Without Limits: A BWWM Collection of Passion and Desire, page 118
I found Myra in yoga pants and a sports bra practicing tai chi on a mat in the middle of the den. She’d pushed the coffee table back towards the couch and put her hair up in a ponytail. She was facing the glass doors that led to the backyard and spoke without looking at me.
“Morning, sunshine. What are you doing up so early?”
“Didn’t sleep that well,” I admitted, watching her with interest. “Do you always get up this early?”
“Early bird catches the worm.”
“Yeah, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”
She faced me, smirking. “Fair enough. Well, since you’re up, why don’t you walk Ace for me?”
I arched an eyebrow. “Uh, because he’ll kill me if I get anywhere near him?”
Myra rolled her eyes. “No, he won’t. He’s all bark.”
“No bite?”
“Oh God, no. He’ll bite you in half if you give him the opportunity. Just don’t act afraid of him and he’ll leave you be.”
“Thanks, that’s very encouraging.”
Myra chuckled. “Leash is by the hat stand. He’s on the front porch.”
“Great. How long should I walk him?”
“He knows the way. The only reason I don’t let him walk himself is because it freaks the neighbors out. Should only be about fifteen minutes.”
“Fine. If I turn up missing, you’ll know why.” I went back upstairs, swiped my sports jacket and shades, and put on my tennis shoes before grabbing the leash by the door and going out into the crisp morning air.
It was a week day, so Charlie and Chris had already gone to work and school respectively. The neighborhood was quiet. Every so often, one of the soccer moms jogged past and threw a wave my way. Ah, suburbia. No wonder I killed demons for a living.
Ace lay on the welcome mat, breathing soft and deep as if he were sleeping, but as soon as I shut the front door behind me, he lifted his massive head and turned those blood-red eyes on me. His long ears flattened against his skull and a skin-crawling growl trickled out from between those deadly jaws. Majority of my brain screamed, “Run for your life, you fool!” but I stomped it into submission.
“Oh, stuff it,” I snapped, brandishing his leash. “I don’t like this anymore than you do, Cujo. It wasn’t my call. Myra told me to walk you.”
The hellhound kept growling. I stared at him. He stared at me. After a moment or two, he chuffed and sat up, facing forward. I spotted the little metal link on his collar and clipped the leash on. Thankfully, he didn’t lurch his head around and bite my hand off. Phew.
Ace stood and shook himself, scattering little bits of black fur, and then padded down the front steps. I followed, not wanting to get my arm yanked out of its socket.
Myra’s house was in the middle of a cul-de-sac. Ace led me towards the right. The houses were all roughly the same size and had nearly identical beautiful lawns and extravagant gardening. The funny part was I’d seen some dogs out in the yards when we had driven up, but as soon as Ace stepped out onto the sidewalk, all wildlife sounds ceased at once. No birds chirping, no cats meowing, no dogs barking. He was the king of the jungle, apparently.
We walked for a while, and the longer we did, the more the hellhound appeared to relax. His ears perked up and his thick tail lifted, indicating his mood had changed. He forgot all about me as he sniffed along the sidewalk, inspecting flowers, bushes, and mailboxes, until we came to a small drainage field down the road where he decided to do his business.
On the way back, Ace’s demeanor switched back to what I was familiar with. His head sunk down and he began growling at a large tree towards the corner of the block where Myra’s house sat.
I frowned and guided my gaze upward at the tree. “What? Got a rogue squirrel up there, buddy?”
Ace barked twice. My heart almost stopped, it was so damn scary. He hadn’t barked at anything, not once, since we were out here. Danger, Will Robinson, danger.
I checked the street. No one but us, at least for now. I let the leash go loose and Ace led me towards the massive tree, his growling growing in volume with every step. The tree was between two yards, so we weren’t trespassing as we walked beneath its enormous canopy. Ace put his front paws up on the trunk and snarled at what sat on the branch nearest to us.
A cat.
“Seriously?” I said. “You dragged me over here because of a cat?”
Ace rounded on me with his red eyes, giving me the dog version of an insolent glare.
