jinn 02 - inferno

by Liz Schulte

  “I pass,” he said.

  “No can do, boss. If she can spy on one of us, then she can spy on all of us.” He patted the chair.

  Holden’s chin lifted and he looked like he was considering it for half a second, then he shook his head. “No.”

  “Why did you stay if you weren’t going to get a—” Baker cut off his own sentence. He blinked a couple times and shrugged. “I thought you weren’t going to trust her.”

  Holden took a couple steps across the room and stuck out his hand. Baker shook it, all smiles gone. “Goodbye, Baker.” He gave a final curt nod and walked out of the room.

  Baker stood perfectly still, watching him go, then cleaned up as if nothing had happened, though something sad lingered in his eyes. Well, that would never do. I hated feeling left out so I hurried to catch up with Holden before he left the building entirely.

  “What do we do if she captures you?”

  He stopped. “Baker knows. Nothing changes. If she captures me do everything as we planned. Don’t try to save me.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Taking risks is more my thing than yours. Don’t go out there without a symbol. She’ll know right where you are. It’s dumb.”

  He finally glanced back at me. “I’m not taking a risk. The risk for me would be wearing that symbol. Olivia and I have a connection. I don’t understand it, but it’s there. I can’t risk that symbol blocking it. If she’s going to fight her way back, she needs our connection as a guide. It’s the only thing we have. I won’t destroy it.”

  “You could die. Don’t you think she would rather you be alive?”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. If it takes my life to bring her back, so be it. Outliving Olivia isn’t in the cards for me. She’s my heart.” He smiled slightly. “If she dies, trust me, you don’t want me here.”

  “I think you undersell yourself.”

  He rolled his eyes. “When she vanishes from my mind, it will be the beginning of the end.” He paused, waiting for me to acknowledge that I understood. “She’s the only part of me worth having. It’s for the best. The angel knows we’re planning something. If she captures me, I’ll stall her and buy you guys time. If we don’t see each other again, take care of yourself, Femi.” He turned to leave.

  I walked around him so I faced him and straightened his perfectly starched collar. He stiffened and his eyes narrowed, giving off a strong don’t touch me vibe that I ignored. “It’s not going to come to that.” I smiled. “You’re both coming back. I know you guys would never desert me here with Baker. And my feelings are never wrong. You don’t have a choice.”

  He nodded, though his face was stony as he searched me with his eyes. “You know I try not to get involved with…anything.”

  I laughed.

  “But this seems like something Olivia would want me to say.” He paused, searching for words and coming up empty.

  “Shit, Holden, I know you love me.”

  “What? No. That’s not it.” He sighed. “Allowing someone into your life after years of being on your own is terrifying. You forget how to do it, and they wreak all kinds of havoc on what was essentially a good thing.” I raised an eyebrow, but he held up a finger for me to wait. “But sometimes by dumb fucking luck you find the right person. The one who doesn’t trap you, but sets you free in a way you never knew was possible.” He glanced in the direction we came from and looked back with an eyebrow raised.

  Shit. If Holden was getting sentimental on me the end was nigh. I hit his shoulder softly. “I’ll keep that in mind. One last thing though, she isn’t the best part of you. That’s definitely your ass.” Now it was my turn to walk away, though I swear I heard him chuckle as he left. My work was done.

  When I got back to the main room, the tension was thick between Baker and Maggie.

  “I don’t see why this is the ‘only’ way I can help.”

  He glared at her. “Because you’ve been a vampire or half-vampire for about half a second. You have no idea what you’re doing and you have no business out there. Obviously your judgment can’t be trusted or you wouldn’t be a vampire right now. You keep pushing me on this, and I’ll put you in one of those cells and leave you there.”

  “I’d love to you try.”

  “Don’t test me, Maggie.”

  “You aren’t in charge of my life,” she yelled at him.

  “Well, somebody sure as hell should be,” he fired right back.

  “Not to interrupt this totally fascinating yet ill-timed domestic dispute,” I said, “but I’m going to go. Just keep in mind that we have enough people who want to kill us, so try not to kill each other.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Thomas said, striding toward me.

  I wanted to say no, but who had time for another fight? “You keep your hands to yourself or I’ll stab you in the temple with this.” I pulled out my bowie knife. “Your head would look great mounted on my wall.”

  “I look great everywhere,” he said with a lopsided smile. I’d probably be better off if I just stabbed him now.

  “Wait, I’m coming too,” Maggie said hopping up.

  “Nope,” I told her. “Baker needs someone here to have his back, in case the location gets blown. And as much as I hate to admit it, he’s right. He isn’t just being chauvinistic. You are too new to this world and you don’t know even what your powers are, let alone how to control them. You’re dangerous. I can’t take responsibility for that.”

  I caught Baker’s eye for just a second and nodded to him. He returned the gesture, reassuring me though I couldn’t say how. This was going to work. It simply had to. I had never had friends growing up. Not real ones. I was the misfit, the loner. These unlikely people were the closest to me of anyone I’d ever known and I wasn’t letting them go. If anyone wanted to take them away, they’d have to go through me.

