Chapter 26

PADMA

T he last lead on our list, the white van sits atop a pile of dented and torn-apart vehicles waiting to be crushed at the scrapyard.

It’s pure luck that we found it. Well, pure Holly and her genius.

The address it should have been parked at was abandoned, and we’d lost hope of locating it when our resident genius suggested the local scrappers.

“If someone used the vehicle for nefarious deeds, then it’s one way to get rid of it,” she’d said.

And here we are, white van in front of us, brought in by either a man or a woman, the owner of the yard can’t recall, and the signature in the log is simply an illegible scrawl, no printed name, no address, just the reg and make of the van.

“We need you to get it down,” Edwin says to the owner of the yard.

“Nah,” he says, hands on hips. “No idea how to use the machine. Bobby’s off for the day. Maybe tomorra too. He got the squirts. Pizza from Jimmie’s down the road, hit an miss that place. Cheap, though.”

“Riiight.” Edwin rubs his chin, eyeing up the monolith contraption used to move the cars. “I should be able to figure out how to use it.”

The owner’s expression hardens. “You licensed?”

“No but?—”

“Then you ain’t touchin’ my machinery.”

“We’re with the Order,” Holly says. “This is a criminal investigation.”

He rolls his eyes. “Listen, luv, unless you got fangs or a Sangualex badge, your authority means shit in this ere territory. I want ta help ya, I do. Heard about supers going missing. Shitty thing, and if that van there has anything to do with it, then course I want to help, but we got rules, see. You come back in two days, and you can sweep the damn thing to your heart’s content.”

The shrill sound of a phone cuts across the yard. “I gotta get that,” the owner says. “You see yourselves out.” He hurries off down the aisle of piled cars and out of view.

“Now what?” Holly asks.

I sigh. “I guess we come back in two days.”

“And risk the van having been crushed already?” Edwin shakes his head. We agree it’s no coincidence that this vehicle ended up here. Someone knows that we’re looking. We’re either being watched or there’s a leak at the Sangualex.

“Which means that whoever owned this van would have cleaned it out,” Merry says. “We probably won’t find anything.”

“Maybe…” Edwin chews on his cheeks. “Or maybe they missed something. I can get up there. Get inside and dust for prints.” He pats the pouch around his waist which contains our forensics kit.

“We need a key,” Holly said.

I step back a few paces to get a better view of the van. “Window is open.”

“I can get up there,” Edwin says again. “Looks stable enough.”

I don’t like this plan. “Edwin, maybe we should just come back and?—”

“Padma, I’ll be fine.” He smiles, and my reservations melt.

“Fine. Be careful, and if there’s any shift or movement in the pile, you get down, you hear me?”

“Got it, boss.” He gives me a mock salute, and I punch his shoulder lightly.

“Holly, keep a look out. If Reggie appears, distract him.”

Holly drops a nod and hurries toward the edge of the aisle to keep watch.

My heart’s in my throat as Edwin begins to climb. He’s careful, quick, and agile, scaling the pile easily until he’s at the open window.

Metal groans as he shimmies into the vehicle, and my mouth dries with fear. “Edwin!”

“I’m good!”

Silence reigns for a minute, then another.

“Edwin?” Merry calls out this time.

“I’m good. I?—”

“Hey!” Reggie appears from another side of the yard, and Holly comes running toward us.

“I lost…him.”

“What are you doing?” Reggie demands. “I told you to?—”

Metal groans and whines, and for a moment I think the pile in front of us is about to collapse, but the mass is stable. The sound comes from above, from the huge magnet swinging toward us.

“What the…” Reggie stares at it in shock. “That can’t be.”

The magnet hovers over the white van, and I know what’s about to happen, but my scream is trapped in my throat.

“Edwin!” Merry and Holly cry in unison.

The van shoots up into the air and slams into the magnet. I catch sight of Edwin’s face, pale and stunned. He tries to climb out of the window, but the van rocks violently as the magnet swings away from us and he’s thrown back into the cab.

“NO!” I grab Reggie’s shoulders. “Do something.”

“I thought you said Bobby was sick,” Merry cries.

“He is. The crane is empty. He has the keys. He has?—”

“Where is it?” Holly shakes him. “Show me!”

