Suddenly Gabe boomed with laughter. He slapped his friends on the back, his teeth gleaming.
“Well, well, boys. Look who came to the party after all.”
CHAPTER 9
THE WHITE SUV ROLLED TO A STOP AND THE engine cut off. The driver’s-side door opened, and through the grainy darkness, someone stepped out. Male. Tall. Loose-fit jeans and a white-and-navy baseball tee pushed up to his elbows. His face was concealed under the brim of a ball cap, but I saw the strong line of his jaw and the shape of his mouth, and the picture jolted me like a current of electricity. The flash of black bursting at the back of my mind was so intense, the color completely stained my vision for several seconds.
“Decided to join us after all?” Gabe called to him.
The newcomer didn’t answer.
“This one’s offering resistance,” Gabe continued, driving the toe of his shoe into B.J., who was still coiled in a ball on the ground. “Doesn’t want to swear fealty. Thinks he’s too good for me. And this, coming from a crossbreed.”
Laughter circled through Gabe and his two friends, but if the driver of the SUV got the joke, he didn’t show it. Sliding his hands into his pockets, he studied us in silence. I thought his gaze lingered a little long on me, but I was strung so tight, I could have seen something that wasn’t really there.
“Why is she here?” he asked quietly, lifting his chin at me.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” Gabe said.
“Now she’s a witness.”
“I told her to keep driving.” Was it just me, or did Gabe sound defensive? It was the first time all night anyone, however subtly, had questioned his authority, and I could practically feel the air around him sizzle with a negative charge.
“And?”
“She wouldn’t leave.”
“She’s going to remember everything.”
Gabe swung the tire iron agilely in his hand, round and round. “I can convince her not to talk.”
The driver’s eyes shifted to B.J.’s balled-up form. “Just like you convinced this one to talk?”
Gabe frowned. His grip on the tire iron tightened. “Got a better idea?”
“Yeah. Let her go.”
Gabe thumbed his nose and gave a snort of laughter. “Let her go,” he repeated. “What’ll stop her from running straight to the police? Huh, Jev? Thought that one through?”
“You’re not afraid of the police,” Jev said calmly, but I thought I detected a hint of challenge. His second indirect threat to Gabe’s power.
Taking a risk, I decided to insert myself into their argument. “If you let me go, I promise I won’t talk. Just let me take him with me.” I motioned at B.J.’s crumpled figure, and I said the words like they came from the very bottom of my soul. But I entertained the scary realization that I would have to talk. I couldn’t let this kind of violence go unpunished. If Gabe was free, nothing was stopping him from torturing and terrorizing another victim. I shielded those thoughts from my eyes, suddenly worried that Gabe would see through me.
“You heard her,” Jev said.
Gabe’s jaw clenched. “No. He’s mine. I’ve been waiting months for him to turn sixteen. I’m not walking away now.”
“There’ll be others,” Jev said, looking uncannily relaxed as he laced his fingers on top of his head. He shrugged. “Walk away.”
“Yeah? And be like you? You don’t have a Nephil vassal. It’s going to be a long, lonely Cheshvan, pal.”
“Cheshvan is still weeks away. You’ve got time. You’ll find someone else. Let the Nephil and the girl go.”
Gabe stepped up to Jev. Jev was taller and smarter and knew how to keep his cool — I’d gathered that in all of three seconds — but Gabe had the advantage of bulk. Where Jev was long and lean like a cheetah, Gabe was built like a bull. “You turned us down earlier. Said you had other business tonight. Far as I’m concerned, this isn’t your call. I’m sick of you strolling in at the last minute and calling the shots. I’m not leaving until the Nephil swears his oath of fealty.”
There was that phrase again, “oath of fealty.” Vaguely familiar, and yet distant. If on some deeper level I knew what it meant, the memory wasn’t resurfacing. Either way, I knew it would have terrible consequences for B.J.
“This is my night,” Gabe added, punctuating the fact by spitting at his feet. “I’m ending it on my terms.”
“Wait a minute,” the guy in the gray hoodie interrupted, sounding stupefied. His eyes swiveled in both directions down the alley. “Gabe! Your Nephil. He’s gone!”
We all turned toward the spot where B.J. had lain inert only moments ago. An oily stain on the gravel was the only sign he’d been there.
“He couldn’t have gone far,” Gabe snapped. “Dominic, go that way,” he ordered the guy in the gray hoodie, pointing down the alley. “Jeremiah, check the store.” The other guy, the one in a white graphic T-shirt, took off jogging around the corner.
“What about her?” Jev asked Gabe, nodding at me.
“Why don’t you make yourself useful and go bring me back my Nephil?” Gabe shot back.
Jev raised his hands level with his shoulders. “Have it your way.”
I felt my stomach tumble to my knees as I realized that this was it. Jev was leaving. He was friends with, or at least an acquaintance of, Gabe, and that alone was enough to make me nervous of him, but at the same time, he was my only shot at getting out of here. Up until this point, he’d appeared to take my side. If he left, I was on my own. Gabe had made it clear he was the alpha male, and I wasn’t going to pretend I thought his remaining two friends would stand up to him.
“You’re going to walk away, just like that!” I yelled after Jev. But Gabe rammed his shoe into the back of my leg, forcing me to collapse to my knees, and before I could say more, my breath was knocked out of me.
“It’ll be easier if you don’t watch,” Gabe told me. “One solid hit, and it’ll be the last thing you feel.”
I lunged forward to escape, but Gabe grabbed a fistful of my hair, jerking me back. “You can’t do this!” I screamed. “You can’t just
“Hold still,” he growled.
“Don’t let him do this, Jev!” I yelled, unable to see Jev, but certain he could still hear me, since I hadn’t heard the SUV start up yet. I was rolling in the gravel, trying to turn around so I could see the tire iron and try to dodge it. I wrapped my fist around a scoop of rocks, twisted violently just long enough to spot Gabe, and flung them.
His big hand came down, grinding my forehead into the ground. My nose was bent at a painful angle, rocks biting into my chin and cheeks. There was a sickening crunch, and Gabe collapsed on top of me. Through a haze of panic, I wondered if he was trying to smother me. Killing me quickly wasn’t enough, was it? Had to draw out the pain as long as possible? Gasping for breath, I clawed my way out from under him.
I scrambled to my feet and flipped around. I braced myself in a defensive position, expecting to find Gabe prepping to take a second shot at me. My gaze dropped. He was facedown on the ground, the tire iron jutting out of his back. He’d been stabbed with it.
Jev wiped his sleeve across his face, which glistened with sweat. At his feet, Gabe twitched and shuddered, swearing violently and incoherently. I couldn’t believe he was still alive. The tire iron had to be straight through his spine.
“You — stabbed him,” I blurted, horror-struck.
“And he’s not going to be happy about it, so I’d suggest you get out of here,” Jev said, twisting the tire iron deeper. He glanced over at me and did an eyebrow raise. “Sooner rather than later.”
I backed away. “What about you?”
He watched me for an absurdly long moment, considering the circumstances. A brief expression of regret flicked across his features. Once again, I felt a powerful tug to my memory that threatened to mend the bridge holding everything out of reach. I opened my mouth, but the conduit between my mind and my words had been
