Chapter 5

Ispun the knife in my palm, watching the blade tick over and over as I pulled all the pieces I was dealing with together. Mario was a problem. But knowing that he was indeed a problem was the first step.

Why was he helping Gardreel?

"We shouldn't stay here," Carlos said. "Not if he's working for them." The sweat on his cheek told me that he was Hiding us right then. Keeping our words from escaping the room.

"Sleeping in a nest of vipers is fine unless you make a sudden movement," Dinah said. "That's when you get bit."

"She's right," I said. "We stay as long as we can."

"What about Killian?" Carlos asked quietly. "That's their ace in the hole, that you won't leave him."

Dinah sighed.

My jaw ticked. "They don't know me then." I jabbed the knife into the table and changed the subject. "The big issue is finding my mother. How many facilities are left, and which one is she in? That's where the tablet will come in handy. It'll help us narrow down where we are going." And if not, I had an ace up my sleeve that I would use. One that I didn't want to, but I would do it if there was no other choice. Using a Tracker was tricky on a good day. I doubted it would be a good day if I had to be in contact with that one.

Pete let out a low whistle. "Shit, it's like you knew when you took the tablet. Did you?"

I didn't let him think that he was wrong, didn't nod or shake my head. I didn't know. I just knew enough that certain key things in a fight would be needed. Information amongst those key items. Information was always a good thing to have.

"I'm going to find Harden. You two stick close to one another, and see if you can find out anything useful." I stood, and Ruby stood with me.

"Useful," Pete said as if the word were foreign to him.

I got moving, Ruby keeping close as I left the room and headed down the double flight of stairs. Harden was the local tech guy, and he'd taken the tablet from me the second we'd come into the factory. By now he should have something—or at least the start of something.

As I walked through the factory, I could feel the eyes of the other abnormals on me again. Of course, I was the monster. I always had been. Then again, I had just seemingly on a whim killed three of their own.

I could sniff around for hours and not find Harden.

I stopped in the middle of the largest room and called out. "Where is Harden?"

A scattering of feet as the abnormals left the vicinity in a hurry. I sighed. That was the downside to being the monster.

Everyone was afraid of me, even when I didn't want them to be.

"I'm here." The voice came through the PA system, scratchy and smoke-filled. "In the control room. Take the flight of stairs to the first basement, then to the end of the hall, last room on your right."

The sound of his voice echoing around me faded, but I was already moving toward the stairwell that led down to the basement.

I let my feet and body work on autopilot as my mind went back to Killian. He did not have a lot of time, even with me lancing the wounds, which meant I needed to find a way to help him too. If . . . if I could. And if I had to leave him . . . my guts clenched. I did not want him to think I'd abandon him, the way I'd thought he'd abandoned me.

Even if it was the right thing to do. If I had to leave him, then I'd do right by him and put a bullet in his head. I wouldn't leave him to suffer.

"Fucking fallen angels," I growled.

"Killian?" Dinah asked quietly.

"Yeah. We might have to, Dinah."

She groaned. "Just find a way to fix him up, okay?"

That was the question of the day. How to help him. If the wounds were created by one of the fallen, then there was an infection that we hadn't seen before. I could lance them again, but for how long would that buy him time?

"What about your fire?" Dinah asked.

"I'm considering it," I said. "It might work." It also might kill him. That was the problem, I had no control really over the flames. Then again, it was coming down to the wire. Either I saved him, or he died.

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath as I reached the control room door and let myself in.

Ruby stepped just in front of me and sniffed the air, then gave a low woof of approval.

Good enough for me. She seemed to have a better sense of these things than most people.

Harden sat with his back to me, leaned over something. Monitors covered the wall above his head showing the various parts of the factory as well as the exterior of the building. I watched for a few moments, seeing people drift by the street that the factory was on.

"There isn't anyone watching us," Harden said under his breath. "I would know. This is all I do, day and night. Watch and work, watch and work. Fucking hate this place. Fucking Mario thinks he's so damn smart."

I stared at the homeless man slumped across from the building, his head partially covered with rags, his body swaying in time to a tune only he could hear. "I don't think you would know."

Harden lifted his head and looked at me. He wore a pair of thick glasses that made his eyes big and bugged out, magnifying them in a way that did not help the geeky look he had going on.

"And you would? Two seconds in here and you would? I don't think so. You don't know patterns; you don't see what I see!"

I stared at him and then looked back to the homeless man. Only the homeless man was gone. As if he'd never been.

I searched the other monitors quickly, finding the rag-covered male on a different corner, still facing the factory. Still watching from under his hood. Still swaying, one hand clenching into a fist over and over again.

The thing about him that was interesting to me was that he moved far too fast. He should have been shuffling if the swaying was any indication. And yet in a literal blink he went from one corner to the other, with no apparent movement.

He moved like a fucking Magelore.

I leaned over and tapped the screen where he sat now. "That one, how long has he been watching you?"

