“Hey, you taking off?”
I looked up to see Spence. He had his hands in his pockets and looked uncomfortable, like he wasn’t sure he actually wanted to be talking to me—which made two of us.
“No,” I said defensively. I didn’t like the thought that someone would assume I’d just run away like that—even if he had completely slaughtered me.
“Okay,” he said, smiling a bit with his hands in the air. “Don’t shoot. Look, I just wanted to say…I…Anyone could see you were off your game and I…Anyway, it was poor form. Not my usual style. It just pisses me off that they won’t let me out to hunt with everyone else. I thought if they saw—”
“If they saw you take me down, they would overlook the fact that if you’re hurt by an exile, you could die?”
“Yeah. Put like that, it makes me sound like an idiot, but I had to try.”
“I get it. It wasn’t your fault, anyway. Like you said, I was…distracted.”
“By Lincoln and Griffin’s partner, Maggy?”
“Magda,” I corrected.
“She causing a problem?”
“No. Yes. I don’t know.” A couple walking their dog cruised by and smiled at us. All I could think was: they have no idea. And I was envious.
Spence hoisted himself up and got comfortable beside me.
“Well, why don’t you start by telling me what happened to make you fight like a girl?”
I laughed. “I am a girl.”
“Yeah,” he shrugged, swinging his legs out, “but no Grigori worth their salt fights like a girl, and I’ve heard you’ve got skills.”
“Thanks.”
“So?”
“I don’t know,” I said. But Spence just waited, and eventually I gave in. “I overheard them talking. She told him something that had him freaking out. He kept asking if she was sure. Then, when she suggested they tell Griffin and me, Lincoln panicked and made her promise not to tell me. I don’t know what it is, but it’s big and it’s bad and he swore he would never lie to me again.”
And for the life of me, I have no idea why I am confiding in this stranger who has just pummeled the crap out of me. I guess it’s true what they say: physical combat can be as emotional as any other major connection.
“Wow, that sounds bad. So you and Lincoln have history? You know that’s not really in the cards for partners, don’t you? I mean, someone’s explained…” he trailed off.
“Yeah, yeah, we can never be together like that. I got the memo. It’s complicated, though. I thought we…I just didn’t think he would be…”
“Right, I get it. And Lincoln and Magda? It sounds like she was telling him something major, something personal. Do you…?” He held a kind of frozen cringe while his hands made a wide circle at his belly.
“I know what you think. That’s not it,” I said quickly, shutting him down.
“Okay. But if they had a history before you two, I’m just saying, is it possible?”
“No. I…I don’t know. He never told me if they were…are…” I said, looking down, holding back the tears. I didn’t want to cry in front of Spence. I barely knew him. It was bad enough I was spilling my guts to him.
“Okay, no stress. Well”—he nudged me—“if you want to find out, we could always follow them.”
I looked up to see Lincoln and Magda coming down his front steps and walking in the opposite direction. They hadn’t seen us.
In that moment, something clicked, and I was suddenly very glad Spence had come into my life.
“Let’s go,” I said, jumping down off the fence.
“Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty; believe me, that Angel’s hand is there.”
Fra Giovanni Giocondo
Following people through the city is tricky. Especially when they have a special connection to you that means if you get too close, there’s a good chance they’ll become aware of your presence.
It was still light at least, so we could hang back a bit and keep them in sight when there weren’t too many people blocking our view.
Spence was like a pro sleuth. I was totally impressed and glad to follow his lead. We tailed Lincoln and Magda for several blocks, and just when I was starting to think we should give up, Spence ducked into a shop doorway and pulled me in too.
“What?” I whispered.
He smiled. “You don’t have to whisper.”
He was right; they were almost a hundred yards ahead of us. “What?” I repeated in a normal tone.
“I think I know where they’re going.” He pointed out the doorway.
Magda and Lincoln were walking toward a small hotel. Spence watched quietly while I held my breath. Sure enough, in they went.
A hotel.
I bit down on my lip and tried to hold back the tears.
How could he do this to me? To us? But really, that was my answer.
There is no “us.”
The part of me I would rather ignore taunted me from within.
You never had him in the first place.
Spence, who had been standing silently beside me while these thoughts raced through my mind, grabbed my arm. “Come on.”
“What? Where?” I asked.
“Over there.”
“I’m not going over there. Let’s just go.” I turned and motioned to walk away. Spence folded his arms and shook his head.
“Look, I get it: you’re in a bad place. But right now, you’re thinking worst-case scenario. There’s still a chance it’s something else. Let’s go find out. It can’t make things worse.”
He pulled me back onto the street and marched on toward the hotel. I shuffled reluctantly after him. This was not a good idea.
As we came closer to the doors, my angelic senses started going off like a metal detector.
“Spence,” I said cautiously. “Spence—something’s not right. There are exiles in there.”
