“They move around, you idiot. You think they’d still be in business if they weren’t mobile?”
“You’re going to tell us every location you know of—”
“Or what?” she said through clenched teeth. “You’re going to have Toto here stomp me to death? How do I know you’re not going to do that anyway? I’m not saying shit.”
“I guess we could head back to Reapers Inc. and have him stomp Tack to death first. Maybe you’ll talk then.”
Tasha’s eyes widened at the mention of her ex. She struggled harder against Saul, kicking the ground, and then went still. “Whatever. You don’t have Tack.” It was almost a question.
So there was a chink in her armor after all. I should have known. Why else would she risk being spotted in the city just to buy him a bagel and coffee?
“I’m curious why you’re digging your dinner out of the dumpster—” I said as I stood and motioned for Saul to release her. Bub took one of Tasha’s arms and I grabbed the other, hauling her to her feet. “When you’ve got the coin to buy a homeless demon the good stuff from the café.”
Tasha’s face blanched, and her arm went slack in my grasp. She didn’t say anything as we escorted her across the street to the travel booth. I had the feeling she would have walked there on her own if it meant making sure Tack was okay.
Something about that unwavering loyalty felt familiar, and as evil as Tasha might have been, I still felt dirty for using it against her.
Chapter 18
“I think all of us have a hero and a villain in us.” —Anson Mount
The seventieth floor of the Reapers Inc. skyscraper had been remodeled to serve as the Nephilim Guard’s station. The project began while Grim was still in office, but it had only just finished a few months ago. It would have been completed sooner, but the attack on the city had presented some setbacks. The construction crews were called away to attend to more pressing repairs first—like the damage done to the historic district near the harbor.
The dove gray walls and speckled tile made for a much cheerier environment than the thirty-seventh floor, and for the first time ever, I was a little disappointed by that fact. I had a feeling the horror film set Grim used to do his dirty work would have made things move along much faster with Tasha.
Instead, Ross had placed her in a starkly lit interrogation room. Tack was down the hall in one of the tiny, bland cells that featured a toilet and a cot chained to the wall. The room was so sterile, I was sure his hygiene was improving just by sitting in there. Someone had changed the dressing on his hand, and a nameless guard informed me that he’d eaten almost his own weight in bean soup and bread.
Bub had headed on home, taking Saul with him, so I sat by my lonesome on one of the vinyl cushioned benches in the waiting area. A brand new vending machine hummed in one corner, and a shiny drinking fountain graced the opposite wall. The nephilim secretary, who looked very much like a winged version of Ellen, hummed while she clacked away on her keyboard, pausing every five minutes to ask if I was sure there wasn’t anything she could get for me while I waited. She was certainly nicer to me than Ellen had been in quite some time.
Finally, Jenni arrived. She stepped off the elevator and crooked her finger at me as she headed toward Tasha’s interrogation room. Ross spotted her through the glass window of his office and popped into the hallway as we passed by.
“Need any assistance?” he asked, his wings fluttering hopefully. The facility was so new, any chance to use it was met with gleeful anticipation.
Jenni shook her head. “Not just yet, but we’ll let you know.”
Ross frowned but he nodded and watched as we disappeared inside the viewing room attached to Tasha’s.
Jenni’s stiff demeanor set me on edge. I hadn’t expected a parade or anything, but something a little more congratulatory than the sour look she met me with didn’t seem like such a tall order.
“Did you really have to bring the junkie demon in?” she whispered, her cheeks flushing with shame.
“He’s clean now.” I blinked stiffly. “Not that that matters. I brought him here because I didn’t want him to alert Tasha that we were looking for her. And it’s a good thing too, because I’m pretty sure he’s the only way we’re going to get her to talk.”
I looked through the viewing window, startled to see Tasha staring right at me, her eyes unblinking and hands folded over the table. I moved a few steps to my left, but her eyes didn’t follow, and I found I could breathe again.
