jinn 01 - ember (8 page)

He raised an eyebrow. “How old do you think I am?”

“Older than Holden.”

He smiled and pointed from his eye to me. “I gotta keep an eye on you.”

“Someday you’ll tell me everything, Baker.” I looked at the phone in his hand. “But not today. Tick-tock.”

The Baker I knew rippled and changed into a blonde with big hair, too much makeup, too tight of a dress, and hooker heels. He winked and sashayed across the street. I transported to the back of the building and peeked through the dirty window. Two demons dressed as priests were headed toward the front. As soon as I was clear, I transported inside and glanced around for a place to hide the phone where I could still hear. I felt something heavy and oppressive getting closer to me. Definitely a demon—a powerful one from what I could tell. The smell of sulfur grew. There was something else though. Something not demonic. I could feel it in my bones.

A dark one approaches. Leave now,
the voice said in my head.

I put the phone on top of the refrigerator and transported back to the alley where Baker and I had been. A few moments later, he was escorted out by two demons.

“Because I’m a working girl, I can’t be redeemed?” he yelled at the demons, struggling against them as they pushed him out of the abandoned church. When he was in the middle of the street, he turned back around and flipped them off before he grabbed his breasts and said “Hey, father, your moobs are bigger than mine.”

I covered my mouth and pressed against the wall to keep from laughing. Baker kept walking past me, letting me know they were still watching him. He kept talking to himself as he went, flailing his arms around. I jammed the phone to my ear to see if he’d succeeded. There was silence on the other end so I couldn’t tell. I went through the alley to the street on the other side and hurried forward, still with the phone pressed to my ear. I had no idea where I was supposed to meet him. A couple minutes later, there was talking on the other end. It was muffled and there was a little echo, but I could understand it.

“We shouldn’t have let her leave.”

“We don’t need a whore.”

“She could have been a vessel.”

“She’s a dime a dozen. They want people who have connections.”

“Then we should have killed her.”

“What if someone comes looking for her? Use your brain,” the other one snapped.

A third voice came into the mix. “Shut up, both of you.” It was higher and had a threatening whine to it. “We were given orders. No deviation.”

“When is he coming?”

“What makes you think he isn’t already here?” the third voice replied. “Something was here.”

“He won’t come until we have the weapon to kill the angel. It is impossible.”

“Hey, angel. Want me to teach you a few tricks?” I looked up at Baker and he winked at me, leaning against the wall, still disguised as the prostitute.

I pressed my finger to my lips and the phone harder against my ear.

“We’re not—”

“Shut up.” I held my breath and listened. There was a lot of shuffling and banging. Then the voice said, “What’s that?”

Footsteps sounded closer to the phone. The line went dead. Shit. I frowned at Baker. “Busted.”

He took my arm and pulled me into another alley before he transformed back into himself. He snatched my phone and smashed it on the ground.

“Hey!”

“They can trace you with this. Were you seen?”

“No.” I followed him down the street. In his own way, Baker was as overprotective as Holden. It was sweet but annoying.

“How did you know there were four people in there? I only saw three.”

“I could feel them. One was really strong. I got out just before he came in.”

“How do you know?”

“His presence was overwhelming and I smelled him—it was like sulfur. Then a voice told me he was coming.”

“A voice?”

I pressed my lips together. I hadn’t meant to tell anyone about the voice yet.

“What voice?”

“I don’t know. It started today. I don’t think it can hear me, but I can hear it and it knows that.”

He nodded and pushed me down the sidewalk. “Have you told Holden? What does he think?”

“Not yet.” I held up my hand to stop Baker from lecturing me. “I know how Holden is going to react and I want to figure out who it is before we go over the deep end with this. I just need a little time.”

Baker pursed his lips.

“Oh, don’t you give me that look. You’ve been dating his great-whatever niece for how long?”

“It’s not really the same thing.”

“I’m not doing anything risky. I’m pretty sure the voice is angelic, but I don’t recognize it—it’s too soft. I hear it better when the angel part of me is near the surface. I think whoever it is is helping. And right now we could use all the help we can get.”

“I don’t like it.”

Well, this wasn’t Baker’s problem. It was mine. It wasn’t like I planned on never telling Holden—I would. He had just been driving me crazy for the past year trying to be safe rather than living our lives. Right now, maybe being safe was the best idea, but having more people to depend on had to be better than fewer. If there were other angels willing to help, I had to explore that option. “I really don’t think it’s any of your business.”

“Exactly what did you feel when it talked to you?”

I sighed. “Nothing. It pointed out the demon possessing the guy. Then it warned me before the other demon came into the room. I didn’t feel anything. I think it wants me to meet with it, but I haven’t gone.” I omitted the
yet
part of that sentence.

“Don’t go until you know for certain what it is. And I think Holden should be aware of this.”

I held up my hands. “He will be. I won’t go until I know.”

“What else? What did you feel inside the church?”

“Four demons and something unholy. The voices on the phone said they were looking for a weapon to kill the angel.” I licked my lips. “I take it that’s me.”

“So they don’t have it yet, but they must be close or they wouldn’t be congregating. Call the boss.”

