Page 55 of Mending Mayhem

He nodded. “Shade is outside, watching the equipment. We’re ready when you are.”

I picked up my sword and a bundle of knives wrapped in thick fabric. “Are you done, Ash? Let’s head out.”

“Yep.” She slung her bag over her shoulder, and we filed outside.

Thick gray clouds blanketed the sky, the air so chilly and damp that I shivered. Mayhem wrapped his arm around me, and though I appreciated his warmth, I stepped out of his embrace. No way in hell was I going to lose myself like Ash had. I could imagine the devastation she would feel when the demons returned to the Underworld, and I refused to expose myself to that kind of turmoil.

At the van, I opened the sliding side door and stowed my weapons in the hidey hole. The guys had removed half of the way back seat to set up a makeshift base of operations. They’d zip-tied a folding table against the wall, and a plastic case with who-knew-what kind of equipment occupied the floor beneath it.

A monitor, also zip-tied into place, sat atop the table, and the power cable running behind it plugged into a battery pack the size of…well, I suppose it was a car battery.

I opened the driver’s side door and cringed at the shattered windshield as I climbed into the seat. “At least the imp had the courtesy to only smash the passenger side.”

Mayhem took shotgun and ran his finger over the inside of the glass. “The damage is confined to the outer layer.”

“Thank the goddess for that.” I started the engine.

“If Hecate is holding the veil together,” he said, “I doubt she had anything to do with the imp.”

“Silly demon. It’s just an expression. Load up, guys.”

My team climbed into the van, and I pulled onto the road. “It’s about two hours to the boot store, and then another two after that. What’s the rest of the plan?” I glanced at Miles in the rearview mirror, and he straightened.

“I was able to hack into their security system last night. Everyone will have earpieces so we can communicate.” He held up a tiny piece of silicone. “Once the amulet is in your sight, I can loop the security feed so everything looks normal. They’ll return it to the vault after you see it, so it’ll be up to you and Mayhem to swipe it before they do.”

“I will do my best to only render them unconscious,” Mayhem said. “Any casualties will be unintentional.”

I gave him the side eye. “There won’t be any casualties. Why do you think Ash mixed so many binding spells? We freeze them, take the amulet, and get the hell out of New York before anyone realizes what happened.”

He raised his brows. “You’ve thought this through.”

“This is the most planning I think I’ve done in my entire life.” I laughed. “Weird, isn’t it?”

“Indeed.” He studied my profile, a grin lifting one corner of his mouth. “I can’t decide if I like this side of you or not.”

“Neither can I.”

We rode in silence once we got the plan hashed out, which I normally would have appreciated. With only the radio and the low drone of the wheels on the pavement to occupy my thoughts, my mind decided it was time to mull over my Mayhem predicament. Again.

The problem was…every thought I had about the situation circled back to the inevitable ending. His time in this realm was finite. Sure, we could try to figure out some way to resummon the demons without damaging the veil, but I could never ask him to give up his home and everything he knew just to live a normal, nearly mundane life in our quiet little town.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I could endure normal if we made it through this ordeal. Before our parents summoned the first demon, we didn’t get much action in Salem. Not compared to the past few months, anyway. I’d always jumped at the chance to send a beastie back where it belonged, but sometimes we’d go days without any action.

And Mayhem… He was royalty in the Underworld. Hell, he was on a first-name basis with Lucifer and Hecate. No way would he want to deal with a humdrum life in the earthly realm.

And I sure as hell wasn’t moving to his side of the veil.

“Your destination is on the right,” my phone declared, pulling me from my thought spiral. Hallelujah.

I parked in the lot and killed the engine. “Time to cowboy up.”

Mayhem smiled slowly, his newly learned drawl stretching out his words. “Alright, alright, alright.”

“Don’t say that, and don’t say ‘yee-haw.’” Miles pinched the bridge of his nose. “That is the equivalent of a witch wearing a pointy hat in Salem.”

“Noted,” Mayhem said, his voice returning to normal.

My team waited in the van while Mayhem and I went inside. A bell chimed above the door, signaling our arrival, and the shopkeeper, a squat man with salt-and-pepper hair, rosy cheeks, and a nametag that read George, scurried out from behind the counter. “Hello. How can I help you?”

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