jinn 02 - inferno (12 page)

“Lift up your shirt,” Holden said. Phoenix didn’t question him, just did it. Holden walked around him a couple times. He stopped by his back and leaned in for a closer look. “Femi, get Quintus.”

I absolutely hated taking orders from anyone, but I went outside and clasped my hands together. “Dear Lord, if you could send Quintus’s hot, though sort of boring, ass here, we would all appreciate it. Also what’s the deal with badgers? I mean why are they so mean? What do they have to be pissed off about? Seriously, they need to relax. Also while I have you, I might as well mention that I’m probably going to kill Thomas, so there’s that. I figure we’re good since he’s a vampire and technically already dead. Really, if you want to split hairs, I’m probably doing you a favor. You are welcome. Amen.”

Quintus was standing in front of me, the corners of his mouth twitching, when I looked back up. “That was quick.”

“Badgers?”

“What? They’re assholes.” Quintus laughed. The deep rumbling sound of it started in his stomach and lifted up, easing my tension about Thomas.

“And who is Thomas? How did vampires get involved in this?”

“Ah. That.” I took him by the arm. “Well, dimples, Thomas is the incredibly unfortunate vampire who betrayed me a few years back and now has somehow managed to turn Maggie into a creature of the night.”

All amusement vanished from his face. “He did what?”

I nodded. “Holden is taking it remarkably well if you don’t count his eyes occasionally bursting into flames.”

“Anything else I should know?” he asked, eyebrows drawn together.

I scrunched my nose as I thought about it. The coffin was probably for Maggie, not really relevant. “Nothing comes to mind. Phoenix is inside. I don’t know why Holden asked me to get you actually.”

He nodded. “Well, let’s not keep him.” Quintus held the door for me, then followed me inside.

Baker and Phoenix were making small talk, and Holden stood a little bit apart from them staring off at nothing. His eyes snapped to us. “Phoenix, shirt,” he said.

Phoenix sighed and took off his bloody T-shirt. He was thin, not as heavily muscled as Baker or Holden, but not bony either. Tattoos sleeved both arms and colored his chest and back. All in all not bad. Just below his clavicle, large script ran shoulder to shoulder and read: “Est. 1998.”

“Enjoying the view?” he asked with a pleased looked.

I raised an eyebrow. “What’s the date mean?”

“The year I made my deal.”

“Stupid,” Holden said. “If you are not an idiot—something admittedly questionable given how you look—you will possibly live forever. Tattoos and identifying marks make it harder to start over without being noticed. So congratulations, all of these have made your life harder.”

Phoenix rolled his eyes. “I had most of them before I died.”

“Hold still,” Holden said and pointed a finger at Phoenix’s back, careful not to touch him. “Is that a rune?”

Quintus moved in closer, tilting his head left then right. I moved around to look too. Baker had disappeared, probably checking on Maggie or the kid. The spot in question could have been part of the tattoo, but might have been something else.

“Only one way to find out,” Quintus said. He put a finger on either side of the mark. “Yes, it’s a rune—buried deep too, I’d say.” He frowned. “I’m going to need a knife.” Phoenix started, and Quintus nodded. “Yes, it will hurt. Sorry. You’ll need to lie down. The two of you should probably hold him.”

Phoenix lay flat on his stomach, arms to his sides. Holden pressed one shoulder down and I did the same to the other. “Do you want something to bite down on?” I asked.

“I’m good,” he said. “Just do it.”

Holden handed Quintus the angelic knife and the light in Quintus’s hand intensified. When its brightness rivaled the sun, he touched Phoenix, making him hiss, and used his fingers to stretch the skin around the stone, then made a small incision that sizzled and popped like bacon. Phoenix’s teeth clenched together, but he didn’t cry out. Once Quintus had an incision the length of the stone he grimaced. “You ready?”

“Just do it,” he said.

Quintus plunged two fingers through the cut and gripped the rune. Phoenix’s shoulders heaved, and his eyes squeezed shut. Blood ran down his back. Quintus pulled on the rune, but it might as well have been fused to Phoenix’s spine for all it moved. Sweat broke out along Phoenix’s forehead. “Hold him down,” Quintus said.

Holden and I increased our pressure on his shoulders, pushing him against the floor. Quintus yanked the stone, snapping it from whatever it had latched to; Phoenix collapsed in what appeared to be a faint.

Holden stood up and looked at the little stone in Quintus’s hand. “How did they get it beneath his skin? When did they do this to you?” he asked.

Phoenix had yet to reopen his eyes, but he was conscious again. “Fuck if I know. I didn’t even know I had it,” he said into the floor. “Next time, just set me on fire. It would hurt less.”

“That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?” I asked , still kneeling beside him. He opened one eye and looked at me. I slapped a hand down on his shoulder. “Maybe if you wore less makeup, you’d man up.”

“Have you been knocked out recently?” Quintus asked.

“No,” he groaned.

Quintus shrugged. “Maybe he’s had it a long time.”

I stood up and went to the couch, yawning. “If he doesn’t remember getting it put into him, what makes you think you don’t have one too, Chuckles?”

Holden stripped off his shirt and the air rushed from my lungs. It would be a great service to the women of the world if it were illegal for him to ever wear clothes.

Fingers snapped in front of my eyes. “You’re about to drool.”

I blinked and glanced at Phoenix who had his shirt back on and was about to sit down.

“Don’t get blood on the chair,” Holden said as Quintus search him for runes. “If I had one, surely Olivia would have found it by now.”

His rotten temper and generally bad mood aside, she was one lucky angel. I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a picture of him. I wasn’t really lusting after my best friend’s guy. I was just admiring a work of art. Damn.

