Chapter 20

Tricky indeed. She took her hand away from her back and I saw the top of a sword handle. Interesting. She took another step, so she was out from under the porch. She was pretty, but the lines of her jaw were hard, and her nose had been broken at least once. "I don't Track adults—"

"I know." I held up my other hand, palm out. "I know you don't Track anyone but kids. But this woman, if I can find her, and get the information out of her head that I need, then I can save a fuck ton of people. Kids included."

The Tracker narrowed her eyes at me. Tri-colored. Swirling with magic. I locked eyes with her and let the fire in me rise upward. If she wanted to see what she was dealing with, so be it.

A good minute passed before she smiled. "You know what? All right. What's the pay?"

The pay . . . fuck. "What do you want?"

"Money." She laughed. "That's how this works. We aren't bartering for that fucking broken-down Bronco you got over there."

The dog—if you could call him that—rolled to his feet. "No money, Rylee. Just help pretty bird."

His tongue lolled out and I couldn't be sure, but I'd have sworn he winked at me.

I frowned and Rylee—the Tracker's name I was guessing—sighed. "Fuck it, Alex, we aren't a goddamn charity. You know I have to pay for your dog food, right?"

He just shrugged his overly hairy shoulders. "I eat rabbits."

To say this was weird was . . . an understatement. "So you'll help?"

"What's her name?" Rylee asked.

"Jasmine," I said. "She's my mother, and she looks a great deal like me. Only with lighter hair."

Her eyes widened. "You don't have a picture of her? Shit on toast, are you for real? You can't pay, you don't have a picture, I can't make you a miracle. I'm no Jesus, despite how fucking awesome I am."

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were the best."

"That won't work with me. I'm the only one. Easy to be the best," she barked. "I need something, a picture is ideal, but even a drawing would do."

I didn't have a picture of my mother. I hadn't had one for years. I could see her clearly in my mind . . . "I can show you," I said. "But I have to take your hand."

She had every right to be suspicious. She didn't know me from any other abnormal coming through her place to cause trouble. I held out my hand. "I can show you."

Those tri-colored eyes kept swirling, which made it hard to read her.

"You know what," she said, "I'd like to see you try."

I didn't understand what she meant by that, and so I took her hand and let the fire roll up and through me. She gasped and her fingers locked around my palm.

The fire kicked back to me and then I was yanking her into that quiet world of mine, through the river, through the water to stand on the other side.

"What the fuck?" she yelped, but smartly did not let go of me. "This shouldn't work on me."

"Here." I pulled up the image of my mother and stood her in front of us. She did look like me, only slenderer. Finer boned. Frail almost. And then I realized she resembled the fallen that I'd met. Pale, light blue eyes, nearly white-blonde hair. Even her smile had an angelic quality to it.

"Took after your father, did you?" Rylee snorted.

I looked at her. "Your mouth gets you in a lot of trouble, doesn't it?"

She grinned as if I'd just told her the best joke. "Every. Fucking. Day."

And then she yanked her hand free of mine and we tumbled out of that space of in between. She stumbled back from me and bumped into her dog who steadied her with his mitts that looked almost human. Jesus, he was messed up. Even if he had convinced her to help me.

"I can't go on a salvage with you—"

"I just need a direction," I said. "East, west or south."

Her eyebrows shot up. "That's it? You don't want me along for the ride?"

I paused, thinking about it. Thinking about taking a Tracker with me—they were generally good fighters, and had dealings with a lot of abnormals. I slowly shook my head. "No. I'm sure you could fight, I'm sure you'd be an asset, but I have a feeling you might bring your own brand of trouble with you."

Her grin was wide and immediate. "Yes, there is that small detail." She took a deep breath and as she slowly let it out, her eyes swirled faster until they were just a vortex of movement. "Your mark is south. Really, really far south."

One of the facilities was on the border of Mexico on the Texas side. "That helps. I'll send you some cash when we wrap this up."

