by Liz Schulte
Holden may have been family, but I didn’t know him well enough to judge if that was true or not. Holden was the leader of the jinn, but after what they went through to break away from hell, I couldn’t imagine he’d willingly get back in bed with them, but what did I know. “Like I believe you after all the lies you’ve told. Now tell me all about that night and our demon pal—and anything else you’ve been keeping from me, or I’ll tell Holden everything. How’s that for starters?”
“Is that an ultimatum?” He chuckled. “You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that. How about this? One question. I will answer truthfully.”
I rolled my eyes. “What are the odds?”
He shrugged. “That’s the deal. Take it or leave it. I don’t care.”
I chewed on my lip. One answer was better than nothing, but I wanted to know everything. “Fine,” I said, holding out my hand to shake.
He ignored the hand and kissed me, taking the same lip I’d been biting between his teeth. My hunger sprang back to life. I caught his face between my hands and pulled deeply from him, basking in the numbing effect of his soul blending with mine. He groaned, backing me the last few feet to the counter. This was a mistake. Such a big mistake. Kissing him like this in the bakery or in public was one thing, but alone in his apartment was another.
“I don’t even like you,” I muttered against his mouth.
His tongue brushed mine. “I don’t care.” He kissed me harder, his hands sliding beneath my shirt and up my back.
“I could kill you.” Even as I said the words, I was already yanking up his tight black shirt.
He broke free and pulled his shirt the rest of the way off. “Stop talking.” Then he was back to me before I could miss him, his lean tattooed body molded to mine. His hands traveled down my spine to the waistband of my jeans.
My phone rang as my teeth grazed the side of his neck. It rang again, and I started to pull away.
“I’ll break your phone, if you answer that.” He pushed my shirt from my shoulders and trailed kisses from behind my ear all the way down my neck, making my toes curl.
But I had to answer. I slipped my phone from my pocket. “Hello?” My voice hitched as his tongue found my nipple. He smiled against me and did it again. Evil, wonderful man.
“Hey, Maggie, it’s Megan. I’ve got a location on Holda’s magic.”
Phoenix slid back up my body and pressed his lips to mine. “Hang up,” he purred.
I wanted to do exactly that. I wanted to so bad, but I couldn’t. This might be our only chance. “I can’t,” I said, pushing him away.
“What?” Megan said.
“Not you. Um, give me the address. I’ll be there.”
Phoenix’s mouth fell open and his eyebrows tugged together. “You can’t be serious.”
I gave him a helpless gesture. I didn’t have a choice. Holda was life or death. Finishing what we started here, while fun, was a mistake. The decision wasn’t hard.
Megan rattled off the address and I went to Phoenix’s desk and copied it down, then read it back to her.
“That’s right. I don’t think you should go alone,” Megan said. “I know Stephanie doesn’t think we should, but we could meet you there.”
“That’s okay.” I glanced over at Phoenix who was leaning against the counter, bare from his low slung jeans up, watching me with a hooded gaze. “I have backup.”
Phoenix didn’t say a word when I hung up. He merely tossed me my shirt and waited.
“I have to go,” I said.
“I’m not stopping you.”
Ugh. Why did he have to be so difficult? It wasn’t what he was saying so much as the expression on his face. He was back to not caring. The man was like an elevator, and I never knew which floor the door would open on. On at least one of those floors, he found me irresistible—which, at the very least, was good for my ego. But the other floors were less appealing: apathy, lies, annoyance, and my favorite, manipulation. “You could come with me. I could use the help. The witches traced the woman in white’s magic. She’s going to take the housekeeper.” I waited to see which Phoenix I would get as I buttoned my shirt.
At length, he shook his head. “It’s not my problem.”
I rolled my eyes and pulled on my shoes. Apathetic Phoenix, it was. If he didn’t want to help, then I didn’t need him. A plan would have been nice, but I didn’t have that luxury because I’d spent most of the night in the stupid euphoria Phoenix created around me.
“But if you take my deal,” he said before I reached the front door. “I’d be inclined.”
Second stop, manipulation. I glanced back at him. Two could play at that game. “If I don’t come back, tell Olivia or Holden the woman in white is the goddess Holda, and I might be on a different plane of existence if I’m not dead.” I softly shut the door behind me, not waiting for a response. I wasn’t going to be leveraged into taking his deal.
Outside, I started walking north until I found a cab. I gave him the address Megan told me and sat back. Now all I needed was a plan.
Chapter 11
I didn’t pay much attention to where we were headed as the cabbie drove. I hadn’t had time to call Olivia and now it was too late to bring her in. I bounced back and forth over whether it would be better to follow Holda back to her world or to take her prisoner and force her to talk. I settled on door number two. All I had to do was capture her (because that was easy). Once I had her, I could call Olivia explain everything and Olivia could help us make her give the kids back.
The tricky part would be capturing her. I had no idea what it meant that she was a goddess. The bounty hunter I knew, Femi, was a descendent of the goddess Sekhmet and she seemed pretty regular to me in a feline sort of way. I hoped Holda wouldn’t prove much different, but the realistic part of my brain had doubts.
