Page 29 of Forbidden

Alex stared at it dubiously as they got out. “Thisis our base of operations?” he asked. “This place is a dump!”

Ira scowled indignantly, and Talon laughed as Malachi’s Mustang rolled to a stop beside them.

“It is not,” Ira said, but that wasn’t true. It definitely wasn’t true. The placewasa dump. But it wouldn’t always be. “Okay, it needs some work, but it’ll be fine!”

“What’ll be fine?” Luke asked as he and Malachi joined them.

“Ira here tells us this is going to be your new base of operations,” Talon relayed gleefully.

Luke’s head whipped toward the building, finding the ‘For Sale’ sign and then taking the rest of it in with growing uncertainty. “Really? This place? Was the actual dump taken?”

“Ugh, whatever. You’ll see!” Ira said. “Now, we’ve got demons to kill and kids to help.”

“Kids?” Malachi asked.

Ira filled them in on the plan, and soon, Alex and Luke were grabbing weapons from Malachi’s trunk.

Malachi’s crimson eyes lingered on Luke as he strappedhis sword to his back. His expression was mostly unreadable, but there was a tension in his shoulders that Ira recognized. He sidled closer.

“No injuries tonight,” he offered.

Malachi blinked over at him. “What?”

“I saw the aftermath. Luke won’t get hurt. He’s going to be fine.”

Malachi’s lips parted, and the tension drained from his body. “Really?”

Ira nodded earnestly. “Hand to God, which probably means more to me than it does to you.”

Malachi laughed weakly. “Yeah, but the fact that you’re the one saying it makes it mean something. Thanks. He doesn’t… He hasn’t hunted quite as much since he left the guild. I don’t want him to ever get hurt again.”

There was a deep softness within Malachi for Luke and Luke alone. Ira had seen it in visions but never been privy to the real thing. It reminded him of Wolf, the gentleness with which he regarded Ira.

A high-pitched scream cut through the air, and they all turned as one toward the Rink.

“Time to go to work,” Alex said, clapping Luke on the shoulder. They both had hands-free lights clipped to the front of their belts.

“Ira,” Luke said, handing Ira a sword. “I assume you know how to use this.”

Ira balked, hefting the blade. It was a lot heavier than they made it look. “The pointy end goes this way,” he said, aiming it in front of him.

“Dear Lucifer, keep him in front of me,” Talon said, and Malachi snorted out a laugh. Ira couldn’t muster any offense,especially when he was dubious about his ability to even carry the thing.

“Watch our backs, then,” Luke said to the demons, and together they strode toward the Rink.

The front entrance was locked, so they went around to the back in search of another door. There was a car parked near an old dumpster there—belonging to the teens, no doubt. Ira tripped over the craggy parking lot, scraping the sword on the asphalt, and behind him, Talon uttered a curse. The wind whispered through the bushes tucked around an ancient privacy fence separating the Rink’s lot from a closed-down restaurant on the other side.

“Open door over here,” Alex said, leading them to the back door, which was indeed standing ajar.

Ira peered inside the yawning black maw of the doorway and shivered. “It’s very dark in there.”

Malachi patted his shoulder and eased in front of him. “You stand back—way back, and don’t point that thing at me—and I’ll go first. We see better in the dark than you humans.” He gently pushed Ira’s hands away so the sword was pointing to the side.

“It’s not my fault they don’t give us field training!” he hissed at Malachi’s back.

“Hm, true,” Alex said. “We’ll get some spare lights for next time. And maybe we should teach you some drills so you at least have the basics.”

Ira would like nothing less, but now wasn’t the time to voice all his perfectly valid protests.

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