by Ching, G. P.
Malini shrugged. “So we won’t go. We’ll figure something out.”
“It’s not just that. Look how far Lucifer has come. We haven’t found Abigail. Half the world is addicted to Elysium. Paris is crawling with Watchers and we are trying our best just to keep them from eating the farm animals while pretending to be normal teenagers.”
Malini stepped closer. “I know. This can’t last forever. But my intuition tells me it’s too early. A change is coming. I can feel it in the air. But, for now, we have to stay focused and organized.”
He sighed.
“And as for Abigail, Gideon found ten properties owned by Milton Blake in the Chicagoland area. The first six were decoys. We’re getting close. Abigail has to be in one of the last four.”
“We hope. Unless he has her in Hell like Dane.”
Malini blinked slowly, her face twisting at the thought. “When Abigail first went missing, I thought Lucifer would call me to him like before. I thought he was using her as bait against us. After all this time, I think he just wants her, Jake. I think he has come to see her as some sort of prize. None of us can go to Hell, but I’ll keep sending out teams to Blake’s properties until we’ve searched every one. I’m not giving up on her.” She handed him back his staff. “Come on. Let’s patrol town.”
“Hey, Malini.”
“What?”
“You want your Christmas present?”
“Hell yes.”
“Well, I don’t have it here.”
“Tease.”
“It’s in my room. An early edition of Silas Marner.”
“Hello! Way to ruin the surprise.”
Jacob spread his hands and laughed.
“Silas Marner. Cool. Leather bound?” Malini asked.
“You bet. You said it was your favorite.”
“It is.” She pecked him on the cheek. “Thanks. I’ll even forgive that you have absolutely no patience.”
Jacob held out his hand and made the gimme motion. “What did ya get me?”
Malini pulled a tiny, flat package from her back pocket. Jacob tore the glittery paper off. His lips twitched when he saw what was inside.
“Seeds.”
“Cherry seeds.”
“You gave me cherry seeds for Christmas.”
Malini rolled her eyes. “It’s romantic. We can plant them when all this is over, if or when we ever get our own place. You know, Mara told me that Heaven is full of cherry blossoms.”
Eyebrows raised, Jacob pulled her into a hug. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Jacob.” She laced her fingers into his. “Now come on. Let’s go see if any of the Watchers from the school are stupid enough to show their faces in town tonight.”
Chapter 17
Winter’s Quarry
Four weeks later…
Bonnie tried to remain inconspicuous as she stared across the street at the North Wabash Avenue skyscraper Gideon said contained the devil’s penthouse.
“I can’t believe I finally get my chance to be useful,” Cheveyo said, pulling his coat tighter around his body.
“Don’t count your chickens before they’ve grown up and laid eggs,” Bonnie said.
“I don’t think that’s the expression,” Cheveyo said, laughing.
“So then how’s this for an expression?” Bonnie stretched her mouth open with her gloved fingers and waggled her tongue.
“Stop messing around,” Samantha said. “We need a plan.”
Bonnie eyed the door to Lucifer’s building through the dark lenses of her sunglasses with apprehension. “Chances are it will be like all of the others, a completely empty decoy.”
“I don’t like this,” Samantha said. “I’ve had a weird feeling all day. What if Lucifer is inside? Or worse, what if Cord is there?”
“That’s why we have Jesse staking the place out,” Bonnie said. They’d come at noon on a Wednesday. Across town, Harrington Enterprises was not only open, but an interview with Milton Blake was scheduled for WGN. The public’s outcry about Elysium had reached a fevered pitch. Bonnie hoped Lucifer, Cord, and Auriel would be sufficiently distracted with Harrington business that, if this was Milton Blake’s actual residence, it would be empty.
Sam crossed her mittened hands over her puffy purple coat. “I wish Jesse would get back soon. I don’t like to think of him in there alone.”
As if his name was a magic incantation to conjure him to her side, he formed next to her, slipping his arm around her waist. Sam jumped at the contact.
“Your wish is my command.” Ghost chuckled.
Sam smacked him on the shoulder, and then yanked him into a quick hug. “So what did you find out?”
