by A and E Kirk
I did too. Then jammed on the brakes, and the tires let out a short screech of rubber.
Uh-oh.
The truck was stopped halfway down the empty street. I scanned the area. The buildings seemed deserted, the area lined with overflowing Dumpsters. Debris was scattered on the pavement. My nose wrinkled at a rotting, forsaken odor. No sign of Bill and Ted. I got an eerie feeling. Decided to leave pronto, but put the license plate to memory before I did.
The back of the truck flew open.
Gripping automatic weapons, Bill and Ted opened fire.
CHAPTER 32
I’ve stopped a bullet before.
However, this time there were a lot of bullets, streaming from the weapons with a deafening sound. Loud and endless. And this time, the bullets didn’t stop. I threw my arms in front of my face and flung myself sideways. An automatic but useless gesture. The Suburban shook like a dying beast caught in an ambush. Bullets thwap-thwap-thwapped into metal.
I couldn't hear my own screaming over all the noise. I managed to quiet my yells, but not my heart, which pounded in quadruple time, sledgehammer-strong against my ribs. I gulped quick breaths and waited for the pain to arrive.
It didn’t.
The firing squad stopped firing. In the sudden quiet, I opened my eyes. The windshield was a pockmarked mass of cracks, making it almost white. But it wasn’t broken.
I patted myself down. No holes. No blood.
Over the dash, the world was warped through the damaged glass. Bill and Ted’s movements appeared disjointed as they jumped down into the street and stalked toward me, tossing aside empty ammunition clips and working to reload.
“Gosh, Ted,” Bill spoke in a loud voice. “I hope this minor incident of violence doesn’t hamper your budding relationship. You two finally being so honest and all.”
“Excellent point, Bill. I had such high hopes for our future.”
These guys were nuts!
My hands glowed, tingling with power. They also shook with fear as I grabbed the steering wheel, ready to book it in reverse. But my sweaty hands fumbled on the gearshift, unable to get a grip. The umbra stone clicked open, started to glow.
Not now!
Bill and Ted were laughing as they strode steadily forward. I heard ominous clicks as they finished reloading and readied to fire again. The umbra stone started heating up against my skin, the glow nearly blinding me.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Ted called. “I just don’t think this is going to work out between us. They laughed again. “I hope you can understand.”
That was it.
Understand? Oh, I’d show them how understanding I could be. They weren’t the only ones with a deadly weapon. I rammed the gearshift into drive and prepared to slam down the gas pedal and run them over.
There was a frantic screeching of tires as a car flew around the corner and into the street behind me. It fishtailed, then steered sideways and accelerated. The front of the vehicle slammed into a Dumpster, sending the large metal bin flying forward until it struck another Dumpster, then another, until finally the Dumpster next to me got hit and instead of going straight forward, angled off into the center of the street and straight for Bill and Ted.
The two had paused to watch the commotion, then shared a frightened look as they realized they were about to get mowed down. They dove out of the way in opposite directions, then rolled to their feet, ran to the truck cab, and drove off with more squealing tires.
I stared blankly, trying to catch my breath. There was a knock on the driver’s window. I yelped and turned. White light sparked in my hands.
“It’s me!” Logan backed up, palms raised.
CHAPTER 33
I leaned against the Suburban, running my fingers over the rough indentations. “Bulletproof?”
Logan grinned. “My dad’s idea when he fixed it after we totaled it.”
“Wow.” I filled my cheeks with air, then blew of a long breath. “Tell him thanks.”
Someone grabbed my arm and spun me around.
“The car may be bulletproof, but you’re not!” Ayden’s voice burned as deep and hot as the literal fire in his eyes. “What the hell were you thinking?”
The rest of the Boys had arrived on foot. Logan beat them with his stolen car and game of Domino Dumpsters while they finished up at the warehouse.
“Aurora? Thinking?” Matthias said. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Not now!” Without looking, Ayden flung a hand back and shot a line of flame that narrowly missed Matthias’s feet but left a black singe mark on his jeans.