“Don’t look at me like that. You’re supposed to be the superdog and you just barked at a friggin’ housecat.”
I shook my head and started to lure him away, but then something caught my eye. I peered up at the branch holding the cat. It was just a normal-sized common housecat with short white fur.
And blood-red eyes.
Shit.
It was a hellcat.
I didn’t let the recognition show on my face. Instead, I chided the dog and dragged him away towards Myra’s place, pretending to still be annoyed.
Hellcats were most commonly used for one thing: surveillance. I had run into one while I was investigating Michael’s supposed murder: a little black cat named Bast who had been reporting back to Belial with my movements. At the time, I hadn’t known they even existed, so I hadn’t gotten suspicious and it later led me right into Belial’s trap. Hellcats and hellhounds couldn’t talk, but they understood everything we said to them and could communicate information in their own way. It explained how the demons had been keeping an eye on Myra without her being able to spot them. She didn’t know to look for a literal damned cat.
Myra was in the kitchen pouring coffee when Ace and I came back in. “So you’re still alive, I see. Congrats.”
“I found out who’s been spying on you,” I said, tucking the sunglasses in my jacket and lowering the hood.
Myra’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“Not who: what. There’s a hellcat in a tree a few houses down. Didn’t even spot it until Ace started growling.”
“Good boy,” Myra cooed, scratching between the hellhound’s ears. The beast leaned into it and wagged his tail. My God, did it look bizarre. “So what do we do about it?”
“For now? Nothing. We can’t tip them off that I’m in town. I pretended like I didn’t know any better, so the hellcat won’t report anything suspicious to his handlers. However, we can’t assume that they’ll be ignorant forever. My guess is that my new boo over at the Kiln will start asking questions after I meet up with him later. I need to move up our timeline so they don’t get wise and send an actual surveillance team over to monitor you.”
Myra frowned. “Moving up the timeline can be risky. If you overplay your hand, you’ll tip them off.”
“I know,” I sighed, pouring myself a mug of coffee. “That’s why I need you here. I’ve already written out instructions for the bomb. I need you to assemble it while I’m gone.”
“Where are you going? I thought you weren’t meeting Dustin until tonight?”
“I’ve got some recruiting to do.”
Hermann Park Conservancy was probably the most fresh air I’d had since I’d broken into the Garden of Eden.
Long story.
As usual, it was uncomfortably hot, but I’d found a nice bench with some shade to sit and people-watch. Families roller-skated past and I waved back at the excited little kids who drifted by, their laughs infectious. Joggers zoomed along the winding walkway with their dogs attached to their hips. Old couples eating ice cream and holding hands wandered through the nature trails. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.
Too bad I was looking for dead people.
Seers had many responsibilities as the anointed descendants of the original twelve disciples, but the most pressing was helping restless souls find the afterlife. Sometimes when someone died, they had so many unfulfilled desires or unresolved issues that it caused them to stay anchored to the Earth to wander as ghosts. Normal people couldn’t see them, but angels, demons, and Seers could. Only a select few could interact with their environment, the kind known as poltergeists, and typically it wasn’t a good thing if they could. Souls deeply rooted in rage could eventually become powerful enough to be corporeal and hurt people. I’d met a couple, and they still gave me nightmares to this very day.
Searching for a lost soul in Hermann Park didn’t necessarily mean someone had died here. Ghosts were anchored to places that held significant memories to them. They were also instinctively drawn to the nearest Seer, even at great distances. I’d once met a soul who walked all the way from North Carolina to Albany, New York, for heaven’s sake. Poor thing. At least we’d been able to help her in the end.
Point being, if I stayed here long enough, eventually I could spot any wandering spirits in the vicinity. It also gave me the opportunity to figure out if Dustin was having anyone follow me now that I’d basically pledged to be his boo. The thought made me feel like taking fifteen burning hot showers. However, I was in the clear. No one was following me. Yet.
I checked my watch. Three hours and counting. If I didn’t find someone soon, I’d be on my own for covert recon. Not a place I wanted to be, really.
I sighed and tilted my head back on the bench.
