Speak Thy Name (The Nephilim Book 3)

by Dana Marie Bell

  Sam smiled, so pleased he wanted to help. “I will.” She watched him walk away, sighing as he disappeared around the wall. The man had a butt to die for.

  “She’s got it bad,” Beth drawled.

  “You have to admit, he does look good walking away.” Abby wolf-whistled.

  “Shut it, you two.” Sam stepped up to the shooting area. “Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Turn off the safety.”

  “First, make sure the range is clear.” Beth’s tone had changed, becoming teacher-like.

  Sam put the gun down and checked. The gun range was simple. A table at the front, where Sam had put the gun. The grass between that table and a series of logs at the end was mown low to the ground. She checked the area for critters anyway, but didn’t find anything. “Clear.”

  “Good.” Beth walked to the other end of the gun range and began setting up milk jugs.

  “Where did you get those?” Sam hadn’t seen anything during her walk around the range.

  “They were over there, just waiting for us.” Beth pointed off to the side, where a barrel stood. “They were in the barrel.”

  “Oh.” She hoped they weren’t using anything the others would need anytime soon. “Are they filled with water?”

  Beth nodded. “Yup. It’s for two reasons. One, you’ll see your bullets striking the bottles. Two, it slows the bullet down, so it doesn’t keep going and hit some random guy on the hill.”

  Sam rolled her shoulders. “Okay. I’m ready.”

  Abby took position next to her. “I guess I use Beth’s gun?”

  Beth handed her a gun similar to Sam’s. “This is my back-up. My two favorite main guns are the Beretta Nano or a Smith and Wesson M&P Shield. But I don’t think you’re ready for either of those, so I’m letting you use my S&W 22A.”

  Taking the safety off, Sam aimed at one of the milk jugs. “Have Dante and Seth spoken to you about what’s going on?” She fired, grinning when the milk jug sprung a leak.

  “Yeah. Something about Armitage Computing, right?” Beth adjusted Abby’s stance. “And Charles Armitage.”

  “There is no Charles Armitage.” Sam fired again, this time hitting the wooden wall behind the milk jugs. “Damn.”

  “Try again.” Beth nodded approvingly when Abby hit her jug. “What do you mean there’s no Charles Armitage?”

  “Just that. He died in 1929. But there are three Armitage House homeless shelters dedicated to him, and the Shem holding Rafe talked as if Charles was the guy behind the kidnapping.” Sam took another shot, hitting the milk jug again. “He also stated that there might be others the Armitage family has taken. I’m not sure why.”

  “Huh.” Abby fired, hitting her jug. “There has to be something linking Charles and the kidnapping.”

  “Maybe the date of death? It could be a key code to something.” Beth took Abby’s gun and showed her how to reload it before returning it.

  “That’s what we thought, Damien and I.” Sam fired once more. “But a code to what?”

  “A secret area in the shelters?” Abby took another shot, grunting when she missed. “Somewhere they’re holding the Nephilim?”

  “Check the paintings of Charles. I bet they have them, and have a plaque of some kind. It’s not unusual. I bet there’s something there.” Beth pulled her own gun and shot at the farthest milk jug from her, hitting it with ease. “Check for his date of birth as well. You never know which will be the code.”

  “You think they’ve got secret murder caves in their homeless shelters?” Abby whistled low. “Damn.”

  “We also think that they may be feeding grounds for the family.” Sam took one more shot before putting the safety on and setting the gun down. She needed to concentrate on what they were talking about. Besides, she’d hit the jug three out of four times. “Think about it. What better way to feed than to provide for your cattle?”

  Beth stared at Sam. “I didn’t think you could ever say something that cold.”

  Sam shivered. “I don’t like it. I’m really unhappy the Shem even exist. But I have to face reality. They’re out there, they attacked me, and they’re using the same strategy as their ancestor to get their food the easy way. Charles Armitage was a sausage maker who fed homeless people in the back of his factory. People started dying, and he was eventually killed by some Neph whose name I can’t remember. The Armitage family is using these people, killing them slowly or quickly, and we have no idea how many of them there are.” Sam’s shoulders slumped. “But thanks to my hacking they’ve learned who I am.”

