Rome
I didn't feel like it, but I wanted to scope out the area before full dark. Kerry wouldn't let me go alone, so the two of us went together. I knew I needed to walk to keep my lungs clear, but I had to use a stream of power to hold off the pain, which was exhausting.
Needless to say, I wasn't at my best.
When we reached the edge of the motel's crumbling parking lot, Kerry came to a dead stop and lifted his chin. His nostrils flared, and I narrowed my eyes as I looked around.
"Do you smell that?" he muttered.
I took a deep breath in through my nose and picked up the barest trace of something Diabolical.
"Faintly. Can you tell which direction it's coming from?"
"The car over there." He tilted his head toward the gas station across the road from them.
We started walking toward a gigantic Oldsmobile parked at the pumps. The mid-1970s car was blue with a matching interior and looked to be in pristine condition. As I watched, a girl slid out of the driver's side and walked around the trunk of the car, her gait almost robotic, and the bright lights of the gas station illuminated the area enough for me to see her clearly.
Under a red and white bandana, her honey-blonde hair hung in two thick braids that reached nearly to her waist. Her long-sleeved gray t-shirt and threadbare jeans afforded her little protection from the freezing temperatures. Both were smeared with grease stains and dirt, as were her hands and face. The only saving grace of her outfit were the red, knee-high boots she wore.
"Go flirt with her," I suggested.
"Do what now?" His breathing suddenly sounded labored.
"Flirt with her. It'll distract her while I look in the car."
"Are you insane?" he hissed. "First, I have no idea how to do that. Second, you have a concussion and smashed ribs while I'm on fire to kill something. Third, like I just said, I'm not safe right now. I'd probably hurt her. You flirt with her and I'll look in the car."
"Fine, whatever." I rolled my eyes.
The closer I got to the car, the more I could smell the unmistakable tang of evil. The girl herself seemed oblivious to our presence. She stood there and held the handle of the nozzle and stared off into space. It wasn't until I was two feet away that she seemed to notice me.
She was built like an athlete and taller than I'd thought, less than a head shorter than me. It was a new experience to have a girl's eyes so close to my own. And what gorgeous eyes they were. The most unusual amber color I'd ever seen and absolutely striking.
"Hello." I gave her a small smile. "My friend and I love old cars. Mind if we take a look?"
She didn't break eye contact with me as she shook her head. Kerry must have taken that as permission, because he opened the driver's side door and dove in. Moving closer, she grabbed my coat sleeve - and that was when I realized what she was. The stench of coercion taint nearly overpowered it, but I caught the sweet note of her Divine heritage.
"Help me," she ground out.
"We're going to." I kept my voice as gentle as I could with my ribs throbbing and Diabolical stink going up my nose. "Kerry'll kill the evil thing. I'm not sure how that will affect you. Might hurt pretty badly and might not."
The smile she gave me never touched her eyes.
"Yeah, I get it." I grimaced. "Doesn't matter much as long as it ends, right? I'm Rome. Rome Aalders. What's your name?"
She seemed to waver for a moment, and I realized she was weighing how much it would hurt to answer.
"Ope, I'm sorry. Never mind. Wait until you're free."
Without warning, her eyes closed, her body slumped, and her forehead thudded against my shoulder. I hastily wrapped an arm around her waist as she continued sliding downward, her knees apparently not functioning at the moment.
Jeez, that hurts!
I grunted, my wounds and broken bits letting me know they weren't very happy.
Kerry exited the car with his hair defying gravity and his eyes neon. Seeing my predicament, he snickered.
"What was it? Is it gone?"
"A lesser devil." He waved one hand. "And 'course it's gone. Why do you think she fainted?"
As he came around the trunk, he did a little stutter-step, then inhaled deeply.
"She's a neph. I can smell it under the coercion taint."
"Me, too. I wonder where her warden is." I hefted the girl up in my arms, despite the loud protests of my ribs. "And her protection bracelet."
"You wanna turn your eyes on or do you want me to do it?"
Turn your eyes on... Oh. He means x-ray her.
"You do it. Just let me sit down first or I may pass out."
With the devil's physical form destroyed, its essence had returned to the abyss, which freed the girl on one level. She'd be something of a zombie, though, until we discovered how she'd been coerced. I sat sideways in the front passenger seat and held her as Kerry ran his spotlight eyes over her, then managed to shift her around so he could sweep the other side.
Through my own haze of pain, I saw his bright lights pause on the small of her back.
