The make-up I put on Friday morning was less cosmetic enhancement, more war paint. My eyeliner was black and heavy, my mascara spiky, my lips blood red. I wore all black, every inch the kickass warrior.
If only my twisted-up insides had matched my outward appearance, because I hadn’t been able to eat breakfast. Ro kept offering to find a drive-thru as we sped toward Demon Club, but I shook my head every time, not even wanting coffee. I’d fiddled with my hamsa ring so much that I was gonna have a permanent groove in my finger and the inside of my cheek was bleeding from gnawing on it.
“Hey.” Ro took his hand off the wheel to squeeze my thigh. “Badenov isn’t going to know what hit him, Moose.”
“Changed my mind. I’m Squirrel,” I said. “Height-wise, it makes sense for you to be Bullwinkle. Gender-wise, too. Moose is a guy.”
“Squirrel is a guy,” he said.
“Don’t think so. Gender nonspecific. He has a pretty high voice.”
“You literally just used ‘he.’”
“To make it understandable for you. Also, Rocky was the smarter of the two. I’m Squirrel. No take-backs.” I put up my dukes. “You gonna argue with me?”
Ro’s grin turned wicked. “Depends where it lands us.”
Sadly, it landed us at the chapter. I trudged toward the entrance, pausing when my phone beeped.
I sighed. “Selfie time. Do something cute. Pick me street flowers or something.”
“Bored of cataloguing the incredibleness that is Rolita already? You millennials and your pathetic attention spans.”
“I’m annoyed that it’s fake work moments instead of the two of us making actual memories. And don’t even joke about that name.”
“Check the webs. It’s trending.”
I opened Twitter. “Nooooo!!!”
Ro kissed my brow. “Sorry, sweetheart. But hey, you have your reunion with Mandelbaum to look forward to.” He chucked me under the chin. “How fun will that be?”
“So fun that we’ll immortalize my joy with a damn selfie.”
This was my first face-to-face with the rabbi since he’d sent Ferdinand after us. I didn’t know if he was going to play coy or have me killed the moment I stepped through the front door.
From the assessing look Mandelbaum gave me when I entered the DSI foyer, he hadn’t made up his mind yet. I’d dressed my part as the loveable-yet-not-to-be-messed-with underdog, but he hadn’t dressed his. He’d left off his suit jacket and his shirt was misbuttoned, the right side of his collar jutting up higher than the left. One of his tzitzit had come untucked and was sticking out the bottom of his black vest.
The skin at the corner of his eyes was pulled tight, like clamping down on the grief reflected in their depths was taking up most of his energy. It didn’t detract from his aura of undisputed power, though it made me want to try to be friendlier.
Sort of.
The moment stretched on, the world falling away to the black void of his dark eyes boring into me. I kept my hands jammed in my pocket. One breath in, one breath out, I held his gaze, refusing to cower. Refusing to look away.
He was just a man. Flesh and blood and heartbeat. I saw beyond his physical form to his life force, a pale orange light. A flicker, easily extinguished.
Extinguish it. My voice. Not Lilith’s.
I blinked and the rabbi once more stood solid before me.
“Conference room in twenty,” he barked in his Russian accent and strode off.
The wiry man who’d been trailing the rabbi scurried behind the reception desk, looking as if he was trying to make himself invisible as he dropped into the chair.
I reached behind me and took Ro’s hand, because my heart was racing, and my legs were questionably stable.
“You good, Louis?” Ro asked the man, holding my hand tight between our bodies.
Louis, the receptionist, nodded. “The rabbi’s in a mood. Can’t blame him, but…” He looked up at us with bleak eyes. “If a daeva compelled Ethan, what hope do we have? Tell me straight, is it safe for me to keep working here?”
“I don’t know,” Rohan said. “Do what you need to and don’t feel guilty either way.”
Louis nodded, biting his bottom lip and looking down.
Ro clapped him on the shoulder and we headed through the door into the main DSI area.
“He won’t last to the end of the day,” Ro murmured. “You okay? You look a bit shaky.”
