by Susan Illene
“Sensor,” Lucas’ voice reached me from a few feet away. “Why are you holding a wet cloth to your hand?”
I shrugged. “Manicure gone wrong.”
He looked over at his brother and lifted his brows. “What did she do?”
Micah shook his head. “I’ve finally discovered someone who cooks worse than you. She spilled some hot grease on herself.”
Lucas came over and pried the cloth out of my hand. He sighed and muttered something under his breath. Most of the top of it was red and swollen. I could feel him drawing his power to try and heal it.
“Don’t,” I said. “It’ll waste your energy and you need it right now. I’ll be fine.”
His jaw stiffened, but he let go of my hand. His eyes lingered for a moment on the bite mark he’d left. The tank top I wore didn’t cover it up. I’d decided this morning hiding it would only show how much it bothered me. Better to let Lucas see what he’d done. I’d cover it up around humans, but I didn’t see a point in doing it around him.
“Very well. So long as it doesn’t interfere with your job, I’ll leave it alone. You’ll be going to the mall today. That shouldn’t be too strenuous.”
“The mall?” Why would he send me there?
He stepped away. “You’re going shopping for demons.”
Every girl’s dream.
***
I sat on a bench inside Nugget Mall sketching a circle. Someone had chalked it into the floor and fixed it with a small thrum of power. It stretched across the corridor with the edges almost reaching a foot from the walls. Each of the four cardinal directions had symbols drawn into the perimeter of it as well. I hadn’t read up on demonology signs enough to know if the ones I drew meant anything, but it couldn’t hurt to get them on paper for later examination.
Whatever its purpose, it didn’t reveal anything now. I could detect active spells, but the only ones on this one were there to keep it from being messed with or seen. The local media had reported several missing persons cases turn up in the last week. All of them were linked to the mall. It didn’t take much to deduce the two things might be related.
If Lucas had been here, I would have asked him about the symbols, but he’d left me on my own. He and Micah worried the demons might detect them if they stayed. Last night’s attack proved they weren’t interested in going toe to toe with nephilim while in human bodies. We’d need to capture them by surprise. My orders were to text Lucas the moment one showed up. Over an hour had passed without that happening.
I tapped my pencil against the sketch pad, wondering why the heat level in the mall had risen in the last couple of minutes. Did they turn the thermostat up? I grabbed a bottle of water I’d brought with me and sucked it down. The moment I put it down the taste of ashes coated my tongue. Shit. Sneaky little bastards.
I shoved everything into my backpack and stood up, looking around for anything suspicious. The demon had to be nearby. I needed to identify him first before texting Lucas or he wouldn’t know who to grab when he arrived. We couldn’t risk our target getting away if we took too much time searching for him.
He had to be somewhere farther down the corridor. I weaved through a few slow-moving shoppers who seemed determined to take up the whole corridor. They didn’t care for me bumping into them, but I didn’t care for them being in my way. After getting past them, flames started licking the edges of my mind. I rubbed my forehead and headed for a store at the end of the mall. My senses had picked up the direction to go, though I couldn’t imagine what a demon would be doing in a craft store. Maybe he’d decided to take up a new hobby besides possessing humans.
I reached the entrance and scanned the store. A set of high shelves filled with arts and crafts blocked me from seeing my target. I moved toward him at a sedate pace. A store clerk greeted me and asked if I needed help. I smiled and shook my head. If I’d really needed assistance she would have been nowhere to be found. It always worked that way.
I circled around a display table and spotted my target at the end of an aisle examining candles. His host was a younger man in his twenties with bleached blond hair and a goatee. It looked like he’d worn the same jeans and long-sleeve t-shirt for days.
He ripped the plastic off one candle and pinched his fingers over the wick. It lit up. A wicked grin spread across his face. He set that one down and touched his finger to more of them without bothering to remove the packaging. The sparks flew before they turned into a small blaze. He snickered and went for the next row.
