Dead Drop Read online

  She despised Palla and his green eyes. She hated his we both know you’re incompetent sneer with the fire of a thousand burning suns. She hated him so much she’d rather die than fail, and she failed every single time. She was the only street witch she’d seen who was African American, and every single failure might as well be a big neon sign that said, black girls are no good at magic.

  Palla bent over, elbows on the tufted top of Maddy’s chair. Maddy slouched down and looked up at Palla with a smile. She actually liked the guy. But then he didn’t treat Maddy like he thought she was toxic waste.

  She used to wonder if Maddy and Tau were a thing. The answer was no. No, they were not. Maddy and Palla were also not a thing, despite the cozy way they were arranged right now. Wallace figured that out the first time the demon Kynan Aijan showed up. Have mercy. Maddy and Kynan weren’t a thing either, but the sparks were lethal.

  “I should go.” She didn’t move, though.

  “We kept you late.” Maddy reached up and pushed Palla’s arm out of the way. “You’re dripping water on me.”

  “Sorry.”

  Palla pushed off the top of Maddy’s chair and hurled his beer straight at Wallace’s head.

  CHAPTER 4

  Wallace yelped, and so did Maddy, and then her mid-section emptied out as she ducked, and there was, all at the same time, the sound of her screaming, “You asshole!” and then the sound of nothing at all.

  Maddy stared at her with big, big eyes and said, “Oh my God.”

  She sat there, numb. She put a hand to her head. Nothing. No pain. She hadn’t ended up with a beer bottle broken against her cranium. Or beer all over her. Or on the couch. A piece of broken glass lay on the floor midway between her and Maddy. She didn’t see the rest of the bottle that would have killed her if Maddy hadn’t intervened.

  Palla smirked. “I fucking knew it.”

  Anything but total calm from her was likely to make Palla strike out again, and if he lost it, well, then, he needed to lose that anger.

  “Don’t even,” he said.

  The hollowness in her stomach threatened to consume her. “Thank you, Maddy.”

  “For what?”

  Wallace leaned forward, empty inside, and she gave back every smug, hateful look the demon had ever given her. He was still smirking. The asshole. She spoke with preternatural serenity. “Eat shit, Palla.”

  The demon advanced on her. “Take me down, witch.”

  “No.”

  “I’ll snap your fucking neck if you don’t.”

  Palla was drawing on his magic, she knew that because the color of his eyes changed from green to gold. She felt his power gathering, and it was immense. It had to be a massive draw on his magic for her to have that shiver across the back of her neck. Jesus, he’d been playing with them all up to now. He was holding killing magic like it was nothing.

  Maddy shot to her feet. “No!”

  She stood, too. This would not happen.

  The demon gave her a smile of pure evil. She was hollow, and that black hole in her flexed. Palla roared, a sound that tore from his throat and wasn’t remotely human. If he killed her, then fine. Fine. She would not answer violence with violence.

  Nothing happened except she was the recipient of Palla’s hate-filled glare. She said, “You did that on purpose.”

  “What do you think?”

  Maddy turned around. “Wallace, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” Miraculous as it seemed, that was true. She wasn’t hurt.

  Maddy whipped back to Palla. “You are insane. Insane! What the hell were you thinking, pulling something like that?”

  The demon’s eyes burned solid gold. “She dead dropped me, Maddy. Twice.”

  “What?” Maddy shot her a look, but went immediately back to Palla. “You’re sure about that?”

  “She look dead to you?”

  “Stop it,” Wallace said. “Just stop it.”

  Maddy and Palla paid no attention to her.

  “She dead dropped me. If she hadn’t, I’d have killed her.”

  “No.” Maddy shook her head. “You would not have.”

  “Yeah, Maddy. I would have. And she knew it.” Palla stared right at Wallace, and she saw the truth in his eyes. He would have killed her.

  The cell phone in his back pocket rang. He took it out and listened for few seconds. “Still alive, Warlord.” He rubbed a hand over the center of his chest. “Necessary.” He listened some more. “So fucking what? You wanna talk to her?” His eyes flicked to her, and Wallace did not like the way he looked at her. “I said I’d do babysitting detail here for thirteen more days.”

