Eve of Chaos (22 page)

He walked up to
the guard station with one hand in his pocket and the other twirling his
sunglasses. He glanced up casually, a smile curving his mouth as the guard realized
what and
who
he was.

“Call your new
Alpha,” Reed said smoothly, “and tell him I want to chat.”

“Repent,
Jezebel! Repent or you’ll roast in
Hell!”

Eve fought the
urge to roll down her window and sock Evil Santa in the mouth. Instead, she sat
impatiently at the stoplight while the zealot stood at her window, strumming
his guitar and screaming at her through the glass.

When he didn’t
get a rise out of her, he moved to the driver’s side passenger window and
yelled at Sydney. “Save yourself from lust of the flesh and the claws of this
heathen woman! Save yourself, before you burn in the lake of fire!”

Montevista
cleared his throat, drawing Eve’s gaze to where he sat in the front passenger
seat. “Okay,” he said. “I’m liking your priest idea more and more.”

“Yep.” Eve hit
the gas pedal the moment the light changed. Thankfully, when she’d called the
church after dinner, Riesgo had been there, and he had agreed to see her right away.
They were heading to Glover Stadium in Anaheim, where he was filling in as a
coach for a Little League practice for one of his parishioners.

“Do you think
Father Riesgo will help?” Sydney asked. “You’re not a member of his
congregation.”

“I hope he’ll
play along, but at this point, he could definitely resort to extortion. I’d
actually attend one of his services, if it would get that nut out of my hair.”

Montevista shook
his head. “I’ve never worked with a Mark who had no faith. Your parents are pious,
right? What happened with you?”

Eve held up a
hand. “You and I are friends. That means we can never talk about politics or
religion.”

He started to
retort, then glanced at her. His mouth shut. “All right.”

“I know that
tone,” she said, fingertips tapping against the steering wheel. “You think I’m
pissed off at God and irreverence is my retaliation. But I’m not mad. I just
think that many of the stories in the Bible show a God who has the same faults
we do. He has pride and a temper, and he plays with humans like we’re toys.
It’ll take a damn sight more than the promise of an unseen heaven for me to
worship someone like that.”

“Yeesh,” Sydney
breathed.

“Sorry I asked,”
Montevista agreed.

No one said
anything else the rest of the short drive. Not because of the discussion about
religion, but because of the number of laser-bright eyes that followed them as
they progressed. The sidewalks were only slightly more crowded than usual, but
the number of Infernals was clearly elevated by a tremendous degree.

“When we get to
the stadium,” Montevista said, “just idle by the entrance while I see if the
priest has arrived. If shit hits the fan, you punch the gas and get the hell
out of there.”

Sydney leaned
forward. “I can run in. If it comes down to it, you’re the best one to protect
her.”

He made an
aggravated noise, then spoke harshly, “No. You stick with Hollis.”

In the rearview
mirror, Eve watched Sydney’s brows rise. The Mark settled back into the seat
and caught Eve’s gaze.

PMS?
Eve mouthed.

A wry smile
curved Sydney’s lips, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Montevista was a bit off
kilter this afternoon.

They pulled into
the tiny parking lot adjacent to the stadium. The place was familiar to her.
Although her high school was a few miles away, Glover Stadium was the official
home of Loara High School football.

Montevista had
the door open and was unfolding from the car when Riesgo appeared from between
two vehicles. The moment he saw her, a grin lit his blunt but arresting
features. He was dressed in black sweats and athletic shoes, and he had a
baseball bat bag slung over one shoulder and a mesh bag filled with mitts in
his other hand. She hit the button to lower her window.

“Hey;’ he said.

“Hey to you,
too. I brought your Bible back.”

Even with the
dangerous scar that marred his cheek, the amusement that lit his features made
him look boyish. “You could have mailed it.”

“Yeah,” she
conceded, returning his smile, “but I have a favor to ask, too.”

“Really.” His
gaze moved to Sydney, then to Montevista, who stood next to the open passenger
door. “Hello. I’m Father Riesgo.”

Montevista
introduced himself. Sydney stepped out and followed suit.

Riesgo looked
back at Eve. “What kind of trouble are you in?”

“Who said I’m in
trouble?”

“You have
bodyguards.”

She blinked,
startled by his perceptiveness.

He jerked his
head to the left. “I charge for favors. Park your car and come with me.”

Eve looked at
where he gestured and saw an open parking spot at the end. She glanced at Montevista,
who clearly wasn’t keen on the idea of her being out in the open. Despite it
being a very public place, Infernals would come for her if they thought they
could get away with it.

“Close the
doors, guys,” she said. After a brief pause, both Montevista and Sydney did as
she said, joining Riesgo outside. She pulled into the empty spot, exited, and
hit the lock button on her remote. She was lucky there’d been a space
available. The alternative would have been to park in the larger lot on the
other side of La Palma.

Riesgo was
waiting nearby. Montevista was saying something to the priest that had both men
looking absorbed. Sydney, on the other hand, was scanning the area. Eve
followed her lead and noted the stragglers that loitered around the perimeter
of the stadium. There were only a few Infernals, for now. They had to be
working in packs, reporting her whereabouts in a chain that led from her house
to here. She flipped them off, encompassing them all with a wide arc of her
hand. One of them flicked his forked tongue at her, reminding her of her first
run-in with the Nix.

Another problem
to deal with some other time.

