The Unlikeable Demon Hunter: Fall

by Wilde, Deborah

  “Jesus, Nava. Did I say that?” He stood up and wrapped me in his arms, holding me with his cheek pressed to mine, until the tension left my body, and his racing heartbeat slowed. “You can’t drop this on me and then expect me to roll with it. I want to destroy her. I can’t…” He swore under his breath, his arms tightening around me.

  “You won’t have to put me down like a rabid dog.”

  Rohan gave a pained laugh. “Don’t you dare joke right now.”

  I smiled against his neck.

  “Lilith can’t have you, okay?”

  “Okay.” And in that moment, surrounded and secure in the arms of the person I cared so much about, it was.

  We sat side-by-side on the edge of the tub, Ro holding tight to my hand. “What happened downstairs?” he said.

  “Ethan.”

  “What about him?”

  “He didn’t go postal. He was bound. Just like the demons. Dark magic. ‘Blood to rule the might.’”

  “Ethan’s blood. What did you learn?”

  “The recognition. Right. I was able to put my understanding in context because of the first part of the zizu prophecy.”

  Rohan mimed wiping his brow. “Oh, good. Wouldn’t have wanted that creepshow to fade into obscurity.”

  “Ro.” I kissed his knuckles.

  He sighed, but looked at me. “The attack. Was it Sienna’s doing?”

  “I couldn’t tell, but I’m gonna go with yes. The wards weren’t tampered with, were they?”

  “No.”

  “How’s Helen?” I said.

  “Danilo took her to Dr. Ramirez as well.”

  “What happened? Because that was a shit show.”

  “From what we could piece together,” he said, “Ethan asked to speak with Wahl and Zander, then soon as they were in the same room, fried them. Didn’t care who saw. That’s when Baruch broke through a wall to tackle him and pull him away from everyone else, and you were there for the rest.”

  “Why those three?”

  Ro shrugged, his expression tight with frustration. “You want to go back to the bungalow and get cleaned up? There’s not anything more we can do here.”

  “Yeah, but one other thing. When I–” I coughed, but it was reflex, not the magic silencing I’d experienced up until now. “The first time I met Lilith, she’d asked for permission to experience a memory. There wasn’t blood exchange involved and I gave my consent, but once it had started, I couldn’t have stopped it or refused her taking as much as she wanted off that memory. Whatever Sienna did to compel Ethan, there’s no chance he could have fought it.”

  I was actually able to articulate details of my interaction with Lilith. What if drawing on her magic was allowing me to regain control of my words, my body, my life?

  “The others need to know that,” I said, “but I’m not sure how to tell them without sharing all the backstory. I’m sorry, Ro. I don’t know who to trust here.”

  Ro stood up. “I don’t either. We’ll clear Ethan’s name somehow. We’ve been friends for years. He’s a solid guy. No way he went rogue.” He extended a hand and pulled me up. “Meantime, the first order of business is to figure out why Sienna used Ethan to go after those two.”

  “No,” Baruch said, having eased the door open and stepped inside. “The first order of business is: who’s Lilith?” He crossed his arms, puffing up his chest and pretty much obliterating any view of the hallway behind him. “And why is there a zizu prophecy helping you understand dark magic?”

  Ro hadn’t shared the entire story with Baruch, and the big, unhappy man didn’t let us go until he was satisfied that he’d wrung every last detail from us. Including what would happen in a month if I was lucky, and sooner if I wasn’t.

  Tree Trunk had gone Nava Red.

  I bounced nervously on my toes. “Baruch?”

  He stood there, scarily still and scarily silent, but the most terrifying part was his blinking that gave away nothing.

  I tugged on Rohan’s sleeve, my eyes anxiously darting to Baruch.

  Ro squeezed my arm in reassurance, then stepped forward, partially shielding me, and clapped Baruch on the shoulder.

  “Mandelbaum has extra tzitzit,” he said in a calm voice. “Baruch, you got someone you trust back at HQ who could get one for us?”

  Baruch pinched the bridge of his nose and I held my breath that he didn’t go nuclear. That I hadn’t lost him. I’d barely found a way to live without Drio and we hadn’t even been friends for much of our relationship. Losing Baruch was an ache I wouldn’t be able to staunch.

