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“Look, I’m not interested in your interference,” she announced. “Whatever is going on between that angel and me is none of your business—”
“The Creator sent us for Lassiter. You want to get in the middle of that? You’re welcome to. I’ll just grab a chair and my popcorn and watch the floor show.”
Those black eyes narrowed. “So you’re taking him away? From the earth?”
Eddie was not an angel who ordinarily shared intel with the enemy, but something about the way she’d gone suddenly still made him inclined to chat.
“Yup. We’re here to collect him.”
Crossing her arms over her breasts, she seemed to get lost in thought. “Fair enough. Have him, he’s yours—but just so we’re clear, when you leave with him, he’ll be gone. Like out of commission forever.”
“The end result’s not up to me. I’m just the messenger with the summons.”
“Lucky you,” she murmured. “I’ll let you live then.”
At that, she blew him a kiss and dematerialized like she had an appointment somewhere. Maybe to get her nails done. Or have some poor bastard drawn and quartered.
Gritting his molars, Eddie hated when she did the whole last-word thing. Goddamn it, now he was going to spend the rest of the night trying out retorts and wishing he could feed them to her—
“What the fuck happened here—”
“Why the fuck did you run off—”
Two of the Brothers arrived on scene in midsentence, the male with the goatee in the lead—Vishous was his name—and the blond Ken doll right on his heels. And it went without saying that they didn’t use the locked glass doors, but stepped through the cutout in the brick wall. More efficient that way, and it didn’t trigger the alarm.
The fact that there was a hole in the side of the building but the security system was silent seemed like a fine commentary on the way the night was going.
“It was the demon, wasn’t it,” Vishous said. “And that’s Lassiter’s blood on the pavement out there, isn’t it.”
“I didn’t have time to explain back in the basement,” Eddie shot back as he brushed dust off his jeans. “But yeah, she just took off.”
The blond Brother, the one with the bright blue eyes, lowered his black dagger as he looked around. “You know, I like the way you redecorate. It’s whimsical, with just a hint of wrecking ball.”
“I was inspired,” Eddie muttered. “What can I say.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine.”
Over at the hole in the outer wall, the scarred Brother stepped in and announced, loudly and clearly, “Your friend drove off with Lassiter, and you’re going to take us to them now.”
“Says who.”
“So you’re kidnapping the angel, then.”
Eddie tilted his head. “Are we going to have a problem here?”
“Yeah, I think we are.” The Brother’s yellow stare flipped to black, those eyes narrowing. “But it’s not going to be a big one. You’ve lost a shit ton of blood, so you’re not going to be a lot of trouble, and we can prisoner swap you for our angel if we have to.”
“Or the other guy can really just keep him,” Vishous intoned. “I mean, let’s look at all the options, shall we?”
As Eddie opened his mouth to respond, the world went for a little spinny-spin-spin, and he threw out a hand, hoping to save himself from another Xerox-related recline. The copier was saved, however. The big blond one swooped in, and like the lead in a dance pair, did a waist-and-nape grab that made Eddie the girl in the dip.
The Brother smiled as he looked down, flashing bright white fangs. “Tootsie Pop?”
“Whhha…?” Eddie mumbled.
Something in a purple wrapper appeared in his face. “I think your blood sugar’s low.”
A whiff of grape was the last thing Eddie was aware of before he went library book… and checked the hell out.
* * *
Behind the wheel of the Mini, Adrian was ten-and-two’ing it, his body curled around the steering column, his right leg straight out into the wheel well like someone was goosing him in the ass. The smell of Lassiter’s blood was thick in his nose, the sweet perfume like fresh-cut flowers—none of that copper human crap.
Funny how eau d’artery motivated a guy to screw the traffic laws.
Not that Ad was really bound by anything human.
He had no real idea where he was going as he barreled along, blowing through red lights and stop signs, the buildings that flanked the one-way crowding up close to the sidewalks like they wanted to try traveling themselves. The direction he was heading in didn’t matter. The only thing he cared about was getting some distance between him and Lassiter and that demon. Well, that and having Eddie somehow show up unhurt after he’d—
The ghostly apparition appeared right in front of the car, and Ad barely got a glimpse of the spooling white hair and the shockingly pedestrian clothes before he stomped on the brakes and wrenched the wheel.
