Riders (20 page)

“Will,” I said. “Will prevent.”

“Yes,” Daryn said. “Will prevent.”

Sebastian grimaced. He looked like he was regretting the French toast.

I thought about my confrontations with Samrael at Anna’s college and the studio. In retrospect, they’d seemed rushed. Samrael and his team had been quick to strike and quick to leave. They definitely hadn’t wanted to linger. “They’re being run down, aren’t they?”

“It’s possible, yes. Satan doesn’t want them to rise to power any more than we do.”

“So they have the devil on their tail. And they’re chasing us down. Everybody’s chasing everybody. What’s at the end of this race? What does the object do for them?”

I needed to know what we were protecting more than ever.

Daryn’s hand made the smallest movement toward the chain at her neck before she caught herself. She tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. “It would enable them to establish their own realm of power.”

“A realm?” Marcus said. “A kingdom or something? That’s what they want to create?”

“They can’t actually create anything. They’re trying to access what’s not theirs by unlocking a realm, a dimension, and they almost succeeded once already. They almost stole the object, but we have it now. We need to keep it safe until I can get it back to its rightful place.” She looked at each of us. “I need your help to do that, and Conquest’s when we find him.”

“Okay,” I said. “So we’re running defense against a splinter faction of demons who are trying to build a second hell?”

“That’s it. And build is a good word for it. They want power. If they can open this realm, it’s possible they’ll enslave people.”

“
Enslave
people?” Bastian said. His face had gone ashy.

Marcus leaned over his elbows, lacing his fingers behind his head. I knew exactly how they felt, but the information was finally coming. I had to get as much as possible out of her now because I knew it wouldn’t last.

“You said they’re tracking the object,” I said. “How, exactly?”

“I’ve told you that. They pick up on its energy. And they have other ways, I’m sure, but I don’t know what they all are.”

“You really don’t know or you’re filtering information as a defense measure?”

Bas frowned at me.

“What? That’s not a fair question? Then what about their abilities?” I knew Samrael had the mind powers and the bone blades. Alevar had wings. It wasn’t much. We had a lot to learn about our opposition. “Can we know about those? Or are we back to playing twenty questions again?”

Daryn glared at me. “I told you up front. I can’t tell you everything.”

“Yeah, but you’re giving me just a little more than nothing.” And there it was again.
Hello, temper. Welcome back.

It was quiet for a second. Then Daryn said, “Gideon, can I talk to you alone?”

Sebastian and Marcus evacuated the booth before I could answer.

Daryn and I turned toward each other. Too close, nowhere to look but right at her, so I got up and slid across to where Bas had just been.

“Is this about earlier?” she asked.

“Earlier?”

“You and me.”

It might have played some part in how frustrated I felt. But I just shrugged and said, “Give me some credit.”

Her gaze fell to the table.

Wait. Was she
disappointed
?

Strike three. Strike twenty. I just couldn’t get it right.

My attention pulled to the entrance, where a group of bikers covered in leather and ink filed in and began unsnapping their jackets and helmets. Not the Kindred, but we’d been there too long. My Jeep was starting to feel like shelter, even though it wasn’t. But at least it kept us moving.

“I told you I’d give you one unknown. I’ve given you much more than that,” Daryn said.

She had. It still didn’t feel like enough.

As I looked back at her, I noticed that the chain around her neck fell over the outside of her jacket. On the end was a key. Heavy. Old-fashioned. Nothing spectacular, but not ordinary, either.

That was it.

It had to be the object the Kindred were after. A key that could unlock realms.

I looked into her eyes. They were steady, as always.

She was trusting me.

“We need to go to Italy,” she said, quietly.

“Okay.” I couldn’t believe what I was agreeing to. “Okay. How are we getting there?”

“You.”

I rubbed my head as I thought it over. I had a couple thousand stashed away. It might be enough for four plane tickets. If it wasn’t, I could suck it up and use my credit card. I’d need to figure out flight schedules, whether we needed visas, but that was doable. We just needed time. “How soon do we need to be there?”

“Tomorrow.”

I laughed. It was already past three in the afternoon. “Daryn, I don’t see how this is happening.”