We came to a stop in a residential neighborhood with no hotel or parking garage in sight. “Is this the right spot?”
The cabbie repeated the address on the paper.
“Just a second.” I called Megan, who answered on the second ring. “Are you okay? Is it done?”
“Are you sure you’re sending me to the right place? This isn’t a hotel,” I said.
“Let me look again. Um, yeah, it’s right.” She repeated the street and number once more.
I looked up at the small house at the address. Maybe Holda changed her plan because she knew we were onto her. I paid the cabdriver and climbed out. Just as the car drove away, a bluish light filled the small row of upstairs windows.
Instead of heading for the front door, I stood on the porch railing and barely managed to reach the edge of the roof. I pulled myself up and carefully crawled toward the windows. Inside, the blueish haze came from a free-standing doorway in the middle of the bedroom. Two people were sleeping in the bed, apparently unaware as the door opened.
I knocked on the glass frantically, but they didn’t even roll over. A tall, willowy woman practically floated through the doorway. Her glimmering silver hair fell all the way down her back in soft waves. Her dress pooled in an ethereal puddle at her feet, and looked as delicate and soft as a rose petal, except for the two large horns coming out of the side of her head. A pretty big physical attribute for Boone to miss. I was mesmerized. I couldn’t even knock on the window as I stared at her.
She glided across the bedroom and inspected the sleeping couple. Slowly, the covers pulled back of their own accord, revealing Boone and the person I had to assume was Nicole. The sight of Boone knocked me out of whatever sort of trance I was in. I hit the window with the full force of my fist, but the glass merely cracked.
The woman’s head shot up and she looked directly through me.
I hit the window again and again, the cracks growing until finally I broke through. The shattered glass fell into the room, suspended in midair. What the hell? I didn’t have time to worry about it, though. I climbed through the window, but I could barely move once inside. I couldn’t see anything, and the room felt
thick. Warmth cradled my body, trying to tempt me to sleep, but I resisted, pushing forward with all my might—and still barely moving a couple inches. I tried to scream to wake up Boone. No sound came from my mouth.
Holda watched me, her head tilted to the side, smiling. She lifted one of Nicole’s hands and poked her finger with a needle, then picked her up. She easily drifted back toward the door. I put everything I had into moving forward. There had to be a way to get through this crap. She placed Nicole in the doorway. Two sets of tiny hands reached out to her as the two missing children stepped up to either side of Nicole and took her by the hands, blank expressions on their faces. The kids wore strange clothes that were almost costume-like, but their faces were the same ones I had been staring at in the newspapers since they were taken.
The woman floated toward me as I fought the invisible muck. She reached me without any trouble at all and cupped her hand around my face. “You are strong.” Her voice was as soft as the flap of a butterfly’s wings, but I could hear every word she said. “I shall enjoy breaking you. You will be a nice addition to my collection.”
With that, she moved back to the door, ushering Nicole and the children along through. A moment later the doorway vanished along with the full weight of whatever spell she had cast.
The glass from the window crashed to the floor, and though I didn’t mean to move, my legs sprinted across the room in the same sort of delayed reaction. I covered my head as I smashed through Boone’s wall, unable to stop myself, landing in a sprawled heap inside his closet.
He shot from bed. “Nicole. Nicole!”
“She’s gone.” I coughed as I waited for my injuries to heal before I tried to stand up.
Boone appeared at the Maggie-shaped hole in the wall. “What are you doing here?”
“Megan called me,” I said. “This was the address she gave me. I couldn’t stop her. She took Nicole.”
Boone dropped down to his knee, shaking his head. “It’s all my fault.”
“No, it’s not,” I said. “We’ll get her back. I promise. I’m going to get her back. Holda still has the kids, too. I saw them. We still have a chance. She told me she was going to add me to her collection. That’s good news.”
Boone looked at me with defeated eyes. “You were right about this world. And now it’s taken Nicole … I didn’t even tell her about.”
“It’s okay. Don’t you see? She’s not killing people or feeding on them. She’s collecting them. That means we can save Nicole. We can save all of them. We know we can find her now, and I have powerful friends who might be willing to help.”
I stood, pulling Boone up with me, walking him back to his bed because he seemed to be shock. Stepping away, I called Megan and, as quietly as possible, told her what happened. Then I explained that she needed to keep watching for the magic to appear, and that I only had until her next appearance to figure out how to fight her.
“Did she say anything else? Why didn’t you wake me up? Did you call me?” Boone asked from the doorway of his bedroom.
“No. She only said that I was strong and that she would find a place for me in her collection. I couldn’t wake you. I shouted and shouted. I tried to move, but everything was muted or slowed or something.” I turned around.
“Did you call me?” he repeated.
“Boone—”
“You said Megan called to tell you that Holda had used her magic, right? Did you try to call me? Maybe if I had warning…”
I looked at my hands. I hadn’t tried to call him. “No,” I said. “I thought the address would take me to the hotel and it was too dangerous—”
His face went stony.
“If I had any idea, you have to believe I would have—”
“Get out.” His words plowed into me, hurting more than any injury. He had every right to be angry. I would have been furious if our roles were reversed.