Jenni took a deep breath and paced across the room, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “You want to use the demon as a bargaining chip? Have Tasha reveal the location of the missing souls in exchange for his freedom?”
“Something like that.” I shrugged. “What do you think?”
She pressed her lips together. “I think the council will expect a deal like that to be cleared through them.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course. Why wouldn’t they?”
“Or maybe…” Jenni tapped a finger over her mouth thoughtfully. “Maybe we just don’t lose any sleep over not keeping promises to traitors.”
“Can we do that?” My stomach knotted. I wasn’t very good at lying, and my moral compass had been dropped enough for one night. I wasn’t sure it could take much more. I decided to rephrase the question. “Can you do that?”
Jenni sat down at the computer in the corner and clicked on the power button, lighting up the dark room. Her fingers moved lightly over the keyboard, as if she were afraid someone might hear her typing. I read over her shoulder as a nervous energy took hold of me.
The contract promised immunity for Tasha and Tack if she helped us infiltrate and take down the powers that be behind the ghost market. It even stipulated that she would be reinstated at Reapers Inc. as a low-risk freelance harvester. I wasn’t sure how Tasha would feel about that, but at least she wouldn’t have to share her meals with rats and roaches anymore.
I chewed my fingernails as Jenni printed the contract off.
“You really think that’ll do it? She won’t just run off the first chance she gets?” I asked.
Jenni bit her bottom lip. “I could call in a favor to be sure.”
I gave her a puzzled look.
“Do you remember those bracelets you used last fall to track Winston and the original believers Naledi arranged her little treasure hunt with?”
My heart dropped. “Naledi told you about that?”
“Not Naledi.” Jenni cringed.
“No. He’s on the council. And there’s no way he’d agree to what you’re doing.” I shook my head and turned away from her.
“What we’re doing. Besides, we don’t have to tell him everything,” Jenni insisted. “We’ll even let him hang onto the tracking compact. We’ll just request the two bracelets.”
Naledi must have removed hers, and I was pretty sure Winston’s was reclaimed before his memorial at the sea. I didn’t mention the other five I had stashed in my closet after Maalik forced me to give up the tracking compact. That small victory was still mine.
“Why do we need both of them? Who’s the other one for?”
Jenni gave me a strained smile. “How do you expect Tasha to infiltrate the ghost market without a proper soul to pawn?”
“Good point.” I blushed. “Uh, where exactly are we getting this proper soul from?”
“That’s another favor.” Jenni looked less thrilled about this one. “We’re borrowing it from Asmodeus.” She slipped out of the room before I could ask her for more details.
Asmodeus had been all googly-eyed over Jenni for a while now, ever since she’d come back from her week as a rebel captive, covered in blood and unconscious. For him, it was love at first sight from across the hall of Meng Po’s temple, where they were both healing up after close calls with Caim, the rebel general who had met his gruesome end when Jenni split him in half with her katana at the end of last summer.
Jenni was having none of Asmodeus’s courting—at
least, not since the last time I checked. After Loki had pretended to be Apollo to woo her into a rebel trap, her love life had been nonexistent. I didn’t blame her. Still, Asmodeus didn’t give up easily. I had a pretty good idea what he wanted in return for this favor Jenni had called in.
Honestly, I was a little surprised at how much legwork Jenni had been doing behind my back. Of course, she wouldn’t have her current position if not for me. Saving her from the clutches of the rebels was nothing to sneeze at either. It would have been nice—and also a little naïve—to think she’d done all of this out of the goodness of her heart though.
If the council voted against me, it would set the stage for Ridwan to vote Jenni out of office too. Bloodlust and power quests always seemed to have a snowball effect. It was too soon to be breeding chaos again. Eternity needed a break.
On the plus side, if the council did give me the eternal boot, at least I wouldn’t be around to see them set the afterlife on fire.
