by Moira Rogers
Juliet climbed out, blonde ponytail swinging. “Passengers first?”
“If that’s all we can get, we’ll take it. Rochester will have to deal. But I want you on Shane and Cache.” Devi motioned to Tanner. “You handle the transfer. Guns will be a better bet than fists and feet if trouble shows up.”
The makeshift door carved into the side of the trailer popped open. Cache hopped down, staggering a little under the weight of the heavy pack looped over one shoulder. Her gaze darted around the trio and finally landed on Devi. With her lips pressed into a tight line, she freed a hand and tapped her chest, flashed five fingers and gestured to the top of the truck.
“Five minutes,” Devi confirmed, speaking aloud as she repeated the signal, more out of habit than anything. Cache couldn’t hear her, and that made her trip up to fix the ADS transmitter that much more dangerous. She also wouldn’t hear a yelled warning or last-second instructions.
Devi turned to Juliet, who was busy loading and checking two large pistols. “Get up there and keep your eyes peeled.”
Cache was already scrambling up the side of the truck. Shane hit the ground in a swirl of dust, his dirty blond hair sticking up in so many directions it looked like he’d miswired something and shocked himself. His gaze snagged on Cache, and his eyes held enough worry to make it clear Tanner’s talk might have been more than bullshit.
Devi caught his arm. “Keep your head on straight,” she admonished. “If you can’t do that, you don’t need to be involved.”
Shane bit off a curse and jerked free of her grasp. “Yeah, yeah. I’m going.” He dropped to the earth and rolled under the truck, dragging his bag with him.
A moment later, raised voices echoed from the half of the trailer outfitted to carry passengers. Tanner’s loudest whistle cut through the noise, and she heard him issuing firm, no-nonsense orders.
Each trailer had a weapons locker installed near the front. Tanner would take care of clearing the stalled truck, even of its guns and flares, so Devi climbed into the trailer of her own truck. She’d stack the arms in her sleeper berth if she had to, but they needed to be able to access them quickly, even with the trailer stuffed with passengers and cargo.
She was elbow-deep in rifles and spare ammunition when she heard the first scream.
She dove out of the locker. Outside was already chaos. Roars echoed amongst the screams, and Devi stumbled out of the trailer. The ADS had failed or the signal hadn’t been strong enough or something, and now they were under attack.
She could only see a handful of skins—so far, she reminded herself—but it was enough to send a cold shiver through her. Skins were the worst kind, demons who wore human faces and sometimes made you think they might be capable of experiencing human emotions, like mercy and compassion.
And maybe they were, they just never showed it.
Juliet had an arm hooked around the ladder on the side of the trailer, both pistols blazing as she drove away two skins trying to crowd Tanner and the passengers back into the confined space of the trailer. Devi slung up one of her rifles and fired at one, then the other. They disappeared around the edge of the trailer.
Shane rolled out from under the cab and to his feet in one swift movement, a handgun clutched in his hand. “Signal’s too weak! Can’t fix it without—shit! Wings! Cache!”
But Cache was oblivious, hunched over the open panel on top of the truck, focused on her work. Devi could barely see her over the top edge of the trailer, and then something flew overhead, large enough to cast dark shadows on the light-colored metal. “Fuck.” She hurried to the second ladder. “Get up there, Juliet!”
The woman had already turned to scramble up the ladder. Devi had almost made it to the top rung when a strong hand closed around her calf and pulled—hard. She tumbled off the ladder to the ground, and vivid light exploded behind her eyes as her head slammed into the hard-packed earth.
A shot exploded above her. At first, she thought her ears were ringing, but the noise crystallized a moment later into a high, wordless scream.
Cache. Devi struggled to sit, to find her friend, but a scuffle in the dirt nearby drew her attention. A demon, maybe the one who’d grabbed her, held Shane’s head between his hands, and the man was seizing as the creature tried to force him out of his own body.
She’d dropped her rifle, so she pulled her hunting knife free of her boot and brought it down as hard as she could into the demon’s back.