The Aussie jumped back and swatted at the burnt material. “Calm down. It wasn’t a bad plan.”
Blake startled. “Whoa, dude!”
Jayden, who’d been concentrating hard on a stack of papers, shot us a look. “Matthias? Are you well?”
“Seriously?” Ayden flung an arm toward the car. I flinched, but no flames shot out from his hand. “Have you seen this? Since when are you defending her?”
“Didn’t say I’m happy about it,” Matthias said. “But the plan…well, the plan bloody well sucked because she has no stealth vehicle skills, but the idea was sound.”
“See?” I backed up the Aussie. “Thanks, honey.”
Matthias grimaced. “Don’t push it.”
“Enough,” Ayden told the Aussie, the fire in his eyes starting to dim. “And you…” He turned to me. “Don’t ever do that again.” He looked at the car, a cloud of darkness sweeping over his features.
“Oh, okay, Ayden,” I said with more than a bit of irritation. “I promise to never again drive an armor-plated Suburban to the security gate at that warehouse, do my best to stall the guard while trying to signal you guys, go along with a psycho's ruse that I’m his girlfriend, or Matthias’s sister, then give chase to the uber bad guys, trail them to an alley, and survive their assault, all so that I could give the rest of you time to execute your part of the plan. This, I will never do again. Promise.” I held up my little finger. “Want me to pinky swear?"
Ayden swallowed, and again stared at the damaged vehicle, then he pulled me into his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, his grip threatening to crack a few ribs. “You did good. I’m just…please don’t do this again.”
Nerves still raw from the near-death experience, I was shaking, so it took me a moment to realize, Ayden was too. I tamped down my anger and hugged him back.
Blake worked his earth magic to clear the windshield glass and smooth out the bullet marks on the metal. A temporary fix, they told me, but it would get us home without undue attention and last until Mr. Hough could get to it.
“Maybe Tristan won’t even notice,” Blake said on the ride home.
Logan rolled his eyes. “You aren’t that good.”
Ayden and I occupied the Suburban’s third seat, him leaning against the side, me in the middle, his arms locked like a vise around my torso.
Jayden slapped down some papers. “I don’t like this code.”
“You’ll figure it out, mate.” Matthias was distracted with Jayden’s computer tablet. “License on the truck is for a Toyota Camry, so they’re stolen plates. A dead end. Blake, draw up a couple of sketches of Bill and Ted. We can run them through facial recognition.”
“Righty-oh, dude. Having their first names gives us a head start.”
“Blake, those aren’t their real…” Matthias sighed. “Never mind. But just in case, check for any, uh, aliases.”
Blake gave him a thumbs-up. “You got it.”
The guys had infiltrated the warehouse and discovered that the shipment had gone out yesterday. But they’d also found a reference catalog of items, so all we had to do was match the item numbers on the invoices we found with those in the catalog, and we’d know what was being shipped. Right?
Not so easy. Everything was in written in code.
"Aurora, I adulate your aunt’s stalwart devoir to security, but am not pleased to be so fortuitously stymied.” He narrowed his
eyes. “However, I accept the challenge and will cryptanalyze her cipher.”
Ayden spoke against my ear. “He’s ticked off he can’t figure it out right away, but—”
“He’ll crack it,” I said. “Got that. So Bill and Ted had nothing to do with Burke?”
My body rippled softly as Ayden shrugged against my back. “Nothing to do with this shipment, anyway. Don’t know what they had in the truck.”
I sighed. “Today was a bust other than my aunt’s company may be compromised. It’s depressing. Someone please tell me Tristan got something from Heather. She’s our only other lead.”
“I’ll call him.” Matthias took out his phone.
Ayden said, “It’s not true that we didn’t get anything of value today. In fact, we got the most important thing.” His arms tightened around me. “You. Alive.”
Matthias sounded like he was coughing up a hairball. I ignored him.
CHAPTER 34
“This is getting old,” Luna said.
I groaned, not bothering to open my eyes. “You waking me up too early in the morning? Yeah, I’d have to agree.”