She shrugged. "I've heard that before."

I took a step back, then another and another, keeping her in my sights. It's not that I didn't trust her. But you didn't leave someone at your back you didn't know, when they had a weapon and strange magic you didn't understand.

I lifted a hand. "Thank you." Not something I said often.

Rylee didn't turn away either. "You're in for some trouble. I think you could use a break. I know I sure as shit could."

And that was that.

I turned and strode back to the van, slid in and got us turned around.

"We're going south," I said.

Easter sucked in a breath. "She actually helped? Fuck, I thought this might be a wild goose chase."

Yeah, I'd kind of thought it was a crap shoot too, but I'd also known it was our best shot. "She gave me a direction. It fits with the facilities that Eligor knows about." I spoke loud enough that Eligor startled when his name was spoken.

I watched the rear-view mirror as we drove away. Rylee had disappeared, but her dog sat in the middle of the yard waving until we were out of view. He was a weird one, even as abnormals went. But his words—strange as they were—had convinced the Tracker to help me.

"I owe you one, dog," I muttered.

I'd like to say that the trip south was as quiet as the one to talk to the Tracker and her dog.

It was not.

We were a couple hours south of Bismarck when the sirens started. Emmy sat up straight, her eyes wide and her breath coming in gulps. "They found us."

"Just the police," I said. "And they aren't necessarily coming for us."

Killian shot me a look and I shrugged as he reached over and put a hand on my arm. "Lass. Let's be honest with ourselves now."

"Fine, it's unlikely that they are coming for us," I amended.

Emmy shook her head. "No, I can sense them . . . they have something with them. Not one of the fallen. Something else. Something . . . they made something special to come after us."

Oh well now, didn't that just take the fucking cake. "How do you know?"

"She knows because it is of demon origin," Eligor said from the backseat. He looked like shit, as if he'd been the one doing all the driving. From the bags under his eyes to the red shooting through them. In short, he did not look well.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked.

"This body is not . . . conducive to my long-term survival. I need another one. It has too much demon in it." Sweat beaded along his upper lip as he spoke.

Another one. Fuck, like I needed to add body snatching to my to-do list.

I frowned. "How come I can't feel what's chasing us?"

Emerald was shaking hard. "It's bad, whatever it is. We have to hurry."

I put my foot on the gas pedal and the Bronco sort of sped up. I'd killed a demon before, but did I want to try it in the middle of the highway, while protecting Emerald? No, no I did not.

"Eligor, can you do anything?"

"No, the beast won't obey me."

The beast. Oh, that sounded wonderful. "Emmy, tell me when they are close."

"Now," she whispered.

I jerked the wheel to the left and peeled off the highway, bouncing across open ground as something exploded the tarmac behind us.

"Hang on, I'm going to open the roof up," Killian yelled. "Heads down."

Everyone but me stuck their heads down. Even Ruby whined and lay flat on the floor as Killian drew the electricity across his fingers and used it to cut a panel out of the roof, the faint burn and hissing crackle filling the air. Tricky bastard always had something up his sleeve.

"God, I love him," Dinah whispered. "I really wish he'd had a brother."

Easter popped up through the hole and pulled Diego around. "Jesus."

"Diego will do," the big gun rumbled. "But what the fuck is that?"

I didn't look in the mirror, not right away, I was too busy navigating the road in front of us.

"What is it? I want to shoot it too!" Dinah yelled.

Killian reached around my middle and grabbed her. She squealed and then both he and Easter were shooting out into something behind us.

A boom shook the air, concussing my chest as Diego shot off one of his rocket launchers. "Direct hit!" he yelled and then his voice faded. "Shit."

"Nothing's touching it!" Killian said. Something slammed into the left side of the Bronco, screeching down the metal. I glanced over in time to see a set of fangs attached to a long thin body, a tube not unlike my friend Ornias, from the church in New York City.

"How can Gardreel be employing a demon now?" I snapped. Eligor cringed.