Crap. I shifted on my feet—stop him or don’t stop him? Pulling my gun would draw all the attention to me, but if I didn’t do something the fire would spread. Already the odor of burning plastic and wax permeated the air.
“What the…?” A nearby store clerk dropped the merchandise she’d been putting away.
She rushed off in what I hoped was a dash for the fire extinguisher. It didn’t do any good. She hadn’t moved three steps before the sprinkler system went off. In a matter of seconds everyone in the store was soaked by the deluge. I pushed the wet strands from my face, cursing.
I swung my gaze back to the fire and saw it had fizzled out. The demon strutted from the aisle as if he didn’t have a care in the world and headed for the entrance. Now would be a good time to text Lucas. I pulled my phone out while moving through the store to keep my target in sight. It got soaked as soon as it left my pocket. Shit. That was stupid of me. I put it away and fought the crowd to get out of the downpour. The demon had already made it out.
Someone pulled the fire alarm. Shoppers in the main corridor stopped and looked around. The demon kept moving between them. Flames shot up from a trashcan behind him. The damned pyro didn’t give up. Chaos erupted as people everywhere nearly trampled each other to get out of the building.
I pulled my cell phone out again, but a blank screen stared back at me. Dammit. I couldn’t let him get away. Who knew what he might do next? I ran after him, trying to pick up speed despite my sloshing shoes and clinging clothes. The demon shoved people out of his way up ahead.
He left an open trail for me to follow. Most of the people he touched writhed on the ground. My senses picked up some kind of spell on them that would be the equivalent of taking a massive dose of laxatives. Now that was just wrong. It would wear off soon since he hadn’t had time to put much power into it, but they’d still suffer until then.
I leaped over a few moaning individuals clutching their stomachs and made my way outside. It was getting dark—prime time for demons. The one I followed had already crossed into the parking lot, past a set of gawkers staring at the mall. He had a set of keys he held out to unlock a vehicle by remote. A red car four spaces down from him flashed its lights when he hit the button.
I sprinted toward him, closing the gap. He started to turn when my sloshing shoes gave me away, but I leaped onto his back and whipped my right arm around his throat. His neck fit into the “V” of my arm as I clasped my hands together to tighten the hold.
The move could cut off blood flow and restrict the airway if done right. The demon slammed my back into the side of an SUV and I almost lost my grip. Ugh, that hurt. My right hand moved to clutch my left bicep to keep from losing the choke hold. He slammed me again and again until the breath was almost knocked out of me.
Stars floated across my vision, but I could feel him weakening. Just a little more and I’d have him. Claws dug into my thighs. He dug them in deep, sending rivers of pain up my legs. I gritted my teeth. Can’t give up yet. I puffed out my chest and squeezed for all I was worth. He fell to the ground, but I didn’t let him go. A couple of extra seconds without blood flow would keep him down longer. It shouldn’t have taken as long as it did to knock him out, but I suspected his demon powers had given him an advantage.
A flash of light lit up the darkness. Good. I could hand the responsibility of this piece of shit off to someone else. I let the demon go and scooted back. Rough hands hauled me to my feet. I winced. The muscles in my legs weren’t too ha
ppy about putting weight on them.
“Were my instructions not clear enough?” Lucas asked. If rage could be any color, it would be the same shade of amber his eyes glowed in that moment.
I stuck out my chin. “My cell phone got wet. I couldn’t text you.”
He shook me until my teeth rattled. “So you decided to go after him yourself after everything we discussed?”
“He hurt people, Lucas. I couldn’t let him get away so he could hurt more.”
“What about that speech you gave me saying you had Emily now and couldn’t put yourself in danger anymore? Did that cross your mind?” he asked.
“No,” I said, looking down. He had me there. I hadn’t considered her once while going after the demon.
He sighed and let go of me. I gripped the car next to me for support, wincing as the pain intensified with my full weight on the damaged thigh muscles. Lucas’ gaze roamed down until he saw my wounds.
