I could tell him then.
When Ro came back, his features were grim. “I paid. Ooliach time.”
Or not.
Seventh Avenue ran through some nice areas but the closer we got to Matteo Street over in the Arts District near DSI, the more depressed it became. Various tent-cities occupied trash-strewn sidewalks in front of empty warehouses vying to be leased for film productions. Homeless people lay on the street watching planes rumble overhead, while the stench of grease wafted over everything from a nearby fast food chain.
Deke’s was down a couple blocks from the Greyhound Terminal, not far from the huge salmon pink factory that anchored the corner at Alameda. It was dark, dingy, and smelled like old Ripple chips. And that was on the outside.
The bartender looked surprised to see us enter, probably because the closed sign and locked front door were grimy with disuse. Also because he had two heads and, I’m betting, didn’t see a lot of walk-in human clients.
Sorry. Portal-in.
“Greetings and salutations, assorted spawn. We’re looking for an ooliach,” I said.
The various fanged, horned, and snarly creatures rose as one to their feet, hooves, and crab legs.
Ten minutes later, I’d decimated the bar’s pool of returning clientele with good old-fashioned magic lightning, discovered that kishi, these two-faced hyena demons were fucking batshit but would conveniently rip each other to shreds when they bled, and determined that yes, there was in fact booze too foul for human consumption.
While I’d single-handedly dealt with the rest of the demons, Rohan had tracked the ooliach. Okay, found him face-down drunk on the bar. Given his human form was about five feet tall and a hundred pounds soaking wet, the two empty glasses in front of him constituted a bender.
The weaselly little shit–did I mention they were weasel demons?–took one look at Rohan and his Rasha ring, and sneered. “Go away. I’ve had a really bad day.”
Then he lost his balance and almost fell off the stool.
Ro steadied him–by the scruff of the neck. “It’ll be your last day if you don’t talk.”
The ooliach hiccuped, wafting pickles.
I took a large step back.
“Whaddyawant?” the demon slurred.
“Where’s Hybris?” I said.
The demon held up one of his two furry, twig-like fingers, then passed out, hitting the bar so hard, he snapped two whiskers off of his snout.
Ro grabbed his arm. “Portal us back to DSI.”
“What about your car?”
“Fuck the car.”
Fuck the car? Yikes. I portalled us.
We landed in a supply closet on the main floor. My best option for using portal magic undetected.
I was half-jogging to keep up with Rohan, hell-bent for the iron room, when he swung us into the stairwell and almost collided with Rabbi Mandelbaum.
“What’s this?” the rabbi snapped. Dude’s kippah was half-off his head and his bloodshot eyes looked one more sleepless night away from total unhingement. He turned to me. “Deal with your mission so I can have Rohan back helping me.”
Rohan bristled. “The demon on our mission killed my cousin. So I’m going to take as long as I fucking have to to find her. Got it?”
“Watch your tone, Rohan. Your disrespect has gotten out of hand.” Mandelbaum cut a sideways glance at me, before stepping aside to let us pass.
Yeah, yeah. I’m the bad guy for leading your precious hunter astray.
Dragging the limp ooliach by an arm, Rohan flung open a door, and tossed the demon inside.
Torture time had begun.
It was obvious Rohan didn’t want me to participate (and honestly neither did I) and his movements with the blade made it clear he took no joy in this, not like Drio had when I met him. I would have left Rohan to it, but when I reached for the door he stopped, words on his lips I didn’t need to hear to decipher: please don’t leave me alone, not in this darkness.
My ass went numb from the iron floor, plus weird green demon fluids that had missed the drain had soaked my shoes, but I stayed. If my boyfriend was going to lose it, I needed to be there.
We never got Tia’s location in the demon realm, and by the time the ooliach gave up the address of her son’s place in the valley, Rohan was bathed in sweat and there wasn’t a lot left of the demon.
Rohan pulled out his phone and hit a number, ignoring the twitching creature at his feet.