  He exhaled slowly and deeply. “The witches are confident they can keep you from losing your magic?”

  He was worried about me, not angry. My shoulders relaxed down from my ears as I considered how best to answer him.

  The witches had been optimistic when my chances were still fifty-fifty, before I’d drawn on Lilith’s magic. Had I decreased my odds? Maybe, but if I let myself go down the rabbit hole of despair, I’d lose my shit entirely. I needed to stay strong; the fate of the world and my happily-ever-after depended on it.

  “Yes. They’re confident.”

  “Then no problem,” Baruch said.

  “That’s it? It’s that simple?” I said.

  “Is there an alternative?” Ro said. I shook my head. “Then, yeah. It is. But take me along for back-up when you deliver it to Baskerville.”

  “Of course. Though I did have back-up the first time.” I dug my burner phone out of my pocket with grimy fingers. I’d be sanitizing it later. “See?”

  Baruch’s eyes darkened somewhat at the photo I’d snapped of Ms. Clara in her latex glory. Minus the freaky mask.

  “She used the whip?” His voice sounded rougher than usual.

  “Oh, yeah. Ever seen her do that wrist-wrapping trick? She’s balletic with that thing.”

  “You’re a menace,” Ro murmured, his eyes twinkling.

  Baruch stole one last glance at the photo, then smoothed down the front of his shirt. “Have you told us everything?”

  Everything except Ilya’s memory wipe, but I wasn’t about to drop two bombs on Rohan in a row. “Yup.”

  “Why can’t you find Sienna?” Baruch asked.

  “She’s shielded herself from any location spells and gone off any technological grid. Her place was cleared out. Dr. Gelman couldn’t even find a hair to trace back to her.” My hand flew to my mouth. “I have to tell Esther what Sienna’s done.”

  Just once I’d like to be the bearer of good news. I was never getting my rugelach.

  “May I leave the bathroom now?” I asked.

  “We’ll reconvene back at the bungalows,” Ro said. “Baruch is staying at Mom and Dad’s.”

  Normally I would have been overjoyed. Now, I nodded in resignation, and answered my phone.

  Before I could even say “hello,” Ari was freaking out on the other end, asking if I was okay. “Ace. Calm down. I’m… uninjured.” I couldn’t lie and say I was all right, because I still had Ethan’s blood on me and I was holding on to my sanity by my fingertips.

  There was shouting on Ari’s end and then Kane was on me, demanding I answer the same question. He had the phone wrestled away from him by Leo who bombarded me with yet more concern.

  Baruch plucked the phone away. “Who is this?” he barked. He held the cell away from his ear as Leo yammered at him, her voice cutting off with a shriek as Ari reclaimed the phone.

  “Nava is holding up,” Baruch said. “Rohan is taking her home. You can speak to her later. What? No. Ari. No. I–Ben zona!” He blinked at the phone, stupefied. “He hung up on me. Your brother is as annoying as you are. He’s also coming to Los Angeles.” He tossed me my cell back, suddenly looking incredibly weary. “We need a strategy.”

  A text from Ms. Clara lit up my phone. Mandelbaum coming to L.A.

  “I’d say this was the last straw, but…” I gave a harsh laugh, handed Rohan the phone, and walked out the door.

  11

&n
bsp; I didn’t call Esther until I’d showered and burned my clothing. Okay, not really. Billie had promised to dispose of them. Being clean and Ethan-free, plus the sandwiches and shot of whiskey that she’d brought, helped dissipate my shell-shock a tiny bit, as did the chocolate chip cookies, warm from the oven. Not one or two either. Like a dozen of them. And she told Ro they were all for me.

  “You look like you need the chocolate, lovely.” She tucked an escaping strand of blonde hair back into her bun.

  “You are the best human being in the history of the world.” I was wedged into the corner of the couch in the bungalow living room with pillows stuffed around me and a bright knit blanket thrown over my legs.

  She smiled at me, all grandmotherly. “I like this one, Rohan. She’s a fine judge of character.”

