Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

“I got feeds from the District, Chase Bank and a retail store.” Clicking on his computer, he brought up another feed, this one a sideways view of the church. “The same happens.”

And it did.

On each video feed, the same thing happened. The screen turned white for thirty seconds, and when the visual returned, the Warden was staked to the church.

“It’s some kind of interference.” Gideon leaned back. “It hit all the cameras that had the church within view. None of the cameras facing the other directions are affected. I checked them all.”

Zayne let out a low breath, straightening. “I don’t know what to think.”

“Neither did I, so I got curious.” Gideon glanced up at Zayne. “I checked out the camera feeds from the Eastern Market, which face the platform where Greene was found. Two cameras had the platform in view, and the same thing. Intense light that blinked out the whole screen for about fifteen seconds.”

“Is it possible someone did this to the feed?” Zayne asked. “Sabotaged it?”

“Possible on the feed from Eastern Market, but these feeds from the church aren’t monitored, and you know that since this was a Warden, police wouldn’t have pulled the feed.”

Zayne nodded. “Police wouldn’t get involved unless we went to them.”

“Exactly,” he replied. “And I checked for video manipulation or cutting of the film. I see no evidence of that. The interference came from outside the feed.”

“What could do that?” I asked.

“An alien?” Danika offered.

A slow grin pulled at my lips as I looked up at her. “I like the way you think.”

Zayne’s tone was bland when he said, “Let’s not start the alien conversation again. Please.”

Danika’s eyes narrowed.

“Look, I’m a believer. Not for one second do I think God created Earth and mankind and called it a day,” Gideon said. “So, I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I scoured all the demonology books, including the Lesser Key, and I haven’t found a single demon that can do that to film without destroying it.”

Like Roth had done. He hadn’t caused a disruption at the hotel. He’d outright destroyed the camera. This was different.

Then I realized what he’d said. “The Lesser Key? Like the Lesser Key? The real one?”

Gideon eyed me with open interest. “If you’re thinking about the Lesser Key of Solomon, then yes.”

“Holy moly,” I murmured. The Lesser Key was a demonic bible of sorts, containing a whole lot of incantations that could summon just about any demon out there. Thank God it was in the Wardens’ hands.

“Whatever this thing is, it has weapons we’ve never seen before and abilities that we can’t even comprehend.” Gideon closed the laptop. “And that’s not much help, but all of us are on high alert. Even more so now.”

The conversation moved on to other Warden business, and then they prepared to leave, heading to some store to buy a new TV for Jasmine. Something about one of the twins having knocked hers over. I was still surprised that Danika was out like she was. It was dangerous for her, and I admired the Hell out of her for not staying in her gilded cage.

Gideon motioned Zayne to the side, and they stepped away. I watched them, wondering what he was saying to Zayne.

“Hey,” Danika whispered, and I looked at her. She slid off the island, landing nimbly on her flip-flops. She bent down so that she was close to me. “I’ve got to ask you something.”

Figuring it was going to be about Zayne and me sharing a one-bedroom apartment, I braced myself. “What’s up?”

Her gaze flicked from me to behind me and then she said in a low voice, “What are you?”

Okay. I hadn’t expected that.

“I know you can’t just be some girl that grew up with Wardens,” she continued. “No one in the clan believes that.”

Muscles stiffened as I met her gaze. That was not a good sign, but also not unexpected. I didn’t know how Zayne expected to keep his clan from finding out.

I didn’t sense anything other than curiosity from her, but that didn’t mean it was caring and sharing time. “I’m just a girl who grew up with Wardens.”

“Really?” Her voice dropped as she drew the word out.

“I was trained to fight,” I said. “That’s about the only unique thing about me.”

“Interesting.” She wrinkled her nose. “Never heard of humans being trained to fight, because you could be a trained assassin, but you’d still be a field mouse compared to even a lower level demon. You’re not a field mouse.”

“Danika?” Zayne called. “What are you whispering about?”

She straightened, raising her brows. “What were you two whispering about?”

“Nothing.” Gideon tucked the laptop under his arm.

“Oh.” She winked at me. “We were talking about periods and cramps and bleeding—”

“Okay.” Zayne raised his hands as I choked on a laugh. “Sorry I asked.”