“Yeah, Ghost, spit it out. I think my balls are freezing off out here,” Cheveyo said. Originally from Arizona, he hadn’t ever experienced a Midwestern winter. The puffy coat he’d borrowed from Jacob was warm, but every time the wind blew, he scrunched up his face like it hurt.
Bonnie didn’t think the weather was that bad, but then again, she and Sam had grown up in northern Nebraska. Cold, flat, and inhospitable in the winter, Nebraska had toughened her up in more ways than one.
Ghost cleared his throat. “He owns the penthouse, the entire top floor. You need a special key to get up there. The elevator won’t even reach that level without it.”
Bonnie groaned. “Great. How are we supposed to steal the key from Lucifer?”
Ghost grinned. “I don’t know, but you could just use the one I stole from security.” He held up a cylindrical silver key.
Seizing Ghost’s face between her purple mittens, Samantha kissed his cheek so hard it left a red mark. “You are the best, Jesse Larsen. The absolute best.”
“Jesse can slip in undetected, but can we pull off Cord and Auriel?” Bonnie asked Sam.
“They’ll have to be smaller versions. It’s going to be difficult to replicate the bulky clothing,” Sam said.
Their own bulky clothing would add to their mass, but Bonnie was right, Cord’s muscled frame topped two hundred pounds and Auriel’s tall stature added to her mass.
“I could do Cord and you could do a random woman. Security might go for it. A romantic interlude?”
Sam tipped her head. “Maybe, but what do we do about him?” They all stared at Cheveyo.
“Hey, these guys are Watchers, right?” he asked. “Obviously, the only reason I’d be with them is if I was their food or carrying their bags.”
Bonnie’s eyebrows shot skyward, and she grabbed her sister’s hand. “Brilliant! Let’s find a place to change.”
“Did I miss something?” Ghost asked.
No one answered. The two redheads were already ducking inside a shop at the end of the street.
* * * * *
“Good afternoon, Mr. Maxwell,” the gray-haired woman in the doorman’s uniform said to Bonnie as she opened the door for her. She gave a curt nod, avoiding eye contact. Cord wouldn’t be the friendly sort. She needed to stay in character.
Behind her, Cheveyo and Samantha entered the building, boxes from the local stores stacked in front of their faces. Sam had changed her appearance to look like an extremely petite Hispanic woman, but Cheveyo had no disguise. They’d have to hope the packages did their duty to block his face; a number of Watchers might recognize Cheveyo from Nod. Of course, if they ran into Watchers, they were doomed anyway. Their smell would give them away.
“That way,” Bonnie said in Cord’s baritone, pointing in the direction of the elevator.
“Mr. Maxwell,” the woman at the front desk called. She waved her hand and smiled.
Bonnie stopped, turned slowly toward her, forcing her face to contort into a busy man’s scowl.
“You have a message,” she said softly, fear leaching into her voice. “Ms. Thomson left you this envelope.” She held up a large manila number.
With measured steps, Bonnie approached the counter, motioning for Cheveyo and Sam to continue toward the elevators. She snatched the envelope from the
woman’s hands without saying a word.
“Asshole,” the woman murmured.
Bonnie pretended not to hear her. Quickly, she slipped past the large security guards outside the elevator. They seemed to recognize Cord and know not to make small talk. She joined her cohorts in the elevator reserved for penthouse residents and slipped her key into the top slot. The doors closed and they began to ascend.
Ghost formed inside the compartment, catching himself on his knees. “Jeez, I can’t do that again, guys. I feel like someone is pulling me apart cell by cell.”
“You held it for too long, Jesse. You can’t do that,” Sam said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Should I have formed in front of security? How about the other residents in the lobby?” he snapped. “I’m trying my best here.”
Bonnie placed her hand on his shoulder. “We know, Jesse. You’ve done a great job.”
“Not to interrupt, but what is that smell? It reeks like something died in here,” Cheveyo said around his stack of packages.
“I smell it too,” Samantha said. “This is a five-star complex. You’d think they’d keep it clean.”