  “Just a sec,” Baker said. “Do you mind?” He held up the bottle of ink. It took a minute for my brain to catch up. “The symbol. If the leech is going with you, I should have one too just to be safe.”

  “I can do it,” Maggie snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. I had the urge to slap her.

  “I got it,” I told her, taking the ink.

  It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t have control over her emotions yet. She was lucky Baker was handling her, not Holden or I. Holden would just knock her out and I would lock her in a cell. At least Baker tried to be patient. The thing was, though, even if she wasn’t consciously aware of it, the chances of her sabotaging him were high. Also she had no experience in rune work. Runes were exact. If you messed up a line or a dash or a dot, them not working was the least of your concerns. One tiny out of place line could spell the difference between protection and a curse.

  Baker stripped off his shirt and put his chin against his chest. We placed the runes on his back because an arm or a leg could be lost or removed. Not that henna ink wouldn’t eventually wear off, but at least it bought us some time if any of us were caught. When we were finished, Thomas and I headed to my car.

  He laughed when he saw it. “This is what you drive now? You have changed.”

  “Bite me,” I said.

  “The teeth are so much more fun when you let me use my hands too.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You are one more comment away from riding in my trunk.”

  “Just like old times.”

  “No.” I stopped. “Nothing like old times. Do you realize I was this close to handing you over to the vampires today in exchange for the opening’s location. This close.” I held up my fingers again. “It isn’t too late to call Corbin. He’s waiting by the phone.” I kicked the back of Thomas’s knee, buckling his leg, then grabbed him by the scuff of his neck and opened my trunk.

  “Hey, wait,” he protested.

  “I warned you.” I pushed him forward. “You can do this the hard way or the easy way, Thomas.”

  He climbed in. I slammed it closed.

  ****

  Whe
re does someone go to find out how to close the tunnel to Hell? The DMV of course.

  I opened the trunk after I parked and Thomas climbed out, looking a bit testy. “Get the sudden urge to renew your license?” he asked. “I think they’re closed.”

  I waved for him to follow, and we went around to a side entrance that was obscured yet unlocked. I flashed a grin before we went inside. The hallway was dark and there was a single door at the end of it. It led to a windowless room lit by bright florescent lighting. Plucking my number, I took a seat. I had never done this before, but I had been with Sy when he did it. Well, maybe I had followed Sy, but it was basically the same thing. I knew what I was doing.

  Sy was my go-to person for information or anything I needed, but being a bounty hunter was my job, my career. What if Sy took a sick day or was called away or something? I still had to do my job. So following him was really a public service and not just me being nosy. Whenever I needed anything, he came here and took a number. Then he was ushered to the back and emerged minutes later with the goods. Easy enough.

  I sat next to Thomas, bouncing my legs as we waited.

  “Can you stop?” he finally said. “Just hold still for two seconds.”

  I tried to stop, but I couldn’t. I was so bored. I should’ve stopped for food. “You’ll live,” I told him and bounced all I wanted.

  He sighed and craned his head to see our number. “Being turned over to the vampires might have been better than this. Why are we even here?” he whined.

  “We need information. If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to wait in the trunk.”

  He leaned back in the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I’m not getting back in the trunk.”

  A balding elf looked over at us.

  “You know people can hear you, right?” I asked. He shrugged. “Not my problem.” I gave him a look. “What? Is baldy bothering you?”

  He hooked a thumb at the horrified looking elf.

  Thomas’s hand struck like a viper, catching the elf by the collar. He pushed two fingers against his forehead and lingered for just a bit with a smile. The jerk was feeding off of him. I punched Thomas in the ribs and he let go. “Go over there,” he said, waving his hand to the right side of the room.

  The elf stood on wobbly legs and stumbled away, even though there were no chairs available where Thomas pointed. We sat for another thirty minutes with nothing to do before they finally called our number. I couldn’t take another hour sitting next to Thomas. I’d kill him and the mess probably would’ve made the people here decide not help me.

  I walked up to the counter and smiled at the lares behind the counter. “Hi.” I smiled. “I need some information.”

  “Credentials?” she asked automatically.

  Lares looked like anyone else, but they were ancient and powerful. They had one job, to observe and protect all that was in their charge. They were a natural choice to guard the supernatural cornucopia that must be hidden in this building. If crossed they would call down lightning and smite your ass. They took that whole former deity thing really seriously.

  I handed her my bounty hunting license. She didn’t even look at it before she pushed it back. “You can’t be here.”

  “And yet, here I am.”

  She simply stared at me.

  “Look, I just need a little information and I’ll be out of your hair.”

  “You do not have the clearance to be here,” she said in a cool measured tone. “You have five seconds to vacate the premises before you are removed.”

  Damn it. I took a step away, then another, wracking my brain for any angle I had. “Sy sent me,” I blurted.

  “Repeat what you said.”

  I turned back to her. She still had a sullen expression, but something was different. Something akin to fear shadowed her eyes. Who was afraid of Sy? “Sy sent me.”

  She nodded and motioned me back. “This is highly irregular. Or course it will have to be verified.”

