by Schulte, Liz
My hand paused as I considered what she’d asked. They’d given up the element of surprise and had given us time to react—stupid. The fact that I hadn’t thought of it first made it clear that I was distracted. That was never going to work. I had leaned on a few of my sources but no one had given me anything. I had one more person I needed to see, but I wanted to talk to Baker myself before I went. Asking questions was fine and all, but it also let people know how in the know you were. The cold, hard truth was we were coming into this blind. The less people who knew that, the better.
“They must want something,” she said. “Either they’re anticipating your reaction and mean to trap with it or they’re reminding you that you have something to lose, but I’d think killing Baker would have been more effective at that than sending him back.”
“What did I ever do to you, angel,” Baker said as he walked in. “Kill me? Horsefeathers! I was toying with them.”
Baker looked better, but he was still hurt. I should have sent him away—Femi too. Damn it. A niggling worry that was usually reserved for Olivia hit me. I didn’t want Baker to die, even if he was annoying. I cared and it irritated me. “What’d you find?”
“How are you feeling?” Olivia asked at nearly at the same time.
Why did she always want to talk about feelings? Baker had taken a few punches, we were all in danger, and no amount of talking would change that. We had more important things to worry about—like saving all of our asses. Baker was obviously fine. He was walking around, so he’d probably live. She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling.
“I’m fine, doll. Thanks for asking.” Baker patted her knee as he sat down with a grimace. She looked at him more closely, concern popping up in her mind like a dull ache in my head, which only made me more irritable. “I have an address for a possible place where vessels would be ripe for the plucking. According to Gunther, someone there is looking for bodies and offering a lot of dough. I think this could be the racket we’re looking for. You?”
Olivia hadn’t been wrong in her earlier reasoning. Why would they let Baker live? The message would have been the same either way, but had they killed him, I would have had one less person to rely on. Unless we had the message wrong.
My eyes met Olivia’s and she nodded. “That makes sense.”
It did make sense.
“It always feels like we’re missing something with the two of you,” Femi said.
“This wasn’t an attack. It was a warning,” I told them. “They never intended to kill you, Baker. They wanted to get my attention.”
“No offense, boss, but I think if it takes something like this to get your attention, you need to get your head out of your as—”
Olivia clamped a hand down on his leg and shook her head. Baker snapped his mouth shut, which almost made me smile.
“It makes sense. Why else would they warn Holden that Hell is about to make its move?” Liv said.
“Another ally?” I leaned back in my chair. The thought settled into my mind. Who would align themselves with us and what did they want? Nothing in life was free.
“With friends like this, who needs enemies?” Baker crossed his arms over this chest, gingerly wiggling his jaw.
“But who?” Femi asked. “Are you sure you can trust them? Maybe their plan is to make you think they are on your side.”
“Probably another jinni.” I paced a few steps. A jinni made sense. They knew what Olivia had done to free me. It would be the perfect motive to offer to help me now. But they could also be playing both sides—feeding Hell information on us while making us believe they were working with us. This whole situation had the very distinct smell of strategy. My head throbbed, making it hard to focus. There were too many people in here clouding my mind with their feelings. Baker felt mopey, Femi’s curiosity was relentless, and Olivia, well, she wasn’t really a problem—I was used to her.
“Has anyone spoken with Phoenix?” Olivia brushed a piece of hair from her face. “He isn’t my favorite person, but he and his people have left us alone since he took Holden’s position. This could be a subtle warning from him.”
“Subtle my ass. I lost all of my teeth.” Baker pointed to his mouth. “All of them.”
“Be a man, Baker. You have them back.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “Olivia and I will talk to him. You and Femi can check out that address.”
Baker stood. “Actually, boss, I think it would be better the other way around.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You and Femi want to talk to Phoenix?”
“No. I think Femi should go with you and Olivia should come with me. I don’t like the idea of sending the angel into a place swarming with jinn, you know what I mean?”
I did know what he meant. Olivia couldn’t always keep the angel part of her reined in. Sometimes, for no good reason at all, she lashed out at jinn—and especially demons—when she encountered them. Control was something we were still working on mastering.
Baker nodded. “Besides, Femi can’t really help me much on a human recognizance mission, but Olivia could.”
“I’m okay with that.” Olivia smiled and stood next to him. “I’ll protect you, Baker.”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Femi pursed her lips and looked at Baker like she didn’t quite trust him.
Baker slung an arm over Liv’s shoulder. “My guardian angel? Boss-man might get suspicious,” he said in a loud, conspiratorial whisper.
Something was definitely off about Baker. Sure, he was joking, but it felt shallow. His emotions actually seemed carefully controlled, which wasn’t like him. He was hiding something. He also was a little too eager to take Olivia away from me. They were friends, but most of the time, Baker preferred to be on his own. He rarely volunteered to partner with anyone. Olivia raised an eyebrow, eavesdropping on my thoughts. The look in her eye told me she would figure it out, and I had no doubt she would. She had a way about her that made sharing easy. I had no doubt that Baker would tell her whatever she wanted to know by the end of the day. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s just do this.”
