Sweet Reckoning

CHAPTER SIX LIE DETECTOR

Like every other night in the hotels, I couldn’t sleep well. I spent a lot of time begging for peace and clarity, and now I had the Marna situation on my mind, too. I couldn’t think too hard about losing her. I just couldn’t. I wanted so badly to talk to Kai about it, but for all I knew he was flanked by whisperers at any given time.

I wanted to cry with relief that night when I received a text from my father.

Where are you?

I gave him the name of the hotel and the city: Marietta, Georgia.

I waited, but he didn’t respond. After an hour I was starting to get worried, and considered leaving the hotel in case someone else had gotten ahold of my father’s phone. Just as I was shoving stuff into my bag, I heard a familiar, gritty voice in my head.

Greetings, daughter of Belial.

I’d gotten good at controlling my reactions, even while my innards liquefied with fright.

Azael, I responded telepathically.

He peered down at me, his heavy feline features fixed in an intense glare. My pulse slowed as I watched our spirit ally, but my nerves were still shot as I waited to hear his news.

You will have Nephilim visitors. Be careful what you say.

Neph visitors? Oh, heck no. I shoved the last of my things into the bag and ran to the door as Azael flew away. I lost my cool, letting out a scream when I swung the door open and found two people standing there—a young girl with dark, slicked-back hair, and a blond man with sharp cheekbones and icy eyes. Both had black badges at their sternums.

“Going somewhere?” the girl asked in a high-pitched voice, her accent replacing w sounds with v’s and rolling her r’s. Her identity hit me with a sickening slap.

Caterina. Daughter of Jezebet, the Duke of Lies.

I fought to control my breathing. Caterina may have looked young and harmless, but I knew better. Up close, the evil glint in her eyes made my stomach turn. She had no idea I’d been hiding under the dock on Duke Melchom’s private island. She had no idea I had witnessed the part she’d played in the death of Flynn. She was the one who’d told the Dukes he was lying.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“We aren’t here to hurt you.” The man’s accent was thick and European, sounding something like Russian to my untrained ear.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am Marek, son of Shax. From Czech Republic.” Son of the Duke of Theft. I held the shoulder strap of my bag a little tighter as he continued. “And this is Caterina, daughter of Jezebet, from Romania.”

He smiled warmly. She didn’t.

“What do you guys want?” I asked again.

I had to be careful, just as Azael had said. Caterina could sense lies and she was absolutely no friend to fellow Neph.

“We just want to talk,” Marek said, never losing the pleasant smile. “May we come in?”

I remembered back to last week when I’d seen Dad in L.A. He’d mentioned looking into the possibility of the son of Shax being an ally. That made me feel slightly better . . . but only a smidge. For a possible ally, he didn’t keep very good company.

“I was just leaving. We can talk outside.”

The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in a room with them. I felt the light weight of the knife in my pocket, though I didn’t like the two-against-one odds.

They crowded the doorway, but I pushed my way out. The door was almost closed behind me when Caterina slapped her tiny palm to my chest.

“We prefer to speak in the room,” she said.

I smacked her hand away on instinct and yanked the door shut.

“Sorry, but I prefer to speak outside.”

“You are not sorry,” she scoffed.

Dang it. Stupid lie detector. I’d have to watch every word I said around her.

“Fine. I’m not sorry.”

“It’s all right, Caterina.” Marek smiled at me. “You can hardly blame her for being cautious, yes?”

He gave her a look that said something along the lines of Chill out, you’re scaring her. She rolled her eyes and started moving to the exit door down the hall. She looked like a soldier the way she marched in her black pants and stiff button-up white shirt.

“Come on then,” she called brusquely.

Marek shot me an apologetic glance and waved a hand out for me to go next. I went, looking over my shoulder at him several times with distrust. I had the hilt inside my bag since I was wearing shorts, and I wasn’t letting his stealthy hands anywhere near it.

When I slowed near the door, Marek bumped me from behind and I let out a little screech, turning on him. He kept his hands on my back to steady himself, and I had to shove him away with an elbow.

“My apologies,” he said, all innocence. He slipped his hands into his pockets and nodded down at the paper outside someone’s hotel-room door. The caption was about a huge pawnshop robbery in Atlanta. “The headline caught my attention.”

Not knowing whether or not to believe him, I pulled the bag around from my back to my chest as I pushed through the doors. I felt the shape of the hilt through the bottom of the bag and breathed a sigh of relief.

