jinn 02 - inferno (22 page)

The screen on the back porch creaked as I eased it open. I waited a few beats then turned the handle on the door. Unlocked.

A woman’s laughter suffused the air and made everything a bit hazy. Succubus without a doubt. I picked up a relatively unused napkin and tore off two pieces to go in my ears. Not that they would help if she touched me, but at least they would muffle her voice and make it easier to focus. Sliding a couple knives from my boots, I slipped through the kitchen into the hallway. Empty. Where in the hell was Baker?

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she said in a singsong voice. “I can’t promise it won’t hurt, but I can promise you’ll enjoy it.” Even muffled, her voice was enticing.

“Come and get me,” Baker said.

The house was too empty. The echo made it impossible to tell where the voices were coming from, though Baker sounded closer to me than she did. Easing into the living room, I caught a quick movement in my peripheral vision. A gun whipped in my direction. I caught my knife, however, before it flew from my hand. It was only Baker. He aimed his weapon at the floor.

“Where is she?” he mouthed.

I pointed at the only two other possibilities: the dining room or the study.

He nodded and motioned for me to go left while he went right. “As much as I love hide-and-go seek, you’re starting to bore me, doll.”

The succubus laughed again. “Now we can’t have that, can we?”

I made my way through the dining room, but there was no quiet way to open the pocket door into the study.

“Ah, there you are.”

“The last time I saw you, you were extra crispy,” Baker said conversationally. “Olivia should have killed you when she had the chance.”

If I couldn’t get in silently, then I would go big. I shoved the door to the side as hard and fast as I could and leaped into the room.

The succubus laughed with delight, sitting completely relaxed in an old chair in the corner. “Oh another little birdie. As much as I would love to capture and gobble you both up, I believe our interests are aligned at the moment.” She winked at me. “I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

I let one of my knives fly from my hand, burying deep in her shoulder. Forgive and forget wasn’t my strong suit. She tried to kill us once. I had no doubt, given the opportunity, she would do so again.

The smiled melted from her face and she gave me a withering look. “And here I thought we were going to have a nice conversation.” She plucked the knife from her arm and twirled it in her fingers as it dripped with blood.

“Oops,” I said, winking back. Bitch.

Baker sighed. “What do you propose?”

I shot him a look. There was no way we were striking a deal with her.

He shrugged. “Sometimes you gotta roll in shit before you can get clean.”

Her eyes narrowed and she stood. “I do believe Holden asks too much.” She started for the door.

“Wait.” Baker stopped her before she could leave. “You’ve spoken with Holden?”

“Oui. We have an arrangement.” She snapped the knife back at me, embedding it in the wall, inches from my head.

“What sort of—”

Baker cut me off, shaking his head. Right. The nosy angel was listening. I gestured at him. We needed to know what she and Holden had cooked up, and we couldn’t take her to the Office. There were too many people there she could enthrall and attack us with.

Baker texted Holden and moments later the phone chimed back at him. He nodded to me. So she wasn’t lying. “Boss says he has no idea what you’re talking about,” Baker said to her.

Her fists clenched and her mouth opened. She looked like an angry pinup dressed like a gypsy. I pressed my finger to my lips then tapped my ear. Slowly the red drained from her face. She scanned the room, and when she didn’t see anything she raised an eyebrow. Baker tried to sign a message to her with hand gestures, but his attempt looked like he was saying that the butterflies were listening.

I shook my head. “The angel eavesdrops,” I told her. I had never walked on eggshells for anyone. I wasn’t going to start now. This was bullshit.

She nodded slowly. “I see.”

“Great. Then why are you here?” I asked.

“You’re looking for the entrance to Hell?” We nodded. “My sources say there are maps here. Very particular maps.”

“Ley lines?” Baker asked.

“Oui.”

“They aren’t here anymore, but we can get them. Can you read them?”

“I believe so.”

Baker fished a scrap of paper off the floor. “We’ll get them. Meet us here in an hour.” He scrawled an address on the paper and handed it to her.

Outside, I elbowed Baker. “What makes you think she isn’t going to double cross us?”

“If you don’t want to give up Thomas, Sybil’s our solution. Besides Holden trusted her enough to go to her.”

“Holden can read the maps. If they’re the key, he’ll figure it out.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, kitten. Aphrodite in there does.”

Aphrodite my ass. “Why would Holden bring her in?”

Baker’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “I don’t know that he did.”

I stopped. “What?”

“He didn’t text me back, but I believe her. She didn’t fight us and if she’s working on the other side, there’s no reason to befriend either one of us. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s desperate. We all are.”

“Where is she meeting us?”

“Nowhere you know, but it should be safe.”

“What makes you think so?”

“I had a meeting there earlier with some very important and dangerous people. They would have taken precautions against every conceivable enemy.”

****

Neither Holden nor Olivia were at the warehouse. We collected the maps, I grabbed a small pocket mirror, and we headed for my car. We arrived in Joliet earlier than Baker estimated. I looked around the abandoned building a little, trying to determine where our weakest areas were. All in all the room was fairly secure.

“Why would the kid draw the Seal of Soloman?” I asked.

“Maybe she saw it.”

“What exactly does it look like?”

