“What did David want?” I ask.
“He wanted to make sure we weren’t still looking for Elizabeth.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I pleaded the fifth.”
I laugh and open the driver’s-side door. “And what did he say to that?”
She opens her door. “That I’ve been spending too much time with you.”
In that lighthearted moment, when I feel calm and safe for just a second, everything changes. An arm comes out of nowhere and wraps around Paige’s throat. A gun is pointed at her head.
“Paige!” I cry out instinctively.
She screams and struggles, but her assailant presses the muzzle of his gun harder against her temple to quiet her. Yury Vilonov issues his order. “Quiet.”
Paige complies and stops struggling.
Yury is a very different man from the last time I saw him. He’s panic-stricken and nervous, and his clothes are disheveled and dirty. New scars and bruises mark his face. It looks like he hasn’t slept in days.
He points his gun at me, and my hands go up. “You, come here!” he says.
I follow his orders and step around the car. “Whatever you say, Yury,” I say in the best soothing voice I can muster. “You’re in control.”
He looks around the parking structure to make sure we’re alone. The gun swings from pointing at me to pointing at Paige to pointing at the air. There’s no one here.
“Yury?” I ask, bringing him to the present. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
He points the gun back at me, which is not what I wanted. “They’re dead.”
“Dead?” I ask. “Who’s dead?”
“Everyone. All of them. Even Borz.”
“Borz?”
He shakes his gun at me. “You know Borz. You met Borz. Borz!”
“Right!” I say, realizing Muscle’s name was probably Borz. “Borz. Great guy, Borz. Right, Paige?”
Paige nods as best she can under Yury’s grip. “Yeah. Borz.”
“Dead!” he repeats.
“What happened?” I ask.
A car drives by in the distance, its radio blaring. The booming bass must freak Yury out, because he swings his gun wildly.
“Yury! It was just a car.” I move into his line of vision. “Come back to me,” I say, trying to get him to focus on me and only me. “Tell me what happened.”
Even though he’s looking right at me, it takes him a minute to focus. “It was d'yavol,” he says. “A devil.”
Okay. I move a step back, and he keeps the gun aimed at me. Paige’s eyes widen in fear.
“I saw it,” he says. “I saw it kill them all.” I keep moving, but the gun stays pointed at me. “We shot it, but it did nothing. It tore my men to pieces like a wild animal. I escaped.”
Dread fills my entire body.
“I ran away, like child,” he continues. “Last night was worst night of my life.”
“Last night?” I ask.
He nods. “Da. Last night.”
I relax just a bit. It wasn’t me.
As I let a breath out, Yury cocks his gun. “You don’t believe!”
“No!” I shout, recoiling. “I believe! I believe!”
Paige panics. “She believes! She believes!”
Convinced he’s not going to shoot me at that moment, I ask, “What did it look like?”
“It was horrible. It had robes like… like death. A skull for a face. Claws for hands. It… it ripped their hearts right out.”
I nod. “It was a woman, wasn’t it? A demon dressed in the robes of a woman?”
An expression of relief washes over Yury’s face. Someone believes him. He’s not going crazy. “You see her? You know too?” He lowers his gun.
He releases Paige. She runs over to me, and we maneuver ourselves behind my Mini. Suddenly, I wish I had a car larger than a lunch box—something we could hide behind.
Yury points the pistol in the direction of the cemetery. “Your friend? Her heart was torn out?”
I nod. “Yes. It was terrible.”
“Did you see it? The creature?”
“Yes. I’ve seen the creature.”
Tears well up in his eyes. He rubs the gun against his face, wiping the tears away. “I knew you would know. I knew. This is Sebastian’s fault, right? You know Sebastian. He was in cult.”
He charges toward us. Paige and I jockey for position, each one trying to shield the other for what comes next. As he nears, we cringe in anticipation of a bullet. Instead, he pulls a wad of cash from his jacket pocket.
“Here. Here is money. Find me Sebastian.” He shoves the money into my hands. “Sebastian was in cult, and this is his fault. Find him and bring him to me.”
I look at the cash in my hand. It’s no small sum. The amount that would make life just a little bit easier.
I press the money back into his hands. “Sebastian’s dead.”
Yury looks at me then at the money. He shoves the cash into his coat pocket then turns and walks away. Paige and I stay behind the car, ready to run and hide.
Yury stops and turns back to us. “It’s over, then. You cannot stop the evil once it decides it wants you.” He walks down the ramp and disappears around a corner.
Chapter 21
____◊____
PAIGE AND I STAND quietly as the elevator from the underground parking structure slowly rises to our fifth-floor loft. My pumps were killing me, so I took them off, and now Paige towers above me. She already has a couple of inches on me, but since she still has her heels on I feel especially diminutive. We’ve barely said a word since our interaction with Yury Yury.
The elevator doors open. Paige and I emerge into our empty hallway. The concrete is cold against my bare feet, but it’s only a few yards until we get to our unit.
“So Santa Muerte is out there, killing other people?” Paige asks.
“She took out Yury’s gang. Who knows if there’s been anyone else.”
“He didn’t mention the old woman.”
“No.”
As we approach our unit, I notice light streaming out of our living room into the hall. The front door is open. Did we forget to close it this morning? A moment later, a lean figure emerges wearing
