The woman sputtered. “How was I to know she was a medium?”
Av laughed, a terrifying sound in this instance. She sprang forward, caging the woman with her thin arms, getting right in her face. “It’s people like you who keep us down, you little…”
The woman drew back, appropriately afraid.
So she knew who we were, and she was afraid of us.Mypeople were never afraid of me, Eryx or Av, unless they had good reason to be. Humans were, but no one in my own dynasty had anything to fear from me. Which meant she was one of the rare types that was registered, but not loyal to the Trinity or even the Consulate. That explained all the Authority jobs, at least, and how Fairchild got an exorcist ordered to the scene so quickly. They were trying to pull a cover-up here.
I glanced at Fairchild again, who had the sense to look deeply uncomfortable. He hadn’t expected us to show up. Because typically, we wouldn’t have. I’d have sent someone else. Guilt ate at me, even though rationality reminded me that I couldn’t be everywhere at once.
I was spread too thin. The Trinity’s power had been waning for years. Especially the last twenty. Inwardly, I swore. If this all came back to the Maere, back to Lara Achilles and what we’d done, I’d never forgive myself. The pattern here pulled in too many of the wrong directions. I fucking hated this shit.
“Av,” Eryx said softly, bringing me back to the moment. “The kid.”
Av backed off.
“Where is the girl?” I asked.
Fairchild hesitated. The kill order formed in my head. Not now, not this week or this month. Six months from now, he was going to meet a bad end, after experiencing a tragic run of bad luck. Fucking with me when I wanted something was poor decision making at its finest, and I liked a long game.
“The girl,” I insisted, my voice taking on a menacing tone.
“Apartment 44,” Fairchild finally answered.
“No!” the stepmother screamed.
“Building cleared otherwise?” I asked Av, ignoring the stepmother’s wails.
She nodded, her angular eyes narrowed dangerously as she stared at the kid’s stepmother.
“Don’t let that one get spirited away,” I remarked as I walked away from the SUV. “I want her investigated.”
“Of course,” Av answered.
I gripped Eryx’s elbow. “No one goes in until I get this done.”
My brother nodded. “Got it. Call if you need me—if it goes bad, don’t let her die in pain.”
I squeezed Eryx’s arm. “I won’t need you, and she’ll be fine.”
He looked into my eyes, his expression never changing. “Good luck.”
The tiny apartment was dark when I entered, all the shades drawn. But it didn’t hide the blood spattered everywhere, or the fact that while the furniture had been nice at some point, it hadn’t been well taken care of. The place was the kind of mess that didn’t happen overnight. My chest ached. Much as I resented the woman outside for the way she was clearly targeting her stepdaughter, everyone had a story.
A shaking form huddled in a corner of the kitchen, near the ancient refrigerator, snarling. That was the story I cared about most. The one that got a teenager into this mess. And frankly, the one that got her out of it. I needed to help this child find another ending than the one that waited for her outside, or inwhatever cracked facility the Authority would disappear her into.
“Hi,” I said, keeping my voice gentle as I crouched down, reaching towards her. “This is going to hurt real bad for a second, but don’t fight it, okay?”
The girl looked up, and even in the dim light I could see her red-rimmed eyes, and the opalescent cast to her irises that told me she was possessed. She snarled at me again and then lunged. Calmly, I stood, pushing back at the spirit’s aura as the girl moved towards me with supernatural speed.
The spirit within her stopped, sensing my authority.
“I am not going to banish you,” I said. “Come out right away and I’ll let you go.”
The girl let out an otherworldly howl of rage. I closed my fist, catching hold of the aura as it projected just enough to grip onto. “I will pull you out of there, if necessary, but let’s do this the easy way.”
The girl hissed at me, the spirit, really, but at this point the difference didn’t much matter. “The stepmother locked me in,” the girl growled, sending chills down my spine. I’d done this for centuries, and the voice of a Rider coming from a medium’s throat still shot fear through me. It was pure instinct. Proof that despite the parapsychism and relative immortality, I was still human. “Yank all you want, Necroline King.”The spirit knew who I was, who Roman had been to this city.“Use violence and you’ll only hurt the child.”
This was exactly what the stepmother wanted—why she didn’t want me to perform the exorcism. She’d doomed the child to death with another exorcist. Shemeantto kill her stepdaughter. All my empathy went out the window, rage replacing it. I added her to my list, right after Fairchild. Child-killers would find no mercy with me.