“I haven’t the foggiest.” He stretched his arms over his head and cracked his neck to either side. “But if the kid did see it. She’s the only person I’ve ever met who has.”

So all we needed to do was get the mute kid to talk. The click of heels echoed in the hall. I stood on the opposite wall from Baker. Spreading out made us harder targets. But surprisingly, true to her word, Sybil arrived alone and seemingly unarmed. Not that a succubus needed a weapon.

“Love what you’ve done with the place,” she said. “You have the maps?”

Baker handed her the bag. “Do you know why they want to find the entrance?” he asked, as she looked them over.

“They wish to open it.” She didn’t bother to look up.

“Why?” I asked.

“If you want motives, ask Lucifer yourself. All I know is he wants it open, and the demons are killing themselves trying.”

Baker looked as disturbed as I felt. I blew out a breath. Lucifer was one fight I’d rather not have in
any
of my life times.

“How are they going to open it?”

“Well, it isn’t easy,” she said. “They need an angel. It’s the only way to keep it open forever. But the catch is the angel must be pure and have good intentions. It can’t be one who has turned dark. The problem has always been that fallen angels become corrupted so fast that there’s never been an opportunity before. It’s unnatural for them to be here, so removed from God’s presence. It makes it hard for them to maintain their identity.” Her finger nail traced the ley lines as she spoke. “The rumor is your friend has lasted on earth longer than any angel before her. Ironically, she is their greatest hope.”

If that was true, our angel didn’t have long to go. Every day she became more and more irrational. She may have lasted longer, but that was when Olivia was in control. Since the angel took over full time, she was deteriorating fast. Once the gates were open, it wouldn’t take long to overrun both the human world and the Abyss. That was why the Seal was important. The person who possessed the Seal would rule all three worlds.

“So why exactly are we trying to find the opening?” I asked. They both looked over at me. “So long as the angel stays clear of the area, there’s no problem. We just need to lock her up.”

They both considered my words, then Sybil dismissed them with a toss of her beautiful hair. Baker looked instantly distracted, and I kicked him. “Get a grip, man.”

Sybil’s eyes gleamed. “I’m fulfilling my end of the deal with Holden. He can do as he chooses with the information.”

“If they need her, you better believe they have a plan on how to get her. We need to know where the opening is and have our own plan to evade them,” Baker said after a couple moments.

“Their plan is obvious. They’ve totally set her up. As soon as she knows where it is, she’ll go to them of her own free will.”

“If this were my show, I wouldn’t leave it all up to chance. They already sent a human and trolls to the warehouse, not demons, true—but creatures she couldn’t easily defeat. They’ll find a way to get her, no matter where we hide her. If we incapacitate her and trap her, then she’s just a sitting duck.”

I didn’t argue, but it seemed to me we were all doing exactly what they wanted—and had been all along. To throw a real wrench in their plans, we had to do something they didn’t see coming.

“C’est ici.” Sybil looked up, tapping her finger on the page. “Here it is. Superstition mountains.” She wrote down the coordinates. “Now take me to Holden.”

“Ah . . . You might want to reconsider that.”

She put her hands on her hips. “We had a deal. I insist you take me to him.”

“But the angel isn’t likely your biggest fan at the moment, and she’s probably with him.”

“I am not scared of her. Take me to him.”

Baker’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it and frowned. “It’s the boss. He wants us back at the warehouse.”

“Excellent. I will follow.” Sybil started for her car.

“Think the angel will kill her?” I asked.

“Probably,” he said, chewing on the corner of his lower lip. Worried vibes rolled off him as we slowly walked out.

“Was that all the message said?”

He handed me the phone. It read, “Chol, come to the warehouse. Bring the Sekhmet.”

“Who’s Chol?” I asked.

He cleared his throat. “I am.”

I had never heard Holden call him Chol. “I don’t understand.”

He glanced over at me, his face pinched and serious. “I am a chol, Femi. I’ll explain that later. The problem with this message is that Holden doesn’t know that.”

I let the word process for a moment. “Who is it from then?”

“The angel. Which means, she knows we told him.”

I nodded. “Okay. So now what?”

We paused before leaving the building.

“Now she kills what I love for betraying her.” He looked at me. “You need to run, Femi. I don’t know how or where you can hide, but you need to do it. Stay here for now or go to the Office, though I think she’ll check there.”

I laughed. “Baker, I’m not running. Why would she kill me?”

He took my hand, twining our fingers together. “Because we are family. Because regardless of what happens between us, I will always keep you here.” He pressed my hand to his chest.

My mouth went dry. I looked into his eyes; there was so much sadness and resignation. “What will happen to you?”

“Don’t worry about me, kitten. I always manage to come out on top.”

He started to let go of my hand, but I held onto him a moment longer. A split second later I pulled him toward me and pressed my lips against his. He responded in kind, pressing his mouth to mine just as firmly. Then he ran a hand down my side and cupped my ass, pulling me harder against him. I pulled back slightly and smiled, our lips still nearly touching.

“Someday we’re going to test whatever this is between us, but not today. Today, we’re getting Olivia back and we’re going to do it together.” I squeezed his hand, my heart thudding in my chest, then forced myself to let go of him. “Besides, did you honestly think I would let you have all the fun?”