Page 138 of Coerced

“If your information is good, I’ll owe you. I don’t like being in debt to anyone.”

And I know what it’s like to sacrifice yourself to save your mother.

He narrowed his eyes at me, then moved closer.

“Swear to get my family to safety,” he spoke fast and low now, “and I’ll tell you everything I can.”

I’d already guessed how Hubler keeps his wife leashed. Having it proven didn’t make it any less sickening. I mean, who uses kids as weapons? Who turns kids into victims?

Oh, yeah. Sick psychos like Reginald Hubler.

“You trust me to keep my word?” I asked him.

“If you don’t, in twenty-five years, I’ll hunt you down and gut you.”

I half-smiled. He could try.

“I swear it,” I vowed.

He held my eyes for a second, then nodded shortly.

“City of the Future. Somewhere in northern Pennsylvania. Any nephilim he kidnaps for blood goes there first. I’ve never been there, but the property once belonged to my mother’s family. Her father was an architect. I think he built it or something.”

“Does he knowyouknow about City of the Future?”

“Maybe. When he gets to the bottom of a bottle of whiskey, he can’t keep his mouth shut. I don’t know what he remembers afterward.”

“He might learn that you helped us.” I frowned. “Be easy enough for him to figure out with this visit on record.”

“If you take all his livestock and free my family, he’ll have bigger concerns.”

“Besides blood,” I played another hunch, “what else does he use nephs for?”

And a story poured outta Argaud that I could hardly believe.

Seemed Hubler and three of his pals formed a little club and called themselves the Alchemists. Each of them had taken a code name to keep their true identities a secret, then built empires in one illegal trade after another.

When I asked him about the other three men, he said they were just like Hubler: Rich, famous, and powerful men who longed for the secret of immortality and were convinced nephilim could help them find it.

“We’re not immortal.” I knew I was repeating Travis’ earlier words, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around why someone would think that.

“Like Gigi said, you can’t argue with crazy.” Argaud half-smiled. “Somehow, somewhere, they hooked up with a demon prince and he convinced them otherwise.”

“Is ityourdemon prince?” Gigi stepped next to me. “The same one who has a bounty out for the miracle worker?”

“Most likely.” He shrugged. “If a prince has a long-range plan, he doesn’t allow his competitors to interrupt it.”

“The Diabolical are like predators.” I looked down at her. “Once they stake out a territory - or in this case, a person - they’ll chase away any other evil creature that comes near it. A prince would be twice as ruthless.”

“So what does that have to do with harvesting blood?” Travis tilted his head to one side. “The Alchemists must be using it for more than cocktails. With as many nephs as have been taken in just the last month, they must have barrels of it!”

“They’ve been trying to develop a serum to at least age slower, like we do.” Argaud cut his eyes at Travis. “It’s science mixed with alchemy and dark magic. They conducted some experiments with a necromancer until the Council sanctioned his death about a year ago.”

‘Necromancer’ and ‘a year ago’ bounced around inside my head. Rome had said a necromancer turned Zoe into a zombie about a year ago…

More coincidences? I don’t think so.

“How did they use a necromancer?” Gigi huddled closer to me, like she’d done that day in the Repository, and I knew she was scared. She didn’t let it stop her, though. “Raising dead bodies is the opposite of what they want to achieve, isn’t it?”

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