“Not every man’s as easy to work as you,” she said.
Cole pulled in a sharp breath and hissed, “That one stung.”
Chapter 14
There was time to kill before the meeting at the diner Ace and Steph had mentioned. Paige wanted to get there early, which still left them with an hour or two to hit the outlet mall. Cole picked up some new clothes and they were out the door before he could try on his half-priced jeans.
The diner was supposed to be west of Milwaukee off of I–94. Somewhere along the way, Cole dozed off until he was awakened by a smack on his arm. The second smack wasn’t so subtle and nearly cracked his head against the window. “What the hell?” he grunted as he sat up and immediately felt every kink in his neck and shoulders.
“Get up,” Paige snapped. “There’s a revolver in the glove compartment. Take it.”
“Is it time for the meeting already?” he asked as he fumbled for the gun.
“No, but there’s plenty of Nymar there already.”
“How can you tell?”
Paige flexed her hand and steered the car off the next exit. “You might want to stay in the car,” she told him. “If things get ugly—”
“If things get ugly, I doubt a locked car door will do me any good,” he interrupted.
She brought the Cavalier to a stop and left her keys in the ignition. “Then get ready to drive away,” she said. “If you have to, just drive away and call MEG.” With that, she pushed open her door and jumped out of the car, with Cole not too far behind.
They were parked in front of a diner that could have easily passed for an empty shell off the side of the road. The next lot over was filled with rows of broken gas pumps and a smaller building that was completely hollowed out. Judging by the layers of filth on the pumps and the boards in the windows of the neighboring building, the gas station hadn’t been open for a long while.
Seeing no movement through the diner’s window, Cole tucked the revolver under his waistband and pulled his shirt over it. “What’s wrong?” he asked while running to catch up to Paige.
She kept flexing her hands and shaking them every now and then, as if working out a bad cramp in her wrists and fingers. Her eyes were fixed upon the diner and only darted to him for a second. “Where’s that gun?”
“I’ve got it. We shouldn’t just—”
“Keep it ready,” she cut in. “You might need it.”
He drew the gun and checked it over. He wasn’t an expert marksman, but he’d been to the firing range enough times to know how to flick a safety off. Reflexively lowering his voice, he asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Something’s here,” she replied.
That was enough to make Cole nervous. The parking lot had a few other cars in it, but even they had an eerie emptiness to them. Since Paige was approaching the front door, he stayed beside her. The closer they got, the more suspicious he became. The air felt heavier, and as they got closer to the diner, he could see some kind of dark liquid staining a few of the windows.
After a few more steps, a putrid mix of rusty copper and rotten meat hit Cole’s nostrils.
“Jesus,” he groaned as he pressed a hand to his nose and mouth.
Paige shot an intent glare over her shoulder and shushed him, then held up her open hand in the universal gesture used by crossing guards around the world.
Apart from telling Cole to stop, she also gave him a good look at the scars on her palm, which now looked like a fresh case of poison ivy. Before he could get a closer look, he heard something crash inside the diner. That was followed by a familiar half groan and half scream.
“If you have to shoot,” she warned, “aim for the head or heart. Follow my lead and make sure you have a good target before wasting a shot.”
“And what if I need more than this gun?”
“There’s more weapons in the trunk,” she replied.
The rancid smell was thicker now that they’d taken a few more steps toward the diner. Every time Cole pulled in a breath, he swore he was coating the back of his throat with blood.
“There’s a lot of them,” Paige said. “It looks like this wasn’t a very friendly meeting.”
“Is it the Nymar?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know for sure. Could be Nymar. Could be shapeshifters. Could be both.”
Paige stepped up to the front door and pulled it open. They could now hear crashes and pounding from inside the place, but the main dining room was deathly still. Propping open the door with one foot, she bent at the knees and reached for one of her moderately fashionable, black leather cowboy boots. They came equipped with sensible heels and a club concealed in a sleeve that ran along the inside of each calf. She removed a club from her left boot while pushing the front door all the way open. The blunt weapon, made out of polished wood, was just a bit shorter than her forearm. She winced as she tightened her grip on the handle and took another step forward.
There was another scream from within the diner, followed by the crashing of plaster and wooden beams as a body exploded through the narrow window where orders were placed and picked up. Chunks were knocked from the wall around the opening, leaving only the metal shelf beneath the window intact.
Cole was so distracted by the sight that he didn’t notice the rest of the bodies strewn on the floor until the airborne figure landed on a few of them. He followed in Paige’s footsteps as she moved away from the door and took up a position next to a booth made for four. It currently held two diners who were facedown and bleeding on a mess of spilled nachos.
Now that Cole was inside, he was nearly overpowered by the stench of raw death filling the diner. There were close to a dozen corpses laying at the tables or on the floor. Blood collected in pools thick enough to ripple when another body flew through the opening in the wall and landed on the counter next to a clunky cash register. Unlike the first body, the second one didn’t flop to the floor like a broken doll. He was coated in drywall dust and paint chips, but Cole still recognized him as the man with the shaved head who’d tapped on his window while Paige and Racquel had tried to deal with Henry.
“Don’t move!” Cole said as he raised his gun and took a hurried step toward the counter. He was stopped by Paige’s hand, which slapped against his chest like an iron paddle. She pointed at the gaping hole in the wall behind the counter.
Another face peeked out from the kitchen. Long, stringy hair hung from Henry’s scalp like a mane, and his drooping head wobbled as if only connected to his neck by a vein or two. Henry gripped the edge of the hole in the wall with thick fingers capped by long cracked nails. As he looked at them, he pulled himself toward the hole so he could launch himself through the wall at Paige. All she could do to defend herself was raise her single wooden club.
Cole let his instincts take over and leapt toward Paige. Somehow getting to her before Henry, he wrapped an arm around her waist so he could knock her to the floor. Henry flew over their heads and crashed into a booth, breaking the table and crushing the dead people sitting there under his feet.
“Get off of me!” Paige snarled as she shoved her way out from under Cole and turned toward Henry.
Then Cole felt a steely hand grab his shoulder and haul him up to his feet. Twisting around to see who’d grabbed him, he found himself staring into Misonyk’s clouded green eyes. He didn’t waste a second before jamming the barrel of his gun into the Nymar’s chest and pulling the trigger.
Misonyk staggered back, but only a few steps. He wore a casual gray suit and a starched white shirt that were now coated in everything from blood and drywall dust to the oily black substance that coursed through Nymar veins. His head hung forward, showing Cole the thick black lines that writhed slowly, as if caressing the top of his skull beneath his scalp.
“I’m glad you came,” Misonyk said in a voice that was steady and calm despite the escalating war going on behind him. “Now you can see what happens to those who defy me. You can hear the symphony of their cries. Are you ready to sing for me?”
Cole pointed his gun at the Nymar’s chest and pulled his trigger again.
