Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,21
own power. A few moments later, I had two helpers scrambling to shove keys into as many locks as they could. Which was a good thing, because the heat blazing from my hands was starting to rush through the rest of me with unsettling intensity.
“What’s this about?” I heard Omen ask. I glanced over my shoulder just long enough to see that he’d stepped into the hidden room and was peering at a map that showed the whole world. “What do these markings indicate?”
One of the scientists sucked in a shaky breath. “We can’t—we’re not supposed to—”
“To hell with that. Ruse, make them want to tell me.”
The incubus clapped his hands. “My good friend Justin, I need your services for a moment.”
The Tiger King guard shoved his key ring toward me—I reined in my power as quickly as I could so I wouldn’t melt the thing—and hurried to help his new favorite person. The ripping of fabric told me someone’s protective badge had been removed from their clothing in a violent fashion. I checked the numbers on the keys, jammed another into a lock, and hurled the cage open as quickly as I could.
Snap had lingered in the room, watching us, his expression still hazy. I glanced at him and offered as much reassurance as I could manage. “We’ll get out of here with you as soon as we have all the other shadowkind free. Just hang tight.”
“Hang tight,” he echoed in a faint but curious voice.
Figurative language wasn’t the devourer’s strong point. “Stay there,” I said. “You’ll be safer leaving the building with the rest of us.”
Ruse had been speaking in cajoling tones to the scientist his guard had disarmed. Omen spoke up again, his voice on the verge of a snarl. “Explain the map to me. What do these blue marks mean?”
“Oh, those are the locations of Company facilities,” the woman replied in a much chirpier voice than before. “And the red dots indicate areas where we’ve detected recent shadowkind activity. It helps us quickly identify patterns and decide who should investigate.”
“They’re not just here in the US. You’ve got polka dots all over Europe as well.”
“Yes. That’s where the Company started, as I understand it. The president of operations runs everything from over there.”
Wait, the Company of Light was run from someplace overseas? We’d thought we’d have to go all the way to San Francisco to deal with the ultimate head honcho… I hadn’t bargained for a trip across the ocean.
Neither had Omen, clearly. His voice came out with a sharp edge of sarcasm. “Wonderful. Where ‘over there’?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never talked to him directly. I got the impression he travels around a lot. With a mission this crucial, how could he stick to just one place?”
Omen swore under his breath. I wrenched open the last of the smaller cages. “Are you done with her yet?” I called. “We need these bigger ones opened.”
The scientist sprang into action before Ruse even needed to prod her. He must have done quite a job on her with his hocus pocus.
“I can control the locks from the computers,” she said, bending over a keyboard. Her colleague made an incoherent sound where he was sprawled on the floor—under the charmed guard, who’d taken a seat on the guy’s back.
One cage door whined open, and then another. Thorn cleared his throat. He swung his hand toward a row of monitors mounted higher on the wall. “These TVs, they show what’s real—what’s happening now?”
This time Omen swore louder. Whatever he’d seen there, he didn’t like it. “Unfortunately, yes. You, open those last two. Everyone else, let’s go. We’ve got a lot more jackasses incoming from the Company than I’d like.”
It was hard to tell whether all of the creatures had left or only retreated into the nearest shadows. “Out, out, all of you!” I called to them. More fire stirred in my chest at the thought of our enemies closing in on us.
Ruse hollered at his charmed allies. “Head out there in front of us—divert the attackers as well as you can!” He grabbed Snap’s wrist, and they vanished into the shadows a moment later. They’d herd any creatures who’d lingered out, I had to assume.
The guards and the charmed scientist dashed for the entrance to the outer museum. I ran after them, Thorn and Omen alongside me. A fresh jab of guilt that I was the only one who couldn’t slip away into the patches of darkness hit me.