I checked my watch again, groaning when I realized we still had an hour to go.
“I’m hungry,” Tasha whined, eyeballing the vending machine.
My stomach growled, agreeing with the wench against my will. The late afternoon taco-fest hadn’t been enough to carry me through the main event, but to be fair, I’d thought the world would be saved by now, and the plan was to celebrate with donuts or something equally sugary and fattening.
Maalik sighed. “The machine only takes tokens. I’ll go see if I can find some. Keep your eyes on that,” he said, handing me the compact.
Tasha watched him as he disappeared down the hallway and let out a lusty groan. “Mmm, I bet he’s all muscle under that robe.”
I felt my cheeks flush and crossed my legs away from her, angling the compact further out of her reach. Her face held a taunting grin when she looked back at me.
“He’s still got it bad for you, but you knew that already, huh?” Her eyes flickered down at the compact.
“Nice try, but really, even if you manage to get it away from me, do you think you’d survive the seventy-story drop once I throw you out the window?” I tilted my head thoughtfully and glanced out at the city lights, glowing softly behind our superimposed reflections.
Tasha snorted and leaned back on the bench, folding her hands behind her head. “If I have to stay here with you much longer, I’ll save you the trouble and jump.”
A silent moment passed in which everything was too loud—the drip of the water fountain, Kevin’s snores, the clicking of Tasha’s heels as she stretched her legs out over the tile floor. The blinking light on the compact hadn’t moved, and I found that each second it remained stationary, my agitation grew worse.
“I paid your pal Benny a visit this afternoon,” I said, having nothing better to do than make small talk with the traitorous fiend.
Tasha’s head jerked up, but her expression was guarded. “Who?”
“Oh, come on. We found your stupid little map, and his store was circled in streetwalker-red.”
“Sorry, don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I turned to stare at her. “You know what else was circled with your cheap lipstick? Tack’s apartment, the grocery store you get your takeout from, the booth at the market where you shot that guard—”
“That was an accident,” she snapped, her face screwing up with rage. She took a deep breath and looked away from me, back to the window and our reflections. “I just needed somewhere dry to sleep, and the booths were closed. I wasn’t there to hurt anyone.”
My stomach clenched, but I credited it to my hunger. I refused to feel sorry for her. “Why not stay with Tack at the resort?”
She laughed, like it was the dumbest thing she’d ever heard. “The guard doesn’t care if a homeless demon squats in one of those buildings. A lot of the nephilim were homeless squatters there themselves, before they moved on up in the world. But a reaper at large?” She sighed. “Tack’s been through enough because of me.”
My stomach growled again. “Well, aren’t you the saint.”
“Did I ask you for a fucking medal?” Tasha glared at me.
“You joined the rebels. Do you really expect me to believe you give a shit about anyone but yourself?”
She considered me for a few awkward seconds, as if she had a perfectly good explanation but she thought I was too dense to understand it. Then she sighed and tilted her head back against the bench.
Maalik decided to return just then, and I glanced back down at the compact, making sure I hadn’t missed anything.
“Found some,” he said, waving a plastic baggie of green tokens. “What would you ladies like?”
Tasha turned back to me with a sneer. “Any last meal suggestions?”
Maalik raised an eyebrow and began pumping tokens into the vending machine, pressing buttons at random until he had a good variety of snacks. He gathered them up and deposited them on the seat between Tasha and me before reclaiming the tracking compact.
“Dibs on the peanuts,” Kevin said. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“I don’t think so.” Tasha snatched them up first. “All they serve here is bread and beans.”
“Must be torture, I mean, after all the fine dining you were used to.” I grabbed a bag of chips and tossed it to Kevin, saving a candy bar for myself.
Tasha ignored me and tore open the bag of nuts, dumping them all in her mouth at once. She snagged a stick of beef jerky next and tucked a granola bar in her hoodie when she thought no one was looking.