“How were the funerals?” On speakerphone, Drio sounded uncharacteristically somber, the usual sexiness of his Italian-accented English muted. I couldn’t help the small stab of loss at hearing his voice for the first time since he’d become, if not my enemy, no longer my friend, either.
There was a rustling on Drio’s end. “Say something, paesano. What’s up?”
“The demon Nava and I are tracking? Hybris. She killed Asha. It wasn’t the one you were after.”
Dead silence from Drio.
The ooliach jerked and splooshed out some more gross fluid.
“I need you here,” Rohan said.
“No. You have to kill Hybris.”
“Fuck, Drio.” Ro raked a hand through his hair. “You don’t need absolution. You have as much right to take her down as I do.”
“It’s not that.” Drio exhaled sharply. “If I come back, I’ll lose myself to the hate. I can’t keep living that way, Ro. It’s killing me.”
I closed my eyes against the quiver in his voice. Drio didn’t quiver. Drio was one of the deadliest people I’d ever met.
“It doesn’t mean I love Asha any less,” Drio said.
“I would never think that.” Ro sounded fierce enough to convince even Drio who gave a quiet, “okay.”
“Come back anyway,” Ro said. “You need to move on. There doesn’t have to just be one person.”
Drio’s laugh was harsh. “I wouldn’t go that far. I can’t stay stuck in the past, but maybe the present is good enough. Take that bitch down.”
“I swear it.” Rohan tucked the phone away. “Let’s go.” His eyes burned with a feverish gleam.
“Rohan.” He didn’t stop, so I put the ooliach out of his misery and followed, Robin to Ro’s totally psycho Batman.
Two months ago, I’d have fought Rohan about his behavior, but with my new in-love realization, it was hard to tell him he was wrong. He wanted to kill Hybris and get closure; I just wasn’t sure that was going to let the ugly gash he bore from Asha’s death heal cleanly.
Rohan needed to forgive, himself most of all. I didn’t know if he’d be receptive to my insights in his current frame of mind, so I supported him by portalling us.
Hybris wasn’t there but we found her son Koros in baggy pants, lounging by the pool and surrounded by succubi in thong bikinis. Maybe this was normal for the valley?
I machine gunned the females with my magic in their tramp stamps. I mean, yeah, the tattoos were offensive, but those glittery butterflies and hearts were also their kill spots.
Koros was so high, it took him a moment to notice that no one was grinding up on him anymore. “The fuck are you?”
Of course he had one of those stupid gold dental grills. I itched to kill this walking travesty so badly, but who was I to deprive Ro of the pleasure?
“Where’s Hybris?” Ro said.
“Not here.”
“I’m going to say this one more time. Where’s? Hybris?”
Koros shot him the finger.
And when Rohan left the note saying “sorry we missed you,” on the lounger, the gold dental grille kept it from flying away.
Baruch peered in through the bungalow’s window back at Dev and Maya’s, an actual worried expression on his face at the sight of Ro sitting on the floor with his knees drawn up to his chest and his shoulders slumped.
I shook my head.
Baruch turned to speak to Ari who bobbed up behind him.
Ari tugged on his ear lobe, our twin code for “I have your back.”
I gave
him a sad smile. There was nothing he could do for me if there was nothing I could do for Rohan.
“How do I tell my family that I let her go?” Ro’s words startled me. He hadn’t spoken since he’d killed Koros an hour ago.
I fingered the pendant containing the Bullseye like it was a talisman. “You couldn’t have killed Tia at the cemetery. Those women had their phones out. You would have caused mass panic. You can’t beat yourself up about this.”
“Still, I should have been able to do something more than just let her walk away.”
“No.” I hugged him, his head resting against my chest since he was seated on the floor and I was on the sofa. “Remember when we found out that it was Asmodeus who’d taken Ari? You told me to take what I was feeling and let it fuel me not consume me. You gotta do the same. We’ll get her. I promise you. I promise Asha. But you need to let yourself out of this guilt prison you’ve built. Because if you don’t, then Tia wins. She becomes this specter that ruins the rest of your life and I can’t imagine Asha would have wanted that for you.”