  When he put away the phone, Maddy advanced on him. “Start talking or I’m calling Nikodemus back and telling him he needs to reconsider.”

  He threw himself on Maddy’s chair, legs sprawled, eyes bright gold-and-green. “She needed to know I meant it or she’d never have triggered.”

  “What if you’d been wrong?” Maddy said.

  The demon shrugged. “She’d be dead.” He held up a hand and gave Wallace one of his patented snotty looks. “Relax. I’m not coming after you again. Not without orders.”

  “My God.” Maddy looked at her with awe.

  “What?”

  “You dead dropped Palla.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  Palla let out a sound that was half growl, half laugh. “Mission fucking accomplished.”

  Wallace focused on him. His eyes flashed gold. “Stop being a dick.”

  “Oh. It speaks to the demon.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Human scum.”

  Maddy jabbed a finger in his direction. “Palla, please be quiet.” She glanced at Wallace. “It’s late.” She shook her head. “It’s late, and I don’t know what to do about you. Stay the night here? We can talk in the morning.”

  At first Wallace thought Maddy meant Palla, but she didn’t. Maddy meant her. “I can’t. I have work tomorrow.”

  Palla got up and walked to the piece of broken glass on the floor. He pushed the remains with the toe of his shoe. “We need to do something about that.”

  Wallace remained in her state of unnatural calm. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Maddy spoke at the same time. “Really, I think you’ve done enough.”

  He cocked one eyebrow. “It means what I said.”

  God, she hated him. Hated. Him. “That doesn’t change the fact that I have a job and need to keep it.”

  “Why?”

  “Must be nice to have a life where you can ask a question like that. Student loans don’t pay themselves. And the refrigerator doesn’t get stocked by magic.”

  “That’s not my fault.”

  “Palla. Please. Just go. You’re making things worse.”

  He shrugged in Maddy’s direction, but he sent Wallace a look that turned her blood to ice. “No extra charge for fixing your broken witch.”

  “Go.” Maddy closed her eyes. “Just, go.” When the door closed after him, Maddy collapsed on a chair. “That—I don’t even—I apologize on Palla’s behalf.”

  “Don’t bother.” She sat on the couch again and got hit with a wave of disbelief and terror. She believed what he’d said. Every word. “He meant to kill me, Maddy. He would have done it.” Her heart might never settle back to a normal rhythm. Her stomach hurt again, and she blamed Palla for that, too.

  “He didn’t though.”

  “Trying to kill someone is a crime, too, you know.”

  Maddy steepled her fingers and stared at her over the tops. “Are you sure you won’t stay the night?”

  “I can’t.” She couldn’t, but more to the point, she didn’t want to. She wanted to go home and be grateful she wasn’t dead.

  “That was extraordinary, what you did. You do realize that?”

  Other than her overall tremble, she didn’t feel any different than she had any other time. In other words, she hadn’t done magic. Because she couldn’t. “I
think I’d know if I’d finally managed to do magic. Palla must have done something.”

  Maddy rubbed her arms. “I was convinced one of you was going to end up dead.”

  She couldn’t help laughing. “It wouldn’t have been him.”

  “I’m not so sure.”

  “I don’t believe in violence. I couldn’t hurt anyone. I couldn’t.”

  Maddy shot her a look.

  “Violence is never the answer. Never.” Her head filled recollections from when she was little. The streets were a vicious place for a kid to grow up. “I don’t want anything to do with hurting anyone ever.”

  “Not even Palla?” Maddy was smiling enough to take the edge off the words.

  “Especially not him. I wouldn’t hurt my worst enemy.” She pushed to her feet and discovered her legs were jelly. “I can’t do this right now, Maddy. Please?”

  “It’s no trouble if you stay here. I’m happy to have you.”

  “I know, and thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I have an early day.” She didn’t know the morning bus schedules or how early she’d have to get up in order to get home to change for work. Mostly, though, she wanted to be home. Safe. Alone. Stewing, for sure, about what had happened here.

