Chapter Eighty

B RITTANY WALKED OUT of the townhouse in a daze. Her sleeve was dark and smoking — she'd gotten a little too close to Ruby's burning body.

She blinked a few times at the night sky.

"What the—" she started.

"You okay?" Travis asked, starting up the stoop towards her.

"Yeah, but, uh, what, uh, what happened?"

"The other two, Bo and Frank, they chased someone that was watching us."

"Yeah, but, why is it dark out?"

"We've been here for hours. Bo said he and Frank searched the entire house, top to bottom. They didn't find anything of note. Said there's barely anything in there, not much in the way of furniture or nothing. Then they went downstairs to get you, but you weren't there."

"What do you mean I wasn't there?"

"I don't know — that's what Bo said. He went down stairs, and it ended in a brick wall. Said it'd been there a while. The entrance to the basement or whatever is down there was bricked over."

"Okay, but I was down there. In the basement."

"I'm just telling you what they told me."

"And now they're chasing someone."

"Yeah. You want to tell me why you're smoking?"

"Sure, I mean, I guess. We were here, uh, looking for Ruby Sadiq, and—"

"You found her?"

"I did."

"And she turned into one of those things?"

Brittany nodded.

Travis's face went white, and his hand shot out to grab at the balustrade. He wobbled on his feet, closed his eyes, and Brittany had to get a hold of him.

"Breathe," she said.

"I'm fine," he replied.

"Sure you are."

"I just need a minute."

"Take it."

He sat down on the stairs and put his head in his hands.

Britt watched him for a moment, then darted down the stairs and pulled out her new cell phone. She dialed up a familiar number.

Dulce answered on the second ring.

"How do you know I'm not on a date?" Dulce said.

"Because the end of the world is happening and you can't find a date that fast?" Brittany replied.

"You're not funny," Dulce said.

"You're not good at dating," Brittany shot back.

"So you called to make fun of me?"

"Just an added bonus. I need to talk to you about what's going on."

"Which is?"

"Things are pretty bad here."

"Yeah, got that. Apocalypse and all."

"Okay, well, we found someone, someone who was in the cult, or I guess, I mean, look, I had to kill her, so she's not around to—"

"Kill? What the fuck is going on up there? Why did you have to kill her?"

"Because she was a vessel for the, uh, what are we calling it?"

"Cayden."

"A vessel for Cayden. He talked through her. And I think he saw through her. It was a tangible connection to the world, and there wasn't exactly a ton of Ruby left, if you know what I mean."

"I don't really."

"It's not something you want to know."

"Is it something I should know?"

"We might see it again. It seemed like, I mean, like she was slowly being transformed into something else, and, pretty much all that was left was her mouth. The rest of her was this like, tentacle monster sort of thing with suckers and wavy tentacles and worms writhing under her—"

"Let's stop right there."

"I told you."

"I should have listened. You were right."

"Thing is, she had to die. And I had to burn her."

"I leave for two days—"

"Apparently these people, the Profane Consortium, they've made some deal whereby when they die they become portals."

"Shit."

"Yeah. Burning is the trick to keeping it from happening. Or, as I found out yesterday, the trick to keeping it from surviving in our world for long."

"Burning?"

"Yeah."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"The thing is, I'm no closer to finding the guy, the one behind the group and the one in charge."

"That's not good."

"I need help, Dulce."

"Okay, Robert and I did a bit of research. Well, Robert did research, and I did analysis. The next ritual is a bit of bitch to put together, at least as I understand it. You should be looking for a larger space, probably big enough to hold a hundred people."

"Like Penn Station or—"

"No, they need willing participants, so you can skip big public spots. Robert thinks it'll be underground—"

"Underground?"

"Something to do with the entity. Seems he's got a penchant for things under the surface."

"Okay. Big space. Lots of people. Probably underground. Got it. Anything else?"

"You can do this," Dulce said. "Just break it down into one problem at a time, and then solve the one that's right in front of you."

"Okay."

"It's not like the entire world is going to be destroyed if you fuck this up."

"Fuck you very much," Brittany said.

"Your voice is too high for effective cursing," Dulce replied. "You need to find a different way of expressing yourself."

"Next time I see you," Brittany said, "I'm punching you."

"I'll be sure to wear shin guards, ya midget."

Brittany smiled, missing her partner.

"Thanks, Dulce," Brittany said.

"Go save the world."