21 FLIP THE BIRD
FLIP THE BIRD
W HEN S UNSHINE FLASHED THEM TO THE ROOF OF Raum’s apartment building, Luna freaked a little and ran circles around his legs, nearly tripping him with the leash.
Once she calmed down, he began disentangling himself amid Sunshine’s laughter, fighting back his own laugh. He hid it out of habit. He wasn’t used to laughing, and the truth was, it embarrassed him a little bit when he did. He felt like he was exposing too much.
When he was untied, he handed the leash to Sunshine. The first time they’d been here together, he hadn’t cared a lick about leaving her alone on the roof. Now, he didn’t like it.
He glanced around at their drab surroundings. “You’ll be okay up here?”
“We’ll be fine,” she assured him, reaching down to pat Luna’s head. “We’ll get some sun and enjoy the view.”
“I’ll make it quick.”
“We’ll be here.”
He went to the edge of the building, pausing briefly before he jumped off.
As he plummeted downward, he didn’t have the same urge to let himself keep falling as he normally did, and he shifted sooner than usual.
The fall hadn’t given him the typical rush, hadn’t provided the same distraction from the emptiness.
Because, he realized … there wasn’t much emptiness to begin with.
He didn’t think that was a good thing.
He was getting addicted to Sunshine. He could jump off buildings until he was blue in the face—or rather, a stain on the sidewalk—and it wouldn’t come close to how it felt tasting her as she came apart on his tongue. Or feeling his shaft slide between her lips, or spilling all over her chest.
Or … listening to her laugh. Seeing her smile. Hearing the way she said his name. Looking into those big dark eyes, so full of life. Catching her watching him from the corner of his eye.
Fuck, he was so fucked.
He landed on the windowsill to his room and squeezed through the crack, shifting to human form when he was back inside.
His room looked the same, yet it felt like a stranger’s space. He stared at the undecorated walls and felt no sense of belonging or identity. It was just a room he slept in. He might as well have been sleeping in a hotel.
On a whim, he crossed the space, moved the chair barricading his closet shut, and whipped open the doors. It was the first time he’d done it in months. To keep his loot contained, he’d taken to slipping his new acquisitions through the crack between the doors and the frame at the top.
Now, freed at last, his hoard spilled forth. The pile came up to about his ankles, covered the entire bottom of the closet, and overflowed a couple feet onto the bedroom floor. There were wallets, phones, jewelry, car keys, drugs, and other miscellaneous valuables.
He looked at the pile of his deepest shame … and laughed. Well, it was more of a silent snort, but for him, that counted as a laugh.
His brothers were right. He took things too damn seriously all the time. This pile haunted him like a vengeful ghost. He often lay awake at night, trying not to stare at the closet doors, knowing what lurked behind them.
But it was just a bunch of mostly useless shit he’d jacked from humans. What was the big deal?
The humans probably had a shitty rest of their day when they realized they’d been robbed, but their lives went on. People who could afford Rolexes and diamond rings weren’t exactly impoverished. They could buy new shit.
So why was he so haunted about it? So he had an itch. Oh well. Could be worse. After countless centuries of being a bloodthirsty fiend, a little kleptomania was practically harmless.
With a shrug, he turned his back on the pile and threw open his bedroom door, leaving it right there on the floor for all to see.
As soon as he stepped into the hall, Mist appeared in front of him. Literally: He reformed from black mist.
Raum blinked in surprise, but then, he was used to Mist being weird.
“Hello,” the Hunter said.
“Hi …”
The Hunter cocked his head, and his nostrils flared. He drew in a long inhale, and Raum had a sudden suspicion, remembering his warning to Sunshine at the Blood Market about the importance of covering her scent.
Could Mist scent her on him now?
Nape prickling, he waited, but the Hunter gave no further reaction. “You good?” Raum asked, narrowing his eyes. Yeah, Mist was weird, but he wasn’t usually this weird.
“I am,” Mist replied evenly.
“All right.”
When it appeared neither of them had anything else to say, Raum sidestepped him and headed toward the kitchen.