"That's Barry. He's been around since we got here. He's not abnormal, just a homeless dude."

Chills swept up and down my spine. "Since you were here." And Harden didn't see it.

"Yeah, he's homeless, and he likes this area." Harden turned back to the tablet under his hands, fingers flying over a keyboard he'd hooked up to it. "This here, I'll have it cracked in no time. Then we'll have some answers, right? I think I can set it so the password is easy. 1234, how about that, am I right, or am I right?"

My eyebrows shot up and I ignored what he'd said about the tablet. "He likes an area with not a lot of pedestrian traffic, so as to not get any handouts. Your nincompoop is showing, Harden. If he was truly homeless, he'd be somewhere that he could actually get money."

He didn't lift his head from the tablet. "We've been monitoring everyone who comes through the area, including Barry. Barry is harmless. Barry is just a human. Barry can be ignored."

Fuck, Barry was a goddamn Magelore and he'd rolled Harden under his spell. I grabbed the tech handler and tore the front of his shirt down. Three bite marks in various stages of healing were spaced across his upper body and clavicle. I dragged Harden, and subsequently the tablet, with me out of the room.

"Let me go, you crazy ass bitch!" He took a swing at me and Ruby clamped down on his arm. He screamed, she snarled and I didn't correct her. She was protecting me and helping me haul him along.

"Good girl." I smiled down at her.

She woofed around her mouthful, and Harden tried to twist away from us, dropping the tablet. I caught it with my other hand before it hit the ground and tucked it into my waistband. "Harden, you've been working too much. You need a break." I dragged him out of the basement, up the stairs and into the main room. "Pete!"

My holler echoed and a moment later Pete appeared at the top of the stairs that led to our conference room from earlier. "What? Jesus, are you killing people already?"

I narrowed my eyes at him and said nothing. He needed to get his ass down those stairs yesterday, and that tiny bit of connection between us flared to life. Whether it was from him biting me or something else, I reached for him the way I'd mentally reached for Easter.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming down! You don't have to yell!" He grabbed the railing edges and all but leapt down both flights of stairs, landing on the main floor with a thump. He hurried over to my side and looked at Harden. "What?"

I rolled the tech around, flashing the bite marks. "Don't say what they are, but do you recognize them?"

Pete's eyes shot open wide. "Um. Yes."

"And you understand that if we said it out loud, that could trigger something?" I handed Harden off to Pete and Pete clamped down on his arms. Ruby let go as soon as the Magelore had him.

"Yeah, it could set off the um . . . biter. They would know. Then there would be no surprise."

At least he was catching on quick.

"Right. I'm going to deal with that person. Keep Harden safe." I gave him a pointed look. "He hasn't actually deciphered what we need on the tablet, though we have a code to get in now at least."

Harden for his part had gone completely limp. The proximity to another Magelore could do that to a victim; I'd been banking on it. "Carlos, you come with me."

Carlos hurried down the steps. "You need me? What is happening?"

"We're going to sneak up on someone, and there is going to be a fight I'd rather no one else see. Can you keep everyone in the area unseeing? Or just hide me and the fight. Whichever is easier."

Carlos kept pace with me. "Yes. But what or who are you going after?"

I looked over my shoulder in time to see Pete drag Harden through the conference room door and shut it. "Magelore. He's been stalking the factory and feeding on Harden. He could be one of the other spies, or . . . or he might be actually straight up, and that's why he doesn't want in with Mario."

"Shouldn't we get Mario? This is his house, he should deal with this," Carlos said. "Let him tackle the Magelore."

I paused. "You trust him? What if this Magelore is like Pete? What if he could help us? Magelores were one of the abnormals that Gardreel is seeking." Along with ascendants and death talkers.

It was not lost on me that Mario had said I'd need a death talker to gain my mother's memories.

Carlos let out a heavy sigh. "You are right, but I do not like it."

Ruby let out a whine. "Yeah, I don't like it either," I said. "But it's what we've got."

"I'm going to try talking to him first. If a fight starts, you cover our tracks. Because no matter what happens, we cannot let Gardreel find us."

"No pressure," Carlos said, his sarcasm showing clearly.

Dinah wiggled in the holster. "You aren't going to shoot him?"

"No. Not unless I have to," I said. And even then, I didn't want to shoot the Magelore. If keeping the abnormal alive would somehow foul up Gardreel, then I would do that.

I kept walking to the north side of the building where I'd seen Barry last. If that was even his name. With a Magelore it was hard to say.

"Are you sure we want him on our side, like Pete?" Carlos asked.

"He's been watching them," I said as I found an exit. "And feeding off Harden. But he hasn't come into the fold—and Mario wants a Magelore, I'm sure of it. Which could mean that this one, this Barry knows something about Mario. Something we need."

Carlos grunted. "It could also mean he's going to hand them over for a hefty prize to Gardreel, like Pete was doing."