As the two-hour mark drew near, everyone began shuffling around the room restlessly. The soul still hadn’t moved, according to the compact. At one point, Maalik pulled me aside.
“What if it’s malfunctioning again?” he whispered, giving me a worried look.
“Maybe that drop site is the main hub. Or maybe they haven’t had a chance to appraise the soul yet,” I suggested.
Maalik rubbed a hand down one side of his face and his dusty wings bristled behind his shoulders. “Asmodeus and Peter both had big deliveries today, and three more missing souls have been reported—even with all of the extra precautions the guard has taken.”
I glanced past him to where Tasha was curled up on the bench. “Then I guess it’s time for the guns-a-blazing part of the plan.”
The clock on the wall showed it was nearing two in the morning. Maalik nudged Tasha awake as the alarm on Abe’s watch went off, signaling it was go-time.
Kevin checked his quiver of arrows while I grabbed my axe from where I’d propped it next to the water fountain. Abe fingered the end of his spear, as if he thought it might have dulled since he’d last sharpened it, just before his nap.
Tasha watched us with bleary eyes and yawned. “Sure wish I had my brimstone pistol. Don’t know how much good I’ll be in a fight without it.”
Abe gave her a hard look. “Guess we won’t have to worry about friendly fire.”
Tasha pressed her lips together. “Pretty easy to say you’re gonna grant me immunity if you intend to send me into battle defenseless as a lamb.”
“Here.” I dug a can of angelica mace out of my pocket and tossed it at her.
“What the hell is this? Hairspray?” She gave me a belligerent scowl.
“It only works on demons, so you’ll have to fend for yourself if we come across any of your deserter buddies, but it’s better than nothing.”
“I’ve always wanted to work in a demon salon,” she said, her voice loaded with irony. “Now if I could just find a cursed curling iron, I’d be set!”
I pursed my lips. “If you don’t want it—”
“I’ll make do. Thanks, you’re a peach,” she said through gritted teeth. She stuffed the can in her pocket and stood, stretching down to touch her high-heeled toes. Her hoodie slipped up and I noticed an angry scar curling around her waist. It hooked upward near the center of her lower back, disappearing under her sweater.
I looked away before she caught me staring. Don’t feel sorry for her. It was going to end up being my mantra for the night. Because if I started feeling sorry for her, I was going to get the shaft. One way or another.
Maalik poked his head inside Ross’s office to let Jenni and Asmodeus know we were on the move again, and then we packed ourselves inside an elevator car and took it down to the lobby.
Tasha pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt as we stepped out and headed for the garage exit. The building lights had been turned off for the night, leaving only the red glow of the exit signs. The giant front window was dotted with rain that had fallen while we waited upstairs, and the clean smell of spring reached all the way into the parking garage. I took several deep breaths, letting it fill my lungs before I crawled into the back of the SUV waiting for us.
Kevin and Tasha filed in after me, and Abe took the driver’s seat behind the tinted windshield. I was surprised to see Maalik climb in with us this time.
“What Jenni doesn’t know won’t
hurt her,” he said, closing the door behind him.
Tasha gave me a sanctimonious grin, as if to say that she had told me so, and scooted over as Maalik took a seat beside her.
Abe pressed a radio button on the SUV’s dash. “Ready when you are.” He listened quietly to the replying static.
“All clear,” a crackling voice said a few seconds later.
We turned east out of the garage onto Council Street and then cut down Ghost Alley. About a block from the drop site, we parked in a lot tucked behind a cluster of restaurants. The security lights were out, but I had a feeling that had been arranged by the guard.
“You’re up, Tasha,” Maalik said, sliding open the side door. She gave him a hesitant frown. “Don’t worry. We’ll be right behind you.”
Tasha snorted, as if insulted that he was coddling her, and then jumped out, slinking between the buildings and toward Tombstone Drive.
Maalik turned to me next. “You and I will come in from the south and watch the front. Kevin and Abe can take the north and come up on the backside.”