Unsurprisingly, Bel was there with a big knife in one hand, chopping through a pile of onions like he was competing in Ultimate Chef Race or some other lame cooking show he watched when he thought no one was around.
Bel glanced up when Raum entered and paused his rapid dicing. “Where the fuck have you been?”
Ah, it was good to be home. “Around.”
Bel’s eyes narrowed—blue for now, thankfully. “Where?”
Why had Raum thought it a good idea to come by? All he was doing was opening himself to be interrogated. “Around,” he repeated, firmer.
“Around where.”
“Just around.”
They stared at each other. Bel’s stance with the knife started to seem more threatening.
And then he surprised the hell out of Raum by saying, “Is everything … okay?”
Raum frowned warily at his brother.
Bel rolled his eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m just asking. Jesus.”
“I’m fine.”
Raum sensed a presence at his back and glanced over his shoulder. Mist was standing there, looming in all his dark intensity, fixing him with a yellow-eyed stare.
Raum looked back at Bel and narrowed his eyes. There was a vibe in the air that was beyond weird. Glancing between the two demons who were staring way too directly at him, he asked, “What’s going on?”
“Just making sure my brother is okay,” Bel said calmly. Too calmly.
Raum’s heart sped up. Something was way off.
“He’s been compromised,” Mist said suddenly. “The scent is clear.”
Fuck.
Bel nodded. “Go. I’ll deal with him.”
“Wait—” Raum began, but Mist was already gone, dissolved back into mist. “Where’d he go?”
“I got you. No need to worry.” Bel took a step toward him, knife still in hand.
Raum backed up, shooting a glance at the patio door and windows. All closed. Fuck.
He gave it a shot anyway.
Bel lunged. Raum shifted.
But Belial hadn’t earned his reputation for being the baddest motherfucker in Hell for nothing. He tossed his knife at the crow shooting across the room, and his aim was dead-on.
It pierced Raum’s feathery body and knocked him right out of the air.
He shifted back to a seriously pissed-off man with a knife in his side and leapt to his feet. “What the fuck?!” he roared at Bel, and he whipped the blade out and hurled it at his brother with as much force as he could muster.
The sonofabitch caught it straight out of the air. By the blade.
Raum started to shift again, but Bel was already across the room, grabbing him. Raum’s wings crunched under Bel’s grip, so he shifted back to human form and punched him in the face. Bel didn’t even flinch. Hellfire blazed in his eyes instead, and he gained several inches of height and breadth.
The violence was setting him off. Fucking great.
Belial decked Raum back with a boulder-sized fist. Raum’s head snapped back and lights danced in his eyes.
Okay, now he was pissed off.
“You piece of shit.” He spat a mouthful of blood in Bel’s face.
“Sorry, bro,” Bel said, but his demonic eyes were alight with the thrill of violence.
Raum really didn’t have time for an intervention or whatever Bel thought this was. He needed to get back to the roof and get Sunshine out of here as soon as possible. So he did something he never did when he was on Earth—desperate times, desperate measures, and all that.
He shifted to his full-demon form.
He was way too big to cram into this tiny human-sized apartment, but right now he only cared about beating Belial to a pulp.
His plan worked too. Bel momentarily froze, shocked by the sight of Raum’s demon—something he hadn’t seen in a long time. Raum used the opportunity to lunge, wings spread as far as they could in the confined space, and drive his beak into his brother’s throat.
Belial roared, and then he burst into flames.
It was a sunny day, though the spring air was still fresh. On the roof, there were still a few piles of old snow, protected in the north-facing shadows behind chimneys and air conditioning units. Another day or two of warm sun and they would melt.
Sunshine took a seat on a raised ledge with a triangle-shaped skylight and decided to let Luna off her leash. It was an enclosed area, and there was nowhere she could run off to, and Sunshine figured it would be a good experience for her to explore.
Luna seemed much less timid now that they were away from the shelter, and when Sunshine reached down to unclip the leash, she didn’t cower. When she was free, she didn’t run as most dogs would have. Instead, she stood in place and looked up at Sunshine.