  “Go ahead,” I said, certain he would have my back. Sy always had my back. Had Thomas not been with me I would’ve gone to him in the first place. “Care to use my phone?” I laid my cell on the counter with Sy’s number poised to dial.

  She picked up her receiver and dialed. “Sorry to disturb you, sir. But I have a woman in front of me, claiming to be here at your request.”

  She blinked and cleared her throat. “She is a Sekhmet….mmmmhmmmm….very well….I understand.”

  She ended the call and looked at me. “How may I assist you?”

  “I bet those words tasted bitter.” I winked. “I just need to know how to close down a porthole to the underworld.” She raised an eyebrow. “Hypothetically, of course.”

  “Follow me.” She stood up from her desk and opened the small swinging door to her left. I went through and Thomas followed.

  “He’s with me,” I said.

  She led us into a records hall that was at least four hundred yards long, stacked twenty feet high with industrial shelves filled with banker boxes. Each box was labeled with a thirteen-digit serial number. If this was what I had to go through, even if I had an army of helpers, it would take too long. She led us down the row and over a couple aisles before she stopped and began searching for a particular box.

  “You will find your answer in those four.” She pointed up.

  “Boxes?” Thomas asked hopefully.

  “Shelves. Touch nothing else. Nothing may leave this room.” She marched herself back to the front, leaving us alone.

  “Well, this is going to be fun,” Thomas said, grabbing the first box. I took the one next to it and we sat on the floor.

  “What exactly are we looking for?” he asked.

  “Something that tells us how to shut down a pathway to the underworld.”

  “And we know this exists because…”

  “Because that’s what the angel is planning to do.”

  “Right, but who’s to say it’s information people in the Abyss have access to, not some sort of angel-only-knowledge she brought with her?”

  It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered it. It just wasn’t acceptable. If I failed to find out how to do this, our whole planned was ruined. There was no way I was going to fail us. I’d call down Uriel for help before I came back empty handed. “Just shut up and look.”

  An hour passed, then two, and there wasn’t even a close call. Absolutely nothing even mentioned Hell or the Underworld or anything remotely exciting. It sucked. I threw the last folder in the box I’d been sorting through and leaned back against the wall, rubbing my eyes. When I looked up, Thomas was watching me.

  “Were you really going to turn me in?” he asked.

  I met his gaze with unwavering eyes. “Yes.” It wasn’t entirely true. I considered it, but whether or not I could have gone through with it … well, that was obvious.

  He looked down at the folder in his hands. “You know I never would have turned you in.”

  I snorted.

  “I’m serious. I wasn’t supposed to hire you in the first place. I came looking for you that night for one reason. To capture you and bring you in, but I couldn’t.”

  I chewed my bottom lip. Engaging him was a bad idea. Letting him weasel his way back into my head was an even worse one. “Why not?” My voice was soft and surprised even me.

  He smiled a little, knowing he’d snagged me. “Because you came outside with me. You were so confident and curious and …accepting. You were the first non-vampire to ever treat me like a person and not a disease.”

  I leaned forward, resting my arms against my knees. “And you betrayed me.”

  “What would you have had me do?”

  “Not betray me for starters.”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t betray you. I helped you.”

  “No. Had you truly wanted to help me, you would’ve told me everything from the start. You wouldn’t have given me half truths and led me into a trap.”

  He glared at me for a mo
ment. “Tell me. Are you more angry that you willingly walked into a trap or that I bruised your ego?”

  “Go to hell.” I stood up to get another box.

  “Wait—funny you should say that.” He held up the folder in his hands and I took it.

  Scanning the page that had stopped him, the words almost leaped out at me. “Ancients’ life blood can be used for many purposes, not the least of which is closing portholes to other worlds, hence the cause of their near extinction.” That was all it said in a footnote of an otherwise uninteresting essay on immortality. I read it again three more times, then typed the exact wording into my phone. “Do you have any idea what it means?”

  “It means it’s impossible. First, you would have to find an “ancient,” whatever that is, willing to be sacrificed. Second, you would have to find a way into Hell—the tricky part to that being, you’d need to be dead. The jinni could do it, but the moment he sets foot in that place, the whole of everything Hell has to offer will be after him. He could never succeed. It’s hopeless.”

  “We’ll see about that.” I started back toward the entrance.

  Thomas caught my arm. Immediately I felt the pull of him. “Femi, walk away from this before it’s too late. Right now, we can leave. I’ll go with you. Your friends are as good as dead. They just haven’t come to terms with that fact yet. You know there’s no way to win this.”

  I yanked my arm away from him and punched him square in the nose. “I said no touching.” I stormed back through the building and to my car, Thomas practically having to run to keep up.

  As soon as I was in the car I called Baker to share what we found.

  I was met with silence that confirmed Thomas was right. Worry gnawed at me. Then Baker whispered, “That’s perfect, kitten,” and my anxiety eased a bit. “See you back at the prison.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  “Hey, Fem?” he said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful, would ya? I don’t like that vampire.”

  “Way ahead of you.” I hung up and stepped on the gas with full certainty that we could actually do this.