His eyes tightened uneasily, as if not eager to share this update with his boss. “I’ll have to check with Nameless. Who did you have in mind?”
I told him. At the sudden flush to his cheeks, I patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry. She’ll wear clothes this time.”
He blushed darker and turned to go speak with Nameless, who had just entered the hallway to see us off. I studied Kevin, our plus-one for the night. He was an average looking, middle-aged man. Handsome, but in a roguish way. Like he was the uncle that wasn’t typically invited to the family reunions, but who had a history of saving your dad from a few bar fights in their college days. He smiled at me. It even looked genuinely respectful.
Alyksandre came back and I saw Nameless nodding at me. “We can pick her up on the way.”
“I’ll just get her right now. Save us some time. I’d rather get to bed sooner than later. And it would look less suspicious than you guys returning to my apartment. I do have enemies, after all.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “We will be around back. How long—”
I opened a Gateway about a foot away from Kevin. He grunted, but didn’t flinch at the sudden eruption of white sparks – which I purposely used to remind everyone which side I was on. White magic was tied to Heaven, in a way I didn’t fully understand, but still used. Alyksandre looked briefly annoyed that I was already testing his authority by ignoring his commands, but regained his composure quickly.
“Please don’t do that without warning. We’re twitchy around unanticipated magic.”
I nodded in understanding. I thought I sensed Kevin smirk as I turned back to the Gateway, but maybe he was just inspecting the ring of white fire around the hole in the air. Claire stood a few feet away, clutching a pistol in either hand wearing only her panties, and no bra. She also wore my shoulder holsters. I sighed, avoiding Alyksandre’s gasp of surprise as I gave Claire a reprimanding look.
Wait. Those were my panties. The expensive pair I had just bought from La Perla.
Claire stared through the Gateway in surprise, facing us with the pistols hanging at her sides. Kevin grunted from behind me, but when I looked at him, I caught him averting his eyes. He didn’t do it as smoothly or as quickly as Alyksandre, which was probably why he wasn’t in charge.
“Jesus,” Claire hissed, not noticing the winces from the Nephilim at her chosen curse. “I thought I had a few more minutes. Hold on a second.”
“That’s the new pair of underwear I just bought, Claire. I haven’t even taken the tag off yet.”
She glanced down innocently, swiftly ripping off the tag. “Oh? I don’t see a tag.”
“And shoulder holsters go over the clothes,” I added.
She blushed this time. “Right. I knew that. I was just trying it on for size,” she said. “Is that why it’s so scratchy in the back?” she asked, bowing her back to reach and twist at the uncomfortable strap. This had obvious effects on her breasts, and I heard Kevin groan as Claire gave us quite the show, dancing back and forth as she struggled with the leather.
“Yes. That’s why, Claire,” I said, grinning in amusement.
“Can she please put on a bra?” Alyksandre growled behind me. I glanced over to see him staring at his boots again.
“Oh, sorry. I know I told you she would wear clothes, but she’s not housebroken yet.”
“Time is wasting, Callie,” he said through gritted teeth, not lifting his eyes.
“Oh, I don’t know. We have a few minutes…” I heard Kevin murmur, but when I looked over at him, I saw his chin jerk back down, but there was no remorse in his eyes when they met mine. He had been peeking! Instead of yelling at him, I winked.
It was good to know that not all of the Nephilim were prudes. I had a potential friend in the force. He looked thoughtful, as if wondering why I had a naked chick wearing leather straps in my apartment on standby. I let my grin turn wicked and full of sin.
He finally lowered his eyes, muttering under his breath.
Claire was already tugging on some clothes that had been draped over my couch. I saw what I had wanted to grab hanging from the mirror, but didn’t look directly at it. “Can you grab my black scarf? I’m a little chilly from all this rain.”