“That motherfucker,” Lucas cursed.
I looked too and decided maybe I shouldn’t have. There were multiple holes in my jeans with blood leaking out of them. My vision spun. Lucas gripped my arms and helped me lower myself to the ground.
“Put pressure on the wounds,” he ordered.
I pressed down on my thighs. Damn, the cold was starting to sink into my wet clothes. Sitting on snow-packed cement didn’t help either.
The demon coughed. Lucas turned from me and leaned over its body. When it started to lift its head, he slammed it in the face. He’d knocked it unconscious again. If there had been a human soul still fighting in there, I might have felt bad, but the demon had already taken over. We just needed to get it back for interrogation.
Lucas sent some kind of mental call out and Micah showed up a moment later. I hadn’t known he could do that.
“Are you guys telepathic or something?” I asked them.
“It’s a twin thing,” Micah said. He looked me up and down. “Can’t we leave you alone for five minutes without you getting injured?”
“Shut up.” I glared at him. “I got the bastard on my own. That should count for something.”
Sirens blared through the air. We all stiffened.
“Get her to the car and see what you can do about her wounds. I’ll take care of the demon and send Fallon to you,” Lucas told his brother.
“You’re not going to flash me somewhere?” I asked.
He looked at my legs. “You’re coated in too much of your blood. I’m not sure I could move you right now.”
“What difference does it make if it’s inside or outside of me?”
He picked up the demon’s limp body. “Unfortunately, it makes a big difference.”
Well, that explained why he didn’t like me putting blood circles around my house. His magic couldn’t penetrate it. I filed that piece of information away for future use.
“Make sure she doesn’t do anything else stupid,” he said to his brother. Then he flashed away.
Micah leaned down and helped me get up. I insisted we look for my backpack. It had fallen off my shoulder when I jumped the demon. We found it on the other side of the car. He slung it onto his back before wrapping his arm around me.
With his help, I limped across the parking lot to Lucas’ car. Every step sent shots of agonizing pain through my legs. My head began to pound and despite the cold, I began to sweat. Police and fire trucks arrived about the same time we reached the vehicle. I dug the keys out of my pocket and handed them to Micah. He opened the backdoor and set me inside.
I lay across the seat, listening to him open the trunk. When he returned my backpack was gone and he held a different one in his hands. It had a big red cross on it.
“Where did that come from?” I asked, attempting to sit up. Something had been buzzing at my senses for the last few minutes, but the pain in my legs made it hard to concentrate on what it might be.
“Lucas warned me you were prone to getting yourself injured,” he said. “I acquired this for the car and another for the cabin just in case.”
He kneeled next to me and opened up the first aid kit. An overhead street light helped me to see it was loaded with all the basic supplies. Micah grabbed some Kerlix and ripped open the package.
“Not going to clean the wound off first?” I asked.
“There’s no point. Fallon will heal you whenever he gets here. I’m just trying to keep you from losing any more blood.”
Micah lifted one of my legs and rested it on his shoulder while he wrapped the Kerlix around my thigh. The buzzing inside my head didn’t seem to want to stop.
“Why are you wet?” he asked.
I grimaced when he put a little too much pressure on the wound. “The demon burned some stuff inside the mall. It set the sprinkler system off.”
He knitted his brows. “Do these sprinklers come from the ceiling? I think I saw them in a movie recently.”
“Yeah, those are the ones.” Sometimes it was easy to forget he’d been out of the loop for the last fifty years.
“Smart of the humans to come up with that,” he said. “I’ve seen towns burn to the ground because there wasn’t enough accessible water to put the fire out before it spread.”
I shook my head, then wished I hadn’t. The buzzing was getting worse and my mouth was getting dry. “I can’t figure out why the demon risked getting caught just to set off a couple of fires. They have to know the local sups are looking for them now.”
