Her Black Heart (The Dark Amulet Series Book 2) (6 page)

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

Julia

Julia continued to cover her ears as Aza raced out of Bryant’s apartment. He dropped her next to the door to the stairwell. “Oh, shit.” She put her hands out to break her fall, and still landed with a thud.

“You can walk?” He wiped his hands down the front of his clothing with an anguished grimace.

“What’s the matter with you? Why do you have that look on your face?”

He shrugged. “What look?”

“Like you can’t stand touching me.”

“I can’t,” Aza snapped and turned his head away. He sighed heavily and peeked at her over his shoulder.

Julia decided not to cuss him out. She still needed him and planned to ditch him right after getting her amulet back. She lumbered to her feet, and glanced up the hallway to where the angel had been standing. He was no longer hanging around. Aza opened the door to the stairs, leaving her behind. Julia lingered; she knew he’d wait for her. She ambled back toward Bryant’s door. Aza had left it open. She took a deep breath and peered inside. The place was eerily quiet, she shivered. Goose bumps rose on her skin when she entered. She almost ran out of the apartment, forgetting about the squealing noise.

She crept down the hallway to the bathroom. Bryant’s feet lay over the threshold. His lifeless eyes were open and his skin had taken on pallid appearance. Even though the fucktard had killed her, she felt sorry for him, if the squealing was what she thought it was, Bryant was taken to Hell.

Oh, whatever, he got what he deserved.

However, she did feel weird about just leaving the guy behind for his roommate Chad to find. The poor man would probably lose his mind.

For a second she felt two pinches in her back and arched. She looked behind her but no one was there. Stabbing pain hit her again. “Ahhh!” Julia pitched forward, grabbing both sides of the doorjamb to steady herself. Her nostrils flared as she breathed in and out of her nose in short bursts. “Oh, God.” She sank to the floor at Bryant’s feet and sat there until the pain ebbed then disappeared.

The front door creaked.

She scrambled to her feet.

Where to hide?

Chad would notice her and a dead man in his apartment. The bathroom window overlooked a fire escape. She grabbed Bryant by the hands and dragged him further into the bathroom. The dead weight gave her the willies, plus he was still warm.

Oh, God. Yuck.

She inched him across the tile but gave up. His hands were too disgusting and flimsy to hold onto. His arms smacked the floor. She kicked his feet over and closed the door.

She pushed the window up, but it didn’t budge. She grunted. “Are you kidding me?” She looked around for something to break the glass. Plunger?
No.
Shampoo bottle?
Maybe.
A towel wrapped around her fist might work. She grabbed a navy towel off the rack and wound it around her hand a few times. The first strike bounced off the glass because she feared cutting her hand. She punched harder and a spider web crack formed. Her fist broke through on the next jab.

Julia pushed away at the remaining shards of glass. Outside, the pieces tinkled on the metal fire escape. She draped a couple of towels over the bottom sill and stuck her head out. The doorknob twisted. “Bryant?” a man’s voice called.

She sat on the pane with her back to the wind and ducked her head out the window. Above her head, on the outside, she felt around until her fingers found a place in the bricks where the mortar had eroded. She pulled herself up and out, her feet dangling a few feet off the metal grate.

The bathroom door started to open but caught on Bryant’s feet. “What the…?” Whoever was on the other side of the door pushed it a couple times.

She dropped onto the fire escape and moved out of view.

“Bryant…what are you…? Oh my God. Bryant! Oh, man.”

Julia knew that voice belonged to Chad. She held her breath.

Christ.
Go call the police or something.

Chad’s gagging noises were followed by something going splat on the tile. A lot of somethings.

Ew.

Crouched below the window, she duck-walked over to the ladder and descended the steep rungs.

Don’t look down.

Her eyes betrayed her and she glanced at the ground. The cement below looked so far away. A shadowy figure paced in the alley beneath her.

“Julia!” Aza shouted.

“Shut. Up!” she hissed and waved him off.

Julia climbed down faster. One foot slipped and her arm caught on the rung above her. She sucked in a breath and kept going until she reached the sliding ladder. She raised her hands, grabbed a rung above her head, and yanked downward. Steel screeched against steel as the ladder lowered. Once she was on the ground, she inspected her arm for any damage.

“Are you okay?” Aza asked.

“What do
you
think?” she spat then grimaced at her own bitchiness.

