Nava Katz Box Set 2

by Deborah Wilde

  “He forced Tessa to bind demons.” Sienna pursed her lips. “Maybe it does that.”

  “Could you use demon magic to fix the rift and restore balance to the wards?”

  “Demons heal themselves, so they have healing magic,” she said. “But how many demons would we need? Would some work better than others? And how are we supposed to test this? Keep dragging them here and hope something works? You claim you give a damn about humanity, but you’re not willing to make the necessary sacrifices.”

  “It’s not like I’m holding out on you. Even if I agreed with this plan, which I emphatically do not, I have no idea how to take their magic away.”

  “I should take Lilith’s magic from you. I saw how strong you were in the compound.”

  I held my ground, despite wanting to wrap my arms around myself and yell mine! “I only have a fraction of her power anymore.”

  “Doesn’t matter. It’s too late. I could only take it when she was alive and you two were separate entities.”

  There went that hope.

  “Can you at least tell me how to shut off the magic signal I’m giving off as her?” I said. “She’s your goddess. You’ve got to know something about her.”

  “And I should share, why?”

  “Satan thinks I’m Lilith and he plans to breed her to create a race of super-demons, with or without her consent. Whatever you think of me, you don’t want that being loosed upon the world.”

  She tapped a finger against her lip. “Not a lot is known about Lilith. Most of what I could tell you involves dark magic, but there is a story that Lilith survived because she learned how to jump bodies.”

  I snorted. “Like a parasite.”

  “It was an honor and the host had to accept Lilith’s request. Not a verbal request, a magic one.”

  “She’s trying to take me over? Never gonna happen.”

  “She might have intended to, after you’d unleashed her full power, but now it’s most likely that this is the last vestige of her that somehow got stuck on loud. I don’t know how you shut it off.”

  I’d find a way.

  Sienna looked at me shrewdly. “Use Lilith for good. Lilith made the Rasha and she might know how to unmake them.”

  “I don’t have her memories.”

  “Not consciously.”

  “You’re not rooting around in my brain.” When Lilith had been trapped inside me, the insidiousness of her direct line into my head had almost driven me mad. Then Mandelbaum had tried to break my brain with torture and drugs. Well, I’d survived them both. I’d fought for the sanctity of being alone in my own head and having control over my mind and my thoughts and no one was going to take that away from me ever again.

  Neither of us budged.

  “Could you stop me?” she said.

  “Try and let’s find out.”

  The air hung heavy, thick and charged. Even the wind held its breath.

  A bright red ball rolled into the trees with us, a lanky boy running after it. He scooped it up, gave us a nervous glance, then dashed back to the safety of his waiting friends.

  “You can save us or you can doom us,” Sienna said. “Your call.”

  That was exactly what worried me.

  7

  Neither Rohan nor Drio were anywhere on the grounds at Demon Club. I portalled into the Vault in the basement of the mansion and gathered a few things from the weapons room, before creeping up the stairs to the ground floor where Ms. Clara’s office and the conference room were located. With my back pressed against the wall, I peered around the corner like a seasoned TV cop.

  I cleared the floor; no one was on it.

  A floorboard above creaked. The library. I straightened my holster with the tranquillizer darts and pulled the tranq rifle from where it was slung across my back. We didn’t tend to use them with demons because they were unpredictable with demon physiology and you had as much chance of hyping them up as knocking them out.

  A human, however, would drop like a rock. Bonus: I wouldn’t accidentally use too much magic on them.

  Careful to avoid all the creaky parts of the stairs, I hopscotched up to the main floor and snuck down the hallway to the library. I didn’t hear voices, but with the door closed, the room was soundproof.

  Balancing the rifle on my shoulder, I flung the door open, shooting at the first movement that caught my eye.

  Drio blurred out of sight, the dart thunking into the wall behind him. He dropped the armful of books he’d been holding and turned on me like an enraged bull. I could practically see steam coming out of his nostrils, his bellow a curse-laden Italian.

  Baruch strode across the room, plucked the rifle from my hands, and snapped it in two.

