A Trace of Moonlight (30 page)

Ion made a strangled noise, but I couldn’t decide if he was laughing or not. Hurt flashed over Moira’s face.

“That’s enough,” I said, pushing between them. “If we’re going to work together, then let’s do it. Enough with the posturing.” I looked up at my apartment. “Give me a sec.”

I retreated up the stairs and stared at the shattered window pane. No time to clean it up, but I couldn’t leave it like this either. I snagged my cell phone and my backpack. No telling what we might need, but the staples always seemed to work best.

A quick phone call to Robert to give him a rundown on what happened. Knowing is half the battle and all that.

Plus, we really needed someone to dispose of the daemon bodies before they began to stink any more than they already did. They tended to be flammable at the best of times, and as Moira’s former bodyguard, Robert would have an excellent handle on that sort of
thing—not to mention running interference with any potential law enforcement that might show up.

On impulse I grabbed a towel and filled it with ice, tossing it to Brystion when I rejoined the others. “Can’t let that pretty face mar too much.”

“I hear the ladies like the scars.”

Nobu snapped his fingers, impatience rolling out of him. Without another word, he strode toward the Door, beckoning at the rest of us to follow.

Washed out and faded, the hospital looked as though it had long ago given up whatever ghost it had. If it had ever truly been a place of healing, there was no sign of it now. It made me tired simply to walk through it.

We’d emerged from the CrossRoads a few blocks away and immediately made a beeline for the ER, but one look at the hungry, desperate eyes of those in the waiting room changed my mind about trying
that
particular route. Bad enough to take the time away from someone who actually needed help, let alone subject Ion to it.

“Christ, I wouldn’t want to wake up if this was where I’d end up either,” I muttered. Nobu’s Glamour shielded us in the meantime but it felt weak, as though he was too distracted to set it properly. Ion limped beside me, scanning the hallways.

“What are we looking for?”

Nobu frowned, cradling the violin in his arms. “One of those wards . . . the ones they put you in when they’re afraid you’ll hurt yourself.”

“She said she had a breakdown, but a ward seems so . . . extreme.” I frowned, trying to place the time frame. “I don’t know how long she’s been here.”

“It was a cover for her mother,” Nobu said. “For her own good, of course. A chance to stop talking about Faerie and music and things that ‘aren’t real.’ ” A shadow crossed his face. “I think she found
me
real enough, though.”

We ducked down another hallway, flattening against the wall as an orderly swept by, eyes dull and bloodshot.

“And just . . . uh . . . what is involved with eating a sin?” I asked, not really sure I wanted to know. My gaze slid sideways to Ion. “Is it anything like eating a soul?”

As far as I knew the incubus had never actually done it, but he’d nearly tried it on Maurice once, back when I was trapped in that awful Shadow Realm of a painting. Sometimes I felt as though Brystion had been treading a fine line along his daemonic heritage. Being born of the stuff of dreams and the Dark Path put him closer to Hell than the rest of us, but as he’d pointed out before, actions did make a difference. So what would happen if he did venture down that way?

Nobu cocked a brow at me. “I hardly think now is the time for such a discussion.” His face became sly. “If you like, perhaps I can eat one of your sins when we’re done.”

Ion tensed, his hand locking onto mine. “Careful, Peacock.”

The sin-eater snorted, but turned away, gesturing at us to follow. The maze of hallways continued until Nobu sighed. “My powers are fading. It’s too much to hide all of you and my movements from . . . Him.” he said finally. “We may have to try something else.”

I cocked a brow at him. This was something I could do. “Give me your hand.”

“You can’t be serious,” Brystion rumbled, his upper lip curling into a sneer.

Nobu blinked, realization dawning. “KeyStone. I had forgotten.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get too comfortable with it. It’s only until we get out of here.”

“Drain her, Peacock, and I’ll kill you.”

“My, my, jealous you’ll never know what this feels like again?”

I jabbed the daemon in the chest with my index finger. “Knock the shit off and give me your goddamned hand so we can do this and get the hell out of here.”

Nobu exchanged a nonplussed look with Ion. “Bossy thing,” he murmured, but he held out his free hand to me.

I slipped my fingers into his, opening up the things that made me a KeyStone, my inner self resonating at its own frequency, attempting to find a match in Nobu. The fallen angel’s eyes closed, his body twitching.

“Don’t fight me,” I murmured. “You have to want to let me in.”

He relaxed, the breath rushing out of him in a whoosh, and I seized the opportunity. For a moment we hovered there, his essence coyly rolling away from me, but I clamped down on it. There was always a chance this wouldn’t actually work, but as long as both of us were willing . . . Abruptly the visions assaulted my mind, like they always did.

 . . . I told her. I told her this would only end in disaster. If I had been stronger, I could have eaten her sin and none of this would have happened . . .

 . . . dark feathers, all around me, propelling me up and up and up, but it isn’t high enough. Below me, the CrossRoads streak into the darkness like the silver
strands of a spider’s web. I will never be able to fly away . . .

 . . . she’s in my arms, the caged bird is nearly free, and her skin is alabaster pale, but it’s her music that compels me and draws me in. It flutters out of reach like a delicate songbird and as much as I want to capture that part of her, if I try too hard, I’ll merely crush the life from her . . .

 . . . oh gods . . . I have to let her go . . .

The bond snapped into place and we stared at each other. His chest rose and fell with an odd rhythm; he was clearly shaken. I could only wonder what he’d seen on my end, but whatever it was, it had startled him. The fact that I’d only really seen bits and pieces of his feelings for Melanie was not lost on me, and I wondered at his ability to hide away the rest of himself.