Blood—or whatever demons had in its place—splashed everywhere. The skin roared in pain and twisted away, taking her knife with him.
Cache screamed again, and bodies tumbled to the ground a dozen feet from Devi, obscured by the cover of enormous, membranous wings. Shane recovered enough to roll to his knees, but he couldn’t seem to get to his feet, not even when the nearby bodies rolled, giving them both a glimpse of purple hair.
The skin she’d stabbed snatched Devi up by the shoulders and slammed her against the side of the trailer. “Breaking you will be a pleasure,” he rasped, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, splashing hot on the flesh bared by her ripped shirt.
She had to get away. She didn’t know where Tanner and Juliet were, and Cache and Shane were both down. Not to mention the passengers—
The demon’s hands slid up to her face, and Devi’s vision swam as heat and blazing whiteness closed in on her. She felt the first stirrings of panic for herself as she realized the bastard was trying to pop her out of her body.
She screamed, clawing at his face, finally gouging her thumbs into his eyes. A shriek rewarded her, and the fingers clutching her face slipped away as another roar, this one of challenge, split the air.
The blurry shapes surrounding her doubled, and with them the sounds of combat. Grunts of pain, gunfire and shouts. When the haze clouding her vision cleared, she saw the man from the Pit Stop standing over Cache with the wing who’d attacked her in his grasp. Devi watched, primal satisfaction burning through her as Zel drew a blade, deep and sure, across the demon’s neck.
Juliet dropped off the trailer, and a few men Devi didn’t recognize swarmed the trucks. They’d obviously arrived with Zel, and Devi ignored them all.
She scrambled to where Cache lay, still, barely breathing, and touched her face. “Come on, sweetie. Open your eyes.”
Cache didn’t stir. Blood seeped from a shallow gash just above her temple, but it was impossible to tell if she had any internal injuries. Behind them, Shane lurched to his feet with an incomprehensible mutter.
Devi watched him, dread growing in her chest, and Juliet knelt beside her. “Flipped?”
“No.” Shane was human, and there was only one thing a demon could do to human consciousness—pop it out and replace it with his own.
Devi reached for the gun at her hip and watched Shane—or what used to be Shane—shuffle closer. His eyes were flat, blank, and his body jerked like a marionette in the hands of an unpracticed puppeteer.
She shot him before she could talk herself out of it, before her own doubts got someone else killed. He hit the ground in a boneless heap, limbs grotesquely askew, and a snarl cut through the sound of battle. The skin who’d attacked her and Shane stared directly at her from ruined eye sockets, the face that had started preternaturally beautiful marred by gore and a twisted expression of rage.
Devi rose. “Juliet.”
Juliet tossed her a machete. The demon couldn’t see her, but he could still sense her if she gave him time, so she moved quickly. She stepped up behind him and swung, gritting her teeth as the blade hesitated, then sliced past flesh and bone alike.
The skin’s head hit the ground with a thump, and Devi fought hard not to follow. Adrenaline had already started to fade, leaving her numb and shaking.
A strong hand curled around her free arm. “The demons who survived are retreating. Our ADS finally cut through the battle frenzy.”
“That’s got to hurt.” Silver eyes, somehow dark even in the slanting afternoon light, stared down at h
er, and she choked on a sigh. “I thought I got to him in time.”
He said something in response, but she couldn’t hear him over the loud buzz that built again in her ears. He frowned and lifted his other hand to brace her.
She wasn’t making any sense. She took a deep, fortifying breath, and it cleared her head a little. “Cache is hurt. Do you have a doctor at your settlement?”
His gaze jumped from her face to the flat ground where Juliet hovered over Cache, only a few feet away from Shane’s still body. “Lorenzo! One down over here.” Those outrageous eyes fixed on her face again. “The man who got popped. He was one of yours?”
“Shane.” She shuddered. “He was trying to distract— He… I thought I got to him in time.”
“I’m sorry.” Simple words, but the understanding and sympathy there was as tangible as the warmth of his hands on her arms.
A flurry of shouts echoed inside the trailer, and a woman dragged out one of the passengers they’d brought from Nicollet. “Zel, this one’s on the Known list.”