I tried to calm the senses, to swallow away the tartness of apple, drown out the sound of birds crashing into branches, move past the cloying aroma of so many overlaid floral scents. I blinked away the flashes of morning and evening that flickered beneath my eyelids and tried to calm the sting of heat coursing through my entire body. Normally, these days, I had this process well in hand, but it could still be overwhelming when I was dealing with multiples.
Spence steadied me. “You all right?”
“For now. But I don’t know if we should be going in there.” I was already starting to back away.
“We should definitely be going in there.” He bounced on the spot. “I mean, Lincoln and Magda are already inside. What if they’re in trouble?”
“I don’t think so. I’d sense it if Lincoln was in danger.”
“Yes, but can you sense it if he doesn’t realize it himself?”
Good point.
“Okay, but let’s not get into anything we don’t have to.”
Spence was checking his dagger. Luckily, we have to wear them when we do training sessions, so we are used to fighting with them on. Though not as awkward as a sword, Grigori daggers are on the larger side, with a forearm-length blade. Spence looked so excited. I looked down at my own weapon. Damn it. I wasn’t excited at all. At best, I was going in there to fight with exiles when I was still too much of a chicken to pull out my dagger. At worst…I didn’t even want to consider the other possibility.
When we entered the lobby, we saw that the hotel was surprisingly large. From the outside, it looked quite boutique, but although it was narrow, it was actually very deep. There was a marble bar down at the far end and a reception area by the entrance, with armchairs and tables scattered in between.
I scanned the room quickly. In the heavily male-dominated lobby, the few women were dressed expensively but provocatively. On some, the fabric between the Manolos and designer blouses was so sc
ant that little was left to the imagination.
“Ew,” I said.
“Yeah,” Spence agreed, though he didn’t sound all that grossed out, and when I looked at him scanning the joint, I just rolled my eyes.
“What?” he asked in response.
“You’re such a guy,” I said, moving us toward a more discreet position behind one of the large marble pillars.
Men in suits, some wearing wedding rings, huddled at small tables with girls. A sense of deception emanated from the place. It felt tainted and dangerous.
“I think we should make this quick,” I whispered.
“Yeah, some of them really need to get a room,” Spence responded in all seriousness, and although I was a little disgusted by his comment, I agreed. PDA can be cute at the right time and in moderation, but this was…
I spotted Lincoln and Magda at one of the small tables near the bar.
“They’re over there at the back, sitting with someone else,” I said.
Spence looked at me with a screwed-up face and looked away. “Guy or girl?” he asked, cringing.
“Guy. Why?” I replied, confused.
“Oh…well, that’s…” he said, unable to finish, increasingly appalled.
I caught on and smacked him on the shoulder. “Spence! Get your mind out of the gutter and concentrate!” I hit him again. “They’re with an exile and there are more at the tables on either side of them. I think you were right. They’re in trouble.”
The man sitting opposite Lincoln was unprepossessing and kind of weedy-looking for an exile, which made me think he was hidden by some type of disguise. All I could see was a manila envelope moving over the table from him to Magda, and then a white envelope sliding back from Lincoln to him.
“Catch that?” Spence asked, now the one whispering.
“Yeah.”
“Any ideas?”
“Not one.”
“Well, this is good, isn’t it?” he said.
I felt a spike in the room as a familiar, unnerving feeling washed over me, sending a shiver down my spine. I started to look around, a different set of nerves playing on me now. I was just about to take a step toward where it was coming from when two menacing-looking exiles appeared with lightning speed and stood like a brick wall in front of us.
“I wouldn’t exactly say good,” I answered Spence.
“Hmm.” But he was still smiling.
“This is a breach! You Grigori—lying, despicable humans,” said one of the exiles.
“We were just leaving,” I said, as Spence and I, understanding the very immediate need for departure, spun around to face the exit. But we spun right into another three exiles who had come up behind us.
“No pass, no protection,” said one, who looked as if all his Christmases had come at once. Then his fist went squarely into Spence’s face, sending him flying into one of the marble pillars with a thundering smack.
Lincoln and Magda were there in seconds, shocked to find me surrounded by a pack of angry exiles. They didn’t even hesitate. They jumped straight into action. As did I. Before I knew it, we were in full combat, Lincoln and Magda each fighting off two exiles. Spence recovered quickly and took one from Magda, while all I heard was Lincoln yell, “No daggers! Just put them down and get out!”
Fine by me.
Making sure I didn’t make the same mistake I had the other day, I blocked everything else out and focused on the ginger-haired, polyester-wearing exile who was coming at me with venom. Luckily, he was sloppy, which made it easy. With a few well-placed kicks, I was in control and I beat him down until he stayed there. I turned in time to see Lincoln knocking out his second exile, slamming his flattened palm right up and into his opponent’s nose—one of his favored moves—quick and efficient. Magda was already at the door and Spence was still going fist to fist with the burly exile who had first hit him.
