“And risk hitting Mira or Gigi?” Chance put his hands on his hips. “As it is, Kerry’s lucky he didn’t!”
“We can get them back,” Kerry said, “but we need to hurry.”
He stood up, staggered a little, and dodged Chance when he reached out to help. That made him lose his balance completely, and he ended up on his butt in the gravel.
“You know who it was?” I looked down at him with narrowed eyes.
With Mira in the wind, I had a short supply of patience and sympathy.
If this was one of his ‘buddies’ from his old world, I’m going to—
“No, but they left this behind.”
He held out his hand. In his sooty palm, a white stone glowed like a mini moon. A human wouldn’t see the light, but anything Diabolical or Divine could.
“What is that?” Jax crouched next to him to examine it. “Some kind of light source?”
“Divinity detector. The only thing on the planet that can sense us in spite of our protection bracelets,” I explained.
“Found it on the one I hit.” Kerry nodded at the pile of ash.
“Wait. Is that— Is that adead person?!” Jax screeched and jumped to his feet.
“That’s what a blast of pure power does.” Kerry shrugged one shoulder, then raised his eyes to mine. “Considering how rare and expensive these are, I’m thinking this was a professional job.”
“They were pros, all right.” My hands locked into hard fists.
“There areprofessionalnephilim kidnappers?” Jax sounded shocked, and I had to remind myself that he didn’t know half of what I did about the Diabolical world.
And I probably know less than a tenth of what Kerry does.
“Raiders. Yeah.” Kerry slipped the stone into his jacket pocket. “Has all the signs. They had a way to find us and took us at the exit so they could get back on the highway right away. And it’s that time of the month.”
“What’s important about the end of the month?” Jax asked.
“Full moon, not the end of the month. Lots of parties and stuff at full moon, so the peddlers need to restock afterwards.”
“I don’t understand.” Jax plowed his hands through his hair, then locked his fingers behind his neck. “Explain better.”
“There are places in this world where you can buy anything. Nephilim, humans, demons, shifters, Hell creatures. You name it, you can find it for sale somewhere. Full moon is party time for the Diabolical world. Afterward, the peddlers are out of stock of everything. That’s when the raiders go on the hunt. Nephilim are the most precious prize, of course, but they’re looking foranythingsomeone else would be willing to buy.”
“What will they do to them? What will they do to my girl?” Jax dropped his arms.
“Nothing, if we can get there fast enough.”
“And where is ‘there’?”
“Only one place to buy and sell nephilim in this area. The Diabolical Market in New York City. Double check it, though. Use that friend tracker app on your phone.”
“While he’s doing that, let’s get the car out of the ditch and see if it’ll run,” I said. “If it does, we can go buy them back.”
“They take a Council credit card?” Chance kicked a rock and it clanged against one of the hubcaps. “Because that’s what we got.”
“Don’t go flashing that thing around where we’re going!” Kerry snarled.
“Howarewe going to pay?” I asked. “I’ve got some money, but it’s in the bank.”
“I gotta make a stop to get it, but I have everything we need,” he assured me. “Jax, help me up.”