  Abby and Beth exchanged a sympathetic glance. “We haven’t exactly been quiet, either,” Beth replied.

  “Yeah, but you two went up against single Shem without backup. This is a family. I’ve got the diabolic mafia from Hell chasing me.” Sam shook her head and straightened up, refusing to allow herself to feel down. Too many people were relying on her to give up now. “Damien won’t let anything happen to me. He promised, but now I’m afraid of what will happen to him.”

  “I know how that feels.” Abby leaned against the table. “I have to deal with it whenever Seth goes on patrol. Will he come back? Will he be hurt?”

  Beth sighed. “I’ve got it worse. Dante is a cop and a Neph. I worry all the time about him, but he loves what he does and I’d never take that away from him. Not because I’m afraid. If that happens, they win.”

  “You’re right.” Sam straightened her shoulders. “No matter what happens, Damien and I will get through this.”

  Abby hugged her tight.

  Beth nodded approvingly. “You sure as hell will. Now, pick up your gun and let’s get some more practice in.”

  Sam and Abby picked up their guns. After all, their lives might someday depend on their ability to hit what they shot at.

  Chapter 20

  “How is your woman, Damien?” Piotr smirked. “Is she pleased with you?”

  Damien shot Piotr a dark look. “Lay off it, my brother. I’m giving her space to get used to not only me, but us.” He waved his hand around the table, indicating his brothers. Only Rafe was missing from the dining room, but he was there in the house. “She knows we’re Neph, but she’s not used to being around us on a daily basis. She’s had her life turned upside down—”

  Piotr held up his hand, the smirk gone from his face. “She has done well. She looks good, my brother. I was only teasing.”

  “I know.” Damien ran his fingers through his hair, allowing his nervousness to show. He had to show Piotr that he trusted him, even with his emotions. “It’s just that it’s so new, I’m afraid I’ll step out of line and do something to drive her away.”

  Piotr gave him a soft smile. “Don’t worry. She cares for you very deeply. I can feel it.”

  Piotr could sense and influence the emotions of others, making him one of the more dangerous of the Nephilim. As he fed off emotion he would become stronger, almost as strong as Zeke, a Legionnaire. So if Piotr was telling him that Sam cared deeply, Damien believed him. “Thanks, my brother.”

  Piotr bowed his head. “Pazhalooysta, moĭ brat.”

  “Okay, listen up.” Seth finished setting up some sort of projector, hooking his tablet PC up to it. “I managed to get the blueprints for all three buildings after you called me. Abby drove while I studied them, and I found something curious. I want to see if you notice what I did.”

  “How’d you get them so fast?” Dante leaned over and began studying the blueprints.

  Seth smiled. “Sometimes it pays to be an architect.” He pulled up the second blueprint. “Especially when your friend’s company was one of the ones who designed the buildings and you’ve done freelance work for them.”

  “Oh really?” Damien was surprised. “I thought you mostly do residential?”

  “That’s what I prefer, but I’ve done the occasional commercial, especially when the client wanted a homey feel or to have an apartment above a shop.” Seth brought up the third, setting all three blueprints side by side. “This
is the first floor of each building.”

  Damien studied the blueprints as well. There was no language here for him to interpret, just numbers and lines and notations that, in the end, made a building. “What is it you’re seeing?”

  Seth pointed to a specific wall in each building. All three were near the front entrance, in a foyer or a lobby, and all three seemed especially thick. “Each of these is just thick enough to hold a four-person elevator, the kind you might find in a residence with a handicapped person who can’t use stairs.”

  “So?” Damien leaned back, wondering what Seth was getting at. “That would probably be useful in a house for people who have disabilities.”

  “Hmm. Not if there’s another, public elevator.” Seth pointed to a rectangular box on the first blueprint. “Right there.”

  “Could it be a staff-only elevator?” Dante leaned forward, studying each of the blueprints a little more closely. Damien could practically hear the wheels turning in his brother’s mind.

