by Devin Hanson
“That’s. Nice.”
“Isn’t it? What is your name?”
“Uh. Alexandra.”
“Well, Alexandra, there’s a particularly good one on page fifty-three.”
I was a bit uncomfortable having my erotica curated by this old guy, but he seemed harmless enough. I flipped to the indicated page and swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. “Wow. That’s, uh, athletic.”
“It requires quite a lot of stamina to hold the position steady for so long. The photos come out so nice because of the long exposure.”
I shut the book and handed it back, self-conscious and aware of the growing dampness between my legs. Again. Today was really not going the way I wanted it to. “Thanks for showing me. That.”
“You’re welcome.” He put the book back on the shelf and handed me a business card. “I happen to be friends with the photographer. He is very discrete. If you find yourself in need of money, the opportunity could be lucrative.”
“You want me to model for p—um.” I was going to say porno, but that wasn’t right. No porno I had ever seen had the same quality.
“Art,” he supplied. “Appropriate talent is hard to come by, and a beauty like yours should be celebrated, not cloistered. Have a good day.” He tipped a little bow and wandered toward the front where Ilyena was having something bagged by the cashier.
Ilyena finished her transaction and came over to join me. She leaned her head against my shoulder and looked up at the shelf of erotic photography. “You weren’t lonely waiting for me, I hope?”
“Can we go now?” All I wanted right then was to find a hotel room and get Ilyena naked. I checked my phone and saw it was 5:30; we had been in Beverly Hills long enough for the evening rush hour to start. I’d pay the jacked-up room prices in Beverly Hills just to cut down on the wait time. I didn’t think I would survive another traffic jam trying to get back to North Hollywood.
She grinned up at me as if she could read my mind. Hell, if she knew my path, maybe she knew exactly what I had planned for her. “Let’s go out the back.” As we walked, she handed me the bag. “I got something for you.”
“What is it?” I started to open the bag and she caught my hand.
“For later.” There was something on her face that I couldn’t read, but she smiled at me and it was gone again. “I’m glad I met you, Alex. I feel like I can trust you. There are not many people I know that I can say the same about. Do you trust me?”
We exited through the back and the bright sunlight made me squint. I raised my hand to shade my eyes. “What? Yeah, of course I do.”
“I hope so. Please make sure you find me.”
“Eh?”
From behind me, a man’s voice: “The one with white hair.”
I turned to face the voice and the late afternoon sunlight stabbed into my eyes. Something cracked into the side of my head and my vision exploded apart into sparks and blackness. The pavement smacked my cheek as I sprawled out onto the ground.
Through the wow and flutter of my hearing, I heard Ilyena snarl something, then there was a thump of a blow landing and she gasped. A car door slammed and tires squealed. I forced my muscles to work and pushed myself up onto my side. Down at the end of the alley, I caught a glimpse of an SUV pulling out into traffic.
Ilyena was gone.
Chapter Seventeen
My head was swimming and as I pushed myself to my knees. Colors burst in my vision, blinding me. Pain throbbed through my head. A sign post, one of those two-inch, perforated steel, square tubes, lay next to me, with a bend a foot from the end.
Ilyena!
Swaying drunkenly, I made my painful way to the cross street and peered out into the flow of traffic. There were a half-dozen SUVs in sight, any one of which could have been carrying the hinn. I had taken so long to reach the street; the abductor’s SUV was probably long gone.
“It is ever the fate of the sybil to be the target of abuse.”
I limped back into the alley and sank to my haunches with my back against the wall. My mother stood on the far side of the alley, the sunlight catching in the jewel set into her choker. She seemed fainter, somehow. Transparent, even. I thought I could make out the brickwork behind her through her dress.
“Go away.”
She clicked her tongue and sashayed across the alley to stand next to me. “There’s no help for her,” she said flatly. “Even if you rescue her this time, either her owner will beat her to death or one of her future assignments will get her killed.”
“You don’t know that.” My head was starting to return to normal. The dizziness was fading and the pain was going with it.
“All sybils suffer similar fates, child.”
“I’m going to find her,” I gritted out.
“How?” My mother laughed musically. “In a city this large? Don’t waste your time. For your own sake.”
“She knew,” I said firmly. I pushed myself to my feet and my head only throbbed a little. “She knew she was going to be taken. She told me to come for her, so she knew I would be able to.”
“Your little hinn is a hot piece of ass, but she has done nothing but frustrate you. Don’t waste your time with her. You want someone who can deliver the pleasure you deserve.”
I bared my teeth at my mother. “You telling me to give up on her only makes me more determined to find her,” I growled. “She trusts me. I won’t abandon her.”
“Oh, child. Your impertinence is growing stale. You cannot resist me forever.”
“Watch me.”
My words fell on empty air and I grinned. She was gone once more. Good. Screw her. I clutched the bag Ilyena had given me and set off toward my scooter.
