See No: Hidden Evil #2

by Lizzy Ford

  A note was pinned to Henry’s chest. Nathan walked through the blood and plucked it free.

  *

  Nathan,

  You’re too late.

  Zyra

  *

  Nathan’s heart leapt in his chest. His first thought was that Zyra had found Kaylee. Crumpling the note, he tossed it onto the ground. He made an effort to control the anger bubbling within him and then searched Henry for weapons, cell, or anything that might tell him where Zyra had gone.

  The guy had nothing on him aside from his clothing and boots.

  Nathan strode out of the locker, disgusted with himself for not knowing Maggy and Zyra both were capable of this level of malice and violence. By keeping people at a distance, he’d lost the ability to understand who they really were.

  He hurried down the hallways and returned to the secret hiding place.

  Amira was awake when he slid down the ladder.

  Nathan crossed to grab the candle and then motioned for her to follow him. She scrambled up and hurried after him.

  Nathan led them out of the bunker and warehouse and into the fading evening light. He didn’t bother to search for anything that might help them; Zyra was too thorough for that.

  He tapped Amira’s arm. “We have to find a phone,” he said. “We need to call Troy.”

  Her features brightened, and she nodded.

  “Do you know where the other gatekeepers are?”

  Amira’s smile faded. “No. Kaylee has my stones.”

  “Then we head to the gateway. If 3G has Kaylee, she might be there already. I need to find someone who knows what Zyra’s crazy plan is. I have a better chance of snagging someone for a chat at the gateway than trying to hunt them down.”

  Nathan began walking towards the road. The storage lockers were abandoned and located not far from an active business area at the edge of Bowie, Maryland. By noon, they’d reach a phone. He doubted Troy would take long to find them. If Amira knew where to go, Nathan hoped to find Kaylee before sundown.

  Panic rose within him at the thought of what happened if he didn’t find her soon. He hadn’t yet deciphered what exactly the different players in this mess wanted. Zyra wanted to annihilate evil, but tried to save Kaylee. Maggy was on 3G’s side. Were all the spirit guides aligned with Zyra, and he alone in the dark? He had been in Tucson for years, far away from the politics of DC. He preferred it that way. The farther away from Pedro and headquarters of the spirit guides he was, the less interference in his day-to-day duty.

  Eddy and the Satanists had some powerful players on their side, if someone was able to revive Kaylee post mortem ten minutes or more after her death.

  The darker Nathan’s thinking became, the faster he walked. Nathan broke into a jog. Eager to see her soul mate, Amira kept up with him.

  Seventeen

  An hour later, Eddy directed Kaylee off the highway in northern Virginia rather than returning to Maryland, where their other bases were located. They stopped in a quiet subdivision. Kaylee sidled up to the curb in front of a stately house at the end of a road.

  “You two out,” Eddy said. “I’ll ditch the bus. Back door is open.”

  Kaylee left the driver’s seat and stepped out of the bus, followed by Shanti, who had had some time to calm down. Her eyes were rimmed with red, her hair mussed, and her clothing as muddy and wet as Kaylee’s.

  They walked up the driveway. Kaylee took Shanti’s arm. They went to the six-foot tall gate in the wooden fence and entered.

  Kaylee closed the door behind them.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, concerned. “Are you hurt? Did Eddy say something stupid to you?”

  “No.” Shanti’s voice was soft. “He knows.”

  Kaylee released her and opened the back door, her focus on what was behind the door. I hope he didn’t murder the family that lived here. She sucked in a breath and prepared herself to witness an atrocity. Flipping on the light, Kaylee braced herself.

  No one was in the kitchen. No dead bodies or blood, either. The house was furnished and showed no signs of dust or dirt.

  Shanti trailed her. “I need a bath and to change clothes.”

  “What does Eddy know?” Kaylee prodded.

  “About the portal.”

  Kaylee faced Shanti. “Okay … care to explain?”

  “Each gateway consists of two parts: a location and a key. It’s a defensive mechanism. Both parts have to be together in order for it to open.”