She pulled away from the island. “I hope I get to see you again soon. Get Zayne to bring you by. Or leave him here. That would be even better.”

“Thanks,” Zayne muttered.

Danika ignored him. “I’m sure Izzy can’t wait to wing herself at you again.”

I smiled at that, wishing I could visit her. Somehow I didn’t see that happening anytime soon. I waved goodbye as they stepped into the elevator bay.

“Hold up,” Zayne called to them as he snatched his keys off the counter by the stove top. “I’ll walk you guys out.”

Gideon caught the elevator door. “Sure thing.”

It was then when I realized Zayne wasn’t dressed for training like I was. He was wearing jeans and a pale blue shirt that was almost the same shade of his eyes.

I swiveled on the stool, lowering one foot to the floor. “You’re going out?”

Zayne nodded as he went to the couch and grabbed his cell. “Got stuff to do. Won’t be back for a while.”

Questions formed on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to know what stuff, and I wanted to know why he hadn’t told me about the apartment before anyone else. I wanted to talk about what Gideon had discovered. I wanted to talk, so we—so I—could feel like we were a team and not whatever it was that we were now.

Except by the time I opened my mouth, he was already stepping into the elevator and the doors were sliding shut behind him and the other Wardens.

My lips peeled back as red-hot anger flooded my system. I reached for my phone, half-tempted to chuck it at the wall, but I managed to resist.

I spent the next several minutes pacing around the couch and then giving up and scavenging for something to eat. All we had was eggs and avocado and mayo.

“God,” I groaned, slamming the fridge door shut. If Zayne was out there eating anything that wasn’t advertised on a low-carb diet, I was going to seriously hurt him.

Stalking from the kitchen, I decided it was time to find one of those local grocery delivery services. I was going to order every fattening, high-carb food with literally no nutritional value whatsoever and stock the entire kitchen with the crap. His cupboards would be overflowing with potato chips and cheese puffs, frozen pizzas and bags of french fries would line his freezer, every type of soda would stock his fridge, and I was going to replace all his coconut oil with good old lard. Smiling to myself, I opened my laptop and did just that, and when the bags and bags of pure junk food arrived two hours later, I gleefully did what I’d planned.

I couldn’t wait to see Zayne’s face.

After plopping the sack of white bread on the counter near the stove, I headed to the couch, popping another salty slice of fried—

I drew up short as a familiar prickle of awareness darted down my spine. I turned toward the kitchen area, thinking it was Peanut.

What I saw was not my ghost roommate, who had been MIA since last night. I lowered the chips, the bag crinkling in my grip.

It was the spirit from the night Greene had been killed, standing in the same place I’d last seen him, behind the island and in front of the stove.

The spirit was back.

25

“You,” I said, curiosity replacing the wariness at seeing the spirit again in Zayne’s place.

“You can see me,” the spirit replied. “I have so many questions about how you can see me.”

Most did, so that wasn’t surprising. “I can see dead people. That’s all you need to know.”

The spirit cocked his head. “Like the kid in Sixth Sense?”

It had been ages since Jada made me watch the movie because she thought it would be funny. “Yeah, just like him. So, what’s your name?”

“What’s yours?” he queried.

I arched a brow as I tossed another chip into my mouth. “You followed me here and you haven’t picked up on my name?”

“I wasn’t following you,” he answered. And before I could question that, he went on, “I didn’t even mean to come here at first, but then I came back...” His words warbled as he faded out and came back in. “...and saw that really rude ghost. I need your help.”

They always needed help.

He faded out again, disappearing completely. I opened my mouth but gasped as he appeared directly in front of me.

“God.” I stumbled back against the couch as I threw my arm out. The bag slipped from my fingers, and little pieces of salty Heaven spilled across the floor. “My chips!”

“Sorry!” He reached out to grab my arm. That was no help, because his hand went right through it, leaving behind a wake of cold air.

I caught myself before I high-fived the floor with my face.

“Oh, damn. So sorry. Seriously.” He pulled his hand back and glanced at it with a frown. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You shouldn’t just poof in and out like that.” I knelt and scooped up what would probably also be my dinner. Five-second rule. “It’s freaky.”