Micah switched my legs out and started wrapping the other one. “Maybe he was bored. Demons are notorious trouble makers.”
“I don’t know…” The taste of ashes hit my mouth. “Shit, Micah. There’s more of them.”
Adrenaline pumped through my veins and I jumped up. The nephilim caught me before I fell back down, but that didn’t distract me from looking at the section of the mall where I’d discovered the circle. The car was parked fairly close to it. I focused my senses and found it had been activated. The purpose of it turned my blood cold.
“They’re bringing more demons in from the other side.” I gripped his arm. “Oh, my God. They are jumping into whatever body crosses inside the circle.” Which was mostly police and firefighters, assuming everyone else had cleared out.
“We need to get you out of here.” He forced me into the car.
I tried to climb back out. “No, we have to stop it. I can break it if you help me get inside.”
My senses picked up that he was communicating with his brother.
“No,” he said. “Lucas wants you out of here now.”
He stuffed my legs inside and slammed the door. I reached for the handle.
“Melena,” he slapped the window, “we are leaving even if I have to use that Kerlix to tie you up.”
I glared at him. “Fine, but I’m sensing at least half a dozen of them in there. It’ll just be that many more to track down.”
“Then we’ll find them later.” He climbed into the passenger seat. “For now we are meeting Fallon and getting you healed.”
Chapter Eighteen
The drawing I’d made of the circle didn’t survive. I hadn’t closed the sketchpad in my rush to stuff it inside my backpack the day before. The bag had gotten too doused to protect it. Everything on the page looked like a blur after the paper dried. It took over an hour of arguing with Lucas before he agreed to let me go back to the mall to sketch it again. After I finished, I was supposed to destroy the circle with my blood. That was the only reason he’d gone along the plan. He wanted it gone too.
I went by myself, but only because it was noon and demons wouldn’t be out yet. Plus Lucas and Micah had other things to do that they wouldn’t talk about. That worked fine for me. I’d worried the mall might not be open, but only the craft store remained closed. The trash cans had been replaced, but other than that I didn’t see any other signs of damage in the main corridor. I’d checked before moving to the other end where the circle lay to start my drawing.
I’d just started retracing the desi
gn—once again dormant—when Felisha called.
“Melena, we met last night,” she said without preamble.
I started drawing the first symbol. “Who arrived?”
“Yarrow, the man my family wants me to marry.”
“Oh, how did that go?” I’d forgotten all about it. Here she was watching Emily for me and I hadn’t even spared Felisha a thought since arriving in Juneau.
“It’s horrible, Mel. He’s too nice and polite. The men of my race are never this good. It’s going to be that much harder to put him off.”
Why couldn’t I have that problem with the men in my life? Matt had been nice, but he’d been killed before I’d had a chance to get to know him better. I still felt guilty over that. He’d died trying to help me and suffered for it. Every other man who claimed they were protecting me had ulterior motives. Plus they tended to be jackasses.
“Wouldn’t you want someone good and nice?” I asked.
“Yes…no…I don’t know. I’m not ready for this.” She let out a frustrated sigh.
I sketched out the next symbol. “Then tell him that. If he’s really so nice then he won’t push you into something you don’t want to do.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” she said. “His family is pressuring him, too. My sister told me if he doesn’t mate with me they may cut him off.”
“You have a sister?” I’d always pictured her as an only child.
“I have two sisters and three brothers. All of them except my youngest brother live in The City.”
When she said The City, she meant one of the secret fae reservations designed millennia ago as a refuge from the mortals. I’d never seen one, but rumor had it they were beautiful and ran primarily by magic.
“So how did you talk to this sister, anyway? Do they actually have phones there?”
“No,” she answered carefully, “we have other ways we communicate.”
She wasn’t going to tell me what those were. I could read between the lines. We were friends, but she didn’t trust me with that kind of information. Fae were notorious for being secretive. I was lucky she told me as much as she did.