Since Devlin wanted Jonah and I to report in after our day at the church, I opted to ride with Jonah. We stopped at a local burger joint around the corner from Devlin’s and I ordered two fully loaded burgers and a large fry.
Jonah gave me a pointed look. “You think you ordered enough?”
“Don’t judge me.” I refused to look at him.
He pulled forward after placing an order for himself and the rest of the team. “No judgement. Just wondering if you’d rather talk.”
I sighed and let my head rest against the seat back. “No. Right now, I’d rather eat my weight in food.”
“Whenever you’re ready,” he said and let it drop.
I appreciated his concern. More than he would ever realize. I also appreciated that he didn’t push and instead gave me the space I needed.
A short while later, we pulled up to Devlin’s rental house in a family-friendly neighborhood located on the border of Pleasanton and Alice. Before we got out of the car, I turned to Jonah and asked, “What address did you write in the guestbook at the church?”
He shut the car off—it immediately filled with the stifling heat—and grabbed their food bags. I always got a separate bag. I didn’t like getting stiffed on my portion of fries. Not that I needed them. But still, they were mine. “The hotel Devlin stayed at,” he said finally.
When they first arrived on Tulare to investigate Felicity Markum’s disappearance, Devlin and Rachel had stayed at separate hotels closer to Tribec Insurance while they were undercover. Alek and Jonah had stayed at the rental house. Now, all four of them were living there. Including me on a part-time basis—still sharing a room with Alek, even sleeping in the same bed. And not having sex. More reason to eat my weight in food.
“I should have copied the address you wrote,” I said.
Jonah gave me a questioning glance. “Why didn’t you?”
“I wasn’t thinking.” I shook my head and followed him up the walkway to the front door. “You know, I’m surprised Gerald Stewart hasn’t found the house.”
“What makes you think he hasn’t?” he asked, pushing open the door—letting out a blast of cool air.
“Him and Logan would have come here to threaten us instead of showing up at the church.”
“Not necessarily. It could just be a show of power.” He continued down the hall toward the back of the house where Devlin and Rachel were. They both sat at the large worktable Devlin had exchanged for the foldout table that was in there originally. He’d added a few other pieces of furniture to the house as well: a sleeper couch in the front room for him and a bedroom set in the room Rachel was sleeping in. He left the fourth bedroom empty.
I’d been referring to it as a safehouse, but really, it was more of an operation center.
Devlin looked up from the computer when Jonah set the bag of food on the table. Jonah unbuttoned his shirt and sat down at the table. “Coming here,” he continued while he pulled a burger from the bag, “would have been obvious. But showing up at the church makes a bigger statement.”
I sat across from Rachel and tore open my bag, spreading my food out on the greasy, brown paper. Rachel smiled at me, and I smiled back. “What statement is that?” I asked.
“I can find you anywhere,” he said, then took a large bite of his burger.
He was right. They had to be keeping tabs on us. Probably had someone watching the house. How else would they have known where we would be? But that wasn’t right, either. Logan had been in the parking lot when Kara and I arrived.
“Do you think they followed you from here?” I asked Jonah.
He nodded as he chewed.
Well, that wasn’t scary at all.
While we ate, Jonah filled both Rachel and Devlin in on what happened at church. Since I was still getting used to the old ‘report to Devlin’ portion of my job, I’d let Jonah do all the talking while I stuffed my face and reflected. Or rather, while I prepared myself for one of Devlin’s “training” sessions. Or as I liked to call them, ‘shine a light on the many ways Nicole keeps fucking up,’ sessions. Everything he did with me was used as a teaching moment. And I hated it.
I looked over at the three white boards Devlin had tacked up to the wall. A condensed version of Andrew’s information was spread out all over the surface. Each family had their own little section that contained notes, pictures, and their type of magick.
Refusing to part with the original, I’d given them a copy of The Land Guarded by People of Colour written by Louis Badet. It sat off to the side with the names of the four Old Ones we had identified thus far written alongside their images. Luisah had already shown me a depiction of one of the Old Ones in a book on the Naqada culture. He had been drawn with different color whorls covering his skin. She told me the designs represented his name in a language that sounded like musical notes.
Louis Badet had referred to the Old Ones by the names they’d been given much later in Egypt.
Ezra was often referred to as Anhur—god of war and hunting. When I’d gone to his dojo after learning about the Old Ones, he had invited me in to talk. I recalled the stray thought I’d had of him hunting me as we made our way to the small apartment he had in the back of the dojo. He didn’t have many personal items in that small space. Only war memorabilia lining his walls. Now I understood why.
