Ruthless (The Seraphim Series Book 2) (17 page)

“Nothing good, Lilliah. Nothing good.” She heard scuffling on the other line. “Look, Lucifer wants you. Every vampire and werewolf on this half of the world is now heading for Vegas. Everyone wants to be the one who catches the angel girl.”

“They ran us off the road,” she cut in before he could carry on. “It all happened too quickly, and I just reacted. Sebastian was getting hit. My ears were ringing. And you know what? I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”

She was met with silence and instantly backtracked. “But everything is okay, really. We’ll leave Vegas tonight. Head back to The Cure?”

“No.” He sounded a lot less angry than he had seconds ago. “New York is crawling with magical shitheads.”

Lilliah had to press her lips together to stop herself from laughing. She’d never heard Benedict swear before. It was like hearing a teacher from school swear.

“You need to find the Keeper. I have no idea why Azrael wants you to find him, but he does.”

“The Keeper, right.” Lilliah paced around the small bathroom. “How exactly do we find this Keeper guy?”

“I’ll do a spell.”

“Okay.” Lilliah was pumped and ready for action. “One more thing. We don’t have a car. We had to leave it at the crash scene. I didn’t think about it then, but could they trace it back to you?”

“No, the car can’t be traced. Let me get a pen.” She waited until Benedict spoke again. “Give me the address of the hotel you’re staying in.”

Lilliah gave him the name, but she had no idea about the address.

“I’ll call someone about the car. A red Toyota will be outside the hotel in twenty minutes. The keys will be in the ignition. Leave Las Vegas. I don’t care where you go, just leave and throw away this phone. Get a new one.”

The line went dead before Lilliah could say anything else. She walked back into the main room. Everyone was looking at her.

“We need to leave Vegas tonight.”

“We don’t have a car,” Rebecca pointed out.

“Benedict’s got it covered. A new one will be outside in twenty minutes. Apparently, Lucifer’s put a goddamn bounty on our heads or something.”

“Good to have that power, you know? To just get a new car at the snap of your fingers?” Sebastian seemed in awe.

“Ha. Lucifer.” Iris smirked.

Lilliah smiled at her brother and frowned at Iris. She knew she’d talk sooner or later, but she hadn’t expected her to say that.

“Yep, Lucifer.” Rebecca stood and gathered her trousers off the floor. “We should stop by Iris’s apartment to pick up some of her clothes and stuff.”

“I’m coming with you guys?” Iris asked after Rebecca had disappeared into the bathroom to change.

“I’m so sorry we dragged you into this.” Lilliah sat on the bed next to Iris. “It was supposed to be a quick drop-by. You’d talk to the angels and we’d get some answers—that was it. Now you’re in danger and your face is on TV. It’s only a matter of time before they realise who you are. Everything’s just turned to crap.”

Iris laughed—really laughed.

Lilliah stared at her, a little bewildered. Had she knocked her head in the crash? “Are you okay?” she finally asked once Iris’s bout of laughter had died down. “Are you hurt in any way?”

She gave the girl a quick once-over, but she didn’t see any obvious damage. Sebastian stood in the far corner, looking at everything but Iris. Lilliah gave him a dirty look that said,
“Thanks for the help, brother.”

“Only a matter of time before they find out who you are.” Iris wiped her tears, still laughing a little bit. “That’s what you said.”

Lilliah nodded.

“Well, yesterday I wasn’t anyone. I was just plain old Iris Walker. No family, not many friends. I don’t think Twitter friends actually count as real friends. Then today, I met an angel—the daughter of the Archangel Michael, no less—and a demon. I’ve been in a car crash caused by two werewolves, and I found out I’m a psychic.” She put her hand over her chest and beamed. “It all sounds so crazy, but it means that I’m
not
crazy. Does that make any sense?”

“Yeah, you’re not crazy.”

