He held up a keyring with an obnoxiously large logo on it. “Picked his pocket. He’ll be coming this way.”
“Maybe I’ll keep you around after all.”
Vas lifted his lip at me and I grinned. We leaned against the concrete wall of a thrift store where we’d be in the shadows. Hopefully, between the shadows and the remnants of the spell, Clint wouldn’t see us waiting for him.
Within a few minutes, the clomping sound of his footsteps reached us. Well, they reached Vas far before me and he shot me a warning look, his superior hearing tipping him off.
We crouched and waited. Clint was muttering to himself, and once he was within a few feet of his car, he slid his hand into his pocket, clearly looking for his keys.
“Fuck.”
He turned to stalk back toward the auction, and I leapt at him, taking him down to the ground. The box with the bracelet clattered onto the pavement and Clint’s eyes went wide. Then he had a knife in his hand.
I hadn’t seen him pull it. This guy was an idiot for walking to his car with a priceless bracelet in his hand, but he was an armed idiot.
“Uh-uh,” Vas said, crouching next to me. Thanks to the way we’d rolled, I was straddling Clint, and Vas shot me an amused look as he pulled the knife from his hand. “Naughty naughty,” he said.
“Demon,” Clint stated the obvious. He opened his mouth to scream, and I slapped my hand over it. Within a minute, we had him gagged, tied, and in the trunk of his car. The Bugatti didn’t exactly have much trunk space, and Clint looked miserable.
Served him right.
Vas handed me the guy’s wallet after taking a good look at his drivers’ license.
“You want to drive, or shall I?”
Vas slid me a look. I shrugged. “You found the car.”
He didn’t argue. He settled himself into the car, cursing as his wings clearly impeded his movement. I held back a smile at the put-upon look on his face.
It was clearly worth it for him, because when the car let out a low rumble he grinned like he’d won a prize.
“You could afford a garage of these,” I said. “Why don’t you buy one?”
He shook his head as he pulled out, heading back toward the tower. “Too uncomfortable to be in a confined space like this for long. But for a few minutes… worth it. I wish we could open her up.”
There were few people on the roads at this time, and Vas wound down the window as we arrived at the tower, sticking his head out to chat with one of the demons guarding the garage entrance. The door rolled open and Vas pulled in, parking near the elevator.
Being tied up and stuffed in his own tiny trunk had clearly dampened Clint’s fury, and it had shifted to pure terror. I pulled out the box we’d thrown in next to him and opened it. Samael’s mom’s bracelet glinted at me, and I slipped it into my pocket.
Clint let out a strangled shriek behind his gag.
“Oh I’m sorry, did you think you’d be brought to the tower and we’d let you walk away?” I snorted and he fell silent as Vas pulled him from the trunk.
I’d always known Samael had cells beneath his tower, but I’d never checked them out. His dungeon wasn’t unlike the Mage Council’s basement, with a long corridor lined with cells stretching out before us as the elevator doors opened. Unlike the Mage Council, however, there was no one to check the prisoners in— just cells and interrogation rooms waiting. And the corridors here were more than wide enough for wings— three high demons could likely walk side-by-side.
Vas pushed Clint down the hall. He shrieked, putting up a fight, and Vas merely wrapped an arm around his neck and dragged him along as if he weighed nothing. He stopped at the sixth door on the left and raised his hand, breaking the ward. I pushed the door open, revealing an empty room which held nothing but a steel chair. The floor angled down toward the back of the room, where a gutter waited for any… fluids that would need to be collected.
As far as interrogation rooms went, it was creepy. Vas grinned at me.
“Even Danica doesn’t like this place,” he told Clint. “You should probably just tell us what we want to know.”
I shot Vas a look and untied Clint’s gag. Vas strapped him into the steel chair, and I closed the door as he began to scream.
He didn’t bother with threats. Being stuffed in his own car and dragged into the tower cells had obviously done a number on his tough-guy image. He went straight into begging.
“Please, please don’t kill me. You got the bracelet, just let me go and I’ll never sell anything related to the demons again, I swear.”
He didn’t bother begging Vas. He kept his eyes on me. I rolled my eyes. This type of asshole always thought women were the ones with soft hearts. He should’ve known better.