I was going to brush it off with an excuse about seeing Mandelbaum, but the very fact I wanted to brush off what I’d seen worried me. I wasn’t an addict and I wasn’t going to start lying. I told Rohan about the pale orange light and wanting to snuff it out.
“I wasn’t drawing on her magic, I swear.”
Rohan ran his hand up my back. “I believe you, Sparky. Do you want to call Dr. Gelman?”
“No. Let’s see if anything else weird happens. I mean, I’ve pretty much wished I could murder Mandelbutt since I met him, so it might have been all me.”
“True. We’ll go with that for now.”
Probably about 70% of the staff that I’d seen yesterday had returned, which was pretty amazing, all things considered, but the mood was understandably subdued. Not much work was getting done, and mostly people grouped together to rehash events.
Helen wasn’t back yet. Her assistant informed us that Dr. Ramirez still had her under observation.
The carpet had been removed and the walls cleaned of all blood and gore, but the broken floor and jagged hole in the wall were a taunting reminder of yesterday’s events.
I dragged in a shuddery breath, closing my eyes against the desperate look on Ethan’s face before he’d died.
Ro spoke quietly into my ear. “Tell me what you need.”
I opened my eyes. “Email. Let’s see if Orwell sent anything.”
They had: a single line stating that the photo of Tia didn’t match anything in their archives of confirmed demons. It would have been nice to be delivered Tia’s address wrapped in a shiny bow, but if we couldn’t go to her, we’d have to make sure she came to us. We’d have to make a huge splash tonight at the charity event.
Ari crushed me in a hug just outside the meeting room. “Fuck, Nee.”
“Ace.” I lay my head on his chest. My twin was here. It was as good as leveling up.
“Don’t hog her.” Kane rolled his eyes at my brother, but I didn’t miss how close he stood to Ari, with no thrumming hostility. Between that, the fact that he looked rested, and the atrocious polka dot shirt with striped sleeves that he wore, I launched myself into his arms with relief.
Baruch showed up, took in our assembled team, and nodded. “Let’s go.”
Our little show of solidarity was lost on Mandelbaum, because he wasn’t in the conference room.
Cisco, Danilo, and Bastijn were.
Cisco raised his eyebrows at the sight of us entering all posse’d up.
“Is this the cavalry, Hoss?” he drawled at Rohan. He leaned back in his chair, hands laced behind his head, but behind the carefree attitude was a sharp glint of anger. “You think we’re all going to go rogue like Ethan, so you’re strutting in here to pop our asses?”
“We suspect that Ethan was under a daeva compulsion,” Baruch said. “Your chapter had reported new activity in the past few weeks.”
Sometimes the anal-retentive paperwork that the Brotherhood demanded came in handy.
Danilo snorted. “Not on this scale. The fuck is going on? You people waltz in to our city like some kind of Tarantino squad and what? We supposed to be impressed? Scared?”
He curled his fingers lightly into his palm.
A gust of wind danced around my group, tightening like a lasso around us. My eyeballs strained against my closed lids. The invisible pressure grew and grew, my breathing labored.
“Stop!” Bastijn knocked the Rasha off his feet with a localized earthquake. Very localized.
It broke Danilo’s hold on us. Instantly, every single one of my friends and
I had accessed our magic. Rohan’s body was outlined in a wicked-looking blade, Kane’s skin was purple, the sharp tang of salt watering my eyes. Ashy-smelling shadows wove and bobbed around my brother, while metallic-tasting electricity crackled off my skin.
All Baruch had to do to look scary as hell was drop into a crouch with his fists up and his eyes flat.
Ropy vines swayed behind Cisco like cobras. “We drawing lines in the sand now?”
Danilo pushed to his feet, murder in his eyes, and a small tornado dancing around his stocky form.
The tension ratcheted up, the air thick with it. The next move, the next word could unleash destruction galore.
A sharp whistle cut through the room. Bastijn looked at each of us with disdain. “We’re not going to play into the hands of whoever or whatever did that to Ethan. Everyone sit down.”
None of us moved, our two groups eyeing each other warily.
“¡Coño de la madre! I said ‘sit.’” The ground rumbled.
We sat.
That’s when Mandelbaum walked in.
