Nikki covered my mouth with her hand
after my jaw had dropped open. She put a finger to her
lips, reminding me of the need to be quiet.
What the hell is Reese doing
here? How did she know to come here? I sent her out of the room when I took
Collins’s call. Same with Nikki’s. She may have been able to tail me to
Nikki’s, but she wouldn’t have seen us leave in her car. Forget it. That’s for later.
Need to focus. If she’s lucky, the drug dealers will just kill her. If she’s
very unlucky, Daniels or the fae will deal with her.
I nodded to Nikki and she pulled her
hand away, but she leaned in right next to my ear. “Who is she?” Her whisper
was barely audible.
“Reporter. We gotta get her out of
here.”
Nikki gave me a sidelong glance,
then went back to my ear. “I am confident in my strength, Matthew, but the fae
do not rely on physical strength. Against their magic, I do not know how I
would fare.”
I nodded, pulling out my 9mm. I
quietly ejected the clip, swapping it for one with ordinary bullets. My usual
silver wouldn’t do anything to either the fae or Daniels. I bit my lower lip,
trying to make the mechanism as quiet as possible. The click sounded entirely
too loud for me, but Nikki shook her head in answer to my unspoken question
about the crowd below hearing it.
Next, I pulled something from my
jacket pocket. I hadn’t grabbed many things from my bag in Nikki’s trunk,
preferring to move unencumbered, but this was one of the things. The black hand
bell was weighty, for being made of cast iron. I carefully peeled the off the
tape that held the clapper.
“What is your plan?” Nikki asked.
I looked at her with what I knew
must be a pleading expression. “You’re faster than me. I distract them, maybe
hurt them, and you scoop her up. If you want to pop Daniels on the way just for
fun, I’m all for it.”
“And how will you make your escape?”
“Run like hell?”
“You do not sound confident. I’m
not, and we’re out of time.”
Below, Reese had been pulled in
front of Daniels, who looked at her with malicious delight, and I knew he
wasn’t going to just sample her memories and emotions, he was going to rip the
memories out of her, likely about the how and why she was here.
Can he do that? Can he select
what he wants? Maybe. He coudl ask her questions, get her thinking about what
he wants. Or maybe he just takes everything and sorts through it.
Nikki nodded to me, then kissed me
soundly on the mouth. “Good luck dear one. Do not die, or I shall become very
cross with you.”
I’d say
the same thing, but she’s already dead.