His arms tightened around me and he dragged in a shaky breath. “Okay.”
“Go. Talk to your parents.”
“I don’t deserve you.” He stood up.
“Au contraire, baby. I’m exactly what you deserve.”
“Back soon.” He kissed me, then left wearing a troubled expression.
I called Leo from the bedroom, flopped on the bed. I squirmed over to lay on Rohan’s side. Sniffing his pillow may have been involved.
“Where are you?” I said. “I hear muzak.”
“Grocery shopping. I’m glam like that.”
“Can you go sit in your car or something?”
“Why?”
“Ro spoke to Drio.”
“Good for him. Debit please,” Leo said to the checkout person.
I had half her attention at best right now, but as I told her about Tia and Asha, the silence on the other end grew more focused.
“He doesn’t want to come back from Rome to avenge the great love of his life.” Leo slammed her car door. “And?”
Why was I surrounded by stubborn people? Soon as this mission was over, I was going to get a group of easygoing friends. “Did you hear the rest of it? The part about the hate killing him?”
“You know what I didn’t hear? Any mention of me.”
“Leo.”
“No,” she growled. “I can’t go there.”
“He’s not going to kill you. He won’t even hurt you. I really believe that.”
“He already hurt me. I didn’t expect him to be in love with me, or even get over Asha. If I’d had someone like that, I’d love her forever, too. But all he saw when he threatened me was a PD. After everything that had been building between us, he looked at me and saw scum.”
“To be fair, we kind of dropped a bomb on him.”
“Are you taking his side?”
“I’m always on your side. I just think that if you have a chance at love you should take it.”
“I’m living the Cole years all over again.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You have Rohan who’s stupid for you. Yay, you. You were exactly like this when you were with Cole, trying to get everyone else around happily settled. Don’t, Nee. You can’t expect us to find that just because you suddenly did.”
“Maybe you would if you actually put yourself out there.”
“You of all people cannot be saying that to me.”
“And yet, here I am. Yes. Drio was a big idiot and walked away while Rohan gave me chance after chance. But I almost lost Ro and I don’t want you losing out. So you get me pushing you because I’ve watched you find reasons not to get involved with lots of great people.”
“I was involved with Madison.”
“You used Madison. Mutually used,” I amended. “You said it yourself. You and she had sexual chemistry and a solid friendship and it was never going to be more than that. Which is fine but there was no need to commit and that’s why you didn’t run from her.”
She made a noise to interrupt me, but I barreled ahead.
“Think about it. Drio wouldn’t have even given you a warning if he wasn’t stupid for you, too. Call him. Text him. Make contact.” The quality I’d sensed in Drio’s voice was now painfully clear. “He sounded so lonely.”
“Have you spoken to him?” she said.
“No.”
“Have you told Le Mitra you love him?”
“Who said I did?”
She waited me out.
“Okay, yes. I totally love him, but how did you know?”
“Know that you love him or know that you haven’t told him?” she said.
“Both. Either.”
She waited me out again.
“Whatever. Are you going to call Drio?”
“No chance. You’re incredibly irritating, but I love you. Schmugs.”
“You’re incredibly annoying, but I love you, too.” I sighed. “Schmugs.”
I tossed the phone on the bed right as the front door to the bungalow opened, grateful I was spared having the most important three words of my life being overheard like cheap gossip.
“In here,” I called out.
Ro lounged in the doorway, looking a tad emotionally frayed.
“How’d it go?”
“Shitty, but cathartic, if that makes sense.”
“It does.”
We went back to his house for the night, because as Ro said, he had good whiskey, and between learning about Asha and Ethan, he was drinking himself into a stupor. “Tonight is my next Thursday, Sparky.”