  “Look here.” Seth pointed out the first unexplained space, the one that might be a personal elevator. “There’s no notation for a door, mechanicals, or anything else. Just the space. And it’s in all three areas. But over here—” he pointed to the space in the first blueprint that was obviously some sort of mechanical room or elevator, “—we have all the mechanicals marked for an elevator.”

  “So if there is something behind that wall, it was hidden even from the architects?” Gio was staring at the second building’s plan, the one without a noted elevator. “They were told just to put that space there in all three?”

  “Not necessarily. There’s always some empty space, too small to use, in almost every blueprint. Usually they use that space for venting runs, A/C, that sort of thing. But this is different. It could easily be a coat closet with its location, and there are no HVAC notations that would make me believe it’s a run. I’m thinking it’s definitely the odd thing we were looking for.” Seth pointed to the second and third spaces. “Same thing over on these two buildings, except neither of these have elevators, just stairs. Same dimensions, same space that could be used for mechanicals, but nothing else. Just apparently wasted space.”

  “Huh.” Damien stared. There was no real reason for the space to be blocked off like that. “There’s no water heater or washer and dryer hook-ups in there?”

  “In the foyer?” Zeke gave him an odd look.

  “True.” Damien hadn’t even thought of where the space was, just what could logically explain its existence.

  Seth shook his head. “On all three, the washer and dryer are in the basement, along with the HVAC and the water heater.”

  “So all three have basements.” Dante grinned. “Can you bring up the basement plans?”

  Seth did so, but to Damien they didn’t make much sense. It was a large area, but without the defining walls of the previous blueprints. “What are we looking for?”

  “Missing space.” Dante shook his head and glanced at Seth. “I can’t see it. Do you see anything?”

  Seth frowned, studying the basement, then going back to the original blueprint. He pulled out a calculator, the frown quickly turning into a scowl as he finished. “The footprint is different by roughly two hundred square feet.”

  “Check the other two as well.” Sasha was leaning so far forward he was practically sitting on the table. Let’s make sure we’ve got a similar missing footprint on the others.”

  Seth did, and after some rapid calculations, pointed out the areas he thought were missing space. “Something’s there. All three are missing two hundred to two hundred and twenty-five square feet. Call it somewhere between twenty feet by ten feet, or fifteen by fifteen.”

  “Could the Nephilim holding cells Rafe told us about fit in rooms that size?” Zeke, who’d been quietly listening, had his fists clenched on top of the table.

  “Possibly, but I doubt there’d be more than one or two cells in each, unless they’re using dog crates.” Seth stared at the numbers, the fury in his expression mounting. “They could be transition points as well, but considering we’ve got three Armitage Houses with these missing spaces, I’m betting they aren’t transient at all. I’m betting we’ll find some of our people down there. Either that, or they’re taking more Nephilim than we’d thought.”

  “So, how do we do this?” Damien stood to study the building’s layout. “And which team hits which house?”

  “And if there are secret elevators, how do we get to them?” Zeke scowled. “Hell, how do we get into the buildings? That one is a woman’s shelter, damn it. I’m not scaring some helpless, abused women.”

  Sasha pulled out his cell phone. “Give me the web address. I want to see what time these places go on lock-down.”

  Damien rattled off the address and turned to Dante. “We could get into one of them with the prowler excuse.” It had worked for them before. They claimed someone had been seen roaming the property and Dante wanted to do a safety check.

  Dante seemed reluctant. “The Armitage family probably has fingers in the political pies around here. I could lose my badge if we aren’t careful.”

  “You could send Jarvis instead,” Seth muttered. “Still hate that guy.”

  Detective Jarvis had taken over Abby’s stalker case when Dante got injured. To say he’d been less than helpful would be an understatement. His bungling had almost gotten Abby and Seth killed.

  “All I’m saying is we need to be careful,” Dante replied. “We’re still going to do it, we just do it by the book.”

  “Got it.”

  There was a soft knock behind him. Damien turned to find Sam behind him, her hands behind her back. “Um. There was something we were talking about outside that we thought you should think about.”