As a group, Eve
and the others traversed the curving cement path that led from the lot to the
stadium bleachers.

Ahead of them, a
group of kids played on the dirt near the pitcher’s mound. They appeared to be
in the eight to ten year range. Their laughter drifted on the early evening
breeze and made Eve tense. They were so young, and innocent of the
proliferation of demons she had brought to their doorstep.

“What happened
to the coach?” she queried, wondering at the man inside the priest. Physically,
he was big and powerful, although not in the way of Alec or Reed. Riesgo was
barrel-chested, with thick biceps and thighs. A juggernaut.

“He’s having an
emergency root canal. So I’m helping out.”

“Yuck.”

“You’re helping
out, too,” he said. “You can pitch.”

“No, I can’t.”

He glanced at
her.

“I’m not
kidding,” she insisted. “I can’t throw worth a damn. I never hit what I’m
aiming for.”

Of course,
Riesgo didn’t believe her until he actually saw her in action. Some of her
pitches didn’t even make the distance to home plate. Others were skewed to the
left or right. He thought she was pretending at first.

“Gimme that,” he
said finally, approaching her from his position as catcher. “You take first
base.”

She plopped the
dusty ball into the palm of his extended hand. “I told you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

In short order,
Riesgo replaced her with Sydney, who threw like a professional. Montevista took
second base. Practice took an hour. The bright field lights came on, turning
dusk into day. Like vermin, the Infernals in the area encroached to the edge
where light met night. Parents eventually started showing up to reclaim their
kids. The team’s coach appeared just in time to close shop, mumbling
instructions through numbed lips. Montevista and Sydney took opposite positions
on the field, staring down the Infernals that the mortals couldn’t see in the
oppressive darkness.

Riesgo came up
beside her. “So, what’s with the protection detail?”

She shrugged and
told him the truth. “I pissed someone off.”

He glanced at
the two Marks. “Must be a pretty dangerous someone.”

“You could say
that.”

His mouth tilted
up in a mysterious half-smile. “So, how can I help?”

“There’s this
vagrant on my street. He’s a bit of a nut.”

As he started
toward home base, Riesgo gestured for her to follow him. He picked up discarded
mitts and balls as he went along and she helped, finding an odd comfort in his
presence. She’d shortchanged him by crediting his charisma and velvet-smooth
Spanish accent for the size of his congregation. He had an air of confidence; a
rock-solidness that was soothing. He clearly found strength in being devout,
yet Eve didn’t chalk that up to naïveté as she did with most pious people.

“You want me to
find him a shelter?” he asked.

“Uh. . .“ She
hadn’t thought of that. Some days the guy was on the corner, some days he
wasn’t. He was rarely there past dark. She’d just assumed he had a place to
live and chose to haunt her corner for the hell of it. “Well, I’m not really
sure he’s homeless. He claims to be a reverend. One of those wrath-of- God,
hell-and-damnation types.”

Riegso glanced
over his shoulder at her. “Does he wear the same clothes every day?”

Eve shoved a
mitt into the mesh bag. “I really haven’t paid attention. He wears jeans and a
T-shirt, but whether or not they’re the same daily? Couldn’t tell ya. I have a
good excuse though. It’s hard to pay attention to clothing when you’re getting
screamed at.”

“He screams at
you?” The priest stilled.

Explaining the
situation only took a moment. The silence that followed lasted longer.

“Why,” he said
slowly, “does he think you’re a jezebel?”

“There’s a lot of
foot traffic around my place. But I’m not a prostitute.”

“The bullet
catchers are the traffic.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Bullet
catchers? Oh, the guards! Yes. They’re nice people,” Eve defended. “The good
guys.”

Riesgo caught
her elbow and led her to the aluminum bleachers. “Who are the bad guys?”

This was the
part where things got tricky. “That really doesn’t have anything to do with
Evil Santa.”

“Sure it does.
The guards attracted the zealot to you, you came to me; they’re connected.”

“In a
six-degrees-of-separation kind of way, maybe’ She sat next him.

The field was
now silent and the sound of numerous cars on Harbor Boulevard was only a
distant roar. Above them, the sky was a charcoal blanket with few stars.
Metropolitan light pollution vastly reduced the visibility of celestial bodies,
which made her feel somber and lonely. Before she could stop herself, she
reached out to Alec. Where the warm light of his soul used to be, she felt only
roiling darkness. She withdrew, feeling even more melancholy.

Reed.

He touched her
briefly, like a quick kiss to the forehead that was distracted and hurried. She
pulled back when he did, resenting her own dinginess. Regardless of the
numerous Infernal eyes watching her with tangible malevolence, she would take
care of herself. This was
her
calling—for now—whether she wanted it or
not. Damned if she wouldn’t own it while it was hers.

Pivoting at the
waist, Eve faced Riesgo. “Do you believe in demons, Father?”

“Yes,” he said
carefully, warily.

“Do you believe
they walk among us? Live among us? Work alongside us?”

His brown eyes
were watchful and alert. “Did you hire bodyguards to protect you from demons,
Ms. Hollis?”

Eve exhaled
audibly. “What would you say if I said yes?”

Alec stared across the small table at his
mother and wanted to reach out to her. She had always loved and accepted him
just as he was. She had forgiven him when no one else would, and pleaded his
case along with his brother Seth to turn his sin into his salvation. But the
darkness inside him clenched his throat tight, preventing him from finding
solace where he could.