A Snake in the Grass (15 page)

There was a scuffle on the far side of the
cleared circle, and the crowd parted to reveal two men manhandling
a third into view. Whoever the challenger was, he obviously wasn’t
a willing participant. His captors had his arms twisted behind his
back, and one of them had a hand fisted in his hair, controlling
his head. Only when the big thug yanked back brutally on his grip
did I get a look at the prisoner’s face.

Estéban.
Of course it was. It couldn’t have been anyone
else. His shiner from the night before had darkened into a nasty
shade of black, and there was a new cut across the bridge of his
nose, proving that he’d put up a fight tonight as well. His dark
eyes flashed with contained fury when they landed on his cousin,
and he spit blood, the mess landing at Paulito’s feet.
“
Vete a la mierda
.” Definitely not language his mother would have approved
of.

“
Now
may I shoot someone?” Sveta
started elbowing her way through the crowd before I could tell her
no, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I just followed in the path she
cleared, noting the exclamations of surprise as she roughly shoved
people out of her way. Our presence was definitely being noted
now.

Paulito hadn’t seen us yet,
and he patted Estéban’s cheek with one of those vicious smiles that
is all teeth and no genuine emotion. “
Y ahora, campeón,
muéstranos cómo se hace
.”
And now, champion, show us how
it’s done.

“
No voy a pelear
.” The kid shook his
head.
I won’t fight.

“
Esto es lo que aprendes en los Estados
Unidos
?” Paulito sneered. “
Para ser un cobarde
?”
Is
this what you learned in the United States? To be a coward?

Inwardly I winced. If I knew the kid at all,
I knew he wouldn’t stand for that. Sure enough, the kid’s lip
curled in a snarl, and when Paulito leaned a bit too close to leer
into his cousin’s face, Estéban jerked against his captors, their
surprise earning him enough slack to slam his forehead into
Paulito’s grinning face.

The crowd went nuts, screaming and hollering,
and the last few rows between us and the open area surged together
tightly, ignoring Sveta pushing at their backs. With a growl, she
pointed her gun at the ceiling and fired off three shots, the sound
deafening even amidst all the shouting, which immediately went from
blood-thirsty to terrified. People hit the ground to take cover, or
blatantly turned and ran, and suddenly there was a wide circle of
empty space around Sveta and I.

Most of the audience scattered in panic, but
I was willing to bet that the people remaining were all of
Paulito’s flunkies. Definitely not a welcoming committee I wanted
to deal with. I even caught a glimpse of Reina, Paulito’s
girlfriend, watching us from the shadows . Her dark eyes showed no
fear, only an odd sort of curiosity, and I had to wonder just what
all this girl had seen that a gun-toting maniac didn’t elicit even
the slightest bit of fear.

With a blank expression on her face, Sveta
lowered the muzzle of her gun to point directly at Paulito’s head.
“Release him.”

He sneered at her around the blood dripping
from his nose. “
No hablo Inglés
.”

She marched forward without hesitation, until
she could press the barrel of the gun directly between his eyes.
“You speak gun. Release him.”

After a moment, Paulito made a motion with
his hand and the two thugs let go of Estéban’s arms. The kid worked
the aches out of his shoulders, but he made a show of walking
slowing away from his captors, his head held high. Our eyes met for
a moment before he dropped his gaze to the floor, wiping blood off
his face.

“Time to go, Sveta.” We only had moments
before the remains of the crowd realized that they still greatly
outnumbered us.

She tilted her head, so I knew she heard me,
but she kept her gun pressed against Paulito’s forehead, and from
his grimace, I knew she was digging the metal into his skin.
“Sveta, we have to go. Now.” Again, she refused to respond, and I
started to worry that maybe this was going to be the thing that
tripped her, the thing that proved she was the stone-cold killer
I’d always suspected her of being. “Svetlana!”

The line of her shoulders shifted ever so
slightly, a tiny bit of tension going out of them, and she stepped
away from Paulito, gun still leveled, but no longer touching him.
“We will not see you again this night.”