I was about to step in and help when Spence took a running jump at the exile and somehow catapulted himself to land in a sitting position on the exile’s shoulders. From there, he grabbed his head, taking the time to look at me and wink, then gave it a sharp twist. There was a loud snap and the exile fell to the ground. A broken neck wouldn’t kill or return him, unfortunately—a Grigori blade was needed for that—but it would hurt like hell and keep him down for a while.
Once outside, Spence and I kept a quick pace, following Lincoln. We both knew he simply expected us to do so. When he stopped a few streets away, I went straight up to him. I didn’t know what was going on, but right now, I just wanted to know he hadn’t been hurt. It had been stupid to go in there when we knew the hotel was filled with exiles.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“No!” He spun round to look at me, his green eyes angrier than I’d ever seen. “What the hell were you two doing in there? You could’ve gotten yourself killed!”
I took a step back. Spence came up to stand beside me as Magda stepped up to Lincoln.
“Linc, I’m sorry. We thought you might be in trouble.”
“How did you even know we were in there?”
“We…I…” I couldn’t answer, couldn’t admit to my childishness.
“You followed us!”
“Actually, it was me,” Spence said, stepping forward.
“What?” Magda jumped in.
“Yeah. I saw you guys going off, and it looked like you might be going hunting. I thought I might be able to get in on the action. Sorry about that.”
I closed my eyes briefly. Spence was saving me, big time.
“You both should have known better,” Magda said, not about to let me off the hook. “You’re not even allowed on active duty, Spence. I doubt your tutors will be impressed when we tell them you ruined a meeting we had with a source while potentially threatening one of the only ones we have left. It was a mutual setup; we declared our numbers and agreed not to cause them any problem if they met with us. We were there to get information, not to fight!” Magda looked as if she were enjoying this mess as much as Lincoln looked ashamed of it.
Does he really think so little of me? Am I such an embarrassment to have around now that Magda’s back and he can hunt with her?
“Well, maybe someone should have told me,” I sulked, directing my words at Lincoln, who would now barely look at me. “And maybe someone could have told me where he was going while he was at it, since he’s supposed to be my partner, after all. This isn’t all on us, you know. What were you seeing that exile—source—for, anyway?”
“Nothing. It’s just an old case I offered to help Magda on,” Lincoln said, looking at his feet.
“What? You’re not going to tell me?” I asked in disbelief.
“No.” He looked at Magda, who tilted her head as if to direct him to go with her. “Look, this doesn’t involve you, Violet. Go home. Get some sleep. You barely had any last night.”
Spence looked at me, smiling ear to ear, and even gave his eyebrows a waggle. I ignored him.
“You and…Spence will have plenty of time to hang out later on. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lincoln said, also absorbing Spence’s expression.
With that, Magda and Lincoln hailed a taxi and were driven away. I guess they figured they’d be harder to follow traveling at high speed.
I buried my face in my hands. “Oh my God. I want to die.”
“What do you mean?” Spence started, running his fingers through his hair and then ruffling it all up again. “That. Was. Unbelievable! Did you even see that? I leapfrogged onto his damn shoulders and snapped his neck!”
I looked between the fingers over my face. “That was pretty cool.”
“Cool? That wasn’t cool—that was historic!” He gave me a nudge and I laughed as we started walking back. “And it wasn’t that bad. At least they weren’t in the penthouse with champagne.”
“Spence, you’re d
isgusting. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes. But you have to admit, not a bad result compared to the alternative. Mind you…”
“What?”
“Well, Magda was looking a little…you know…bloated. Maybe…?”
“No.” I took a deep breath and squared myself to face him. “No!”
“Enough said.” He gave a nod and I knew he wouldn’t mention it again.
“You do realize they’re going to tell on us,” I went on as we started walking again. “And when Griffin, Nyla, and Rudyard find out, we’re busted.”
“Yeah, but it was worth it! Right onto his shoulders…like a freaking acrobat!”
• • •
By the time I finally got home to an empty apartment, I was so exhausted, I passed out on the couch for the night after briefly wondering how Onyx was going with Dapper. I should have gone to check on him tonight, but with everything that had happened, I promised myself I would go straight after training the next day. Just as my eyes became too heavy to resist closing, I felt a breeze cross my face. Strangely, it wasn’t cold and I didn’t feel so alone.
“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
G. K. Chesterton
Steph didn’t stop talking about Salvatore all morning; even during class, she sent me notes—something Steph simply does not do.
He is soooo nice!
He walked me home. Did I already tell you that?
I feel so bad for him. All he wants to do is be part of everything and not slow things down. It’s not his fault he can’t speak English yet. Zoe is such a bitch to him but he just wants her to like him. But just as friends—he isn’t interested in her—I don’t think. What do you think?
S xxx
I wrote back, assuring her that I didn’t think Salvatore had any interest in Zoe romantically, reminding her, somewhat bitterly, that Grigori partners are not allowed to be romantic together anyway, even as I was reflecting more and more on Nyla and Rudyard and how close they looked.
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