There was a man standing directly behind me.
“Shit!” I screeched, instinctively jumping to my feet.
He was around six feet tall and of Arabic descent. His black hair was thick and hung down to just below his chin, and he had an artfully trimmed goatee that reminded me of Tony Stark. His eyes were dark and sharp even under the dappled sunlight from beneath the tree. He wore a plain red Under Armor t-shirt, basketball shorts, and jogging sneakers, and had a large halfempty water bottle in one hand. He also didn’t react to me nearly leaping out of my own skin, which wasn’t normal.
I’d been a Seer for a while. Very few people could sneak up on me, and said people were almost never human.
Still, I decided to play dumb to get a read on the guy, so I clutched my chest and muttered, “Sorry. You scared the hell out of me.”
“I’m sure Belial will be disappointed to hear that,” he said with a heavy Israeli accent.
I stiffened. He’d whipped it out on the first meeting. Great. Park full of innocent people. I was nowhere near an exit and I didn’t have my gun. This would not end well. The only thing I could do would be to go down swinging.
“What the archdemon doesn’t know won’t kill him,” I said carefully.
“Maybe not.” He sipped the water and glanced around. “What brings you to town, Ms. Amador?”
Shit. He’d ID’d me too. “Sight-seeing.”
He nodded once. “It is a lovely park, isn’t it? Perhaps you’d like to go for a walk with me?”
“Sorry, but my mother taught me about Stranger Danger.”
The man smiled then, revealing sparkling white teeth. “Yes, I imagine she would have. She had such potential. We were saddened at her passing.”
I eyed him. “You knew my mother?”
“No, but I knew Andrew Bethsaida. He spoke well of her, and often.”
I blinked. “Holy shit, man. You’re an angel?”
He nodded. “My name is Jon.”
I let out a tense breath. “Did you really have to scare me like that?”
He shrugged. “What is life without a little excitement?”
“Tell that to the nine lives I just lost at once.” I paused, thinking. “Jon? Myra mentioned you. Are you the one who trained her?”
“Yes. Now, about that walk?” He gestured towards the trail. I fell in step beside him as we started away from the bench and deeper into the park.
“How’d you find me?” I asked. “My energy is still suppressed.”
“Kismet, I suppose,” he said. “I was not looking for you, but I happened to spot you during my run.”
“We’ve never met before. How do you even know what I look like?”
“It may seem unsettling, but the angels keep tabs on any Seers who are alive and well. We keep profiles of you in case of emergencies.” He paused. “Also, Gabriel is a friend. I’ve seen pictures of the two of you together at his home.”
I shut my eyes for a second, suppressing the wave of loss and regret that welled up inside me at his words. It felt like someone had shoved a sword through my chest. Gabriel masqueraded as a philanthropist and owned literally thousands of properties all over the world. Apparently, Jon had been to at least one that had photos of me in it. Dammit.
But all I said aloud was, “Oh.”
We continued walking for a little bit before he spoke again. “Are you in contact with Myra Bennett?”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Are you asking a rhetorical question? I assume you are watching over her family, so you’d know that already.”
Jon breathed out through his nose, as if he were counting to ten. “True enough. Let me rephrase. What exactly are the two of you planning?”
“Do you really want me to tell you? Isn’t it better if you have plausible deniability?”
A smirk touched his lips. “In most cases, yes. In this case, no. I am…concerned for her safety. That is all.”
“Why? She’s more than proven that she can take care of herself.”
“Yes, but she is also unbalanced by fear. You of all people know what can happen when one is faced with the sadistic choice between doing what is right and doing something to protect a loved one.”
“Me of all people,” I said with a snort. “It’s never long before one of you brings that up.”
“Ms. Amador,” Jon said sharply, narrowing his eyes at me. “I do not take this matter lightly and neither should you. Whatever you have planned is dangerous and I have been charged with keeping her family safe.”
I stood my ground. “She asked me to help her. Me, not you. I don’t agree with her methods either, but I do respect her perspective. If you’re so worried about what we’re going to do, then either be proactive and stop the demons first, or stay out of it entirely. Besides, you’re powerful enough to take me out of the equation if you wanted to, so why the dialogue, Jon? What do you really want?”
