I sucked my lips into my mouth and nodded my appreciation. “I would kiss you right now, but I don’t want to distract you from your driving responsibilities and cause a crash. I feel like you’re more of an eyes-closed kind of kisser. Would you settle for some road head?”
“I’m sorry, too,” Xander said, though not as eloquently as I had.
“Damn right you are. And I won’t ignore the apology road head from you. In fact, I demand it.”
“You’ve always been a brother to me,” Xander continued, “since the university. And Callie… her and I were close long before you and her got together. I love… loved her like a sister. So, when you two had Melanie, that baby girl was family to me, man.” A tear escaped his steely resolve and slipped down his cheek. “I know you think you failed Callie. But so did I. And I failed Mel, too. You know I would do anything to help you kill Hecate.” He stalled.
I didn’t really have a response, so I practiced my patience, and waited for him to speak. You could venture to say that I’m growing up.
“I’m more scared than I’ve ever been in my life,” Xander said. “We’re hunting a Scylla, which means we’re positioning ourselves to fight Circe. Even if she did demote herself from a Nephil to a Demi in order to be with Gladas, she still has a lot of Nephil power. And then there’s Hecate, a possible rogue Nephil—not adhering to the Nephilim Council. There’s something sinister happening. I feel it in my soul, and like I told you earlier, Gabriel only calls on me when the dark encumbers the light and I must help create balance in the world.”
“So, you’re like a Jedi?” I asked. I had to break the tension—Xander was starting to scare the shit out of me with his little speech.
“Whatever Hecate is a part of,” he said, “whatever she needed Mel for, there’s extreme darkness and evil behind it.” Again, I wondered if he intentionally avoided what Medea had mentioned a couple nights ago—that my potentially demonic blood had been used to open the gates of Sheol and release the demon lords into this world. “And it’s my job to stop that. No matter what.” Xander glanced at me. “You understand that, Joey?”
Whatever darkness he referred to, I had a funny feeling that my new shadow magic wasn’t just a happy coincidence to that logic. I gnawed on my fingernail for a second. The shittiest part about this conversation—other than listening to the babbling baby talk—was that I actually understood where he was coming from. He did what he had to do, not what he wanted to do. If that doesn’t boil Xander down to a few words, I don’t know what does.
“You know this is probably a trap, right?” I asked him. “We didn’t go with Gladas, but we’re still going to end up in the same spot eventually.”
Xander shrugged. “And? They knew we’d connect the dots. They knew we’d come after them. It might be a trap, but it’s one we’re aware of. Gladas won’t be with us, feeding us information he wants us to know. We hold the cards now, even if they expect us. They don’t know about your new abilities. They don’t know Gabriel has deemed them a threat to the world and is working in our favor. I think we’re the ones setting the trap.”
“That’s very optimistic of you,” I said, closing my eyes and hoping to catch a quick snooze.
Xander’s phone vibrated, but I didn’t peek to see who called. Keeping my eyes shut, I heard him answer. “You’re on speakerphone. Any news?”
“Not really,” Dakota said, her voice tight. “Dr. Tacet said it must have happened overnight. No evidence left behind. The cameras lost their feed during the theft. Unfortunately, that’s really all we have. Is Joey there?”
They were talking about Mel’s missing corpse like a common burglary.
“He’s right next to me.”
“Hi,” I said.
“You remember last night,” Dakota said, “when I told you about the missing boy and the cult?”
“Is that rhetorical?” I asked.
“Is that?”
“We can play this game forever,” I said.
“What about the missing boy and the cult?” Xander cut in.
“They found his body. His throat was wide open and he was drained of blood.” Dakota paused. I heard her breathing heavily.
“Could you keep us updated on that?” Xander asked.
“Of course,” Dakota said. “Oh, Joey. Something to think about. I know a guy who knows a guy—and we’ll keep it at that for now. But I may have a job for you. Xander knows a little about it. He can fill you in on some details.” She hung up.
I definitely needed the work, but after being reminded of Mel’s disappearance and no additional leads and hearing about the little boy drained like livestock, I was beyond fired up. “I don’t want to hear any details,” I said. “You couldn’t pay me enough money not to find and kill Hecate.”
We pulled into a run-down neighborhood just after two in the afternoon. The houses that lined the cracked sidewalks practiced lawn care much like I did—not at all. Weeds had overtaken the yards that were overwatered, their owners trying to compensate for a lack of effort, while the other lawns had faded to a dull brown from the dry winter. Old cars filled the driveways and lined the curbs of the entire street. Xander found a spot a hundred yards from our destination.
After walking to the front door of the provided address, Xander rang the doorbell, but it didn’t chime. So, he rapped on the locked screen door. We waited beneath the cover of a thousand cobwebs and a wasp nest about the size of my head. Luckily, the little devils had all headed south for the winter. After about twenty seconds without a response, I stepped forward and rapped on the window beside the front door, surprised it didn’t shatter
