Thirteen
Page 36

“We will,” I said.

We only had the street name of the meeting place, which would have been a lot more useful if it was a short street. We split up, and started at opposite ends, searching for an office-front that screamed “activist cell inside.” None did. It was just a boring street of boring low-rise office buildings. As we walked, Mom used her Aspicio powers as discreetly as possible to peer into buildings, but saw nothing. Then a van turned into a lane a block away. A plain whitepanel van. Just like the one SLAM had used to transport me from their meeting hall.
I told Mom this as I propelled her along the sidewalk. We broke into a jog. When we reached the lane, we heard a man’s and a woman’s voice, and the hair on my neck rose before I even consciously recognized them.
“Severin and Sierra,” I muttered.
The twins were Giles’s enforcers. I’d first encountered their work at the home of a supernatural named Walter Alston. Giles had wanted Alston to summon Lucifer. He couldn’t. Severin and Sierra had made sure he was really certain of that by torturing him to death. Fire is an amazing power, but for sheer nastiness, there’s nothing like an ice demon.
“So these are the two who are working with Balaam?” Mom said. The bow case glowed blue, the light seeping out. She looked perfectly calm, but that sword was better than any mood ring.
“Yes,” I said. “If we can grab them, I say screw infiltration.”
“Agreed.”
I motioned to the narrow lane where they’d driven the van. We took another step. Then, from down the lane came a gasp of pain. An oath. Sierra snarling, “Get her!”
A young woman raced out in her bare feet, a cord dangling from one wrist. She veered our way, almost crashing into us. She stopped. Our eyes met. Mascara ran down her cheeks. One of them was marred by a white line where the skin had been frozen.
When running footsteps sounded behind her, I knew what I should do. Grab the girl. She wasn’t going to escape the twins—they were too close behind. Stop her and hand her over and win ourselves an introduction. But I thought about what had remained of Walter Aston, eyes gouged out, fingers and teeth lined up on the desktop. I froze.
Mom yanked the young woman off her feet as someone came barreling around the corner. It was a nondescript guy a few years older than me. Severin. He skidded to a halt when he saw Mom holding his target.
“This yours?” Mom said.
I’d never seen anything faze Severin—the guy really did seem to have ice water in his veins, but when he saw Mom holding the girl, he blinked. Then he stared.
Her glamour’s gone, I thought. Oh, shit. If mine is, too …
Sierra rounded the corner. She looked straight at me and my gut clenched, ready to launch a spell. Annoyance flickered over her features, then she turned to Mom.
“That’s ours, blondie,” she said.
I exhaled in relief.
“I know,” Mom said. “I was holding it for you.” She looked at Severin. “Where do you want it?”
“We came to see Giles,” I said. “We have information for him.”
“No one sees Giles,” Sierra said.
“Skip that part,” Mom said, her gaze still on Severin. “Where do you want your captive? Preferably before she has the sense to scream and draw a crowd.”
The girl’s eyes widened. Before she could utter a sound, Mom clapped her free hand over her mouth. Severin grinned. Sierra scowled.
“Take her over there,” Sierra said, waving toward the van, “with the others.”
As we stepped into the lane, we saw two guys helping other captives out of the van. A third man headed our way. I glanced at Mom. Back to plan A.
“So you came to see Giles,” Severin said as he followed Mom.
The third guy backed up to the door and helped the other two herd the captives into the building. As we walked, Severin made no effort to help Mom with her charge, just followed along behind her, seeming to enjoy watching her maneuver the struggling young woman as casually as if she were carrying a bag of trash. As they walked, his gaze dropped to her ass.
Sierra’s eyes narrowed and she sent ice daggers into Mom’s back. I’d suspected her relationship with her brother broke the oldest taboo, and that look pretty much confirmed it.
I cleared my throat. “That’s right. We—”
“What’s your name?” Severin asked Mom.
 
“Sami,” Mom said. “And my friend there is Bri. We’re students at Delgado. Some friends from UCLA told us about you. When we got some information you might find useful, we decided it was time to meet Giles.”
“If you have information, you’ll tell us,” Sierra said. “No one talks to—”
“What’s your power?” Severin cut in, still addressing Mom. “Half-demon, I’m guessing. Fire? Ice?”
“Vision.”
He laughed. “Right.”
“I’m an Aspicio.”
Now Sierra laughed. “A daughter of Balaam? Bullshit.”
I tensed and looked at Mom.
Mom tossed me the young woman. “Hold this.”
She strode to the van, peered through the metal side, and described what she saw. Then she walked to the door the others had gone through. She waved aside the guy at the door, looked through the steel, and described what she saw.
Then she turned on Severin and Sierra, and waited.
“Holy shit,” Severin said.
“Not possible,” Sierra said. “There are exactly three Aspicios living and we know where they all are.”
“Do you?” Mom said. “Seems Lord Balaam doesn’t track his conquests as carefully as he should.”
Now even Sierra stopped scowling. I’m sure she was thinking of how delighted Balaam would be if she presented him with this gift. A long-lost child. Ready to join the fight when his granddaughter was being such a bitch and refusing him.
Sierra waved for the guy at the door to take the girl from me. He did, then radioed inside for someone to come get her.
“So what’s this news you need to tell Giles?” Sierra asked.
“Do you know Toby White?” Mom asked.
 
Their expressions said they did.
“Shawn Roberts?” she said.
Same reaction.
“What about them?” Severin said.
“I’m not sure if you’ve been listening to the news, but there was a problem at a cop shop just outside the city. A problem involving a whole lotta dead bodies. One of them was Shawn Roberts.”