“I am perfectly aware that I could remove you from this situation,” he said quietly, and it made gooseflesh break out along my arms. “However, that is not my way. Choice is the only thing that you as human beings are granted in this world. I will not break my rank by taking that away from you. All I can do is warn you. This is a mistake. Reconsider. She is not ready for what the two of you are about to attempt.”
“Then train her. Make her ready. These monsters don’t sit around waiting for us to come out of the oven like a chicken, for heaven’s sake. They already threatened her family. She came to you asking for help, but you said no. What would you do if you were her, Jon? Can you look me in the eyes and say you’d just let it go?”
People passing by gave us odd looks, but made a wide berth nonetheless as we stood to the side of the path, glaring at each other.
After a moment, Jon glanced away and sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose. “You are as stubborn as Gabriel made you sound.”
I almost smiled then. “He should talk. I once told him that we had a twenty-five dollar cap on all Christmas presents, and he bought me a dress that costs four hundred bucks.”
Jon chuckled. “That does sound like him.”
He sipped his water again. “How far have you gotten inside their nest?”
I surveyed our surroundings just to be sure I still wasn’t being followed before I answered. “I’ve fake-seduced his second-in-command. I think I might have a shot at Maurice tonight, but that’s why I’m trying to recruit someone to do it for me. I need to know if he’ll be there for the staff meeting coming up.”
“I can confirm he is in town, but he hasn’t been sighted in a while. We think he decided to lie low after he made that threat to Mrs. Bennett’s family.”
“Is there any information you can share that might be helpful?”
He sighed. “This is unwise, but…I can get you the full floor plans for the bar. Do you have a pen?”
I dug through my small knapsack and brought mine out. “Write down your email address.”
I scribbled it onto the back of a business card he’d given me. He pocketed it. “I will send you the plans before sundown.”
He regarded me seriously. “Ms. Amador, please know that while I can offer this assistance, the angels will not be able to provide you with support if you go through with this assault. If we were to interfere, it would constitute an all-out war and we have to prevent that at all costs.”
“I know,” I said, and couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my tone. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, yadda yadda yadda. I’ve seen The Wrath of Khan, alright?”
“I am sorry.” He started to leave, but then he glanced back at me. “We will protect her family. You have my word.”
“Thank you.”
Jon nodded to me one last time. “Godspeed, Ms. Amador.”
I watched until he was gone from my sight, lost in the forest.
Chapter Five
Jon’s generous offer of the blueprints to the Kiln made me slightly readjust my plans. I took them to a print shop and had them blown up to a 24x36 print to get a better idea of what we’d be dealing with in just a couple of days. It turned out that the upper floor was indeed just a bar with nothing special about it. My hunch about the office had been right, but I didn’t know that it had a trap door that led to a basement.
The basement was what gave the demons’ nest its name. Demons operated in cities running any kind of sin they could get their hands on: drugs, prostitution, serial killing, human trafficking, whatever the area could supply them. Some paid off the police while others simply infiltrated it to keep the real police officers off their scent. Odds were that they kept the bulk of their stash in the hidden basement for easy access.
It pained me to do so, but I took a cab to the Kiln this time to avoid anyone identifying Myra’s truck and putting two-and-two together. Since I didn’t want Dustin to feel me up, I’d dialed down the strumpet costume to something more modest: a black V-neck blouse, tight blue jeans, and knee-high boots. The blouse had a plunging neckline, but I’d put a crimson tank top on beneath it, since the scar over my heart could also make me identifiable to the demons. The Spear of Longinus—yes, the same one that pierced the side of Christ—had left a nasty puncture wound that had healed over time, but the trauma still left me with the urge to cover it up even when I wasn’t in the presence of evil. The angels possessed the ability to heal anything short of a mortal wound, but I’d specifically told them not to heal the scar. I needed to be reminded every day of what I had survived, what I had conquered, and what I needed to always be wary of for the rest of my life.
