‘Aside from strangling me, and humping Az, that was what?’ Kira ran her finger round the rim of her glass.
Vail shifted in his seat, turning to look up at her. ‘There was a lot of confusion. They seemed as surprised as we were to find them there. Like they didn’t quite know what to do once they found some bodies to inhabit, didn’t know what to do with their own strength.’
‘They claimed they were utukku.’ Leona stirred the bubbling pot with slow circulations. ‘Not a title I was familiar with, but I had my suspicions. We wanted an opportunity to research before we told you anything. That Azrael is a bright one is evident –’
‘You keep saying that, and I keep having no clue.’ Kira refilled her pint glass.
‘A supermundane, a preternatural –’
‘Oh yeah, he’s super all right.’
Leona paused with her stirring. ‘You understand. I know you do. I saw your face when he touched you. He is a supernatural being, and those utukku believed he would be able to return them to their true realm. Azrael is ripe with a raw power, the like of which I’ve never witnessed. And that power does not come from the Maiden. She herself is a fledgling, her full strengths are still developing. A new god whose Dawning is yet to come. We worship at her altar, awaiting that day when she emerges from the Earth and graces us –’
Vail coughed, interrupting the sermon. ‘These utukku, if that’s what they are, are ancient. Thousands of years old, and there’s been no hint of them before now. There are a few supermundanes that pop up every now and then, but very basic stuff, wood sprites, weaker stuff like that. Nothing like this.’
‘Of course.’ Kira chugged wine.
‘These utukku were off the charts . . . Azrael is off the charts. And for whatever reason, they thought he was their ticket home. They are trapped here, we think, but have been dormant until now.’
Rubbing her eyes, Kira debated asking the question. Decided what the hell? Sanity had gone to hell in a handbasket anyway. ‘Ticket home?’
‘To Kur. The underworld.’ Vail nodded at the screen. ‘Where that goddess rules.’
‘Oh, right. That makes sense now.’ Kira slapped her thigh. ‘Az is some kind of demon lord of the underworld. That was my second guess after advanced AI. Guess those prayer-loving ali –’
She caught herself in time. About to mention the A word. One big reveal at a time, she decided. Things were complicated enough without mentioning the ETs.
Az, the man . . . being . . . android . . . whatever-the-fuck, sat staring at Big Boobs.
‘Recognise her, Az?’
Slow shake of the head, side to side, not lifting his eyes from the screen. Bradley the freaky lizard jumped off Vail’s shoulder, landing on the keyboard beside Azrael’s hand. Az didn’t flinch. Still as a statue.
Leona rapped the metal spoon against the side of the pot. ‘We don’t know who or what he is, but those possession spirits believed him to be a creature of Kur. Explains why our workings were magnified so dangerously.’ Vail’s enthusiasm slid off his face like a mask, but Leona kept going. ‘Azrael’s energy radiates, and these utukku will not be the last who are drawn to him. He’s a magnet for supermundanes of all sorts. We need to get you to the Rudiment in Jackson.’
‘Please god, tell me that’s a nightclub, somewhere there are lots of drugs.’ Kira refilled her pint glass.
‘The Disciples of the Maiden are all formed into Rudiments. Groups, really. You’d probably call them covens.’ Vail puppy-eyed her from beneath his bangs. ‘It’s usually based on geographical locations, but we kind of got booted out of the local one –’
‘I got expelled.’ Leona poured herself a glass of red into a giant coffee mug that declared, I believe in unicorns. ‘Vail suffered because they sought to be rid of me.’
Vail gave her an indulgent smile. ‘Leona’s right about the Rudiment, though. William runs it, and he’ll take us in. You’ll be safe there. William will be able to help us work out what’s going on.’
All the sweet, doe-eyed looks in the world weren’t going to see that happen. ‘Sounds like a barrel of laughs, and William sounds like a great guy. But I’m not moving another inch until I speak to my sister.’
The lizard barked, and the frill of his collar expanded around his beady-eyed face.
‘What’s wrong with slimy?’ Kira glared at the reptile.
Leona sniffed. ‘Bradley is not slimy, he’s a Tylototriton anguliceps. Very rare. And I believe he thinks contacting your sister is a very bad idea. As do we all. She asked you to take Azrael from the Facility, didn’t she? What exactly did she tell you to do with him?’
Kira folded her arms across her belly and walked across the cracked vinyl floor to the window. A sliver of moon rose above a poorly lit street. In the silence, the laptop pinged with an incoming message.
‘She said . . .’ Kira spotted a rotary phone propped on a pile of magazines, half-hidden by a faded floral curtain. ‘She said . . . shit . . .’
She couldn’t call Blake. A super spy Kira was not, but a dumb-ass could work out that contacting her sister at a place that designed high-end surveillance and robotic tech for the military was probably a stupid idea. Blake knew when Kira fucked someone on a beach half a world away; tracing a phone call would be child’s play.
Blake wanted Az kept hidden. Kira was on her own. With an utukku-attracting, underworld-dwelling, million-dollar piece of tech, that might be a demon. Kira sighed.
‘She told me to keep him away from the