"It has a claw in her," he said. "Let's take her back to the motel."
I swung my legs in and held the girl against my chest. He angled her legs in, closed the door for me, and took care of the gas pump before he trotted around the car's hood. Once he slid behind the wheel, though, he just sat there.
"You do know how to drive, right?" I asked, wondering at the delay.
"I got my driver's license a few weeks ago." He stared out the windshield.
"That didn't answer my question."
"I just never drove a car this ... wide." He turned the key in the ignition.
"What do you drive? One of those teeny electric cars?" I snorted in derision. "Just go easy on the gas pedal with this old girl. She packs a punch."
He drove over to the motel and brought us to a smooth stop in the parking space outside our rooms.
"Good job." I was surprised. "Most new drivers slam on the brakes and the passengers all go flying."
"I was driving long before I got a real license." He leapt out of the car and came around to open my door. "I can get Travis to carry her."
"No offense, but he's a pretty puny boy and she's no lightweight. I can do it."
Then I shook my head at my own idiocy. This was going to hurt.
Stupid pride.
I started to get out, careful not to bump the girl's head, and Kerry ran up to Gigi's door and knocked.
"Found someone who needs help," I heard him tell her.
She held the door open and her dark blue eyes took in the girl in my arms as I brought her in. I laid her on the bed closest to the door before I noticed John and Travis were in the room, too. The contents of everyone's packs were spread on the other bed and floor, and I assumed they'd been reorganizing our remaining supplies.
"It's on her back." Kerry twirled his index finger. "Roll her over."
"You roll her over," I gasped. "I'm done."
I had to grab a pillow and bend over it to ease the spasms in my ribs. Gigi ended up being the one who rolled the girl over, then lifted her shirt. She sucked in a sharp breath, and I looked over to see noxious green marks running up the girl's spine.
At first, I was so strung out from pain, I thought they were just tattoos and couldn't understand Gigi's expression. Then I realized the truth. Her devil had carved the same marks into her flesh over and over until they'd become scars.
"Son. Of. A. Whore." Kerry had figured it out, too.
"What language is that?" John asked.
"Well, it's not Angelic, Arabic, Japanese, or anything that uses Cyrillic." Travis bent to examine the lettering more closely. "It's not Braille or Morse code, either. That's all the language systems I know."
"It's Infernal," Kerry rumbled.
"Is it a word or just random sigils?" Travis looked up at him.
"It's a word." Kerry turned away from the girl's back.
"And?" Gigi pressed him. "What's it say?"
"Slave."
#
Kerry
After a quick convo with Rome, I drew a circle of power around the bed and the Infernal outline of letters disappeared.
The scar didn't.
Making myself go gently, I pulled out a black claw and watched as it dissolved into black-green goo. A little bead of blood rose up in her skin, and I broke the circle so Gigi could stick a bandage on it.
"You really did mean it had a claw in her." Rome shook his head. "Freaking coercion."
"Yeah." I wiped my hand on my pant leg.
The girl rolled over, then came awake and aware all at once. She scrambled to sit up and her eyes darted everywhere.
I moved away and motioned the others back, thinking she might feel threatened with four guys around her. Gigi sat on the edge of the mattress and smiled.
"Hi. I'm Bridget Carnahan, but most everyone calls me Gigi. You're safe now. The devil's banished and your coercion broken. No one here will harm you."
Gigi pointed to each of us and said our names, and the girl stared at us with a blank face.
"Water?" She sounded like she hadn't spoken in a long time. "Please?"
Travis brought a bottle over and sat on her other side. When she shied away from him, panic all over her face, he stood up and handed the bottle to Gigi, who helped her sit up and piled pillows behind her so she could drink.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Mi—" she stopped, coughing harshly, and took another long swallow of water. "Mira Kuznetsova."
"That's a mouthful," John muttered.
"It's Russian." Travis waved one hand. "How old are you, Mira? Do you know how long you were enslaved?"
After telling her the date, she said she was twenty and had been enslaved for a little more than two years. I cut my eyes over to Rome, who understood what I wanted right away. He pulled out his phone and started texting.
Mira yawned, her eyelids heavy and her face lined with exhaustion.
"Are you hungry?" I asked.
"Yes, but I might throw up if I eat."
