Page 83 of Bent Out of Shade
20
If I hadn’t gone pokingat the past like a kid taking a stick to a snake, the angel would remain locked up nice and tight forever. Clearly Dumah hadn’t staged his jailbreak yet, otherwise we’d be flooded with dybbuks. So, what was he waiting for?
Would I go down in history as the person who’d doomed us all? Would there be anyone left to record history when an angel with a grudge and control of all dybbuks returned on a massive revenge quest? Even if he had nothing against humans and merely wanted to visit hurt upon all his smarmy angelic brethren, we’d be the casualties.
Shivering, I wrapped my arms around my thighs, but there was no time to curl up paralyzed with a blanket thrown over my head because someone started banging on my front door.
As my distress was using up most of my brain function, I didn’t immediately process why some high-powered female lawyer in a sharply tailored navy pinstripe suit stood on my stoop, until she barked at me in a raspy New Yorker accent to get a move on already.
No oversize red glasses, outlandish outfit, or black leather? “Am I missing some psychological gambit?”
“Are you going to stand there blabbing or are we going to deal with Zev?” Tatiana said.
My head was reeling, I was in pain, tired, and still wearing yesterday’s clothes, but the stubborn set of her shoulders said it was now or never. “Sabrina’s shadow?” I said, needing one piece of good news.
Tatiana shook her head.
Right. I crawled into the front seat of her car, happy for once with her lurching, overbraking, traffic-lights-are-just-a-suggestion driving, because it was a much-needed distraction.
Then Ryann’s call came in. I debated ignoring it, but really, how much worse could this conversation be than handing a fallen angel the key to his prison?
My sigh turned into a cough. Did Dumah still need me, or, rather, my Banim Shovavim magic to call him forth? Was that why he’d summoned me, and if I kept refusing to meet, would he send assassins after me like he’d done with Mom and Dad?
Had Arlo been working for Dumah? Was that why the three angels tortured the Banim Shovavim man? Had freeing Dumah been Arlo’s way of “flying with the angels” since he’d never specified it was Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sammaneglof whom he’d wanted to fly with?
I dropped the phone before I hit answer.
Tatiana looked over at me. “What’s wrong with you?” She didn’t just glance like a normal driver, she kept staring until a honk forced her attention back on the road.
Numb, I rested my head against the glove compartment.
Would the agony of being torn apart and reformed into a twisted tangle of light like Arlo be the thing that drove me mad? Or would the angels ensure I kept just enough presence of mind to feel every second of that torment?
Maybe Pyotr could give me a plant?
A strangled laugh caught in my throat. Could angels cross wards?
The shrill ring of my phone threw me out of my head. I checked the screen and reluctantly scooped it off the floor mat. “Hi, Ryann.”
“Want to tell me the real reason why Eli quit as my liaison on these murders?” Her voice had an uncharacteristic edge to it.
I twisted a lock of hair around my finger. “He was working with you? I had no idea.”
A door slammed on her end. “Are you involved in this? Is your new client, Vincenzo BatXoha, up to something?”
“Vincenzo wasn’t here when the killings started.”
“Don’t play stupid. He has plenty of accomplices to carry out orders, and he’s hardly a pillar of society.”
“There’s not a ton of career choices for vamps, though, is there?” I smacked my hand against the dashboard. “Zev was a rabbi before he was turned. Vincenzo could have been a heroic firefighter for all we know, but none of that matters because those doors are closed to them once they change.” Sabrina’s career was definitely over. “Imagine the world we could live in if Lonestars helped magic be accepted instead of hiding it?”
Tatiana rubbed my shoulder, miraculously keeping her eyes on the road.
Ryann sucked in a sharp breath on her end of the call. “So help me, if you’re protecting him from facing murder charges—” She broke off with a frustrated snarl so loud that, even though she wasn’t on speakerphone, Tatiana hit the brakes.
In the middle of the street.
We were flung against our seat belts to a screech of brakes behind us, and I braced for impact.
