Epilogue #2
Rory shrugged as he glanced up at the heavy-set man hanging from what appeared to be a piece of the garage door track that had somehow broken off and pierced him straight through his heart.
“I don’t think a four foot ten, ninety-pound woman could do that to him.
She couldn’t even reach that high, standing on a chair. ”
That made sense. Unless she was Helly…
Sorcha went over to pick up a piece of crumpled paper from underneath the red SUV that was parked in the other bay. Straightening it out, she glanced over it.
Luke came over. “What’d you find?”
“Credit card statement. Looks like he’s been spending a lot of time at the Emerald Princess Casino.” It was the only casino in Georgia. A riverboat that sailed out of Brunswick about an hour and a half south of Savannah.
“Yeah.” Luke leaned over her shoulder. “Look at the amount.”
Sorcha saw Rory’s boss heading toward the door. “What’s he doing?” she asked Rory.
He shrugged. “There’s no need in keeping everyone on scene. It’s an easy open-and-shut accident. The cap’s going to make a statement to the press.”
As they began pulling the man down from the door, she and Luke went inside to find the man’s widow sitting on the couch.
Visibly shaken, the tiny woman sat with swollen eyes as she blew her nose into a Kleenex. “I just can’t believe this happened while I was away. Oh my goodness, what a terrible, awful day!”
“Mrs. Gary? Were you aware of your husband’s gambling?” Sorcha wasn’t sure why she felt the need to ask.
She nodded. “Tony couldn’t help himself. In fact, it was in a casino in New Orleans where he first met me.” She looked up with a wistful smile. “He really liked to play the odds.”
The doorbell rang.
“If you’ll excuse me now, I must go. I’m sure that’s my sister come to comfort me in my time of woe.” She got up and walked off.
The moment she left, Luke let out a peculiar snort.
“What’s wrong?”
He glanced toward the door, then reached down for something that was partially buried in the woman’s pocketbook and pulled it out. “Met in New Orleans, right?”
“That’s what she said. Why?”
Luke showed her a poppet that was dressed identically to the victim. A poppet with a large spike through its chest that held a note that read—I-O-U. “Apparently, the casino wasn’t the only one Tony Gary owed a debt to.”
She sucked her breath in sharply between her teeth as she realized the woman must be one of the Witchbreeds Luke had talked about. “What are the odds Rory would believe us?”
“About as likely as winning the lottery.” He tucked the doll back into her purse. “It’s IA, but as you always say, how do we write this one up?”
Bernadette joined them. “Did y’all find something?”
“An inexplicable truth.”
She winced at Luke’s words. “Well, we’ll just let Savannah’s finest handle it, then.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Sorcha didn’t say anything. It wasn’t her place.
Removing her gloves, she followed Luke back to Delilah. “That was interesting.”
“Yeah, and for some reason, I’m craving a corn dog.”
She groaned out loud. “You are absolutely awful.”
He wrinkled his nose at her. “Yes, I am.”
Just as she opened the door, Helly appeared in the back seat. Panicked and breathless, she sat up and grabbed Luke’s arm. “We have a problem. Please don’t kill me.”
The storm in his eyes made Sorcha catch her breath. “What did you do, Helly?”
“Nothing. I swear. It wasn’t me.”
“What wasn’t you?”
Biting her lip, Helly glanced to Sorcha, then back to Luke. “The demons are out of the closet.”
Xolotl knelt on the ground and allowed her white Dire Wolf companion to lick her cheek as she faced her most worthless accomplice. “Your plan failed. Luke’s still on the human plane.”
“I know. No matter what we try, he always lands on his feet. I swear he’s more feline than hound.”
Perhaps, but it didn’t change the fact that they’d lost for the moment. “Time is running out for us to disband the Orders.”
Shimmering in the darkness, the shadow put more space between them. “The fey won’t be intimidated so easily in the future. Not after Senka’s chat with their queen.”
Xolotl wasn’t that concerned with the fey. “They’re only one Order. We have others we can use.”
The shadow nodded. “This isn’t over. I won’t stop until he’s in chains and we have taken our rightful place in the universe.”
“Good.” Because Luke Teivel was the only one who could stop them. Damn him for it. “Find a way to kill him.”
“Working on it. You’ll have his head as soon as I can find his weakness.”
Xolotl nodded. “Torture or slay whoever you have to.”
“That an order?” the shadow asked.
“Call it a request. And in the meantime…” Xolotl sent her wolf off to cause havoc and fear in the human world. “We’ll keep him off kilter.”
“I won’t fail.” The shadow disintegrated into the darkness.
Xolotl didn’t move until it was completely gone.
Alone now, she walked over to the fiery calendar that counted down to the time when just the right configuration would be in place. On that day, the jail that held the lawless ones would weaken.
She couldn’t wait.
Once they were freed, there would be no one to stop her.
As it was in the beginning, it would be in the end.
For too long, they’d been relegated to myths and darkness. Mankind had made a mockery of this world. They didn’t deserve it.
Xolotl and her kind did.
And death would take the Prince and King of Perdition.
A new world order was coming, and Xolotl would rule it.