“Come on, kid,” I muttered. “Let’s get out of
here before she really does kill somebody.” Silently, he followed
at my side as I turned to retreat into the stacks.

“I seeeeee you!” The screech brought us to a
dead halt, the oil slick taste of a demon voice instantly coating
the back of my tongue. “I see you, soul-bearer!”

We’d forgotten about the little demon, but it
hadn’t forgotten about us. The creature flailed against its
invisible bonds in its excitement, its enormous eyes gleaming
bright red. “I seeeee you!!!! I see you! I see you!”

Only then did I realize that the souls in my
back were doing their spotlight into the heavens bit. I could feel
them shining like a beacon, brought to the very surface by my own
adrenaline rush. There was only so much that Axel’s spell could do
to conceal them, and if they were in full display mode, there was
nothing that could hide them.

The trapped critter did backflips and
cartwheels in demonic joy, bouncing from its feet to its hands and
back. “I see you, I see you!” Over and over, it chanted, and
finally Sveta gave me a push toward the stacks again.

“Go. What’s done is done. We cannot stay
here.”

Boy, didn’t I know it. Guess the cat was out
of the bag now.

Chapter 10

The ride up the mountain to the Perez home
was a tense one. Sveta rode in the back of the truck, watching for
pursuit, and the kid stayed hunched into himself, refusing to meet
my eyes again. We wended our way up the road in painfully
uncomfortable silence, broken only by the occasional wince as I
plowed over a particularly nasty bump.

For my part, I wasn’t sure what to say to
him. I was pissed, probably angrier than I’d been in a very long
time. The kid knew better. He damn well knew better! What the hell
was that year he spent with me
for
, if he was just going to
throw it all away with something stupid like pit fighting against a
demon? I was going to smack him upside the head. Twice. I might
even dump him on his scrawny little ass just to get my point
across.

Being angry with Estéban and planning how I
was going to kick his ass when we got home was easier than letting
my mind mull over the other development of the evening. My secret
was out, just like I’d feared for the last few months. Everything
I’d dreaded was about to come true. Sure, the little rat in the
summoning circle was low down on the demon ladder of power, but
that only meant that what he knew could be taken from him. Some
bigger demon was going to roll up on that little bat-eared piece of
crap and squeeze him until his head popped, and then they’d all
know. Things were about to suck. A lot.

The second we parked in the driveway, Estéban
bailed out of the truck, heading for the house at a nice clip. I
was out right behind him, not even bothering to slam the door
shut.

“Stop!” He froze at my barked command,
probably more out of ingrained habit than anything else. “Get your
ass back here.” Reluctantly, he turned on his heel to face us.
“Just what the hell was all that?”

“It was nothing.”

“Nothing? Summoning demons is nothing? How
long have you been doing it, Estéban? How many demons did you bring
into the world?” I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and gave
him a good shake to make sure I had his full attention.

“None!” His eyes flew up to mine, and he
grabbed my wrist in both hands, but didn’t try to escape. “I didn’t
summon them, I swear to you. That is why they beat me, last night.
Because I would not give them any demon names. They know only a
few, and they thought that I would know more.”

“You don’t know any names.” The one demon
fight the kid had actually been in, the demon had been on scene
before the kid arrived. He’d missed the traditional calling, so
while that particular demon’s name swam around in my head as I
thought about it, the kid was clean.

God, if he’d known, though… What that bunch
of rank amateurs would do up against something like the hell hound
we’d fought… The thought sent a chill over my arms, and the souls
swirled lazily in response. It had taken two of us to bring that
hulking beast down. That monster would tear through that fight club
like they were made of wet tissue paper.

“I know. They didn’t believe me.”

Sveta hopped down out of the truck, landing
lightly on her feet as always. “If you knew this is what they
wanted, why did you go with them again?”

He sighed and ran his fingers through his
hair, parts of it stiff with matted blood. “I thought if I went
with them, I could stop this. Find a way to end it. But this time,
they wanted me to fight it. I refused. And…well that’s when you
showed up.”

