Chapter Eighteen
“Good God! Has the world gone mad?” Eva asked as they made their way back to San Bernardino.
The city was coated in darkness, there were no stars in the sky to navigate by. Only the flames that rose up at various points in the night to illuminate the skyline. The scent of smoke and fear were even more pronounced. They both had the bandanas she’d picked up at the Harley dealership wrapped around their faces to cover their noses and mouths. Light winds still blew ash all around and lined the roadway two inches thick in some spots like gray snow. The power grids had gone out. Only emergency lights seemed to be on here and there. It was after midnight and they’d spent most of it fighting their way back. It was easier returning to town than it was leaving. Most had already gotten out of the area, but there were still some trying to leave. They’d passed military buses evacuating civilians. It was still chaotic. Eva had read a report on her phone they were expecting aftershocks and more eruptions of magma. She hoped what they’d done helped.
The police and emergency personal had their hands full. The governor had declared martial law hours ago and the National Guard was helping to evacuate people. LA had a mandatory evacuation, as did parts of San Bernardino and most of Southern Cali, other parts it was voluntary but that could change. Of course, some refused to leave but were being told to stay off the streets. There was a mandatory curfew. They’d evaded armed soldiers, some were apprehending looters. The lowlifes were taking full advantage. “Where are we heading?”
“The last text I got from Tony said Samuel managed to get some people here and they’re concentrated on the outskirts of LA. The city is pretty much one giant fire pit, but they have the area under control. The soulless seemed to be congregated more around the area where there are some survivors. I thought we could lend Tony some support.”
“Okay, do you think we stopped them? Stopped whatever else the soulless planned from happening?” She could feel him sigh since she had her arms wrapped around him.
“I’m not sure. My gut tells me to brace for it. There’s more. I think we need to go pay a visit to your friend Michael, see what he knows.”
“You can’t believe he had anything to do with this?’
“I don’t not believe it. Look, at the very least he can point us in the direction of the ones who did. Because what was done was done by two people. The timing of the blasts were too perfect. They had to have been simultaneously linked in such a way it had to have been done by two people. I know the soulless can move fast, but not that fast.
“All right.”
They parked the bike in a loading zone around the side of a store whose roof had caved in. Eva doubted they’d be getting a ticket. “I hope the bike will still be here when we get back,” she spoke her thought aloud as she glanced around. The street wasn’t exactly deserted but she doubted the moving shadows she spied in the distance were just taking an innocent stroll among the damaged buildings at almost two in the morning.
“Yeah, me too.” Devlin checked his phone and took her hand. “Come on. This way.
Tony sent them directions only ten minutes ago. She wasn’t sure if he and the other hunters would still be at the location. They stopped in front of an apartment building.
“I think this is it,” he said.
She frowned. “You sure?”
He glanced at his phone again. “Yeah.” Devlin easily pulled the door open, the lock sticking out of the wood showed it had been broken. The lobby area was dark, only wide enough for two people to reach out and touch the walls, but there was a sharp corner. When they rounded it, there was a hallway twice the length of the lobby. A single door stood straight ahead but two elevator doors next to each other were to their left. Devlin pushed the button. Nothing happened. He shrugged. “Had to try. Could have had a backup generator.”
She glanced at the door. “Let’s try this one.” She tugged on the knob, the door opened to reveal a staircase and they began to climb. It would have been pitch black but the emergency lights were on over the door, giving the stairwell an eerie reddish glow. “Did Tony happen to say what floor they were on?”
“No, he’d just sent the coordinates.”
“Well, it’s eight floors, so we can search floor by floor, see if we sense anything but it’s going to take us some time.”
“True. They may be in any of the apartments. I’d say we should check the lower level but I’m not sure there is one. So floor by floor it is.”
They stopped at the first exit door, an emergency light was on above this door also and the number 2 was painted on the door. They stepped through and walked slowly down the darkened hallway, she turned on the LED light she carried. While her night vision was better than most they needed to stay alert to get a sense of either the hunters or soulless in the building. They stopped a couple of times and put their ears to an apartment or touched the door but kept going. The apartments felt empty. They made it to the end of the hall, there was an exit sign over another door. They stopped in front of it and Devlin turned to her. “Anything?”
She shook her head. “This could take a long, long time. Try texting him, see if it goes through.”
