by Lizzy Ford
“In exchange for information about our common enemy.”
“You mean Nathan and his people.”
“Exactly.”
“How are his people more of a threat than 3G?” she asked.
“Let’s just say they have the backing of some really heavy hitters. 3G is on its own. I’ll take my chances with Zyra over Nathan any day.”
Kaylee had no way of knowing what heavy hitters he referred to. “I hope the next site is a hotel.”
“It’s another bunker,” Eddy replied. “Smaller, smellier.” His nose wrinkled. “Not my favorite.”
Kaylee shifted in her seat. As uncomfortable as she was around the cult in general, she viewed the sudden change in circumstances with trepidation. “None of this is going to end well, is it?” she murmured.
“Depends on who ends up with custody of you,” Eddy answered with his normal honesty.
“I still don’t know how Nathan can be a good guy.”
“It’s relative,” Eddy said. “Can’t get him off your mind, can you?”
“God, I wish I could.”
Five
Amira Santiago and her guardian, a disenchanted spirit guide named Troy, stood on the beach midmorning. Police officers and yellow tape surrounded an area near the reach of the waves. While she didn’t know whose body it was, she sensed what it was. A spirit guide, murdered and left for dead. Not far from the corpse were three more splotches of blood, indicating the guide had caused extensive damage to several of her attackers before being killed.
Unable to hear the ocean, Amira could still appreciate the endless water and its gray waves as they swept up onto the shore.
When she awoke this morning at a bed and breakfast near the beach, the stone that led her this far had traveled north. Troy had been tipped off about the dead guide by one of his cohorts in the spirit guide corps. When he was satisfied, they’d head north again to find the key holder.
Tilting her head to the side, Amira gripped the stone in her pocket and waited for a picture to form. The image of where the gateway to Hell she was assigned to protect grew more distinct each time she tested the stone. Events were escalating faster now, if she could make out where it was.
The tiny pulse of energy reached her from the direction of the bushes huddled beneath trees lining the top of the beach. While deaf, she was able to sense the presence of energy, usually from those approaching her who she wouldn’t otherwise hear. Amira glanced towards the trees before tapping Troy, whose expert gaze assessed the situation. They were among a handful of locals curious about what the police did and provided a good cover for the spirit guide trying to take a picture of what had happened.
“Troy,” she said when her guide didn’t respond.
She waited for him to face her, so she could read his lips when he spoke. The muscular man was taller than her almost six feet with dark hair and eyes and a trim goatee. He was intense and brooding, his air tainted by deep sorrow. Whenever he looked at her, her heart skipped a beat for reasons that he hadn’t figured out. He was her OTL – one true love, a soul mate, the greatest honor possible and granted to her by Pedro and the other angels. One day, he would figure it out.
“We should go,” she told him.
“Just a minute,” he replied. “I need to get a picture of which guide this is to Maggy.”
Amira hadn’t met Maggy, the woman in charge of the spirit guides around DC. Troy had mentioned her several times but preferred to keep Amira under his watch solely. He didn’t seem to trust anyone aside from Nathan. Amira wasn’t in a position to understand his concern or the dynamics of the spirit guide corps.
But she sensed the odd energy Troy didn’t appear to notice. She held the velvet dice bag containing the precious stone she was charged with protecting with her life. It wasn’t ready to fully reveal its secret to her, and she hoped it never did, for she wanted nothing to do with the portal to Hell through which the second Horseman, the archdemon Death, would emerge.
Her attention drifted towards the bushes. Had the second gatekeeper or her guide dropped something that might help Amira find the second gatekeeper?
Troy was determined to move close enough to snap a picture without being seen by the police or anyone else who might be looking for them. Amira sensed no danger from those around them, but she wouldn’t recognize a threat that was purely human. Her senses were attuned to the Other Side and anyone emitting the subtle energy indicating they were demon or angel or spirit guide.
She moved away, towards the trees and bushes lining the beach. She walked through the loose sand and was breathless by the time she reached the edge of the trees, some fifty feet away. As she neared, the gentle pulse of energy grew stronger.
It wasn’t a stone beckoning her towards the forest.
Amira paused and visually searched the area around her feet. The energy came from somewhere nearby. Venturing farther into the forest, away from Troy’s line of sight, she knelt and pushed bushes aside. A wallet lay at the base of one tree. The lingering energy originated from the wallet.
Plucking it up, Amira opened it and studied the identification card for Shanti George, a beautiful woman with large, soft eyes and a bright smile. Amira smile back at the photo, excited. Putting a face to the second key holder would make finding her easier.
The sea breeze suddenly ceased, and she sensed the light, stable energy belonging to spirit guides. Amira froze. She set the wallet on the ground and discreetly pushed it beneath a bush before standing. With a deep breath, she turned.
Two guides dressed in the black uniforms used by Zyra’s 3G group stood behind her.
Before she could shout for Troy or run, one of them grabbed her. The other slapped a rag over her mouth. Within seconds, her surroundings began to slip away, until she was swallowed by darkness.
Six
“You’re right,” Kaylee said, frowning at her surroundings. “This place kind of sucks.”
