TRUST ISSUES

HOPE RETURNED WITH MY COFFEE, which I only sipped. I trusted her, but Eve had left me a little unsettled.

Past experience had taught me that Eve was quick to jump to conclusions about people—always conclusions that saw the worst. If you deal with the magic black market and the people in it, you have to expect the worst of everyone.

Even now, whatever she was doing on the other side, it wasn’t playing a harp in the choir of angels. Whenever she needed something from me, it was “contact this dead killer” or “research this unsolved murder case.” She might be working for the Fates, but she still had every reason to be overcautious, even paranoid. So I took her fears about Hope and Karl with a whole teaspoon of salt…but didn’t dismiss them.

As Hope and I waited for news from Jeremy, we talked, mostly about life in L.A.—sharing anecdotes, favorite restaurants and clubs, that sort of thing. As time ticked past, conversation became more strained, both of us worrying about Jeremy and Karl.

Eventually Hope took up Eve’s earlier occupation—pacing. She’d head to the window or balcony door, look out, then return to me, try to resume conversation and falter as she returned for another look outside…or at her cell phone.

“Marsten isn’t involved,” said a voice to my rear.

Eve strode around me.

“New theory. Marsten’s not in on it. Unwitting dupe. Werewolves don’t need magic, so the group wouldn’t interest him. And he knows if he betrayed Jeremy, Clayton would put him through a hell worse than anything the Fates could dream up. Marsten’s only crime is middle-aged delusions. Even players aren’t immune to pretty young things.”

I opened my mouth, then glanced over at Hope.

Eve continued. “Girl like that, with her powers, she’d be easy prey for this group. Thing I can’t figure out is why she’s holed up here with you.”

“Uh-huh,” I murmured under my breath.

“It’d be easier if she’d convinced Jeremy to take you along. Did she try?”

I shook my head.

“Huh. Well, she needs to get you out of this house and away from the guards. Has she suggested you two go anywhere? Out for a drink or a walk?”

Another shake.

“If she does, you stay put. In the meantime I’ll keep patrolling…and thinking about this.”

EVE HAD only been gone a few minutes when Hope’s nerves took a sharp turn for the worse.

“Keep up that pacing and you’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” I said.

She jumped, as if surprised to hear a voice. Her eyes were wide and blank.

I pushed to my feet. “Hope? Are you seeing—?”

A sharp shake of her head and her gaze focused. “N-no. Just…” She seemed to struggle for words, then said abruptly, “They should have called by now.”

“Not unless they’re in trouble. Whatever Jeremy has in mind, it’s going to take awhile. I know waiting is tough…”

I let the sentence trail off as I realized she was no longer listening. She’d resumed her pacing, gaze jumping from the window to the balcony door, then back, searching the gardens. Her face was taut, but instead of looking pale and drawn with worry, her eyes glittered and color splashed her cheeks. A vein in her neck throbbed.

She walked faster, slowing to gaze out the window, then striding to the patio doors, slowing again to look out, veering and striding back to the window. Like a house cat spotting a bird just outside the window, its whole body quivering in anticipation, unable to take its eyes off its prey.

Lucifer’s daughter.

“Hope?”

She wheeled, lips curling back at the interruption. Then, in a blink, the look was gone.

“I just…I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes still darting toward the window, as if she couldn’t pull her attention away. “There’s something out there.”

I walked to the window. She reached out, as if to yank me back, then stopped herself and motioned for me to keep my distance. “J-just to be safe. Something’s going on out there.”

“Someone’s here?”

A long pause, and I thought she was considering it. But her gaze stayed fixed on the window, straining to see. Not thinking of an answer—she probably hadn’t even heard the question.

Something in the garden. The empty garden vacated by the cops, but still off-limits to anyone in the house.

Voice neutral, I said, “Do you think we should investigate?”

Another long pause. I was about to repeat myself when she strode to the door.

“I’ll go,” she said. “You stay here.”

“Hold—”

I grabbed the door before she could get it open. Her head swung my way, eyes filled with a fury that made my stomach go cold. I stood my ground, and again she blinked it back.

“Something’s happening,” she said. “I have to go.”

“We aren’t supposed to leave the house.”

“I have to go.” Each word was icy with warning. A shudder, then she looked at me. “You’ll be fine. Just stay here. Whatever happens, stay here.”

She tried yanking open the door, but my foot acted as a stopper. “What good will that do? You have the gun.”

A flare of frustration, jaw setting, then another hard blink. She yanked the gun from her waistband and slapped it into my hands.

“There. Now—” She jerked the door so hard I stumbled back. “Stay here.”

EVE WAS right. This was a setup. If Hope really was chasing some “chaos event” in the garden, she wouldn’t leave her gun behind.

