That burned away what was left of my good mood. Will was so nice. She’d never done anything wrong or hurt anybody in her life. People like her weren’t supposed to get screwed over—literally in her case—by the authorities.
“Wait,” Addison said. “Whose is Bitsy? Is she Ashtaroth’s? She’s Ashtaroth’s, isn’t she?”
“No,” Dodge said. “Bitsy isn’t some fallen angel’s. She’s Willow’s. End of story. And now that we’re all done asking stupid questions, we should probably talk about Tough’s plan. We’re attacking the Dark Mansion tonight.”
Apparently, that was what everybody needed to hear to get them back on track because they all shut up and looked at me like I was going to miraculously start talking.
I pushed Scout out in front of me, then I crossed my arms and leaned against the piercing display counter. She wanted to be the general, let her.
Scout cleared her throat.
That feeling of having been in that exact same spot before was back. How many times had I stood around in crowds of people while we waited for Dad to tell us the plan?
“We’re moving against the Dark Mansion tonight,” Scout said. “I know we thought we were going to have more time to get familiar with our weapons, maybe even some time for target practice, but it looks like tonight or never. We’re going after the Sword of Judgment, Mikal’s fiery sword. Rian has it now.”
Dodge stepped up. “There’s a hostage, too. Tough’s girlfriend.”
Scout flinched when Dodge said girlfriend, but it happened so fast that I think I was the only one who noticed.
“This is volunteer only,” Scout said. “But we need to stress that most of the volunteers will probably die. It’s the fallen angels, so there’s a pretty good chance that all the training in the world wouldn’t have helped us anyway. Tonight isn’t really about finesse. We’re basically just looking to dump as much lead into them as possible while we try to get the sword and while Tough tries to get the hostage out.”
I thought I saw a flicker of uncertainty in her gray eyes, but it was gone before I could be sure.
“We’re not expecting tonight’s assault to be graceful or flawless,” Scout said. “I mean, crap, you guys, we have about as much experience with fighting non-people as vamps have sun-bathing. It’s going to be messy. So really think about this before you say you’re in. Think about what you’re saying yes to. Odds are that for most of us, this is a suicide mission.”
She paused to let that sink in. I waited for somebody to say something, to make any kind of argument about how retarded this was, about how we were all going to die because these were some deadly-ass hornets that we were about to stir up. Hornets who couldn’t die or be killed. Hornets who were faster, stronger, smarter, and a whole hell of a lot more experienced than we were.
The whole tattoo parlor had gone silent. The coyotes and the crows were watching us.
The tension in the back of my neck cranked up a few notches, and I tried to look around at the humans without being obvious about it. You can’t show weakness to any NP—even ones who are supposed to be on your side. That was pretty much the first thing you learned in this town. The second thing you learned was not to fight them because you would lose. Know you’re weaker, but don’t show you’re weaker.
I had no idea how Scout had convinced these people to even show up tonight, much less agree to fight the power. It went against everything they’d done so far to stay alive. Those freedom speeches she’d been feeding them must’ve been seriously powerful.
No human said anything. They were waiting for Scout to go on.
Scout took a deep breath. “There’s one other thing. The Sword of Judgment…the one we’re after… In case you don’t know, if it cuts you at all, it sends you straight to Heaven or Hell. So, if you’re going to volunteer, you should make sure you know where you’re going and make sure you’re okay with it. Like I said, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get there sometime tonight.”
Less than a second passed.
“I’m in,” Dodge said.
“Me, too,” Willow said.
Scout and I already knew they were volunteering, but I knew why they had said it again in front of everyone. It was something the band had figured out a long time ago, playing at Rowdy’s—if you plant somebody out in the crowd to yell the first request, it breaks the ice and lets everybody else know it’s okay to jump in.
That crow-boy, Cash Pershing shouldered through the humans and nodded at Scout. “You going, too, shiny girl?”
Scout didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“Then I’m in.” Him and Lonely had probably worked it out so that he would be the crow to speak up for the murder. He was the one these kids went to school with. Out of all the NPs in town, they liked and trusted him the most.
“I’m in.”
“Me, too.”
Jim and Tawny Hicks spoke up at the same time. Then a girl from Scout’s class. Then it was like a mudslide of people volunteering. Nobody wanted to be left out of the dying.
I squeezed the place where my neck met the back of my head, trying to force some of the tension out, and tried not to think about how we had worked the crowd. Just focus on getting Desty away from Kathan. Remember that this was what they’d wanted when they signed up for Scout’s army. But it still felt like we’d tricked them.
Scout must’ve felt it, too, because she