  “I have a guest room. You’d have your own shower.” Maddy ran her fingers through her hair. “Doesn’t matter how late or early you need to get up.”

  “Another time maybe.”

  Maddy studied her, and it was scary to think she’d been alive more years than any non-magic using human could naturally live. “Palla’s not as bad as he seems.”

  Palla worked directly for Nikodemus. He was a demon, and they all counted more than she did. He’d tried to kill her and nobody was going to do anything about it. She was disappointed Maddy was letting him get away with it. “Of course not.”

  “I’m not excusing him.”

  “I understand.”

  “He chose the wrong way to find out what you can do.”

  “Which is nothing.” She hadn’t done anything. She couldn’t have. She wasn’t capable. “I don’t know if I can take any more of him.”

  “He’s one of the best.”

  She shrugged. There was no reason to argue. Maybe Maddy had her reasons for letting Palla off. Maybe not. “Life’s too short to be miserable. I can’t do this. You know I can’t. You’ve seen it.”

  “Give me six months. That’s all.”

  “No.”

  “A month, then. A month. And I’ll see what I can do about Palla.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Palla grabbed the other demon by the back of the neck and slammed him against the nearest wall. A framed photo crashed to the floor. Somewhere in the back of his brain, he knew Telos wasn’t going to hurt anyone, that he was overreacting per usual. More than a year after the death of Christophe dit Menart had freed him from his centuries of enslavement, getting along with others remained difficult.

  He released his grip before he made things worse. “Asshole.”

  They were at Maddy’s house again late on a Sunday afternoon. He’d arrived on time several hours ago but instead of Maddy and Wallace being ready to work, he’d found them out at the pool, a fact that had annoyed the hell out of him for the five seconds it took him to notice how Wallace rocked a neon-yellow bikini. The color looked great with her dark skin, and the rest of the package was killer, too. Now, she was back in jeans and a tee-shirt. Still looking good.

  Telos had shown up half an hour ago, invited by Maddy to help out. Help out. Not hardly. He wasn’t so damaged he couldn’t figure out the deal. He and Wallace didn’t get along, and they weren’t making much progress. Telos was his replacement. Someone who would get along and play nice. That meant Palla was royally fucked.

  So. Here they were. Him with his hand around Telos’s throat thinking about killing him for going after Wallace without warning. He was still dealing with the aftermath of his own attempt to take her down the night he proved he was right about her. Ever since, the residual effects of breaking one of Nikodemus’s primary oaths had made him jumpy as hell. He’d do it again, no question, but the fact was, he could have ended up dead. Lots of oath-breakers didn’t survive long.

  “Palla.” That was Maddy behind him. Like he was going to let go when Telos Khunbish was drawing enough power to kill her and Wallace. Maddy sounded worried, but it was Wallace who was getting him worked up, doing that thing she did whenever anyone got upset. One of the protective medallions along the wall by the ceiling popped. Kynan Aijan’s handiwork, so it hurt fucking extra when it went off. “Stop it.”

  The other demon’s power flexed, and Palla, pissed off that Wallace was trying to calm him down, tightened his hold on Telos. Another medallion above them turned black. Pure reaction to Palla’s state. Kynan Aijan had a vicious streak because this one went off like fire under his skin. Ashes flaked off from the exploded medallion; a few, and then more and more until there was a steady rain of charred remnants.

  Telos, still in human form, smiled, but not in a friendly way. “Dude. Calm the fuck down.”

  A growl came up through his chest and reverberated in his throat. Telos was recently sworn to Nikodemus. Getting his fealty had been something of a coup, he kept hearing. Didn’t mean Palla wouldn’t kill him if he had to. Killing Telos would solve the problem of Maddy sending him packing. For a while.

  “Palla.” Wallace this time. Doing that trick where she could turn a goddamned lion into a pussy cat. He didn’t like it. More, he didn’t like that he was the only one who could feel what she was doing. The others recognized the effect, but they didn’t react the way he did. And he did react.