But if it was a setup, why give her weapon to me? Maybe it wasn’t loaded. Clever ploy. Let me think I was armed, so I wouldn’t try to escape or fight when someone came for me.

I turned the gun over in my hands, trying to figure out whether there was any ammunition. It was an automatic. Marksmanship was one of Jeremy’s hobbies, mainly bows and rifles, but he had a pair of revolvers and had shown me how to use them once. Had this been a revolver, I’d have been in luck. As it was, I had no clue. Even if I could tell whether it had ammo, the gun might be buggered up so it wouldn’t fire.

But why leave me in a house filled with potential witnesses…and security guards? I’d offered to come along. Why not just say “sure”?

Maybe because that wasn’t May’s plan and Hope didn’t dare mess with the plan. But why not try to convince me to go with Jeremy in the first place?

I remembered when Jeremy first asked Hope to stay with me. She’d wanted to argue. I recalled Karl, carefully studying her reaction. Maybe her expression had suggested she was up to something, and when she’d seen his suspicion, she hadn’t dared argue. So May had switched to a backup plan—this one.

Did that make sense?

Damn it! In my gut, I didn’t believe Hope would turn on me. Even seeing that flare of anger in her eyes hadn’t changed that.

But I couldn’t ignore the possibility. I needed to get out of this room.

I WENT downstairs with every intention of hanging out with the guards. But then I started to wonder whether that was safe. We knew these people had magic, including something like a binding spell. Would human security guards, ignorant of the supernatural, be able to protect me? Could they get killed trying?

Even if sticking close to big men with guns convinced the group to keep its distance, it wouldn’t resolve the question of Hope’s allegiance. If she was on May’s side, she’d just try again, another way, and maybe that time I wouldn’t see through the ploy.

The only way to know was to follow her.

AS I slipped out the side door, I eased the gun out and wrapped my hand around the grip, finger on the trigger. It would help if I knew how to fire it. I told myself it didn’t matter. As Eve would say, bluffing is enough. Act as if you can shoot it—and more important, will shoot it—and that should give any would-be attacker pause.

I slid through the shadows along the side of the house, heading for the rear. Ahead, a yellow ribbon of crime-scene tape waved in the breeze, broken from its moorings, as if someone had walked right through it. Hope? Breaking the tape hardly seemed wise, but if not her, then who? Last time I’d looked, the officers guarding the gardens had retreated to their cruiser.

I darted behind a hedge, then stood on tiptoes to see over it. There, about a dozen feet ahead, Hope walked into the garden with the slow, deliberate pace of a sleepwalker.

“What the hell are you doing?”

I almost fell backward. Eve’s glare was murderous.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Jaime, but you get your ass back in—”

I cut her short with a whispered explanation as I snuck around the hedge, following Hope.

“I don’t care what your reason is. Get back in that goddamned house right now.”

“It’s not a setup. Look at her.” I waved toward Hope as she banged her shin against a garden wall and kept walking, oblivious. “She’s in some kind of trance.”

“She’s luring you in. Making you curious. Making you think it’s safe to follow.”

I kept moving. “I’ve seen her when she gets a vision and that’s just what she looks like.”

“And she can’t fake that? Don’t be—” Eve bit off the rest with a click of her teeth. Then she strode in front of me. “Stop and look around, Jaime. Notice anything about where you are? And where you’re being led?”

I glanced over my shoulder at the hedge, which wrapped around the garden, cutting me off from the view of anyone stepping out the side or rear doors. Then I turned to see Hope heading toward the most secluded corner of the yard.

“She’s not following any ‘chaos trail,’” Eve said. “She’s leading you to a spot where no one’s going to see what happens next.”

Damn. She had a point.

I glanced back at the house.

“Finally,” Eve breathed.

“Jaime?”

Hope was walking back through the garden.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, blinking like a wakened sleepwalker.

“Damn it, Jaime, ignore her—”

“I was worried about you.” I lifted the gun. “You left this behind.”

She frowned and looked down at her waistband, as if trying to figure out how the gun got from there to my hand. Eve shoved me toward the door, but her hands passed through.

“What happened?” I said.

“I’m…not sure. Someone…” Hope shivered. “I think someone was killed back there. Just now. I can still feel it.”

She wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering, but her expression wasn’t one of fear or concern. She looked almost…rapturous. The hairs on my neck rose.

“Don’t listen to her bullshit,” Eve said. “She’ll say anything to get you—”

I tuned her out. Hope glanced over her shoulder, toward that far corner.

“I think we should check it out.” Her voice was high with barely contained excitement.

“Do you?”