Outside it was dark, but the air still held the heaviness of the day’s heat and humidity. I didn’t walk to my car, opting instead to stand in a patch of grass at the side of the hotel, away from prying eyes. I faced them with my stance wide, sliding the book bag onto both shoulders in case I had to fight, which I prayed I wouldn’t.

“Strange things are happening,” crooned Caterina. “Would you not agree?”

I kept my hands loose at my sides, prepared. “You have one more chance to tell me why you’re here before I leave.”

She narrowed her beady dark eyes at me, and Marek stepped forward to speak.

“We have a few questions, daughter of Belial. That is all.”

“Questions from you? Or questions someone sent you to ask?”

I was losing patience, feeling overly anxious.

“Are you a virgin?” Caterina blurted.

Great.

“Okay, so something you’ve been sent to ask,” I said.

She smiled, a malicious show of teeth. Dread pooled in my belly.

Marek glowered down at Caterina.

“I’m not answering your questions,” I said. “I don’t trust you.”

Her smile was one of genuine amusement this time. “It’s true—you don’t trust me. But evading questions is almost always a sign of guilt.”

“Almost,” Marek pointed out, speaking to Caterina. “But not always. You’ve cornered her like an animal, and she obviously feels threatened.”

“If you can do better, do it yourself!”

The look she gave him was frightening. He had over a foot of height on her, but she stared at him as if she could take him down one-handed.

“Forget it!” I yelled. “It’s bad enough I have to deal with whisperers following me around. I’m not dealing with a couple of Neph, too. I’m out of here.”

I turned for the parking lot, walking fast.

“We are not finished!” Caterina spat.

Marek said something to her in a different language, using a scolding tone, and she responded in kind. I heard them following me, and I was shaking by the time I got to my car. I reached into the stretchy side pouch of my bag for the keys.

They were gone.

A jingle sounded behind me. In a flash I dug my knife out of my pocket, slid it open, and turned, jutting it out.

Marek and Caterina were five feet away, at the back of my car. He dangled my keys in front of him, a pleading look on his face. How the heck had he taken them?

Caterina’s eyes widened at the sight of my knife.

“Give them to me,” I said.

Marek spoke calmly. “I will, but I had to be sure you would speak to us before you left.”

“Throw them to me,” I demanded.

Caterina crossed her arms. “Not until you answer our questions. If you prefer not to speak with us, I’m certain the sons of Thamuz would be more than happy to pay you a visit.”

The mention of the sons of Thamuz made me dizzy with fear. Thamuz was the Duke of Murder, and I knew their methods of extracting information. They’d broken sweet Marna when she was still just a child, hurting her in unthinkable ways until she opened herself to seeing the demon whisperers.

A knowing smile lit up Caterina’s face. “I see you know of them. Do you know what they do for a living, daughter of Belial? They assist in kidnapping-for-ransom heists in South America.”

I had to shut her up before she said another word about those two psychos.

“I don’t appreciate you showing up unannounced. I don’t answer to you or any other Neph. I do what my father tells me. He’s not the kind of Duke you want to cross, so I suggest you give me my keys and leave me alone.”

Caterina began to laugh, but quickly stopped when she saw Marek toss the keys to my free hand. She gave him a disbelieving look.

“She hasn’t answered our questions!”

“And she won’t now that you’ve treated her as our enemy.”

I pitied Marek. I’d hate to have to deal with the enraged mini-vamp girl.

I hit the Unlock button, opened the door, and threw my bag in.

“Good luck,” I said to Marek before I quickly slipped in, locked the doors, and cranked the engine on.

“Wait!” he yelled, grabbing the door handle. His face looked panicked. “Don’t leave yet!”

What did he expect when he threw me the keys? Caterina made a run for the front of the car to block me, but I hit the accelerator and she jumped back as I sped away. They’d have hell to pay with the Dukes for letting me go.

At the first stoplight I opened the bag and felt around until the hilt was in my hand, then I breathed a sigh of relief. I texted Dad with my information code: A411. I tried to keep my hearing around the two Neph, but they were both silent, and I wasn’t great at following sounds of cars when other cars were around. Just to be safe, I kept driving for the next three hours until my body demanded rest.

I pulled into the back of a supermart’s parking lot and used my backpack as a pillow. I never heard back from Dad. That night, I fell asleep haunted by the look of regret in Marek’s eyes as I sped away. What did he regret, exactly? Was he an ally or a foe? I didn’t know, but I intended to find out.