
“Is it a demon attack?” I called out, standing back up. Cara grabbed my arm, tugging me away from the fire. I could see Lilah’s shoulder near the front of the BMW, but she didn’t respond. I tried to peel Cara’s grip off of me. She shook her head with enough force that her hair whipped against my arm.
“No, Kyle,” she said. “Lilah is being reckless right now. Nobody else needs to go near the car. Just wait for her to come back.”
“She can’t hear us. If something happens, I’ll need to warn her.”
“If something happens, it’s going to be another explosion, which I’m certain she knows. Let her do what she needs to do. There’s no reason to risk your life too.”
We stared at each other, an equal amount of defiance in our crouched stances. I told myself that I should shove Cara away and run to Lilah because this was just another act of jealousy, but I could see the reflection of the fire in Cara’s eyes and a shadow of my face in the other. Lilah and Cara prioritized protecting me, but for Lilah, that protection relied on being seen as a big enough threat that no one would come after me. For Cara, that protection always relied on avoiding danger. It was monotonous, but not malicious.
I heard Lilah’s boots clicking toward us before I noticed her. Lilah’s face gleamed pink with sweat.
“Did you say something?” she asked me, wiping her hair back with her sweat.
I shook my head. “I figured it out. It’s not hellfire. There’s no smell of sulfur.”
Lilah nodded, brushing ash off my jacket that she wore. “Yeah. It must be the Dead Man or someone else that should be added onto the list of people trying to murder us. I can’t imagine why the Dead Man would try to kill you before your meeting.”
She raised her head, scanning the parking lot. “Pretty sure it was a bomb, possibly two bombs. Did either of you see anybody hanging around here when we went into the poverty place or running away before we got here?”
“No,” Cara said. Her hand was still on me, trembling. “I’m sorry, Kyle, I should have been more aware. It’s my job to protect you, and I wasn’t doing a good job.”
�
��It’s fine,” I said. “It took all of us by surprise. Would a human bomb hurt me? I know I took hits easier during fights after the soul-marriages, so would a bomb not hurt me as much either?”
“It would have at least caused moderate injuries,” Cara said. “Of course, it depends on various factors, but you likely could have healed most injuries.”
I stood up, picking up a piece of metal that had skittered a few feet away from us. It burned against my fingers.
“If whoever did this knew about my soul-marriages, then this must have been some kind of warning.” I dropped the metal back on the floor. Cara stood up as I turned around. “It was either a warning, or the attacker didn’t know that we aren’t…that we aren’t human.”
Damn, that was weird saying it out loud.
“What are they warning us about?” Lilah asked. “Finding Serena? Looking into your dad’s murder?”
“I don’t know.” I pressed my fingers together, which had begun to swell from the burn. I imagined the cold and blue orbs, then watched them sink into my skin as the image of the bones, muscles, and tendons appeared in my brain like an exhibition. The pain faded.
“Do you think it was the Dead Man?” Cara asked. “Do you still want to meet with him?”
“Running away won’t help.” Lilah shook out her hair, a few particles of ash falling out. “Whoever did this has shown they have no problem tracking us. The only way to deal with this is to take it head-on. Show them that you can’t be scared away.”
I nodded. “There’s no point in stopping now. People already want to kill me, whether I go to see him or not. I might as well take the risk and see what he has to say.”
“You two have the self-preservation instincts of a moth attacking a candle,” Cara scowled. I pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket.
“We’re going to get a cab and go to Second Circle. Agreed?”
Lilah nodded. Cara looked away from me, focusing on the burning BMW. I called the cab company while Cara and Lilah dissolved into an argument between survival and courage under literal fire.
When the cab arrived, Cara threw up her hands.
“Thank God. I can’t deal with you anymore. It’s like you’re purposefully being obtuse.”
She walked over to the other side of the cab, yanking open the door and getting inside. Lilah turned to me.
“We can still pay the taxi driver to take her to the Canadian border. She’ll love it there.”
“Come on,” I said, opening the other door. I indicated for her to get in. She raised an eyebrow.
“You want me to sit next to her? Because I’ve got no problem with that. It will give me the perfect opportunity to slam her head into the headrest. It’s turning into a lifelong ambition of mine.”
“Never mind,” I said, sliding into the backseat. My toes squashed against the center console, and my knees were propped up to the same level as my chest.
“The Second Circle,” I told the cab driver. He mumbled a response, and the cab lurched forward. Cara sighed loudly, her whole body slumping in the seat.
“I swear to God, Lilah,” she said. “You have the mind of a child. You have no concept of death. You just want to feel an adrenaline rush, and you don’t care who you hurt along the way. There are no consequences in your fantasy world.”
“How am I the one with a childish mind when you want to run and hide every time there’s the slightest bump in the road? You want—”
“Bump in the road? Someone just tried to murder Kyle. That thing that you think is a bump is actually an empty grave, waiting for Kyle’s body.”
“You’re exaggerating. Like Kyle said before—it was a warning. Besides, nobody got hurt during that murder attempt.” Lilah leaned against my knees to poke Cara in the arm. “Oh, wait. Maybe I’m wrong. Did you get a little scratch from falling on the ground?”
“I was tackling Kyle to protect him from shrapnel, which is more than you can say that you did. You ran straight toward the danger. He was worried about you. He could have gotten himself hurt over your reckless actions.”
