Chapter 2

Ruby snuffled around the floor, licking up the ashes of the fallen. I didn't stop her; I doubted it would hurt her at all. And maybe she'd get a taste for the fuckers. I rubbed my fingers together. The ashes were not greasy at all—not the way I'd expect them to be.

I dusted my hands on my pants, but the shit stuck to me, like glitter. "Fucking angel glitter," I muttered.

And then I froze. "Dinah."

"Yeah?"

I dropped to the floor as I spoke, scooping up the glitter. "Think you could shove this angel dust shit into a couple of bullets?"

I scooped the dust into a small pile, pinched a bit, then put it down her barrel. The thing about the sentient guns was they could from time to time use an outside ingredient. But it was touch and go. Everyone kept saying that the fallen's abilities were the only thing that could kill another fallen.

But what about some of their ashes?

"Shit, that's a fucking brilliant idea!" She trembled in my hand as I scooped all the dust down her barrel. "You must get your brains from your sister."

"Sure didn't get them from my dad," I muttered.

She laughed. I laughed. We loaded her up to hopefully be able to do some damage.

Her inner workings clicked and rumbled as I held her. "What do you think?" I asked.

"I've managed to meld it with my explosive rounds. I think that was best." She made a clicking noise that made me think of someone licking their lips. "Seven shots. Not a ton, but that could mean all the difference."

"That's what I'm hoping."

I stood and looked back to Killian. He hadn't moved—again, not that I expected him to jump up and down just from having his wounds lanced.

He did, however, open his eyes a crack. "Lass?"

I moved to his side and took his hand. "Killian?"

"Dying," he whispered. "Kids safe."

I wasn't sure if he was asking or telling me. "For now, yes. They are."

His eyes closed and that smile I loved slid over his lips, but not another word. His hand went limp in mine as he fell back under whatever held him in thrall.

"We have to hurry," Dinah said. "That man is too fine to just let him die on a table."

"Is he really?" Diego grumbled. "I mean, I am a very fine man. People just let me die."

"Oh, shut up with you," Dinah snapped. The two of them set to bickering as I took a cloth from the table next to Killian, poured some rubbing alcohol on it, and wiped his wounds down. They had already closed, but the alcohol helped with the stench.

If he didn't come out of this coma soon, I would lance them again.

"Why would he get an infection?" Diego asked. "Abnormals don't generally get hurt like that."

I motioned to his hands. "Looks like he encountered the same shit that Cowboy touched. The angel dust they use to knock abnormals out."

The implication was clear, at least to me.

Cowboy had enough demon in him to freak out Ornias, and that was the reason why he'd reacted so badly. That had to be the reason why they both reacted to the dust this way. Not because they were abnormal, but because they both had a good amount of demon blood in them.

It was as good a guess as any, not that it changed how I felt about him. If he was a demon, then he was my demon.

I leaned over and pressed my lips to his. They were a little warmer. Or maybe that was hope giving me a false lead. "Don't die, Killian."

I left him there and stepped out of the room. Mario didn't ask what I'd done, though I saw his nose curl on the scent that had clung to me. I wiped the knife on the cloth and then tossed that in a nearby cannister. "Infection, I lanced it. That will give us time to figure out how to help him."

He nodded. "You're ready to plan then?"

I waved at him. "Lead the way."

"Of course." Mario turned his back to me, giving me a perfect shot if I'd wanted to kill him without a fuss.

Dinah let out an exasperated sigh, but she kept her voice low and just for me and Diego. "How is it that he doesn't know you? He was around when we were hunting abnormals. Look at this, so fucking trusting!"

"She was out of the circuit a long time," Diego rumbled from my back. "She has become myth and legend and those that never really dealt with her before don't believe that she is who the stories say."

Technically Mario had been around when I'd worked for my father, but he'd been small potatoes. And he'd stayed clear of the big players. Which made more sense now that I knew he was my father's son. My brother.

If I was being honest, he'd been smarter than the rest of us, staying far away from the family and the horrors that the rest of us had lived through.

"What is your plan for everyone here?" I asked.

He looked over his shoulder. "To keep them alive."

"Other than the obvious."

He gave me an odd look and I smiled, understanding clearly that he didn't want to talk.

"Dinah," I said as Mario led me through the old factory, "it looks like he doesn't want to talk where his own people can hear him. Which means he has secrets he doesn't want them to know."

She shivered. "Oh, I love secrets. How about you, Diego? You like a good secret?"

"Only if it's really juicy."

I watched Mario's back, noticed the tightening across his shoulders. The tension growing.

"You think that they know he doesn't trust them?" I asked loud enough that my voice echoed through the space we were in. A long hall, one of a few that we'd walked.

Diego and Dinah laughed together, as if we'd practiced this moment. "No, they don't know he'd throw them to the fallen if it was his life or theirs," Diego said. "A man after my own heart."

Mario swung around, his one hand coming up, light with a dark red fire. "I suggest you and your friends shut your mouths."

He wanted to play with fire, did he?

I stepped up and put my hand over his, dousing his flames. "Don't make that mistake, Mario. I want to like you. But the fact is you don't trust your people. That does not bode well." I pushed my hand into his and called up my own fire, dragging it through me and pushing it to my hand.

