Page 58 of Hounded: Ashes to Ashes

I swallowed the pill dry.

People were lined up outside the club entrance, and I ducked my head as I hurried past. Music vibrated the pavement and seemed to glide through the air on soundwaves set with hooks or anchors. Like mermaids luring people in. Or were they sirens? As a mythical creature myself, I really should have known that. I still didn’t know much.

A hundred years of history had been funneled into my neural pathways, yet I couldn’t answer basic questions like where I came from or where I was going. I was definitely going somewhere. Parts of me were. Powers were fading, tear ducts drying up, and no amount of remembering told me why or how to fix it.

I could help Loren, Whitney, Gunnar, and Dottie. I could fight for myself instead of helplessly relying on others. I used to be able to. I needed to now. Then people like Evander wouldn’t make shitty comments about me being out in the city alone. Without my guard dog.

With two blocks to go to the car, I picked up the pace. At this rate, I would make it back to the trailer park about the time the X kicked in, then I could ride it out till morning. It would make for a sleepy day tomorrow, but those were some of my favorites. Sprawled on the couch, putting braids in Loren’s hair or kissinghis fingers. I might even convince him to fuck me again. Sex ranked low on his priority list, but he indulged my nympho ass. And I made sure he enjoyed it, sometimes despite himself.

I rounded the corner at the next intersection, ignoring the puzzled glances from passersby. My fingers swished across the zipper top of the plastic baggie in my pocket while I thought about how one pill wasn’t quite enough, four pills was too much, but two might be just right.

I was about to thumb the bag open when a figure stepped from the shadows in front of me.

Setting my heels, I skidded to a stop. “Whoa, dude,” I blurted.

The brown-skinned man’s trench coat swished around his legs as he stilled. The chill in his pale blue eyes would have repelled me, but I knew this stranger.

Evander offered a slight smile. “Indigo.”

“Stuck with the nickname, am I?” I tried to smile in return, but I was pretty sure it looked more like a grimace.

The angel shrugged. “Looks like it.” He glanced up and down the sidewalk as if ensuring I was alone before asking, “What’re you up to?”

“Out for a stroll,” I replied.

“Really?” Evander raised his pierced brow.

“Really.”

Inside the pocket of my pajama bottoms, I pressed the pair of Green Apples hard against my thigh. As if the angel could see them or sense them. As if he cared.

My eyes darted past him, and I wondered if I could see the Firebird from here. Not quite. My feet were itching to walk on by, but with everything that had happened in the past few days—Whitney and the hounds talking strategy, and Sully snooping on some strange witch—the least I could do was find out if my angelic connection was an untapped resource.

Before I could decide what to ask him and how to do it quickly, Evander spoke again.

“Did you enjoy my paints? Make something pretty?”

The angle of his eyes was cutting and cold. If Hell was fire, maybe Heaven was ice? I’d always seen it depicted as bright and white, but I never equated that to chilly. But that was definitely the vibe I got from Evander. Frosty bitch. And, when it came to his stolen spray paint, maybe salty, too.

“Uh, yeah.” I stepped back. “It’s harder than it looks.”

Evander nodded. “Lots of things are hard when you’re high. Decision making for one.”

How did he know? Was he fucking Santa Claus? Seeing me sleeping and awake and all that shit? Hadhisbeen the eyes I’d worried about in the alley shadows?

“I thought I told you to lay low,” the angel concluded.

I didn’t remember fearing Evander or even disliking him, but he scared me now. I backpedaled a step further, then angled my body to swing around him.

“And I toldyouto leave me alone.” I launched into motion, making a swift break. Both hands were stuffed in my pockets, car keys in one and the pills in the other.

“Indy.” Evander seized my shoulder with an unnaturally strong grip. With half a foot of height on me and seventy-plus pounds of bulk, he didn’t need to use his angel strength to subdue me. He could have picked me up and thrown me over his shoulder, then carried me wherever he wanted to go. Bird bones didn’t weigh much.

I glared at where his fingers sunk into my skin as he continued, “I have word from Heaven. It’s time for you to go home.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” I snapped.

With a jerking twist, I pulled free of him. The sudden move sent me stumbling off the curb, where my slippers landed in astream of water headed for the drain. Tepid and immediately soaking through.

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