He took out his phone and sent. “Am in building, where are you?”
“Roof.”
Devlin pushed the exit door open it led to another set of stairs. When he raced up them, Eva ran after him. She wasn’t quite as fast as he was, but she only lagged a set of stairs behind him. When she finally reached the roof, Devlin was already engaged in battle next to Tony and a couple of other hunters. Two hunters were on the ground, she couldn’t tell if they were breathing or not. She rushed toward them confident now that Devlin was there, he would help Tony and the remaining hunters take care of the two soulless.
Eva was bending over the closest hunter checking for a pulse when a head rolled in her direction before turning to dust. The odds suddenly must have not been to the liking of the remaining soulless because he turned and leapt off the side of the building.
She was shocked when Devlin went running after him and jumped over the side behind him. “Devlin,” she cried, running to the edge and looking down. Desperate to make sure he was all right. She spotted him running full out after the soulless but the man was moving way too fast for Devlin to catch. He must have realized that because he stopped a couple of blocks away. Taking in a breath, she hadn’t known she held, she turned back to the fallen hunters. One had no pulse and the other one was losing blood from a knife wound and needed medical attention.
Tony knelt down beside the wounded man but stared up at her. “We need to get Paulie to a hospital, but the way the city’s all messed up I doubt we’d get to one any time soon.”
“Why don’t we try Doc Plumer?” the tall dark skinned hunter asked. “She’s not that far from here. Maybe we can get him to her.”
“That’s a good idea,” Tony replied. “And maybe his best chance.”
“Who’s Doc Plumer?” Eva asked.
Tony answered, “She’s not exactly a hunter, her father was one, so she knows about us. Sometimes she helps out the hunters when it’s best we don’t go to a hospital to answer questions about knife or sword wounds. She stayed behind to help if we needed her.”
“I see.”
The hunter who had spoken pointed to one of the other hunters who was cradling his arm. Blood ran down his bicep. “Lou’s going to need stitches too.”
“But we also need to take care of Darren. We can’t leave him here,” Tony added.
“Let’s get Paulie down first, then we can come back for Darren,” the tall hunter suggested.
“I can help,” the guy holding his arm offered.
Tony shook his head. “No. You’re hurt too. We’ll come back. Elles, help me pick Paulie up.” Tony lifted the wounded man under the shoulders, the other hunter picked up his legs.
Eva spotted the man’s sword on the ground and grabbed it. She followed them to the exit but jumped in front of them to open the door. They started down the stairs, moving slowly in an effort not to jar their comrade any more than necessary. Eva followed behind them. They hadn’t made it very far when they all heard footsteps bounding up the stairs. Eva moved in front of them to protect them but as soon as she did, she also realized she knew who was coming toward them. Devlin. She glanced down the stairwell and saw his multicolored blond hair.
As soon as he saw them, he stopped. “Shit. Darren?” he asked.
Tony shook his head.
“Is he still on the roof?” Devlin asked.
“Yeah, we were going to get Paulie in the car, then come back for him.”
“I’ll get him and catch up to you.”
“I’m parked around back.”
Devlin raced back up the stairs. By the time they were half way down, Devlin had caught up to them with the fallen man. They followed the other men carrying Paulie all the way down the stairs. These set of stairs led them to the back of the building where there was a parking lot. They put the men in the SUV Tony had there, then he turned to Devlin.
“I’ll take care of this, man. It’s crazy town right now and there are other soulless running loose out there and even with Samuel’s people, we need all the hunters out and about until sunrise we can get.”
“You sure?” Devlin asked.
“Yes. Nothing you can do. I’ll let you know what happens as soon as the doc has a look at him.”
“Okay. I’ll be at Eva’s later.”
They fist bumped then did that funny shoulder bump men sometimes do instead of a hug.
Eva and Devlin watched as they drove off. Then she glanced at him. “Now what?”
“Now we try to find that fucker.”
“Any ideas where to look?”
He glanced in the direction of the blazing skyline. “I’m thinking to follow the flames.”
“At some point, I have to try to check on the new store location, but since it was in downtown Los Angeles, something tells me I’ll be looking for another location.” All of LA had been evacuated by now. The vast majority of the city was either still burning or ash.