He huffed and threw his hands in the air.

“Sorry. I know you were just trying to be nice.” He started pacing again. “I waited on the stairs but you never came out. What were you doing?”

“What were those things back in the apartment?” Julia began walking toward the street, out of the alley.

“What things?” Aza asked absently, falling in line next to her.

Julia sighed, dragging out her exhale. She glanced at him cross-eyed for a second. “The squeals and the black blobs all over the place. Jeez.”

“Oh, they’re called shadow demons.”

“What do they do, exactly?”

“They take humans to Netherworld for…”

Fear spiked inside her gut. “For what? What happens to…what’s going to happen to Bryant?” She didn’t really care all that much about him, but she definitely wondered what her own fate might be someday.

“Depends on what they did in this realm. Different sins have different punishments.”

They reached the mouth of the alley and Julia instructed, “Take a left.” She knew where the four-story Stor-All Self-Serve Storage was located. She looked to Aza, expecting him to not know his left from his right except he headed in the correct direction without being told.

“So these shadows, they torture the humans they take there?”

“No, they just take them there.”

Julia eyes widened. “Um, what did you do in Nether-whatever?” He didn’t answer and she knew why. “How long did you…um…work, er, um…what did you do there?” He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned toward her. She recoiled, although not because she was frightened; he was too good looking for that. He’d leaned into her personal space. She guessed maybe she had issues too. Heat poured off his body in waves and found the way into her core. Her lips parted. Neon light from a sign in the window of a liquor store shone on his face. She wondered what he’d look like without the beard. It hung off his chin like a goat’s—no surprise there. Julia looked away.

“I like chainsaws.”

Her forehead crinkled and she looked back up at him. “What?”

“Bloody and covered in bits of human flesh,” he snarled.

“Are you trying to scare me? ‘Cuz it’s not working,” Julia said, stepping backward. Aza chuckled under his breath.

She ambled away telling herself to stay calm. The shadow demons hadn’t come for her. Yet. She swallowed hard.

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

Aza’zel

Aza followed Julia inside the storage building. He sniffed the air. Nothing foul assaulted his sense of smell. A few human males and one robust female loitered around the entrance. The men each gave him a stiff nod.

“The card says locker 236,” she told him. “Must be on the second floor.”

He let her lead the way. The stairwell was empty. His eyes stayed glued to her butt as she climbed the steps ahead of him.

Oh, Deus…

The lockers were all centered in the middle of the building. They passed by locker after locker, Julia reciting numbers until she stopped at the right one.

“Well, this is the one…but the lock is gone. Dammit. I think we’re too late.” Julia pulled a handle and the wide orange door rolled upward.

Pieces of dusty furniture lined the walls. Aza inhaled again. A spicy scent that seemed unnatural yet familiar tickled the inside of his nose. He remembered Bryant’s apartment reeking of the same odor. However, the man himself had a different smell entirely.    

“Did Bryant live with another human?”

Julia giggled. “You don’t have to call us humans. But yes, a guy named Chad. Real dork, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t.”

“Anyway. What’s your point?”

“He’s been here.” He took another deep breath.

“How do you know?”

“His odor.”

She stared at him for a moment. “I’m not going to ask.” Julia stepped away from him when something on the floor caught her attention.

He licked his lips as she bent over to pick whatever it was off the cement. She brought a black leather cord up to show him. His eyes went round. “That’s the—”

“Yeah, I know, the cord the amulet was on.” She cursed under her breath.

“Lemme see it.” He swiped the cord from her hand. Aza dragged the leather under his nose while he inhaled. The same evergreen and woodsy smell coated the rope. His eyes watered and he sneered.

Julia laughed. “What are you doing? You’re
so
weird.” He blushed and tossed the necklace over his shoulder. “Hey, we might need that.” She chased after it.

“For what? I’ve smelled all I need to.”

“What do you mean you’ve smelled all you need to?” Julia laughed some more.

“I mean I have his scent.”

“What are you, a search hound?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

She shook her head. “Come on, let’s go back to the apartment and see if Chad’s still there.”

By the time they returned to the apartment building, cars with rotating flashing red and blue lights on the top surrounded the structure. Human males dressed in the same clothing waited out front. Aza headed for the entrance.

“Hold up, demon,” she said. “We can’t go in there. Let’s go across the street to that coffee shop and see if Chad comes out.” He walked behind her again, on purpose this time.