His fingers tightened briefly on Devi’s arms, and he released her with a curse. “Who is he?”
Devi recognized him easily. “Elan Cyrus. He was on your manifest. We picked him up on the edge of town with the rest of the passengers.”
“Cyrus?” Zel pulled out a handheld and touched the screen. His frown deepened as he read, his eyes flicking from left to right. “He met one of our women at a bar in the Global four months ago. He was coming here to be with her.” He lifted his gaze to the woman standing behind Elan Cyrus. “This is the one Kate’s been waiting for. Supposedly.”
She lifted her chin stubbornly. “I’ve studied that list until my eyes burned, Zel. He’s an operative.”
“I believe you. Cuff him and Trip’ll scan his chip when we get back. We’ve got to get out of here before more demons show.”
Devi closed her eyes and tried to shut out the sound of the passenger’s protests as they dragged him away. “How far is it to your settlement?”
“Twenty minutes if we bury the needle. Probably more like forty in your truck.” A pause, and the sound of boots scraping against dirt. “Lorenzo! How’s the girl?”
His answer chilled Devi. “Needs a healer about five minutes ago.”
“We have a healer.” The emphasis Zel put on the word made it clear he wasn’t talking about an ordinary doctor, but someone with magic.
“Not a halfblood.” She’d heard of demons who could heal with a touch but, as far as she knew, the talent didn’t extend to their half-human offspring.
“Not a halfblood.” He didn’t elaborate, just gestured to his Jeep. “I can’t promise you full run of the settlement, but we have an area for visitors. Help Lorenzo get her into one of our 4x4s and we’ll ride ahead. My people will help yours get your trucks moving and bring them behind us. It’s the only way to get her there fast enough.”
She knew she should send Juliet or Tanner ahead and stay with the trucks and the cargo, but her head throbbed and Cache was dying.
Devi braced one hand on the side of the trailer and took a deep breath. “Tanner!”
He appeared, covered in blood but moving so effortlessly it was clear none of it was his own. His gaze swept the space between them, only hesitating twice—once on Shane’s body and again on Cache. “Shit.”
Her vision blurred again. “Cache is hurt, and I need to go on ahead with her. Zel’s people are going to help you get the trucks going again. Can you stay here and handle it?”
He caught her arm and lifted his hand to the back of her head, where his fingers came away bloody. “Damn it, Dev, you knocked yourself silly. I can’t put you in a car with two halfbloods.”
“Don’t be an overbearing jackass. Cache needs me right now.” She pushed his hand away and took a few steps. She was steadier on her feet now, calmer and more focused. “Siphon half the fuel from my truck into Juliet’s. It’ll get them both there, and we’ll figure out the situation later.”
He didn’t like it, that was clear, but he didn’t argue. He nodded shortly and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “We’ll be right behind you.”
She caught his hand. “Thank you.”
The man Zel had called Lorenzo had already carefully lifted Cache and was carrying her to the Jeep. Devi followed closely, her heart pounding. “How experienced is your healer?”
The man smiled reassuringly, but stress bracketed lines around his eyes. “Rosalyn’s got more raw talent than anyone I’ve ever seen. She can help.”
Zel swung into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “I’ll have her meet us at the visitors’ barracks. Devi, help Lorenzo brace your friend. It’s going to be a rough, fast ride.”
She clambered into the back and squeezed against the seats. Lorenzo lifted Cache in after her, and Devi cradled her head in her lap. “Drive fast.” The words came out sounding more like an entreaty than anything else. “We’ve already moved her, so we may as well get her there as soon as we can.”
The engine roared underneath them, and Zel glanced back as he shifted into gear. “Fast it is, sweetheart.”
Cache’s dark skin was ashen even in the dim moonlight. Devi clutched her hand as the Jeep took off, rattling across the landscape.
All they had to do was get her to a healer. It was simple enough, and it had to work, because she couldn’t lose half her team in one night. She couldn’t screw up that badly, couldn’t kill two of her friends, and still make it.