“Can I talk to you for a second?” Femi pulled Olivia into the bedroom. Baker lounged back on the couch with his head back. I took Olivia’s seat next to him.
I kicked his leg, not too hard, but enough to get his attention. “What’s your problem?”
Baker ran his finger over his eyebrows, smoothing them. “Why would I have a problem?”
“Damn, Baker, stop acting like a girl. If you have a fucking problem, just say it.”
He looked over at me for a long moment, the corner of his mouth twitching. “There’s no problem.”
“Good.” He laid his head back down. “But if you don’t have one, then why is Femi in there warning Olivia to keep an eye on you.”
He sighed. “Do you trust me?”
I looked at him. I hated questions like that. Trust wasn’t all or nothing. Most people lied. However, I couldn’t imagine Baker working against me either. He was loyal enough and would have nothing to gain by my death or by hurting Olivia. “Sure.”
“Then you’ll believe me when I say, it’s personal and has nothing to do with what we are working on. The skirt in there doesn’t respect boundaries.”
“Consider the subject dropped.”
Baker sat up. “How did you let all these women into our lives?”
I shook my head. “I can’t pinpoint when it happened, but somewhere along the way, I lost control.”
“I think I could probably narrow that down for you. You have been wrapped around that angel’s pretty little finger since I met you, boss. She knotted you all up. You’re a goner.”
“That she did, Baker.” I looked toward the closed door. “That she did.”
Olivia and Femi came back out. “You ready, chuckles,” she said. “We’ve got shit to do and asses to kick.”
I stood up.
“Was it worth it, boss?” Baker asked. He was serious—too serious.
I kissed Olivia and follow
ed Femi toward the door. I paused before leaving. “If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change anything.”
Baker nodded.
“What are you guys talking about?” Olivia asked as I closed the door.
FEMI AND I walked into Xavier’s. I hadn’t been back since the day I quit and I hadn’t missed the place either. Phoenix seemed to be keeping it up fairly well, at least on the surface. I led Femi upstairs to my old office and didn’t both knocking on the door.
Phoenix drummed his finger on the desk when he saw me. His ink-black hair hung across his forehead and almost obscured an eye. The piercing on his lip glinted in the light. “About time.”
“I got your message.” I sat across from him.
Femi stopped inspecting the room and focused on Phoenix. She sauntered across the space and around his desk, dragging her pointed nail across the wood, leaving a deep gouge. “This angsty piece of shit is the one who attacked Baker?”
Phoenix looked up at her. “What are you going to do about it?”
She punched him square in the face. Blood spurted from his nose. “Damn it. You bled on my shoe.” She hit him again then used his pants leg to wipe her boot off before she walked to the back of the room and continued to snoop through his stuff.
“Can’t you control your people?” he asked as he reset his nose.
“Who says I want to control her?” I raised an eyebrow. “You have my attention. What do you want?”
“Where’s Olivia?”
“Busy.”
He stared at me for a long moment. “You hardly look like yourself.” His lip curled. “You look…happy. Shouldn’t advertise things like that. Happiness isn’t a jinni’s lot in this life. You taught me that.”
“What do you want, Phoenix? I’m not going to ask again.”
“Me? Well, I’m still waiting on the glory and power you promised. How’s that coming?”
“I’m not in that life anymore. Liv and I are out. You guys are on your own.”
He leaned forward, resting his forearms on my desk. “I’m well aware. I’m also aware that I have allowed the two of you to live peacefully in my city. It’s time to pay your end of that. Hell is coming, and we both know what that means—they have something that can defeat your guardian.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. It’s all pretty hush at the moment.” He drummed his fingers across the desk again as he sized me up. “But I could keep my ears open if it were worth my time.”
“Why would you do that?”
“To keep the guardian alive.”
“Why do you care?”
“It’s purely selfish, I assure you. If you lose her, then we all lose hope of freeing ourselves from them. I want to be free. Many of us do. We will stand with you— if she frees us.”
I held his gaze. Olivia would never agree to free the jinn. We’d already had that fight once and it wasn’t one I wanted to repeat. “It would be chaos if all the jinn were free. I don’t see the value in that.”
“Perhaps. Maybe not, though, if we had the right leader.”
“A leader like you?”
He shrugged. “Maybe someday, but I was thinking more along the lines of a leader like you. Many jinn still respect you—they’re still frightened of you. You’re also the oldest among us. If you lead, we will follow.”
It was an intriguing idea. I would be lying to say I hadn’t thought about this on more than one occasion, but there was no way I would ever embark on this road without Olivia’s blessing—and she wasn’t likely to give it. Jinn had done little to endear themselves to her or to anyone in the Abyss. It would be a long and bloody fight with Hell, and I wasn’t anyone’s freedom fighter. Not to mention that I had no idea where to lead them. I barely knew what to do with my own life.
“The company you keep is strong—I’ll give you that—but how long do you think they’ll last with the constant attacks from Hell? Do you think that they won’t grow weary of this fight? And what will happen when the guardian falls?” He folded his hands behind his head. “She will fall. They wouldn’t attack if they didn’t have a plan for her. It will never end, Holden. Let us join you. If you are going to make a stand, then give them a real fight.”
