The Burning Bush (32 page)

“We definitely should. At least until we figure out what to do next.” MeShack continued to calm the Prime. “Can you talk?”

“Yes,” the Prime said.

“Do you know where my fraternity house is in Oya District?”

The Prime nodded. “Zulu takes us there sometimes when he dreams about killing you.”

Oh, my goodness.
I snatched up a pair of sneakers near the couch and put them on.

“Good.” MeShack chuckled to himself. “Go to the fraternity house. Don’t let anyone see you. I’ll have them open my pound room’s window. Ben and Nona’s boys are in there asleep. You know Ben’s scent?”

“Of course.”

“Follow it. Stay next to Ben,” MeShack ordered. “Keep him safe.”

The Prime’s wings expanded as he dropped to the ground with a boom. The ceiling opened up above our heads. A breeze rushed in as the Prime rose high into the air, flying upward and blending in with the night sky. MeShack called K-9 as soon as the Prime left. Apparently, K-9 was taking care of the boys. MeShack explained that the Prime would arrive and not to be freaked out or fight him.

“I had to give his beast something to do,” MeShack said. “He seemed on edge. Keeping him busy will keep him calm. Last thing we need is Zulu’s beast attacking everyone.”

I gazed at the muted TV. The word
Live
blinked on and off at the bottom of the screen. A Human helicopter outside the habitat hovered over the habitat’s ceiling, shining down lights into Shango District and filming the riots. On the TV screen, habbies held hoses. Mixies sported machetes, swords, and rage-drenched faces.

Earlier, the habbies had turned on the hoses. One of the Mixies must have had the ability to control water because the liquid was redirected to the habbies. Bullets pierced the sky from both directions. Some Mixies and habbies scattered. Others began hand to hand combat. The news coverage switched to several businesses on fire, and then Angel’s photo appeared. I scrambled for the remote control.

“So you don’t know?” MeShack asked, putting his phone back in his pocket.

“What?” I shook my fists.
Please don’t let her be dead.

“Habbies hit her with a sleeping spell and then took her off to jail.”

“And now you tell me that?” I dropped the remote back on the table. “Anything else?”

“Dante sent you something.” MeShack pulled a white box out of the trash can and handed it to me. I opened it up. A king chess piece wrapped in red ribbon lay in the middle of tissue paper. Headless pawn pieces circled it. A note read, “We should talk.”

“I’m getting really tired of this psycho’s presents.” I threw the box against the wall. The chess pieces crashed and broke a part, falling to the floor. Some rolled underneath my desk.

“You have to do something about the rioting, La La.”

“Yeah, because I really have control of everything around me already.” I extended my arms. “Why not add one more thing to the list.”

“I’m just saying. Who else is going to do something for the Mixies?”

“First things first, I should work on getting Angel out of jail.” I went to the edge of my desk, spotted my cell phone, and dialed Rivera. “Maybe Rivera can free Angel for me.”

“I doubt it.” MeShack shook his head. “She blew up three habbie police cars.”

The phone rang once before Rivera picked up.

“What?” he said through the phone line. “I’m busy.”

“I need you to help me free one of the Mixies your buddies just captured.”

“You better not be referring to the fire one.”

I closed my eyes. “Yes. That’s her. If I get the person on the Burning Bush Murders, will you help me free Angel?”

“Are you doing drugs? Your little Mixie toasted everything within a five-block radius of Zulu’s condo. Purebloods are calling for her death. And you’ll get the Burning Bush Murderer regardless.”

I swallowed. “I can’t let her get executed.”

“This is above my pay grade.” A siren’s blare sounded over his side of the phone.

“Let’s make a new deal.” My nerves flared. “I can try to solve something else.”

“I can’t. All I can do is make sure she doesn’t get hurt or raped in her cell,” Rivera said. “Stay on this case, and I’ll make sure your friend’s last few weeks are safe.”

“Deal.” I held my stomach, pushing against the pain. “Please protect her.” I held in my tears.

“Is Zulu still alive?” Rivera asked before I could hang up.

I closed my eyes, unsure of how to answer. MeShack—whose Shifter ears could hear Rivera’s side of the conversation—raised an eyebrow at the question.

“You said he was with you when I called. Why did you lie?” Rivera asked.

I didn’t know what to say, so I did the only thing I could think of. “What? I can’t hear you.” I shook the phone around. “Rivera? Hello?”

I hung up.

“Really smooth, La La.”

“You just have all the answers tonight, don’t you?” I rolled my eyes. “What else could I do?”

Someone banged on the door.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Nona,” she called through the door.

I thought back to Club X earlier tonight.
Wasn’t she supposed to take Cassie to Zulu’s condo?
When Zulu and I were arguing on the phone, I was pretty sure he said he was still outside Club X and that Nona and Cassie had already left.

“Lanore? Everything okay?” Nona banged on the door again.

I waited for a few seconds before I replied, tapping my fingers against my mouth. Dante still had a spy in MFE, and too much had occurred too soon—Cassie was dead, Zulu went inside himself, and Angel was in jail. Right now MeShack was the only person I knew I could trust. Everybody else would be considered hostile until proven otherwise.
She could be the spy for Dante. But does that make sense?

“Lanore, it’s Nona,” she yelled on the other side of the door.

“Give me a minute,” I called back. “I’m coming.”

I hurried to think about when we had first met Dante a month ago. Nona had been right there with us, killing Vamps. For the bombing of Dante’s blood factory, she’d wanted the bomb to go off with Dante inside it. She couldn’t have been his spy.
Maybe I’m just tripping.

“What’s wrong?” MeShack pushed his claws out of his fingertips. Flesh separated and tore around the sharpened edges.

“I don’t know.” I rubbed my hands together, feeling really cold for the first time in years. “I don’t know if I should trust the Rebels.”