Bonnie sniffed, then followed the smell back to the envelope. She weighed the package in her hand, pressed her fingers around the object inside. Stupid. Stupid. Why did she accept this from the front desk? Now when it wasn’t there for Cord to pick up, he’d ask questions. Likely it wouldn’t take long for him to figure out she’d been there.
Her fingers pressed against the fleshy roundness inside the envelope. Realization dawned. “It’s a human finger,” she said solemnly. “That’s what you’re smelling.”
“Wha—?” Cheveyo squeaked, glancing from face to face as if someone might say it was a sick joke.
But no one was laughing. Bonnie had told everyone in Eden about Cord’s drawer full of fingers. Each of them stared at the package with equal parts disgust and dread. Then the doors opened.
A small foyer greeted them with mirrored walls and a potted plant that, upon closer inspection, was artificial. Two sets of double doors formed the ends of the foyer, one to their left and one to their right.
“Which way?” Bonnie asked. She took a step inside and the elevator doors closed behind her. Cheveyo and Sam propped their packages against the wall and looked expectantly at Ghost.
“I don’t know,” Ghost said, arms wrapped around his abdomen as if he was holding himself together. “I didn’t go inside before, and I couldn’t possibly now.”
Sam hugged his shoulders with one arm. “It’s okay, Jesse. Just rest.”
“Maybe the door’s open?” Cheveyo said optimistically. He looked from one door to the other, shrugged, then headed for the one on the left. He never had a chance to test the knob.
The door opened on its own. A hunched woman in a loose-fitting dress and a babushka that hid her face, backed into the foyer, pulling a cart full of cleaning supplies. Cheveyo lurched forward to hold the door open for her. She muttered her thanks and wrestled her cart over the threshold.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Maxwell,” she said to Bonnie before pressing the button to call the elevator.
Samantha, Ghost, and Cheveyo entered the penthouse, but Bonnie lagged behind. Something about the cleaning woman was familiar. She caught herself staring, wondering if they’d met before.
The elevator doors opened, and the old woman backed her cart into the compartment. Their eyes met. The woman looked exactly like Bonnie, down to the mole on the right side of her face! Bonnie’s mouth dropped open.
“You’d better hurry, Mr. Maxwell,” the woman said with a wink.
“Wait!” But the doors closed, and the doppelganger was gone. Had she just seen God? No. It couldn’t be. The resemblance must have been an uncanny coincidence. The more she thought about it, the more she was sure she was mistaken. The scarf hid most of the woman’s face. Bonnie shook it off and entered through the open door.
Inside the penthouse, Bonnie paused to take in the heart-sputtering view. Lucifer’s abode was massive. A wall of windows bordered an open floor plan, and Bonnie was sure it was more open than most. The sixteen-foot ceilings provided an insane view of the city. Lucifer enjoyed living large, that was for sure. Sleek leather furniture was the focal point of the room, and Ghost had already made himself comfortable, trying to recover from overdoing it earlier.
“Let’s split up and search,” Bonnie suggested. Ghost looked at her as if she was out of her mind. “Not you, Jesse. We need you to recover in case we need your help getting out of here.”
He flopped an elbow over his eyes and stretched out on the couch. “Brilliant minds think alike.”
Bonnie surveyed the layout of the penthouse. The glass walls seemed to bend in an arc, following the shape of the building. She guessed the penthouse was a large oval with the elevators at the center. “I think this place is like a giant donut. Sam, could you take the rooms to the left. I’ll go right. Cheveyo, can you check out the kitchen and that bathroom?”
“Sure.” He looked across the living room, over the counter, and at the refrigerator. “Although I’m pretty sure if Abigail was here, you could see her. Am I looking for her in the cabinets?”
Bonnie shook her head. “Lucifer is the lord of illusions, Cheveyo. She won’t be in plain sight. Look for anything that seems strange or out of place. And be careful.”
He nodded.
The first room Bonnie entered was a library that looked rarely, if ever, used. Methodically, she jostled each book with no idea what she was looking for. A secret room hiding Abigail? Maybe. A bathroom was next. Then, a sprawling bedroom with its own bath. Another bedroom. Another bath. Bonnie searched each, running her hand along the top of the dressers, digging through the mostly empty drawers. Nothing. Not a clue to Abigail’s whereabouts.
