The fae moved toward her, but froze when a door opened on the roof of the building behind her. Footsteps pounded against asphalt.
“Halt,” Jeremiah said. He didn’t agree with Juliana’s shoot first policy.
The fae’s lips twitched in the semblance of a smile. “Be seein’ you, Hound.” Both hosts leaped off the side of the building to the street five stories below, probably breaking several bones in the process. The demons could heal anything short of death, however, and the hosts would be up and gone in a matter of moments.
Jeremiah started barking orders into his radio, telling the units below where the suspects had gone.
“No!” Juliana took a breath and reined in the panic in her voice. “Tell them to follow, but not to engage.”
“What? Why?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “They’re both demon-ridden and that wasn’t just any wolf. That was Nathaniel.”
Jeremiah’s eyes widened as he radioed her instructions.
Nathaniel in the control of a demon. She never thought she’d know a host. Never thought she’d feel this weight of responsibility to save him if she could. And if she couldn’t...well, that didn’t bear thinking about. She had no choice. There was no alternative.
On her side, Nathaniel was cursed hard to kill. She counted on that fact to keep him alive until she figured out how to get the demon out of him.
Chapter Five
Juliana and Jeremiah met back up at street-level in front of the buildings. He gestured to her arm. “You okay?”
She clenched her teeth, ignoring the blazing pain and her blood dripping onto the pavement. “Wonderful.”
Another agent ran up to them. “We lost them, sir.”
She hadn’t really expected them to be able to keep up with the demons, but she’d hoped they might at least get a good idea where they headed. “What about the harpies?”
The Agency used harpies for air surveillance. Jeremiah laid a hand against his earpiece. Juliana didn’t wear one. She couldn’t tune out the constant barrage of chatter from everyone working a case. If anyone needed to get hold of her, she had her phone and Jeremiah was usually within shouting distance.
Jeremiah shook his head. “They trailed them to a building several blocks from here. Ground search turned up nothing.”
Of course it did. Juliana closed her eyes and ran a hand through her hair, gripping the ends. She tugged slightly, the pain helping her focus. Scenarios ran through her head of how the situation could pan out. None of them good.
“Um...ma’am?”
She cracked open one eye to glance at the agent who looked like he was about twelve years old. She flashed her gift on long enough to read his signature, ignoring the stab of pain it brought with it. Selkie. That explained the youthful appearance. “Yes?”
“You’re bleeding.”
She arched a brow. “That’s very astute of you.”
“Excuse me?”
“Astute. Means observant.”
“Just because you’re upset about our wolf doesn’t mean you get to pick on the rookies,” Jeremiah chastised.
He was right, not that she was willing to admit it. “Whatever.” She blew out her breath in frustration. Stretching her head to the sides, she attempted to loosen up the muscles in her neck.
The medic approached and she held out her arm. She didn’t have time for this, but it was a necessity. It wouldn’t do any good for her to walk around leaking blood wherever she went.
They needed to find Nathaniel before something else happened to him. Something more permanent than being demon-ridden. And they needed to find the demons before they got further into their rampage. And they would, they always did.
Ignoring the medic while he worked made it easier for her to pretend it didn’t hurt. That’s precisely what she did until he lifted a large needle from his bag. She jerked her arm away, grimacing when pain ran straight up to the base of her skull. “What, by all the dark gods, is that for?” she asked, pointing at the syringe.
The medic frowned. “This? It’ll numb your arm so it won’t hurt while you heal.”
She shook her head. “Absolutely not. I need it to be able to function.”
“Why?” Jeremiah asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
She blinked. “We’re going to Nathaniel’s apartment.”
He studied her for a moment before nodding to the medic. “Put it away. But give her something for the pain. Something that won’t affect her mobility.”
Irritation slithered up her spine. “Seriously? You don’t get to make the decisions for my medical treatment.”
Jeremiah grinned. “Actually, I do. Ben gave orders.”
It sounded like something their boss would do. She looked at the selkie and medic standing side by side. They both nodded. First Thomas, now Ben. Cursed overprotective men always trying to take control of her life. “Just give me a couple of low-grade pain meds,” she instructed. “I need to keep my wits about me.”
Jeremiah nodded again and she growled. The rookie turned his laugh into a cough and stopped completely the instant she turned her glare on him. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Um...yes, ma’am,” he stammered and hurried off.
The medic finished wrapping her arm and handed her two pills. “You’ll be okay for a bit, but that really needs to be examined at the Agency. The pills should take the edge off the pain, but shouldn’t make you tired.”
Yeah, she’d see about that. Nothing ever affected her the way it was supposed to. She popped the tablets in her mouth and swallowed them dry.
Jeremiah cringed. “I hate when you do that. They’ve got water, you know.”
She shrugged. “Get us a portal.”
He called for one with his earpiece and moments later the blue glow appeared. They stepped through, emerging in front of Nathaniel’s apartment building. Fourteen stories of cold glass and concrete. Juliana had always hated the complete lack of character.
A dozen agents stood in front of the doors. “We’ll be doing a door-to-door sweep. Two per floor, two floors per pair. It’s early, so hopefully we’ll catch people at home,” Juliana told them. “We need to know about anything odd or out of place in the past twelve hours. Ask if they know Walker West and how well. Also find out the most recent time they saw him and where.”
The front door required no code or key, so she walked in leaving the others to trail behind. Her head spun and she honestly wasn’t sure if it was the pills they’d given her or if anxiety was taking its toll. They were so close to Nathaniel’s home. To some possible answers. If luck were with them they’d find something that would tell them why the demons were summoned and how they could get rid of them. Otherwise, they weren’t any better off than when she first saw the demon on the roof.
A lone guard sat at a small desk in a lobby just as plain as the exterior of the building. His thick glasses and pudgy frame didn’t give Juliana much confidence in his abilities. She showed him her ID. He at least examined it thoroughly before handing it back.
“We need access to Nathaniel West’s apartment.” She gestured behind her. “These agents will be doing a sweep of the building.”
The guard peered over his glasses. “I suppose that’s okay provided they don’t harass any of the tenants, but I’ll need a warrant for the apartment.”
Jeremiah pulled out his phone. She put a hand on his arm to stop him and motioned the other agents to start their search. “I’m listed to have full access to his apartment in case of emergencies, if you’d check. Trust me, this is an emergency.”