The Blood Bracelets #3: Soul Scarred

Chapter Six

'Keep your eyes on the road, Ace,' Eljae ordered, casting him an annoyed stare.

Ace's eyes whipped ahead, settling back on the street they drove down.

They were approaching Temple Court Place, so Ace did a quick check in the rear-view mirror and then pulled the car to the side, bumping the gutter. Eljae shot him an irritable look, her mood souring with every passing moment.

Before Ace could even kill the engine, Eljae threw open her door and stepped out. Ace watched her in exasperation as the door slammed shut, at a loss of what to do.

Fiery, independent, and witty Eljae he could handle; solemn, quiet and disparate Eljae he could also handle – but snappy, aggravated and I-will-gut-you Eljae made Ace very, very nostalgic for the days where the only women he had to worry about were the ones he was silently escaping from the morning after.

Eljae's mood had flipped like a coin the moment they left Drake's place, and though he knew it wasn't the shifter's fault it would be much easier if Ace could pretend it was.

Eljae slapped her palm against his window. 'Hurry up!'

Ace reluctantly left the car.

He regarded their parking spot as he locked Zed's car, because the front left tire was perched up on the edge of the gutter with the car itself at an angle. Not to mention they were parked illegally on Little Collins Street.

Zed would be furious.

With that thought, Ace pocketed the keys and followed Eljae.

She was standing beside the blue sign screwed into the wall that read Temple Court Place, her nose scrunched up with disgust. Ace was about to ask what she could smell when the odour hit him. Lining the wall down the lane was a row of bins, filled in readiness for collection. Ace covered his nose against his sleeve, and then looked to Eljae in sympathy.

'Gross,' she muttered, covering her nose as well. 'I can't smell any demons though.'

'I think that's the point,' Ace remarked. 'Come on.'

They followed the lane until it curved around the back of a building, where multiple garage doors sat side-by-side all with graffiti on them.

Ace pulled his sleeve up again, revealing the circular symbol Drake had penned onto his skin. He could understand many of the old languages – Latin, Old Latin, even phrases from Daemonic – but the word written above the symbol seemed to be a strange combination of both, or perhaps it was just a password. The symbol itself was a pentagram, but each point of the star extended beyond the perimeter of the circle, then angled to the left like straight hooks.

'Ace,' said Eljae, pointing ahead.

Ace turned and on the second garage door to their left was the symbol, interwoven amongst seemingly random graffiti. He and Eljae approached the door cautiously, and as they neared it Ace began to feel the familiar prickle along his skin of demonic energy. He exchanged a look with Eljae, who shrugged.

Ace knocked on the garage door, his knuckles rapping loudly across the flimsy steel. It took a moment, long enough that Ace thought no one would answer, until he heard someone on the other side of the door. Just as it began to raise he remembered what Drake said; don't look them in the eye. Instantly he dropped his gaze.

Eljae pinched his arm – and Ace remembered that he wasn't supposed to make it obvious. He lifted his eyes again, keeping them slightly off-centre from what he expected to be eye-level. When the garage door rolled up with a rusted clang, Ace found himself staring at a woman's chest.