“No,” she said. “You sleeping with your boyfriend and actually sleeping with your boyfriend.”
“What?” I blinked the sleep from my eyes.
I was on my side. Felt a warm body snuggled at my back. An arm around my waist. Not again. Even if they believed me, Mom and Dad would not find this amusing. And Luna was right. Romance-wise, this was pathetic.
I jiggled my body and patted his hand. “Ayden, wake up.” There was a grumble of protest between my shoulders as he burrowed down further. I shook harder. “Oh come on. You’ve got to get out of here before my parents—” I looked over my shoulder as his head came up. “Eeeeyow!” I screeched and tumbled away, falling out of bed and flat on my face.
Ow. My nose.
Luna gasped and threw a hand over her open mouth. Her eyes bugged. “Nope. Scratch that. This just got very interesting.”
Not the word I would pick.
Luna recovered her shock and laughed. “It’s a ménage-a-twahble. See what I did there? Man, I’m good. I can’t wait to tell Danica about this.”
I rubbed my nose and stared at the occupant of my bed. I couldn’t see his face, because it was hidden behind a long, thick curtain of blue-black hair, shiny and effervescent thanks to the fancy French shampoo he swore by. He wore pajama bottoms covered in an abundance of underwater sealife, and nothing else, his long and lanky torso in plain view.
I tried to rub the sting from my nose and grumbled, “There’s nothing to tell.”
“Right,” Luna said tiredly. “Because you’re not getting any action from him either?”
Jayden flipped the hair back off of his face. “If by ‘action’ you’re referring to the cultural colloquialism for coitus, I can assure you, nothing of that nature occurred.”
Luna made a face. “Coy-what?”
“Coitus.” Jayden used a knuckle to rub his eyes. “From Latin. Meaning the meeting together in a sexual congress. There are several terms used to stimulate—”
“Stop!” Luna put up her hands to ward off the verbal assault.
“—the oral reference to the act of coition, however I can assure you, Aurora and I have an agamic relationship.”
“Ugh.” Luna’s lip curled in disgust. “I just ate.”
“He means we’re sexless,” I told Luna. Hmmm. That sounded wrong. It was way too early in the morning to deal with this. “I mean, between us there’s no sex.”
She smirked. “Yeah, Sherlock. No sh—”
“Luna!” I snapped.
“What? I was going to say, no shenanigans. I get it. You seem to have that effect on guys. Hope it’s not a genetic defect I share.”
“But I must say,” Jayden smiled wistfully, “when I was a child, I had a giant stuffed whale which I slept with every night. Very soft and squishy, and Aurora, instituting the connection of our bodies last night, which I believe constitutes the term snuggling, provided the same comforting sensation as slumbering with the whale. Most enjoyable. I forgot how much I missed it.”
“Giant whale.” Luna snorted a laugh. “He just called you fat.”
“But snuggly,” I said. “Jayden, what are you doing here?”
“Ah, yes!” He reached over the other side of the bed and came up holding some papers. “Since she’s your relative, I was looking for some insight with the code I partially cracked last night. I wanted to share some thoughts. However, you are an extremely heavy sleeper, and as I awaited your arousal, while trying to further unravel ciphered information, I succumbed to the hibernation of consciousness. Blissfully so. But now that you’re awake…” He shuffled the papers around.
“What code?” Luna asked. “The one for the mission?”
“Yes,” Jayden said. “I haven’t ascertained the complete cryptography, but—” He cocked his head at Luna. “How do you know about the mission?”
“She doesn’t.” I stood and gathered the papers from Jayden. “Because there is no mission. Right, Jayden? Just homework. Lots of boring homework.”
I shoved a reluctant Luna out of the bedroom and almost had the door closed when Matthias pushed his way through.
“Good, you’re both awake.” He was clothed. No baseball bat this time. He'd even showered, hair was still damp. Most importantly, Matthias seemed unsurprised by Jayden’s presence.
“You knew he was here?” I said.