I watched through the viewing window as the interrogation room door opened and Jenni stepped inside. She sat down across from Tasha and slid the contract and a pen across the table to her without a word.
Tasha read it silently and then picked up the pen. She glanced up at the viewing window again, narrowing her gaze as if she could see me watching her. It was unsettling, and something in her eyes suggested that she was well aware that I hadn’t been the one to deliver the contract because I knew it was bullshit. She signed it anyway, but I didn’t feel as relieved as I’d hoped I would.
I wondered if all villains felt this unsatisfied when planning to stab someone in the back.
Chapter 19
“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough.” —Frank Crane
It was incredibly late before I made it home. Late enough that morning was already rearing its ugly head. Fortunately, the ghost market was a nocturnal creature, and Jenni didn’t want to see me back in the office until Tuesday evening. Sleeping like the dead was at the top of my list for the day.
I wondered if that was going to be an option when I entered the condo to find Kevin in the kitchen, his hand pressed over the lid of the blender. The sound it made grated against my skull like a power drill, and the green goop spinning in the pitcher made my stomach turn.
“That looks like something you should be making in the bathroom. Ick.” I made a face at him as I closed the front door behind me. “Why are you up so early?”
Kevin’s jaw tensed and he wouldn’t look at me. “Apartment hunting.”
I winced. “Oh.”
“Gabriel stopped by last night, going off about Holly Spirit having a feather up her ass and how he was ready to put in his thirty-day notice too.” He opened the blender and dumped the questionable contents into a tall tumbler. “When were you going to tell me?”
“I’ve been meaning to. There’s just a lot going on.”
Kevin turned around and leaned against the counter, giving me a hurt scowl. His black eye was puffy, but I was glad to see that it hadn’t swollen shut.
“I could have helped last night,” he said. “Why didn’t you take me with you on the stakeout?”
“I had Bub.”
“Yeah, but I’m your apprentice. I thought I was going to be part of this new team too. Or is that something else you’ve been meaning to talk to me about?”
I put a hand on my hip and glared at him. “I’d love to include you more, but you’ve been a little difficult to pin down since we left the posies. You didn’t pick up when I tried to call yesterday morning—”
“I told you I went for a run.”
“And you didn’t even make it to the grocery store I asked you to check out, though you somehow took longer than the rest of us to return, and with a black eye.”
Kevin set his cup down hard, splashed the counter with lumpy, mashed greens. “What exactly are you accusing me of, just to be clear?”
“What do you think?” I folded my arms, giving him a tired look.
Kevin pressed his lips together and nodded. He left the kitchen, coming back a moment later with a small, black box. He tossed it on the counter between us after he’d circled back to the blender.
“Open it,” he said gruffly. “It’s yours.”
I snatched up the box and ripped the lid off, letting out a surprised gasp before I turned it upside down. The crystal bands my mentor had given me spilled into my hand. They’d been polished since I’d seen them last, presumably by whomever Kevin had hocked them to in order to buy a fix before he’d kicked his hellfire addiction.
I set the box aside and climbed onto a barstool to take a better look at them, running my fingers down the silvery strands to find all the familiar imperfections one notices after owning a piece of jewelry for a few centuries.
Kevin’s face softened a bit. “Sorry it’s taken me so long to track them down. I was going to wait until after this first mission was over, but not if it means you’re going to think I fell off the wagon.”
“I’m sorry, Kevin.” I gave him a weak smile and then held up the crystal bands, watching them sparkle in the light. “Thank you.”
“When are you giving Holly this notice?” He took a long drink of his concoction and leaned over the counter.
“After the council’s ruling. I’m going to move into the new manor in Tartarus with Bub. It’s almost finished.”
Kevin nodded, making a painful face as he swallowed.
“What is that anyway?” I finally asked.
“Green protein shake. Ross says it’ll heal up my eye faster.”
I made a face. “And you believed him?”
