his cheeks as he peered at me. “You
Of course I could…would with time. I reached out, twirled the lock of his hair around my finger and smiled. “Yes, I can.”
He took my hand and pressed his lips into my palm. When he stepped back, my gaze met with the others. I’d completely forgotten their presence.
I just shrugged. My gaze met with Sykes and it was hard to describe the look in his eyes. Annoyance? Jealousy? A combination of both. I just couldn’t deal with him and his feelings.
“Okay, let’s do this.” Bran removed his clairvoyant stone and activated it. Light shot up from the core of the stone and projected a holographic image of a house. “This is Mr. Watts’ new place in Palos Verdes. The roof is flat, so let’s teleport there.”
“What happened?” Remy asked when he joined us and saw the mess on the floor. “I just cleaned this place up.”
Sykes pointed at me like a child tattling. “Lil did it.”
I laughed, happy to see him bounce back. I was also thrilled I could laugh without wincing. “But Mrs. Watts canceled the contract.”
Remy’s eyes narrowed. “You forced her?”
“Of course not,” I said. “I couldn’t see or hear a thing when she agreed to cancel it.”
Remy looked confused. “What?”
Sykes slapped Remy on the back. “Long story, dude, but the EMT is here. We need to disappear.”
The ambulance pulled up outside Mrs. Watts’ van. We dematerialized before the EMT reached the house.
- 7 -
GAVYN’S AGENDA
A yellow police tape wound around Mr. Watts’ broken door and window like a bad bandage dressing. His neighbor eagerly informed us that Mr. Watts had been having a “noisy party last night and was cooking something in the early hours of the morning when an explosion blew out his windows.”
No one spoke after we thanked her. We headed to our next destination. After several more stops, we materialized on the roof of U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building in California with a rooftop helipad. Lucky for us, it was empty, giving us enough space and privacy to vent.
“We’re so screwed,” Sykes said, pacing.
Shut up, I wanted to yell. He’d been saying that for the last thirty minutes and driving me nuts. My powers and headache were on the upswing again after leveling off at Mrs. Watts’ but I didn’t want to get catty with my teammates. The glances Bran threw my way told me he knew I was close to losing it again.
“So freaking screwed,” Sykes repeated.
“You can say it a gazillion times, Sykes, it won’t make anything better,” Kim snapped. “And it’s not us who’re in trouble, the humans who made the deals and canceled are.”
“But we helped them,” Izzy said.
“No one forced them to sell their souls in the first place,” I cut in.
“Lil!” Izzy scolded me.
“She’s right, Izzy,” Kim said. “No one put a gun to their heads.”
It didn’t matter whether the humans had canceled their contracts or not. All the ones we visited had similar stories—they had no memory of what had happened, yet their homes had broken glass everywhere and an accident had occurred that had reversed their fortunes. Bran made sure I didn’t get anywhere near them.
A man whose daughter sold her soul after he was hit by a car and broke his spine was now brain-dead. He and the daughter were in a head-on collision with a truck yesterday. She was now the one with the broken spine while he was on life support.
A couple who couldn’t have children, and had twins after the husband gave up his soul, was in the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning.
Their children didn’t make it and the husband, who had done the signing, was in the ICU.
A music mogul’s club caught on fire, killing several people and leaving most of his body with third-degree burns. Lawsuits were already piling up because the doors had been jammed for some reason. Not only was he ruined financially, he was being held liable. By the time the lawyers finished with him, he would be penniless.
“Not only are they losing their ill-gained wealth and fame, they are being punished.” I glanced at Bran. He hadn’t spoken since we left Mrs. Watts, except to choose our next location. He was frustrated and kept forking his fingers through his hair. Even now, he stood near the edge of the roof and stared down at the city, anger surging from him in giant waves.
“The weirdest thing is that these misfortunes started while we were stuck in the valley,” Izzy said.
“Let’s be honest here,” Remy cut in. “They started
I shook my head. “Master Haziel is never wrong. Who is Mancuso?”
“David Lee’s manager,” Izzy said. “Mancuso said no one could get away with playing with their soul without consequences. Master Haziel had said nothing would happen.”
“And we haven’t heard anything about David Lee,” Sykes said. “We need to find an Internet cafe and see how he’s doing.”
Kim gave an unladylike snort. “Enough with the bromance, Sykes. I’m sure David Lee’s voice is gone. It is obvious the demons are targeting the humans to get their souls back. I’ll ask again, why now? Why not four months ago when we started canceling their contracts?”
“Maybe it takes a special kind of demon to harvest souls,” I said.
“Like Reapers?” Remy asked then glanced at Bran. “What do you think, Bran?”
“Reapers don’t hurt humans or exact retribution,” Bran said. “They are Neutrals. The Tribe is made up of something else, and they were summoned to do one thing—stop me from getting my freedom.”
“Why would you think that?” I asked, not liking the certainty in his voice.
“Because I know who is behind the summoning.”
We converge on him, every said asking, “Who?”
“Gavyn,” Bran said.
There was silence, then everyone started talking at once.
“Your brother?
“How do you know?”
“Why would he do this?”
Bran pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “He’s the only person who’d go to extreme lengths to stop me from canceling my contracts. He wants me to take my rightful place as the leader of the demons because I won the battle on Jarvis Island. He asked me about it during Darius’ party at the Brotherhood’s compound.”
“What did you tell him?” Remy asked.
“What do you think?” Bran snapped. “I wasn’t interested and I’m still not. He didn’t stop asking and pushing. The last time I saw him, we had a fight about it and he stormed off.”
That was the Gavyn I knew, throwing tantrums when he didn’t get his way. Every time I thought there was hope for him, he pulled some crap that made me hate him.
“I know how my brother thinks,” Bran continued. “Waiting until my freedom is within my grasp then pulling a fast one is straight out of our mother’s book.” He paused, his gaze locked with mine a moment longer before moving to the others. I knew everything about his past—or, at least, I had known it. “Our mother did exactly the same thing when our father tried to sneak us out of Coronis Island. She knew for months what he’d planned, but waited until the night we attempted an escape. We were in a cave on the way to collect the Kris Dagger when she and her Lazari warriors surrounded us.” He chuckled, though there was no humor on his face. “It’s actually a brilliant strategy if you want to punish someone.”
