Collateral Damage (Demon Squad Book 8) (13 page)

Fifteen

A short while later, I was back at the liquor store wearing a dark hoodie I’d taken from a clothesline.

I snatched up two bottles of Jack—one for Marcus and one for me—waved at Anjasa, and then headed back up the stairs to the apartment above the laundry. The stink met me halfway, the door cracked open. The place didn’t smell any better this time than it did the last.

“Ah, my favorite prick returns,” Marcus grumbled at me from the couch.

“Not to disparage your life choices, live and let live I always say, but the fact that you have a favorite prick makes me wonder whether all that aggression you have towards me isn’t a cover for feelings unrequited.”

“Just give me a bottle and shut the fuck up, Trigg.” He held his hand out, and I slapped the Jack into it. He had a third of it drank before I’d settled into the chair across the way and opened my own.

“Good day for a stiff one?”

He wiped his mouth and swallowed loudly before bothering to answer. “Still going to pretend we’re friends and you give a damn?” he asked, clearly missing the innuendo “Cut the shit. I did what you wanted me to, now take me to Poe.”

I leaned back in the chair and shook my head, pulling back the hood. “First, tell me what they said.”

He spit at me, the glob of phlegm splattering on the table and dripping off the edge.

“Well, that answers whether or not you swallow, but it really doesn’t tell me what I want to know.”

He took another swig, glaring the entire time. “They agreed and are moving forward like you expected them to.”

Finally things were moving the right direction. “When?” I hit the bottle, letting its warmth burn down my throat. Too bad the shit wouldn’t get me drunk.

“Do I look like I have their event calendar handy?”

“No, but you look like a jackass who’s going to miss out on an opportunity to see his recently-revived friend because he couldn’t keep a respectful tongue in his fucking mouth.” My anger, still floating just below the surface, clawed to get out. I drank some more hoping to head it off. The alcohol might not do much for me but maybe it would soften the edges. I had a sneaking suspicion spending the evening with Marcus would only push me further in the wrong direction.

Marcus must have decided it wasn’t worth testing me. He raised his hands in surrender. “All right, man. All right. They should follow through after dark tonight; probably closer to midnight. Least that’s what they told me.”

“Fair enough,” I told him, chugging down enough liquor so that our bottles were about even.

We both just sat there for a while, staring at each other and drinking, until it got too much for Marcus to bear.

“So, you going to do what you said or…” He let the other possibilities hang in the ether. There was the expectation of disappointment in his voice.

“I have to tell you something first.”

He groaned and downed more of the bottle before coming up for air. “What a fucking surprise.”

“I’m not sure exactly where Poe is right now.”

He didn’t bother to say anything, letting his drinking say everything that needed to be said.

“I’m not a total shit, though.”

“Coulda fooled me.”

“Get your shoes on.”

“Why?” he asked. “You taking me out to dinner for bullshitting me, cupcake?”

“Nah,” I said, drinking a bit more and tossing the bottle aside. It crashed somewhere behind me, shattering with a wet
pop
. “Today seems to be a good day to kiss the ass of karma. Let’s go find us find us a mentalist before I change my mind.”

#

While I’d told Marcus I wasn’t sure where Poe was, I had a reasonably good idea where to start looking, the options narrowed down to a dozen locations, give or take a couple. What I hadn’t told him—at least not until we started our hunt, because why shouldn’t I aggravate him?—was that I was using him as bait. Of course, I also hadn’t told him I needed to talk to Poe again, which was the main reason I’d been willing to put up with Marcus at all. DRAC and I had lost the element of surprise taking out the kid. Though I’d corralled everyone back in Hell where they couldn’t be reached just yet, we’d moved into a forced détente with Trinity and company. I couldn’t see us coming out on top if we had to wait, lingering in Hell.

The first place we went to look for Poe was the compound where Shaw had introduced herself and the DSI to me. Of course, that was after she had me shot in the fucking head by one of her team’s snipers. That was a hell of a meet and greet.
Boom!
Nice to meet your acquaintance, we’re the government. Fuck you and don’t forget to pay your taxes.