Claire’s head popped through the sweater, but she wore a cautious frown, forgetting to tug the sweater down the rest of the way. Or to first put on a bra. Then again, if she needed to shift, I’d rather her not destroy my new bra in addition to the matching panties – La Perla was expensive – so I didn’t reprimand her. “Your… scarf… The one with a little red on it?” she asked carefully.
I nodded, motioning her to tug her sweater down and end the free headlight show. I hoped the fact that her boobs still hung free had masked our conversation and the look on her face. The prudish Nephilim – well, not Kevin, the pervert – may have missed it.
I sensed his eyes on me, but he didn’t say anything.
Claire finished changing, tugged on her boots, and carefully folded the scarf so that the cross wasn’t visible.
The scarf I had stolen from the Templars. It blocked magic, and you could never have too much protection. Safety first.
Kevin glanced at it thoughtfully, but didn’t say anything. Had he seen it for what it was? Claire was suddenly extending a hand to him, stepping between us with perky cheer. “I’m Claire. Need a cigarette after the free show?” she asked, passing the scarf to me behind her back. I tucked it into my pocket casually.
He grinned in surprise. “I’m Kevin. The Lord gave me eyes to see, but I meant no disrespect.”
Alyksandre grumbled under his breath, but didn’t directly chastise his fellow Nephilim. So maybe he was the only prude. Claire grinned, shaking his hand hard. He looked impressed at her grip.
“Polar bear,” she answered the silent question in his eyes. He grunted warily, probably second-guessing the possible consequences of his wandering eyes.
“Let’s go,” I said, letting the Gateway vanish.
Alyksandre led us outside to reveal our rides.
Claire began to clap. “Ohhh… nice. I’ve always wanted one of those between my thighs.”
Kevin’s face flushed and Alyksandre walked very stiffly down the steps.
“Virgin ears, Claire. You’re making Kevin blush.”
“I am not!” he argued, laughing.
I stared at the motorcycles before us. I’d seen one of these before and knew enough to remember it was stupidly expensive. Ducati. I didn’t care about the model. The brand was enough to let me know we were in for a wild ride.
And I would finally get to see why chicks dig motorcycles.
Chapter 10
We stood outside the caretaker’s building of a forgotten cemetery. Nothing fancy. Like something you would see in a scary movie set in a small town.
Which made me feel not one bit better.
The Ducatis we had ridden here had been fun – a giant vibrator carrying me around town at lightning speed? Check. The irony that Nephilim had given me this experience was not lost on me.
The six-figure bikes looked out of place beside such a worn-down cemetery. As we studied the small building, I got the impression that the caretaker’s building hadn’t been opened in quite some time – a hint that the business wasn’t attracting new customers.
“What in the world could have caught your attention here? Was your informant a grave-robber?” I asked, sweeping the headstones absently, wondering if any of the graves had been disturbed.
Alyksandre pursed his lips and kicked down the door to the building, ignoring me.
“And the Lord said, let the door be open. And the door was open,” I whispered to Claire.
Luckily, the two Nephilim had slipped inside the building to keep us safe from cobwebs, and were too busy inspecting the building’s interior to notice my comment.
“Why did you want your scarf if this isn’t dangerous?” Claire whispered.
“Always be prepared,” I whispered back. �
�And since you were leaving the apartment, I wanted to know it was in safe hands. Not return home to find out that Nameless – the Angel formerly known as Angel – sent one of his goons to scoop up the scarf.”
Claire looked suddenly worried, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to her. “You think he would have?” she asked, frowning slightly at the building, and the Nephilim inside, as if suddenly doubting their intentions.
I shrugged. “I have no idea who to trust. I find it odd that Nameless has had such a change of heart.”
“And a change of name,” Claire offered suggestively.
I nodded. “Maybe he’s telling the truth about realizing he’d been a dick to me. Or… my suspicion is warranted.”
“Do you always think like that? That someone is trying to screw you?”
I smiled at her choice of words. She returned it with a level look. “It’s better than being caught off guard by trusting too far,” I admitted.
“Well, I’ll just have to watch your back. To be your conscience. Just… don’t keep things from me,” she said meaningfully.