Lilah turned to me, her breasts still pressed up against my knee and her hand sliding along my leg. “Kyle, I’m so touched that you were worried about me, but you should know that demons are practically born for these kinds of situations. You don’t want to show weakness. The moment the Dead Man sees you as weak, he won’t hesitate to kill you. He’s keeping you alive for a reason, and even if that reason is to be entertained by you, that’s good enough. We have to go in there like we own the place and that might involve taking some risks. But I know you—you love all kinds of risks. You like to ride life and my body bareback.”
“We should be on the defensive,” Cara argued, a muscle twitching above her lip. “There’s a reason defensive actions exist, and it’s for these times where we’re going in too blind against a powerful enemy. We should find out more about what the Dead Man could want. We should find an escape route out of the club, so we can get out the moment we see things are getting out of hand.”
“The only defensive action that would work is preparing a trap,” Lilah said. “But it’s too late for that.”
Cara wrapped her arm around mine, leaning back into her seat and staring out the window. Lilah sat back in her seat too, her hand still on my thigh. Her finger rapidly tapped against my leg. The anxiety was suffocating.
When the cab stopped, Cara had nearly rubbed her bottom lip raw, and Lilah could have written a whole novel in Morse code on my leg. I pulled my wallet out, handing the cab driver a twenty-dollar bill.
“Thanks,” I said as the women left the cab from their respective sides. The cab driver glanced back at me.
“I’m not sure why you needed to go to a strip club when you had those two fine pieces of ass at your disposal. Those are two hellcats.”
I clapped his shoulder. “You have no idea.”
I got out of the cab, finding Lilah and Cara eyeing The Second Circle. It was the opposite of Open Wings. The building had metal poles built into the exterior walls while a projector flashed caricatures of women sliding down the poles. Their breasts and asses were nearly twice the size of their bodies.
“I know the guy who thought of this when they built it,” Lilah said. “He’s brilliant.”
Cara scowled. “He’s disgusting.”
“Disgustingly brilliant.”
Lilah indicated the door for me. There was a man standing there, his black clothes meaning that he was either a bouncer or a terrible thief.
“That’s some low-level demon,” Lilah whispered, standing close enough to me that I could still feel her finger jittering between us. “I can charm him.”
Lilah took my arm and wrapped it around her waist. We walked over to the demon. Cara kept a foot or two behind us.
“Hey, brother,” Lilah says, giving a sly grin to the demon. “You must be the guy T.D. was talking about. He mentioned that you appreciated how a lady needs to spice things up once in a while. My lucky little friend here isn’t a member or ones of us, but we’d love to just have an hour to explore and get our juices flowing, so—”
“You’re not coming in,” the demon interrupted. He jerked his head at Cara. “The last thing we need is angels pissing and moaning and stinking up the place.”
I grabbed him by the front of his shirt, slamming him against the wall. “Listen. My day has been an endless pile of bullshit, and if I can’t get in right now, I will take your fist and shove it up your—”
Cara put her hand on my arm. “Kyle, relax. This gentleman must not have gotten the message about the special client that requested me. We’ll just leave. When Mr. Crouse is left waiting inside, he’ll discuss his displeasure with the owner. It’s not our problem. I have other places I can go to, so we don’t need to waste our time here.”
I slowly lowered the demon back to his feet. He rubbed his chest. He eyed Cara again—taking special note of her cleavage—before he opened up the entrance door.
“Fuckin’ halo fever,�
�� he muttered. “Some things, even demons shouldn’t do.” He jerked his head towards the entrance. “Get the hell in and get out of my sight.”
The inside of the strip club was a huge departure from the exterior. The interior was massive. In the back, there was an expansive bar, where the liquor on the shelves was lit up with a screen that displayed a digital serpent slithering back and forth. To the left of the bar, there was a hot tub, divided into four different sections and over a dozen people in it. Right in front of us, there were tables covered with red tablecloths. Most of the tables were full and several men were eating steak, various chicken dishes, or lobster, with cocktails in front of them. Slow, sensual R&B music played as women danced on the stage, which wrapped around the building, twisting around the tables and nearly reaching the hot tub.
Lilah clapped me on the back. “You can close your mouth. I know for a fact I have a better body than all these women. I’ve seen what they can, or rather, can’t do.”
“I’m not gaping at the women,” I said. “I thought this was going to be a trashy strip club.”
“Sin pays well.” She shrugged. “And demons are great businessmen. Who’s better at business than someone with no morals? We’re glorified cars salesman.”
“You used to work here?”
She shook her head. “Nah. I once worked in a smoothie shop though, and we were definitely lying about the health benefits. It was seventy-eight percent sugar.”
As we walked deeper into the club and passed by a couple of strippers, I felt waves of heat as they twirled around gold poles. Right. Owned by demons. One of the women—a Marilyn Monroe-lookalike except with a smaller waist—stuck her tongue out at Cara without missing a beat in her routine.
We stopped a couple of feet in front of the bar. I turned around, nearly bumping into Cara and Lilah because they were standing so close. Cara’s body was tense, her shoulders pulled back and her jaw clenched. I couldn’t blame her, but Lilah appeared equally wary.
“I don’t see the Dead Man,” I said. “I don’t know what I expected. It’s hard to imagine now that he’d be here drinking a gin and tonic.”