  “That’s great. Then 3G doesn’t know, right?”

  “Right.” Shanti sighed. “But Eddy does.”

  “We can’t catch a break, can we?” Kaylee said. Tired, wet and miserable, she was too numb from unpleasant surprises to react. “Let’s find some clothes. Watch the stairs.”

  She led Shanti to the second floor and peeked into three bedrooms decorated with cartoons and bright colors. She stepped away from each one quickly, not wanting to dwell on where those kids were.

  When she reached the master bedroom, she flipped on the lights and crossed to one of the two walk-in closets.

  “We have clothes,” she said, taking in the extensive collection of clothing.

  “Whose is it?” Shanti asked. “And whose house is this?”

  “I’m afraid to ask.” Kaylee grabbed a towel from the linen closet. “Here. You go first. Get cleaned up.” She placed the towel in Shanti’s hand and led her to the bathroom. “You okay from here?”

  Shanti nodded and walked into the bathroom. She closed the door.

  When certain she was gone, Kaylee sank onto the floor and hugged her knees to her chest. Tears trickled down her cheeks.

  She hated Eddy.

  She needed his protection.

  Was Nathan safe, or had Maggy betrayed him, too?

  Kaylee cried, overwhelmed with her situation.

  “I’m the key. The other half of the portal,” Shanti said quietly.

  Kaylee looked up. She hadn’t heard the door open. Shanti stood in her dirty clothing, her features stricken.

  “Eddy knows,” Shanti said.

  “Of course he does,” Kaylee replied with no heat. “How does he always know everything?”

  “Don’t tell anyone else. 3G can’t find out.”

  “I won’t. You’re a gateway, and I’m maybe an archangel named Barachiel.”

  “You are!” Shanti insisted. “Pedro said as much.”

  “We remember that conversation very differently,” Kaylee replied.

  Shanti smiled sadly and closed the door again. The sound of a shower sprang to life beyond the bathroom door.

  Kaylee had no idea how a person could be a portal. She was too tired to ask. The fatigue was back, leaving her slumped against the wall beside the bathroom door. A few minutes later, the spell had passed.

  Shanti showered for twenty minutes and Kaylee for thirty. She emerged from the steamy bathroom, dressed in borrowed clothing, to find Shanti seated on the bed and Eddy standing in the doorway, arms folded across his chest and lean form relaxed. He was drenched and muddy but appeared oblivious to his condition.

  “I was going over the rules,” he explained.

  Kaylee slid her hands behind her back and clasped them together.

  “We’re good,” Eddy told her. “You brought me a present. Clean slate.”

  Kaylee said nothing, eyes on Shanti. Maybe I should have left Shanti in the forest.

  “What next?” Kaylee asked.

  “We stay here for a bit,” Eddy replied.

  “What happened to the homeowners?”

  “Vacation.” Eddy was impossible to read. “How about some coffee, Kaylee?”

  She nodded and went to the door.

  He shifted away, out of her path, and trailed her down the stairs to the kitchen. Eddy locked the back door and lingered in front of it, eyes on the backyard.

  Kaylee found everything where she thought it would be. The pantry and fridge were recently stocked, the coffeemaker digital, and the china expensive. T
he homeowners could definitely afford a vacation, and she prayed that was actually what happened.

  No one stocks a pantry and fridge before leaving on vacation. She hated that her mind wouldn’t let her be content with the simple explanation.

  “How is Shadowman?” Eddy asked.

  “Weak. I don’t know why he hasn’t healed.”

  “Are you stunting him somehow?”

  “I wouldn’t know how to, Eddy.”

  “You also told me you’d never be able to shoot anyone, aside from Nathan, and you took out three guides in the forest and held a gun on me.”

  Kaylee sighed and turned her back to the counter, facing him, so he could read her face. “I’m not lying, Eddy. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. But he feels like he’s getting worse.”

  Eddy’s intensity vanished. “I believe you.” He placed his firearms and weapons on the kitchen table along with a cleaning kit before rolling up wet sleeves.

  Kaylee returned to her task and flipped the coffeemaker on. “You don’t have a plan, do you?”

