Page 4 of Hounded: Ashes to Ashes

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“I knowyou, Indigo,” Evander smiled. “I’ve known you a long time. Loren, too, though I think he’d rather I didn’t.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

He arched his pierced brow. “Hmm?”

“Why doesn’t he like you?”

I got the impression Loren didn’t like many people, but he wasn’t often outspoken about it. His warning about Evander and thinly veiled distaste for Chaz lumped them into a select group. Considering Chaz was my dealer made me all the more suspicious of Evander.

Evander shrugged. “It’s the natural order of things. Demons and angels rarely see eye to eye.”

“Angels?” I echoed.

I should have questioned the demons part, too, at least tried to maintain my cover of ignorance about the supernatural world, but Evander’s sympathetic smile informed me I wasn’t keeping anything from him.

“Whereishe, though?” the other man pressed. “You’ve been alone a lot lately. I’ve noticed.”

Paranoid as I was about red eyes peering out at me from the shadows, Evander’s piercing blue ones suddenly seemed equally ominous. I swayed back from him, doubting he would act onany malicious intent in front of the lingering members of his audience, but not too sure to let my guard down.

“You’ve been watching me?” I hissed.

In the face of my accusation, Evander didn’t even blink. “Somebody needs to. The witch tries, but you’re a bit too crafty for her.”

Sully did try. She offered to take me to meetings and around town, but she had work and no experience fending off hellhounds or demons or whatever other foul creatures might come after me. Playing bodyguard would only endanger her, and I didn’t want to put anyone in that position again.

Evander’s bold statement made my nose wrinkle, but I couldn’t protest before he asked, “Does she know you’re using again?”

At that, I bolted off the bench and snorted a hot breath. “Look, creep, I don’t know what you’re getting at?—”

“Relax. I’m not here to judge.” Evander raised his paint-spotted hands. “But I am able to intervene if necessary. And, if something happened to Loren?—”

“He’s fine,” I snapped, on my feet and bowed up while Evander sat with one leg kicked over the other and a bemused expression on his face. “I don’t need him following me everywhere,” I continued. “You, either. Back the hell off.”

Slowly, Evander rose with both hands lifted like I was a wild thing he was apt to tame.

“You’re in danger, Indy.” His low voice failed to soothe the anxious energy bubbling inside me. “You know that, don’t you?” he pressed. “Loren told you?”

I shook my head hard. “I said back off.”

Spinning around, I found those who had gathered for Evander’s sidewalk show staring. I clenched my fists and staggered back, nearly catching my heel on a crack in the pavement. I puffed another breath and turned away from themwhile fishing into my hip pocket for the baggie of pills I needed to last me the rest of the week.

I rushed out of Central Park with my heart pounding and my fingers fumbling with the bag’s zip top. Finally, I got it open and dumped the Ecstasy into my hand where I took a quick count. Four pills designated Wednesday through Saturday… or one desperate Tuesday night.

Scowling, I closed my fist around them.

Damn things weren’t doing shit anymore. I was too aware, too alert, and too immersed in the present. Demons were hunting me, angels were stalking me, and the one person I wanted around was profoundly absent.

Fuck this place.

Fuck sobriety.

Fuck me.

Indy

Shufflinginto Sully’s third-floor apartment, I expected to find the place dark and quiet. Instead, Sully sat on a pile of floor pillows with books lying open on all sides and candles casting a golden glow across the space. I finished the last bite of hot dog I’d grabbed from a street vendor and wadded the foil wrapper in my palm as Sully looked up. A pair of tortoiseshell spectacles perched on the tip of her nose.

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