They sat in a booth next to the window.

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

Julia

“Well, this is boring,” Julia said into her coffee cup. Aza kept his stare fixed on the apartment building across the street. He hardly blinked.

Cop cars, an ambulance, and other people milled in and around the front doors. A sandy-haired man emerged from the building and stretched his arms over his head. Julia had only met him two or three times but recognized Chad immediately. He spoke to an officer, pointed with his thumb, and walked up the road to his car.

“There he is.”

“Who?” Aza asked.

“Oh, my God, please stop asking dumb questions. Who have we been waiting for?”

“The human, Chad.”

She rose from the table. They stayed on this side of the street and followed until the car disappeared out of sight.

“Stay here,” Aza said. “I’ll see where he’s going.”

Julia crinkled her forehead. “How’re you gonna do that?”

“I’ll be back.” He jogged into the small gap between buildings. When she got to the space where she saw him enter, he was gone.

“What the hell?”
Where did he go?

After a while she asked a stranger on the street for the time. She’d lost her cell phone during her murder, or maybe she didn’t get to keep the piece of technology in the afterlife.

Yeah, some afterlife.

Where were the pearly gates and angels to take her home?

Oh, that’s right I’m a monster.

She paced back and forth, up to the coffee shop and down to the end of the block, until her feet ached.

A woman chuckled behind her. She gasped.

Augustina?

Julia pivoted in time to see a familiar waddle. The way the woman walked made her wonder how she stayed on her feet. She caught up to her and stood directly behind her at the curb. Julia reached out to tap her on the shoulder then retracted her hand, thinking better of giving the poor old soul a heart attack. What would she say to her anyway, and why? She inhaled and rubbed the center of her chest. She
squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them again, Augustina had disappeared as if she’d never been there. Was she going nuts?

On her way back toward the café, she passed the opening between the buildings. She sensed Aza behind her well before he spoke.

“I found the human, Chad,” he said.

She looked down at his hands; the knuckles were bloody. “Did you kill him?”

“No.”

“Where is he?”

“Not far. I heard him talking into a thin box.”

“Thin box? You mean a cell phone?”

Aza shrugged. “We can walk from here.” He strode away.

“Okay, wait up, what did he say?”

“He said he would be at the museum at eleven in the morning to pick up a check. I don’t know what this means.”

“I do.” Julia said. “What museum? Institute of Arts and Culture, downtown, maybe?”

Aza ran across the street. Horns honked. A motorist hung his head out of a passing car. “Watch it, asshole!”

Slices of pain stabbed Julia’s back. In the middle of the street, she reached her hand over her shoulder and felt around. Her fingers touched a tender spot. “Oww. What the fuu…” She stopped on the double yellow line and several cars whipped past her on both sides. “Aza!”

He wheeled around and darted across a lane of traffic. Tires squealed and more cussing ensued from the drivers. “What’s wrong?”

“I dunno. My back hurts.” His eyes went round. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, we must go.”

Julia’s knees buckled as another wave of pain washed over her, and she hit the asphalt hard. She looked up at him. “Please…”

Aza lifted her off the pavement from behind by her armpits and carried her with his arms straight out in front of him. He set her down on the sidewalk and asked if she was all right before he let go. She stood for a moment then listed to the side and would’ve fallen over if it weren’t for a city trash can in her way. Her upper body sprawled atop the round mesh container. The rotten meat stench made her glance inside. A half-eaten hamburger sat there, crawling with maggots. Her gag reflex forced her tongue forward. She pushed herself away and backed into a crosswalk signal. She staggered around like a drunk until she met up with something warm and solid.

Aza.

She hoped.

Again, he steadied her with his hands under her armpits, but this time she faced him. His jaw clenched. He raised her until her eyes were level with his.

“I-I’m okay, you can put me down.”

“Are you sure?” He pulled her in tighter to his face. “Your eyes don’t look right.”

She blinked several times. “I’m…I’m fine…just don’t like the smell of old meat.”

“You banged your head hard on the metal pole over there.”

“What? No, I didn’t.”

He snorted.

“I didn’t.”

“I’m not going to argue with you.” He set her down. “The human, Chad, is staying at a place that offers rooms to rent.”

