Iron Inheritance (7 page)

“I’m going to miss you, Grampy.” Ria choked up and squeezed her arm around my shoulder.

Nate nodded. “It was an honor, Sir. I’m sorry.” He clamped his teeth together so hard I thought they might crack.

I shifted into a new position. What could I say? It wasn’t like he could hear me. I wished he could.

“I love you,” I whispered before another wave of grief wracked my chest.

Nate sniffed and shook his head violently at high speed. No emotion remained on his face when he finished. He filled the hole.

The silence that followed persisted until it was like another person sitting beside us. Part of me pretended it was Grandpa sitting there but not talking, maybe laughing at how small his grave was. That was definitely something he would do.

I leaned forward and placed a rock on top of the loosely packed dirt. I could have stayed there forever, but eventually, Ria supported me back down the hill, Nate just in front of us.

“Do you need any help?” Nate turned around when we came to a particularly steep part.

“Eyes front, Soldier,” I said, reaching to wrap the blanket tighter around me and finding that Ria had already done it, her scowl deep enough to make Nate blush.

“I didn’t mean—it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

I grinned at his discomfort, the playful position of my lips sore, like my face had resigned itself to not use those muscles again.

“You’ve never even had a girlfriend.” Ria rolled her eyes.

“I was there when Helen of Troy went off with Paris.”

“Pervert!” Ria yelled.

“No, not like…I glimpsed. It’s not like I was—” He took bigger strides and went into the church.

“You know who Helen of Troy was?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Girl’s considered one of the hottest chicks ever.” Ria flicked her caramel hair back dramatically. “I’ve got to know my competition.”

I chuckled, and Ria joined in, our laughter embracing us like old friends. It almost felt wrong, but Grandpa’s silent voice whispered encouragement like a cool wave that washed over me for half a moment. It faded like the tide pulling back, but it was still nice to know it might come again when I needed it.

“Come on, we need to get some sleep,” Nate called.

“Do you even sleep?” said Ria.

“Affirmative. A minimal recharge is required.”

Ria huffed, and I shook my head. Same old Nate. Get him in a situation where he was in charge, and he turned into a robot.

I changed into a new pair of jeans, a black V-neck, and a hoodie from the bag Ria grabbed for me. She did surprisingly well under the pressure—even managed to stuff the pink shopping bag with our dresses in there. Not entirely surprising considering who was doing the packing, of course.

“I’m going to get more blankets,” I said, wanting to keep moving as Ria and Nate cleaned off the pews. The more I did, the less I thought about what was going on, why we were here, the far-reaching implications of what this all meant—angels from heaven and hell empowering humans with pieces of their souls. It was bit much to take standing still.

“No, I’ll go,” said Nate, appearing in front of me with a puff of air that blew my hair into my eyes.

“You really need to stop doing that, Speedy McIrish.” I sidestepped him with a scowl.

“Sorry.” He dodged in front of me again, faster than humanly possible, and put a hand on my shoulder to stop me from moving forward.

I sighted the pressure points on his wrist, elbow, and behind his ear…if pressure points even worked on angels. I narrowed my eyes. “Keep trying to stop me, and you’ll find yourself unconscious. I don’t care if you’re a guardian angel. I can take care of myself.”

“But it’s my job to—”

I curled my lips away from my teeth in a snarl. “If someone comes, I’ll yell the codeword.”

“What’s the codeword again?” said Ria, already stretched out on the pew next to Nate’s.

“
Sriracha
,” Nate and I said together.

Nate tightened his jaw, and I walked out without continuing. I rifled around in the back of the Jeep and found road flares, two sleeping bags, a camo jacket and pants set, a pool cue, and twelve rolls of duct tape.

“What a pack—” I started to shake my head before a gust of wind blew up my hair again. “That’s it, Nate. You’re—”

I turned around, and a tall, muscular guy with a square jaw, dark hair, a torn black shirt, and stormy blue eyes stretched out his hand to me, panting.

“Please don’t scream, I just—”

My body tensed before his words could even register, and I jabbed at all three pressure points in quick succession.

He crumpled to the ground, eyes rolling to the back of his head.

“
Sriracha!
”

Nate’s khaki shirt blurred in front of me on the second syllable, and he pushed me back toward the dilapidated church.

