“That’s great to hear. All of you are amazing. Really. But what if that does happen? And I succeed in bringing him back?” I asked, scanning the room. “What do you think that’ll do to Zayne?”
Everyone in the room fell quiet.
“He’s going to have to deal with enough crap as it is.” I hoped said crap was minimal and limited to throwing me around, but knowing him, that would cut him deep. “We don’t want to add to that.”
“You’re right,” came Danika’s voice. “We don’t want to add to that, but we also aren’t going to stand back and do nothing.” She came forward, sitting beside me. “I think I know Zayne pretty well,” she said, and that was true. They were friends, and at one point they could’ve become more. That was what Zayne’s father had wanted. “If this was happening to any Warden, he wouldn’t sit it out. You know that. He’d be right there, making damn sure that he came home and that he didn’t add to the mess the other was in, and so would any of us.”
“But you can’t guarantee that. I can’t even guarantee that,” I argued.
“And you can’t guarantee that this will even work,” she countered. “That Zayne will even survive this.”
Cold air filled my chest. “You’re right. You all want to be there for that?”
“No,” Nicolai answered. “We want to be there for you if this doesn’t work.”
5
There was no convincing Nicolai or the others that the smart and sane thing was to stay home. It wasn’t like the city would descend into chaos if they did. Ever since the Harbinger had showed up, demon activity had gone way down. They could spend the next couple of days watching Netflix. There was some really interesting crap on that streaming service, according to Cayman, the demon who was sort of like middle management in the demonic world. When I left the apartment earlier that evening, he had passed out watching some kind of documentary about a guy with a mullet, big cats and murder.
But the Wardens weren’t about that kind of life.
So after taking a moment to wash the blood off my chin and below my ears, I found myself walking aimlessly through Rock Creek Park with Dez at my side and several other Wardens nearby. Gideon had hung back at the compound, wiring into the police dispatch just in case any calls came in that would possibly give us a lead on Zayne’s whereabouts. Nicolai was out here somewhere, but he’d left after Dez and I to “talk” things over with Danika. She wanted to help. Nicolai was dead set against that. I had no idea who won that battle, but I was betting on Danika.
Before we hit the park, we did swing by the apartment just in case Zayne somehow remembered the police and for me to let Cayman and my ghostly roommate, Peanut, know that I was alive.
The apartment was empty of all three of them.
Figuring Peanut was with his new friend who could see him—something I still needed to check on—or off doing whatever ghosts did in their spare, undead time, Dez and I had then headed to the park. Cayman had actually texted right before we got there. I had no idea how he’d gotten my phone number, but he’d sent a message that said, Are you still alive? I’d sent back a quick, Yes, and then received a response demanding proof that it was me and not an “asshole archangel” with my phone.
I’d texted back with, You’re afraid of me.
Yep. It’s you. Be safe. Roth would be mad if you got killed on my watch.
I really had no idea how to respond to that.
But all of that felt like an eternity ago.
Frustration burned its way through me as we passed by the bench I’d been sitting on when Zayne had arrived for what felt like the hundredth time. I stopped this time, scanning the dark tree line. At least it had stopped raining. The air was still weirdly cold for July.
Only a few steps ahead of me, Dez turned around. In his Warden form, his skin was a deep gray and as hard as granite, and the two thick horns that parted his hair could puncture through steel. He kept his large, leathery wings tucked back just in case I walked into one and lost an eyeball. Right now, most of him blended into the night. “Do you see anything?”
“Godzilla could be hiding among those trees and I wouldn’t be able to see him.”
“Sorry. I meant do you feel anything?”
“No.” I placed my hands on my hips. “Either he’s no longer in the park or he’s staying back.”
“Did he strike you as a type to stay back?” Dez asked, his voice raspier in his true form.
“Not particularly, but what do I know? It’s not like I ever met a fallen angel before.” I shook my head as my gaze fell to the outline of the bench. “I think we need to check someplace else.” Or I needed to be out here without Warden babysitters, because there could be a sliver of a chance that Zayne wasn’t coming close because of the Wardens. “Where? I have no idea.”