“But you will,” she said, watching me with the same expression she’d worn the first time I’d seen her at Joy’s party. Like she was asking me to step up to a challenge. “We’re going to catch a flight tonight. I saw us on a cargo plane.”

“You
saw
us?”

She nodded. “You got us there, Gideon. Now, you just need to figure out how.”

C
HAPTER
31

Our first stop back in Los Angeles was my bank, where I emptied my account of the nearly two thousand dollars I’d saved from jobs, birthdays, graduation, and the Army pay I’d earned so far. It was money I’d wanted to give to Anna someday to help her study in Paris. Now I’d be using it to go to Italy. My life was taking some solid turns.

Sebastian came with me and the clerk turned out to be a guy he’d done some auditions with, so the transaction took about fifteen years to complete. I left the bank with a slim envelope of cash. Bastian walked out with a tote bag full of key chains, coffee mugs, and Post-it pads, everything stamped with the bank logo.

We headed to a sporting-goods store and went on a little shopping spree courtesy of yours truly, stocking up on warm clothes in dark colors, binos, a set of two-way radios with GPS, rope, a first-aid kit, and a bowie knife, which felt unnecessary because, you know, magic sword, but also necessary since at that point, I had a better chance of making it rain than calling my weapon. We piled into my Jeep with our brand-new backpacks stuffed with supplies, granola bars, and water bottles. Geared to the gills, but it was going to take a lot more than gear to get the job done.

Next I stopped at a shipping store to drop off one of the radios, spending a small fortune to overnight it to the Ritz Carlton in Rome, then I drove us to LAX. I said good-bye to my Jeep in the airport parking lot, which hit me harder than I expected. It felt like leaving a piece of my dad out there, but I snagged the Pearl Jam cassette and stuffed it into my pack, which made me feel a little better.

Around six, I left everyone in the domestic terminal and did some recon of the area of LAX where the shipping companies operated. A couple hours later, with the mission prep done, I met up with them and went over the plan I’d drawn up. Then it was time to execute.

We hopped on the airport shuttle. At that hour in the evening it wasn’t very full, but Daryn came to my side, placing her hand next to mine on the steel grab bar along the ceiling. I noticed the chain around her neck. The key was tucked away. Hidden again.

“Almost there,” she said. “One more horseman to go.”

“After three comes four,” I said, reading the airline signs that zipped past outside. I’d made a mistake in starting to like her. I had to figure out how to correct it. This wasn’t the time to add complications.

“Gideon…”

“We should stay focused on the mission.”

“That’s what I was going to say, but you won’t look at me.”

I swung around so I was staring right into her blue eyes. “You have my full attention. Anything else?”

She didn’t say anything, but color came up on her cheeks and her hand flexed next to mine on the bar. I knew she felt it, too. This friction between us. Like we were magnets that couldn’t line up right.

Marcus and Sebastian were watching us. Not even trying to hide it.

“This is us,” I said.

“It’s not that I don’t want that, it’s just that—”

“This is our stop, Daryn.” I shifted my backpack on my shoulder and hopped out. “Ready?” I asked Sebastian.

He made a sound that was either a yes or some mild regurgitation.

To reach the cargo terminal we’d need to get through two layers of security. First, past a gatehouse that was the entry point for a large parking lot full of semis. This was where shipping companies trucked in their cargo before it was moved through another security point into the actual terminal where the planes were—which was the second breach we’d need to make, the airport itself.

The first lot was surrounded by twelve-foot concrete walls topped with concertina wire, so. Best way inside was through the gatehouse.

I checked my watch, and then Sebastian and I hustled up to it as Marcus and Daryn stayed behind. We had two minutes before the security cameras panned back.

The older man inside looked up from a crossword puzzle. “Can I help you?” he asked, with surprise. This part of the airport wasn’t for pedestrian traffic.

According to the plan, Sebastian was supposed to make his move now. He looked like he might pass out, which was not the right move.

“Whenever you’re ready, dude,” I said.

“I can’t,” he said. Then he gave the man an apologetic grin.

The guard returned Bastian’s smile, even though he was starting to look anxious. “You two lost?” he asked.

