Chapter 9

Iput my shoulder to the church door, the flames still just far enough away, and opened it to peer out and get a quick count. There were two large army trucks blocking in our smaller vehicle. I ducked back in. "No sign of the fallen."

I will tell you if they draw close, Ipos said, his hold around my neck tightening and cooling further at the same time. Ignoring him, I looked to the others.

"The fire will help," I said. "But there are twenty-five mercs out there, and easily three times that many people just watching."

The crackle of the flames grew as they spread, crawling up and over the ceiling, eating up the frescos and bursting out the stained glass. Ornias was pissed, but being nothing but a tube of darkness, there wasn't much he could do.

I turned my head and motioned at the others. "Get out of here. I'll handle the soldiers."

Easter laughed, tossed me Diego, and pulled a pair of guns free. "Like you get to have all the fun? I think not."

Pete grunted and pointed at his stomach, affecting a Scottish accent. "Get them in ma belly."

Carlos just shrugged and pulled a small handgun from a holster under his shirt. "I can Hide us all well enough that they won't see us."

And just like that I had a team, a team that I wasn't entirely sure of but at that point what did it matter? I felt the power of Carlos's Hiding abilities slide over us as the first row of soldiers slid through the thawed-out doorway.

There was no time to question what we were doing now.

I swept Diego around and fired into the first row, blowing their bodies back without remorse. They'd chosen their sides, and I'd chosen mine. Mine was about to win.

Pete zipped into the next row and ripped the heads off two of the soldiers, his mouth open as he drank down the fountaining blood. Easter took the others beside him, her shots clean and straight to their heads.

"Me, me!" Dinah yelled.

I pulled her free and slung Diego to my back as I stepped up and took out the next four figures, dropping them clean. I kept moving forward, the rapid fire of my and Easter's guns filling the echoing space of the church, competing for the roaring flames that were eating away at the timbers.

As fast as it had started, the fight was over and the four of us were out on the front steps of the church, bodies all around us. Traffic had stopped and I could see why. The large army vehicles parked out front had completely blocked the road. I kept walking up toward the one in the lead, yanked the door open and pulled the shocked driver out.

I turned and shot him, without thought, throwing him out onto the road. He was a liability.

Easter, Pete and Carlos climbed into the back. There was a bit of a ruckus, and then silence. Carlos slid up to the passenger seat, sweat on his brow. "I can cover this for a bit, but I will need a break soon. I have been going nonstop."

"Don't bother," I said as I sat and slid the truck into gear. "I want them to follow us."

The more they—the fallen and Gardreel—looked to me, the less they'd look toward Mario, and by association, Killian. "Easter, go through their shit, look for anything actually helpful. I doubt they expected us to take—"

A scream cut me off and I barely kept the truck straight. "Carlos, wheel!"

He leapt into my seat as I scrambled back, Ruby leaping ahead of me. She got her teeth into the legs of a plump woman who'd popped out of a cupboard. I didn't recognize her and yet I knew exactly who she was.

"A handler," I breathed out as I let Ruby keep mauling the woman as she howled.

In the corner of the back of the truck, Easter crouched, her hands over her head. "I won't go back, I won't!"

Pete's eyes were wide. "What do you want to do?"

I yanked the woman up to her feet but let Ruby dangle off her bleeding leg. My suspicions about her were not exactly friendly. "You're the one who broke my friend?"

Susan's eyes were wide, her skin shock filled. "That's my job."

I let a slow smile cross my face. "And my job is to stop Gardreel. But you know what? I'm not going to kill you."

She blinked a few times. "You're not?"

I kept my eyes locked on her and let that darkness that lay quiet in me rise, let her see every piece of it. Darkness that had been trained into me, darkness that was very different from a demon's. "Not until you tell me everything."

Her whimper was punctuated by Pete laughing. "Shit, I never thought I'd see you torture someone. Is it my damn birthday?"

"Ruby, release." I gave the command and she dropped immediately. Susan hung from my hand, limp. "Easter, you going to help me break her open?"

The best medicine for a hurt in my books was to kill the person who'd tortured and maimed you. Maybe not what you'd call traditional healing, but in my world, it was a sure-fire way to make it through to the other side.

Easter slowly pulled herself up as the truck rocked around a corner.

"Carlos, you just keep driving, don't stop." Which was saying something with New York traffic.

You will torture this one, one of the fallen? Ipos was curious, but seemed neither bothered or excited.

"She has information. And you didn't warn me that she was near." I threw her up against the side of the truck and pulled a knife. "And we need it."

She is weak. I didn't sense her.Ipos said.

Carlos let out a long spew of profanities. "Traffic!" He flicked a switch, and a siren blew out of the truck, clearing the way for us. For the next hour, he wove his way through traffic and keeping us moving.