“Sure,” Matthias said. “One of the times I checked on you during the night, he was in your bed. Thought it was Ayden at first, but who am I to judge? Except for their poor choice in women.”
Hmmm. Several things disturbing about that statement. “And you didn’t think to send him back over to Tristan’s?”
“You two looked so cozy.”
Jayden grinned. “We were.”
“No,” I sighed. “We weren’t.”
“Coulda fooled me,” Matthias said. “Jayden, tell me what you found, then get dressed. We’re in a hurry.”
Dad walked by my room and reeled back for a better look at Jayden on my bed. “What is going on?”
“Early morning tutoring session, Dad.”
He didn’t look appeased, but before he could say anything, Mom glanced in.
“It’s just Jayden,” she said and kept walking down the hall.
“In our daughter’s bed? Half-naked!”
“But it’s Jayden,” Mom said. “It doesn’t count.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Lahey,” Jayden said. “I appreciate your vote of confidence in my lack of coitus with your daughter.”
Dad’s face went slack. “Oh. My. God.”
Jayden smiled. “And, Mr. Lahey, I am also appreciative of your confidence in my virility of carnal pursuits with your daughter. Wrong as your conclusion may be, your accusations provide an illogical yet robust appeal to my masculine ego.”
Dad blinked. Then huffed with irritation. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Jayden, get a shirt on. And Gemma, how can you be so cavalier about…” His voice faded as he followed Mom down the hall.
“Burning daylight, mate. What do we know from the code?”
Jayden gathered papers. “I believe the items being shipped were cloaking devices.”
“Like Harry Potter’s cape?” I said.
“Yes.” Matthias’s grey eyes gave me a flat look, his voice heavy on the sarcasm. “Just like that. You’re such a moron.”
“Actually,” Jayden said, “Not completely unlike the Cloak of Invisibility, although different in that those individuals using these devices wouldn’t become completely invisible. Exactly.”
“So nothing like it,” Matthias said. “Moron status secured.”
“Shut up and let him talk,” I said. “Jayden, please explain to me in the simplest of terms.”
“Like I am talking to Selena? Or Oron?”
Matthias snorted a laugh.
I sighed. “Yes. Like that.” Hey, could I really argue with him? “Wh
at is cloaking who?” Or was it whom?
“More like what is cloaking what,” Jayden said. “Since I try not to personify demons.”
Of course I got it wrong. “So,” I said, “the device cloaks demons?”
“Yes. And if I’m correct, this constitutes a disturbing turn of events.” He settled himself cross-legged on my bed. “We, hunters, can see demons in their true form. However, unlike you, Aurora, once demons have possessed a human, hunters cannot see the demon. The human body itself is a cloaking device of sorts.”
“Okay,” I said. “So is that what was going on at the country club? You guys couldn’t see them because they had this cloaking device?”
“I believe so,” Jayden said. “But it is worse than us simply not seeing them.”
My brow furrowed. “What can be worse?”
“Mandatum facilities have plenty of safeguards which accurately recognize demons, even in a possessed body, through their particular energy, which I helped identify,” Jayden said. “These safeguards keep demons from crossing various barriers and getting into the secure grounds. I believe this device that was stolen masks their energy, even in a human body, thus allowing them to pass security and—”
“—Infiltrate Mandatum facilities undetected. Bloody freaking hell.” Matthias raked fingers through his hair. “Any idea which facilities the devices have been sent to?”
“I am currently working to discern that precise information.”
“You’ll have to do it on the run, mate. Get dressed. We’re heading out.”
“Why so early?” I asked. “Classes don’t start for a few hours.”
“Not school,” Matthias said. “Novo. Since Tristan said he was going to track down Heather, he’s been out of touch.”
My gut twisted. “All night?”
Matthias nodded grimly. “Novo personnel can’t find him either, so we’re going there ourselves. The jet’s on its way to pick us up.”
“I’m going with you.” I went for my clothes. “If he got in trouble because of Heather, it’s my fault. I’ll help.”