“And here I thought I was captain of this unit.” I raised an eyebrow at him and slung my axe over my shoulder before exiting the SUV.
The building that Tasha had dropped Ramone off at was just around the corner from Divine Boulevard, a mere three blocks from Holly House. It was a stone’s throw from the span of woods that divided Meng’s property and the abandoned resort. There weren’t very many businesses in this part of the city, and like the resort, many of them had dried up long ago.
Maalik and I went several buildings down from the point where Tasha slipped through, pressing ourselves into the shadows and scanning for any sign of movement from around every corner. When we reached Divine Boulevard, we ran across in the shadow where the streetlights didn’t reach and used the tree line as cover, watching the entrance of the building as Tasha approached.
My axe was heavy against my back, and the humidity was ten times worse in the woods, like all the rain water had run off the streets and pooled at the edges of the island. I swatted a bug away from my face and then mouthed a sarcastic sorry when Maalik glared at me.
Pale light from a neighboring building reflected off the studs in Tasha’s ear as she pulled her hood back and knocked on the rusty door. It seemed like forever before someone finally answered. The chirping of the crickets invaded my ears, and I strained to hear the conversation she was having with the doorman. It didn’t look promising.
Tasha threw her hands up in the air as the door began to close. She pushed it back open with her foot, yelling at the man and rubbing her fingers together in his face, as if demanding to be paid.
The doorman snatched her arm and took a step out of the building, pushing her back. A patch of molting skin stretched down one side of his face and over his mouth and chin, looking almost like a beard trying to crawl its way up to his bald head. There were no whites to his eyes, just full black, gleaming in the darkness.
Maalik pulled the tracking compact out of his pocket and flipped it open. His bottom lip curled down into a scowl. “The soul is still inside. I say we move now.”
As if she’d heard him, Tasha pulled the can of angelica mace out of her hoodie and emptied it in the doorman’s face. The crickets became a whisper as the demon’s screams filled the night.
Tasha sucker-punched him in the gut, following it up with an elbow to his spine as he doubled over. When he hit the sidewalk with a gurgling hiss, she climbed on top of him and pillaged through his pockets until she found a switchblade.
By the time Maalik and I had crossed the street, she was on her feet again, holding the blade out between us and the open door like a question mark. “So who gets door number one?”
Maalik’s eyes swirled with smoke and his hands began to glow. “If you stab me in the back with that, I will melt your eyeballs out of your head. Understand?”
Tasha took a shaky breath and nodded, as if she might have been considering that an option. Her wide eyes turned on me next.
I hefted my axe over my shoulder and gripped it with both hands. “I don’t need a threat. You’re going in after him.”
She nodded and followed Maalik as he ducked inside. I hurried after them, my chest humming with premature triumph.
Chapter 23
“In any dispute, each side thinks it's in the right and the other side is demons.” —Steven Pinker
The building where Ramone was being kept had been gutted, leaving only a partial, brick wall that divided the place into two large rooms. It made it easy to see what we were up against, or rather, what we weren’t up against, after a quick sweep. Ramone and a dozen more souls were bound and gagged in the room along the rear of the building. Kevin and Abe smashed through the back door about the same time we found them.
“We heard someone scream,” Kevin said, his eyes darting around the room as if he expected to find a dead body now that all was quiet again. My ears were still ringing.
Maalik knelt down beside Ramone and pulled the dirty rag out of his mouth.
“There were more,” he rasped. “They left not long ago.”
“Do you know where to?” I pulled my hunting knife out of my boot and used it to cut through the ropes around his wrists and ankles.
Ramone shook his head and licked his chapped lips. “They said something about a boat though. They had the child soul with them.”
“Shit.” I turned the knife over to him, and he set to work freeing the other souls. “Why didn’t they take the rest of you?”
“Guess they didn’t have the room. The demon in charge said something about only taking the ones with buyers.”
Maalik swore under his breath. “Where’d Tasha go?”