  He was right about her. She had some weird, twisted power that wasn’t like anything he’d encountered in the last millennium at least.

  “Palla.” She was so, so calm. “Please stop this.”

  He sucked in air, and Telos had the balls to ramp down his power even though Palla had enough on tap to melt metal. Wallace was working him hard, but he didn’t take his eyes off Telos. “You okay, Maddy? Wallace?”

  “We’re fine.” Maddy sounded like she thought he was crazy to ask. Well, he wasn’t. Telos was new to Nikodemus and still something of a loner. Demons who liked being alone tended to have a loose hold on their sanity. Not to mention Telos lived with a human witch he’d knocked up, so he didn’t have much sense either.

  “It is a necessary question before I let him go.” He kept eye-contact with Telos and knew he was spinning out of control. Control was an issue for him. He knew that. His years of enslavement to dit Menart had masked a lot of the damage done when he lost Avitas, but he was plenty fucked up regardless. “Telos Khunbish is a monster, don’t you forget it. He may look human, but he’s not. The reason he hasn’t tried to fuck you over is he knows I’ll kill him if he tries.”

  Telos put a palm on the outside of Palla’s elbow and braced his other hand on the inside. “If you don’t let go of me in the next two seconds, I will break your arm. The old fashioned way.”

  “You’re overreacting, Palla,” Maddy said.

  She was right, but he wanted to punch someone. Needed to punch someone. He had enough sanity to know that if he gave in to the impulse he’d never get anywhere near Wallace, and he’d have to find someone else. He pushed away, hands fisted. Leonidas, maybe. Or Kynan. He didn’t want to involve anyone sworn to Nikodemus, but he might have no choice.

  “I came here as a favor.” Telos was Nepalese or Tibetan, or something like that, and though Palla knew close to nothing about demons from that region, he sure as hell knew Telos wasn’t someone to mess with. “I said I’d come over and work with your witch even though it’s not my turn on duty, and you’re all bent about it?” He glanced from Maddy to him.

  “Not a favor to me, demon.”

  “Not cool. I’m telling you right now, you need to get yourself straightened out.” Telos’s human form said a lot about what he was. Big. Deliberately rough around the edges, Telos worked the look to his advan
tage.

  Palla lifted his hands and took a step back. That weird vibe from Wallace increased to the point were it was making him itch. As per usual, he had no idea what caused it and why she wasn’t setting off Maddy or Telos. He just knew they were all way too settled down given that two minutes ago he and Telos had been ready to go at it.

  “You should have warned me Palla had the hots for her.” Telos looked past him to Wallace. “Congratulations. I’m sure you’ll be very happy.”

  “I’m thinking a June wedding.” Since they’d started working with her outside the group sessions, she’d relaxed a lot, let some of her personality shine through enough for even him to notice. Wallace had wandered over to one of the chairs and was sitting on the very edge, smiling at Telos while she controlled them all with whatever the hell it was she could do. “You’ll be my Maid of Honor, right, Maddy?”

  With fake seriousness, Maddy said, “I’m there for you.”

  “Yeah, that’s so fucking funny.” Palla stepped farther away. Maddy picked up the picture that had fallen off the wall. The glass was badly cracked.

  “When you leave his sorry ass, you can stay at my place.” Telos headed for the couch. “Lys would love the company.”

  “Thanks.” Wallace laughed like she thought the guy was genuinely funny. As if. Telos was the unfunniest asshole in history. She fluttered her eyes at Palla. “But ours is a forever love.”

  Palla scowled. He knew he ought to be laughing, too. But he just couldn’t. “Fuck all of you.”

  “See how much he loves me?” Wallace blew him a kiss. “He’s going to look so good in that purple tux.” Her magic, if that’s even what it was, pulsed through the room. Subtle as hell, but after all this time working with her, he recognized the pull. He saw no sign that Telos or Maddy felt what she was doing.

  “Do not work me, Wallace.” He glared at her. “How the hell are any of us supposed help you if you keep interfering?”

  Telos, on the couch now, sprawled out like he was at his own house, scratched his goatee. “What are you talking about? Can I ask that?”