Yes, that was a possibility too. I nodded. "Far as I know, Magelores can't be controlled like the other abnormals, so they don't get ‘handled' like the rest of us in the facilities. I think they usually end up killing them." That had been the plan for Pete anyway.

"Why is that? What makes them so special?" Carlos asked.

"Question of the day, my friend," I said softly as I put my shoulder to the door and let the sunlight come through, allowing my eyes to adjust to the change. A few seconds was all I needed and then I was through, out into the daylight, and motioning for Carlos to come with me.

"No idea. Maybe they're missing a soul?" I offered the thought, though my mind wasn't really on why the Magelores couldn't be mind fucked like the rest of us. Though I knew that if it was a soul that was required to make us manageable, I had no idea how Easter or I were able to be taken. I snorted at myself. I'd never claimed to have a soul.

"We just need to do a perimeter sweep," I said, pitching my voice so it would carry even as I tried to get a whiff of the Magelore. "We get Mario off our backs for a few. Fucker that he is."

"You the boss." Carlos shrugged as if he didn't care. "I'd like to have a smoke in peace for once."

He cracked open a new pack of cigars and tucked one into his mouth, shading it in order to light it.

I watched him. I didn't want to use him as bait. He was too valuable. "Come on." I motioned for him to follow me and could tell by the lift of his brows over a swirl of smoke that he'd been fully ready to be the bait. I shook my head ever so slightly. "Don't dawdle, old man. You'll fall and break a hip, and then where would we be?"

He grunted and waved the cigar at me, and through the plume of smoke, the space behind him shifted. Barry was close. He wouldn't try and take us both; he was waiting for one of us to separate.

Fine by me. "Jesus, that cigar stinks like shit." I waved my hand for good measure and then pointed in the direction I'd been headed. "You go that way, toward the dumpsters if you're going to smell like that."

He laughed and started past me, waving the cigar around so the smoke spread. Our eyes met and he nodded.

I tucked my hands into my pockets and ducked my chin to my chest, and strode directly toward where I'd seen the movement through the smoke.

"You sure about this?" Dinah grumbled.

I slapped a hand over her. "No cameras here, we have to check."

I took the corner and knew that there was no camera there based on the monitors I'd seen in Harden's hideout. Which meant this was perfect for the Magelore to snag a new snack.

Hands dropped on my upper arms, and I let him drag me a half step before I went straight down, spun and punched him in the junk package. I followed it up with a grab of every single one of his family jewels and held on tight, digging my nails in, through the soft flesh.

He howled, arched up on his heels and froze with his hands spread wide as if I'd stuck him on a crucifix. Carlos came running. The howl was pitched high, screeching like an animal caught in a leg trap.

"God, that's awful! How did you know—"

"Saw him through the smoke," I yelled to be heard over the Magelore's screams. A few people walked by, but nobody heard him through Carlos's ability to keep things hidden. Even this godforsaken caterwauling. I gave another yank and a twist to my handful, which dropped the Magelore to his knees. From there I pulled Dinah and pressed her against his temple.

"Shut your filthy fucking mouth, Magelore." I growled the words into his ear. "Or I will let her blow your brains out onto the cement."

He rolled his eyes to me, one brown, the other black. "I no hurt you. Scared. Just scared."

"You've been feeding on Harden," I said.

"No hurt," he whispered and then he . . . he fucking passed out. I let go of his jewels but stayed where I was, crouched over him with Dinah shivering.

"You think he's simple?" Carlos asked. "Never heard of a Magelore that was simple before."

I shook my head. "No, there is no such thing as a simple Magelore. Let's bring him in, see what Pete can get out of him."

I rolled Barry over to his belly and stripped a piece of his own clothing off, shredded it and used a strip to tie his hands at hard angles together and then to his ankles. No matter how strong a Magelore was, this was a hard position to find any muscle power in.

I dragged him back into the factory and to the main floor. "Pete, we need you."

"Music to my sweet ears," he called back as he stepped out of the conference room. "Harden about pissed his pants and then passed out. You kill the Magelore—"

His eyes landed on the dirty package I'd pulled in and then he was hurrying down the steps. "Damn. That was fast. Wait. You didn't kill him? Must be a young one or something." But even as he was speaking, I could see the doubt in his own words. The young ones were dead, not smart or strong enough to avoid Gardreel and his fallen ones.

"Something's wrong with him," I said. "That's your department. If he's been spying, we kill him. If he's broken, we kill him. We can't afford to babysit."

Pete nodded. "Got it." He rolled Barry over and drew a slow breath. "I know him. He's strong. Almost as strong as Vivian."

That . . . didn't make any sense. "He was easy, Pete. As in one blow and he went down and passed out. Are you sure?"

"Sure as the shit that comes out of my ass once a week." His hands drifted over the other Magelore. "His name is Barton. He's probably one step below Vivian. Maybe half a step." He spoke her name almost like . . . she was a god to him. Good thing I'd killed her.

I stared hard at him. "Then figure it out. Because whatever happened to him, could happen to you too."