“No. I mean,
yes,
” Bas said. He shot me a pleading look. “We’ll be leaving now.”

No way. He wasn’t going to flake out on me. I reached for the anger inside me, the burning potential that was always there, and let the charge ignite. I looked Bastian right in the eye and sent him a small shot of it.

“Shit!” he said, his eyes flying wide. “Gideon, what did you do to me?”

It was the first time I’d ever heard him swear. “Provided some motivation. You’re on, man. We need you. Channel it, and get it done.”

He looked at the guard. A second later the man’s body relaxed. I jumped through the window in time to catch him before he hit the floor.

“He looks okay, right?” Sebastian asked. “He didn’t get hurt, did he?”

“He’s fine. He’ll just have a headache and some mild confusion when he wakes up.” I set him down behind the chair and locked the door to the gatehouse from the inside so he’d be safe in there until he came back around.

I stared into the darkness. Daryn was supposed to be there any minute.

“Wow, I feel weird,” Bastian said, rolling his shoulders. “Jumpy. Is this how you always feel? What’s next again?”

He looked a little strung-out, his weight shifting restlessly, his jaw flexing like he was grinding his teeth. I remembered Anna crying after she’d slapped Wyatt. Sometimes using my ability had consequences that weren’t great.

Daryn and Marcus walked up moments later, both looking much calmer than Bas.

“Okay, let’s go. Nice and easy. We’re just going to take a walk, everybody,” I said, as we moved inside. To one end, busy warehouses crawled with pallets and forklifts. I took us the other way, deeper into darkness. With so many trucks in there, the lot’s lights made a checkerboard of light and shadow. Killer for getting psyched out. Every truck was a place the Kindred could be hiding behind. Even with some training under my belt on staying cool under this kind of stress, I was juiced on adrenaline.

I glanced at Marcus. He was belligerent and cagey. I thought he’d be the one to worry about, but thanks to my shot of rage, Sebastian was the one who looked fired up and primed to punch something.

We arrived at a cyclone fence that bordered the airport. I could see the tarmac from where we were, lines of cargo planes, with fuel trucks and forklifts servicing everything. Reaching into my backpack, I fished out the radio/GPS and tracked the position of the companion unit I’d shipped earlier.

“Is that it?” Daryn asked. She leaned close to me and looked at the dot on the small screen in my hands. It indicated a position 146 meters dead ahead.

“That’s it.” I looked at the row of planes in front of us, eyeballing distances. “Third one’s ours,” I guessed, but the GPS would guide me right in. I slid the radio into my pocket and pulled wire cutters out of my pack, using them to create a small opening in the fence for us to climb through. Sebastian got tangled and ripped his sleeve, but we survived and made it inside. We were physically in the airport. Second breach down.

Now came the riskiest part: moving to the plane. I knew there’d be cameras everywhere, and there was plenty of activity around, so we’d have to stick close to the shadows—without looking suspicious.

We moved in bursts, with me on point and Marcus at the rear, everyone moving quietly except Sebastian, who was about as stealthy as a giraffe.

“Get
quiet
and
low,
” I whispered to him.

He ducked his head, taking him to an almost invisible six-foot-two.

We’d closed to within thirty meters of the plane when I saw two men in blue mechanic’s coveralls approaching. Quickly, I got everyone down behind a fuel truck.

The men came closer, strolling like they were on a break. They came to a stop around the front of the truck, close enough that I could hear one of them scratch his stubble. They were heckling each other over some bet on a football game.

This wasn’t good. Our plane had to be taking off soon. I could see its loading ramp from where I crouched. We were
so
close. Sweat rolled down my chest and my back. We’d be arrested if we got caught. I’d have a record. That would make getting my old life back virtually impossible. I couldn’t screw this up.

The fuel-truck guys wouldn’t leave. They couldn’t decide what the wager had been, twenty bucks or a case of beer. Bastian kept shifting around, his shoes scraping the asphalt. I knew he was still jacked up on the rage shot I’d given him.

Turning, I sent him a
shut up
glare.

He tapped his cuff like it was a watch. “Let me take them!” he whispered.