The woman who had helped Ezra save me when I was almost killed by their brother was called Hathor—goddess of the sky, the sun, sexuality, and motherhood. She was also responsible for blocking my memories and magick when I was six years old.
Jordin Cisco was called Shezmu—god of wine and sex. In the Greek pantheon, he was called Dionysus, and the Roman—Bacchus. He fit his godhood perfectly.
And their brother, the Old One who attacked me, was known as Set—god of violence, chaos, and strength. Oftentimes, Set was referred to as a trickster god as well.
It made me wonder if they had molded themselves into what the people expected. After all, human beings created the myths, not the gods. And the Old Ones were considered gods.
“Nicole,” Devlin prompted, his tone like nails on a chalkboard. He leaned back in his chair, shifting his body so that he was facing me.
I pushed my empty bag away, got up, and stretched. “I saw Logan in the parking lot when we arrived.” Might as well get the embarrassment over with.
“What was your first thought when you saw him?” he asked, standing.
“What do you mean?” I knew what he meant, but I needed to stall; find a way to organize my thoughts and put them into words he would understand. Who was I kidding? Devlin understood only two things when it came to a job: success or failure. Despite him treating missions this way, he operated in the gray—seeing some of their illegal actions as neither right nor wrong. Only justified and necessary. I was still struggling with that. But not as much as when I first witnessed Rachel giving a guard from Tribec Insurance a concoction she knew would eventually kill him.
Devlin sighed. He had been doing that a lot lately when having conversations with me. The first time, I told him he might want to tattoo ‘Patience’ on his forehead like Jonah had tattooed on his arm. He didn’t like the suggestion and gave me some crude advice I didn’t think was humanly possible. It was not one of our better sessions. We might have devolved into childish name calling had Rachel not broken us up. She did, however, take her time doing so. Now, I chose to ignore him. After all, I was still in my damn church clothes.
“You have instincts, Nicole.” He continued after a pause. “Yet you keep dismissing them. You need to work on listening, assessing, and making split-second decisions.” He moved closer to me, crowding into my space. The smell of coffee and his spicy aftershave filled the miniscule room between us. I’d never admit to him how much I liked the smell. Might give him the wrong impression.
Placing my hands on my hips, I stared up at him, trying to keep the defiance off my face. His nostrils flared as he glared at me. Maybe I shouldn’t have put my hands on my hips. “Now, think back to when you first saw him. What was your first thought?” he asked, his jaw clenched. I couldn’t have gotten to him that much. Why was he so angry?
“I was suspicious.”
“Why?”
I paused. Why was I suspicious?
“Don’t think about it! First feeling.”
“Dev.” Rachel got up from the floor, walked over and placed her hand on his chest. “She’s trying.” She kept her gaze steady on his. A quick burst of green light pulsed from her hand and Devlin sighed, eyes closing. I rubbed my eyes wondering if maybe I were seeing things. I looked at Jonah. He hadn’t reacted so maybe I had imagined it.
Devlin cleared his throat. “Sorry, Nicole. Go on.”
“He didn’t belong,” I blurted out, my mind still whirring. I pulled in a deep breath and tried to focus. Whatever Rachel had done, I doubt it would last too long.
“How so?” Devlin asked.
I yanked at my hair, frustrated. No, not belong. He did not fit. That still wasn’t right. None of us really fit in at The Better Day Church.
Dammit. I could do this.
“I pushed that feeling down,” I started, blowing out a frustrated breath. “Fuck. Neither one of us belonged there. But…” I held up my hand to stop him from pressing me. If he kept pushing, I would shut down. “No.” I shook my head. “No, it was more than that. His presence felt…wrong. Like he didn’t come for the same reasons as everyone else. Including us. And when I looked at him, a chill went down my spine. I was worried.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t want to be wrong.”
“Don’t hold back again.”
I saluted him. “Yes, Boss!” Damn bossy bastard.
“What happened to you in there?” Jonah asked.
I’d put off telling him about my encounter with Gavina knowing I would have to tell Devlin as well. Saying it more than once would have been too hard. I paced the floor, not because I was nervous, but because I didn’t want to look at them. “Gavina attacked me, and my protective mark repelled her.”
I recounted everything. Even described the way her probing had made me feel. I rubbed my arms and cringed as I described the sexual feeling she elicited in me. I left off the description of the warmth that had spread throughout my body and just how much I wanted to feel that again. Craved to feel it, really.
Devlin turned to Jonah. “What do you think?”
