Monsters do exist.
Chapter 16
Ash was piling weapons onto the coffee table and Vero was checking their sharpness and firing mechanisms before packing each blade and gun into a canvas duffel. Evie meanwhile was taking out her frustration on the punch bag, imagining it was Victor’s face.
‘I told you we couldn’t trust him,’ she said, whacking the bag so hard her fist almost tore a hole right through it. ‘He’s probably halfway to Panama by now. No way he’s going to stick around now he knows I’m out to kill him.’
‘Victor’s not going anywhere,’ Vero remarked. ‘He might be a total mentalist, but at the end of the day he’s a Hunter all the way. It’s his life. He’s going to stay around until the last unhuman is dusted.’ She zipped up the duffel and walked over to Evie. ‘He said he’d get in touch in a day or two, once he’s found the lair. And besides, we need to hit the streets downtown and do some cleaning up.’
Evie cracked her knuckles. Her shoulders were aching. Sleeping on the sofa hadn’t done her back much good. But punching the bag had eased some of her frustrations.
‘Here,’ Vero said, tossing something at her.
Evie caught it left-handed. It was a bottle of lighter fluid.
‘Let’s go have ourselves a little party,’ Vero said to her with a grim smile.
They drove through the streets of downtown in silence. Evie toyed with the shadow blade on her lap even as her thoughts strayed to her mother back in Riverview. She reached into her pocket and reluctantly pulled out her cell phone. She had had over a dozen messages from her mum so far and several hundred missed calls. Guilt was starting to feel very much like taking a bath in Mixen acid. She tapped out a perfunctory reply saying she was fine and not to worry, hit send and then switched off her phone and put it back in her pocket.
Through the gap in the front seats she watched Ash lean across and kiss Vero’s neck, before resting his hand on her knee. Evie’s stomach twisted and tears burnt hot and unwelcome behind her eyes. She turned her head away and locked eyes with her reflection in the side window. How could she be jealous of Vero? Vero, who had lost her sister and Cyrus? She should be glad that Vero had Ash to take care of her – not jealous because it threw her own loneliness into relief. But god, she missed Lucas in that moment. Missed the feel of his hand curling around the nape of her neck. Missed his lips, feverish and cool at the same time, sending every cell in her body into a state of shock.
Lost in thought, she didn’t at first notice the Bradbury building up ahead. When she did, her knee, which had been bouncing up and down, stilled instantly and all thoughts of Lucas trailed away. She leant forward, her senses buzzing as though she’d been tasered and her heart rate amplifying.
‘Mixen and Thirsters,’ she said, pointing towards the sidewalk in front of the building, where a group of them stood.
‘And a half-naked homeless guy,’ Ash added, pointing to the other side of the street.
Vero screeched to a stop, swerving halfway across the road. Evie flung open her door, a rip tide of adrenaline cranking through her system. She had assessed the entire scenario in the second it took for all four unhumans on the sidewalk to turn their heads towards them.
There were two Mixen demons – obvious because of the green colour of their skin – and two Thirsters. The half-naked homeless guy seemed to have made the sensible decision to scram.
Evie felt Vero and Ash flanking her. She glanced sideways quickly at Ash, who had a flame-thrower on his shoulder like a machine gun, and then at Vero, who was wielding Victor’s shadow blade like an Olympic torch. Evie felt the beautifully light heft of her own shadow blade and smiled. This was going to be fun.
The three of them strode across the road. The unhumans watched them, intrigued, and then moved – spacing themselves out – grins spreading across their faces. Ash was right about the suspension of the revelation law. These guys didn’t care who saw them. Evie caught the wet glint of incisors, still dripping with blood, and a thrill ran through her. She upped her pace till she was almost running to meet them.
On the bright side there was no traffic –