Page 145 of Veil of Death and Shadow

My jaw clenched as I met his stare, the gravity of his words sinking in my chest like an anchor. “And what would you have me do? Just stay here and continue playing Operation Joy with you? Pretend that my best friend isn’t in trouble?”

“Yes,” he begged. “At least for tonight. I’ll convince Thorne to leave in the morning, and we can figure out a plan tomorrow. When we’re thinking straight. For fuck’s sake, Agony, you’ve already broken into a demon club and carjacked a vehicle from a vampire—how much more luck do you think you have before you wind up dead?”

“Like I said, I’m out of leads and I’m not going to just sit on my thumbs hoping the problem mysteriously goes away by morning.” I sidestepped him, then took the stairs two at a time. “Besides,” I called back without turning around, “some of the people in the compounds are reasonable. If I show them the photo and explain Rex’s ridiculous ritual scavenger hunt, they might know how to help.”

“And tell me, Agony, what the hell’s going to stop them from killing you the moment you step foot on their territory?” Kieran asked, hot on my heels.

When we reached the door, I locked up.

“I don’t know.” I gestured behind me, where Thorne was still brooding in the front seat. “I’ll offer them Claude’s car as a bargaining chip or something. I’ll figure it out when the time comes, okay?”

Kieran was still arguing with me when I got back into the car, buckled myself in, and started it up.

“She’s my family, Kieran.” I unbuckled myself and spun around, staring at him until the last of his protests fizzled into silence. “Okay? I don’t care how ridiculous you think this plan is. It’s happening. You can either continue haunting me or leave, but there is no more finding my joy or whatever it is you think your job with me is exactly, until Sora is safe and back home. Period.”

Kieran’s jaw muscles ticked, his eyes broadcasting his seething anger, but he didn’t say anything more.

I felt Thorne’s stare drilling into the side of my face when I turned back around and buckled up again, but I kept my focus on the road. Tossing the old map I’d grabbed into the back, I caught Kieran’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “If you want to help, we’re headed towards West Seattle. From what I’ve heard, that’s where Wrath’s homebase is.”

It wasn’t the greatest truce, but it was all I could offer him right now—some small semblance of control. For a moment, I didn’t think he’d take the olive branch, but then he unfolded and dropped his gaze from me to the map.

As the crow flies, West Seattle was only a couple of miles from our apartment, but it always took a decent, winding trip to make it there on land.

The drive was bumpy and stilted at first, but I slowly grew more confident behind the wheel. By the time I pulled onto I-5, with the windows down and the summer breeze rushing through my hair, I couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling of it. We drove by parts of the city I rarely got to visit anymore. And it had been solong since I’d been in a car that I’d forgotten how much fun it could be, how alive I felt when the wind cut against my skin.

Kieran spent most of the drive quietly stewing, but he broke his silence every now and then to whisper instructions and driving tips whenever his worry outweighed his rage.

Thorne, meanwhile, was significantly less tense than he’d been all night. The wind whipped through his hair, making him seem more human and alive than he was. At one point, I could’ve sworn that I’d even caught what might have passed as a crooked smile on his lips from the corner of my eye, but it disappeared as soon as I turned to get a better look.

After an hour of driving in circles and stopping two drunk strangers to point me to the right neighborhood, we were finally there.

I parked Claude’s SUV a block away in a random driveway, making sure to lock up and pocket the key fob. Kieran and Thorne followed as we made our way towards what had been a community college many years ago. The once-welcoming campus was now almost completely fenced in, the tops of the fence accessorized with curling barbed wire. Signs warning against trespassing were plastered every few feet.

I’d never actually been inside one of the compounds before, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about gaining entrance. But of all the Sons to pick a fight with, Wrath was certainly one of the worst. For a fraction of a second, I considered my options. Did I just climb the fence and hope that, once I was on the other side and showed enough people the picture, they might point me towards Sora?

Of course, that option also required that if Sora was, in fact, really here, she’d come of her own volition. I didn’t actually think that she was working with the compound or working with their fighting circuit. I’d been serious when I told Claude that he’d been given bad information. Apart from the fact that Sorahad no way of getting to this part of the city with any semblance of regularity, the tenets Wrath stood for were as divorced from her personality and values as it was possible to get.

But itwaspossible that she was here, that Claud really did see her today, that she’d gotten pulled into a dangerous situation while trying to collect everything she needed for Rex’s necromancy ritual. If she legitimately thought it was possible to communicate with Rina, there were very few limits to the risks she might take.

Because there were also very few limits to the risks that I would take for Sora.

And if things turned south, which it sounded like they had, it was also possible that any connections she’d made along the way might turn on her.

“What’s the plan here, Agony?” Kieran’s gaze traced the fence along the road, stopping at a small post set up for security watch. Wrath had made enough enemies through the years, that I was sort of shocked to find the area otherwise undefended. “You don’t really think she’s here, do you?”

“I don’t think Claude is the type of guy to tell a bald-faced lie,” I said. “And we don’t have any other leads.”

The area was unusually silent, the kind of silence that didn’t feel natural. It was still the way that a vampire was still, the illusion of safety just before the bubble popped . . . along with the nearest vein.

When I turned back towards Kieran, his eyes were round with fear. He pulled me towards him, and rolled us down to the ground, just as an arrow shot through Thorne, exactly where I’d been standing just a second ago. Thorne looked just as surprised as I felt, his face twisting with confusion briefly, before settling back on its factory setting: anger.

Okay, apparently Wrath was well guarded, they were just also good at discretion—and clearly went with a shoot first, ask questions later approach to guarding their perimeter.

Kieran tugged me back to my feet with surprising strength for a dead guy who only had limited corporality. “Run!”

For the second time tonight, and a new record, I didn’t challenge Kieran’s order. Instead, I took off at a blistering pace, my boots pounding a steady drum that kept pace with my heart rate, as I wound through the neighborhood, not stopping until an angry stitch shot through my chest and my lungs screamed for a break.

Kieran, not appearing winded at all, threaded his hand through mine, then pulled me behind what looked like a mostly vacant apartment building.

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