I smiled at her. “You’ve always been my conscience, Claire. Always.”
“Damn right. I’ll keep you safe from yourself, since you seem intent to put your neck in the noose every time I’m not looking.”
“Clear!” Alyksandre called from the gloom. I rolled my eyes and joined him inside.
My eyes adjusted to the darkness fairly quickly since there wasn’t much by the way of streetlights outside the abandoned cemetery. I saw Alyksandre kneeling near the back wall. The building didn’t look as disheveled as I had expected. Not often used, but as if someone at least came by once a month to shuffle a few papers, clean the floor, and check the voicemail on the desk. I saw nothing that looked dangerous, and nothing that emanated waves of nefarious magic, so it looked like this was yet another fruitless lead.
Then Alyksandre flung back a rug and hefted. The floor opened up to reveal a trapdoor.
I blinked. “Your informant just happened to know about a hidden trapdoor in an old caretaker’s building in a forgotten cemetery?” I asked suspiciously.
“The informant seemed… very concerned. Persuasive.”
I began to have a very bad feeling about this whole thing as Alyksandre slipped through the trapdoor. I pulled out my scarf, tied it around my face – careful to keep it folded so the red cross didn’t show on it – and breathed deeply, testing the draw of air. No point in suffocating to death.
Maybe I should have made Claire grab one, too. But I didn’t know if it would have any negative effects on a shifter. I’d have to look into that. At least the scarf would double as a bandana against the dusty, crumbling remains of dead bodies in this forgotten catacomb.
I hadn’t heard Alyksandre call back up to us – which would have at least told me it was only a small storage nook or something. The fact that only silence remained meant he had found a space big enough for us to explore, or he was still descending. I heard a knocking sound, and Kevin grimaced, turning to me. “Ladies first?” he asked.
“Scared?” Claire teased him, dropping down into the hole before he could respond. Kevin shook his head in amusement.
“I’m not scared,” he clarified, noticing my attention.
“Be a good boy and watch the door. We’ll be back shortly. I’d rather not have someone lock us down there,” I told him. The look on his face told me he hadn’t considered that risk.
Then I slipped down into the hole, my feet latching onto a built-in ladder. Kevin watched me descend, looking suddenly uneasy at the thought that he might be attacked. Not scared, but as if suddenly reconsidering Alyksandre’s plan to only have the four of us.
And the question…
What had Alyksandre found down the hole?
“Watch over them, please,” Kevin said, not sounding happy about his role, but realizing the importance of it.
I nodded. “I always do.”
The earth swallowed me up step by step.
Chapter 11
My feet finally reached the base of the ladder. Alyksandre had used a glow stick to mark the end of the descent, so we didn’t stumble in the darkness. Claire stood a few paces away from the base of the ladder, staring out at the large dark cavern beyond. Alyksandre was staring up at the ladder, frowning.
“I told him to watch the door,” I said. “What if your informant was leading you into a trap?”
He grimaced, apparently not having considered it. “Okay.”
It also made me feel better to know we were no longer evenly matched. If this was a trap – for me – Claire and I could handle Alyksandre ourselves before taking on Kevin.
“How do you want to play this, Alyksandre?” I whispered. “If I toss up some light, we might scare any… inhabitants.”
His eyes were very tight. “We won’t need light,” he whispered back, sounding troubled. Then he was leading us into the darkness.
Claire gripped my arm as I passed her. “There are lights ahead. And I can smell people. This place hasn’t been empty in recent months…”
My eyes might have widened at that. We were about thirty feet underground. Had we actually found something nefarious? Who the hell lived underground? My mind, unfortunately, provided me with all sorts of unpleasant answers.
Feathers…
Fire…
I froze, unable to breathe for a moment. The Whispers were back. Obviously, no one else had heard. But what had their comments meant? Feathers? Fire? And why had it sounded like two different voices this time? Maybe it was the same Whisper, just angrier when it said Fire.