"I don't know. I don't know!"

"Because they want to be free too," Ipos said through Killian. "They will help him make this happen. I personally do not want that."

Despite what Eligor and Gardreel wanted to believe, they had fallen, and by falling they had become demons.

The screeching against the Bronco was increasing, as if dozens of teeth, and then hundreds were digging in and falling away.

Flashes of red and black skin, though skin would give it the impression of being soft, and fragile, when it looked harder than that.

"Nothing is knocking them off!" Easter yelled.

Eligor groaned and slid further down into his seat. "They sent shriekers in. This is bad. We can't survive this."

I didn't know what the fuck shriekers were, and I didn't have to in order to know we had to pull out all the stops. "Killian, try shocking them!"

"Working on it," he yelled back just as the world lit up. Like he'd turned on a massive switch, the world went from night to day in a literal flash. There was a moment where I could see nothing, my eyes blinded and then we were bumping along, barely managing to get around nature's fucking potholes. I took note that Ipos was saying nothing.

I kept the pedal down and kept driving—not like there were many trees out here. "Anything?"

"They backed off . . . fuck, no they're still on us, lass!" he shouted.

Emerald didn't start crying, didn't start screaming or freaking out. She just closed her eyes.

I, on the other hand, knew we were running out of space. The shriekers were fast, way too fast.

"Ipos, will my fire hurt them? The fire of an ascendant?" I yelled up at Killian. He startled and looked at me, blue eyes solidly on mine.

"Yes. You can kill them, Phoenix, but—"

That was all I needed. I cranked the wheel hard to the right, spinning the Bronco around to face the oncoming demons, barely keeping it upright.

I leapt out of the car as everyone else was still getting their bearings.

"Wait, Phoenix!" Eligor was the first to scramble out after me. But I didn't slow my stride, which seemed to give the demons some pause. They rolled toward me, like a wave of writhing dark tubes with teeth. Tubes that had far more substance than my friend Ornias.

That pause only lasted a split second really, and then they rushed me. Hundreds of them scrambling over one another.

"Ready?" I yanked Dinah clear and held her steady.

"I'm your bitch!"

I breathed deep and pulled up the fire that burned deep and dark within me. I pulled it up and along my arms, just like I did with the electricity that I borrowed from Killian. As soon as the flames rolled down over Dinah's barrel I started shooting. The flames curled around each bullet as they flew from her and slammed into the first of the demons.

The first few shots it was hard to tell if there was any damage, and then I saw them going down, one after another. They tried to go around me, but I could . . . feel them wasn't the right word. But it was the closest I had. I could sense them.

It was almost exactly like hunting abnormals. There was a smell and a sense of where they were going to be just before they got there. I let my body and mind sink into the act of killing them all while Dinah screamed and laughed.

The flames burned hot through me, and my skin crackled with it. Distantly Eligor was yelling at me. Something. Maybe something important.

"You have to stop! Phoenix, you have to listen to me!"

"Not anymore, fucker!" Dinah screamed back for me.

The more I used the fire, the hotter it burned, until I was dripping with sweat, barely able to see past the heat waves rolling out around me.

"You'll kill her!" Eligor yelled. "You'll kill your gun; you'll burn her soul out!"

That stopped me. The demons retreated out of the way of my flames, and I let the fire die down long enough to really feel Dinah's handle. Soft. The metal was soft under my hands.

"Fuck, Dinah! Why didn't you say anything!"

I tucked her not into the holster against my chest but tossed her instead back toward Killian. He caught her and immediately dropped her. Too hot.

"Me, me!" Diego yelled from where Easter held him.

A scream rent the air, raising every hair across my arms and the back of my neck. The little demons had pulled back and were being absorbed into something . . . bigger. Something that was rather pissed off with us.

I know you, Phoenix. You banished Bazixal.

Well, fuck. If I thought that the night couldn't get any worse, I was very, very wrong. Because a new demon knew my name.

Which meant it was time to play hardball.