And that hour probably felt like years to Susan.

I hoped they felt like centuries. Three times she passed out. Three times we pulled her around. Once her heart stopped and Pete gave her CPR to bring her around, licking his lips clean of her blood once he was done.

"She tastes like rain," he said.

That brought a whimper out of her. "Don't let him eat me."

Bingo.

At the end of the hour, we knew a few things.

"Ipos, you will confirm this, yes?"

Susan's head turned my way. "Ipos?"

I tapped her face with my knife, and she flinched. "Yes, one of your friends?"

Ipos laughed and again it rumbled through my voice box. His hold on me tightened and he spoke out of my mouth. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Pun intended, darling."

Carlos cleared his throat. "What do you know?"

Easter answered him. "There are three facilities that could hold the one we are looking for. One in Oregon, one in New Mexico or Texas near the border, and one in Vermont." She stared down at the beat-up body of Susan. "Gardreel is obsessed with wiping out abnormals. He won't stop for anything. The other fallen are less zealous, but don't have a choice. This one will be reborn again, and Gardreel will know what we'd been told—just like Eligor warned us."

I moved up to sit next to Carlos. "The plan is to create an extermination order through the powers that be—the UN in particular—that would allow Gardreel and his goons to eradicate every abnormal on the planet. Not that they are really holding back much. But there are some abnormals still in high places. They are all that's holding him back."

"What happens after that?" he asked.

Susan's toothless, bloodied mouth mumbled her answer. "Humans next."

Humans next.

My eyebrows shot up and I looked at Easter who was intent on Susan's face. As if she'd been able to see it when Susan had been breaking her mind. Here we were in the back of a truck, rocketing around New York City the way the cabbies wished they could, and basically just been told that fallen angels wanted to rule the world. After they wiped out everyone in it.

That was no small thing. And yet it didn't change our plans any.

"Fuck," Pete said. "That would be . . . can you imagine these fuckers ruling the world?"

I could. That was the problem. "They'd make the rest of the assholes look like fucking saints."

Pete swallowed hard. "What are we going to do with her? She'll just tell Gardreel what we know, and right now we need whatever element of surprise we've got."

I could . . . help. She is not stronger than me.

"You want her body?" That was not good.

Not my favorite. But it would suffice.

"And what about the other one?"

I have the ability to heal one body in the time allotted to me. That is all. I could almost hear him yawning. Bored. He already knew I'd chose Killian over this one.

If he couldn't keep her alive, then we had to. "Patch her up. Keep her alive, that way Gardreel can't drag her into another body." Sure, he might be able to trace her, but that wasn't the worst thing in the world. I wanted him to know where I was—at least for the moment.

Susan groaned and cried. Easter shot me a look. "I want to kill her."

"You can, but we wait." I stood and went to the front of the truck and crouched next to Carlos. I bowed my head and directed my question to Ipos.

"Any fallen close?"

They are coming, but you have a little time.

Good enough.

"Who are you talking to?" Carlos asked.

"The demon I'm taking back to Mario." I smiled as Carlos blanched, his hands going limp on the steering wheel. I grabbed it and steadied the truck. "Any idea where he moved?"

"Near the JFK airport. There is a secondary airstrip that he uses—he keeps it hidden well from the humans normally." Carlos looked at me.

I took a quick look at where we were. "Head for the Midtown tunnel. We'll make a switch there."

"This time of day, it'll be backed up," Easter said.

"That's the plan." I watched as traffic flowed around the big truck, the siren helping to clear the way. "Use the truck to block traffic behind us and then we run to the front of the line. Pete, you carry our new friend."

"Got it."

I stood and went to the back. "I'm going to load up for what's coming."

Dinah laughed and Diego sighed. "Please tell me that it will be a lot of shooting."

"All the shooting you two bloodthirsty fuckers could want," I said as I opened the storage containers in the back of the truck. A stash of goodies. I handed out flak jackets and guns, ammo and additional equipment. Smoke bombs, flares, flashlights, and a medic bag. Good enough.

I shrugged into the equipment, feeling the weight of it on my shoulders.

Easter and Pete did the same, then Pete took the wheel so Carlos could get geared up.

"We're coming up on the tunnel!" Pete shouted just as we finished strapping Carlos into his flak jacket.

"Hit the gas, plow through the middle, then crank the wheel to the left to block traffic," I said. "Everyone else, hang on."

I grabbed Ruby's collar with one hand, and a holy fuck handle with the other and braced my legs.

Pete shouted as we hit the first section of cars, pushing them to either side of us, sending them up in a screech of metal and bouncing tires. The big truck tipped precariously as we slid sideways before we slammed to a stop. "That's it, everybody out!" I yelled.

Easter flicked a switch and the back door slid upward. Pete grabbed the handler, and we were out and running past the stalled-out traffic, the people falling out of their cars, screaming about insurance and who the hell was going to pay for this.

