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Chapter Fourteen

N ow that I had not one, but two supernatural hit squads with a good reason to corown sort of limited In the end there was really only one place I could take Gard and Hendricks without endangering innocent lives: St Mary of the Angels Church

Which hy I told Thomas to drive us to the Carpenter house

"I still think this is a bad idea," Tho hard, but so far they&039;d barely been keeping even with the snow, ensuring that the routes to the hospitals were clear The streets in some places looked like World War I trenches, snow piled up head-high on either side

"The Denarians know that we use the church as a safehouse," I said "They&039;ll be watching it"

Thorunted and checked the rearviewHendricks&039;s eyes were shut, his htly open I didn&039;t bla watch over a wounded coht, and I felt like I could have taken a nap, too

"What were those things?" Thohts of the Blackened Denarius," I replied "You remember Michael&039;s sword? The nail worked into the hilt?"

"Sure," Thomas said

"There are two others like it," I said "Three swords Three nails"

Thomas&039;s eyes widened for a moment "Wait Those nails? From the Crucifixion?"

I nodded "Pretty sure"

"And those things hat? Michael&039;s opposite number?"

"Yeah Each of those Denarian bozos has a silver coin"

"Three silver coins," Tho a blank"

"Thirty," I corrected hi sound "Thirty?"

"Potentially But Michael and the others have several of them hidden away at the moment"

"Thirty pieces of silver," Tho

I nodded "Each coin has the spirit of one of the Fallen trapped inside Whoever possesses one of the coins can draw upon the Fallen angel&039;s power They use it to shapeshift into those forms you saw, heal wounds, all kinds of fun stuff"

"They tough?"

"Certifiable nighth to develop soic, too"

"Huh," Thoh the door didn&039;t seely, sure, but he wasn&039;t Super as they have the coins, &039;hard to kill&039; doesn&039;t begin to describe it"

"Ah," Thomas said "That explains it, then"

"What?" I asked

Thomas reached into his pants pocket and drew out a silver coin a little larger than a nickel, blackened with age, except for the shape of a single sigil, shining cleanly through the tarnish "When I gutted Captain Ugly, this went flying out"

"Hell&039;s bells!" I spat, and flinched away from the coin

Thomas twitched in surprise, and the Hummer went into a slow slide on the snow He turned into it and regained control of the vehicle without ever taking his eyes off ainst the door of the Hu "Look, justjust don&039;t ht?"

He arched an eyebrow "Ooookay Why not?"

"Because if that thing touches your skin, you&039;re screwed," I said "Shut up a second and let loves earlier, when fingering Justine&039;s scarf He hadn&039;t touched the coin with his skin, or he&039;d already kno much trouble he was in Good But the coin was a ly suspected that the entity trapped inside it ht be able to influence the physical world around it in subtle ways-enough to go rolling away from its former owner, for exa orit

Containment It had to be contained I fu was an old Crown Royal whiskey bag, the one that helddice I du

I already had a glove on nificantly frootten several years before, but it still wasn&039;t what you&039;d call pretty I kept it covered out of courtesy to everyone who ers of my left hand and said, "Put it in here And for God&039;s sake, don&039;t drop it or touch me with it"

Thomas&039;s eyes widened further He bit his lower lip and moved his hand very carefully, until he could drop the inoffensive little disk into the Crown Royal bag

I jerked the drawstrings tight the second the coin was in, and tied the bag shut Then I slapped open the Hu inside, and slaain

Only then did I draw a slow breath and sag back down into my seat

"Jesus," Thomas said quietly He hesitated for a moment and then said, "Harryis it really that bad?"

"It&039;s worse," I said "But I can&039;t think of any other precautions to take yet"

"What would have happened if I&039;d touched it?"

"The Fallen inside the coin would have invaded your consciousness," I said "It would offer you power Teh, it would own you"

"I&039;ve resisted temptation before, Harry"

"Not like this" I turned a frank gaze to hiel, man Thousands and thousands of years old It kno people think It kno to exploit them"

His voice sharpened a little "I come from a family where everyone&039;s an incubus or a succubus I think I know a little so about temptation"

"Then you should kno they&039;d get you" I lowered ive Justine back to you, Thoain"

He stared atsomewhere far back in his eyes Then he turned his head slowly back to the road, his expression slipping into a neutral mask "Oh," he said quietly After a "

"We will," I said "The Church has been up against the Denarians for a couple of thousand years There are lanced down at the ashtray for a second, then dragged his eyes away and glowered at the dented hood of his Huo When I was driving a Buick"

I snorted "As long as you&039;ve got your priorities in order"

"I just uys," Thomas said "But why are they here? Why now?"