I made it half a block before I came to a stop and ducked into an alcove out of the way of foot traffic. I looked into the bag and discovered the black leather and silver hardware of the journal. I stared down at it, disbelieving. Had Ilyena found a duplicate in that bookstore? No, there hadn’t been time, and the journal wasn’t exactly the kind of product the store catered. She must have found another book roughly the same size and had the clerk change the wrappings.
Just to verify, I opened the journal and found it full of yellowing parchment sheets, packed with cramped, spidery handwriting in what looked like Latin. I flipped the journal closed again, my heart suddenly speeding up. The book was worth an insane amount of money. I was no archivist, but I knew thumbing through it here on the street was bound to do irreparable damage to the pages.
A slip of paper fell out of the book when I closed it, and I bent down and snatched it off the sidewalk. It had a few numbers scribbled on it.
34.01, -118.38
What was that supposed to mean? I put the journal back in the bag and held it between my knees so I could use both hands on my phone. I tapped the sequence into Google and a blank section of map came up with a marker pointing to the Inglewood Oil Field.
Ilyena had left me some breadcrumbs to follow.
The sun had set by the time I made it through the rush hour traffic to Inglewood. I was starting to get hungry, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop and eat while Ilyena was being held. What did they want with her? Were they after the journal, or was it the sybil they wanted?
The Inglewood Oil Field was on a hill between Culver City and Windsor Hills. My research with Google Maps told me there was a visitor center or hiking trail or something that was open to the public. At the base of the hill leading up to the visitor center, there was a ratty little parking lot for state park visitors. I didn’t have a pass, and didn’t feel like getting a parking ticket, so I squeezed into a gap on the street between a sedan and what looked like a hearse. I was starting to really love driving a scooter.
I left my helmet locked to my bike and set out for the trail. The protection the helmet might offer was far outweighed by the bulk and weight, not to mention how much it limited my field of view and my hearing. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but what choice did I have?
My options were shit. I could call Ethan again, but while I thought he might agree to come, I had already put him into more danger than he deserved. There was no doubt in my mind that whatever was going on in the oil fields, it had something to do with the supernatural. I couldn’t pull Ethan back into that again. The other person I could go to was David but, somehow, I couldn’t see him slogging around an oil field in his boardroom suit.
No, Ilyena’s rescue was up to me.
I really needed more friends.
I started climbing up the hill toward the visitor center, following the road that wound its way toward the peak. I was still buzzing with energy from the traffic jam session with Ilyena and I hardly felt the strain in my legs. A cold wind was coming from the north and I zipped my riding jacket up all the way, grateful for its warmth.
The lights from the visitor center were still on and I could make out the bobbing motion of flashlights. I was getting close to the top when two of the flashlights started coming down the hill toward me. Without pausing to think things through, I jumped off the side of the road into the scraggly brush.
The hill was steep enough that I slid for a few feet before I caught the branch of a stunted bush and hauled myself into cover, panting and trying not to cough on the dust. A minute passed, and I was just starting to feel silly for overreacting when I heard the crunch of sand beneath boots approaching.
“—dark-haired friend?”
“Ha, ha, not fucking likely. I hit her hard enough to send her into a coma, if not kill her outright. Boss said not to hold back, so I bent my steel post on her skull. Forget about her.”
The first guy chuckled nastily. “Hot piece of ass, though. Seems a shame.”
“You know how it is. The hotter they are, the crazier.”
“Not saying I wanted to date her, just, you know, dip my stick.”
Gross. I hugged the ground while they passed by not five feet from me, listening to them toss banter back and forth, bragging about their sexual conquests. Who were these guys? Those two idiots didn’t have the gray matter between them to plan anything besides a frat party. They were just muscle, which meant there had to be more of them up at the top of the hill.
It was a relief knowing that Ilyena’s note had led me to the right place. She was still in danger, but she was here, somewhere just ahead.
Once their footsteps and conversation faded away, I crawled back up onto the road. Rather than continue up the road and be in plain view of anyone in the visitor center, I cut across the asphalt and started bushwhacking my way up the last switchback.
The visitor center was a couple of poured-concrete buildings designed to be as vandalism-proof as possible. You’d need a jackhammer or high explosives to do any significant damage to them. The main building proclaimed itself as a scenic overlook, and had big, plexiglass picture windows showing off big, sun-bleached posters of poppies, as if rubbing in the fact that no flowers had grown on this hill since the fifties.
From my vantage peering through the scrub verge, I could make out the vague shadows of half a dozen people moving about the primary building, and another four or five flashlights danced through the shadows around the periphery.
Now that I was here, I was beginning to regret my decision to go in alone. Ethan’s military experience would be invaluable here, not to mention he had a gun and knew how to use it. If there were two or three people, I could try and surprise them, overwhelm one or two somehow, and make off with Ilyena before they could recover. Trying the same tactics against a dozen men was an exercise in futility.
The conversation of the men heading down the road had changed things as well. These men weren’t afraid to kill. The one guy had thought he had killed me and was laughing about it afterward. I wasn’t going to be able to walk in there and guilt trip them into letting Ilyena go. If I was going to succeed here, it would be through force.