“Sex has always been used in cults.” He balled up the takeout bag and threw it in the trash. “It’s the best way to control someone’s mind, body, and soul. They target them when they’re young and still trying to find their way both sexually and spiritually.” He paused and rubbed the back of his head. “It doesn’t make sense, though. The people who attended today were there for a sermon. Not to be indoctrinated into a cult. So, it has to be something they’re doing with just the women. And Gavina being able to invade Nicole’s mind doesn’t make sense, either. It’s not something a faith mage can do.” He glanced over at the board. “Andrew underlined her magick and put a question mark by it.” He rubbed his head, thinking.
“I watched her working a spell while Boyd waxed on poetically about nothing. And her magick was…different.”
Jonah turned to me. “Faith magick only works if the people involved have faith to begin with. She couldn’t spell them into believing. Different how?”
“Her aura was a steel color.” I thought about Xavier’s lack of aura. “And her son didn’t have an aura at all.”
“A faith mage would have a gold tinge to their aura. It must be some sort of taint.” Jonah sat down and rested his forearms on his thighs. “I would say it could be a demon, but they have more of a burnt gold and red color to them. And I don’t know what would cause someone to not have an aura.” He paused. “We’re missing something.”
He was right. Given what Gavina had managed to do, I was having a hard time believing she was a faith mage. Maybe that’s why Andrew put a question mark by her magick. He wasn’t sure, either. We needed more details. Especially if a demon could be involved—something Jonah had refused to talk about before.
“Can you dig into it?” Devlin asked Jonah.
Jonah checked his watch. “I’ll call my Uncle Troy later. He’s probably still at his church. He might know something about it.” He sighed heavily. “This situation is dangerous, Dev. We need more facts.”
“I agree. And Nicole shouldn’t go back there,” Rachel said. “Not after that bitch hurt her.”
“We can’t hide from danger,” Devlin said. What he meant was I couldn’t hide from danger. They ran at it like it was a ride at Disneyworld. And how nice of him to put me in the line of fire.
“I believe it’s my decision,” I said through clenched teeth.
He watched me. Obviously waiting for me to retract my statement. Not going to happen.
“Did you want to sit this one out?” he asked finally.
I glared at him, knowing he was really asking: Did I want to give up? Also not going to happen.
A brief thought pushed its way inside my head. Earlier, I’d been thinking of the ways in which I could have avoided being caught up in the horrific events at Tribec Insurance if I had only listened to the alarm bells going off in my head and left. And now, I was being given an opportunity to step back from a situation that had dredged up painful memories and I refused to take it. I had to wonder if it was pure stubbornness or idiocy that stopped me from taking the offered out. Could be a little of both.
“No, but I still have the choice,” I said finally.
If I did step back now, I would be giving up. Besides, like Rachel said, Gavina had hurt me. If anything, I wasn’t going to let that bitch get away with it. If that meant putting myself in danger, so be it. I was used to it anyway.
He dipped his head in agreement. “Gerald believes we have the Ark. That’s a problem.” He moved away from me and went over to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup. “Rachel, did you ever hear back from Alek’s source about the Ark’s purpose?”
“Alek said he would try talking to Petronela again after the funeral,” she paused. “I’m worried about him, Dev.”
Vincent—a former employee of Tribec Insurance and Alek’s distant cousin—was burying his mother today. I had offered to go with Alek to the funeral, but he said he had to take care of something after and would see me later. It was a good thing. Petronela hated me.
“He’ll handle it,” Devlin said sounding unsure. “We need to give him time.”
“Time for what?” I asked.
“It’s not important.”
He was lying, but I couldn’t figure out why. I looked at Rachel and she looked away. Why were they keeping secrets from me?
“I need a ride back to my apartment,” I said finally, not wanting to start in on it now. Because if we did, I would end up being late for dinner at Marta’s, and I couldn’t disappoint them. Not after what they’d been through.
Devlin studied me for a moment. “We have a lot of work to do.”
“And I told you yesterday I was going to see Marta and the kids this afternoon. I’ll be back first thing Monday morning.”
His face softened. Devlin had taken on the responsibility to care for Marta and the kids financially. He’d been sending her money for the past few weeks. Marta hated it. Not the kind gesture, but the fact that she needed handouts. She had way too much pride to accept it. I’d like to say I didn’t suffer under that way of thinking, but honestly, I too would have had a problem with just taking money without earning it.
He nodded and looked at Jonah. Without a word, Jonah pulled his keys out of his pocket and started toward the door. I guessed that was my cue to follow. I said bye to Rachel and followed Jonah out.