I gasped at the cadre of Rasha he’d brought with him. Four of them. Including Ilya.
“Fuuuck,” Ari breathed on my left side.
Kane was absolutely deadpan, careful not to touch anything because his skin was still coated with the remnants of his magic poison. Neither of them knew about my memory wipe, they were just worried he’d recognize me.
I tipped back on my chair, brazenly watching Ilya enter. Ilya glanced at us, but other than a nod at Baruch, he paid us no attention.
Ro’s eyes flickered from the new arrivals back to me. He raised an eyebrow.
“Ilya,” I muttered, subtly jerking a chin to indicate who I meant.
Ilya clearly didn’t remember me and he couldn’t rat me out. My witch magic had worked because I was just that good. The only thing that concerned me was why Mandelbaum had also brought a posse with him. Were they people he trusted in the face of this attack? Or was it a subtle warning to me?
One thing I was certain of, if I ran the names of the posse, they’d come up as deceased on all official records, just like Ilya. Mandelbaum had his own ghost squad.
The rabbi frowned at the table and despite everything, I clamped my lips together to keep from laughing out loud. The conference table was round and it was obvious he really, really wanted to sit at its head like our lord and master.
He yanked out a chair and sat down. He’d fixed his clothing, but sorrow still pulsed off him, his mourning painful to behold.
“Rabbi Wahl was a friend of mine for twenty years.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said.
“Thank you.” Something flickered in the depths of his gaze and then his weary expression was wiped away. “Every chapter is on high alert. No one works solo until given the all clear.” He rubbed one of his tzitzit between his fingers, absently. “This attack wasn’t a daeva. It was witches.”
The room erupted in an uproar.
Baruch pounded his fist on the table. “Sheket!”
Silence fell.
“You’re joking,” Danilo said. “I mean, witches are fun to date because some of those women are hella freaky, but they’re hardly a threat.”
Wait? What? He knew about witches?
“Jeez, man,” Cisco said. “TMI.”
Mandelbaum tapped the table twice with his finger. “This is priority one, gentlemen. Find those responsible.” He pointed at me. “You stay on your current assignment.”
“Why? Because I’m female?” Please let that be his reason. Did Mandelbaum know I’d met with witches?
Did he know I was one?
“Yes, it’s because you’re female. Don’t make a scene. I don’t want you feeling sorry for them and not doing what has to be done.”
I sat on my hands, magic sparks jumping off them to shock my poor butt.
“Which is what?” Bastijn said. “What do you want us to do when we find whoever compelled Ethan?”
“Bring them to me,” the rabbi said in a dark voice.
It was a brilliant, nightmarish countermove. Sienna’s attack allowed Mandelbaum to search for a witch possessing dark magic using all his resources, while pretending it was in the name of justice.
“Where do you want me?” Rohan asked. “Stay with Nava or on the witches?”
“The witches, but unfortunately, I’ll have to keep you with Nava since she’s dragged you into the public eye with her idea.”
I leaned forward, ready to argue that it had been Orwell’s grand plan, but Ari grabbed my wrist under the table, yanking me back.
Interesting that the rabbi was keeping Ro away from the witches as well. Ferdinand had come after us warning us to back off our investigation into his activities, which meant Rabbi Mandelbaum knew what we’d been up to. Was this yet another good cover story to get what he wanted–keeping us far away from further investigation?
Ari half-raised his hand. “Rabbi? Since Kane and I aren’t familiar with the city, we’re going to put together a timeline of Ethan’s last few days.”
Bastijn nodded. “Another way to track these witches.”
“Not quite. See if Ethan was really compelled or if he made a deal with them,” Ari said.
The entire Los Angeles contingent, including my boyfriend, bristled.
Ro’s finger blades flickered out for a second. “You didn’t know him.”
Some of Cisco’s tension left his muscled frame at Ro’s reaction.
“Even good Rasha can find themselves addicted and willing to do whatever it takes to get their fix,” Ari said. “I would know.” A Rasha had done that exact type of deal, allowing Asmodeus to kidnap and torture my brother. “If Ethan had any problems that would have led him to willingly partner up with these women, we need to find out.”
