Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(63)

Trace’s expression fell at his words, and suddenly, it wasn’t so funny anymore.





27. UP IN THE AIR


We drove into downtown Hawthorne shortly after wiping the convenience store clean of any evidence that we’d been there. It never really made sense to me before, the whole slay team thing, though seeing how smoothly we operated as a group—albeit a dysfunctional one—put a lot of things into perspective for me. Things that hadn’t really made sense to me before suddenly seemed to fit.

Club Haven, a swanky spot on the nicer side of town, was the place the sisters were last followed to by Dominic’s nameless contact. The place looked new and expensive from the outside, proudly boasting there was money behind it, which was exactly the kind of lure the sisters chased after.

Trace hadn’t said anything on the way over here, which pretty much brought us right back to square one. I would try to ease his worries once we got back home, but for now, I had to stay focused on what we came here to do.

We crossed the street and walked up to the gray stone two-story club. The place looked closed, though not surprising being that it was the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.

Lucky for us, the door was open so we let ourselves right in.

Red satin drapes cascaded down from the ceiling like sheets of dripping blood. Everything in the club was black, and whatever wasn’t black was close enough to it that you could hardly tell the difference. My eyes immediately found the sisters at the far end of the room. They were sitting around a table with a dark-haired business man. Possibly the owner. He immediately stood up upon noticing the four of us traipsing through his club.

“We’re closed. You’re going to have to come back during business hours.” He glanced down at the sisters and shook his head. “I apologize, the doors should’ve been locked.”

“We’re not here for the refreshments,” said Dominic.

The sisters stood up in unison upon recognizing Dominic.

The man stared back at us confused, his eyebrows pulled into a point. He turned his head slightly to the right and shouted over his shoulder, “Jarrod! Get out here!”

I stepped forward and made myself known to the sisters. “We need to talk.”

Anita, the oldest one, nodded. “Leave us,” she said to the man, tossing her wavy locks of red hair over her shoulder.

“I beg your pardon? This is my—” His protest immediately flatlined as they silently glared at him.

Apparently, he knew better than to second guess the Sisters of Roderick.

“I’ll just be in my office,” he said as some brawny man popped his head out from the back of house. Presumably Jarrod. The owner stalked over to him and then smacked him on the forehead with his palm as he dragged him back to wherever he’d come from.

Anita gestured to the free chair at their table. I walked up cautiously and sat down.

“What can we do for you?” she asked innocently, knowing full well what this was about.

“You know why I’m here.” My eyes met each of them pointedly before returning to Anita, the apparent leader of the pack. “Whatever spell you were trying to cast backfired in a major way. Sanguinarium is bleeding into our Realm and it’s making everything else around it unstable.”

“Yes, we’re quite aware.”

“We need to figure out a way to clean up this mess and we need to do it together.”

“Do we now?” answered Anita, raising her eyebrows like a dare.

“You can’t just leave it like this.”

“I suppose we can’t. But, it’s going to cost you. A lot.”

“That won’t be a problem.” Dominic stepped forward. “Tell her what she wants to know, and I’ll cut you the check.”

“Fair enough.” She waited for my demand.

Bargaining with demons to save the world from a vampire takeover; I was in way over my head. “Look, I just want to know what you did that night and how to fix it.” I wanted this whole mess to be cleaned up and swept out of existence.

“Your guess is as good as ours,” replied Annabelle. She leaned forward on the table and swiped her blond bangs from her eyes. “The spell was supposed to allow Engel, and only Engel to daywalk. But somebody decided to invoke in the middle of it and screw it all up.”

Oh, nice. “Excuse me for thwarting your evil plan,” I shot back sarcastically.

“You’re not excused, and it wasn’t evil.” Her lips pursed into a line. “It was a job.”

“A job that’s costing us innocent human lives!” I could feel my blood begin to boil at her complete lack of regard for what they’d done or the consequences of it.

“Easy, angel.” Dominic placed a calming hand on my shoulder, which immediately eased me.

“You can’t leave it like this. People are dying.”

“We know,” answered Arianna, her sympathetic brown eyes falling heavy on me. “We don’t want it like this either, but we already tried a Takeback spell and it—””

“Ari.” Anita gave her a warning look and Arianna quickly sank back in her chair.

“A Takeback spell?” I tried not to laugh while saying it. It sounded so…elementary.

“I was seven years old when I created it,” defended Annabelle as her haughty eyes quickly dismissed me.