  He planted a kiss on her plump cheek. It was a sweet maternal tableau made sweeter, though decidedly less innocent, by the fact that Ro had also showered and was only wearing boxer shorts, his chiseled abs on display. “I like her, too. But I’m glad you approve.”

  “Billie, do you have stories of Ro as an irrepressible child?”

  “Dozens, dear.”

  “Can I come help you make cookies some time and can you share them, starting with the most embarrassing?”

  “Any time.” She tucked the bundle of dirty clothes under her arm, told me to call if I needed her, and left.

  I took a photo of Ro munching on his second cookie and posted a nauseatingly cute caption to go with it. “Yo, cookie thief. I didn’t even hear you ask for the first one.”

  “It’s for the mission,” he said, spraying crumbs.

  “Funny boy.”

  “Funny boy who let you wear his clothes.”

  “True.” I was enveloped in a pair of his sweats that were too baggy, an old skater T-shirt, and a Fugue State Five sweatshirt that he’d dug out of the depths of his closet especially for me.

  “I guess that entitles you to two cookies.”

  I picked up the top of a pair of Sienna’s nurse’s scrubs that I’d grabbed from Raquel on the way back to the bungalow. She was back home in Los Angeles after our meeting in Vancouver, having used the scrubs to do a location spell on Sienna without success. I hoped to have better results with my dark magic boost.

  Trusting Rohan and Esther was one thing; I didn’t know Raquel well enough to predict how she’d react to me drawing on Lilith’s magic, so I’d swallowed my retort to her snarky “good luck finding her.”

  Location spells were tricky, requiring a personal item–blood and hair worked best–as the cornerstone to the whole procedure. I had to cast my awareness out along an invisible thread of belonging that connected the item to its owner. The complicated part was making that thread magically tangible using infusion magic. It was a delicate procedure, and easy to lose track of the thread at any point. Though once the connection was secured, the person’s location would be immediately revealed.

  Sienna had managed to erect a big fuck-off magic barrier between herself and anyone doing the spell which the other witches hadn’t been able to breach.

  My turn.

  Closing my eyes, I took a moment to center myself. I reached out for the couple of wisps inside me, knotting them onto my internal visualization of my own magic. My magic had always presented itself in my mind’s eye as a kind of whitish blue, emblematic of electricity. Now, however, it was morphing into a marbled grayish-black.

  I opened my eyes after the third failed attempt.

  Rohan handed me a glass of water. “You gave it your best shot.”

  I stilled his jittering leg. “Thank you for trying to contain your freak-out that I’m using Lilith’s magic.”

  “I’m a master of serenity. Desperate times, but fuck, I hate this.”

  “It’s not ideal, but Sienna has amped things up in a horrifying way. If I can find her, then it’s an acceptable risk.” I gulped the liquid down greedily. “One more try. I’m hitting that same barrier, but I have one final section to probe for a weak spot.”

  Rohan took the empty glass from me with a kiss. “Do it.”

  I shook out my neck and shoulders and closed my eyes again, clutching Sienna’s shirt to my chest. Once more I slid along the thread and crashed into the enormous black barrier looming up in front of me.

  I carefully sussed out every inch of the bottom third but couldn’t get through. If I couldn’t change the barrier, could I change my magic? I’d been like a hammer, perhaps I needed to be like smoke. Or water. My magic sank into the barrier, burrowing deep down like rain in the root system of a tree. I allowed myself to fall into Sienna’s magic, becoming one with it.

  Her magic collapsed in on me, burying me and filling my lungs like I was drowning.

  I wheezed, panicking. The magic buffered and bashed me against the barrier, until I had no idea if I was still physically upright, my lungs screaming with a burning need for air.

  Blackness wove itself around me, pulling tighter and tighter.

  Fighting didn’t work so I surrendered to it, allowing it to sweep me away like the tide. I broke through the other side, blinking at a harsh light. Death?

  No, sunlight. And a very familiar wall thronged with praying crowds seen in the distance through an open window.

  I opened my eyes, grinning. “I’ve got her.”

  “You’re going to give me a heart attack,” Ro muttered and swiped another cookie.