"Offhand? I&039;d say that they were out to wax Marcone and prove to the other me us weirdos-I mean, superhumans"

"They&039;re members of the Accords?"

"I&039;d have to look it up," I said "I doubt they&039;re signed on as the &039;Order of Demon-possessed Psychotics&039; But fro, yeah"

Thoet out of it? What does taking Marcone prove?"

I shrugged I had already asked myself the same questions and hadn&039;t been able to coot what it takes to have torn that building apart, and to get around or go through the kind of muscle Marcone keeps around him"

"And what the hell are the Faerie Queens doing getting involved?" Thoain I&039;d already asked myself that, too I hate it when I have to answer my own questions like that

We went the rest of the way to Michael&039;s place in grey-and-white silence

His street was on one of the routes being kept plowed, and we had no trouble rolling right up into his driveway Michael himself was there with his two tallest sons, each of the a snow shovel as they labored to clear the driveway and the sidewalk and the porch of the ongoing snow

Michael regarded the Hu to his sons that made them trade a look with each other, then hurry inside Michael walked down the driveway to my side of the truck and looked at ers in the backseat

I rolled down the"Hey," I said

"Harry," he said cal here?"

"I just had a conversation with Preying Mantis Girl," I said I held up a notebook, where I&039;d scribbled down the angelic sigil while it was still fresh in riht be in town"

"Oh?" I asked

The front door of the house opened, and a large, dark-skinned man appeared, dressed in blue jeans and a dark leather jacket He wore a gy casually inside it He paced out into the cold and the snow as if he&039;d been wearing full winter-weather gear, rather than casual traveling clothes, and stalked over toward us

Once he got close enough to rin, and he hurried to stand beside Michael "Harry!" he said, his voice deep, rich, and thick with a Russian accent "We rin "Sanya," I replied, offering h force to crack bones "What are you doing here?"

"Passing through," Sanya said, and hooked a thuht in before they closed the airport Looks like I a for a few days" His eyes went from my face to the notebook, and the pleasant expression on his dark face turned to a brief snarl

"Somebody you know?" I asked

"Tessa," he said "And Imariel"

"You&039;ve ain "Tessa&039;s secondrecruited me Tessa is here?"

"With friends" I sketched the sigil I&039;d seen on the blackened denarius a few moments before and held it up to thelanced at Michael

"Akariel," Michael said at once

I nodded "He&039;s in a Crown Royal bag in the ashtray"

Michael blinked Sanya too

"I hope you have one of those holy hankies I&039;d have taken it to Padre Forthill, but I figured they&039;d have him under observation I need someplace quiet to hole up"

Sanya and Michael traded a long, silent look

Sanya frowned, exa my brother "Who is the vampire?"

I felt Thomas stiffen in surprise As a rule, even members of the supernatural world can&039;t detect what a vampire of the White Court truly is, unless he&039;s actually in thevae for his kind, and they rely upon it every bit as much as a leopard does its spots

But it can be tough to hide things froht of the Cross Maybe it&039;s a part of the power they&039;re given, or maybe it&039;s just a part of the personality of the men chosen for the job-don&039;t ask me which I&039;hty, and I swim those waters with extreme caution and as uys rarely get to sneak up on a Knight of the Cross, and that the Knights have a propensity for bringing the truth to light

I aze for a moment and said, "He&039;s with me He&039;s also the reason Akariel has a date with the inside of a vault"

Sanya seelanced at Michael, who gave a grudging nod

The younger Knight pursed his lips thoughtfully at that, his gazeto the backseat

Hendricks had woken up, but he hadn&039;t moved He watched Sanya with steady, beady eyes

"The wo "What is she?"

"Hurt," I said

Sorin flickered over his features "Da, of course You would not bring her here if you thought her a danger"

"Not to you or ht have a different opinion"

Sanya&039;s eyebroent up "Is that how she ounded?"

"That was after she ounded"

"Really" Sanya peered a little more closely at Gard

"Back off," Hendricks rumbled "Coain and displayed open palms to Hendricks

Michael nodded to Thomas "Pull the truck around to the back of the house With all this snow piled up it should be hidden from the street"

"Thank you, Michael," I said

He shook his head "There&039;s a heater in the workshop, and a couple of folding cots I&039; the children to this"

"I understand"

"Do you?" Michael asked gently He thuhtly, and waved Thomas toward the back of the house

Twenty minutes later ere all warm, if a bit crowded in Michael&039;s workshop

Gard lay on a couch, sleeping, her color i almost visibly Hendricks sat doith his back to the wall beside Gard&039;s cot, presu within a few s, was off rounding up food

I watched as Michael wrapped Akariel up in a clean white hankie e a prayer under his breath the whole while Then he slipped the hankie into a plain wooden box, also adorned with a silver cross "Excuse me," he said "I need to secure this"

"Where do they keep those things?" Thoed "Soazillion identical boxes, probably"

Thomas snorted

"Don&039;t even think it," I said "It isn&039;t worth it"

Thoers over the white scarf "Isn&039;t it?"