  Damien could tell she was uncomfortable, whether because there were so many men in the room or because she was interrupting them. He went to her side and put his arm around her. “Tell us, sweetheart.”

  She smiled up at him gratefully and took a deep breath. “We think Charles Armitage is the key.” She pointed to where Seth had the missing space up on the screen. “I’m wondering if a portrait of Charles Armitage is at the opening of each of those so-called ‘blank spaces’ I heard you guys talking about. You enter his date of birth or date of death into some kind of keypad or locking mechanism, and you’re in.”

  Damien nodded. “Sam and I talked about this. I was about to bring it up, but I didn’t think of date of birth. We can look it up before we go.”

  Dante grunted in acknowledgment. “If she’s right it won’t be the same code at each place. You’d be an idiot not to change codes every few months.”

  “Hmm. I’m betting they use the same numbers and just rotate them. Their security wasn’t the best, even at the corporate level. They’d have to give them to their goons so they can get into whatever is there. Changing them to something too different is going to set off alarms when people inevitably fuck up.” Sam stared at the three blueprints. “You have three places to check out. What are the three major dates in Charles Armitage’s life, and what do they have to do with the shelters?”

  Damien’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “Date of birth, date of death, and…?”

  “Date he opened the factory? Date he started feeding the homeless?” Sasha began typing into his phone. “Damn, girl, you’re good.”

  Her shoulders went up and her cheeks turned red. “Thanks.” She took a quick look around, nodding shyly to Piotr. “I should probably go back now.”

  One of Piotr’s brows rose. “You’re still practicing?”

  “Yes, sir,” Sam rapidly replied.

  “Eto khorosho. Keep doing that.” Piotr smiled. “I’ll be sending you some work soon. Mr. Templeton says my staff needs you.”

  “I’ll look forward to it, sir.” Sam leaned in to Damien and whispered in his ear. “What did he say?”

  Damien turned to her and whispered in her ear, “Eto khorosho.” Sam shivered, and Damien nearly left the
room then and there to drag her up to his bed. He held back, though, because this meeting was important. “It means ‘that’s good’.”

  “Oh.” Sam swallowed hard. “I’ll go shoot something now,” she breathed out. She almost curtseyed before turning and running from the room.

  “I thought we’d gotten her to loosen up a bit,” Sasha said softly.

  “Her boss is in the room, and so is her boyfriend.” Seth shrugged. “She probably didn’t know how to act.”

  “On top of that,” Piotr added with a pointed look at Seth, “we are discussing a search and rescue mission. Perhaps she felt uncomfortable about interrupting us for something she might think of as inconsequential.”

  “She’ll be fine. What we need to focus on is who’s hitting which place.” Dante pointed to the female-only shelter. “Who’s taking this one?”

  Piotr glanced at Zeke, but kept his mouth shut.

  “We will.” Sasha raised his hand. “Rafe is a nurse. We can arrange something, I’m sure of it.”

  “Then we will hit the male’s shelter.” Piotr relaxed slightly.

  Perhaps he didn’t want to be sent to the women’s shelter. Zeke also seemed relieved. What had they asked Piotr to do in the past that had the man shying away from the task of investigating a battered woman’s shelter?

  “That leaves the family shelter for us.” Dante made a note, grimaced, then scratched it out and made a new one. “We’ll go with the prowler idea. Make sure someone calls it in so it’s legit.”

  “Sam can do it. We give her a set time and she can be all frightened.” Seth leaned back in his chair, his expression thoughtful, but otherwise he didn’t speak. Whatever was going on in his head would have to wait until he was ready to open his mouth and spill it.

  “What’s our story?” Zeke leaned forward. “And is Micah going with us?”

  Micah nodded sharply. “Of course I am. I’m not sending you two into the lion’s den without a full group.”

  “Then all we need is a cover story.” Zeke rubbed his chin, his gaze distant.

  Piotr silently watched Zeke, allowing Zeke to take the lead. Micah followed Piotr’s move.