Secondhand Souls (Grim Reaper 2)

“I thought they’d gotten it,” said Carrie Lang. “That I wouldn’t be able to retrieve it at all.”

“What? What?” Lily said.

To everyone in the room except her and the Emperor, the revolver was glowing a dull red. Charlie leaned over and whispered to Lily. “It was Nick Cavuto’s soul vessel.”

“Oh!” Lily said. “You said he shot the Morrigan with a revolver. Shouldn’t it be in evidence or something.”

“This is a different one,” said Rivera. He handed the big revolver to Carrie Lang, who tucked it into her oversized purse.

“He had two of those?” Lily looked to Minty Fresh, who shrugged. He had two enormous Desert Eagle .50-­caliber automatics he’d carried during the last debacle. “Okay, so it’s not a penis-­size thing,” Lily said.

“Some evil shit out there, Darque,” Minty said. A smile.

“Wait,” Charlie said.

“Back up. How do you know that this Buick is this ‘elegant Death’ the banshee warned about?”

“Teeth marks,” said Minty Fresh.

“Huh?” said Charlie, and a chorus of various “huhs” and “whats” sounded around the room.

“You have any idea how much steel they put in the bumper of a 1950 Buick?” Minty asked. “In the bodywork?”

“A lot?” ventured Charlie, not seeing where this was going.

“A shitload. That car is as heavy as any two modern cars, and in the back of it, through the bumper and up onto the rear of the body, were two bite marks. Clear as day.” He held his hands apart as if he were holding an imaginary volley ball. “About this big. Through the metal. Through the motherfucking bumper. Y’all ever seen a creature could do something like that?”

There was a pause. Thinking.

“The goggies,” said Charlie.

“Hellhounds,” Lily said at the same time.

“That’s right, motherfuckin’ hellhounds. Whatever was driving that Buick got hellhounds on his tail.”

Charlie said, “And they disappeared, about the time—­”

“That the Morrigan showed up,” said Rivera.

Lily said, “And the hellhounds showed up in the first place to protect Sophie from the Morrigan.”

“Where is Sophie?” asked Minty Fresh. “She’s kicked their ass before, she can—­”

“She’s seven,” said Charlie.

“She’s the Luminatus,” said Lily. “She’s the Big Death.”

“Maybe,” said Charlie. “Maybe not. Does anyone have pushpins in their car? I just think I could get a better handle on all of this if we had pushpins and some red string.”

“Maybe not?” said Minty Fresh. “Did you say maybe not?”

Charlie rubbed his forehead as if he was thinking, when he was actually just stalling for time. Mike Sullivan had less forehead and more hair than Charlie was used to, so he found that the forehead rubbing wasn’t really working.

“Maybe not?” Minty Fresh repeated. “Sophie is maybe motherfucking not the Luminatus—­the only thing that kept the whole damn city from being destroyed last time? Maybe not?”

“We think she might not have her powers anymore,” Charlie said.

“You think maybe you ought to find out?” asked Minty Fresh.