He groaned and tried to roll over. His hands were cuffed behind his back—real metal cuffs, not the plastic restraints that cops usually used. He managed to squirm onto his side and spit out the blood that had run into his mouth. His eyes were glued shut with it, his lashes welded together.
“Here,” someone said.
Water splashed over his face, warm and fucking salty. It made his blood itch and his eyes burn, but he tried to pretend it didn’t as he clumsily scrubbed his eyes on his shoulder until he could peel one open. Cash blinked against the bright light and got his elbow braced to struggle up into a sitting position.
The nondescript man with the glasses sat on a deck chair in front of him. Abigail was behind him, her arms tightly crossed across her breasts. A heavy-duty flashlight was perched on a stack of boxes, strong enough to cast a puddle of light around the three of them. It wasn’t much of a cave—the roof was as much dirt as rock—but Cash supposed it would do.
Abigail’s aura pulsed in time with her heartbeat, and the hot taste of adrenaline popped on Cash’s tongue like sugar. The man was… nothing.
“What the fuck?” he rasped out.
“I told you,” Abigail whined anxiously. “He’s human. Of course he’s fucking human. We fucked up.Youfucked him.”
“Iron took him down,” the man said. “Monsters don’t like iron.”
“You hit me on the head with it,” Cash said. His voice was scratchy and his throat dry. The monster tried to crawl up onto the back of his tongue, but he pinned it down. If they knew enough about monsters to try salt and iron, they might recognize his tricks. “Nobody likes that, you asshole.”
There was a pause, and the man grimaced his acceptance of that. He flicked Cash’s wallet open and looked at the cards inside.
“Casper Davies,” he read out from the driver’s license. “You don’t look thirty-two.”
“Thanks.”
“Didn’t say you looked younger.”
Card after card was looked at and flicked onto the sand. Credit card. Credit card. Loyalty card for that sundae place that Ellie loved. Cash knelt on the ground and tried to breathe through his nose as he discreetly worked at the cuffs around his wrists. The cuffs were a bit loose, but not enough to wriggle his hands free without dislocating his thumb.
“You’re in the industry?” the man said as he got to Cash’s union card. He rubbed his thumb thoughtfully around the edge of it. “Who do you work for?”
“Dustbowl Demonologist,” Cash said. The man made a face, and Cash shrugged. “I didn’t name it.”
“I’ve watched that,” Abigail said. Her anxiety was forgotten in an unexpected flash of fandom. “Preacher Winslow. He seems like a genuine guy?”
She looked expectantly at Cash, who hesitated and then shrugged awkwardly. “I guess,” he said. “He believes he’s helping people.”
“You don’t?” the man said. He dropped the wallet to the ground and leaned forward, his hands loosely clasped between his knees.
Cash didn’t look at them. If the Hunter’s mark was on either hand, he’d have already seen it, and most people wouldn’t know where to check.
“We never run out of subjects,” he said. “Look, what’s going on here? If you think someone will pay to get me back—”
“We’re not kidnappers,” the man said.
Cash snorted and yanked at the cuffs behind his back. “You know what, you might be,” he said.
Abigail nudged the man in the shoulder. “He was with Arkady Abascal,” she said with a smirk. “I mean,withwith, you know? He said they were a thing. Maybe wecouldget something out of this. Concrete.”
Cash swallowed the laugh that scratched at the back of his throat. It wasn’t the reaction they’d expect, but… they’d definitely get something if they tried to demand money from Arkady. Or kept saying his name.
“We hooked up,” he said. “He’s bought me a couple of drinks, but he’s not going to pay a ransom for me. My kid would, but she’s twelve, so her worldly wealth is what’s in her pocket.”
The man stood up and walked around behind Cash. Cash tensed, ready for another blow, but instead he felt dry fingers on his wrist. This close he caught the ghost of something from the man.
Disappointment. Annoyance.
“We aren’t criminals,” he said, as much to Abigail as Cash as he unlocked the cuffs.
She rolled her eyes at him and mouthed, “It was a joke,” as she turned away.