Kevin shrugged and looked down in the cup at the remaining goop. “Maybe it’s an acquired taste.”
I shook my head. “Maybe you need better friends.”
He grinned and gave me a teasing glare. “I’ve been wondering that same thing myself. So, do I get to play with the big kids today?”
“Tonight,” I said sharply. “I haven’t been to bed yet. Plus, our next operation won’t be doable until nightfall, so rest up, grasshopper.”
I stood and circled the counter to give him a hug, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. “Thank you again, and sorry I doubted you.”
Kevin nodded as he took another drink of his shake, but I wasn’t sure if his grimace was protesting the flavor again or my affection. After Josie’s death, he’d shied away from anything even remotely touchy-feely.
“See you at lunchtime?” I gathered up the jewelry box and tucked the crystal bands back inside.
Kevin nodded and then called after me as I stepped around the corner into the hallway. “You didn’t happen to pick up any coffee from the store last night, did you?”
Chapter 20
“If only I wasn't an atheist, I could get away with anything. You'd just ask for forgiveness and then you'd be forgiven. It sounds much better than having to live with guilt.” —Keira Knightley
“This does not count as a romantic dinner.” Bub pouted over the box of tacos Kevin had picked up on his way home from touring the new duplexes going in on Divine Boulevard, near the road that led out to Meng’s temple.
I moaned as I crunched through a beefy, cheesy taco and pressed my shoulder into Bub suggestively. “Is it romantic now?” I purred, though the effect was somewhat lost with a mouthful of food.
Kevin rolled his eyes and crammed the rest of his taco in his mouth, washing it down with a soda. His black eye was no better off than it had been that morning, and he’d clearly lost faith in the green protein malarkey Ross had tried to sell him on. Immediate results were hard to come by, unless you were willing to choke down a cup of Meng’s super tea, and I’d take a black eye over that any day.
Bub sighed as he fingered the wilty lettuce on his taco. “I have an organic chicken in the refrigerator. I bought fresh herbs grown in an enchanted meadow and harvested by pixies.”
“Tomorrow.” I crumpled up my taco wrapper and
tossed it at the trash can. It bounced off the lid and hit the floor, where it was soon dogpiled by the helljack puppies.
They growled as they tug-of-warred the wrapper in half and then lapped up the traces of cheese and sour cream. The smaller of the two finished first and turned to nip at his brother’s tail.
“Share, Tom.” Kevin nudged the pup back with his foot.
“Tom?” I echoed with a snort. “You finally got around to naming them, and you chose Tom? Is the other one Garfield?”
“Felix,” Kevin answered innocently.
“Those are cat names.” I glared at him in disbelief. “You can’t give puppies with jackal and hellhound blood cat names. It’s just wrong.”
Kevin shrugged. “Felix means lucky.”
“I suppose that’s why there are so many martyrs with the name.” Bub smirked and pushed the box of tacos away.
“Really?” Kevin looked like he might be having second thoughts. “What about Blue and White? Like the two rivers that feed into the Nile. Get it?”
“Except the helljacks are both black,” I said, standing up and dusting sprinkled cheese from my hands and pants. The puppies swarmed my ankles to scavenge.
“Well, what would you name them then?” Kevin grabbed another taco and unwrapped it with a frown.
“Gluttony and Wrath,” Bub said under his breath.
Kevin rolled his eyes and took a bite of his taco, dribbling sauce down his chin.
I had hoped the lunch table talk would circle around to the possibility of Kevin moving to Tartarus with Bub and me, but every time it seemed like it might move in that direction, Bub had changed the subject.
Maybe he was just worried that we’d be on the lam and Kevin would be without a home if the council ruling didn’t go my way. I couldn’t handle that kind of doubt right now. It wasn’t productive, and not everyone could forfeit their give-a-damn as easily as Bub. I needed a hopeful outlook if I was going to focus on what had to be done tonight.
Ghost Market (Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. Book 6) Page 13