Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

Patrolling was what Wardens did to keep the demon populace in check, but that wasn’t the kind I was talking about. We were looking for a certain demon and a creature we had no idea what to call other than the Harbinger.

He paused. “I was thinking we could just chill for the night. Take it easy.”

Take it easy with Zayne? A huge part of me jumped at that, but the fact I wanted to do it as badly as I did was a clear indication it should be the last thing I did.

“I think we should look for the Harbinger,” I said. “We need to find it.”

“We do, but is one night going to make a difference?”

“Knowing our luck? Yes.”

A quick grin appeared and then disappeared. “You sure you’re up for it? Yesterday...”

I tensed. “Yesterday was yesterday. I’m up for it. Are you?”

“Always,” he murmured. Then louder he said, “We’ll patrol tonight.”

“Good.”

He refocused on the screen. “Found something. It’s an article dated back in January in the Washington Post where Fisher talks about acquiring funding for a school for chronically ill children. I quote, ‘This school will become a place of joy and learning, where sickness does not define the individual and disease does not determine the future.’ And then he talks about how there will be medical staff on-site, along with counselors and a state-of-the-art rehab facility.”

“It can’t be real, right? That he’s building a school for sick kids? Like a demonic St. Jude’s?” Sickened, all I could do was stare at the words I couldn’t see clearly enough to read. “Using ill children as a cover? Man, that is like a whole new level of evilness.”

“Well, wait until you hear this.” Zayne sat back, crossing his arms. “He says the entire proposal and plan are in honor of his wife, who passed away after a long battle with cancer.”

“God. I’m not sure which part of that is worse.”

“They’re equally terrible.” He glanced at me. “It says he’s already acquired the land for this school, so it’s interesting that Gideon hasn’t found a record of it yet. Makes you wonder why that’s not easily findable public information.”

I took a drink of my Coke. “I can’t believe this is real. That he really is building a school. Like, why, because I sincerely doubt it’s for the betterment of anyone.”

“Agreed. Most messed-up part? People could use a school like this, and there will be no shortage of people willing to be involved.” That was a terrifying truth. “My imagination can come up with a million different terrible motives behind this, especially since he’s linked to Bael and the Harbinger.”

And all of them—Bael, Aym, the Harbinger—led back to Misha.

Which was why I needed to get out there and find Bael and this Harbinger. That was imperative. Not just because the Harbinger was hunting Wardens and demons, or because my father had warned us that the Harbinger was a sign of the end times, but also because it was personal.

Misha had said that the Harbinger had chosen him, and I needed to know why...why he’d been chosen, why he’d gone along with it all. I needed to know why he’d done what he had.

I needed to understand.

Looking down, I realized I was clenching my fists so tightly that my blunt nails were digging into my palms.

Tonight couldn’t come fast enough.

3

“Stay here, Trin. I’ll be right back.”

“What—” I turned to where Zayne had been standing, but it was too late.

The mofo had already disappeared into the throng of people out enjoying the balmy evening in Washington, DC, moving faster than my vision could track.

My mouth dropped open as I stared at the blur of unfamiliar faces. Had Zayne seriously just left me on the sidewalk while he went off after the Upper Level demon that I had sensed, like I was third-string or something?

Stunned, I blinked stupidly, as if Zayne would somehow reappear in front of me.

Yep.

He’d done exactly that.

“You have got to be freaking kidding me!” I exclaimed. A man on his cell phone frowned in my direction. Whatever he saw on my face caused him to not only take a healthy step away from me, but to then cross the street.

Probably a good thing, because I was armed and irritated enough to launch an iron dagger at some random person.

I couldn’t believe Zayne had just left me, especially when seeing an Upper Level demon was kind of important. They were the most dangerous demons to walk this Earth, cloaking themselves by appearing human so that they could move in circles that contained some of the most powerful, influential people in the world. With their ability to manipulate people, they used humans’ God-given free will against them. Upper Level demons were the most formidable adversaries in the never-ending battle to maintain the balance of good and evil in the world, but they’d been scarce since the creature known as the Harbinger had appeared on the scene, months before I’d arrived in the city.

Seeing or sensing an Upper Level demon was huge, but it was even a bigger deal than normal because of where we’d seen it. Zayne and I were patrolling the area of town where the demon Bael had been seen with Senator Fisher.

