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Trytian, who looked a little like Keanu Reeves in an eerie, hellish way, gave me an insolent smile. “Gone. Our guards bought her time enough to evacuate. We’re moving operations.”
I leapt forward. “She murdered my friend and destroyed my shop!” As I brought one hand around, hard, to slap him on the cheek, Vanzir stopped me, catching my wrist. He nodded for me to move back. He spoke in low tones to the daemon, who at first shook his head and then, with a shrug, nodded.
Trytian stepped forward. “Listen, we want the same thing. Shadow Wing—dead. The Bonecrusher wanted your help. My father and I wanted your help. You prefer to work from another angle. I’ll make you a promise—and Vanzir will vouch for me. If you leave the Bonecrusher alone, don’t hunt for her, don’t try to find her, she’ll leave you and your friends alone. But make no mistake: We mean to find the seals and when we do, we’re marching on Shadow Wing.”
“What makes you think I won’t let the information leak that she’s a traitor?” I hated his smug smile, his arrogant stance. He had helped kill Henry. I knew it; in my gut I knew he was one of the men in the shop.
As I stepped forward, Vanzir grabbed me around the waist.
Trillian let out a shout, but Vanzir called over his shoulder, “Don’t move. Don’t even think about it.”
He laughed roughly. “Oh, Camille, I not only know it, I’d guarantee it to a bookie. You’re a sure bet. Because you know, in your heart, that you aren’t prepared to fight Shadow Wing. And you know my father and Stacia can take him on and have a chance of winning. I know you’ll still be looking for the seals, but I warn you: Don’t get in our way. Because if you cross our path again, you’ll lose more than a broken-down old man. You’ll lose everything.”
I broke out of Vanzir’s hold then, rushing forward. I grappled with Trytian. He clearly wasn’t expecting my attack but managed to grab my wrists and rolled me over as he held me down, straddling me.
“You’re lucky you have friends here right now, woman. I may be out for Shadow Wing’s blood, but I’m still a daemon, and some things are just too tempting to resist.” His whisper was too low for anyone else to hear; he snorted. Then he let go and jumped up.
“We’ll find you! We’ll search the house and find something you overlooked.” Oh, to land a good kick to his balls, but I had the feeling it wouldn’t hurt him in the least.
“Go ahead—in fact, I expect it of you. You’re so obvious.”
Morio lunged forward, but Trytian danced back out of his reach. “Youkai, leave this alone. It’s none of your business. And the rest of you, remember what I said. You won’t get a second warning. Stacia will put off Shadow Wing’s orders to kill you long enough for us to make our move, but only if you don’t interfere. Stick your noses in our business, unless you want to turncoat, and you’re so much burnt toast.”
He turned to Vanzir. “My debt to you is over . . . this more than pays you off.” And with that, he vanished as if he’d never been standing there.
CHAPTER 24
I mutely stared at the empty place on the porch. Just then, Rodney came shambling out of the house. Morio moved up beside me, and Trillian flanked my other side.
“What’s going on in there?” Morio said.
The flame in Rodney’s eye sockets flared. “Not much. They scrammed but fast. Bitches didn’t even take all of their zombies. A few bone-walkers in there, too. But—what the hell is that?” He cocked his skull, as if he was listening to something.
I frowned. There was a low humming coming from inside the house. It reminded me of the whine of a jet engine. And then, instinct guiding me, I shouted, “Get the fuck out of here—run toward the trees!”
Nobody questioned me; they all just turned tail.
We all managed to reach the tree line before there was a low rumble and then a loud explosion. The shock wave blasted us forward, but we were out of range of the flames that shot up. I hit the ground hard, landing on my knees and hands.
As I gasped, choking on the smoke, Vanzir muttered, “Cocksucker . . . he meant for us to be there when that happened.”
Delilah coughed and struggled to her feet, then helped me up. “But he said—”
“Forget what he said. Forget what I ever suggested about working with him. He’s a daemon. He was trying to kill us to make sure we don’t interfere. My guess is that they decided to shift their headquarters. They must have found out we were coming and planned this little booby trap.”
“How? How did they find out?” The house was engulfed in flames and the sound of sirens echoed in the distance.
“I dunno. I think we have a leak somewhere,” he said slowly. “Somebody . . . someone told them. Who did you tell about this?”
“It could be any number of people. Chase’s FH-CSI officers knew we were coming, Nerissa knew . . . who else?” Something tickled at the back of my mind but I couldn’t wrap my thoughts around it; I was so shaken.
“Then we have a lot of thinking to do.” Morio motioned toward the ravine. “Come on, let’s get out of here before the cops arrive.”
Delilah let out a low sob. “Chase—I need to know how Chase is.”
“Yeah, and Iris . . .” I glanced at the Talon-haltija, who was staring at the flames, her mouth pinched. Her expression was one of haunting and pain. It was then that I understood that she hadn’t realized what she was going to do—or that she had even been sure she could still cast that spell. Too close to her memories of her fiancé for comfort.
“Come on. Let’s go,” I whispered, wrapping my arm around her shoulders as we headed back into the trees. “We aren’t going to wrap this one up tonight, guys.”