He crept toward me and whispered, “Why?”

“Nona was with Cassie. Why isn’t she dead too? Why is she back so quickly?”

“You sure she was with Cassie?” His eyes shifted.

“No,” I admitted.

“Maybe Nona was with Cassie and left her for a minute to get her sons,” he offered. “I was supposed to drop them by her mother’s house hours ago, but I took them to the movies instead. She may have gone to look for them. Then I realized I left my phone at the frat house. When we swung by to get it, the bomb hit.”

“So you left the boys there.”

“Yeah.” He pulled me to him. “Listen. Stop worrying. I’m right next to you.”

I sighed.

“You do have fire, you know.” He grinned. “And I’m King Cheetah. Who the fuck is really messing with us? Seriously.”

He released me, stalked to the door, and opened it. Nona stepped in with four Rebels behind her. They all crowded into my office. None of them met my eyes, not even Nona. Unease slipped up my spine, freezing me to the core.
I’m probably just paranoid.

“Mixbreeds being blamed for the bombing,” Nona said, wearing an all-black jogging suit.

She didn’t have that on at the club. Right?
I maintained heat in my body, while attempting to relax.

“Well, we all know Dante did this.” I gestured to the couch. “Why don’t you all sit down?”

Nona’s eyes scanned the room. “They reported Zulu dead. Me thought he would be with you.”

I shoved my hands into my pockets, analyzing her eyes and searching for her emotions.
Is there any remorse or concern there? Do I lie now and tell her he’s alive later? And why didn’t she ask about Cassie?

“Is he dead?” Nona asked and took a step to me.

I narrowed my eyes, not liking her too close. “Zulu is dead.”

She flinched, but regained composure like she’d never moved.

“Cassie’s dead too.” I waited for her reaction, but Nona kept that stiff mask of neutrality on her face.

“This changes things.” Nona scratched the area near her eyes as fur sprouted over her face. “Mother Earth ordered me to do something, but me thought Zulu would still be alive.” She shook her head and swallowed. “Don’t matter. Mother Earth would like you to leave this warehouse. You need to pack your things.”

Taking my hands out of my pockets, I directed fireballs to hover above us.

“What? La La, look at this shit.” MeShack turned the TV’s mute button off.

“Death to them all!” Mother Earth shouted from the TV. “Them kill our leader and then blame us. Kill them!”

I gulped a heavy breath and slowly faced the TV. Mother Earth’s thick gray dreadlocks hung over her entire body, like a dress that fell all the way to the floor. Rage highlighted every rugged wrinkle edging her brown skin as she shouted. “No more. We don’t take any more from them imprisoners!”

A crowd of Mixies stood in front of her, holding wood and metal, waving their makeshift weapons around. A line of Rebels stood behind her. I stepped up to the TV, squinting to get an idea of where they were.

“Mother Earth has announced that she is the new leader of MFE,” the reporter said as the news station cut from Mother Earth’s speech.

“She wants to unite MFE with my Rebels,” Nona explained. “Me just following orders.”

“So what were your orders?” MeShack arrived next to me, crossing his arms around his chest.

“Kill Lanore.” Nona averted her eyes and motioned to her Rebels. One of them pulled out a huge plastic gun with water inside it. By now Nona knew that water took away my ability to create fire.

“Impressive.” I shrugged.

“But me thought Zulu was still alive. That he could talk to Mother Earth,” Nona insisted.

“So now what’s your plan?” I asked.

“Just leave.” Nona frowned. “Won’t be no more killing tonight.”

Three more Rebels entered the office with water guns. MeShack and I might have been able to take Nona and four Rebels, but the addition of the water and more guys made it kind of rough.
MeShack tugged his right ear. It was a signal I hadn’t seen since we were kids hustling adults on the street for cash.

I coughed. It was my expected response, and he smiled, probably happy that I’d figured it out.

“Where are your boys, Nona?” MeShack raised his eyebrows.

She blinked a few times. “With me mom.”

“Are you sure? Call her and see.” MeShack whistled his song “Celebration.” I bobbed my head to the beat like I had no problems tonight, as if we held the cards.

Please let this work out.

Nona unclipped her phone from the waistband of her black jogging pants. I caught her shudder as she dialed her mother’s number and put the phone to her ear.

“Celebrating till the moon goes down,” I sung low. A few notes squeaked, but hey, I wasn’t a skilled vocalist.

“Isn’t that just bad? It’s like La La’s tone-deaf,” MeShack asked one of the Rebels and edged closer to them. “She’s the worst singer I know.”

The Shifter looked around, confusion plastered on his face.

“Everyone’s a critic.” I increased the amount of fireballs above the Rebels’ heads.

Nona said into her phone with a shaky voice. “Me Mom, them little ones feet on your house, yeah?”

A second passed. Nona’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes shifted and went from MeShack to me as she hung up the phone without another word.

“So clearly things have changed, right?” I produced even more fireballs to hover over the Rebels’ heads. “Do you know where Nona’s boys are, MeShack?”

“Definitely.”

“What do you want me to do?” Nona said as her fangs grew.

“What we’re going to do is walk out together,” I explained. “And instead of your Rebels being against us, they will protect us for the last time. Because if they lay one hand on MeShack or me, your sons are dead.”

MeShack ceased whistling and pushed out his fangs.

Nona shook her head and smirked. “You no killers of kids.”

“But the guy holding them is,” MeShack insisted.

“Me could torture you,” Nona said, opening her eyes wide.

MeShack and I both laughed. It just bubbled out of our chests. I actually had to hit my chest to calm down. MeShack patted my back.

Wiping my face, I regained composure. “I’m sorry. It’s just my dad kind of prepared us for torture. We have a high tolerance for it. It’s a big advantage when being raised by a high-level Demon with mental disorders.”