Chapter Four
Zel had just decided to forgo the looping road to the visitors’ building in favor of driving straight across the scrubby grass when Devi’s girl woke up with a scream.
Just noise, not words, but she sounded wounded and scared, and Zel had to harden his heart against the swell of empathy that stirred rumbling thunder as he smashed his foot down on the gas and sent them rocketing across the remaining distance. “Lorenzo? Keep her calm, damn it.”
He immediately bent over her. “It’s okay. I’m Lorenzo. We’re taking you—”
She swung her fist at him, and he jumped back. “Shit, she’s freaking out.”
“Her name is Cache. She can’t hear you, and she doesn’t know who you are.” Devi took the girl’s hand and wrapped it gently around her own. “She’s hurt, and she’s afraid.”
Zel jerked his attention back to driving as his tires spun on the damp, overgrown grass. A few harrowing seconds later, they skidded over gravel as he slammed his boot on the brakes, stopping the vehicle mere feet from the doors.
There wasn’t time to ask questions, but he needed information. He kicked open the car door and reached for the back. “She can’t hear at all? That’s not from the attack, is it?”
“She’s deaf.” Devi kept her eyes on Cache’s face. “Chip replacement went wrong.”
The black-market chip Trip had mentioned. “Is she going to freak out if one of us carries her?”
“Not if she knows I’m here and no one’s harming us.”
The worry etched on Devi’s face tightened his chest, but there was nothing to do now but get them inside—and Lorenzo’s presence had always been more soothing than his own, especially with women. “You got her?”
“Yeah.” The girl whimpered as Lorenzo lifted her to his chest and headed for the door, but she didn’t fight, amazing all on its own when the fear roiling inside her battered Zel’s senses.
The fact that he could sense her fear—and the more focused worry pulsing through Devi—meant his grip on humanity was slipping. He reached for the dashboard and smashed his hand down on the controls for the anti-demon signal, cutting it off with a barely restrained sigh of relief. The nagging pain of the last hour disappeared, but the sickening excitement that simmered in his blood didn’t.
It wasn’t his fault. After more than forty years on the planet, he knew it wasn’t his fault. Halfbloods lived with the gifts and curses of their demonic parents, and for him it meant an extraordinary ability to kill…and the pride and pleasu
re that came with it. The weakness and fear of others would always sing through him, identifying an enemy’s vulnerability and alerting him to an easy target.
Recognizing that didn’t make dealing with it easier when Cache moaned in pain. Lightning crackled through him, sharpened his temper in an instinctive response, and it was a fight to shove down interest in weakened prey and find human empathy for an injured, scared girl.
He concentrated instead on unlocking the thick doors for Lorenzo and deactivating the security alarm just inside. “Take her to the lounge,” he ordered. “Rosa should be there already.”
“Can I go with her?” Devi’s hands clenched into fists, and the tight set of her jaw made him think she wasn’t used to asking permission for her actions.
At least he wouldn’t have to test her ability to accept refusal—this time. “We’re both going. Rosa’s my niece. My sister would shoot me if I let her do a healing without keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t overextend herself.”
Devi flashed him a skeptical look as they followed Lorenzo. “Your niece? How old is she?”
“She’s the only healer within a hundred miles. Does it matter?”
She lowered her voice. “Your friend said she had power, and lots of it. I don’t know much, but I know raw, untrained power is dangerous.”
As if that was a concern people like them got to indulge. “Welcome to life as an outcast.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she closed her mouth and nodded. “I’m sorry.”
A tiny, oddly reassuring shred of guilt fought its way through the storm inside him. At least guilt was a wholly human emotion, and he needed to be human enough to find common ground with her. “It’s okay. You’re worried about your friend. But we’ll do what we can.”
Rosalyn was waiting when Lorenzo walked in, and she paled when she stepped close to Cache. “She’s hurt pretty bad.”
Zel ignored Devi for the moment and dropped his hands to his niece’s shoulders. “She took a hard fall and got roughed up, so I don’t want you doing this without one of us backing you up.”