Chapter 22

Easter drove through the rest of the night, stopping only for fuel at a quiet gas station with flickering lights and a half-blind attendant. No cameras either. Not that I thought we were only being watched through surveillance in that way. I had no doubt that Gardreel had some version of his own Tracker chasing us down. I let the others drive while I slept, recharging my batteries. I felt like I'd been sick for weeks; my body ached, and my mind was fuzzy.

"Are you sure you're, okay?" Emerald leaned over and put a hand on my calf. Her concern was not unwarranted. Most abnormals didn't have their own abilities try to eat them up. I waved a hand at her.

"I'll be fine."

I didn't know if I'd be fine, not at all. But I wasn't above lying to a kid to take away the worry in her eyes when we were already dealing with demons, monsters, and fallen angels.

As the morning light hit, the sun splashed over my face and I opened my eyes, and the thoughts that had been tossed around in my head while I slept came to the surface. I needed to get a message to Mario, but . . . "Anyone get a number for Mario?"

Easter nodded. "He gave me his personal number." She laughed. "Like I'd ever . . . well, maybe. We're coming up on a town. We should switch vehicles anyway. You can call him."

We slid off the interstate and past the first few obvious stops, and then she took us into a small subdivision, but that wasn't going to work. "No, let's find the shit part of town," I said.

Emerald tensed beside me, her accent tugging at my ears. "You want to go to a dangerous part? Why?"

Like with Cowboy, I felt as if I had to give her some instruction, to give her a leg up. "Because the cops rarely look for the people who kill criminals. They'll chalk it up to some gang-related hit. And that means it won't be as noticeable for the assholes looking for us." I looked at Eligor, and then to Killian. "Either of you demons disagree?"

Eligor paled. "I am no demon."

Killian's eyes turned blue, and rather thoughtful. "I believe you are right. I believe that they will be looking at the obvious places. Of course, they could have learned seeing as they've been following you for so long. You are a favorite of all of ours, so bloodthirsty. So . . . bad."

I narrowed my eyes at him, choosing to ignore the innuendo. "And you. You have been rather quiet, Ipos. Why is that?"

He smiled. "You're upset that I let your man control his own body? Would you rather it was me kissing you? I would."

I didn't shift my stance at all, didn't so much as blink. The rage in me rose hot and fast, and with it came the flames that I thought I'd pretty much burned out the night before. His eyes blinked back to green as Ipos fled. I didn't even have to say anything.

Killian raised his eyebrows. "Lass. I think you scared him."

"Your parasite needs an ass kicking," I said and turned away from him. He reached for me, and I struggled to let him touch me. I'd saved his body, and I knew he was still in there, that it was mostly Killian. But at what cost?

"Getting rough," Easter said, and it took me a second to realize that she meant the area we were in, and not the back and forth between me and Killian. The buildings were in disrepair, the brick stained, signs half lit, or hanging off their struts.

"What are you looking for?" Eligor asked. It was a question Cowboy would have asked, but I chose not to point it out.

"Bikes," I said as I pointed out a biker ahead of us, his leather jacket covered in a patch I recognized. Skull and crossbones lit on fire. Subtle. "Follow him."

He didn't go far before he pulled into a two-story garage, several other bikes visible all around and inside.

"What are you going to do?" Eligor whispered. "Are you going to kill them?"

I stared hard at him. "Yeah, I am."

"Me too," Dinah said.

Diego laughed. "I've been sleeping, and I wake up to a shoot-out? Lovely!"

Easter parked right behind the biker we'd followed in. He got off his bike—no helmet of course—and turned around to us, his mouth already open, his fists coming up. I stepped out of the Bronco, Dinah already in my hand. I shot him in the guts and then the head as he fell.

I moved on autopilot as the gang came rumbling down the steps, taking them out one after the other. Easter and Diego were right there with me. But not Killian.

I should have wondered more at that. Should have worried that he wasn't at my side.

A bike started up while we were still clearing the garage out. Easter wiped a fleck of blood off her face and looked out the window. "One of them is fucking off."

"That's fine. We've got enough bikes."

And we did. We had our choice of bikes.

I grabbed a couple helmets and tossed one to Emerald. "You ride with me."

Easter pulled a helmet on, tucking her brilliant red hair up into it. "What about him?"

Eligor stood there, looking unsure. "You need to let Cowboy up now. He can ride one of these."

He nodded, and a moment later he was on his knees, gasping for breath. "Jesus. Nix, please don't let him do that again."

"Then hold your shit together. Can you do that?" I asked.

Dinah shivered in her holster. "I'm betting he lasts five minutes this time."

She was laughing, but I was not. Because Killian was missing. Ruby crawled out of the Jeep, her head low, and a whine in her throat. My jaw ticked and I damped down the hurt. Because it was not his fault, I knew it. Fucking demon had taken over, had just been waiting for his chance. Or maybe I'd scared him just that bad.