Opening an investigation into a Rasha/witch partnership, again under the pretense of justice? My brother was kind of a genius, too.
“Ethan didn’t have any problems,” Danilo said.
“That’s precisely the kind of person who has problems. The one who doesn’t want you to see them and who can hide them well enough so you don’t,” Kane snapped.
Cisco wore a thoughtful expression and I couldn’t read Bastijn. Mandelbaum’s contingent looked politely alert, except for Ilya who stared down at his lap, his brow furrowed.
“Rabbi?” Ari prompted. “I really want to contribute somehow.”
Don’t over act, golden boy.
“Good, Ari,” the rabbi said. “Agreed. If Ethan’s attack was a result of some deal, we need to know. Betrayals will not be tolerated.”
Hypocrite, thy name was Mandelbutt.
“Can I see Ethan’s body?” Kane said.
Rabbi Mandelbaum said something in Hebrew. “Ilya.”
Ilya jerked up his head at the rabbi’s sharp tone, blinking rapidly like he’d been momentarily disoriented. “What?”
“I’ll call the Chevra Kadisha representative,” Baruch said, picking up Ilya’s slack. “They’re performing the Tahara on Rabbi Wahl and handling the transport of Ethan’s body, but we can get Kane in before Ethan is sent home.”
Rabbi Wahl was being prepared for Jewish burial with the ritual washing and prayers, but Ethan’s burial would be handled once he was in Switzerland.
Rabbi M said he was staying here in Los Angeles until this situation was resolved. He demanded a quick update from Rohan on our current assignment and upon hearing that the charity event was tonight, his lip curled. “Have fun,” he sneered at me.
Ro took my hand, out of sight under the table. I thought it was for support until I felt something tickle me. He was drawing on me. A tiny rough sketch of a squirrel in goggles.
I snorted a laugh, doing my best to turn it into a cough.
The meeting broke up after that. The four Rasha the rabbi had brought ushered him out in tight formation, but Mandelbaum paused at the door.
“This was a tragedy and those responsible must pay.” Did he linger on me longe
r than the others? “Be’ezrat HaShem.”
I prodded my brother. “What did he say?”
Ari watched the rabbi leave. “God willing.”
Chapter 14
The door slammed before the rest of us could go anywhere. Cisco leaned against it, arms crossed. “Why does the rabbi need bodyguards?”
“How did he even know it was witches that compelled Ethan?” Bastijn raked a hand through his curls. “The attack happened yesterday and we’d never had any issue with them before. I didn’t even know they existed until Danilo revealed his weird-ass tastes.”
Danilo stretched and grinned. “You just wish there were dude witches, man.”
“I’m good,” Bastijn said. “Anyway, what’s with the rabbi? A day later he shows up with bodyguards because they’re priority one?”
“You know something,” Cisco said to Ro. He sat back down at the table, studying each person in my group with a shrewd look. Then he cocked his fingers like a gun at me. “But I think you know more.”
He was one Rasha among eight, all shoulder-to-shoulder at a round table, like King Arthur and his knights. If that wasn’t a sign to go a-questing together, then I didn’t know what was.
“Give me your cell.” I held my hand out to Cisco, who drew his phone out of his pocket, but held on to it. I blasted the phone out of Cisco’s hand and it hit the ground, smoking.
All the L.A. Rasha froze, wearing identical “Oh shit, crazy chick” expressions of wide-eyes and slack-jaws.
I turned to Danilo. “Phone. Now.”
When he didn’t move, I blasted his chair–between his legs–with a single lightning strike.
Hand over his crotch, he jumped up so fast, his chair toppled over backward. He tossed me his cell.
Bastijn didn’t need to be asked. He slid his over immediately.
Scooping up Cisco’s phone, I took them all, opened the window, and tossed them outside. I slammed the window shut.
“Mandelbaum was working with a witch who had dark magic to unleash demons on the world and make the Brotherhood a big savior. She’s dead and he’s looking for her replacement. Ta da.” I threw jazz hands. “Pick a side.”
“Go big or go home?” Ro said to me.
The Unlikeable Demon Hunter Collection: Books 1-6: A Complete Paranormal Romantic Comedy Series Page 127