Her gaze stayed riveted to that deepest, most remote, shadow-enshrouded corner of the garden. My fingers tightened around the gun. Eve had gone silent now, tense, as if waiting to jump in, as if she could jump in.

Hope motioned for me to follow, took a couple of steps, then, seeing I hadn’t moved, wheeled back. Her fingers grazed my arm. Eve started a cast. A spell? But it wouldn’t work in my dimension.

Hope’s fingers wrapped around my arm. I raised the gun. Eve lifted her hands over her head, something materializing between them.

I swung the gun. A crack as it connected with Hope’s temple. Her eyes went wide. She stood there, staring at me in disbelief. Then her knees gave way and she crumpled to the flagstone path.

I dropped beside her, my hands going to the side of her neck.

“Forget her,” Eve said. “Get your ass back in that house before they realize you didn’t fall for the bait.”

Hope’s pulse was strong. I pushed to my feet.

“Good,” Eve said. “Now grab the gun and, next time, try firing it, presuming it still works.”

“It probably didn’t work even before that. Why would Hope hand me a working firearm?”

“Good point. You did the right thing, then, braining her with it.”

“Don’t sound so shocked.”

“And you’re even wearing sneakers. I’m doubly impressed.”

I grimaced and started for the house.

“Eve?”

Kristof’s deep voice sounded behind us. We turned as he strode around a garden bed. A brisk nod to me, then his gaze returned to Eve. “There’s something I think you should—”

He stopped as he walked through Hope’s still form. He frowned down at her.

“The Espisco half-demon,” Eve said. “Bitch tried to lure Jaime out here with some bullshit story about sensing a murder.”

“Mur—?” Kristof rubbed his chin. “I, uh, think she might have been right. There’s a body in the back corner, and a very confused spirit hovering over it, trying to figure out why she’s not inside that body.”

I turned toward the back corner, but Eve jumped in front of me. “Uh-uh. Even if Hope wasn’t lying, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a setup. You’re getting back in that house right now.”

I stepped behind Hope and grabbed her under the armpits.

“What part of ‘right now’ don’t you understand? There’s a body in the back corner. That means there’s a killer in this garden.”

“Then I’m not leaving Hope out here, am I?” I glared up at Eve. “Not when she didn’t betray me.”

“We don’t know that. Now put her down.”

“She’s probably a hundred pounds, if that,” I said through gritted teeth as I heaved her up.

“And you’re a hundred and twenty, if that. Now put her down—”

“Eve’s right,” Kristof said. “I’ll watch over her. You get back in the house—”

“Jaime?”

A small woman with long blond hair staggered from behind the hedge. For a moment, I thought it was Gabrielle Langdon. Then she looked up.

“Angelique?” I said.

“You—you can hear me?”

She lurched toward me, but stumbled. Kristof caught her. As his hand made contact, breaking her fall, my gut sank.

She looked up at him as he righted her. “You can see me. You can touch me.”

Kristof’s face stayed neutral as he nodded.

“Oh, thank God,” she said, the words tumbling out on a deep sigh. “I thought I was—” She shuddered and didn’t finish.

I stepped closer to Angelique, careful to keep out of touching range.

“What happened, hon?”

“Jaime?” Eve’s voice was brisk but gentle. “Get inside. We’ll handle this.”

“Angelique?” I said.

“I—I knew you and Grady were up to something finding that body, and you kept me out of it because I’m the new kid.”

“We never—”

“Jaime, in the house. Now.”

“I understand,” Angelique said. “I probably would have done the same thing. But I wanted to know what you were doing. Not to mess things up, but just to prove I could help.”

Oh, God.

She went on. “That woman came back. The one who was here this morning looking for you. From the paranormal society. The guards said you’d left with your boyfriend. So I followed her out and told her to meet me in the garden.”

Eve motioned for me to stop listening.

“She was there,” Angelique said. “I told her I was working with you. That I knew all about the bodies and the murders. She lifted a gun. I saw it, but I couldn’t believe it, so I just stood there and she fired and—” Her fingers flew to her breast, searching for a hole that wasn’t there. “It was special effects, wasn’t it? The bullet and the blood and my—my body, lying there…”

I stepped toward her to say—

To say what? The same thing I’d been telling her all along? Don’t worry, hon. Leave everything to me. I’ll fix it.

I couldn’t fix this.

Angelique reached for me. Her fingers passed through my arm and she gasped. Kristof pulled her back.

“Jaime,” Eve said. “In the house now!”

Something smacked into the side of my head. As I tottered, I stared at Eve, as if she’d somehow reached through the dimensions and slapped me. I swayed, my legs suddenly too weak to hold me up. Eve’s mouth opened, alarm in her eyes. Kristof pointed at something behind a row of bushes. A shout.

The second blow knocked me out.