They followed the worst of the fires, staying around the edges but never found the soulless they were hunting. They did cross paths with a few other hunters and managed to help some of the humans who were being preyed upon by other humans or just trying to escape the flames. Sometimes there wasn’t much difference between the soulless angels and humans without souls. Both seemed bent on destruction tonight. But as bad as it was, it could have been worse. A lot of people were able to get out in time.
Finally, when dawn decided to put in an appearance, Devlin turned the bike toward home. It hadn’t been stolen after all. Eva was so tired she’d almost fallen off the bike. She woke up suddenly when she felt her butt was no longer being bounced around but she wasn’t falling. She felt strong arms around her.
“It’s okay. I got ya,” a deep voice murmured.
Eva tightened her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. Not even realizing when he’d taken both of their helmets off.
“Keys?” Devlin asked.
She sighed. “Put me down.”
“I don’t think so. Are they in your purse? You can reach ‘em.”
She reached into her satchel dangling down the side of her body and found her keys. She twisted and inserted them into the lock but opened her eyes wide when she realized it wasn’t locked.
Her tenseness must have given Devlin pause. “What’s wrong?”
“I locked this door, it’s not locked. Put me down.” Suddenly, she was wide awake.
“You sure?”
“Yes, someone’s been here.”
He did, they both drew their swords. Devlin pushed the door open and entered. The alarm began beeping. She reached over beside the door and put in the code to shut it off.
“I don’t think anyone’s here now but someone was here,” she stated.
Devlin stiffened beside her. “Soulless. Fuck that bastard Michael.”
“Look.” She pointed down at the floor. They could see the soot-covered boot prints left behind. “No soulless did that. That’s a human.”
They searched her place room by room, other than the busted window and the dust where someone had entered and tracked through the house, they didn’t find anything out of place that the earthquake hadn’t done.
Lastly, Eva checked her hidden panel, it didn’t appear to have been tampered with, but something still seemed just a tad off. The last time it had been opened was when she’d opened it to show Devlin and the others. That meant it wasn’t Michael who’d come back. If he had, he’d have made his way straight for the underground library and he wouldn’t have closed the door. No, the soulless who’d been here wasn’t Michael. Yet, she had a sense of peacefulness, and for some reason she thought of Michael. But that’s not all she was sensing, another hunger was stronger. “Not sure it was Michael, someone else has been here though in the house.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. The essence I’m sensing is a lot darker. And I don’t think he was alone. I’m getting a lot of hate vibes. Too human an emotion to be a soulless, even one just fed. He’d be more satisfied. So the human was here with a soulless one,” Devlin stated.
“Well, no one’s here now.”
“I’m not liking the idea anyone was here at all. This means you’re no longer safe here.”
She wanted to argue with him but he might be right. But who came searching for her? Was it for the same reason Michael wanted her, because they thought she knew where the lost Chronicles were?
“You can’t stay here.” He held up his hand to stop her protest. “The underground library is safe for now. They didn’t find it, not sure they even know it’s there. But someone came looking for you. I can put some of my people to watch the place but right now with the disaster California is in, we’re spread thin. So I’m going to take you back to one of the hunter houses, Tony told me is in a safe zone. At least Michael doesn’t know where that is, so he can’t tell anyone else.”
“I don’t believe he told anyone where I live. This wasn’t Michael’s doing,” she reiterated.
“Not saying it was, but he might have been followed here. The soulless only recently started banding together, still doesn’t mean they’re all on the same page. Thalya taught us that. It’s not all black and white with them, there are shades of gray too.”
“Wow! Exactly what I’ve been trying to get through to you.” Glad that finally he’d begun thinking that way.
He wrapped his arms around her and drew her to his chest. “Maybe. So maybe one of Michael’s buddies is trying to undermine him. I’m not taking any chances with you.” He lowered his lips to hers and she relaxed into his embrace. Letting their tongues play for a moment. He was the one to end it. “Pack a bag and then we’ll go,” he said, releasing her as he stepped back.
“Since I can’t argue with your logic because I mostly agree, I’ll go with you. But this is temporary. I have a proposal we can talk about later. Tomorrow night I want to try to find Michael. He’d either go back to the coffee shop he knows I like to go to or he’d come here looking for me.”
“Maybe, but the coffee shop might be destroyed.”
“Still worth a shot. He might be able to let us know who’s been in my house. Besides, he also needs to know one of his own might be acting against him.”