Demon's Trust (The Chronicles of Arcayos #1) - Raven Dark Page 0,4
I catch sight of pointed fangs. My heart is trying to beat its way out of my chest.
The man in black reaches out one huge hand toward me. I draw back, my breathing harsh in my ears.
He halts, but the look on his face tells me he isn’t worried about a bullet. The medallion is still glowing, but it isn’t catching the sunlight. The symbol pulses with a whitish glow, except it’s more intense, and beating faster. He visibly winces, letting out a soft hiss, like a cat hearing a sound that’s too loud.
Sirens wail from outside. Claire must have managed to call the police before those assholes showed up. The man in black lifts his head, going unnaturally still.
He leaps into the air, back the way he came.
I look up. He’s gone.
How the hell can that be? There’s no hole in the ceiling, nothing that explains where he went. He’s just gone, as if he’d never been there at all.
Silence again.
My eyes drop to the room. For the first time, I take in the scene around me. The bloody carpet and the red splatters on the walls. The bodies, both headless corpses, two pairs of dead eyes staring sightlessly up at me from Claire’s living room floor. Claire’s lifeless body crumpled in the corner, and Mister’s eyes gleaming from under a shelf.
My whole body is shaking. What the fuck was he? My throat tightens, my eyes stinging. Three people dead, the killer got away, and I didn’t stop it.
I stagger to my feet, unlock the front door, and stumble outside.
Two squad cars barrel down the road that leads to Claire’s driveway, sirens blaring. Before they can get close enough to see, I go around to the side of the house and retch.
My hand trembles as I wipe my mouth. I make my way back to the front of the house.
“Caw!”
I jolt. A raven shoots up from the living room windowsill, wings aflap, feathers scattering in its wake. It zooms straight at my head.
I duck, covering my head with my hands, dodging the bird’s kamikaze attack. The raven wheels off into the air and disappears into the blinding sunlight.
A shudder races up my spine.
The squad cars pull up, and the officers rush to me.
I throw on a game face and give them a wave. Yep, I’m fine. Just fucking fine.
I’m hardly even shaking when the cops start in with their questions.
2
A Debt Owed
Chance, New York, one year later
“Criminals have no consideration, you know.” Julie leans down to the open window of my car, sticking her head in.
Her heart-shaped face and the curls that frame it are reduced to a silhouette in the encroaching darkness. She drags on her cigarette, causing the tip to glow bright orange in the shadows.
“You’d think if Ricky’s really trying to help us out, he’d at least show up on time to let us collar these assholes,” she adds.
I laugh. “How rude of him. We’ll have to arrest his low-life ass instead of letting him walk.”
Leaning over in the driver’s seat, I pop open the door to the Junk Pile. Julie tosses her cig, waving the smoke away. She climbs in and shuts the door, setting her coffee in the tray on the dash. “Come on, you little fuck,” she mutters. “We haven’t got all night.”
I lean forward, peering out her window at the clearing, then glance behind us down the path we’re sitting on to her car parked right behind mine. Trees tower on either side of the path, hiding us from view of anyone who might appear in the clearing, but allowing us to see the open field easily. Other than us, this part of Hollow Park is deserted.
“Ricky isn’t known for being punctual.” I pick up my coffee from the tray, take a sip, and spit the cold, vile shit out into the cup. I put the cup back in the holder, splashing a little of the coffee onto my glove. “Every time I arrange a meet with him, he’s late.”
“Any chance something happened to him?”
“You mean did Ritter catch on and take him out?” I wipe my glove on a napkin.
“Yeah. If Ritter is the one pulling these robbers’ strings, he’ll kill Ricky if he knows he’s talking to us.”
“I doubt Ritter knows. Ricky’s a fucking weasel, but he’s good at keeping secrets when it’s his own neck on the line.”
“Well, then he’s ghosted on us. This is ridiculous, Cass. We’ve been sitting here for three hours.”