“Just what do you think the jinn will do when they are free? Where do you see our place in this world?”
“We’ll contract out. Work for the highest bidders. We have useful skills. Why let Hell control us when we get nothing in return?”
“No other race will trust the jinn. I can’t even trust the jinn and I am one of you. Why should I believe you won’t betray me? And even if by some miracle I fell for this, it wouldn’t change anything. Hell would only be more pissed off and come at us harder.”
“If you take us away from them, you are cutting off their legs. Possession takes time and a lot of energy. They won’t be able to raise an army. You will have bought yourself decades, maybe centuries.” He stood up. “Do you honestly believe you can hold off all the jinn and whatever demons they send alone?”
“They haven’t killed me yet.”
“We haven’t tried. You’re a dead man walking and you know it.”
He gave voice to a lot of what I had been thinking. Winning probably wasn’t going to be an option, I knew that. My goal had been to keep buying ourselves more time until I came up with a more permanent solution. His points, however, made it seem almost worthwhile to have a discussion with Olivia—Olivia, who had been too quiet for the past hour. A stab of worry for her made me blink. “I’ll think about it.” I stood and shook his hand.
He stood up, leaning forward over his desk, bracing his hands flat against it. “Don’t take too long, Holden. The Devil’s on his way. You need us more than we need you. We can continue to exist like this. Your days are numbered.”
“Perhaps.” I stood and looked down at him. An instant later, I jammed a knife through the back of his hand and deep into the hard wooden desk. “Just so we’re clear, if you touch another one of my people, Phoenix, I won’t be the only dead man walking.”
Phoenix paled considerably but held my gaze for a moment before nodding. “Would you have come if I’d called you?”
I didn’t answer him. I walked out the door, and Femi fell in step.
She waited until we were on the street before she spoke. “Do you think Olivia will go for it?”
“Doubt it.”
“It’s an interesting idea. What would jinn do if they didn’t have to fight Hell’s battles? Maybe they should be given the chance to see what would happen. I mean, you’re doing okay.”
I shrugged. I honestly had no idea. Since I’d left the jinn, I had been struggling with what I was supposed to do now. I didn’t have an occupation or purpose in life. No one trusted us—rightfully so. There was no job or mission to focus on. I didn’t necessarily need to hurt people anymore, but finding a use for my abilities wasn’t as easy as one might think. Without Hell’s agenda, I didn’t really fit into the world.
“You are doing okay, right? You know what they say about idle hands.”
They were the Devil’s playground. Perhaps that was how they’d gotten us to begin with. Our ancient history was buried, all but forgotten, so no really knew much about what had happened. But somewhere, all those millennia ago, Hell had made us an offer and we’d taken it. Hopefully it was for a better reason than boredom.
“You know why I like talking to you, chuckles?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I only have to hear my own voice.”
I smiled at her. “What did Baker do today to set you off?”
The teasing drained from her face. “He tried his damnedest to ditch me, but I don’t know why. I’m hoping Olivia will get it out of him.”
“She can be persuasive.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. I imagine you can elicit some confessions if you put your mind to it.”
“Sure. I could beat it out of him.” I winked at her. “But he’s had a tough day. Baker�
�s fragile. Olivia is a softer touch.”
Femi grinned. “He likes her.” I nodded. Everyone liked Olivia. “He likes you too. I think he’s more likely to confide in the two of you than anyone else. Like it or not, the two of you are his family.”
There were worse things than Baker considering us family, and most of them were coming after me now. I sighed. “What do you want me to do? Hug him?”
“I’d pay money to see that. But I would settle for you asking him what’s happening in his life every now and then.”
I rolled my eyes. “I asked today.”
“And?” She watched me with an odd intensity of someone stalking their prey.
“He said it was personal.”
She nodded. “Right…and?”
“If it’s personal, I don’t care. Baker doesn’t owe me anything. So long as it doesn’t affect me or Liv, he can keep any secret he wants.”
“What makes you think it doesn’t affect you?”
“We’re not involved in his personal life. Hell, I don’t even know where Baker lives. Why are you so hung up on this?” A new thought about why Baker would have been sent back to me alive entered my mind. “Do you think he’s working the other side?”
“I don’t think he would do that. As I said, he thinks of the two of you like family.”
“Then why are you prying?”
“He’s lonely. I can see it and so can Olivia. Honestly, I surprised you can’t feel it. How many times has Baker stuck out his neck for us all? The least we could do is be a good friend to him, whether or not he wants it.” She grinned. “Sometimes people don’t know what they need until someone else sticks his nose in their business.”
I shook my head. “Leave him alone. He’s fine. You sound like Olivia.”
“I will take that as a compliment.”
“Good. But I mean it. Leave him alone. If and when he decides he wants our help, he’ll tell us. Not everyone needs to discuss their feelings. Shit happens, and Baker is used to dealing with it on his own. He will come to us if he can’t.”
“Are you sure about that? Has Baker ever asked you for anything as long as you have known him?”
He hadn’t, but he would. “What does that matter?”