“Who is he? What happened?” His small chest puffed, freckled fists raised.

I sucked in a breath to calm my racing heart and stepped out of his shadow, wiping my dark brown hair out of my eyes as I inched toward my unconscious victim.

He didn’t look much older than me—maybe nineteen or twenty? Tall. Muscular. Brown hair. A black shirt with a giant rip in the middle.

“Action report,” Nate said.

I started to say something, then stopped when I glanced at Nate. His green eyes were lit with intensity. For the first time, I saw him as someone with force behind his words. He had power and the knowledge of millennia crackling in his short, clipped words. How could I not have seen this before?

“He just snuck up on me and…I reacted.”

Ria jogged up next to me, her eyes wide and fixated on the mystery man as she came to my side. Clear-cut abs peaked out through Speedy’s torn black shirt. “Evey, when this caliber of man walks up behind you, you don’t react by knocking him out.”

“I thought he was Nate.”

Nate nodded. “Who is he?”

“Don’t know. He’s super fast like you though,” I said, not quite believing what I was saying. Super speed and whips of green light were still so far beyond the realm of possibility that my mouth had trouble forming the words.

“Do you think he’s one of those Babs?” said Ria.

Nate and I stared at her until she translated—a common technique for interpreting her speech.

“A Babylonian?” She rolled her eyes.

Nate’s face contorted as he looked up at the sky. “He could be a scout. If he is, there’s one way to find out before the rest get here.” He looked back at the church. “Hurry. Grab his feet.”

Ria failed to grasp a pant leg, so I looped my arms under each of his knees. Nate did the same under his shoulders.

“How do we find out? Will he have like tattoos all over his body or something?” Ria’s eyes lit up.

“Tattoos? Why would he—?” Nate shook his head, exasperated. “There’s blood above the door—same tactic the Israelites used, same that would have worked for us if Kovac hadn’t been so powerful.” He shook his head as if that fact still bothered him, like it shouldn’t have been possible.

I pushed out a calm breath to keep Kovac’s face out of my mind. Every glimpse of it was like a reminder of a bad dream that had reached into my reality—the man who killed my Grandpa had also killed my mom. Definitely the type of conspiracy a sleeping mind would make, and yet, it was true. “What’ll happen if we take him through the door?”

“If someone evil, like a Babylonian, tries to get through, any part of him that passes the threshold immediately starts to burn.”

“And if he’s not a Babylonian? What’ll happen to him?” I said, the image of Speedy’s face burning off as Nate backed through the door the last thing I wanted to see.

“I’ll interrogate him,” said Nate, his face in shadow from a tree branch above. “No one is supposed to even know we’re here.”

My pulse quickened as I looked down at him. His dark brown hair was ruffled from the way Nate carried him, his eyes were closed, and his mouth hung open. Even if he was a Babylonian, I couldn’t just fry him. He could have knocked me out back there, but instead, he’d tried to say something. Even said “please.”

“Stop,” I muttered and spun his legs around so I would enter first. “If he is Babylonian, he won’t be any good to us if his head is charbroiled.”

Nate scowled, some of his true age and power burning through again, but he didn’t try to reverse directions.

Each weathered floorboard from the porch to the threshold creaked under my feet as I backed through the doors. I looked down at the guy’s jeans when we were a quarter of the way. “Seems ok.”

Nate exhaled through his nose harshly and stepped in the rest of the way. “If he’s not a Babylonian, then who the heck is he?”

We set him down on a pew. He was still breathing, but his eyes remained shut.

“He’s kinda hot in an unconscious sort of way,” Ria mused, taking out her phone for light. She bent forward, her cleavage hovering over the hole in his shirt. “Come on. Remember anatomy class?” She glanced back at me mischievously.

“It was Biology, and the only anatomy I studied was of an iguana,” I said, a sudden urge to yank her back striking through my forearm.

Ria stifled a laugh. “Look, he’s smiling. What do you think he’s dreaming about?”

He
was
smiling.
Maybe that’s just the way his mouth is shaped atop his strong jaw and neck and shoulders and…
My mouth went dry, and my cheeks burned. I almost turned away.

Then he opened his eyes.

I jumped back, and Ria’s giggle-scream reverberated off the thin wood walls.