“Yeah,” Eddy agreed.
They sat in a small, cement room. It was one of several dozen former self-storage lockers located in a warehouse-sized building somewhere in Maryland.
They’d spent a day in this location, during which other Satanist members brought them food and water. The majority of Bullet’s followers, however, were strangely absent. She began to think the strike at the cult’s headquarters was worse than cheerful Eddy let on.
“I never thought I’d say I miss the bunker,” she murmured.
“Here. Take your mind off things.” Eddy unloaded a handgun and handed it to her, along with a dime.
Kaylee stood and faced the wall opposite her. She picked out a crack at about chest level and raised the weapon. Placing the dime at the end of the barrel, she drew a breath and focused. The purpose of Eddy’s game was for her to squeeze the trigger without the dime falling.
“No compensating for the kickback,” he reminded her. “Focus on your breathing. The weapon won’t hurt you.”
She obeyed and squeezed off one round, then a second, before the dime fell.
“Not bad,” Eddy said and bent to retrieve the coin. “Is it feeling easier?”
“A little,” she replied. “You know I can’t kill someone, right?”
“You might be surprised what you’d do if 3G corners you. They can’t die anyways, so they’d make good target practice for you,” he said. “Do it again.” He replaced the dime at the tip of the muzzle.
She fired several more times without dislodging it.
Arms crossed, Eddy smiled, nodding in appreciation as she managed to make it past her previous record of ten.
“It’ll become second nature,” he told her. “When you have a feel for this, we’ll move on to much larger weapons.”
Kaylee focused, grateful for the distraction, and continued to practice. When the weapon grew too heavy for her arms to hold extended, she plucked the dime free and lowered the firearm.
One of the cult members appeared in the doorway and beckoned to Eddy. The assassin stepped
into the hallway without letting her out of his sight.
Kaylee turned the cold, metal weapon over in her hands, regarding it with a little fear and reluctant curiosity. She’d never had a reason to learn to shoot a gun and never really understood the appeal. But holding it, she didn’t feel quite as helpless, even if it wasn’t loaded. Eddy taught her because he wanted her to be able to protect herself if something happened to him.
No one had ever wanted to empower her before. Not her parents, not her terrible boss. No one.
Why had she never thought of empowering herself? Why had she spent her life doing what others wanted her to do, instead of exploring what she wanted and pursuing her dreams?
What are my dreams? She had never tried to understand herself.
She lowered the weapon. What she wanted above all else: the ability to make decisions that made her feel good about herself and her life, instead of feeling like Daddy’s little failure. She’d gone from her parents ruling her life to Nathan telling her what to do to Eddy monitoring her every move. She was more than what others wanted her to be.
Kaylee blinked out of her thoughts. Coldness moved within her. She twisted to face the corner nearest her, where she alone could see the shift of shadows indicating Shadowman was struggling to take form. He usually only did so when they were in danger, or when he needed to communicate an important message.
We need help, he said. He was strong enough for her to sense his emotion.
“You’re scared,” she murmured.
His answer was more of a feeling than an articulated response.
“I’m not going to disagree,” she said. He wanted to open the portal to Hell. She had no intention of helping him.
Survival, he reminded her. Images of Nathan murdering her and Bullet shoving her off a cliff fluttered through her mind.
“I can’t believe I’m agreeing,” she said in frustration. They were natural enemies, except they needed one another to survive. “What are you thinking?”
A vision of Nathan appeared, followed by lightning.
Kaylee gritted her teeth as she did whenever she thought of him. “You can’t be serious.”
The image remained.
“I don’t understand.”
Bound to you.
Her brow furrowed.
“Is he here?” Eddy asked, a distracted note in his tone.
Kaylee turned away from the corner. “Yeah.”
“Is he getting stronger?”
She tested the bond. “No. But he’s worried.”
Eddy studied her the way he did when he wanted to ensure she spoke the truth. Satisfied she did, his smile returned, and he sat on the floor, back to the wall. He waved her over.
Kaylee glanced towards the corner. Shadowman was gone, leaving her with the puzzle about Nathan. She sat down beside Eddy and set the weapon on the ground in front of her.
“We have footage of the attack on the bunker,” Eddy said. He shifted the electronic tablet he held so she could see. “Pretty effective.”
“You approve?” she asked, amused.
“I can admire their tactics while disagreeing with who they use it against,” he replied.
He played the video, which appeared to originate from surveillance cameras. The first set of images consisted of infrared and heat sensors. Around twenty people inched towards the garage entrance of the bunker, their bodies showing up as red and orange splotches against a black background.
“They’re definitely 3G. See how they move in formation?” Eddy asked.
“I’m not really into military tactics like you,” Kaylee answered, unable to recognize what he spoke of.
“Trust me. They’re good.”
She watched the video. It flashed blindingly bright, obscuring everyone before returning to the black background and splotches representing people.
“Did they do that?” she asked.
“No. It’s lightning.”
Lightning. Again.
The angle shifted from outside to one of the cameras in the garage. This was clear, traditional digital video rather than infrared blobs. Men and women in black, wearing masks and armed to the teeth, moved stealthily through the garage. They overtook and killed the half dozen guards positioned in the garage without a single shot being fired.