Shit hadn’t gone as she’d planned that day, but she’d mistakenly revealed an otherwise unknown location they’d been using to conduct business. Sadly, today was not the day they were using it. Marcus strutted his stuff up and down the block for a good half hour before I gave up on the place. A couple of cruisers tried to pick his drunk ass up, but Poe wasn’t there.

The next three locations were as much duds as the first. I’d flown us between each one, dropping Marcus off far enough away so as not to arouse the suspicion of the DSI lackeys who might be lurking about, but we’d still hadn’t hit on anything solid. Two locations after those were a bust, as well, and I was starting to get frustrated.

“You getting paid by the mile, motherfucker?” Marcus asked. He was too, apparently.

“Better than by the inch,” I answered, really, really, really tired of camping out with Mr. Personality. “Just a few more locations to go.” He shook his head without saying a word, for which I was glad. His voice was grating on my nerves big time.

At another location, this one smack dab in the center of downtown, the evening traffic still chugging its way through the streets damn near bumper to bumper, I dropped him off behind the Chase Bank building and casually followed him part of the three blocks to the actual site of the DSI office. Of all the properties we’d been to, this one was the least likely. It was the agency’s public face for the department here locally, its name actually on the registry and posted in the lobby all official-like.

I held back, picking a distant corner where I could watch Marcus make his rounds without me being seen in return, but I was losing hope. Maybe I’d misjudged Poe’s character. And since my power was locked down, which only served to annoy me more, I couldn’t reach out and see if he or any other supernaturals were around, which would have made it so much easier. But if I could feel them, they could feel me so it was best not to play that game. Hard to plan a surprise party when they know it’s coming. The fact that their entire organization, and probably every reporter in the country, was looking for me already wasn’t making shit any easier. I pulled my hoodie up tighter around my face, a common style trend here in the southwest even with the damn 100-degree heat, and slumped on the sidewalk like I lived there. If Trinity kept torching my shit, I just might have to.

Marcus loped around a short distance away, looking like he was lost but it wasn’t as if anyone would approach the guy to direct him. While he’d lost a ton of weight, he still cut an imposing figure. The perpetual frown on his face probably helped keep his interactions to a minimum, not to mention the way he smelled; like booze and camel ass all rolled into an old sock.

After about twenty minutes of him stumbling back and forth down the sidewalk, I started to lose interest in his desperate dance. We’d been doing it too damn long already, and I was exhausted. I stared blankly as the traffic crept by and found myself people watching. There is nothing more entertaining than viewing the happenings inside of people’s vehicles. It’s like they lose sight of the outside world and do shit no one above the age of five would normally do in public.

Between the nose pickings and texture tastings and ear wax examinations and all the porn playing across portable DVD players, I’d damn near forgotten about Marcus. I pulled my eyes from a fat guy who’d shown his mettle by deep-throating half of a foot long hot dog only to see Marcus disappear around the corner a block down.

I jumped up and bolted around the back of the building, bitching at myself for having lost track of him. My pulse raced. No clue if he just got tired and bailed on me or if someone had lured him in, I needed to get to him. For all the traffic still clogging the roads, the sidewalks were mostly clear. A guy in a rumpled suit raised an eyebrow at me as I ran past, but he couldn’t be bothered to pull his focus from the smartphone in his hands. The only person who really paid any attention was a homeless woman who held her hand out as I flew past. She muttered something I didn’t think was entirely polite, but there wasn’t time to debate her.

I slowed at the corner and peered down the alley where Marcus had gone, spying him immediately. He leaned against the wall between two trash dumpsters, and he wasn’t alone. Poe loomed before him, his hand on the big guy’s shoulder. There was a cocktail of emotions making his expression look like he had bad gas he was trying to hold in; the stabby sharp kind. I ran up to them just in time to catch a part of their conversation.