"Where is Killian?" Easter stood next to me.

"The demon took him." I walked over to a bike that had a sidecar and checked it for fuel. Got it started and backed out of the garage. Easter didn't question why we were leaving.

Killian was on his own. He would either get free of the demon himself, or I would find him later and help him.

This was not our love story; I was not going after him when I had bigger fish to fry.

Cowboy was still shaky, but he got on one of the bikes. I snapped my fingers at Ruby and pointed to the sidecar. She leapt in and slumped down, curling into a ball in the seat.

Easter handed me a slip of paper with a number on it. I went back into the garage, dug around in one of the dead men's pockets and pulled a phone out. No lock on the phone; I dialed the number.

It clicked through immediately. "Who is this?" Mario's voice was rough, as though he were exhausted.

"Your sister," I said. "Where are you?"

"We made it to the . . . place you said." His words were full of static. "They can't find us."

"Good, leave the weakest ones there, and get your ass and your strongest to the address I'm going to text you. We'll face off with the fallen there in forty-eight hours."

Silence for a beat. "How can you trust me?"

"I don't. But I'm your chance at ending this, at sending the fallen to hang with the rest of their family."

I hung up the phone and texted him the address in NOLA. The house where I'd faced down Bazixal.

I closed my eyes and reached for Pete. He was distant, but they were moving toward NOLA too. That was good.

I let the connection go before he could feel me reaching for him, and I shut down the urge to reach for Killian. He was on his own for now.

I strode back to the bikes, gave Easter a nod, and then we were gone, going south as fast as we could.

We stopped for fuel and food, that was it. There were no more hits on us, and I knew why.

Gardreel knew where we were headed. He was waiting for us. Why waste resources when we were running straight to him.

Fifteen hours of driving took us into the evening of the same day. The next night was the night of the bleeding stars.

Odessa was where we ended up. That's all I could think about as we rolled close to the facility that held my mother's body. And by close, I mean we were thirty miles out, just on the range of what Eligor could do in terms of putting the rest of the handlers out of commission.

"Can they see us here?" I asked Eligor as we parked our bikes on the side of the road, right near a pipe-laying plant. Lots of equipment, not much cover. This was more about blending in.

Cowboy jerked and I raised a brow. "Just ask him."

He nodded quick. "No, he said they shouldn't be able to . . . but he's not sure."

Easter snorted. "How are we doing this? We've lost Killian, Pete and Carlos are gone."

"He," I pointed at Cowboy, "is going to throw an EMP pulse when I say so. We're going to walk in the front door."

She stared at me. "The front door."

"You think he'll expect that?" I let myself smile even though part of me could not tear my heart away from Killian. He'd trusted me. I'd convinced him to put a demon into his body. "We go in through the front," I said, pushing my thoughts down deep. "We use Eligor first. I'll kill the front desk, we'll get the codes, or key cards to use the elevators. We get to our mark; Emerald will have a chat with her and get the spell we need. Then we'll book it."

Emerald nodded. We'd been talking on the drive, and it turned out her abilities were solid. She could pull not only from spirit, but from the memories trapped in a body. Exactly what Mario had said he was looking for. A death talker.

Exactly what Gardreel had been looking for.

"They'll see us coming with the bikes," Easter said. "I assume you have an idea?"

"Yes. Dinah, you remember the hit on the east side of the river? When we took down the four loan sharks who owed Romano money?"

"You mean when you stole the cop car? Yes, yes, I do," she said. "That'll get you to the front no problem, but the cops here might notice."

I shrugged and started walking toward the donut shop I'd seen when we'd rolled into Odessa. "Maybe. We don't need it long."

Easter laughed. "What are you thinking?"

"I've an idea." I motioned for Cowboy to hurry up, taking note of the sweat on his brow, and the pallor of his skin. Eligor wasn't the only one suffering from their connection. "I'll need your help."

"Yeah, sure, you got it."

I led them back to the donut shop; the giant blinking pink frosted donut rotating on the top was kind of easy to spot. The single cop car sitting outside was exactly what I was hoping for. The door jingled when we let ourselves in, and there was a cop slumped over a cup of coffee.

I sat right next to him, motioning for Cowboy to sit on the other side.

The cop's head snapped to me first. "Back the fuck up."

"No." I had Dinah jammed into his side before he got all the words out, so he could feel her muzzle. "You're going to come nice and quiet with me and my friends."

His dark brown eyes went from being furious, to fear in a heartbeat. "I got family."

A lie.

"We all do," I said as I pushed Dinah against him a little harder. "Get the fuck up."

He did as I said, and I kept on him. Cowboy kept tight to his other side and we had him out to his cop car, and around the back to the trunk.

"You're going to put him in there?" Easter asked.

"Nope." I made him flip the trunk open. "Eligor said he needed a new body. How about this one?"