The bright yellow fire was edged with white licks, brighter than the last time I'd used it. Far brighter. He winced and pulled his hand away.

"I don't need them knowing that there are moles." He ground the words out. "I am looking for them. But I have to be sure. As you said, we need all the people we can pull together."

For a fight? I frowned at him and pulled my hand away. "You think it will come to a battle?"

He closed his eyes and tipped his head back. "Can you just fucking wait until we get to my office?"

Dinah laughed. "We're on a bit of a time crunch, right? You know that?"

His eyes shot to my holster. "What is her name?"

"Dinah," she barked. "And that big bastard on her back is Diego. Kind of shit aim on him, but with a big barrel, who cares if the aim is any good, am I right?"

Mario's eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean there is a time crunch?"

"Just a feeling," Dinah said. "I have those."

He sighed. "We are almost to my office. Can you just give it a minute?"

I motioned for him to go with a wave of my hand.

As we walked I couldn't help but notice the warren of halls and doors, many that were obviously created in recent months by the shiny welds and the shit material. The factory was a maze that would give them an edge if Gardreel and his fallen were to drop in unannounced.

We intersected with Easter on the main floor. She had two plates of food and a look of irritation written clearly on her face. Ruby gave a woof, greeting her. I took one of the plates of food and she silently stepped in beside me.

"I got turned around in here," she said. "This place . . . there is Hider magic in it, but something else too."

"A spell to keep it not only hidden, but twisted," Mario said. "We have a few spell casters, they have been working nonstop to keep us safe."

"There will be a cost to that," Easter said. "Spells always have a kickback. You know that."

"I do." Mario nodded at her, his eyes drifting over her face.

Dinah gave a low whistle. "Several spell casters working at once? That's a big kickback."

Interesting that Dinah had a thought about spell casting. Then again, she'd been stuffed into a gun with a spell.

The factory was quiet with the exception of our voices, but I could sense abnormals watching us. My skin was crawling by the time we'd climbed a final two sets of stairs to a large open office space that looked out over the factory floor. Ruby kept pace, her toes clicking on the hard surface, her hackles rising as we went, her one good eye watching all around us.

I didn't blame her, especially when we got to the top of the stairs.

The metal door with the heavy hinges gave me pause, the bands of iron on it meant to keep people out. Or people in, depending on how you looked at it.

Carlos and Pete already waited for us inside the room, Carlos with a coffee mug wrapped up in his hands. Pete sat with his eyes closed as if he were sleeping, leaned back in his chair. But I could see the pulse in his neck and the flare in his nostrils that said he was faking it. He'd already smelled us coming, or at the very least me and the rot that was all over my hands.

"Was it really him?" Carlos asked as Mario stepped into the room.

I nodded. "Yes." My feet stopped at the threshold of the door, as did Easter. Mario was inside the room, and already sitting in a chair behind a large desk. He looked over his shoulder. "What is wrong?"

I rapped my knuckles on the metal. "What the fuck is this two-ton metal door for?"

Mario made a sweeping gesture with his hands, encompassing the factory. "There are a number of abnormals with exceptional hearing. This room is soundproof even to them. As I was trying to get you to see," he lowered his voice. "There are those who might not be fully in our camp."

Sure, that made sense. But I didn't want to go into a locked room like this. Call it PTSD, but the idea of shutting a massive metal door behind me, hearing it click shut . . . it made me want to kill people.

"I don't trust anyone, dear sister." He smiled, a genuine one as far as I could see. "Not even you. Especially not your dog. I think she'd like to eat me."

Outwardly, I kept my face calm. Hell, I even smiled, though I knew the coldness of my visage. "Best not to trust family. In my experience, they'll screw you over every chance they can get."

"Amen," Easter said. "My own mother sold me to the highest bidder."

"Double that," Dinah grumbled. "Look at me, I got screwed by the man who said he'd love me forever."

"Men are the worst." Easter nodded. "Especially the ones who lie."

Dinah snickered. "You mean all of them?"

They laughed, I did not. Because I knew that it was an easy shot at men, when they didn't all lie. There were a few good ones left. Like Killian.

I blinked, shocked at my thoughts. Fuck, I was going soft.

"I'll give you the key if that makes you feel better?" Mario offered, though there was a tone to his voice that was pure condescension. "But we cannot have this conversation where others can hear us. Unless you want to risk information getting back to the fallen ones?"

Even as he spoke, the sensation of being watched intensified. Motherfucker Gardreel had people everywhere. We needed time, and I would make that time happen.

"You know what? Hold that thought while I do your work for you." I put my plate of food on the floor, turned and strode down the stairs, snapping my fingers for Ruby to follow me.

She trotted down next to me and then sat at my side as I did a visual sweep of the space around us. "Find the bad guys, Ruby."

Not exactly the same training that Abe had, but in her own way she was more tightly bound to me. I'd told her that the dust she'd sniffed up had been the bad guys. Her one eye drooped shut and she sniffed the air, then put her nose to the ground.

She did a circle around me, wider and wider.

"I thought you said we were on a time crunch?" Mario barked.

"I thought you said you had moles," I snapped back. "And since you can't find them, and dig them the fuck out, I will!"

Maybe I was in a bad mood. Maybe I just wanted to kill something. Both were plausible.

As it was. Someone was going to die. It was just a matter of who.