Some part of this must have shown in my expression, because a grim smile flickered over his face. “Much of who I am is owned by Him. I gave you the part that is not.” His bowed slightly. “Such as it is.”

“You really do care for her, don’t you?”

A sharp bark of laughter escaped him and he gestured at me with the violin. “Whatever gave you that idea?” He pursed his mouth and glanced over at Ion. “Interesting taste you have, dream-eater. This one might even be worth it.”

Ion scowled but didn’t bother to reply.

With the Glamour renewed, we made a hasty retreat down the next set of hallways. Phineas let out a chuffing noise in my backpack, but I merely shifted him somewhat. He thrust his nose through the opening, his nostrils quivering. “Are we there yet?”

Nobu raised a hand, pointing to another set of double
doors, controlled by a badge swipe against the keypad. “Think that’s it.”

Brystion paused, shoving his hand through his hair. Dark circles purpled beneath his eyes, and I wondered again at how much strain his mortality was causing him.

“Hold up.”

I caught the scent of sulfur. “We aren’t alone.”

Phin’s nose quivered. “I thought I smelled something rotten.”

Nobu frowned. “If He has found her, my Master might be attempting His own rescue. After all,” he added bitterly, “she’s no good to Him dead.”

An orderly strolled past, humming a deranged version of David Bowie’s “Golden Years,” the vibrato rippling eerily down the hall. I flattened against the wall, the breeze of his passing lifting the bangs from my forehead.

I nudged Brystion. “There’s our stinky man.”

“Glamoured,” Phineas snorted.

“We’ll have to take him out quietly.” Nobu’s mouth twisted grimly as he glanced down at us. “And one of you will have to do it. My presence here will not be appreciated by Him and may lead to questions and . . . unpleasant things.”

“Now who’s a coward?” Brystion scowled, but gave a grudging nod. “I’ll handle it.”

The doors slid open with a chime and the four of us snuck through, trailing in the Glamoured daemon’s wake like shadows. He paused, head cocked as though he were listening, but he never stopped that awful humming, the sound of it grating against my ears.

He whisked down the linoleum hallways, shoes
squeaking cheerfully, slowing down to read the numbers on each door. When he got to 807, he stopped and glanced inside, a dark smile on his face. Swiping his badge on the door, he entered the room—

—and was planted on the floor a moment later, Brystion’s knee on his back and one arm popping as he rucked it up, dislocating the shoulder.

“Don’t move,” the incubus snarled.

I barely spared a glance at them, my focus drawn to the skeletal figure in the bed.

Letting out a sharp cry, I rushed to her side. Melanie had always been pale, but her skin was now translucent, as though she were made up of bird bones and leaves. Her once-vibrant red curls lay matted and bedraggled. If I picked her up, her body would scatter to pieces.

A lone IV tube hung limp from her arm. “This isn’t a hospital,” I choked out. “They left her here to die. They don’t even have a monitor on her.”

Behind me, I heard a crack and a sigh. The rotten egg smell grew stronger and I knew Brystion had snapped the daemon’s neck. I couldn’t even be moved to shock over the death, as frozen as I was.

Then Melanie’s chest moved shallow and slow.

“Phin!” I yelled.

The unicorn looked up at her gravely. “I’m sorry, Abby. I have nothing left to give her.”

“That’s not good enough,” I sobbed, stroking her face, her lips desiccated against my thumb. I glanced up at Nobu, my jaw trembling. “The violin. Give it to her.”

He handed it to me and I thrust the neck into her palm.

Her hand jerked, fingers snapping shut, but it
seemed more instinctual than cognizant. Her mouth twitched, her eyes darting back and forth beneath the yellowed lids.

Nobu’s face had grown hard as he stared down at her, one hand outstretched as though he would touch her, and wherever his thoughts were, it wasn’t good. Abruptly his fingers fisted and he turned away.

“I cannot touch her,” he said harshly. “Or He will know I seek to circumvent His will.”

“Well ain’t that a bitch, Peacock?” Brystion staggered to his feet. “What the hell do we do with the body?”

Nobu exhaled. “I’ve got enough power left to Glamour it to look like her. It will buy us enough time should anyone check on our friend here. Someone take that IV out.”

With shaking fingers, I pulled back the tape, wincing at the bruises. Memories of my own extended time in the hospital loomed to the forefront of my mind but I shoved them away. That was the past.

I cocked a brow at him. “And whose side are you on, really?”

“Mine,” he said shortly, gesturing to Brystion with an odd little bow. “Please.”

“The things I do, Peacock.” With a grunt, Ion carefully slid his arms around Mel’s prone form, cradling her against his chest. Pushing the oily hair away from her forehead, he laid a kiss on her brow. “Hang in there.”

I glanced up to catch a look of pure envy flick over Nobu’s face, but he swallowed it down quickly.

“Sacrifices,” he murmured, hauling up the body of the daemon like a sack of garbage, dumping it onto the bed with a sneer. “This one will be expected to report soon. We should move.”

I snatched the badge from his waist. “Here’s our way out.”

Nobu nodded. A moment later and the body took on the semblance of Melanie, all the more creepy for its lack of movement. The fallen angel gave me a weary smile, and I felt the resulting pull of power on my end.

I gathered Phin into my bag, and cautiously peered down the hallway. Waving the others out of the room, I shut the door quietly behind me, sparing one last glance at the body in the bed.

Bad omens, indeed.