  “Not at the moment,” he replied. “We’ll just go with the flow for now.” He seemed content to sit at the table and clean his weapons.

  Far from calm, Kaylee crossed to the pantry to grab cookies she spotted when looking for tea. Her mind went to the question she’d wanted to ask him for a while now. Tired enough to be reckless, Kaylee decided it was time to find the answer.

  “Did you talk to me when I was healing from Nathan’s injury?” she asked.

  “Several times.”

  “I mean, did I ask you about … smelling toast?”

  “More than once,” he replied.

  “How about the time when you said I wasn’t dead enough?”

  “Not sure. I might have.”

  “Are you messing with me?” she demanded with more heat than she intended. “Do you know what I’m talking about or not?”

  “Why don’t you tell me, Kaylee?” Eddy responded and lowered the weapon and cloth he held. “This may come as a surprise, but I can’t actually read your mind.”

  She clenched her jaw hard. Eddy’s face gave away nothing. Being the object of his full attention, however, was never good.

  “You didn’t know Shanti was the portal until tonight,” Kaylee said.

  “I did not.”

  “What gave her away?”

  “Proximity, I imagine. She radiated the energy of Hell. I politely asked a 3G member about the location when trying to find you and put the two pieces together.”

  Politely asked. Kaylee suppressed a shudder. She turned away and tapped the counter with her fingertips. She ate two more cookies on autopilot, too anxious to pay attention to anything beyond the chatter in her brain.

  “You’re not a coward, Kaylee. Ask your question,” Eddy said.

  “Did you tell me to hide the stones?”

  “Yes.”

  Kaylee waited for an explanation. When Eddy didn’t expand on his answer, she crossed her arms and faced him.

  He was cleaning his weapons, relaxed and content. “It’s called leverage,” he replied to her unvoiced question.

  “You don’t trust your people?”

  “Do you?”

  “Of course not. But they aren’t my people.”

  “You can’t ever really trust a fanatic,” he said.

  “Or an assassin.”

  “Hey now. I thought we were friends.”

  Kaylee rolled her eyes.

  “The stones will guide us to all the gates. Why would I give anyone that power?” he replied.

  “You’re not what you seem to be, are you?” she questioned.

  “No one ever is,” Eddy said pointedly. “I know what you are. What Shanti is. What I am.” He smiled.

  It had never occurred to Kaylee that Eddy had the answers to the questions she hadn’t known to ask when this all began.

  “You know what’s going on,” she said thoughtfully.

  “Coffee’s done.”

  Kaylee prepared them both cups of the strong brew. After their time together, she knew exactly how Eddy preferred his coffee and set it down in front of him. Rather than retreat up the stairs and hide from him, like she really wanted to do, she sat down and watched him.

  His hands moved with practiced efficiency as he disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled his weapons.

  “Go get your gun,” Eddy directed her.

  Confident she wasn’t going to shoot him, even if he cut off her toes, Eddy glanced at her when she didn’t initially move. Kaylee stood quickly and went upstairs with a cup of coffee for Shanti and to fetch her weapon.

  The gatekeeper was curled up in the middle of the bed, asleep. Kaylee set the coffee on the nightstand before fishing her gun out of the pile of wet, dirty clothing in the bathroom. She returned to the kitchen and placed it on the table in front of Eddy.

  “Just like old times at the bunker,” he said. “You know how to clean it.”

  Irritated, Kaylee ejected the magazine and carefully disassembled her weapon. She had none of Eddy’s routine finesse. When satisfied she’d followed the steps he taught her, she began cleaning the weapon.

  “Are you going to talk to me?” she asked.

  “About what?”

  “About everything!” she exclaimed “Holy shit, Eddy. You know what I’m talking about!”

  “It’s more fun this way!” He laughed. “Ask me exactly what you want to know, and I’ll decide whether or not I want to answer.”

  Kaylee considered where to start. “How do you know who … or what I am or was at some point?” she asked finally.

  “How did you ever not know?” he countered. “Why else would Shadowman be with you?”

