Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,91
making chess pieces fly through the air over the stone tables and leading people on wild goose chases after hats that appeared to have taken on minds of their own, a white van with an exterminator logo pulled into the public lot. How very fitting.
Four men tramped out, their silver-and-iron protective gear hidden under thick hazmat suits, which I guessed they could pass off as being protection from the supposed wild animal they were here to contain. Any mortal not watching for the glint of metal would have missed the edges of the helmets and vests beneath.
They strode to the area near the rift where the imp had pulled off her pranks and hollered for the nearby patrons to leave for their own safety. When all witnesses had dispersed—other than my shadowkind allies watching from various patches of darkness and me in my perch hidden on the roof of a historic cottage in view of the clearing—they drew out their shiny nets and whips and stalked through the area.
Of course, we didn’t need—or want—them to catch Antic, or any other shadowkind for that matter. We’d only needed them to come. After a thorough search, a vigil while they waited to see if the shadowkind would emerge if they gave it some space, and another scouring of the area, they packed up into their van, muttering about how inconvenient this monster had been.
Little did they know that a few of said monsters were hitching a ride in the shadows attached to their vehicle.
I kept my phone at my side as I waited for the first stage of our plan to come to fruition. Half an hour of pacing later, a text from Ruse appeared on the screen.
We’ve got a loner. He took off the worst of the gear but is still wearing a badge. Come on by and steal it off him for us, my lovely thief?
My pleasure, I wrote back, and passed on the address he gave me to the Uber I hailed.
It was a simple enough operation. I knocked on the door of the guy’s apartment like I just needed to borrow a cup of flour. The moment he opened it, Ruse leapt out of the shadows next to him. The guy startled, his head jerking around, and before he could even see me moving, I’d kicked his legs out from under him. Thorn and Flint emerged to pin his limbs to the floor while I yanked open his button-up to uncover the silver-and-iron badge he’d fixed to his undershirt.
Borrowing my tricks—tsk tsk.
As soon as I’d tossed the toxic metals aside, Ruse started talking in his cajoling tone. “Good day to you, my friend. I’m so sorry about the sudden intrusion. If you’ll give me a moment, I’ll get this all straightened away to attend to your best interests.”
Within minutes, he had our captive laughing at his jokes and beaming eagerly when the incubus told him we desperately needed his help. “I don’t know who’s giving the orders,” he said. “But I can tell you a few locations we’ve worked out of. Maybe someone at one of them can tell you more.”
Ruse smiled. “Perfect. We so appreciate anything you can contribute. I’ll be sure to inform your colleagues what a team player you were.”
We hopped from lead to lead across the afternoon and into the evening. The first several Company dupes had no idea where the big boss might live, but they all knew someone else who was connected to the Company. Finally, our game of leapfrog led us to a woman who’d worked on our Very Important Person’s security detail. After chatting with Ruse for a bit, she coughed up an address in the Financial District, as well as some other choice information.
“I never got the guy’s name,” she said. “Never even saw him. He lives in the penthouse, and I worked outer security, patrolling the block outside. Never had any trouble, but I guess you can’t be too careful with these monsters, especially when he’s helping keep the whole Company organized.” She sighed. “It was an easy gig, that’s for sure. But I got bored and asked to be in on more of the action. Kind of regret it now.”
“We’ve got the building,” Snap said eagerly when we were back in the RV. “Does that mean we can carry out the rest of Sorsha’s plan now?”
“We’ve got to investigate the place first and determine our best point of access,” Thorn said. “It doesn’t sound as though reaching