Without waiting to see if they agreed, I set out to walk five blocks in the direction the first map-reader had indicated. In seconds, they'd caught up to me. Luc took my hand and walked beside me while Michael led the way and Gabe brought up the rear. "Are you protecting me?" I asked. "This is how you'd form us up if we were headed to battle.
Gabriel chuckled behind me. "With all the effort Raph is exerting to delay us, we better keep you safe."
"I don't think he'd hurt her," Luc said. "He knows that would be his death sentence."
"Taking my daughter was his death sentence," I replied. And as I said the words, I knew they were true. I'd kill him for this.
We worked our way up the busy city streets, the grass warming in my hand the whole way until a snarl caught our attention. We'd broken out of the crowd and had walked an entire block without seeing another living soul. "Something is weird," I whispered.
My guys had gathered close. Lucifer sucked in a deep breath. "Do you sense that?" he asked.
As soon as the words left his mouth, I did. "Why is there a Djinn in New York?" I whispered.
Lucifer shrugged and stepped forward. "Reveal yourself," he boomed. Hopefully, the Djinn wouldn't be able to sense how little power Luc and I had.
The small, multi-colored demon popped into view, prostrate on the ground in front of Lucifer. Djinn were not automatically demons, but over the years most had proved their loyalties and been shifted from a neutral being to either a demonic or angelic one. This one was, of course, demonic. Angelic Djinn were typically regarded by humans as guardian angels. They liked to interfere in human lives to keep them safe from harm, and on occasion helped them acquire wealth or worldly power.
"Why are you here?" Lucifer asked. We kept a close reign on our demonic Djinn, only allowing them short stints on Earth, and never when Luc and I were in our Earth cycles. My other brother, Asmodeus, who kept things running smoothly in our absence, never would've sanctioned any demon's visit to the Earth realm while we were there. I was not as close to him as I was with Michael and Gabriel. He tended to keep to himself more.
"My lord, I went for a walk near the gates as I like to do in the evenings, and what surprise did I see but a hole there! When I walked through, I was transported here. How may I serve thee, great Lord of the Dark?" His squeaky voice negated any real respect he tried to infer with his words. He didn't mean a word of it.
Luc and I exchanged a long look. "Djinn," I said in a harsh voice. "Lead us here." I held out the map and pointed to the spot we needed to get to. By my estimation, we still had two blocks to go before we reached the spot the man had said to get off the subway. He'd advised us to walk the rest of the way.
"At once," he said. "That is easy." He scurried in front of us, and when we left the quiet area of the neighborhood, he darted between the feet and legs of the humans, but they never noticed him.
"Do you recognize the Djinn?" I whispered to Lucifer.
He nodded. "Yeah, I've used him before."
"He needs to go back to Hell."
Luc grunted. "At once."
We followed the colorful demon for another four blocks before he darted into an alley. "This is the spot on the map," he said. "May I be of service?"
"No," Lucifer said. "Not here. Go back to Hell and do everything in your power to close or hide any holes or cracks in the wall."
A look of disgust passed over the Djinn's face, but he bowed low. "As you wish."
"He didn't want to leave," Michael said after the small demon disappeared.
The grass was nearly hot in my hand. "We're close," I whispered. "This thing is getting hot."
Michael held out his arm. "Lead the way."
I started forward, but the grass didn't heat and the warmth faded very quickly. It took a while to be sure I'd gone too far or not far enough based on how it heated.
By the time we were pretty sure we'd found the right street, the sun had begun to peek through the buildings.
"Three options," I whispered, looking at the three remaining structures we hadn't ruled out. The amount of time it had taken us to do this was disheartening. Raphael knew we were in the city, based on how hard it had been for us to get this far. He'd had plenty of time to run again.
With a sigh, I stopped in front of the closest building and waited. The grass didn't change. I walked forward, ignoring the people beginning to stir and come out of the doors. The grass got warmer, but not much.
"It's this one," I whispered, pointing to the last building on the block. Running for the door, we caught it as someone came out. Nice that we didn't have to figure out how to get the door open without drawing attention to ourselves.
The grass became uncomfortably hot. We ran for the elevator. Out of service. "Of course," I muttered, then without a word, we went in the door beside the elevator and I sprinted as fast as I could up the stairs.
The blade of grass grew warmer and warmer, until, by the sixth floor, I gasped in pain, and not because my human body was protesting all the stairs. Even though Connie had been all about fitness, six stories at a sprint wasn't easy.