Iris was full-on beaming, and Lilliah couldn’t help but smile back. Something big had happened to Iris. Not the finding out she was a psychic, Lilliah guessed—Iris didn’t even fully understand what that meant yet. Something had changed on the inside, and she seemed more alive, almost.

Rebecca walked out of the bathroom, dressed and tying her hair back. “So what’s the plan?” she asked, and then walked around the room, picking up a few items.

“No idea,” Lilliah told her honestly. “Benedict’s doing another spell to find the Keeper. Until then, we just need to get out of Vegas.”

“The Keeper? We know what that guy actually does yet?” Sebastian asked, quickly pulling his T-shirt over his head and changing into a new one.

Lilliah heard Iris’s sharp intake of breath and Rebecca did too.

“Did you have to do that in front of everyone?” Rebecca asked.

Sebastian looked around innocently. “Why not? I don’t have boobs!”

Lilliah and Rebecca shook their heads while Iris giggled.

“I’ll be ready in two seconds,” Iris whispered, clearly a little embarrassed, and headed into the bathroom.

“Remember what we spoke about earlier?” Rebecca turned to Lilliah. “You know, that
thing
you can’t control and that you just feel.”

Lilliah smiled at Rebecca’s way of saying she was jealous of Iris.

“Dipshit there needs to keep his clothes on.” Rebecca motioned at him with her head.

Sebastian looked at her with a slightly irritated look on his face.

“Sorry for showing off my belly button!” He lifted his arms in the air and then dropped them. “You know, if I hadn’t changed and I was wearing the same clothes as I had on the plane, you’d say I was dirty.” He pointed to Lilliah and Rebecca. “Both of you. I just can’t win.”

He headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Rebecca called after him.

“Me and my belly button are going to have a smoke, in private, away from judging eyes,” he joked and closed the door behind him.

Lilliah was still staring at the door. “That boy just isn’t normal.”

“Tell me about it,” Rebecca said. “I like Iris, though. She’s cool.”

“Yeah, me too.” Lilliah finally stood and grabbed some of her clothes from her small bag on the floor. “I just feel bad. We waltzed into her life and messed everything up. Who does that?”

“She seems okay with it, and she’s handling it well. Even after the car accident, I was everywhere. I couldn’t think straight or see straight. Iris was just”—Rebecca snapped her fingers—“on it, you know?”

“She’s okay with it now,” Lilliah reminded her, “but things have just started. We don’t know how long this will go on for. We need to tell her how dangerous this really is. We’re dealing with Lucifer.
Lucifer
.”

“Yeah, I know the guy’s name.” Rebecca looked at the closed bathroom door. “Tell her everything and then let her make up her own mind.”

The door swung open and Iris stood in the doorway, eyes shooting between Lilliah and Rebecca. “I want to come.”

“Did you hear us in there?” Lilliah asked, pointing to the bathroom.

Iris nodded vigorously. “Yeah, I heard. I still want to come.”

Sebastian walked back in. “So there’s a car outside. A guy just dropped it off and then sped off in another car.” He raised his eyebrows. “It was awesome. So, where are we going?” He flew onto the bed, oblivious to the conversation that was happening.

Lilliah ignored him and kept her eyes on Iris. “I want you to really understand what that means. Lucifer’s dangerous.”

“He’s also batshit crazy,” Rebecca cut in.

Sebastian looked around the room. “I feel like I’ve missed something.”

“You kind of have to come with us now, but if you want out, I could talk to a friend. He could possibly hide you away someplace safe. Benedict could hide you again. You can still get out of this.”

Iris’s forehead creased. “No, I want to stay. My mind’s made up.”

Lilliah didn’t look convinced.

The corner of Rebecca’s lips turned up. “I told you,” she said. “The chick’s solid.”

Iris beamed.

“It’s not that I’m uninterested in this bonding experience, but I think we should head out,” Sebastian said.

“But where to?” Lilliah was the only one not ready. She darted around the room, searching for her top. She didn’t realise she’d been this messy.

“I know a place,” Iris said. “It has nothing to do with me, so it can’t really be traced or tracked. It’s totally random.”