"You sa these things operate They&039;llbad would happen to Justine Or they&039;d wait until they had you hook, line, and sinker and you were theirbad would happen to Justine"

Thoot one demon in my head already What&039;s one ot one monster in your head already," I countered "She barely survived it"

He was still for a ainst the workshop wall, a gesture of pure frustration Wood splintered, and a little cold air whooshed in

"Maybe you&039;re right," he said in a dull voice

"Holy crap," I said An idea crystallized in my head, and a chill went down htly "What?"

"I just had a really unpleasant thought" I gestured at Marcone&039;s exhausted retainers "I don&039;t think the Denarians took Marcone so that they could erase hied "Why else would they do it?"

I bitin uncomfortable flips

"Because," I said, "maybe they want to recruit him"

Chapter Fifteen

T ho beauties while I went inside to talk with Michael and Sanya at the Carpenter kitchen table

I laid all the cards down See above regarding the general futility of lying to Knights of the Cross-and besides, they&039;d both

"So," I said, "I think we&039;ve got to et Marcone away from them before he&039;s forced to join up"

Michael frowned and folded his broad, work-scarred hands on the table before hi to tell them no?"

"Marcone&039;s scum," I said "But he&039;s his own scum He doesn&039;t work for anyone"

"You are sure?" Sanya asked, frowning thoughtfully

"Yeah," I said "I think that&039;s why they wanted to grab Hendricks and Gard instead of killing them So they could force him to take the coin or they&039;d kill his people"

Michael grunted "It&039;s a frequently used tactic"

"Not for Tessa," Sanya said, his voice absolutely certain "She prefers to find those already well ards their potential talents as a secondary factor to raw desire"

Michael acceded the point with a nod "Which wouldthe orders"

Sanya showed his teeth in a sudden, fierce grin "Nicodelanced at Michael and changed it to, "Fudgesicles Nicodemus nearly killed us all last time he was in town And he did kill Shiro"

Both of the Knights nodded Michael bowed his head and murmured a brief prayer

"Guys," I said, "I know that your first instincts tend to be to stand watch against the night, turning the other cheek, and so on But he&039;s here with maybe twice the demon-power he had on his last visit If ait for hireed," Sanya said firmly "Take the initiative Find him and hit the snake before he can coil to strike"

Michael shook his head "Brother, you forget our purpose We are not given our power so that we can strike down our eneht deserve it Our purpose is to rescue the poor souls trapped by the Fallen"

"Nicodemus doesn&039;t want to be rescued," I said "He&039;s in full collaboration with his de about our duty," he said "Anyone, even Nicodemus, can seek rede as they have breath enough to ask forgiveness"

"I don&039;t suppose a pair of sucking chest wounds could get us around that?" I asked him "Because if they would, I&039;d be tickled to provide thehter

Michael smiled, but it was brief and strained "My point is that we can undertake such an aggressive move in only the direst of circumstances"

"Faerie stands poised on the brink of an internal war," I said "Which would probably reignite the war between the Council and the Vaht add One of the erous men I&039;ve ever known is about to have involuntary access to the knowledge and power of a Fallen angel, which would give the Denarians access to major influence within the United States Not to mention the serious personal consequences forit happen" I looked back and forth between the two Knights, and held up one hand straight over my head "I vote dire All in favor?"

Michael caught Sanya&039;s hand on the way up, and pushed it gently back down to the table "This isn&039;t a de"

Sanya frowned for aat me But then he settled back in his chair, a silent statement of support for Michael

"You want to talk to the me"

"I didn&039;t say that," Michael replied "But I will not set out to simply murder them and have done It&039;s a solution, Harry But it isn&039;t good enough"

I settled back in my chair and rubbed atthere "Okay," I said quietly, trying to"What ifI set up a talk? Could you be lurking nearby for backup?"

Michael sighed "There&039;s a measure of sophistry in that You know they&039;ll try to betray you if it seee"

"Yeah And it&039;ll be their choice to do it That&039;s what you&039;re looking for, isn&039;t it? So them a choice about what to do? Preferably in souys killed as possible?"

He looked pained, but Michael nodded