“I hate when I have that effect on women,” he croaked and tried to roll onto his side, a playful smirk affixed to his lips even as he seemed to be in pain.

My eyes narrowed. Had he ever really been unconscious? Or was all this a trick to have girls fawn over him…or get inside the safe house?

“Who are you?” Nate growled, advancing and pushing the stranger’s shoulder into the pew so he had to stay lying down.

“Name’s Josh,” he said, giving up his attempt to sit. “So much for Patron hospitality, eh?” He chuckled, his blue eyes searching for an audience.

“Don’t mind him.” Ria had gone around and was now leaning over the pew, her caramel curls falling over her right shoulder, a seductive smile pressed into her lips. “Where ya from, Josh?”

Her seduction had the opposite effect, however.

His blue eyes flicked to me.

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Nate stepped in front of me. “You have thirty seconds to tell me who you are.” The words were simple, and so was the threat.

Ria backed away like a scolded puppy even though Nate hadn’t looked at her, and Josh groaned as he tried to sit up again. Nate zoomed forward and pressed him back into the wood so hard it cracked.

“Jeesh, I made it in here, didn’t I? Any good Patron would have this place warded with something to keep Babylonians out.” Josh lay on the pew and sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m no Babylonian. I was attacked by a hopped-up Bab with some kind of black cloud around him. I need help.”

“You saw it? What time? Where were you?” I said, not caring who he was anymore. He might know something. Maybe he’d known Grandpa or could explain why this happened. I desperately needed a ‘why’ right now.

Nate relaxed his grip and allowed Josh to sit.

Josh massaged his neck and swung his head up level with mine. “I was in Arizona. Had to be early afternoon—I’m due to transfer to the L.A. headquarters soon, so I was on the road doing sprint drills to train. That guy—I can’t even believe it was a Babylonian—he flew right over me on top of that swirling black goop. I threw a burst of essence up to see what would happen.” His cheeks reddened, and the more he talked, the more hints of a Texan drawl I heard. “Guess I didn’t count on him sending anything back.” He stopped massaging his neck and let his hand drop to his side, his skin very pale, sweat glistening on his forehead.

I leaned forward, a pang of guilt pinching me as I wondered if I’d hurt him worse than I thought. “What’s wrong?”

“He sent some of that black cloud down—pressed me into the ground real good. When I came to, I was at the bottom of a crater.” He feigned a smile, his eyes getting heavier and heavier.

“You shouldn’t have survived,” Nate said flatly. “I barely did.”

The right corner of Josh’s lips pinched into a grin. “I imagine I laid there for a peck before the buzzards started tearing at my shirt.”

My gaze flicked to the six-pack peeking out of his shirt, then I turned away, embarrassed and let down. I’d wanted something about Kovac. Why had he come for us now? How had he known exactly where to look for me at exactly the right moment?

Josh leaned back. “Anyway, I only came to ’bout fifteen minutes ago.”

“Fifteen minutes? And you got here all the way from Arizona?” said Ria, her eyes bright with excitement. “Dang, you
are
fast.”

Nate pursed his lips. “That was foolish. Graced have limited power. You’re obviously already weak as it is.”

“I can take care of mine, Bub. Found your little hide out, didn’t I?” Josh grimaced. “If you’re going to make a Patron sanctuary, at least learn to cover your tracks. Saw some of the brightest essence I’ve ever seen swirling around in the sky when I came to, and I followed it all the way here. It was almost white.”

I chewed my tongue. At least I knew how Josh found us now—Grandpa. But did he even really know what he saw? What that white meant?

“You could’ve had half the Babylonians in the area after you if I hadn’t come and dispelled it,” he said with a glance at me like he didn’t want to look away.

I turned and looked out the window.

“Did you see anyone in the cloud before you were injured?” said Nate.

Josh nodded. “Just for a moment after he hit me. Can’t believe it myself, but it was definitely that Babylonian leader down in L.A.—Kovac, I think his name is. Can’t see how he learned to conjure that much dark essence.” He tilted to the side and lay back down with a thump.

Nate’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “You’ve been shielding your essence. Why?” he said, glaring at Josh.

“I’m fine, Bub. Just need a friendly place to stay so I can sleep it off,” said Josh, his eyes closed.