A half hour later, she bumped into Samantha outside of a massive bedroom. “This place is huge,” she said.
“Fourteen thousand square feet,” Bonnie said. “Or so says Gideon. It was originally designed for an oil sheik.”
“Shit. Well, I searched like a hound dog. Nothing. Do you think Lucifer has her in Hell after all?”
The sound of falling footsteps drew their attention to the hallway. Cheveyo sprinted toward them, eyes wide and hands shaking.
“What’s going on?” Bonnie asked.
Cheveyo rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. “I think there’s a soul in the kitchen!”
Chapter 18
Found
Abigail didn’t know much about Cheveyo. She’d never met him in person, except when he was residing inside Dane’s body, but she did know that his power had to do with possession. He’d possessed his friend Raine’s body and of course Dane. Possession had to do with inhabiting the body, but she’d heard Cheveyo could also sense a person’s soul. He’d been able to communicate with the people he’d possessed. Could he sense her soul, even if he couldn’t see her?
She approached him in the kitchen, waving her arms and crying out. He stopped, listened for a moment, and took off down the hall. Crap. How could she show him and the others she was here? The boy returned with Cord. For a moment, Abigail recoiled until she realized Cord wasn’t really Cord, but one of the twins disguised as the Watcher. Bonnie or Sam?
A petite Hispanic woman jogged to Cheveyo’s side, the sweet scent of sunshine and honey wafting in her wake. The scent was a dead giveaway they were all Soulkeepers, no matter how menacing the one disguised as Cord looked.
“I feel her. Right here. I can’t see her but my gift knows her,” Cheveyo said.
Thank God! He could sense her. But what could they do? They couldn’t see, or hear her.
“Can you, like, possess her or something, Chevy?” the Hispanic woman asked. One of the twins, she was sure.
He passed his hand through Abigail’s torso. “Not if I can’t touch her.”
Abigail’s heart dropped. So close to salvation and still caught in Lucifer’s grip. She pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes, a
grown woman, crying like a child.
“Hey, Bonnie, you could use the stone,” Cheveyo said, placing his hands on his hips and turning toward the Cord doppelganger.
So it was Bonnie disguised as the Watcher, which meant the other woman was Samantha.
“How can the stone help?” Bonnie asked.
“The red stone around your neck is the same one as Dane used to have, right?”
“Yeah. Malini gave it to me.”
“Well, when I was stuck inside Dane’s body, and he used the stone, when we got to the other side I was myself. Separate. With physical form. This cowboy guide who was helping us said the In Between was a manifestation of consciousness. Separate consciousness, separate reality, or some shit.”
Bonnie unbuttoned the top buttons of the dress shirt she was wearing and pulled the red stone over her head. “What do I do? Abigail’s not possessing me. How do I take her with me into the stone?”
Cheveyo rubbed his chin. “I’m not sure.”
Samantha chimed in, “Malini said you’re supposed to stare into the stone and blank your mind.”
“That will get me through, but how do I take Abigail?”
“Just because we can’t see her doesn’t mean she can’t see us,” Sam said. “Think about Jesse. He’s always there, even when he’s not.”
“So, you’re saying?”
“Let’s tell her to stare into the stone while you stare into the stone, and maybe she’ll hear us.”
Brilliant, brilliant girl, Abigail thought. She approached Bonnie’s side.
“Did you feel that?” Bonnie asked.
“Feel what?” Sam said.
“Yeah, I did. A cold breeze passed between us,” Chevy said.
“Let’s do this. She’s here. She has to be.” Bonnie plopped down in the middle of the kitchen floor and pulled out the stone, dangling it between her fingers. “Abigail, if you can hear me, look into the stone.” She pointed at the gem to reinforce her command.
Abigail positioned herself behind Bonnie’s shoulder and stared into the red stone, clearing her mind. The change happened quickly. The red of the stone spread across the room, shingles of red glass tiling the space around her and Bonnie. She heard the girl scream as they began to fall. With a smack that bent her knees, Abigail landed in a dark room, and then the blackness peeled back, revealing a new reality.