She’d held back when we approached Ramone and the souls, and now she was gone. Figured.
“I’m going to kill her,” I said, turning back toward the front door in time to see her drag the moaning doorman inside by his feet. His head caught on the uneven threshold and bounced on the hardwood floor, leaving a sweaty trail through the dust as Tasha pulled him along.
When he was in far enough, she closed the door and straddled him again, pushing the tip of the switchblade under one of his bulging eyes. “I’m going to ask once, pretty please, that you tell us where the boat is.”
The doorman’s flakey skin looked less intimidating and more like an unfortunate ailment at this angle. The end of his shirt had bunched up under his armpits during Tasha’s manhandling, exposing a catfish belly that hung past the waistband of his jeans. Tasha’s knees pinned his elbows to the floor, and his flopping around stilled as the switchblade bit through his skin.
“You’re too late.” He tilted his head back, stretching the tendons in his neck until they looked like they might snap. Tasha pushed the blade in a little further, pooling the crease under his eye with blood.
“The west coast. The west coast!” he wailed, squeezing his eyes shut. “They have a boat hidden in a cave under the ridge. It’s leaving tonight.”
“Thanks, precious.” Tasha smacked his cheek and stood, wiping the switchblade against her thigh.
“Abe, call in the guard and take this one to the station,” Maalik ordered, his voice dropping an octave as the hellfire stirred in his eyes again. He nodded to me, Tasha, and Kevin. “The rest of you with me.”
Outside, he pointed east down Divine Boulevard. “Lana and Kevin, take the travel booth. It’ll be faster. We’ll meet you there.” He scooped up Tasha, cradling her against his chest as he kept a wary eye on her switchblade, and then took flight, heading west over of the city and toward the coast.
Kevin and I didn’t waste any time. We took off down the street, leaping over the small stream that trickled along the curb as we moved up onto the sidewalk. My heart pounded in my ears and my axe felt like it was trying to beat its way through the center of my back as I ran.
We slammed into the booth at full speed. My hands shook as I inserted a coin, and I almost selected the wrong stop. Kevin gave me
a relieved look when the right destination lit up the screen and we were ejected onto Westwood Drive, right in front of Tasha’s favorite grocery store.
“Come on.” I went ahead of Kevin, running past the building and into the woods. Maalik’s wings whooshed through the air above. It was too dark to tell exactly where, but I pressed on without waiting to see. Jai Ling was somewhere ahead, along with whoever was responsible and in need of a beating.
Saplings groped and snagged at me as I worked my way through the undergrowth. It seemed thicker than before, but maybe that was just my body aching from rushing around the city. Something snapped and Kevin groaned behind me. A second later, I heard him moving again. The woods were unkind, especially in the dark.
In the distance, the sound of water slapped against a boat hull, and it motivated me to move faster. I used my axe to clear a path until I reached the edge of the woods where a ragged cliff stretched out over the sea. The gentle hush of the waves was soothing. It had a calming effect that seemed out of place, until a delicate song echoed across the water.
“Sirens.” I gasped.
Kevin stepped through the woods behind me, his eyes growing wide as the song reached his ears. His fingers fumbled along the edge of his quiver, seeking out a hidden pocket that he retrieved a set of plugs from. He jammed them into his ears and swallowed hard, taking a deep breath before he nodded to signal he was ready to go on.
We followed the lip of the cliff until we reached a shadowy clearing tucked under the canopy of several tall trees. Maalik and Tasha slipped out of the woods behind us, and I nearly screamed before realizing it was them. The pitch black was unnerving, and only the soft glow of Maalik’s eyes saved us from being consumed by it entirely.
Maalik pressed a finger to his lips and pointed over the edge of the ridge. I could hear voices. They were soft, almost indiscernible, but they soon became clearer. The slap of the water against a boat grew louder too.
“Just a few more,” someone said. “Tell Eurynome to get ready to open the passage.”
Ghost Market (Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. Book 6) Page 15