“You should have said something, kid. You
know that, right? There’s no shame in calling for backup for
something like this.” I gave him one more shake and released him,
scrubbing my hand off on my jeans. Damn, my skin still felt oily
from just being within earshot of that ratty little demon.

“I thought… He is family, Jesse. I had to
try.” I got it. I truly did. Didn’t mean I was happy about it.

“What were you supposed to fight for?
Someone’s soul?”

The kid shook his dark head. “No, there was
no contract, no wager. The demon fights one of the men, and if it
wins, it is freed from the circle. That is all. Last night, he
called the same one, and the man defeated it.”

I exchanged a look with Sveta. “Something
doesn’t smell right. It could just poof out of that circle any time
it wanted, why would it need to be freed?”

“But the barrier was real,” she pointed out.
“It scraped its nails on it, and was damaged.”

“I don’t know the spell he used to bind it.
The symbols weren’t familiar to me, they’re not ones that Mamá
taught us.”

I filed that away as something that would
definitely need more investigating, sometime when we weren’t
barreling toward the darkest part of the night. Before I could pry
anymore, however, the light over the kitchen door flicked on,
momentarily blinding us all.

“What is happening out here?” Carlotta
stepped into the courtyard, her robe covering her nightgown.
“Estéban? Jesse?”

The kid cast me one pleading look, and I just
snorted. “Oh hell no. This is on you, you tell her.”

“Tell me what?” Carlotta’s ‘mom’ look was
instantly focused on her son. The kid, easily towering a foot
taller than his mother, just ducked his head and started a mumbled
explanation in Spanish I couldn’t really follow.

Sveta took that moment to touch my elbow
lightly. “I will begin packing our things, and wake Terrence. We
should leave once the sun comes up.”

I nodded. She was right. We’d be safe where
we were for the night, behind the Perez family’s formidable wards,
and dawn would chase the demons back to their own world. When the
sun spilled over the mountains in a few hours, we had to be ready
to go.

“
Qué hizo
?!” Ooh, I knew that tone of
voice. Estéban had obviously just gotten to the good part of the
story. “Jesse! Is this true, what Estéban tells me?”

I leaned against the truck, crossing my arms
over my chest. “Depends. Did he get to the part about Cousin
Paulito summoning a demon for the kid to fight, yet?”

“He did.” Carlotta fixed the kid with a glare
that threatened to melt him into a little pile of guilt-goo. “I
cannot believe such a thing. Paulito, of all people…”

I gave a small snort, and then her glare
turned my way. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. You knew what they
were doing down there. You and Rosaline and probably everybody,
’cause why else would Rosa ask me to go after the kid? Don’t try to
act all shocked and offended now.”

Her jaw clenched, and anger flashed through
her dark eyes. I saw so much of Estéban in her at that moment, it
was almost uncanny. Finally, after a few moments of uncomfortable
silence, she gave a short, sharp nod. “I was aware of the fighting.
The boys have always gathered to test themselves. Miguel would go,
and Joaquin before that. But it was foolishness. Brawling, you call
it. Young men blowing off steam. I did not stop it, because it was
helpful for them to experience fighting in a…safe environment.”
Once again, she fixed her son with the death glare. “This business
of summoning demons, this is new, and I should have been made
aware.”

“You’re aware now, and I trust that you’ll
put an end to it.” I shoved off the truck, and headed for the door.
“I’ve got bigger problems right now, and we’re going to have to be
gone at sunup.”

“What? Why?” Carlotta followed me inside,
with the kid right behind her, and while she didn’t actually have
him by the ear, he still looked like he’d been swatted on the nose
with a rolled up newspaper.

Terrence was just shuffling into the kitchen,
gray hair standing out at manic angles to his head as he rubbed his
stubbled face. “Why is the crazy bint saying that we’re leaving?
Rousted an old man right out of his warm bed, she did!”

“We’re blown here. Sveta’s packing our
stuff.” I sank down on the bench as the reality of it all hit me.
We were blown. The demons knew where the souls were. Where the hell
could I go that I wouldn’t be putting someone in danger? I damn
sure couldn’t go home. “The demon saw me. He saw the souls. They
know I have them now.”