I nodded and went down the stairs toward the front door. At the end of the street, Phoenix stood next to the stop sign, waiting for me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked when I was close enough I didn’t have to raise my voice. “I thought you weren’t interested.”
He nodded. “In helping, no. In keeping you alive, very, so I monitored the situation.”
I strode past him, massaging my temples.
He fell into step with me. “Where are we headed now?”
“The bakery.”
He didn’t say anything for the next few blocks, leaving me alone with my thoughts. It was hard not to think about Boone, but that wasn’t going to get me anywhere. He was mad, but I was going to make it right. I’d get Nicole back. After that I didn’t know what would happen. We would have to discuss it then because right now I had more important things to think about like Holda and Valefor. I was prepared for Holden to say the same thing Phoenix did: that I should walk away. Now that was more impossible than ever. I needed Olivia on my side and I was fairly certain she would be. But I couldn’t call her, or at least not until the sun was up.
“You don’t know how to defeat a goddess, do you?” I asked.
Phoenix slipped his hands into his pockets. “You don’t. They win every time. They can’t be killed in our world because they are a shadow of their true self. Their powers are weaker here, but no matter what you do to them, they will live.”
“What about Olivia?”
“What about her?” Phoenix asked.
“Could she kill one?”
“Maybe … if she went to their world. But she can’t get involved. Neutrality is a bitch. Especially for someone like her.”
Crap. He was right. I’d forgotten about that. As an angel of death she had to practice neutrality or she could majorly upset the balance of our world, but knowing Olivia she’d still figure out how to help. “Maybe I don’t need to kill Holda. What about banishing her to her own world and out of ours? How would I do that?”
“How on earth would I know?” I pulled my arms in tighter around my body as the cold, bitter wind cut through me. He sighed, glancing at me. For a moment I thought he would offer me his coat. He didn’t. “If you’d just let this go and admit that none of this is any of your business, then you won’t have to worry about it. She’s out of your league. She’s out of my league. Know your limitations. You’ll live a lot longer.”
“You mean like you knew yours when you helped Holden and Olivia fight a prince of hell? This has to be easier than that.”
“First, I wouldn’t count on it. Second, I almost died. Lesson learned. Some battles aren’t meant to be fought. You can’t police the entire universe.”
I shook my head. I didn’t believe it for a minute. If he’d really learned his lesson, he wouldn’t have stayed in his position. He wouldn’t be making deals with demons. Speaking of which, he still owed me an answer. “I never asked you my question. What was the deal you made with Val—the demon—and why did you bring me along?”
“That’s two questions,” he said. “Choose one.”
“It’s a two-part single question.” I smiled hopefully.
He shook his head. “One question and one question only. That was the deal. If you wanted two questions, you should have negotiated better terms.”
Any answer he gave would likely leave me with ten more questions. So should I ask something broad or more specific? “What was the deal?” He still hadn’t answered me by the time we were back at the bakery and he’d checked to make sure it was clear while I made my baking list. “My answer?” I finally asked. “And remember you promised to be truthful and usually the truth doesn’t take this long to think of.”
He positioned himself on a stool. “It’s not that I don’t know the answer, it’s more about how to phrase it for you, since the agreement we arrived at has nothing to do with you and frankly, is none of your business.”
“Come on, already.”
“She asked permission from the jinn to open her own establishment in the city. I went to discuss terms.”
I tapped my
pen against the paper. It was pretty historic for demons to ask the jinn permission for anything, but I still didn’t understand. “Why would Holden agree to it?”
“For intelligence,” he said. “She can open a demon lair and we’ll leave it alone, so long as she gives us information on any major moves hell has planned. Sort of a diplomatic immunity.”
That made more sense, but there was still one part that didn’t quite fit. “So why in the world would you take me to what was supposed to be a peaceful negotiation?”
He shrugged. “That wasn’t your question.”
“Seriously? How does it hurt if I know?”
“You were hungry and there was a whole nightclub full of demons. We never promised them safety from everyone, just the jinn—and you aren’t a jinni. They were simply granted the right to be in our city. If someone like you happened to find a good place to hunt, not our fault.”
I covered my eyes and shook my head. “You didn’t want to make the deal, did you?”
“It wasn’t my call,” he said. “I understand why we did it though. Information is a priceless commodity.”
I wrinkled my nose. That sucked. Demons had used the jinn as their henchmen and pawns for thousands of years. The jinn were just freed and already making deals with the enemy. I didn’t blame Phoenix for not falling in line on this. I wouldn’t either. In fact, it was surprising Holden would.
But that didn’t excuse what he had done either. “You used me to stick it to them, and in the process, put my life in danger. But even worse than that, you didn’t tell me so I could better protect myself.”
“I didn’t know you would pick out the one person in the entire room that you shouldn’t kill to feed on. I really think that’s on you.” He glanced around. “I said I will take care of the demon and I will. You need to worry about the goddess.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I said, collecting ingredients. “So that’s it. That’s the truth?”
He nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Not to nag, but we could have saved a lot of trouble had you just told me everything from the start.” I picked an imaginary piece of lint off of his shirt just because the desire to touch him had become overwhelming.