“…be here, Marcus,” Poe said to him. “You don’t know what you’ve—” That’s when Poe saw me. He growled low in his throat. “I should have known.”

I raised my hands to placate him. “This is all on me, Poe, so don’t take it out on Marcus.”

“Damn it, Trigg,” he cursed, forgetting his manners in his anger. “You’re going to get him killed with your foolishness.”

“Not the plan, I swear. I just needed to find you, to talk.”

Marcus glared at me. It must have just sunk in that I’d used him for my own purposes. He groaned and fell back against the wall. “I’m sorry,” he told Poe, not a hint of aggression left in his voice. “When he told me you were alive, I just—” He stopped mid-sentence and darted forward, planting a kiss on Poe’s lips.

I just blinked, caught off guard by the show of unexpected emotion. Poe stood frozen in place, but he didn’t so much as breathe until Marcus pulled back.

“I’m…I’m sorry.”

Poe’s frosty exterior cracked then, and he leaned in and returned the kiss, grabbing Marcus by the neck and pulling him into it. I blushed and turned away for second to give them something resembling privacy.

While I’d guessed long ago that Poe was a fan of outies rather than innies, what I hadn’t realized was that he and Marcus were a thing, but it certainly explained a lot. I shook my head at the thought. It was a strange pairing that, the mentalist and the beast. Not that I gave a damn, or anything, but what the hell did those two talk about when they were alone? Wine craft and the best ways to torture puppies? I just couldn’t see it—figuratively or literally with my head turned away—so I held my peace until I heard them break apart.

“Yeah, if you two could get a room, that’d be awesome.” Clearly neither of them had seen Office Space because they both swiveled ugly looks my direction. “Geez, folks, lighten up.” I smiled to ease the tension, but Poe’s expression fell flat, a mask slipping over his face.

“Down,” he whispered, grabbing me and hauling me between the dumpsters where he and Marcus were crowded.

“Hey, I’m all for experiencing new things, but this stuff doesn’t put wind in my sails, if you know what I mean.”

“Silence, Trigg.” Poe raised a finger to his lips, hissing at me, while he stared out at the street.

I stared after him and spotted a black, government issue van pull up in the circular driveway of the DSI building across the way. Not two seconds after it parked, the driver hopped out and circled around behind the van, pulling the back doors open. My vision zeroed in as he moved to clear the way, waving someone out.

I watched as The Father stepped from the van a moment later. He looked much the same as he had the last time I’d seen him, all bluster and fury. The revenant came out after him, and I grinned as they turned back to the van. I knew what was coming next. A Hefty bag for the poor boy who’d killed Karra and met a just and brutal end.

Only it wasn’t a body that emerged next.

My stomach dropped into my heels as the Son clambered out of the van under his own power. A cold numbness washed over me then as he joined his companions, and the three of them headed into the building while the driver climbed back into the van and rode off.

I’d only realized I’d started forward when Poe yanked me back between the dumpsters and shoved me into the wall. I didn’t even feel myself hit it. By the time my brain found something resembling traction, Trinity was gone, and there was only Poe and Marcus and the sour taste of bile left behind.

“He’s alive?”

Poe nodded. “He is now, yes.”

Eyes barely able to focus, I spun on Poe, grabbing him by his suited shoulders and pressing him hard into the steel of the dumpster.

“How?”

Marcus growled and went to peel me loose, but Poe just raised a hand and the drunken gorilla stopped, though he clearly didn’t want to.

“The same way I have returned to the living,” he answered. He glanced sideways at Marcus, then back to me. A shadow passed over his features as if he debated what he could tell me. Finally, he went on. “Shaw owns a necromancer.”

The words were a shiv to my chest, turning over and over in my head.
A necromancer.
One who’d brought both Poe and the kid back to life. His was an extremely rare breed of power. I’d only known two necromancers my entire life, one being Karra, and the other, Reven, the man who taught her to be one, and both were dead. I felt sick and overwhelmed all at once hearing of another, hope battling my fears inside. I needed to know more.