“I don’t see anything,” Quintus said.

Holden slipped his shirt back on. “We have to get rid of that thing.”

“Olivia could destroy it. All I can do is relocate it.”

Holden nodded slowly. “I’ll take care of it.” He held out a hand and Quintus dropped the rune into his palm. “Have you gotten anywhere with that thing I asked you to do?”

“Not yet,” Quintus said.

“Secrets don’t make friends,” I said.

“Do you know if there’s a way to disconnect Maggie from the leech?”

Quintus shook his head. “No. I’ll go check on her though. Maybe I can ease her transformation a bit.”

“You don’t think your light will do more harm than good?” Holden asked.

“I don’t know.” Quintus slipped his hands in his pockets. “I’m really sorry, Holden.”

Holden’s eyes flamed again. “Maybe the animaphagist is going to prove useful after all. What do you think its soul-eating properties would do to a vampire?”

Quintus blinked. “Vampires’ souls are dead. That’s why they have to feed on ours to mimic life. If you put him in one of two things would happen. Either it would back fire and feed the vampire. Or he will wither and rot at an accelerated pace. It will probably kill him”—his head tilted to the side—“probably her too.”

Holden exhaled a breath of smoke, but everything else settled in him. “Why don’t you test your light out on the one in there?”

Quintus nodded and entered Thomas’s cell. Holden came and sat next to me. “You know that vampire?”

I nodded. “If Sy or Paolo find out he’s here, they’ll kill him.”

Holden leaned his head left, then the right. A series of vertebrae in his neck cracked with a popping sound. “Of course they will. What did he do?”

“A few years back, Thomas came looking for me at the Office. I hadn’t been out of my homeland very long and didn’t know a lot about some of the other races, vampires especially. He said he needed my help and like a fool I agreed. He did nothing but lie to me the entire time. He was working for an organization called Neru. They were framing vampires for the disappearance of various people across the Abyss. Basically, they’d set up an exotic grocery store of sorts for rich vampires.”

“And that’s all?”

“Isn’t that enough?”

Holden ran a hand through his hair. “This is obviously personal to you. I don’t care if you slept with him. I just need to know you can separate your personal life from what’s happening here. If you kill him now, you could kill Maggie. She’s too new to lose the connection to her sire.”

Now it made sense why Holden hadn’t already offed him. “I had a chance to kill him once and I let him go. I was just shocked. I’m not the one you have to worry about. He was supposed to leave Chicago. I know Paolo is looking for him, probably all the vampires are, and if Sy finds out he’s here, he’ll turn him in. A lot of people died because of him.”

Holden nodded. “When we figure out how to free Maggie, you can do what you want to him. Turn him in, let him go, whatever. I don’t care.”

“Deal.” I crossed my legs.

Quintus came out of the cell. “He did okay with my light, but he thinks she’s too new and will react more violently.”

“He lies. It’s his thing,” I said.

Quintus shrugged. “Should we try it?”

Holden frowned. “Not right now. Maybe in a couple days. Let me know if you learn anything.” Holden let Quintus out and locked up behind him, then returned to the couch.

“What are we going to do with Tickle Me Emo?” I glanced at Phoenix who was sitting in the chair, carefully not leaning back, his eyes closed. Such a good little soldier.

Holden smiled ever so slightly.

“I figured I’d just hang here with you guys until this whole thing blows over,” Phoenix said. “Do you have a shirt I can wear?”

“You can have a cell here, but you’re not wearing my clothes,” Holden said. “If you betray us, the animaphagist becomes your room.”

I laughed and stood up. “Where do you live? I’ll get your stuff. I’m feeling cooped up anyway.”

Phoenix gave me his address.

“Take Baker,” Holden said.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Find Phoenix an empty cell and take the shifter. You need back up. None of us should go out alone anymore.” Holden stalked over to Olivia’s war room.

I sighed loudly. So bossy. I opened a door to a cell one down from Thomas’s, two up from Maggie’s. “Home sweet home,” I told Phoenix. “If we keep collecting strays, we’re going to have to get a bigger commune.”

Phoenix lumbered to his feet and limped into the cell, falling face first onto the crusty twin bed. I shut the door and went down the hall. Baker stood just inside Maggie’s door, staring at the coffin. I couldn’t see his face, but something about the rigid way he held himself made me think it wasn’t a good time to interrupt. I backed away slowly and headed back down the hall.

“Don’t go alone, Femi,” Thomas called from the other side of his door. “The jinni is right.”

“What do you know about it?” I asked.

“Enough.”

I stared at the door separating us. I couldn’t trust anything he said and I knew it—but Thomas had tried to save me once before. I trailed my fingers down the cool metal surface and imagined him doing the same on the other side. Goosebumps rose along my spine.

“I’ve missed you,” he said softly.

I pulled my hand back and walked away.

I flipped the stone over in my fingers as I walked the perimeter of Olivia’s room. The small bone-like object was still warm and slick with blood, and something pulsed from it. An energy or presence that made the damn thing feel alive in my hand, as if at any moment it would burrow beneath my skin or try to escape. It bore a carved symbol unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It was different than the typical runes I came across—and judging by the tingling it caused in my hand, it packed a larger punch too, but the million dollar question was what did it do? With Juliet, the runes on her body allowed for demons to possess her vessel. Phoenix wasn’t possessed—or at least he didn’t seem to be. He was still helping and had no real personality changes. Either Phoenix had been lying when he said he didn’t know he had it or it had always been with him. There simply wasn’t a way someone could have surgically implanted it without his knowledge—unless maybe it wasn’t surgical?