“We can drop you off wherever you need to be afterward,” Patrick said on the walk to the car.
“My luggage is probably sitting on a carousel in JFK. It had my service weapon in it.”
“It’ll hopefully still be there.”
“The lockbox is spelled to my fingerprints, so it’s as safe as it can be for right now. I just hate leaving things behind right now.”
“You’re a nice surprise though,” Jono said.
Nadine smiled tightly. “Getting picked up by a couple of gods and traveling through the veil was unexpected, but definitely quicker than sitting in traffic.”
“What was it like past the veil?” Patrick asked.
Nadine didn’t answer until they were in the car and on their way, her silence ward long since broken. “The veil is thin. Ragged. Like it’s being ripped apart from the other side layer by layer. I know it’s always thinner around this time of year and we get more incursions from other planes, but this seemed different. Itfeltdifferent.”
Jono grimaced as he maneuvered the Mustang past the last police line a block and a half away from their home. “That’s what the gods warned us about.”
Everyone was quiet for a few more minutes as Jono kept to the speed limit on the drive away from their flat. The number of police cars in their general area was way more than usual, and he didn’t fancy getting pulled over for going a tad over the speed limit because the police were jumpy. He’d get out of any ticket with two federal agents in the car with him, but they didn’t need any further delay.
They were waiting at a red light when Nadine broke the silence. “I’m sorry about Setsuna.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jono saw Patrick stiffen in the front passenger seat. His hands curled into fists over his thighs, but Jono couldn’t get any scent off Patrick. His personal shields were locked down tighter than ever.
“They were aiming for me,” Patrick said.
“They are always aiming for you.”
“She shouldn’t have been collateral.”
“Everyone is collateral in some way to Ethan’s ego and greed. Even you. Don’t blame yourself for her death. You didn’t pull that trigger.”
Her voice was quiet, a kindness to her tone that didn’t make Patrick look as if he wanted to hit something. Patrick and Nadine had a past with shared experiences Jono would never live through. He only hoped she could give Patrick a sort of comfort that Jono didn’t have the background to give. Patrick could use all the support he could get right now.
“I know,” Patrick finally said as the light turned green.
Believing it would be another story. Jono had spent months trying to get Patrick to unlearn bad habits and recognize he wasn’t alone. What forward momentum they’d made in that area was quickly losing ground after the last couple of weeks.
Jono pressed down on the gas pedal. “Where are we meeting Lucien?”
Patrick slouched a little in his seat. “We aren’t. Carmen is the only one who remained on scene. The rest of the vampires scattered.”
“I bet that’s going to piss off the police.”
“She’s acting under her guise as the human owner of the club.”
“Is it the same alias as the one in London?”
“No. It’s a different one.”
Jono snorted. “She has more names than a bloody titled Catholic.”
“She is originally from Venice, remember?”
Whatever her mysterious background, he knew Carmen wouldn’t be pleased to see them. When they arrived, it took both Patrick’s SOA badge and Nadine’s PIA one to get Jono past the police manning the cordoned-off area. His eyes apparently made everyone jumpy tonight.
Jono winced at the acrid scent of hell still lingering on the air, despite the wind. It had been over a year since they’d fought Tezcatlipoca, but he still remembered what that god smelled like, the same way he’d known Santa Muerte. It wasn’t a coincidence those two immortals had attacked at the same time.
Patrick led the way down the cordoned-off street with Nadine by his side, and Jono stayed close to the pair. As they approached Ginnungagap, Jono could see the front door had been completely ripped off its frame and tossed into the street in pieces. A hole had been punched through the front-facing wall, the damage bigger than a human could pass through.