I shivered, keeping a tight rein on the voices as I followed Alyksandre and Claire deeper into the cavern. I smelled fresh dirt, obviously. And damp rocks. Like you would expect in a cave. But I soon smelled burning candles. And… herbs? Some kind of incense, maybe?
And a pale-yellow light from up ahead began to illuminate the walls around us. We were in a stone tunnel. I was careful to watch my step, not wanting an echo to alert anyone who might be ahead of us. Obviously, candles meant people. I doubted anyone would leave a bunch of candles burning unless they were still here. Whoever was using this place would likely use a flashlight on the way, and only use the candles while spending time here.
Which indicated we were about to interrupt someone.
Alyksandre held up a fist, silently telling us to stop. We did, watching as he lifted a finger one by one, and then we dashed around the corner at three.
I ran laterally so we weren’t lined up like dominos, my black fan hovering before me as I prepared to launch some of my silver butterflies at any sign of a threat. A large open area yawned before us, dark gray rock covering walls that stretched up thirty feet or higher. No one attacked us. In fact, no one else was present. I turned to see Claire holding both pistols up, aimed into the cavern, waiting for someone to say hello.
Great mounds of melted wax dotted the perimeter of the cavern, not in a perfect circle or anything, but spaced far enough apart to illuminate the whole area. Wicks burned atop the masses of candles, letting me know that this place had been used for a very long time – at least at one point in time.
And those early inhabitants were either still around, or someone had discovered this place and brought it back to life. Alyksandre glanced at me, jaw tight. “I don’t like this…”
“I never like things like this, but I usually check them out anyway,” I muttered. “Now that we’ve broken in, we should probably look around while we have the chance. They’re probably going to know that someone invaded their secret hideout, and will update their security. Now is probably our best and only chance.”
He nodded stiffly. “Be wary. Something is wrong with this place…”
Claire was nodding to herself warily, but didn’t offer her thoughts. When a shifter acts nervous, it’s smart to pay attention. Predator instincts, and all that. I kept my magic close, breathing through the scarf.
We split up to circle the room. I saw cots
carved into the rock wall near one of the candlewax mounds, and some dirty, aged blankets. Maybe we had found a homeless camp. Or maybe we were interrupting an archaeological dig site, although I didn’t see any modern equipment. No extension cords, stand lamps, papers, electronics, or magazines. Like we had stumbled upon a hideout from the Middle Ages or something.
Alyksandre was inspecting the sleeping area so I focused on the opposite side. What looked like worn steps led up to a small nook in the wall, where a few more candles illuminated some items arranged in a specific manner, like a shrine. I frowned, walking closer to study it, but a sickening feeling suddenly rolled over me.
The focal point was a human skull formed into a cup or bowl, and as I stepped closer, I noticed a red stain in the base. I shivered, eyes sliding away to scan over several ancient golden coins, two badges, and an old broken dagger in the niche. One of the coins featured a worn depiction of two men riding a single horse.
I turned to call out to Alyksandre, my eyes sweeping the entire area out of habit. My voice cut off as I spotted a symbol carved into the wall about ten feet up, so large and worn that I hadn’t noticed it until I was on the opposite side of the cavern.
I recognized it, but my brain sort of rebooted for a few seconds, not understanding – or wanting to understand – exactly what this place was doing here in Kansas City, Missouri.
That’s when the winged man swept down from the ceiling.
Claire started blasting with both pistols, not bothering with any pleasantries or warnings.
Chapter 12
The echoing gunshots were painfully loud in the enclosed space, making my ears ring, but I was too busy staring in disbelief at their effect to worry about protecting my eardrums. The figure wrapped his wings around his body and slammed into the ground in a crouch that cracked the floor. Then he whipped his gray wings – made of vaporish smoke and floating chunks of ice – wide, and a ring of force knocked Claire on her ass, cutting off her barrage of gunfire.
Angel's Roar: Feathers and Fire Book 4 Page 5