Rome Aalders
We could have set out for the Big Apple after the djinn were destroyed, but Kerry was still smoldering and half-conscious, Monkey needed so much healing that Chance was drooping, and Kerry's warden demanded a comprehensive report. So we found a hotel and everyone crashed while I told Hank and Gina Bishop everything there was to tell.
That night, they went back to the Sanctuary to get what they needed to join us, which left me to marshal our troops. I gave Spin the job of watching over our wounded when it became obvious he wasn't going to leave Monkey's side anyway. Jax and Gigi, I sent off to get supplies for Monkey and bring back food for all of us.
That left Mira and me to coordinate with John, try unsuccessfully to contact Clem, and call the Council's switchboard to request a clean-up crew and investigative team for City of the Future. We also tried to organize the New York trip, but no one knew the city better than Kerry. Neither Mira nor I had a clue where to start asking questions, and he would. Hank'd said Kerry knew people at the outpost and had extensive contacts within the Diabolical community. I couldn't hope to rival that, so I decided we would hole up at the hotel until Kerry was restored.
The next day, I was surprised when only Gina 'ported back. She handed me the key to a safe house in Brooklyn. She said she'd been surreptitious about getting it and was as confident as she could be that we'd remain under the radar of the Council's turncoat.
"Hank and I were tapped to head the clean-up and investigation at City of the Future, so you're on your own for a little longer." She looked me in the eye. "I must tell you, I fear the Council will issue a lockdown once we report the extent of human involvement."
I'd expected that. It was a standard procedure in times of crisis.
Before she left, she asked Monkey if she wanted to go back to the Sanctuary, but Monkey became so agitated that Spin had to carry her back to her room and spend the next hour calming her down.
The next day, he said they were ready to leave for their assignment.
I wasn't comfortable with the idea. Chance might have healed her injuries, but Monkey was too fragile to take back into the field, and I told him so.
"She's as healed as she's going to get physically." He shrugged. "She wants to be with me and I promised I'd look after her. If her health relapses, I'll take her to the nearest outpost, but she needs time and space to heal what's broken inside her. Chance says that's something she has to do herself."
Both of us looked over at Monkey, who sat on the floor in front of the TV.
"Let me talk to Kerry first," I stalled.
"Good enough."
He went back to Monkey, and I glanced at Mira.
"I agree with you." Her amber eyes shone with warm, clear light. "She could freeze at the wrong time and get them both killed. Then again, they're only tailing Hubler. How dangerous can it be to keep eyes and ears on the man? Still, you better see what Kerry thinks."
I headed off to the bedroom he shared with Jax. It took a few minutes, but I managed to get him awake long enough to explain what was up. Of course, he told me he didn't give a rat's rectum about Spin or Monkey and, unless I had news of Gemma, I could piss off. Then he went back to sleep.
Very helpful. I blew a deep breath out of my nose.
I didn't like the situation, but Spin was showing more maturity than I'd ever seen from him and, like Mira said, they were only tracking Hubler's movements. Plus, Monkey would never leave Spin, and I had a good feeling he felt the same way. So, reluctant though I was, I gave him the go-ahead to take off.
"Good luck." Chance gave Spin a bro-hug at the door.
"Gracias, el macho muchacho." He turned to me with a grin. "Au revoir, mon frère."
"Tot ziens." I dropped the keys to the rental car into his open hand. "Until I see you again."
"You said you don't speak Dutch!" Mira whapped my bicep with the back of her hand.
"No, I said I spoke it poorly. My oma would wince to hear my accent."
When Kerry woke up later in the afternoon, he wanted to leave, too, insisting he was well enough to travel. Chance insisted he wasn't. Kerry didn't like hearing that, and his irritability ratcheted up to fury between one heartbeat and the next. Flames lit his eyes and a thunderous rumble rolled around the room. Chance threw up his hands and stalked away.
Needless to say, we piled into Mira's car and headed east. After City of the Future, none of us wanted to be the one who lit the tinder of Kerry's temper.
We drove for hours in the wooded highlands until darkness fell. By then, we were all heartily sick of sitting in a car, and Kerry's increasingly crankiness made all of us uneasy. Lunch had been hours ago and his snack supply was gone. Unfortunately, the hungrier he was, the crankier he became, and that made his control slip.
Of course, it doesn't help that he's furious, worried to death about Gemma, and still recovering from both backlash sickness and a total power drain.
To tell the truth, we were lucky he hadn't lost it already.
The bright lights and signs of a travel center came into view, and we all sighed in relief. I was looking forward to stretching my legs.
Then, in a violent screech of metal, the world slid sideways.
#
Mira Kuznetsova
I wasn't going very fast as I pulled onto the exit ramp, but the impact when an SUV slammed into us still whammed my head against the side window. It wasn't enough to knock me out, but it rang my bell good. The SUV didn't let up, and I knew this was no accident. As my eyes rattled around in their sockets, my car went down a steep gully and landed on its passenger side in a wallow of ditchwater and bulrushes.
Hands wrenched my door open, cut through my seatbelt, and yanked me out. My head still ringing, I saw two men had wrestled the back door open and were pulling Gigi out, too.
"MIRA!"
I wanted to answer Rome's bellow, but I was pretty busy. I kicked and punched my captors until they whipped my hands behind my back and something that felt like plastic zip-ties bit into my wrists.