“I’ll start loading the car,” Sebastian said, picking up a bag. He looked at Lilliah. “You need to hurry up.”

“I’ll be two minutes.” She rushed into the bathroom.

“Why do you think he keeps giving us Toyotas?” she heard her brother ask.

“I don’t know. Maybe he owns stocks in the company.”

Lilliah leaned on the doorframe, looking at the people around her. If she had to go up against the Devil, there wasn’t anyone else she’d rather have next to her than the people in this motel room.

Ten minutes later, they were on the road. Lilliah had opted to drive. Adrenaline was still pumping through her veins, and there was no way she could sleep. Rebecca and Sebastian were curled up in the back seat, both fast asleep. Iris was sitting in front, playing with the radio. They’d stopped by her house to pick up a few things. Sebastian had done a quick check around the block to make sure no one was waiting around for them. Iris’s identity was still hidden, for now.

“What kind of music do you like?” Iris asked after settling on a song.

“I like most kinds of music, from pop to rock, and a little bit of R&B. Just whatever I’m into at the moment. What about you?”

“I like rock. Hard rock music. You know, The Pretty Reckless, Metallica, Slipknot.”

Lilliah raised her eyebrows. “I wasn’t expecting that. You’re a rocker.”

“A little bit of one, yeah. I’ve never been to a concert, though. I want to go to one so badly, but I don’t have any friends, so I’d have to go by myself. I tried it once a while back and nearly had the biggest panic attack of my life. I didn’t leave my house for three days afterwards.”

Lilliah was shocked. She’d seen all the medication in Iris’s house and knew the girl thought she had issues. How many of them were real and how many had been caused by her visions?

“I don’t have that many friends either,” Lilliah shared. “Just Rebecca and Jeremy, really. And Seb, of course, but I’d doubt we’d be friends if we weren’t related. We’re both very different.”

“Wish I had a brother or sister.” Everything Iris said was so sad, but she looked happy, almost giddy. “When I was younger, I used to listen to the Goo Goo Dolls all the time. I thought that maybe my mum and dad liked them and that was why they’d called me Iris.” She scrunched her face up. “It sounds stupid, doesn’t it?”

“No, that doesn’t sound stupid at all. My dad used to take me to my ballet classes when I was younger. It was our thing. When he died, I stopped dancing. It just wasn’t the same. But I became a little bit of a ballet fanatic. I watched it all the time and went to see shows by myself because no one would come with me.”

Iris laughed, and Lilliah carried on. “And then I realised it bored the hell out of me. Dancing ballet was great, but watching it was a whole different thing. I was just doing it because I thought that was what my dad would do. As it turns out, he didn’t even like ballet! He just took me because he wanted to spend time with me.”

“A few years back I found out that an iris is a flower. My parents could have been huge gardeners and not into music at all!” A loud cackle of laughter that Lilliah hadn’t expected burst from her lips.

“Sleeping back here!” Sebastian moaned.

Lilliah pulled a face and they laughed quietly.

“You sure you want a brother?” Lilliah raised her eyebrows and dug into the large bag of crisps lying open between them. They’d made a quick pit stop to get snacks. Lilliah had gotten lost in translation when she’d asked where the crisp section was.

“What?” the store assistant had asked.

“We call them chips here,” Iris had informed her, dropping two large bags on the counter.

Lilliah reached for her Pepsi. “So where are we heading?”

Iris had been pointing to roads, guiding her without mentioning their final destination.

“A lady who used to work for social services went on vacation for a few weeks. She gave me her key and said that if her plane went down, I could have her vinyl collection.”

“That’s what I call being prepared.” Lilliah sat back in her seat, trying to get comfortable.

“She lives kind of far away, plus her house is in the middle of nowhere. The perfect place to hide in.”

“Or the perfect place to die in.” Lilliah tapped the steering wheel with her fingers. “A house in the middle of nowhere—it’s the setting to every horror movie.”

“Or that.”