“I have to go to David’s friend’s place first to get the stuff he’s holding for me,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck.
Jordan shot me a glance. “Now? It’s awfully late to be making a house call.”
“David said his friend, Kelvan, sleeps during the day. If we don’t go now, we won’t be able to see him until tomorrow night, and I don’t want to spend two nights here.”
“Fine, but I have to find a gas station first. My bladder is about to burst.”
“Same here,” Peter added.
I pulled a folded piece of paper from the back pocket of my jeans and studied the address I’d written on it. We were going to need a map, too. None of us knew our way around this city.
It didn’t take long to locate a gas station. The four of us went in search of the restrooms, and then I found a little souvenir rack up front that had a map of the city. I bought it along with bottles of water and some premade sandwiches from the cooler. Not exactly an ideal meal, but it would tide us over until breakfast. By the time I walked outside, Jordan had finished refueling the car. We devoured the sandwiches, and I realized it wasn’t going to be cheap to feed four large appetites. I decided to worry about that later and focus on finding David’s friend right now.
Peter chuckled when I spread out the map. “Why are you wasting time with that when we can look it up on our phones?”
“We don’t have any phones yet,” I said, tracing a route with my finger. “You two ditched yours, right?”
“Uh...”
My head snapped up and I spun in my seat to stare at him. “Please tell me you tossed your phones at the airport.”
Peter flushed. “We thought we should have phones on us in case we needed them.”
I groaned and rubbed my temple where a headache had started to form. “Peter, the Mohiri are very good at tracking people. How long do you think it’s going to take them to figure out we’re all together? We have to get rid of them now.”
“Are they really that good?” Roland asked.
“This is Nikolas we’re talking about,” Jordan told him. “What do you think?”
Roland pulled out his phone and held it up. “What do we do with them? Throw them in the trash?”
“No, they’d still track us.” Jordan lowered the map and looked around. A smile spread across her face. “Hand them over. I have an idea.”
Roland and Peter passed their phones to her, and she got out of the car. We watched her walk toward the gas pumps where an RV was parked. She disappeared behind it and returned a minute later without the phones. She wore a smug expression when she climbed into the car. Before I could ask what she’d done with the phones, she pointed at the RV pulling away from the pump.
A few seconds later I saw what she was grinning about. The rear of the RV was covered in stickers that said things like “Snow Birds” and “Beach Bound,” and the license plate was from Alberta. “Brilliant!”
“I hope Nikolas likes Florida.” Her smile grew. “See, I told you you’d need me on this trip.”
It took us a few minutes to locate Kelvan’s address on the map and for Jordan to figure out the best route to get there. Twenty minutes later, we pulled up outside a dingy four-story apartment building. Jordan cut off the engine, and I looked down the empty street that was dark in places because of missing streetlights. Garbage littered the street that was badly in need of repair, and graffiti covered some of the buildings.
“Not exactly welcoming, is it?” Roland muttered, and I silently agreed with him. “Are you sure this place is safe, Sara?”
“If David says we can trust his friend, I believe him.”
“What if it’s not his friend we have to worry about? For all we know there could be a dozen suckers hiding in that building.”
I tapped my chest. “Trust me, if there was a vampire close by, I’d know it.”
The four of us climbed out of the car, and Roland led the way into the poorly lit lobby on the main floor. A cluster of mailboxes lined one side of the hallway and two elevators took up the other side. I hit the elevator button and could hear the groan and creak of gears as the car slowly descended. From the sounds it was making, I wasn’t sure we shouldn’t take the stairs instead.
We got off on the fourth floor, which looked even more rundown than the lobby with stained carpet and peeling wallpaper that had probably been put up in the seventies. I led the way to apartment 410 and knocked briskly on the door.
I heard someone moving around inside the apartment and then the sounds of locks being undone on the door. One, two, three... four locks? This guy was seriously paranoid. The door cracked open and a male voice spoke. “Who are you?”
“I’m David’s friend, Sara. Are you Kelvan?”
The door opened another inch, but instead of admitting us, the man held up a cell phone and snapped a picture of me. Then the door shut in my face.
“Hey!” I yelled, knocking again. What the heck was that about?
After a minute of knocking, the door opened again and the man said, “Come in.”
I walked into the apartment, followed closely by the others, and the door shut behind us with a loud click. Immediately, my power flared up and static crackled through my hair. I whirled around and got my first look at our host, one word racing through my mind. Demon!
Chapter 2
The demon stared at me with wide eyes as I took in his appearance: my height with a rounded face and curly brown hair. If it weren’t for his black eyes and the two small horns peeking through his curls, I might have mistaken him for human. That and the fact that my power was going a little berserk. What the hell was David thinking? Why hadn’t he told me he was sending me to see a demon?
Kelvan put up a hand and fear flashed across his face. He stepped back until he was pressed against the door. “You’re Mohiri... and Lycans! David, why did you send hunters into my home?” he asked shrilly, and I glimpsed tiny fangs where his canines should be.
A faint voice issued from the cell phone in his hand, and he hit the speaker button.
“Kelvan, this is my friend Sara I told you about,” said David’s familiar voice. “Sara, meet my good friend Kelvan. You’ve probably figured out that Kelvan is a vrell demon.”
I looked at Jordan, who had studied demonology a lot longer than I had. She gave a slight nod, which I assumed meant vrell demons were not dangerous.
“Hi.” I smiled at Kelvan but didn’t extend my hand. I didn’t think he would appreciate my power’s reaction to him.
“Hello,” he replied stiffly, without returning the smile.
David spoke again. “Kelvan is one of the best hackers in the business. He’s actually the one who tracked Madeline to Albuquerque.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Kelvan shifted from one foot to the other. It struck me then that he was not being unpleasant on purpose. He was genuinely afraid of us, afraid of everything if all the locks on the door were any indication.
Someone moved behind me and Kelvan’s eyes widened even further. “David vouches for you, but what about the other hunter and the wolves?”
I glanced over my shoulder at Roland who looked ready to pounce if Kelvan made one false move. Turning back to Kelvan, I said, “Are you going to try to eat us or anything equally unpleasant?”