"Not me!" Pete yelled into the red face of a woman who was half his size and looked ready to take him on. Not smart.

We ran through the tunnel, between the cars until we were nearing the exit. "There." Easter pointed at a big dark blue truck, one with four doors and a canopy. I slid over the car closest to me and Dinah squealed.

"Let's kill 'em!"

"Bloodthirsty indeed." Carlos shot me a look, but I just kept going. I pulled Dinah free and held her in one hand as I yanked the driver's side open. A young guy with a teardrop tattoo under his eye startled, his eyes wide as he looked down Dinah's barrel.

"I didn't steal it!"

"I call bullshit!" she yelled. I did too. That and we couldn't afford to let anyone give a good description.

As I dragged him out of the truck, I put Dinah to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. The boom was solid and echoed through the tunnel. Screams erupted, but I was already pointing into the truck. Ruby leapt up and went right to the back seat.

I frisked the dead body, found what I was looking for and slid into the truck, and seconds later the others joined me.

"Okay, now you Hide us," I said to Carlos.

He leaned back in the passenger seat and closed his eyes.

What is it you are seeking? Ipos asked as I hit the gas pedal and got us moving. Using the big truck, I literally pushed our way out of the tunnel. I didn't care that we were scraping sides. People were trying to get out of our way, which helped.

"Not right now, demon," I said as I focused on what was in front of us. We still had a drive to get to the airport. And then we had to find Mario.

"That was . . . disturbing to listen to. Even for me," Carlos said, his eyes closed. I didn't think he meant me killing the thug. He meant Susan and the torture.

I shrugged and got us into a lane that was moving. Ruby sat with her head on the console next to me. "I don't enjoy it, Carlos. It's part of the job and if you aren't willing to do what has to be done, what good are you?" I let my hand stroke across Ruby's head, feeling her scars.

He was quiet a moment. "And what must we do now?"

"Like I said, we go back to Mario."

"They won't have long before the fallen are on them." Carlos nodded. "Assuming that he isn't already in their back pocket and waiting for us."

I looked back at Pete who was patching Susan up. Sort of. "Ask her who Gardreel has on the inside of Mario's crew."

She was babbling before Pete even asked.

"I don't know their names. But Mario is already working for Gardreel. The deal is he won't be killed if he just plays along." She sucked in a ragged breath.

And there it was. Shocker, I know, but my family was full of assholes.

I handed Carlos the phone I'd taken from the driver. "Make the call, find out exactly where they are. He doesn't know we know yet. Let's keep it that way."

Carlos dialed through and hit speaker. Mario's voice came through loud and clear. "Where are you? There's trouble in the financial district. That you?"

"Yes, that was us," Carlos said. "We'll come to you; we have a prisoner."

Nothing from Mario for a moment. "We're at JFK. East side, there is a gate that will look locked, just drive through it."

Good enough. I mouthed ‘mute' to Carlos. He turned the phone to silent on our end.

"And your plan is?" Easter leaned forward, her hands on the back of my seat. Anyone else and my skin would have been crawling. I glanced at her in the mirror. Her skin had gained some of its color back.

"We keep going. Hopefully the tunnel gives us a head start. It will take time for them to figure out which vehicle was stolen, and where it went."

Ipos was humming softly. I would speak with your voice, so you can all hear my thoughts.

"Pretty fucking polite for a demon," I said. "But yeah, use my voice."

His hold around my neck tightened and the skin dropped more than a few degrees.

"Gardreel," Jesus, my voice was strange in that low of a register, "wants Phoenix, yes?"

Head nods all around.

"Then he will use his contact to gain her confidence, which I can see in her head is not the case." I took a turn and laid on the horn to get the car in front of me to move, and when that didn't work, used my bumper. "If I had his position and . . . assets. . . . I'd send in two choppers full of soldiers, use the angel dust and knock all the abnormals out. But I would wait until the mark I wanted was there. Namely, Phoenix. Bag 'em and gag 'em." The fact that the demon knew lingo that was rather street, was interesting. Who had he been inhabiting?

If what Ipos thought was true, Killian was safe for the moment.

"Fred is here," Mario said, not realizing he wasn't able to hear us. "Brought your Cowboy with him. He's . . . odd."

I frowned. That didn't sound right. Cowboy was young, inexperienced, but he was not odd. I motioned and Carlos took us off mute. "Thanks. We'll be there soon as we can."

"How soon? We're getting transport ready," Mario barked.

Sure he was. Transport for everyone he handed over to Gardreel.

"Thirty minutes," I said, knowing it would be half that at best. Fifteen minutes and I'd be dealing with Mario.

"Good." He hung up. Carlos put the phone down with a heavy sigh.

There was silence for about three seconds.