  “I’m not from your world, Eddy. I didn’t know any of this before Nathan found me,” she replied. At the mention of his name, she paused, drifting into her conflicted thoughts once more. She shook her head. “Do you know what my role is in all this? And don’t say to anchor Shadowman,” she said quickly. “I’m not a pawn. I’m a player.” The words sounded much more self-assured than she felt.

  Eddy sipped his coffee, dark eyes on hers. “I’m not answering that question,” he said. “But one for two isn’t bad! What else you got?”

  “How does this all end?”

  “In flames, I imagine. No matter who wins, it’s not going to be pretty.”

  Kaylee wasn’t at all surprised by the response. “Who, or what, are you really?” she asked. “You can’t just be some guy in a cult. I know you can fight, but … that’s not all you are.”

  “Great question!” Eddy’s eyebrows lifted. “Do you really want to know?”

  She swallowed hard.

  “What if I told you I was a fallen angel?” he asked. He rested his elbows on the table, leaning closer to her. “Would you believe me?”

  “Like Satan? No way,” she replied without hesitation. “You bleed. You could’ve died. How can you be … him if you can be hurt or killed? Wouldn’t that put the simplest end ever to this entire thing?” She eyed him. “You also like to keep me on my toes and slightly terrified of you. You’d tell me whatever you wanted to maintain the status quo between us.”

  “Probably.”

  “And wouldn’t you want the stones for yourself instead of returning them to me?”

  “As long as I have you, I have the stones,” he reasoned. “If Bullet caught me with them, it’d look suspicious. He’s smart.”

  “He’s a demon,” she stated.

  “Yep. Possessed the body of the former cult leader.”

  “You’re not like him. You’re not a demon.” She waited. “Are you going to tell me?”

  “You’re an incarnated archangel. I’m not saying I’m the fallen angel, but what’s to say there aren’t incarnated fallen angels?” he countered.

  “I don’t know enough about this shit to answer that question,” she said. She lowered the weapon and rubbed her head, beginning to feel the drain of her hectic day. “I don’t even und
erstand what incarnated angels really are. Are they human? Mostly human? Sort of human? I’d never heard of an archdemon before and I really can’t imagine I’m an incarnated anything.” She paused.

  “What?” Eddy asked, monitoring her features.

  “I still don’t think it makes sense. If you’re a demon, why not possess someone instead of incarnating? Shanti says it’s easier.”

  “If you say so,” he said cheerfully.

  “You’re too damn happy to be a demon in any form.”

  Eddy returned to his weapons. “I guess that settles that. Any other guesses?”

  Kaylee didn’t need to see his smile to know he was messing with her. She gazed at him, waiting for him to say anything else about who he was that might make more sense. Too exhausted to mull over his latest game, she stood. She went upstairs and randomly chose one of the kids’ bedrooms.

  She stood in the doorway, eyes on the castle painted on the wall and pink blankets.

  The family wasn’t on vacation.

  In moments such as this, she could readily believe Eddy was the devil himself.

  Freaking herself out, she backed away and went to the linen closet. Grabbing pillows and a blanket, Kaylee returned to the first floor, avoided the kitchen and went to the couch to sleep.

  Eighteen

  She awoke with a headache. Sluggish, Kaylee felt as if she needed a full week of sleep to recover completely. Brain fog slowed her thoughts and the heavy sense of fatigue lifted. She sat up. The house smelled of coffee, eggs and bacon.

  “Breakfast is ready!” Eddy called from the kitchen.

  Lucifer definitely wouldn’t be making her breakfast. Would another fallen angel? She didn’t have it in her to care, as long as someone cooked her breakfast. Kaylee ducked into the half bath on the main floor before padding into the kitchen.

  “Where’s Shanti?” she asked.

  “Good question!”

  Alarm fluttered through Kaylee. “You don’t know?” she asked, on her way to the stairs. Kaylee took the steps two at a time and hurried down the hallway to the master bedroom. The bedding was wrinkled, but Shanti was gone. She automatically searched for blood or signs of a struggle.