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Her eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”
“Meaning if we go after the witches and things go south, and they manage to discover my name, they can turn me against you. Granted, they’d need to be incredibly powerful to summon me to their service. But it’s still a possibility.”
Her fingers tapped rapidly on her thigh, her lips pressed tightly together in thought. “What are their weaknesses?”
“Same as any mortals: guns, fire, knives. They can still be caught off guard. They can still bleed.”
“Then we make them bleed.”
But we had to find them first, and it proved not nearly so easy as locating the other Hadleighs.
“The last time any of the Hadleighs had a photo with Heidi Laverne was six years ago,” Juniper said. We were in my car, sitting in the student parking lot at Abelaum University. “She was in a group photo taken in front of the Historical Society building. She used to work there — she guided our field trip through the museum in elementary school. But she’s not listed as faculty on their website. No death records for her.”
“No sign of her at their house last night,” I said. I’d watched the Hadleigh house from the previous evening until nearly noon this morning, before coming to meet up with Juniper. She’d been so excited to drive the car. By the look of the gas tank, she’d done a little more driving than simply going from the house to the university. “I didn’t see Everly either.”
“Strange.” Juniper tapped her fingers against the wheel. She watched every group of students that passed by, on the lookout for familiar faces. “Everly’s social accounts are all locked, so no luck there either. Only one photo of her with the family, from years ago. But she was listed as a vendor for the Main Street Art Fest, so she’s still around.”
“She’s too valuable to Kent for him to let her move away,” I said. “If we find her, there’s a good chance we’ll find her mother.”
Juniper nodded, suddenly going tense as she spotted a group of students making their way across the quad. “There’s Jeremiah. Follow him. We need to know everywhere he goes, who he talks to. I’ll keep an eye out for Victoria.”
“Why do I get Jeremiah?” It wasn’t as if I’d ever interacted with the man, but… “He’s such an obnoxious bastard.”
Leon had told me enough. I knew it was true.
Juniper sighed. “Victoria will notice you if you follow her. If I lay low, she won’t notice me.”
“Seems like it should be the opposite. You two were close.”
“Just trust me,” she said. “Victoria will absolutely notice if some —” She cut herself off abruptly. “Just follow him.”
“No, no, please, go on, Victoria will if...?” She’d regretted whatever she was about to say, therefore, I had to know what it was.
She grit her teeth. “Victoria will notice…” She lowered her voice even more, as if she hated to get the words out. “She’ll notice if some hot guy is following her around.”
“Me? A hot guy? Wow, Juniper, you flatter me —”
“JesusChrist, just go follow Jeremiah!”
25
Following Jeremiah was as unpleasant as I expected.
He smelled awful. He tried to cover it up with some obnoxious cheap cologne, but the resulting odor was just a vile concoction of chemical musk, body odor, and ball sweat. I was certain I couldn’t be the only one who smelled it, but apparently humans’ sense of smell truly was dull. The gross bastard met up with four different women throughout the course of the day, all of whom gave off instant arousal at the sight of him.
Repulsive. I wouldn’t even hate-fuck the little shit.
It wasn’t hard to follow him. The man had no awareness of his surroundings. His steps were loud, his voice was loud. It was like trying to follow a bull through a glass shop.
Following him took so little concentration that instead, I just kept thinking about Juniper and how it would have been far less boring to stay with her all day: listen to her talk through every thought that popped into her head. I think she’d gotten used to talking to herself through the years; she tended to narrate her thoughts as she worked through problems. I didn’t even think about fucking her; just being around her was enough as it seemed.
I mean, it was nice to think about fucking her too, but that wasn’t the point.
I frowned. There it was again — that aching little soft spot she’d wedged herself inside.
I usually left humans to their own devices once our bargain was complete. Once I’d fulfilled my end of the deal, I had no need to see those I’d claimed again until they died, when I’d escort them to Hell, give them a quick run-down of the rules, and then let them figure the rest out for themselves. I was a hunter, not a babysitter.
But that irresistible drive to keep hunting, to wrap this deal up and move on to the next, wasn’t there now. It was fucking weird. Had I lost my touch? Lost my drive? I was one of the most well-known soul hunters in Hell because I was prolific — I made good deals, I finished them quickly, and I kept a steady stream of souls marching through Hell’s gates.