  “That was a perfectly good tranquilizer gun.” Ms. Clara jabbed him in the chest. “You’ll be filling out the paperwork for that. In triplicate.”

  Baruch snorted and tossed the halves on the ground.

  I blinked stupidly at the bickering twosome. How were they here?

  “Nee.” Ari stumbled back a step, letting out a huge breath.

  He was wearing his “chemist” T-shirt that I’d bought him on our sixteenth birthday after Dad had shown us all the old Monty Python movies. The one that read “We are the chemists who say” and then the periodic table element “Ni” for nickel. I’d lost count of the number of late-night talks we’d had with my twin sprawled at the end of my bed, wearing that shirt, but since it had gotten faded and stretched out, it had been relegated to a drawer.

  Ari had no way of knowing what had happened to me after his imprisonment, but if there’d been no sign of me at Demon Club, then he’d assumed the worst.

  I shrieked and launched myself at my brother. He caught me, laughing, while I hung off him like a baby monkey.

  “Uh, hel-lo.” Kane crossed his arms. “Don’t use up all your love on him.”

  “Phrasing,” Ro chided, entering the room with two six-packs: one of beer and one of Coke. He set them on the table, then joined Drio, quietly discussing Hybris’ last known locations.

  I slid to the floor. “How did you get free?”

  “In a nutshell?” Kane ticked items off his fingers. “It took Baruch breaking his collarbone—”

  “What?!” I’d never heard Ms. Clara yelp.

  “And your brother being a giant idiot and burning himself out EC’ing everyone away once we’d broken out of our cell.”

  “Who was I supposed to leave behind?” Ari said.

  Kane shrugged. “Bastijn had lived a full life.”

  “Get over it already. It was one night.”

  “Two years ago. We know.” Baruch scowled at them. “If I have to hear this fight one more time I’ll knock your heads together.”

  “At least you slept during our captivity.” Kane dropped into a chair with a huff and cracked a Coke. “Your snores could level buildings.”

  Rohan winked at me. “See how much fun you missed this afternoon?”

  I cleared my throat. “The escape?”

  “As I was telling Ro and Drio,” Ari said.

  “Before your insane sister shot me,” Drio grumbled, spreading a world map out on the table and tossing Rohan a marker.

  “I missed, you big baby,” I said.

  “We broke out about four hours ago.” My brother walked over and stole Kane’s Coke. He took a sip.

  Kane pouted, resting his cheek on Ari’s hip.

  “Nuh-uh. I’m the cute relationship twin,” I said.

  Kane stuck his tongue out at me. “Not anymore.”

  The other men agreed with various murmurs of assent. Even Ms. Clara chimed her agreement. Only my very smart boyfriend disagreed.

  “Rolita is adorable. Plus, we have a celebrity name.” Rohan stopped circling places on the map and arched an eyebrow imperiously.

  Drio snapped his fingers. “Focus.”

  “We’re two hot gay guys who show massive amounts of PDA.” Kane pumped his fist in the air. “We win.”

  Ari ru
ffled his boyfriend’s hair. “To answer the impending questions: no, we didn’t see any of the other Rasha or rabbis; no, we don’t know where they are; and yes, we know where we were held. Outside Los Angeles. I transported everyone a short distance away, then we ran through some suburb until we found a school bus that Danilo hotwired. He drove us into the heart of the city until we were sure we weren’t being followed at which point we scattered and went to ground. We have burners to stay in touch.”

  “Did Sienna hurt you?” I said.

  Baruch, Ari, and Kane exchanged a look.

  My face crumpled.

  Ro pulled me into his arms. “Let them tell you.”

  “Sienna… experimented on us,” Baruch said.

  Kane threw his arms wide. “Castration,” he whispered theatrically.

  “The hell?!” I broke free of Ro’s grip.

  Ari elbowed Kane. “Not literal castration. She tried to hobble our magic, but she couldn’t. We’re okay.” A shadow passed over his face. “Most of us. We lost Zvi.”