“How did they get in?” she asked.
“The cameras surrounding the entrances were taken out before the raid,” Eddy replied. “Either they were damn lucky, blew up the entrance, or they had help from the inside. It’s impossible to tell from what footage we have.”
She flinched as a member of 3G stabbed one of the guards a dozen times. Neither spirit guides nor Satanists steered away from violence, leaving her questioning who the good guys really were.
“And you don’t know how they found the bunker either,” she murmured.
“Not yet. The theory is that 3G tagged one of our people with a GPS locator or bug of some kind. Our members routinely leave the bunker and head to the city for entertainment purposes or to scout and hunt 3G. All it would take is 3G identifying one member and tagging him or her.”
She glanced at him. Eddy was studying the footage intently, as if looking for the answers to their questions within the mayhem of the garage.
The fuzzy memory of him telling her to protect the stones returned, along with the image of his face she’d seen before falling off the cliff. He hadn’t been anywhere near as happy as the other members of his cult.
Was there more to Eddy?
Dared she ask him to find out?
“See how they take out the garage cameras here,” Eddy said with quiet frustration. “We have splotchy coverage of everything.”
He skipped several minutes of blacked out footage before more images returned.
“You won’t like this part,” he added.
The members of 3G removed their masks once in the cafeteria. Beneath a thin layer of what appeared to be fog, the floor was littered with a dozen or more bodies, as if the cult members had made this area their last stand. While there was no sound to the footage, Zyra seemed to be giving orders to those around her. Her people bent over to search the corpses.
Kaylee’s gaze was quickly riveted to Nathan. With dark hair and eyes, Mediterranean skin tone, and chiseled features, his looks would draw any woman’s gaze. He was tall and lean and moved as if he commanded the entire world. He stood beside Zyra, observing the damage impassively.
“Nathan,” Kaylee said and then flushed, hearing the breathless note in her voice. “Wait. He’s in 3G?”
“According to reports, he defected.”
She frowned. “Why would he …”
Nathan and Zyra were locked in a passionate kiss.
A flush of anger, then shame, flew through Kaylee. How had she ever thought he was sincere during their one night stand? How had she convinced herself that she was anything other than a case for him to resolve? He’d killed her, for god’s sake!
“Our reports say he felt betrayed by his people for how your case was handled,” Eddy explained.
“As in, they failed to kill me right the first time?”
“I don’t fully know. Our intel is okay but not great when it comes to 3G and the guide corps in general. We can’t get anyone into either, because … well, we’re kind of a dead giveaway.” He grinned. “So we’re left using mainly electronic means to get our info. It works for keeping an eye on them but not for identifying what their plans are. Our reports end up vague. They said Nathan had a blow out with his people and defected.”
Kaylee didn’t know what she felt in that moment aside from fury with herself for being smitten by Nathan.
The images changed, showing a different angle, as the members of 3G swept through the bunker, searching for her and eliminating anyone they came across.
Nathan killed as easily as any of them, using his hands, knives, and handguns. In one instance, he used a baseball bat he found in one of the cult member’s rooms.
Why was she surprised to see
how violent he could be? Kaylee didn’t know. He was dangerous; she’d sensed this from the first time they met.
The scenery changed again, and Eddy yanked the tablet back towards him.
“You don’t want to see that,” he said.
“What?” she asked. “Secret intel?”
“Not exactly.” He cleared his throat. “We’ve had surveillance on 3G. It kind of shows another reason why Nathan might be with them.”
She waited.
“Zyra is his wife. Ex-wife. Depending on which report you read.”
Kaylee’s mouth felt dry. Nathan wasn’t just a bastard – he was a lying, cheating bastard! How in the hell had she fallen for him?
“Let me see,” she said more calmly than she felt.
Eddy shifted the display for her to view the latest footage.
Nathan fucking his ex. And looking pretty damn into it. Passionate, rough, naked fucking. He appeared to be in a penthouse or hotel room suite. One scene displayed them fucking on the couch. Another of him bending Zyra over a table. Another bedroom scene. One after the other, the brief recordings flashed across the screen.
Kaylee pushed the tablet away, numb. She was uncomfortably warm, and the base of her belly blazed to witness Nathan’s naked body, his dick, to recall how he’d held her down and fucked her until she couldn’t breathe or think.
He appeared even more into Zyra than Kaylee had believed he was with her.
“Sixty three times in a month,” Eddy said in approval. “Not bad.”
“Not bad?” she repeated, distraught.
“If it helps, it’s probably the honeymoon phase. They’ll probably settle down to once a day in a month or two.”
Kaylee squeezed her eyes closed.
How could she still crave Nathan, his scent and recall how his warm palms had seared her skin, branded her, made her believe she was the only woman he had ever made love to with such passion?
Then again, he had always claimed she was just a case. The proof she meant nothing to him played across Eddy’s screen. She was the problem. She couldn’t move on, and she loathed herself for it.
“I hate him,” she whispered.
“It’s not your fault. You had no idea what you were getting into,” Eddy said kindly.