There was a chance that this demon might lead us to Bael, or that we could use it to find out what the Hell the senator truly planned to do with the school. And if this demon had nothing to do with the Harbinger, I’d still be able to work out some of my aggression. But instead of joining Zayne on the hunt, I was standing here like a leftover thought, and that was not cool.

Zayne obviously didn’t comprehend that being my bonded Protector wasn’t code for leaving me—his Trueborn—behind while he went off to track down demons. Granted, our bond was new, so I was going to give Zayne this one get-out-of-jail-free card, but still.

I was not a happy camper.

A horn blew in the street and someone shouted. I plopped down on a bench, letting out an aggravated sigh as I looked around. Because my vision was so damn blurry, it was hard for me to tell if the people walking past me were ordinary humans or the dead.

Ghosts and spirits—and there was a world of difference between the two—often not only sensed me but knew that I could see and communicate with them before I even realized they were there. Since no one was bothering me, I was guessing those around me belonged to Team Alive and Breathing.

I kicked one leg over the other and jabbed an elbow into my knee and jammed my chin into my palm. Over the scent of exhaust, I smelled cooking meat, making me hungry even though Zayne and I had grabbed a bite to eat only an hour or so ago. The ever-present warm tingle at the nape of my neck told me there were demons nearby, probably low level ones like Fiends, so I wasn’t going to do anything about them as long as they weren’t actively harming humans.

I wasn’t familiar with the city, and with my poor vision, roaming around wouldn’t be the brightest of ideas, but sitting here like a dog given an order kicked my irritation into overdrive.

The chance of me throat punching Zayne when he reappeared was currently somewhere between 60 and 70 percent. Although that was probably far smarter than what I normally wanted to do when I saw Zayne.

I focused on the little ball of pulsing warmth in the center of my chest. I’d never felt it with Misha, but since there were no other Trueborns for me to compare notes with, the lack of sensation hadn’t been a red flag.

But it wasn’t like others hadn’t started to guess that something wasn’t right between Misha and I. Thierry, the duke who oversaw the Wardens in the Potomac Highlands region, and his husband, Matthew, had begun to suspect that there’d been a mistake once Zayne had arrived. If I was being honest with myself, I’d known something was up. From the moment I’d laid eyes on Zayne, there’d been something there. Right now, I could feel that little ball of warmth, but I couldn’t sense emotion through it like I had yesterday, when I’d felt his frustration as if it were my own. Maybe distance had something to do with that.

We needed to explore all of that.

My gaze flickered over the crowd to the restaurant across from me. I couldn’t make out the name of the place, but it was definitely a burger joint. If I had to wait here, I might as well indulge in some fried yumminess. A grumble from my stomach told me it was way on board with that idea.

I had no idea why I was always hungry. Maybe it was all the walking. I was burning a lot of calories and—

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I fished it out. Pressure clamped down on my chest as I saw my best friend’s pretty face staring back at me. Jada was calling once more.

My finger hovered over the answer button. I needed to answer, because I knew she probably had more questions about what had happened with Misha, but I wasn’t—

Heat exploded along the nape of my neck, jerking my head up. The hot, tingly pressure was a warning system coded into my DNA.

There was a demon very close.

Letting Jada’s call go to voice mail, I slid my phone back into my pocket as I scanned the busy sidewalk. Demons that looked human easily blended with the populace. The only thing that stood out was their eyes, which reflected light like a cat’s. Picking a demon out of a crowd of humans wasn’t easy for someone with two normally functioning eyeballs, and for me, it was an exercise in frustration. I squinted and willed my vision to come in a little more clearly.

That didn’t help.

I didn’t see anyone who was obviously not human and hailing Lucifer, but the pressure was still there, settling between my shoulder blades. The demon had to be—

There.

My gaze stopped on a fair-haired man dressed in a dark suit walking down the sidewalk, hands in the pockets of his pants. Everything about him seemed normal, and he wasn’t close enough for me to make out his eyes, but some inherent sense told me that he was the demon.

And not only that, an Upper Level demon.

Certainty filled me as I planted booted feet on the ground. Before I came to DC to find Misha, I’d seen only a handful of demons, and never in a situation like this, but I knew I was right.