Her eyes seemed to say, Don’t you want me? As if she feared Sunshine was abandoning her by taking off the leash.
Sunshine wondered if that was what her previous owner had done. “You’re free to sniff around if you would like,” she told Luna, “but I’m taking you with me when we go.”
Her head cocked a little.
“I’ll keep you with me as long as I’m able. Don’t tell Raum, but I would keep you for the rest of your short canine lifespan if I could.”
Luna’s tail lifted a little, and then she put her little gray nose down and sniffed the ground. A moment later, she was off exploring.
Sunshine leaned against the skylight with a smile, enjoying the sun on her skin. She let her thoughts drift, which of course meant they went straight to a certain golden-eyed demon. She closed her eyes and gave in to the butterflies for once, and her smile broadened.
She couldn’t wait for them to be alone later. Perhaps she could convince him to take up where they’d left off in the shower this morning. Perhaps she could convince him to reenact her dream.
A sudden awareness had her eyes snapping open, and she lurched to her feet.
A demon was standing in front of her. Not the one she’d been daydreaming about.
He was not in human form and loomed above her. His skin was ashy gray, and his eyes were an eerily bright yellow. A whiplike tail snapped in the air behind him.
“Mishetsumephtai.” She projected calm though her heartbeat had increased.
“You are the friend of Dan,” he said. “The one he asked to research my …” He trailed off as if reluctant to speak of the brands on his neck and wrists in the company of an enemy.
“Yes.” Her gaze fixed on them. They were nearly indiscernible on his dark-gray skin, but she caught glimpses of the pattern where the light reflected.
She had the answers he sought, but she’d kept them to herself. Should she tell him now? Was it smart to pass such information on to the enemy? Were they even still enemies?
“You’ve been with Raum,” the Hunter said.
She nodded. How—?
“I scented you on him the day following Eva’s show. I hunted him and found your apartment, but you had already left for Hell. Lily told me it was too dangerous for me to follow you there, so I waited for your return. When Raum arrived now, the scent was stronger. I traced it here and found you.”
Her eyes widened. His hunter abilities were even greater than she’d imagined, and she felt foolish for not having taken them into consideration.
“You have coerced Raum into something,” Mist said, “or he wouldn’t hide from us.”
She swallowed. She couldn’t refute it. “I mean you and your family no harm.”
The Hunter’s expression didn’t change. She didn’t think he’d blinked once. “I don’t believe you. But it doesn’t matter.”
Her nape prickled, and she decided it was time to get Luna and flash out of here. In fact, it was time to stop procrastinating altogether. She would return Luna to the shelter and then go to Hell herself and get that damned book once and for all. Once she had it … then she’d figure out what to do.
“Is Raum still in the apartment?” she asked the Hunter.
The demon nodded.
“Please tell him I said … not to come after me.” She swallowed. “Tell him I’ll find him when I can.” She would get the book now, and then he’d never have to find out she’d lied to him.
The Hunter frowned.
She would pay Daniel a visit later and give him the information to help Mist, she decided. Demon or not, he deserved his freedom. Now, however, it was time to go.
She scanned their surroundings as discreetly as possible, searching for signs of Luna and finding none. She gritted her teeth. She wasn’t leaving her here, even if it made life difficult.
Without warning, she flashed to the other side of the roof, hoping to spot her.
Several things happened at once.
The Hunter dissolved into black mist. Sunshine spotted Luna at the other corner, pressed against a roof vent. She flashed again to her side, bending to grab her.
The Hunter’s enormous gray body reformed in front of her. Sunshine’s fingers brushed Luna’s soft coat. Mishetsumephtai slapped something cold and metal on her outstretched wrist, and then his sharp claws closed around her arm, tugging her back from the dog.
She tried to flash away but stayed exactly where she was.
Her blood went cold as she glanced down at the cuff on her wrist and saw the Sheolic sigils carved into it.
The Hunter bared sharp teeth in her face and said, “Tell him yourself.”