Except, I didn’t know how to fight. Not really. I knew how to throw a punch without hurting my wrist, but I was no trained MMA fighter able to walk into a group of a dozen men and take them all on at once. But, then again, I also was strong enough to break zip tie cuffs with my bare hands, so that had to count for something, right?
Hopefully there weren’t any marid waiting ahead.
That thought gave me fresh pause. If Ilyena had djinn guarding her, things were going to go south even faster. This rescue shit was hard.
I needed more information. It was a leap of faith, but I didn’t think Ilyena would send me here if it was hopeless. She knew my path, and I didn’t think she would guide me toward my death. There had to be a solution, if I was smart enough to figure it out.
I abandoned my frontal assault and crept through the scrub around to the side of the cluster of buildings. I could smell the outhouse before the door swung open and a guy holding a flashlight in his teeth stepped out, still doing up his belt.
Well, there was an invitation if I ever saw one. I stepped out of the scrub fifteen feet away and waved. “Hello? I think I’m lost.” The flashlight came up and stabbed me in the eyes. I cringed and held up a hand as I walked toward him.
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded.
“I’m Joanne,” I said. “I went for a hike, but I think I got turned around. Could you point me toward the road?”
“You’re in the wrong place, lady,” he chuckled. “Better get gone.” He turned to point. “The road leading down the hill is that way, twenty meters past the end of that building.”
I reached his side, grabbed his head and bounced it off the concrete wall next to him. It made a hollow noise like dropping a ripe watermelon and the man slid to the ground, boneless.
My heart was hammering and I felt exhilarated. That had been easy! After a quick look around to make sure nobody had seen, I grabbed an arm and his belt and heaved him up onto my shoulder.
I’ve always been strong, but only in comparison to an average girl my size. A month ago, I would have had trouble dragging this guy, I certainly would never have tried picking him up. But pick him up I did, and I was surprised to find it wasn’t even that hard. I carried him back into the scrub until I had lost sight of the visitor center, then dropped him to the dirt.
He wasn’t an ugly man, but he also wasn’t handsome. He had a patchy beard, a canvas military-style jacket and cargo pants on, and he smelled like Old Spice. I checked the side of his head and was relieved to find his skull was intact and only a little bloody.
I got his belt off and tied his elbows together behind his back, then rolled him over and started slapping his face. After a few slaps his eyelids fluttered and I relented, giving him a chance to recover. When he finally opened his eyes all the way and saw me, he startled and jerked his arms, trying to free them.
“Don’t bother,” I said quietly, and kneeled on his chest, pinning him to the ground. “You know who I am?”
“How the hell should I know?” he rasped. “What is wrong with you?”
“I could ask you the same thing. You have my friend. Where is she and what are you planning to do to her?”
I saw recognition in his eyes. “You’re the one Alfonso brained outside the bookstore!”
“Turns out I have a thick skull. Answer my question!”
“Oh man. You really made a mistake coming here.” He coughed a laugh. “Do you have any idea what you got yourself mixed up in?”
“Let me guess,” I gritted out. “You and your little club got ahold of a fancy skull and you’re going to do some ritual.”
“Not just some ritual, lady, we’re summoning a demon. And it works!”
I sighed. “And you think I’m the one making a mistake? Haven’t you idiots ever seen any horror movies?”
“We have the ritual book. The commands will bind it to our will!”
“No, you have the wrong book.” I looked back toward the visitor center. “I don’t get it. Why do you need Ilyena? Why here?”
“You wouldn’t understand,” he sneered.
I turned ba
ck to him. “You were being helpful, don’t dry up on me now.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Wrong answer.”
I clamped a hand over his mouth and reached back with my other hand. I grabbed between his legs and squeezed. I wasn’t sure what I had gotten ahold of, but the high-pitched keening trickling out from under my hand suggested it must have been something sensitive. I let him go and he sagged back against the ground, whimpering and cursing under his breath.
“Let’s try again. Why do you need Ilyena?”
“She is a sybil,” he groaned. “We can’t allow her to corrupt our time line.”
“You tried to have her killed,” I growled.
“We’re not ‘trying’ anything. She’s not walking out of this place alive.”
“Is Elaida here with you?”
“Who the hell is Elaida?”
I leaned my weight onto his chest and tried to think. Assuming this guy was telling the truth, there was a third party involved that I had no knowledge of. “Who are you working for?”
He tried to hinge up at the waist but my weight was too much. “It doesn’t matter what you do to me. I’m not telling you anything else!”
“Yeah?” I saw the fear in his eyes, but also the determination. Despite my desire to get to Ilyena, I didn’t have it in me to torture the guy. I could get him to talk, maybe, but my stomach twisted at the thought. “Fine. Have a good night.”
The relief on his face was almost comical, and then I punched him in the jaw. His head wobbled and he fell back into the dirt. I had no idea how long he would be out, and I couldn’t have him warning the others. I unlaced his boots, tied his ankles together with the laces then jammed his socks into his mouth before throwing his shoes into the darkness in opposite directions. It wouldn’t hold him forever, but it might buy me an extra couple minutes.
