Some poor psychiatrist would get to deal with his temper.
“Angel! Visitors!” Vin yelled.
“It better not be some Bible thumpers,” Angel shouted back. He then said something in Spanish that sounded a lot like cursing.
“Mr. Zamora?” Darren called, as they followed Vin into a messy kitchen. A little politeness would go a long way, especially since they were here to ask Angel to bring in his Native teachers to help in this fight. Darren still wasn’t sure why Kavon had accepted the idea of asking Angel for help, but he suspected it had something to do with the confrontation with Dave.
“Fuck. Is that the FBI?” Angel asked as he came down the back stairs into the kitchen. “What the fuck do you want?”
“To talk to you,” Kavon said. “In private.”
Vin was standing at the stove, but now he turned around with a spatula in his hand. “You mean me, don’t you? You want me to leave, don’t you?” He turned the burner off.
“What? No! This is your house,” Angel said quickly. “Don’t let some pendejos chase you out of your own kitchen.”
Vin smiled. “It’s okay. Lots of people want privacy from me. I’m not good with secrets.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Angel said. “But if you get hungry, you come back down and I’ll kick these assholes out.”
“They helped you and Matt. I like them,” Vin said, and then he headed up the stairs.
“Yeah, you like everyone.” Angel headed for the refrigerator and pulled a soda out. He didn’t offer them anything, though.
“He took his spatula with him,” Darren said. Maybe Matt’s uncle was more disabled than Darren had thought. He seemed to have forgiven Angel or even forgotten about the horrors that had happened in the Luschese home when Angel had been working as an informant.
Angel rolled his eyes. “Whatever. It’s a spatula. We can afford more, and eventually he makes a game out of finding them all and bringing them back down. Now, what do you want, and how fast can I get you out of my house?”
“The FBI paid you a nice sum,” Kavon said as he ran a finger over the high-end granite. Their whole apartment would have fit into this kitchen and great room. Darren cringed internally as Angel’s back went up.
“Yeah.” He crossed his arms. “Of course they tried to cheat me, but Matt helped me find a good lawyer. Apparently, Harvard lawyers are harder to cheat than ex-cons, but I still say cons are less likely to stab you in the fucking back. Bastard took a thirty percent fee. So I repeat—what the fuck do you want?” Angel grabbed some bread out of the open bag on the counter.
Darren decided to speak up before Kavon could piss Angel off more than he already had. They should have brought Les; he was the only one of them to connect with Angel. “Have your Native teachers noticed anything about the Talent world lately?”
Angel grunted and headed to the refrigerator. “I don’t see why I should tell you shit. Native shamans... they ain’t like Talent shamans. It’s a culture thing.” He pulled bologna out and headed back for the kitchen island.
“We have a serious problem,” Kavon said.
“Good,” Angel snapped. “You fuckers deserve some problems.” He slapped a slice of meat onto his bread.
“This is the sort of problem that is going to kill you, along with me and Darren,” Kavon said, “but go ahead and keep throwing the attitude around. We gave you a chance to prove yourself. We trusted you enough to put you on the roll as an informant.”
“You used me,” Angel said. “And throwing around words like ‘kill’ doesn’t impress me.” He took a large bite of his sandwich.
“There are guides, ancient ones,” Darren said. He rushed to give an edited version of the ifrit story. With each passing minute, Angel’s attitude slid away, leaving open-mouthed shock. When Darren got to the part about trying to track Anzu’s human partner, Angel swallowed and dropped the rest of his sandwich onto the island.
“Fuck,” he said softly when Darren stopped.
“That’s how we all feel,” Kavon said. “You have connections with the Native community, and this war is coming fast. We need allies.”
Angel gave a dark laugh. “Yeah. Not just no, but hell no. The Native shamans are not going to come running to white man's rescue. The last time they practiced magic in public, it didn't end well for them. So if they realize this sort of trouble is coming, they'll prepare their communities to go underground when