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 Abaddon."
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 Abaddon 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 fade 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 to my mates, threw open the door beside the elevator and sprinted up the stairs.
The blade of grass grew warmer and warmer, by the sixth floor I was gasping in pain. Six stories at a sprint wasn't easy.
I kept going. My thighs burned and breath came out in bursts, but I made it to the tenth floor before I had to switch to a walk.
Pushing past the pain in my thighs and lower back, and the intense pain in my hand from the grass, I kept going. The blade grew hotter and hotter.
When I topped the very last stair, on the twelfth floor, I stared at a sign. "Penthouse," I read.
Surging forward, I was surprised to be stopped by a hand on my arm.
"My turn to go first," Michael said. He ran through the door with Gabe on his heels, then Luc. I moved slowly, suddenly nervous. As soon as I stepped over the threshold, the blade of grass burst into flames and burned itself out.
Childlike laughter filled my ears. "Thank you," a sweet, innocent voice whispered in my ear. I knew it was the magic from the blade, and as sure as I knew that, I realized it was literal innocence. The innocence of Abel. His childlike ability to believe the best of his brother, trapped in the weapon that had murdered him so many years before.
"Damn," I whispered. "That's heavy shit."
When the laughter faded and the power dissipated, my magic alerted me to the presence of my child. "She's here," I gasped, running down the hall. I didn't know what made me go in the direction I had, but I