"Yeah, it takes awhile for your stomach to remember food." I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. "I know you feel like you wanna sleep for a year, but maybe you wanna clean up first? Take a bath or shower? Gigi could, uh, help you and loan you some clothes?" I looked at Gigi, who nodded, so I went on. "In the morning, could we borrow your car to go into town for supplies? In return, make a list of anything you need and we'll get it for you while we're there."
"We'll get you some soup and ginger ale." Travis nodded. "That worked best for me. I didn't vomit it up, anyway. Maybe some OJ, too."
I remembered the broth and orange juice Hank had poured into me the first few days after the exorcism. Seemed wise.
"Thank you." Her voice was hoarse and Gigi encouraged her to take another sip of water. "I can't remember the last time I ate anything or bathed or changed clothes."
"Here." Travis handed Gigi one of the motel's little notepads and pens. "John and I made a list for the rest of us, too. Just add your stuff"
I tried to think fast. I hated to delay any more than necessary. I wanted to start looking for a trail, but I couldn't abandon this girl. She didn't look capable of caring for herself at the moment, and I knew exactly how it felt to find yourself suddenly freed after years of enslavement. To come to your senses with no idea of who you were anymore.
To feel like you didn't deserve to be alive.
"How did you know what to do?" Mira's face was puzzled as she looked first at me, then at Rome. "You knew right away something was wrong."
"Me and Rome can smell evil." I shrugged. "We can also smell what you are."
"She might not know what she is," Rome raised an eyebrow at me, then turned to Mira. "Do you know you're not purely human?"
"Oh, yeah. My mother had no problem reminding me whose spawn I was."
"What's your power?" Gigi smiled. "I'm a watcher. John is a messenger. Kerry and Rome are warriors, of course. Travis is a bookworm—"
"Book dragon," Travis insisted, "or bibliothecary, to be categorical. Not worm."
"I don't know the names for anything." Mira shook her head. "I like tinkering with engines and inventing things. Metal does anything I ask it to. I can fix nearly any machine. Is a mechanic a type of nephilim?"
"It's called an artificer," Travis told her, then looked at me.
"They're going to love you at the Sanctuary." Rome looked at me now, too.
What did they want me to do? Confirm it?
"Uh, so, you glow gray when you use your power, right?"
"Yes. The Sanctuary? What's that?"
"It's a place where nephilim can go for protection, education or training, and support," Rome explained. "We can't take you there right now. We're out on a mission and were ambushed earlier today. Several of our friends have been taken and we need to rescue them."
"Oh, no! Of course you need to save your friends. Don't even worry about me."
"Do you have family or anyone who may be looking for you?" I stuffed my hands in my pockets. This would be so much easier if we could dump her off in someone else's lap.
"No."
There goes that idea.
"Okay, enough. The rest can come later." Gigi stood suddenly and flapped a hand at us, taking over like a battlefield general. Her accent peeked out and I hid a smile. "Y'all go to the diner and fetch us some food while Mira takes a bath."
#
Gigi was right.
Although I didn't quite understand the expression she'd used, I learned this sleepy little town did shut down after dark. Me and Travis were the last customers at the diner, and, when he asked, the cashier said nothing would be open until morning.
We ate our late supper in the girls' room. Mira managed to keep down a cup of tomato soup. She looked better after her bath, but was still exhausted.
John, on the other hand, looked terrible. He didn't eat much, saying he felt nauseous and had a headache. I made him take two more pills and Travis promised to check on him throughout the night.
When we got to our room, I noticed Rome's face was flushed and he held his damaged arm stiffly. He favored that side, too, as he sat on his bed and wrestled out of his boots and jeans.
Mira is an armload to carry around. His ribs must be killing him. I don't trust myself too much, but I should try to help him.
"Should we check your wounds?"
"Only if you smell something putrid." He crawled into bed.
Although I had never heard 'putrid' before, I understood and nodded. A wound stunk if it became infected.
Not knowing what else to do, I picked up my sketchbook, put it down again, and fiddled with the blinds until they closed without a gap. I thought about going for a run, but didn't want to leave the others unprotected. With a sigh, I started to pace.
"Stop that! Jeez!" He rolled over and covered his head with a pillow. "At least rest if you can't sleep, or you'll be fit for nothing tomorrow."
"Sorry." Falling on top of my bed, I spread out my arms and legs and stared at the ceiling.
"Want to talk?" he asked after a minute, his voice muffled by the pillow.
"'Bout what?"
"It doesn't matter, does it? Why does Gemma call you—"
"Don't talk about her!" I barked. "What's college like?"
