The questions keep coming, and Jude and I try hard not to lie.
I wait for someone to mention our mothers. It’s ironic: the secret we were most afraid to share—the bitter slice of history we kept from everyone for more than a century—is the very thing we laid bare a few hours ago. Our parting shot to Nathaniel before we left: that he killed them and stole all of us.
But nobody brings it up. I don’t know if it’s because the news is still too raw, or too big to grasp. Either way, I’m relieved when I hear the Butlers’ four-wheel drive in the gully.
Conversation stops as the battered car clears the trees. The boys park where the track ends, at the edge of the sagging tarp. They climb out and face us, shoulder to shoulder: Mick, Rusty, Joffa, Woosha and the blond mullet.
Mick glares at the Rephaim. Rusty folds his arms. All of them on edge. They smell of petrol and cigarettes. It’s a wonder they didn’t blow themselves up.
‘Okay?’ Jude asks Mick.
Mick sniffs, nods. ‘The fireys and cops’ll be up there in an hour. Then they’ll come looking for us.’ He digs a nail between his two front teeth and flicks away whatever he finds. ‘Sarge won’t believe us no matter what we tell him, but he’ll have nothing so it won’t matter.’
‘Plus,’ Rusty says, ‘there’ll be serious shit going down by the time they get around to harassing us. You come up with a plan yet?’
Mick hawks up something thick and wet from the back of his throat and spits it on the grass. ‘I dunno about you lot, but we’re clearing out the town.’
Jude raises his eyebrows ‘And how are you going to do that?’
‘Simple.’ Mick taps the side of his head. ‘We make a bomb threat and get the town evacuated—let a coupla charges go on the esplanade to get everyone moving. Then when the place is empty, we blow up the main road either end of town and block access. Nobody gets back in for at least a few days.’
‘Yeah,’ Rafa says. ‘Genius.’ He leans his leg against mine, almost absently. I don’t move away.
Mick looks around the campsite. ‘Okay, so what’s your big plan then?’
‘We’re working on it.’
‘What’s so fucken hard?’
Jude sits forward, his boots resting on the car bumper and forearms on his knees. ‘It’s not hard. It’s the first time we’ve had to plan a defence. Usually, the demons are already wreaking havoc wherever they’ve set up shop. We go in, check out the situation and make a plan to ambush them.’
I’ve only been on one Outcast ‘job’—two if you count the farmhouse—and that’s pretty much how it went down.
‘This time we have to wait for Zarael and company to show,’ Jude says. ‘We know they’re coming during a storm, but not exactly when. No idea of numbers, no idea where they’ll strike.’
‘They’ve never come after humans before,’ Ez says. ‘Not like this. So that’s a whole other issue.’
Malachi catches my eye. ‘It’d be better if we could draw Zarael away from the town.’ He’s still standing behind Taya’s chair, katana loose in his hand.
‘It won’t work,’ Rafa says.
‘Why not? The Gatekeepers are only attacking Pandanus Beach to draw us into a fight. If Zarael knows we’re already here, we could jump-start the whole thing on our terms.’
And, like that, everyone has an opinion.
‘How? Send back Zarael’s Immundi scout?’
‘As if Daniel will hand him over.’
‘Where do we take the fight—beach or forest?’
‘When’s that storm due?’
‘Do we have the numbers if he’s recruiting Immundi?’
And then: ‘It doesn’t matter what we do, Zarael’s going on a rampage through the town anyway.’
The last comment—from Taya—cuts through the noise. The Rephaim fall quiet.
‘He’s coming to do damage,’ she says. ‘Trust me.’
I catch the look she and Rafa exchange. After their time with Zarael in that iron room yesterday, they know his appetite for fear better than the rest of us.
‘It doesn’t even have to be a rampage,’ Zak says. ‘Zarael might let Leon loose with his new toy. Hell, they might have a dozen rocket launchers by now.’
Rafa shifts his weight beside me. We flattened the farmhouse in Iowa with Mick’s bazooka. Zarael retaliated by taking out a wall at the Sanctuary, blowing up the commissary. The Gatekeepers are definitely enamoured with the firepower now.
‘What exactly did Dani see?’ Malachi asks.
‘Zarael and his horde advancing on the beach as a storm hits,’ I say. ‘Not hiding, wanting to be seen.’
