Eleventh Grave in Moonlight (Charley Davidson #11)(24)

I hadn’t seen him since I forced him to swallow my soul so I could sneak up on one of the malevolent gods without my bright-ass light giving me away.

But swallowing a god’s aura, even for a Daeva, was lethal.

I trapped the malevolent god and got back to him before he exploded with all the energy he’d ingested, but the ordeal had taken its toll.

All the lights were out at Osh’s. Before I’d tried to disintegrate his innards with my energy, he’d been on Ubie patrol, taking a shift, tailing my rascally uncle to keep Grant Guerin from killing him. But since the incident, he’d been lying low.

I knocked lightly, waited a whole three seconds, then let myself in. He never kept his house locked, in the hope of a thief stopping by. I’d agreed, when we first met, to let him feed off the souls of those who did not deserve them, but I mostly meant murderers and rapists and pedophiles. Still, if someone had the gall to break into another person’s domain, that someone had better be willing to accept whatever may come.

His house, a really nice two-bedroom in the traditional Santa Fe style with muted colors and warm hues, was completely dark. I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight.

A voice originating from a dark corner startled me. “You’re not a thief.”

I turned to see Osh—or Osh’s shadow—sitting in a recliner. “Am too. I stole a Jolly Rancher from Circle K when I was seven.”

“So, I can sup on your soul?”

He sat with his knees apart and his hands on the arms of the chair. When I shined my flashlight on him, he squinted and frowned at me.

I walked closer and turned on a lamp beside his chair. That time he scowled.

“I think we tried that already.” I took a seat on his sofa. “You almost exploded. Which, thank goodness, you didn’t. You’d never have come out of Garrett’s carpet.”

He tried to charm me with a lopsided grin. “I said sup. Not swallow in one, nuclear gulp.”

It worked. Osh, or Osh’ekiel, as he was known in the supernatural realm, looked about nineteen in human years, but he was hundreds of years old. Since time was different down under, it was impossible to tell how old, exactly, but his pale skin, shoulder-length blue-black hair, and shimmering bronze eyes made him quite popular with humans of all ages.

Still, I’d known for months he’d play an important role in things to come. I knew he’d be by my daughter’s side. I knew she’d love him. But I also knew he was created and raised in a hell dimension. Still, I trusted him. He would love Beep. He would give his life for her. But the prophecies that foretold of Beep’s coming trials also said that there was one who would either lead her to victory or be her downfall.

I believed that prophesied entity to be Osh, though I had no way to know for certain. I saw through the veil, but most of what I saw was vague, and none of it was set in stone. If Lucifer won, if he found Beep and killed her before she could fulfill her prophecy, he would be unstoppable.

For some reason, Reyes and I had not been in the visions I’d seen. We were either dead by the time she came of age or unable to assist her, which led back to the being dead part, because nothing but nothing would keep me from helping my daughter short of that.

But she would love him. Osh. Beep would love him with all her heart. And he would love her back. Mythology in every culture in the world had stories of infants being promised to royalty or celestial beings or hideous beasts, but for it to be real, for it to actually exist, was both surreal and disturbing.

“You keep looking at me like that.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like you’re trying to figure me out.”

“Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I swallowed a god and lived to tell the tale. I’m good.”

He had yet to move, but his glistening gaze missed nothing. The cracks in his skin where my energy had seeped out of him had almost completely healed. Only faint purplish lines remained on his face and neck. He wore a black long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, so I couldn’t see much beyond that.

“And you’re sitting here in the dark because…?”

“I was waiting, but you’ve scared them off.”

I sat up straight, alarmed. “Them? Who were you waiting for?”

“Two men have been casing my house. I did a rather elaborate ruse to get them to think I was out for the night. They were just about to break in when you pulled up.”

“Don’t tell me you’re hungry already,” I said, teasing him. “I wasn’t enough for you?”

“I told you, I could live off you for all eternity. But a guy likes a snack here and there.”

“Are you okay, really?”

He didn’t answer for a long time, and when he did talk, it had nothing to do with my question. “Why are you here?”

“I told you. I’m checking on you.”

“You don’t look good in guilt.”

I dropped my gaze. “I’m so sorry, Osh. I almost killed you.”

He leaned forward. Took my chin into his hand. “You did what you had to do. And what I never in a million years thought you could do. One of these days, I’m going to stop underestimating you.”

“Yeah, well, one nasty god down and one to go. Any suggestions?”

“Only that I don’t think I can take you in again and live to defend my strip poker title.”