“Rage away, Snowflake. I’ll keep you safe.”
I cut him off when he had to be cut off, covered him with a blanket when he passed out, and held him tight all night. And I may have whispered that I loved him a time or two, hoping it made it into his dreams and took away some of his pain.
Chapter 23
Rohan was up early on Monday morning, seated at the piano determined to nail Asha’s song. “After I kill Hybris,” he said, “I’m going to write a reprise to ‘Asp’ that will go after ‘Slay,’ the final song. Then the story will be finished.”
It would be wonderful if he could write his way into closure, though I doubted it was that simple. Hmm. This wasn’t the moment to gloat that my song was on the album, but was it the moment to tell him how I felt?
“Ro?”
He was lost to me, testing out chords.
Apparently not. I kissed him goodbye and portalled to the address I had for Millicent’s apartment in West Los Angeles. Portalling was a fairly gentle sensation. A slight tug from my core propelling me forward as I popped out of one place and appeared in the other.
I started strong. I’d had a good night sleep, and my detox symptoms had subsided. I fixed the address in my head, closed my eyes, and eliminated the spaces in between. Why hello, gentle tug… and whaaaat?
I stopped dead, yanked backward like someone had grabbed my waist with a giant hook.
I landed on my feet, none the worse for wear, though that would change in approximately four seconds when the big rig bearing down on me splattered me all over the California highway.
I tried to flash out.
Hoooonk!
Three seconds.
The semi’s brakes screeched; burning rubber filled the air.
Two seconds.
I was a deer in the headlights, frozen in place in the second-to-left lane of an eight-lane highway. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.
The driver’s face contorted in horror. I was going to be dead, but she was going to have to live with the consequences.
Gritting my teeth, I dug deep.
I flashed out with a millisecond to spare. The truck whipped past, its rush of wind propelling me through my portal. Better for that driver to think she was seeing things than live with a death.
Trust me.
I tumbled onto the side lawn of Millicent’s place. It was
another hazy, smoggy morning, already very hot and very dry, but I was shivering, bathed in cold sweat. There was no way I’d miscalculated that badly.
I checked Lilith’s prison.
The box pulsed, that oily black light spilling out from all the seams. Lilith actively trying to get me killed was bad. Was it the end of the world? Not if the familiar thin woman stepping out of a taxi had anything to say about it.
Esther had refused my offer to pick her up at the airport, saying she liked to have alone time to decompress after the stress of flying.
I bounded over and threw my arms around her, crushing her giant purse.
She pressed a hand to her heart. “You never heard of waving?”
“Yeah, but I wanted to hug you.” I took her suitcase, my adrenaline jitters from the truck episode smoothing into a warm mellow buzz at her presence.
This stubborn old witch was one of my favorite people in the entire world and having her here was a shot of hope. With the Bullseye hanging around my neck in its pendant, the sun shining merrily, and Sienna within reach, I practically skipped along the flagstone path.
Even the clatter of Esther’s suitcase wheels tapped out an up-tempo staccato.
Millicent’s apartment was actually one of two buildings on the property, each vaguely Spanish-looking, that flanked a long rectangular pool. An abundance of trees cast dappled pockets of shade and kept the complex cool. The place in question was located at the far end of the north building, with a private staircase leading to the second-floor apartment.
The gauzy curtains were cracked open wide enough to see that no one was in the living room or kitchen.
Esther pushed me behind her. “The doormat has a pressure sensitive ward on it. And that door.” She rummaged in her oversized purse for a pair of reader glasses and slid them on. “The ward on it is a thing of beauty. What a waste of talent.”
I sat down on the top stair, but didn’t even have a chance to get comfortable, before she announced, “Get up, lazy bones.”
The front door now stood open.
I stepped into the humid foyer. “What if Sienna shows up?”
The Unlikeable Demon Hunter Collection: Books 1-6: A Complete Paranormal Romantic Comedy Series Page 136