“A motel?” Julia felt the back of her head. It did ache, now that he mentioned the hit. She wanted a soak in a hot bath followed by some sleep. Chad wouldn’t be heading to the museum until around eleven the next morning. “Where was this place the human went?” She gave up trying to convince Aza the “human” label wasn’t necessary. After all she was dead, so what did that make her? A large part of her still didn’t understand how she could be walking around with people being able to see her if she had actually died. A vein in her forehead throbbed.

Julia and the demon walked a few more blocks until they reached a hotel. He stepped into the fancy place.

“Are you kidding me? He’s staying
here
?” She looked around; she’d never been inside the hotel before. It looked expensive.
The registration counter was made of dark granite.

A woman dressed in a camel colored blazer smiled as they approached the desk. “May I help you?”

“Yeah, how much for the night?” Julia asked leaning most of her weight on the counter. Julia didn’t return her smile.

“Two fifty-five.”

“I’m sorry, I said one night.”

“Yes, that
is
for one night. It includes a complimentary breakfast,” the woman said as if that made up for the outrageous rate.

How could Chad afford this?

Julia glanced at Aza. “Are you sure this is the place?” He nodded. “All right,” she said to the woman, “we’d like a room with double beds.”

“We only have a queen room available tonight.”

Julia inhaled a deep breath and let it out. “All right, that’s fine.”

After she received the room cards, they stood by the bank of elevators. She pushed the “Up” button. Aza paced the runner in front of her. “Can you not do that right now? And before you ask me what, I mean the constant pacing.”

He stopped and looked at his feet.

“You didn’t even know you were doing it, did you?” The elevator dinged and opened.

He followed her into the lift. The elevator lurched before moving upward. Aza grabbed the railing. While crouched, his eyes went from the floor to the ceiling.

The inside was completely covered in polished brass that had a mirror effect. Julia stood in front of the doors. Aza stared downward. From her position she could see his reflection.

What is he looking at?

She took a step backward and to the left then back to her original spot. His eyes followed as she moved. Julia smirked. “Are you staring at my ass?”

He averted his eyes. “No.”

She grinned. “Wouldn’t have pegged you as a butt man.”

“Butt…man? I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes you do. It’s all right.” The idea he was checking her out thrilled her. She pictured how he looked naked. She blew out a deep breath. The temperature inside the confined elevator rose to about a hundred and fifty degrees. The car stopped and she stood on the balls of her feet waiting for the doors to slide open.

Julia strode into the hallway. A sign told her the room was down the hallway to the right. She didn’t glance back to see if Aza had followed; she could feel his presence and the heat of his body.

The key card wouldn’t cooperate. She missed the slot several times before managing to stick the plastic in and open the door.

Holy crap.

The room was fabulous. A queen-sized bed with a cream bedspread sat up against the wall in the middle of the room. The plasma TV spanned the entire length of the dresser. She opened the cabinet and found a minibar under the TV.

Aza closed himself inside the bathroom. She glared at the back of the door for a few moments.

Julia kicked her shoes off and laid on the bed, right in the middle. She did snow angels then stretched her arms and legs.

Oh, God. That feels good.

She yawned and closed her eyes. Aza stood over her when she opened them again. “What? Did I fall asleep?” She must have because she never heard him flush or return from the bathroom. His hair was wet and he had a towel around his waist. “How long was I out?”

He cocked his head to the side and his forehead crinkled. “You didn’t go anywhere.”

She giggled. “I know that. I meant how long was I asleep?”

The demon shrugged. “A few minutes, I would guess. I only used the shower.”

Julia looked at the clock on the nightstand, eleven fifty-seven. She rubbed her face. “I’m going to take a bath.” Aza sat on the end of the bed. “If you’re bored, you can watch TV. Here.” She handed him the remote and showed him how to change channels.

Julia whistled as she drew the bath. She cursed when she realized what she was doing. She poured some of the tea rose scented bubble-bath she found on the vanity into the stream of water. Inch-by-inch she lowered herself into the hot bath. After washing her body with a washcloth, she sunk below the surface and lay flat on the bottom. Her arms and legs felt buoyant. She let her face come out of the water, her hair floating around her head. The bubbles started to dissipate.

Her stomach growled. What she really wanted was room service, but without a credit card on file at the desk downstairs she’d have to pay cash.

Hmm…would Aza be able to go get something?

“Aza,” she called through the door.