‘Has she ever been wrong?’
My skin prickles and I can’t help but look at Mick and his banged-up crew. Dani saw that happen and nothing we did could stop it. For all I know, we caused it.
‘Not in our experience.’
Mick nods. ‘Then the place has to be empty when they get here.’
‘I agree,’ Ez says. She’s back beside Zak. ‘But we’re not setting off explosions. Anywhere.’
‘If we don’t blow something up, the cops’ll think it’s a hoax. It’s the only way you’ll get those fat arses out of the station.’
Mick flips open a packet of smokes in his top pocket and pulls one out with his teeth, stows it in the corner of his mouth. He holds out a hand and Rusty passes his lighter. Mick fires up the end, takes a slow drag and then blows it out through his nose. ‘I’m not hearing any other ideas.’
Mick’s right. Nobody’s got anything else. Maybe they all agree it’s the best plan. Maybe they’re waiting for Jude or me to come up with something better. I might have my memories back now, but it’s not a magic bullet. Ez was right when she said none of us had faced anything like this before. Certainly not Sanctuary Rephaim: we were too busy ignoring demon activity unless it held up our search for the Fallen.
The Fallen.
Jude and I need to decide what to do about them. Or, more importantly, what to do now we remember who our father is.
‘Does Pan Beach have an evacuation plan?’ Ez asks.
Mick shrugs. ‘Has to. We’re on the coast, right—cyclones and all that shit?’
‘What happens if it’s activated?’
‘No fucken clue.’
Ez takes a calming breath, right as her phone rings. She takes it from her back pocket, frowns at the screen before she answers. ‘Hello?’ Her free hand strays to Zak’s shoulder. Mick carries on talking—something about remote detonation—but I’m watching the way Ez’s grip tightens on Zak. Enough to make him look up. ‘Slow down.’ She turns away to concentrate on the voice on the other end. ‘When?’ She listens. ‘Okay. Stay where you are. Leave it with me.’ She disconnects and her eyes meet mine. ‘That was Jess.’
Jones twists around so he can see her. ‘Is it Mya?’
‘She’s gone back to the club looking for a fight.’
‘In LA? Shouldn’t that be out of action by now?’
‘The basement and club are crime scenes, but the bar is still open.’
‘Which means Zarael will still have someone in play. They’ll tip him off.’
‘I imagine that’s the point.’
Nobody asks why Mya would put herself in Zarael’s path: provoking conflict is her idea of stress relief. But this is offering herself up to Gatekeepers. It’s suicidal.
‘She took two handguns and a katana,’ Ez says. ‘She plans on going down fighting.’
Jones grunts. ‘And we’re going to let her?’
Daisy uncrosses her feet, crosses them again. Doesn’t look at Jones, or Jude. I can read what she’s thinking. Not your problem.
Jones stands up. ‘Are we going to let Mya get herself killed?’ His voice is harder now. The Rephaim look everywhere but at him. They don’t know what they’re supposed to do now Mya’s a confessed traitor.
‘We’ve got a situation to deal with here, too,’ Daisy says quietly.
Jones levels his gaze at her. ‘We’re never going to get answers from Mya if a Gatekeeper takes her head as a trophy.’
Daisy lowers her eyes.
‘Ez should go.’ Zak gets up from his chair. ‘And Jude.’
Jude stiffens.
‘No,’ Ez says. ‘He’s the last person she needs to see.’ She walks around the fire pit to my brother. ‘Your opinion means more to her than anyone else’s and if she sees that look’—she gestures to his face—‘it will gut her quicker than any sword.’
‘What makes you think my opinion means anything anymore?’
‘Yours is the only call she’s taken in the last eight hours.’
Jude gives nothing away. I wonder if he’s feeling the betrayal. Or is this more about the fact he spent a decade fighting beside her at my expense? How does that fit now?
Either way, Ez needs back-up.
‘I’ll go.’
All eyes shift to me.
‘Yeah,’ Rafa says, ‘that’s a brilliant idea.’
‘No, it could work.’ Ez measures me. ‘Assuming you can keep your temper?’
‘I’m not coming along so I can hug her.’ I manage a tight smile. ‘But there are a few things I’d like to sort out before she throws herself on a demon blade.’