  I checked Lilith’s magic box. A pinprick of light now emanated from one corner. Not bright, welcoming light. Gloomy, oppressive light that wasn’t much better than monster-hiding shadows, but I’d successfully completed the location spell, so I was counting this as a win.

  Esther skipped the “good job, Nava” part and went straight to the downside. “So she’s in Jerusalem. Where am I supposed to hide you so she doesn’t come after you for breaching her barrier?”

  “How’s she going to know it was me? You said yourself there’s no way to determine who casts magic. No magic forensic chemist. Besides, any signature I had as Nava is changing due to my forced proximity with Lilith.” I explained about the color change and the pinprick of light.

  My poor boyfriend looked like his head was going to explode. He stomped into the bedroom.

  On the other end of the phone, Esther flicked her lighter at warp speed.

  “Sienna’s attack changed the gameboard,” I said. “If she’s using us as weapons, then we need to use everything at our disposal to fight this war. That means Lilith’s magic. It might be the only edge we have.”

  “Remember the part about dark magic being addictive? That’s what you’re sounding like. An addict, justifying what you want.” Esther said.

  “I’m using it to help us!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. Also, I want to talk to her when you catch her.”

  “We’ll discuss it after we’ve brought her in. Focus on the mission that brought you to Los Angeles.”

  “Speaking of which, Mandelbaum is coming to town.”

  “The rabbi is going to investigate the attack,” she said, “which means it’s only a matter of time before he learns about Sienna. I’ll let the others know. Be careful.”

  The image of Ethan on fire rose up before me, the stench of burned flesh still seared in my nose hairs. I scratched the phantom blood on my skin.

  “Will do.” I tossed the phone onto the sofa with a shiver and hurried into the bedroom.

  Rohan stared at his sheet music, his pencil between his teeth, but at my entrance, he shoved all of it into the bedside table drawer and patted the mattress.

  I slipped between the cool sheets. Even the linens in this place were deluxe: the softest Egyptian cotton that rich-people-money could buy. “Can I hug you like a teddy bear tonight?”

  “No.” He snapped off the light. “I have a headache and it’s your fault.” He snuggled up against me, pulling me into his arms.

  “It’s Sienna’s fault.”

  We lay on our backs
staring at the ceiling for a few moments, both of us fidgety. Were we really still on the same day as the attack? I felt like I’d aged five years.

  “Do you want to cry or rage or something?” I said. “I mean, my strategy is ‘denial to exhaustion,’ but that’s not generally how you play it.”

  “I don’t know how to play it. I’m furious at Sienna, gutted over Ethan, and some combination of both about Zander.” He rested his head on his bent arm. “I don’t know how to play it,” he repeated, more softly.

  “Ah, babe.” I hugged him.

  “Next Thursday,” he said after a while.

  “What about it?”

  “That’s my strategy. I keep my shit together until Thursday next week. Far enough away to have dealt with everything. Then I’m going to crack.” He lay his cheek against my chest. “I don’t want to lose more friends.”

  I kissed the top of his head, inhaling the tang of citrus shampoo on his still-damp strands. “Whatever you need. I’ll be here for you.”

  “I’m counting on it. And back at ya. In case the denial wears off. Whatever you need.”

  “FYI, Snowflake, I consider blanket statements like that legally binding.”

  “It’s always ‘check the fine print’ with you.”

  More staring at the ceiling. More restless limbs. More lack of sleep.

  Rohan flipped on the bedside lamp. “Cards?”

  I pushed the covers aside with a sigh. “Gin. The drink and the game.”

  * * *

  I reached for my fourth cookie of the morning, having a sliver of tummy space left to cram it into. Mouth full, I pulled the cold case print-outs from my enormous purse and thunked them on the table.

  Rohan rifled through a few pages. “You sure you want to do this?”

  “If it silences the instant replay my brain is stuck on? Positive.”

  My phone buzzed with a text from Esther. Sienna got away. Locked up a couple of witches for a few hours but didn’t harm them.

  I slammed my palm down on the table. “Damn it! We lost her.”

  I texted back. Want me to try again?

  No! I’ll come after you personally if you do.