End of Days (Penryn & the End of Days #3)(25)

‘I’m not foulmouthed.’

‘Yeah, well, nobody’s perfect,’ says Dum.

‘How did you hear about this hypothetical teen girl killing an angel? Not that I’m saying I believe in such a wacky story or anything.’

‘The angels put a bounty on this hypothetical girl’s head. Anyone who turns this angel slayer in to them will get safe passage from them. Even Obi didn’t get that. His bounty is puny compared to this girl’s.’

‘Word is spreading like wildfire,’ says Dum. ‘There are crazy stories about her being able to control angel swords and even commanding demons. Everybody’s excited. Half the people are looking for you – I mean, her – to turn you in for safe passage, and the other half are toasting you with their last beer. A lot of people are doing both.’

‘So watch your back,’ says Dee. ‘Whether it was you or not, people think it was you, and that may be enough to get you killed.’

‘What with your teddy bear sword and history with demons and all.’ Dum raises his brows at me.

‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ asks Dee, squinting at me.

‘Just between us of course,’ says Dum.

‘We’d never tell.’ They’re freakishly identical when they say the same thing together.

A part of me is dying to talk about it. But the smarter part of me says, ‘Oh, sure. Didn’t I tell you I could kill angels and command demons? I can fly too, but don’t tell anyone.’

‘Uh-huh.’ They look at me, watching my face for clues.

I scan my mind for a change of subject. ‘You guys seem to be doing a good job here.’

They keep eyeing me as if not sure whether to let me get away from the topic.

‘I mean, it must be hard to build a refugee camp while running a resistance army at the same time.’

‘Obi’s been trying to do it all, but we finally managed to get a council together to help him run some of the logistics. Oh, man, so many logistics.’

‘And all because you had to go for a little joyride, and then give Obi an excuse to be the hero. Speaking of which, how was your bus ride?’

‘Yeah, the last time we saw you, you were sending us love notes from your little bus jail.’

‘We thought about busting you out, but Obi thought it was more important to get those people off Alcatraz.’

‘We wouldn’t have agreed if we’d known your mom was there.’

‘Pain in the ass, let me tell ya.’

‘You don’t need to tell me,’ I say. ‘I know all about what a pain she can be.’

Dee laughs. ‘She’s like a weapons-grade pain in the ass. We figured out to sic her on the bad guys, and she became a huge asset.’

‘Freaked out the human guards there until we came.’

‘Did you know she can be truly frightening?’

I nod. ‘Oh, yeah. I know that.’

‘Most of us had no idea. Totally blindsided us all.’

‘She’s one of our captains now.’

‘What?’ It’s hard to imagine my mother being in charge of anything.

‘Yeah. For real. What kind of a scary world is that?’

I blink a couple of times, letting that settle in. I admit that if there’s one thing I can expect from her, it’s the unexpected.

‘Your mom totally rocks.’ The twins nod like little bobblehead dolls.

‘Do you know where she is?’ I ask.

‘Yup,’ says Dee. ‘We should be able to find her for you.’

‘Thanks. That would be great.’

We step onto El Camino Real, getting ready to hop from car to car when someone yells into the night. It sounds like a fight coming from the grove on the other side of the street.

Paige is in that grove.

I break into a sprint, running as fast as I can into the woods.





19


We race into the grove, chasing the noise. We’re not the only ones running through the trees. But I can’t see details, and everything looks like shifting shadows in the deepening night.

There are angry voices. I’m pretty sure hellions don’t talk, at least, not in human voices. I hope this is not the day that I find out otherwise.

Beneath the canopy of trees, a group of shadows raise and drop their fists, kick, and yell at someone curled on the dirt. As we near, I catch a glimpse of the dried skins of the locust victims. Some of them are wearing ripped clothes covered in dirt as if they recently crawled out of graves.

Fists fly and pound into the victim, who is simply taking it, grunting with each impact.

‘What’s going on?’ I ask as I run up. No one seems to hear me.

‘Hey!’ shouts Dee.

‘What’s going on?’ asks Dum in a hushed but demanding voice.

Several of the locust stung glance at us. They don’t stop their kicks, but one of them says, ‘It’s that bastard from Alcatraz. He did this to us. Created the monsters and fed us to them.’ He viciously kicks at the man on the ground. I can’t see any details, but it’s obvious they’re talking about Doc.

The twins must have reached the same conclusion. They jump into the crowd with their arms up. ‘That’s enough!’

‘The council has already said to leave him alone,’ says Dee, pulling a guy off Doc.