  Baruch gripped the edge of the table. Zvi was the Israeli Rasha who’d shared chocolate with me.

  “I’m sorry, Baruch,” I said.

  He nodded, brusquely brushing a hand over his face. Drio slung an arm over his shoulder.

  “Ro said you met with Sienna.” Ms. Clara said. Her eyes kept darting to Baruch. “Do you know why she’d want to take away Rasha magic?”

  I explained about the tipping point, the rift, and restoring the wards. What if somewhere in my subconscious I did know how to take their magic without hurting them? Sienna wasn’t going to stop until the wards were reset. If tapping in to Lilith’s memories was possible, and I could prevent more deaths, wasn’t it my moral duty to do so?

  But did that duty override my right to protect my mental safe place? If I let someone poke around in my head, I’d be at their mercy. I shuddered.

  On the other hand, what if we discovered that only death would end Rasha magic? I refused to be a mass murderer. And what else might Sienna find? Lilith’s power had been off the charts and she’d managed to keep herself alive for centuries. I didn’t want to be the one who handed Sienna dangerous knowledge best left buried.

  My headache worsened.

  “The wards need to be returned to their original strength or humanity is screwed,” I said, “but that doesn’t give Sienna the right to forcibly null your magic.”

  “Fucked up as it is,” Ari said, “at least she’s trying to do something about it.”

  “‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,’” Ms. Clara said. “Or good women.”

  Bitter acid churned in my stomach.

  “Is it too much to ask for the bad guys to be overtly evil?” Kane pushed away his drink. “Noble villains can bite my fine ass.”

  “You need to get the others out.” Drio rubbed a hand over his chin, studying the map. “Before more hunters are killed.”

  Or all of them.

  “That will be our first priority,” Baruch said.

  “What happened with Lilith?” Ari said. “Is she out of you?”

  “In the sense that she’s no longer alive, yes.” I presented my situation, including the Satan complication in as dispassionate and succinct a fashion as possible.

  “Beg pardon?” Kane said.

  I gagged on the amount of salt fumes coming off of my friend’s skin from his magic poison, scared to look at my brother in case this time my bombshell had killed him.

  “No,” Ari said calmly. “That’s not happening.”

  “Boy I adore,” Kane said, “you can’t just will it away.”

  “I’m not. You have a plan?” he asked me.

  “Working on it.”

  “You’ll tell us our roles?”

  I nodded.

  “You’ve got her six?” he said to Ro.

  “Do you even have to ask?”

  “Then we’ll handle it,” Ari said.

  Baruch cracked his knuckles. “Ben zona! Of course, we’ll handle it. It will be fun.”

  Drio tapped the map. “Hybris could be here.”

  Rohan and I looked at the location he indicated.

  “Historically, a place where demons go to lay low,” Ro said.

  “Yeah,” Drio said. “I have some connections there. I’ll check things out and if there are any leads, call you in.”

  “We should put an extraction plan in place for when we find the other Rasha,” Ari said.

  “And somewhere to stay,” I said. “This’ll be the first place Sienna comes looking for you.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” Kane flung himself over the table.

  “I agree,” Ari said. “I’m not running.”

  “We can’t go on the run and keep investigating,” Rohan said. “Either we hide properly or we stand our ground.”

  Thank goodness Rabbi Abrams had fortified the chapter house.

  “Demon Club it is. Want to go with me to go see Mom and Dad?” I asked Ari. “We should probably tell them we’re alive and I need Mom’s professional assistance.”

  “Oh shit.” Ro pulled out his burner and jogged off.

  “Golden Boy won’t be so golden anymore,” Drio called out.

  I tugged on Drio’s sleeve. “Have you spoken to them? Are Dev and Maya safe?” I was worried about their well-being and about my boyfriend going off the deep end if they weren’t.

  “They suspected that they were being watched,” Drio said. “So, they’re staying with a witch friend of theirs.”

  Shivani. I relaxed.