Reggie breaks into a run, and Holly and Merry follow, but I stay, tracking the van as it makes its way across the yard.

“Edwin! Edwin!”

Why isn’t he answering me? Oh God. He’s hurt, he must be.

The van clears the aisles of scrap and swings toward the crusher, and my heart is in my mouth. I spot Holly and Merry on the other side of the yard by the huge machine that controls the magnet. Reggie is hanging from the door, trying to get inside the control cab.

The empty control cab.

My blood is ice because this is no mistake. No natural phenomenon. This is a warning to back off.

“We can’t get in,” Merry yells, running toward me.

I barely spare her a glance because the van is now above the crusher, which flares to life with a whirr and a chomp.

“Edwin!” My scream is a bloodcurdling thing. “Edwin, get out!” My voice cracks, tears blurring my vision because I know it’s too late, and my heart is about to burst. “Edwin!”

The hum of the magnet stops, and my heart is in my mouth as the van drops toward the crusher.

“No!” Holly and Merry scream, but I’m frozen, watching the horror occur in slow motion.

An icy gust hits my back, throwing my hair forward, and the next moment the van door blows out and whizzes across the yard, and just before the van hits the crusher Edwin follows, sailing across through the air, too slow to have jumped, too limp to be conscious, and lands several feet from us.

The awful crunch and crackle of metal being devoured covers my sobs as I rush toward my friend’s unconscious form. He’s bleeding from a head wound, and he’s definitely unconscious.

I hit the ground with my knees and gather him into my arms, hugging him to me as my heartbeat slows to resting pace.

“How?” Holly joins us, her chest heaving.

I shake my head, dislodging tears. I don’t know, and I don’t care. He’s alive, and that’s all that matters.

Edwin sips his herbal tea. The cut on his head needed stitches, but aside from that, he’s good. I have him tucked up in bed because I’m not taking any chances. It’s cozy in his room with its bookshelf-lined walls and desk loaded with paper and ink. It smells like sweet candlewax and old paper, a comforting aroma which is all Edwin, and I’m so grateful that he’s alive.

I squeeze his free hand again, and he raises his gaze to mine. There’s concern there for me even though it’s him that almost died.

“How’s your headache?” I ask before he can ask me if I’m all right.

His smile is watery and weak. “Not as bad now. Just a dull throb.”

“The tea will help,” Merry says. She picks a book off the floor and slots it into a space on one of the shelves. “Do you have a system for these?”

“No.”

“Well, I’ll just…” She picks up another book.

“I’m fine,” Edwin says. “Merry, just come sit.”

Her lips trembles and my insides knot. “You almost died,” she says. “There was nothing we could do.”

“Someone or something saved you,” Holly says from her spot perched on the windowsill. Her piercing green eyes seem brighter. “I felt it. Something… other . Felt it just before it ripped off the van door and pulled you out. Never sensed anything like it before.”

“What about the cab?” Merry asks. “Did you feel it there?”

Holly shakes her head. “That was something else. Arcane.” She taps the bracelet on her wrist. “Felt that here.”

I rub at the goosebumps on my arms. “There was an icy gust of wind…a presence just before the van door flew off.”

“I can’t remember much,” Edwin says. “But I think…” He frowns. “I think I found something.” His eyes go round. “Where’s my pack?”

Merry hurries to retrieve it from the dresser and hands it to him. Luckily, it had been attached to his body when he was magically lifted to safety.

I let go of his hand so that he can root around inside. “Here.” He pulls out a rumpled piece of card. It looks like a business card, but it is plain white with nothing written on it. “I dusted it for a print. No print but…” He shines the UV pen light on the card, and a symbol appears. “See?”

We all gather around to look. There’s a circle on the card. A basic circle with two words curving around it: Novos Deos.

“New Gods,” Edwin translates. “It’s a group, a club…something.”

“Well…” Holly says. “That’s certainly a clue we can work with.”

“There was also something odd about the back of the van. A door in the floor, like a hatch, I think. I didn’t get a chance to check it out.”

But my mind is on the strange force that saved Edwin’s life, on the way it felt as it moved past me to get to him.

I remember where I felt that sensation before.

In the office when the being erupted out of the teapot.

It had to be him. The mystery man.

He saved Edwin. But who the fuck, or what the fuck is he?