A burst of blue power lit up the darkness, nearly blinding me, and I heard a scream cut short. One of my attackers cursed and dragged me backward. Squirming and jerking, I used all of my strength against him and nearly broke free before a sack came down over my head. All of my power fled, which shocked me long enough for hands to pick me up and toss me into what was probably the SUV that had hit us.
As a body landed on top of me, an elbow drove into my stomach and knocked the wind out of me. Doors slammed and rubber squealed, and my abused head finally said enough.
#
Rome
Kerry was out of the car in a flash, but I knew he was too late from the string of curses he ripped out.
Holding panic off with an iron will, I untangled myself from Chance, got us out of the car, and left him to help Jax.
Kerry was hunkered down next to a pile of ash, his elbows on his thighs and his hands dangling between his knees. When I joined him, he gestured toward the highway.
"Went down the exit ramp and got right back on the road."
"They took Mira," I growled.
"Gigi, too!" Jax shouted as he and Chance ran over. "Why didn't either of you stop them?"
"How? It happened in like two seconds." I rolled my eyes.
"You should have fired off a rocket like Kerry did!"
"And risk hitting Mira or Gigi?" Chance put his hands on his hips. "As it is, Kerry's lucky he didn't!"
"We can get them back," Kerry said, "but we need to hurry."
He stood up, staggered a little, and dodged Chance when he reached out to help. That made him lose his balance completely, and he ended up on his butt in the gravel.
"You know who it was?" I looked down at him with narrowed eyes.
With Mira in the wind, I had a short supply of patience and sympathy.
If this was one of his 'buddies' from his old world, I'm going to—
"No, but they left this behind."
He held out his hand. In his sooty palm, a white stone glowed like a mini moon. A human wouldn't see the light, but anything Diabolical or Divine could.
"What is that?" Jax crouched next to him to examine it. "Some kind of light source?"
"Divinity detector. The only thing on the planet that can sense us in spite of our protection bracelets," I explained.
"Found it on the one I hit." Kerry nodded at the pile of ash.
"Wait. Is that— Is that a dead person?!" Jax screeched and jumped to his feet.
"That's what a blast of pure power does." Kerry shrugged one shoulder, then raised his eyes to mine. "Considering how rare and expensive these are, I'm thinking this was a professional job."
"They were pros, all right." My hands locked into hard fists.
"There are professional nephilim kidnappers?" Jax sounded shocked, and I had to remind myself that he didn't know half of what I did about the Diabolical world.
And I probably know less than a tenth of what Kerry does.
"Raiders. Yeah." Kerry slipped the stone into his jacket pocket. "Has all the signs. They had a way to find us and took us at the exit so they could get back on the highway right away. And it's that time of the month."
"What does the end of the month have to do with anything?" Chance asked.
"Full moon, not the end of the month. Lots of parties and stuff at full moon, so the peddlers need to restock afterwards."
"I don't understand." Jax plowed his hands through his hair, then locked his fingers behind his neck. "Explain better."
"There are places in this world where you can buy anything. Nephilim, humans, demons, shifters, hell creatures. You name it, you can find it for sale somewhere. Full moon is party time for the Diabolical world. Afterward, the peddlers are out of stock of everything. That's when the raiders go on the hunt. Nephilim are the most precious prize, of course, but they're looking for anything someone else would be willing to buy."
"What will they do to them? What will they do to my girl?" Jax dropped his arms.
"Nothing, if we can get there fast enough."
"And where is 'there'?"
"Only one place to buy and sell nephilim in this area. The Diabolical Market in New York City. Double check it, though. Use that friend tracker app on your phone."
"While he's doing that, let's get the car out of the ditch and see if it'll run," I said. "If it does, we can go to the market and buy them back."
"They take a Council credit card?" Chance kicked a rock and it clanged against one of the hubcaps. "Because that's what we got."
"Don't go flashing that thing around where we're going!" Kerry snarled.
"How are we going to pay?" I asked. "I've got some money, but it's in the bank."
"I gotta make a stop to get it, but I have everything we need," he assured me. "Jax, help me up."
Jax's eyebrows shot up, but he grabbed the hand that Kerry stuck out and yanked him to his feet. Either Kerry was looking to distract Jax, or he really was weak enough to need the assist. Watching how he was stumbling around without his usual athletic grace, I went with the latter.
Looking over Mira's car, I saw it wasn't leaking and the tires weren't flat, so we muscled it out of the ditch and got it onto the shoulder. The passenger side was a mess of rumpled metal and the side mirror was smashed, but all of the lights still worked. Miracle of miracles, when I turned the key, it fired up.
I told Chance to drive. We'd get there slower, but we'd get there, which we might not do if any of the rest of us drove. Since the passenger-side doors were jammed, I slid under the wheel and over to the passenger side and Chance climbed in next. Jax and Kerry did the same in the back seat, then we were off.
"You were right, Kerry." Jax held up his phone. "They're heading toward the Big Apple. Let's just hope Gigi's battery - or mine - doesn't die."
"Good." Kerry grunted. "I know the guy in charge of the pens. He has a code of honor. Long as we get there before any other buyer, we'll get them back without a hitch."
Knowing the chances of that, I turned my face toward the dark window and tried to keep hope alive.