“No, I insist.” He took the container, and Sloan’s shoulders slumped. “He’s an asshole. Let me deal with him this time.”
Sloan chuckled. “Language.”
“Sorry, sir.”
“Thank you, Paladin Morrow. I expect to see you running drills this afternoon. Your nighttime restlessness is no excuse for daytime laziness.”
“Of course.” If it would let him leave Sloan’s domineering presence sooner, he’d agree to just about anything.
Sloan turned back the way he’d come, and Isaac wandered over to the jail, letting himself in the cool, underground building. As he descended down the staircase, he opened the container and peeked inside. Scrambled eggs, toast, and a sausage link. This must’ve come from the cafeteria.
“Wakey wakey,” he called as he strolled down the aisle between the empty cells. “Today’s your lucky day, shithead. It’s eggs and?—”
He stopped abruptly in front of Weston’s cell. The boy’s body was a bloody smear on the floor, twisted and broken. Blood painted the walls, the floor, the bars. A pool of it had trickled out into the aisle, congealing just shy of his boots. Someone had come in here and made his dream a reality. It wasbeautiful.
Panic followed just as quickly. Would he be held responsible for this?
Before he could move, an arm cinched tight around his middle and fingers circled his throat, cutting off his air. He dropped the container, his hands flying to his attacker’s.
“It’s notyourlucky day, shithead,” a sinistervoice growled in his ear. “Sounds like you’ve got some things to answer for. Why don’t you come with me?”
The world around them blurred. Color and shadow flashed past his face, dizzyingly fast. All the while, the hand around his throat was unrelenting. His lungs screamed in pain, and his vision went dark around the edges. The world finally came to a nauseating stop in a wide, open room. There were only a handful of lights in the middle of the room, twinkling whimsically. Was that a disco ball…?
And then everything went dark.
Chapter 2
Shadrach
Shadrach’s apartment was quiet,the distant sounds of the city muted beyond the walls of his basement apartment. He was staring up at the dark ceiling of his bedroom when the phone rang. It was one of very few people. Since he’d fallen in with theSentinels, as they called themselves now, a lot of his connections in the demon world had dried up. There were lines in the sand on both sides now. The prophet, Ira, claimed things would get easier in the future, and Shadrach supposed he was probably right. He was ancient enough to know that time was like a flowing river. Things were constantly changing. Their little world was in flux right now, but it wouldn’t always be.
The waiting was boring, though.
He brought the phone to his ear. “What?”
“Come to the Rink.” It was Talon. He was the closest thing Shadrach had to a brother, but he’djustlaid down. Whatever trouble the Sentinels had gotten into now, it could wait a few hours, surely.
“Do I have to?”
“I’ve captured a paladin.”
Well. That was far more interesting than laying here and trying to sleep the day away. “I’ll be there in five.”
He hung up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His basement apartment was the height of luxury, and most of all, he appreciated that no daylight snuck in through superfluous windows. He dressed in complete darkness, pulling on a pair of black slacks and a smooth, buttery soft button-down. Smoothing his hair back with one hand as he pocketed his phone, he teleported from his apartment to the Rink.
The Rink—a literal skating rink that the Sentinels had claimed as their own—had become a base of operations. There was almost always someone there, which made it all the more surprising when Shadrach arrived and found Talon alone, for once without his precious human, Alex, and pacing out on the training mats that used to be the skating floor.
“Where’s the paladin?” Shadrach asked.
Talon pointed toward the back rooms. His dark hair was mussed. He wore dark-wash jeans and a fitted black shirt. His favorite leather jacket was draped over the half-wall that separated the training floor from the arcade area that was now the meeting space. “In one of the storage rooms. I moved out the boxes and tied him to a chair.”
“Why did you capture a paladin? You know the humans will protest.” For some reason they still cared about the members of their former guild. It was why they’d charged into battle two days ago and put down the kalmach that had attacked the Paladin Guild. He doubted they would be happy about Talon kidnapping one of them.
“That’s why I calledyou,” Talon replied. Impatient and snappish as always.
Shadrach suppressed an amused smile. “What do you want me to do about it?”
Talon stopped pacing and braced his hands on his hips. “I know they won’t like it. But when I went to the guild to kill Weston?—”