  Before we were allowed to go to see our parents, Baruch insisted that I take them back to the warehouse where I’d been held. His reasoning was that this was the perfect time to get the jump on the rabbi. He must have seen that the idea made me highly uncomfortable because he said I didn’t have to go in, but I said I would. With all my friends surrounding me, maybe that place of horrors would be reduced to just a place.

  We waited for Ro to finish up his call and Kane to wash off the poison.

  “How’d it go?” I said to Rohan once he’d returned.

  “Mom and I fought. I told her I wasn’t going to tour with the new album, just have the release party on Asha’s birthday.”

  “Uh, she does understand you have a few things on your plate, right?”

  “She wants me to stop being Rasha and concentrate on my music.” Rohan flexed his fingers, studying his hamsa ring. “She said that all Asha wanted was for me to play music and be happy and now I had second chances at both. If I threw this away to hunt demons, I’d be dishonoring my cousin’s memory. I mean, fuck, how could she say that?”

  “She’s scared she’s going to lose you. I’m not excusing it.”

  “I’m a hunter.” Dark magic danced along his palms. He stuffed his hands in his pocket. “I get she’s my mom and me being missing must have been awful for her, but that doesn’t excuse dumping this guilt trip on me.”

  “You’re right. Will the album be done by September 27?”

  “It has to be. I’m keeping this promise to Asha.”

  Music had incredible restorative power. Dance and music had gotten me through many challenging times. Writing music had brought Rohan out of the darkness before, and it could speed up his healing now. Calling attention to the dark magic might make Ro feel worse and compound the problem, but I’d never met a piece of advice I didn’t want to share.

  “Working on your music might help with that as well.” I nodded at his hands still jammed away in his pockets.

  Rohan pulled his hands free. The dark magic was gone, but doubt and fear still lurked in his eyes. “Yeah.” He pulled himself up straight, back in deadly hunter mode. “Let’s get the rabbi.”

  I portalled everyone except Ms. Clara to Mandelbaum’s lair.

  The rabbi and his group had moved out.

  None of the men said much as we cleared each room, but they got especially silent when I stopped in front of the place where I’
d been held captive.

  Rohan went to open the door for me, but Drio nudged him out of the way.

  “You need to do this,” he said.

  Baruch put his hand on my shoulder, which gave me the courage to turn the knob.

  Other than the Tomb, which was gone, the room was exactly as I’d left it. My magic surged out of me. I whirled in a shrieking fury, obliterating everything in there, blowing up machines, decimating the dingy mattress I’d slept on, and melting and twisting that damn metal table.

  Mandelbaum would never get the jump on me again.

  I stood in the wreckage, fists balled, and wondered why even with all my power, I didn’t feel any better. I mustered up a smile. “The worst part was staring at that paint job.”

  Ro stepped in closer to me, darkness once more slithering in his eyes. “His decorating tastes are punishable by death in at least three states.”

  “Right?” I leaned against my boyfriend.

  “We’ll find him,” Kane said. “I’ll follow the money. Same with Sienna. She’s feeding those Rasha. There’s bound to be records of supplies. We’ll start with cities where there are already chapter houses.”

  Baruch cracked his knuckles. “There are always demons to interrogate.”

  Ari crouched down to examine a bloodstain on one of the few remaining pieces of mattress.

  I swallowed and held his gaze, dropping my arm from where I’d been rubbing the now-healed wound on my side.

  “You gonna tell me what happened to you?” Ari got dangerously still.

  “Not rape.”

  “Just regular torture,” he said flatly.

  “It wasn’t pretty, but there are some things I don’t want you to know.”

  “I’m going to kill him.” That Ari could so matter-of-factly utter this vow about the man who had led the organization that my brother had dedicated his life to, was both terrifying and sad.

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “Get in line, bro. Get in line.”

  8

  My mom opened the door, took one look at Ari and me, pulled us both into a fierce hug, and burst into tears. The last time she’d cried had been at our bubbe’s funeral four years ago.

  “Shana? What’s happened?” Dad pounded down the stairs, skidding to a stop when he saw our huddled group. He threw his arms around all of us, saying, “Oh, thank God,” over and over again.