Chapter 17
He fucking loved the thrill of this. Loved that he could do God’s work in ridding the world of these freakish monsters. He could keep Chastity safe. Let her grow up in a world that didn’t have as many demons in it.
They’d pulled her out of school, because that damn teacher kept putting her in groups with that little fucking freak. Kept telling her, despite the evidence before her very eyes, that the demons were people, too.
The monster in front of him turned, his headlights glinting off its eyes.
He wouldn’t have his baby girl grow up thinking she was no better than some demon-spawned monster.
There were more of them now. Enough of them with kids that some of the wives had set up a little home-school. His wife was one of them. So Chastity would learn the truth of God’s word and wouldn’t risk being corrupted.
He pressed down harder on the gas pedal, the engine revving as he accelerated, his SUV an instrument of divine justice as the front bumper collided with the fleeing demon’s back.
Maybe it cried out.
He didn’t know.
The voice of God was speaking to him, drowning out whatever words the fiend might have said.
He backed up, smiling as the tires rolled up and over, once, then twice.
He was truly blessed by God.
“Enough!” Raj’s voice was harsh and rough, and I shuddered as I pulled myself out of the thoughts of the driver. The same driver who had killed Odell Jones. I was absolutely certain of that.
I dropped the cigarette butt back into the plastic evidence bag and swallowed back the bile that had risen in my throat. “He’s the same killer as the first hit-and-run,” I said, after managing to succeed.
“Seriously? Shit,” Cass breathed.
“Fuck,” came Hart’s predicable comment. “You okay, kid? Water? Ginger ale?” He thought for a second. “Vodka?”
“Not helpful, Hart,” Raj growled.
“I dunno, boss,” Cass interjected. “But if I’d been in that guy’s head, I wouldn’t mind the vodka.”
He glanced over at her, his expression grim and annoyed at the same time.
Drew got up and left the room.
“Are you okay, Rayn?” Raj was the one asking me this time, his gold-brown eyes worried, although he didn’t come close to me or try to touch me.
“I’ll be fine,” I answered. I wasn’t fine, not in the slightest. I didn’t think I’d be sleeping much tonight, and possibly not for several nights, and not just because of the séance that I still had to drive Ward to in a couple hours.
Raj had gotten called in around six in the morning, warning me that they might show up at Beyond the Veil.
I asked if I should just come with him, and he’d shaken his head.
He’d come to get me around ten.
I had to be back at work by two.
Drew returned to the room and handed me a Coke.
“Thanks,” I said, appreciating both the sugar and the carbonation, which would help to settle my stomach and restore my strength, and the caffeine, which I desperately needed.
Drew gave me a nod in return.
I opened the bottle and took a long drink.
Cass held up the baggie with fragments of headlight, although how the SUV still had any after having killed both Odell Jones and, now, Gavin Nelson, the unfortunate orc who’d been run down an hour or so after I’d finally gone to sleep.
“Do we want—”
“Nobody needs to know what that poor bastard felt,” Hart interrupted. “Seriously. We know who the fuck he is—was. Fuck.” He swallowed. “There’s no goddamn reason to make Rayn do that shit.”
“He turned around,” I whispered.
“What?” Raj was the one to ask.
I couldn’t look up. “The victim,” I answered, trying to speak more loudly. “He turned around. Maybe he saw something useful.”
“Fucking headlights?” Hart snapped, his eyes angry as they locked on me, although I didn’t know why he might be upset with me.
“Make, model, color,” I replied.
“Fuck!” Hart exploded, shoving himself away from the table and starting to pace.
Everyone else looked at him, the confusion on their faces telling me they didn’t know why he was reacting this way, either.
“You got an issue, Hart?” Raj asked.
Hart half-threw himself back into his chair. “I just hate this bigoted fucking bullshit,” he snapped.
Raj’s forehead creased with worry, and, for once, it wasn’t directed at me.
Then he nodded to Cass, who passed me the bag.
Oh, Jesus, Mary, God, fuck, it hurt. It hurt so much.
He was gonna die.
He knew he was gonna die.
Bleed out in the street, because who the fuck was gonna help an orc?
Nobody.
Except maybe that medium guy. The one married to an orc.
He hoped so.
Because then he could tell the guy the plate number he’d seen right before—
Oh, fuck.
The damn thing was coming back.
I swallowed again, and Cass shoved the box of tissues at me to clean up my face and blow my nose.
Hart was already calling Ward.
“It could have been you.” Raj’s voice was clipped.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “It absolutely could not have been,” I argued back, irritated not only because I was so sick of having this argument, but also because I had not been out walking at four in the morning when Gavin Nelson had been run down, and I hadn’t been where he’d been run down, either.
“You don’t—”
“I absolutely do,” I snapped. “I was in his head, remember? Twice. So, yes, Rajesh, I fucking do.”
He stared at me, eyes wide.
I regretted not a word.
“Now, either take me home or take me to work.”
“You can’t seriously—”
“One or the other,” I hissed. “It’s my fucking life, not yours. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“Rayn—”
“Work or home, or I’m getting out at the next stoplight.”
He stared at me again, then decided I meant it.
I did.
If he’d kept arguing with me, I would absolutely have gotten out of the car, then called Vi or Mason to come pick me up.
He took me to Beyond the Veil.
Neither one of us said a word for the rest of the drive.
I didn’t intend to break the silence when I popped open the door.
“Rayn?” His voice was softer.
“What?”
“Please be careful, okay?”
I glanced back over my shoulder, still angry. “I can take care of myself,” I said, then slammed the car door.