I rolled my eyes but opened my thoughts back up to Holden.

“Where have you been?”
he asked immediately.

“With Baker.”

“And?”

“And nothing.” We were doing our thing. I knew you were with the jinn and I didn’t want to disturb you.
I cringed, hoping he couldn’t sense the lie—well, partial truth. I had been with Baker and we had been working and I had known Holden was with the jinn. I would tell Holden about Baker and Maggie, just not yet.

Don’t shut down again. It’s worse not knowing how you are than dealing with the noise.

Okay,
I said. Holden felt tense.
What’s wrong?

We should probably talk.

“WHAT DID YOU find?” Holden asked as Olivia and I walked through the door.

“A church where the possessed are flocking,” I told him.

“How do you know?” Femi asked.

I hooked a thumb at Olivia, who was now standing by the boss, staring daggers into him. Something was amiss, but she wasn’t talking and he was stone. If they were having one of their silent conversations, I couldn’t tell. “She watched a demon possess a person in a bar and then we followed him to the church.”

“Did they see you?” Holden glanced between us.

Olivia sighed and tore her gaze away. “I don’t think so, but they know what I am. They’re looking for a weapon to defeat an angel. We figured that’s probably me, but at least we know they don’t have it yet.”

Holden nodded. “Do I even want to know how you came about this information?”

She rolled her eyes. “Misdirection isn’t going to work. You’re stalling.” She looked right at him. “You said we needed to talk. Tell me what happened.”

The picture was becoming clearer. She had been quiet most of the way back. Something had set her on edge and all signs pointed right to the boss, which was my cue to get the hell out of here. Domestic disputes were more their thing than mine.

“The jinn want to join us. I told them we would consider it,” he said evenly.

Holden wasn’t one to mince his words, but there had been probably better ways to present this idea to someone in Olivia’s situation. She had a natural reaction when it came to demons and jinn. Her knee-jerk would always be to destroy or avoid. However, on the flip side, this was great for us. There was no way we could get in front of this without them. We needed more eyes on the street and more ears listening to the buzz. We’d be fools not to take them up on the offer.

Olivia tugged at her lower lip then pinched the bridge of her nose. “Why would they want to do that?” she asked softly, sending the boss a dangerous look. “Jinn aren’t really self-sacrificing. The demons don’t have a weapon that would work on me.”

“Yet,” he said. “They’ll find one, Liv. Do you think we can fight them off forever?”

She pressed her lips together. At least she wasn’t shutting him out completely. “What do they want in return?”

“To be free.”

Olivia visibly paled, which was saying something since she was white as a ghost normally. I could see the angel angrily fluttering in her eyes at the thought of freeing the jinn. I whistled through my teeth. Honestly, that was a bit much even for me to stomach.

“You have something to say, Baker? Don’t hold back.” Holden shot me a ‘shut the hell up’ look despite his words.

“Not a chance, boss. You’re on your own.” Olivia had more dirt on me now than Holden had ever had. There was no way I would cross her.

He shook his head. “We’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

There was a storm brewing, and Holden was no dummy. He would have an easier time handling her alone than with us here, though Olivia didn’t look like she was in the mood to be handled. Last time Holden tried to free the jinn, she ran away and he backed down. This time, she really didn’t have a choice. We needed their help desperately, and they knew it. Olivia had to get on board or all of our days were numbered.

Femi grinned wide as she strutted toward the door. I followed her, still sore as hell.

“Baker,” Holden called out when I reached the door. I stopped and looked back. “Try not to get your ass kicked tonight.”

“You betcha, boss.” I saluted both of them and closed the door behind me. Hopefully, the angel was too pissed at whatever angle she thought the boss was running to deem tonight the best time to tell him about Maggie.

Maggie.

What was I going to do with her? I had my doubts that Olivia would ever free the jinn, and I couldn’t blame her for that. They weren’t to be trusted. The complete chaos and havoc they could lay on the Abyss would be staggering. Without their help, though, we had to find a way to either appease Hell or make them not care about Olivia and Holden. She could have walked into the church today and cleared out the cell, but another one would have risen in its place. And there was no guarantee we would find the next one or that this was the only demon hideout in the city. There was absolutely no way I could string Maggie along for an endless amount of time. Plus, her life was short. Despite Olivia’s hopeful attitude, the responsible thing to do was cut Maggie loose. She didn’t need to be introduced into this world.

I walked up the brick steps of my house, legs heavy. All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and never get out. My house was small and it wasn’t in a great part of town. It had been Shorty’s house, and when he died, I’d inherited it. I had spent some of my happier years here, and no matter how bad the area got, I wasn’t leaving. They would have to drag my cold, dead body out of this neighborhood. I made it two steps into my bedroom and dropped down onto my bed before there was a knock on my door.

“Fuck,” I groaned with my arm over my face. People coming to my house unannounced was always a risk, which was why I didn’t share my home address with anyone. As a shifter, I didn’t interact with everyone as the same person. The situation and what I needed from it often determined my appearance. At home, I was just me, which no one knew—for my safety as well as theirs. I contemplated ignoring the knock and going to bed, but it persisted.