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Damien put the van into drive, heading for downtown LA.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Damien checked the building’s directory. SBP Pharmaceuticals was indeed on the top floor of the same office building where Cimil had sent him a few short days ago. This was the confirmation he dreaded seeing. The gods had to know about the operation at the very least.
He pushed the button for the fourteenth floor. When the doors opened to the empty office space, Cimil was waiting in a camo tutu.
“You’re late.” She shook a finger at him.
He stepped out. “Am I?”
“I expected you an hour ago.”
He was right. Cimil still had the gift of sight, because they didn’t actually have an appointment. He’d come to dig for information upstairs and took the chance someone might be here on this floor. “I guess your prophetic powers are getting rusty.”
Cimil shrugged. “So, I understand that Sky spilled the beans.”
“She did, though she left out the part about why you are butchering the helpless creatures you are supposed to protect, or why you sent me on a job interview I have no interest in. Is the story of this blast even real?”
“Allow me to answer your question with a very long, drawn-out, confusing tale about fourteen gods who have been alive for over seventy thousand years.” She gestured toward the large windows overlooking downtown to her side. She’d set up a little sitting area with pink fuzzy beanbag chairs. “Get comfortable.”
“I’ll stand, thank you.”
“Suit yourself, Damien Greystone. Get it?” She started to cackle. “You’re a tailor, and I just told you to suit your…”
Damien wasn’t laughing.
“Oh fuck off. That was funny.” Cimil’s face turned stone cold.
“Tell me what the hell is going on. The short version, please.”
“Fine. Fine. But Minky, my unicorn, is disappointed. She says you smell nice, and you should really come sit next to her.” Cimil jerked her head toward the beanbag chairs.
Damien did not see anything. “My apologies for disappointing you. Now please, may wefuckingget on with this?” He was losing his patience fast.
Cimil huffed. “All right, here’s the scoop. I meant what I said in my letter. My brethren and I have retired. That was the plan, anyway. But apparently our billions of people-pets are up to their no-good human ways again and still requiresomesupervision. Supernatural Body Parts upstairs is proof of that. We’re gone for a few weeks, and they go into production overdrive.”
Supernatural Body Parts. That’s what SBP stood for? “What is your involvement with them?”
“None,” she said innocently. “Okay, not none. I may have pulled a few strings to get them an office space upstairs, but I swear to gods that I only did it to keep a close eye on them. And man, have they been busy.”
“So you knew what they were doing?”
“Yes, but my hands were tied.”
“You’re a fucking god,” he snarled. “And a powerful one.”
“Time out.” She made a T with her hands. “It’s not so simple, cowboy. The gods are supposed to be retired. Everyone except K’ak, our brother, who took over my role managing the Underworld. He also volunteered to oversee the Uchben, our human army, which is technically supposed to be my job. Anywhoodles, long story longer, he’s already over his head. We need someone to be the old sheriff at the Oh-No-Say-It-Ain’t-So People Corral. We need someone who can run interference.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, as Goddess of Death and War, I can help with the army, but I swore to my love bucket, Roberto, that Iwasnot going back to work. He is very unhappy that I am even speaking to you, which is why we’ve made an agreement. I will work part-time. You will be my right hand.”
“Running the Uchben?” He did not know much about them other than they were more than soldiers. They were the eyes and ears of the gods in the human world, working in many facets.
“No, silly. I need someone who can get things done, fix issues, kill evil people, hunt down rogue immortals, do whatever. I need someone who can act surgically so that the wheels stay on the bus for humankind.”
“So you want me to—”