"Oh. Boring, to be honest." He uncovered his head. "At least for me it is. Probably would be for you, too. I can't see you taking notes and listening to an hour-long lecture and enjoying it."
"Ugh. Sounds worse than high school. Do you have to go to college to go on missions?"
"No. You're on a team. When it pulls out, you go along. That's why there are so many nephilim who live at the Sanctuary. It's hard to cut out of a job at a moment's notice in the human world."
"Does it pay well?"
"Sure. And you can freelance while working for the Council, too. As long as you live at the Sanctuary and serve, the Council pays you and covers your mission expenses. Freelancing, though, gives you that extra for a nest egg. You should talk to your warden about money. He or she could guide you better than I can about finances."
"I ain't worried about money."
I had plenty of it stashed away, and getting more was easy.
It's after midnight and he's injured. I should be quiet so he can sleep.
I folded my hands behind my head and tried to imagine life after high school. It was hard to do when I had no plans, no ambitions, no dreams.
Until a few days ago, I'd them. I'd even dared to hope—
Impossible things. My throat tightened up. Things not meant for the likes of me.
"Kerry?"
"I thought you fell asleep." I swiped at my eyes and cleared my throat. "I'll shut up, okay? I know you're tired and hurt."
"I've had worse than busted ribs. You can keep talking if it helps."
"I've been thinking." I took him at his word. "Maybe Hubler and Castle didn't take them for the bounty."
"I've been thinking along the same lines. Why do you think that?"
"While Castle held me - well, I guess it was you and me. Can you understand things in snake form?"
"Yeah. I'm still me inside. My brain is still my brain."
"Good to know. Anyway, the way he and Hubler were talking makes me think they were raiding for nephs in general. Hubler seemed surprised to find so many of us."
"What else did they say?" he asked.
"Something about a blood farm and a lab. Wouldn't be the first person to use nephs for research or experiments or sacrifices to fuel dark magic." I rolled over on my side, staring blankly at the wall as my mind turned everything over. "Or even to sell them. Big money in peddling people. Might have something to do with the missing teams from school."
"Hmm. Didn't think of that. I've been wondering why they haven't asked for a ransom yet. If they took them for the bounty, you'd think someone would have heard about the Prince paying up."
"Aw, they gotta know by now that none of them is a miracle worker," I pointed out. "Can't claim a bounty if you don't have the merchandise."
"Depends on how good Amanda's illusion is."
"Forgot about that." I closed my eyes against the sudden stab in my chest. "I never, never, never shoulda let her do that. I shoulda put the bullseye on my own back."
"Should of, could of, would of. It's done. Don't carry the burden of regretting something you can't change."
"Maybe we should head up to the Diabolical Market in New York."
"We can if we don't find something soon. We can also hit up other sources of information. And ask Mira if her devil shared any information with her. She may be more up on what's stirring in the Dark World right now than we are."
"I'm glad you're here," I told him. "You've got good ideas. Thanks for helping me."
"Don't get all sentimental!"
I tensed up for a moment, ready for an attack because he sounded angry, but he didn't stir from his bed.
"Um, what does sentimental mean?"
"Are you trying to irritate me to death?" He seemed to be talking through gritted teeth.
I clamped my own jaw shut. I'd ask Gigi or Travis tomorrow. I wouldn't bother him again. He already had a bad opinion of me. I didn't need to make it any worse.
And it only makes me look dumb. I winced. Almost twenty years old and I don't have the vocabulary of a fifth-grader.
From the other bed came a strangled sound.
"Sometimes I forget that you're serious and not mocking me. I hang out with Spin too much. He's always playing around and messing with me like that."
Is he trying to apologize?
"Sentimental means pathetic and lame. No. That's colored by my bias. It's not pathetic or lame to be sentimental, I guess. This is harder than I would have thought!" He was quiet for a minute, then said, "Sentimental just means emotional, like in a soft way."
As I thought about that, I heard his breathing even out in sleep. I wished I could escape to dreamland, too. Every time I closed my eyes, though, I saw her white face when I told her not to touch me. That chased sleep away right quick.
I reached between my bed and the wall and pulled up what I'd stashed there earlier. Her scent clung to the backpack, and I was tempted to take Sir Martin out because that's where it would be the richest. It would start to fade over time, though, and I didn't wanna waste any. I was gonna need all the grounding I could get until I found her.
Curling around the backpack, I was finally able to fall asleep.
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