Sentinel Lost (Mind Sweeper Series Book 5) (31 page)

Misha frowned. “Isn’t that what he’s doing now?”

Nate sighed. “I’m not explaining this well. Saul is working on a way to open the portal forever. Demons will be able to leave the realm and come to earth all on their own.”

“How many demons are we talking about, Nate?”

“Around ten thousand.”

The room went silent. How the hell could we stop ten thousand demons from coming to earth?

Dalton broke the silence. “What would happen if all the demons came here at once?”

Nate cleared his throat. “There would be anarchy. When I first arrived, it was days before I could bring my human side out. I didn’t know the language. I had never seen technology. If it hadn’t been for Sylvia, I would have been exposed to the world in no time.”

“Now imagine that times ten thousand,” Sylvia said.

“How did you get to earth, Nate?”

He paused until Sylvia nodded at him. “I promised them money.”

My stomach twisted. I wasn’t going to like this.

His hands clenched into fists on the table top. “I have to pay the brothers fifty thousand dollars.” He closed his eyes. “Sylvia has explained that it will take years for me to do so.”

“And if you don’t?” I asked.

He turned to me, his brown eyes darkening. “Then they will hurt my family in the realm. I had planned to work and bring them all here, but now…” He shrugged. “That is how they are recruiting some of the demons. They’re forgiving their debt if they join the group.”

Jesus.
They were creating indentured demon servants.

“Sylvia said you would help me.”

“I want to be honest with you, Nate. If we stop these demons, it might mean your family won’t be able to come to earth.”

“I understand, but I won’t hurt others to help myself.”

I smiled. “Thank you. If I told you Saul’s blood is green, would that clue you into the type of demon he is?”

Sylvia explained for him. “When demons first arrive, they all bleed green. It takes a while for it to turn red.”

“What about glowing white eyes? Does it mean the demon has borrowed another’s powers?”

“Never seen that before,” Sylvia answered.

Nate frowned. “That can’t be.”

“Why not?”

“Because the only demons I know of whose eyes glow white are the portal guards.”

I stopped myself from groaning out loud at his statement.

Sylvia patted the young demon on the arm. “You were great, Nate. Why don’t you wait for me in the car?”

“Can I drive home?” he asked, just like any other teenager with his driver’s temps.

Sylvia smiled at him. “Sure. You need more practice.”

Nate closed the door behind him, and I grinned. “You’re a smart lady, Sylvia.”

She placed her hand on her heart. “Me?”

“You brought a demon realm poster child to represent your cause.”

“I brought you an example of who I’m helping.”

“Were you aware this extortion was going on?” Talia asked.

“I know many of them live in squalor, but I didn’t know it was because they are giving all their money to these bastards. Once Nate came clean, several of the others told me as well. They’re embarrassed that they’ve been suckered into trading one form of imprisonment for another.”

“Let’s see what we can do to help them,” I said. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll certainly talk to the demon council about what’s been happening.”

“As will I,” Misha said.

“Thanks.”

I leaned forward. “I have to ask, Sylvia. Are you ever going to tell us your real name?”

“I thought the deal was that if I helped you, you wouldn’t keep digging into my past.”

“And we haven’t been digging. This is just for curiosity’s sake. You’re not in the witness protection program, are you?”

“No. Let’s just say I had to escape from a past where I was labeled. I’ve gone by many names over the years. But the name my parents gave me was Marlene Thompson.”

Her words shot up my spinal column and into my brain like I was gripping jumper cables. My head jerked backward, and Jean Luc flashed and caught me before I fell. He’d been doing that a lot lately. Thrall and flash. Flash and thrall.

He ran his hands over my arms, but this time, his thrall didn’t penetrate the pain the way it normally did. I whimpered as my brain tried to worm its way out through my ears.

“What the hell’s going on?” Dalton asked.

“She’s going to seize,” Jason said. “Jean Luc?”

“My thrall is not helping her.”

“Put her on the couch, vampire.” Sylvia commanded.

Jean Luc layed me on the couch, and my back bowed up as pain shot from my spinal column into my nerve endings.

“Let the cop touch her. Put your hands on both sides of her face.”

Dalton hesitated.

“Do it now!” Sylvia yelled.

The tremors started, and I braced myself for the sharp muscle pain that would soon follow. Dalton’s hands framed my face, and warmth streamed from his fingers into my cheeks and migrated up to my brain. Calm descended. My muscles unclenched, and I took a careful breath and braced for the pain to return.

“Kyle?”

I opened my eyes and stared up into Dalton’s concerned face.

He smiled down at me, and it was the first real smile he’d given me since he came back. Even though it was the smile of a man who was simply trying to comfort me, I would take it. I gazed up at him and soaked in the smile and the heat of his hands that still held my face.

A few seconds later, his touch softened to almost a caress, and even though I could tell I was going to be okay, I didn’t want the connection to end. After a few more seconds, his eyes widened, and then he let me go and I tried to sit up.

“Take it easy, Kyle,” Jean Luc protested.

“I feel fine.”

Dalton rested his hands on my arms and helped me. “What happened? Are you an epileptic?”

“No. It has to do with my power. Thank you for helping me.”

“I didn’t do anything.” His turquoise eyes narrowed on Sylvia. “How did you know my touching her would help?”

“Each of us has a unique aura. But also surrounding us are other energy patterns that affect our well-being. You two have similar energy patterns. When Kyle collapsed, the energy field around her dimmed. By touching her, you were able to stabilize her energy, so to speak, by providing some of your own. The Chinese would call it yin to yang. If you believe in that stuff.”

It had to be the Key connection. But that was a conversation for another day. “What do you believe in, Sylvia?” I asked.

“I believe there are reasons why we meet the people we do. Each choice we make can lead us down a completely different path. The trick is redirecting yourself if the path you’ve taken is wrong.”

Chapter 38

I sat in my office with the door shut. After Sylvia left and I convinced Dalton he didn’t need to call 911, the team started working on a stakeout schedule for the streets in Sylvia’s neighborhood. By the time Misha announced something about setting up a command central in the hotel across from Sylvia’s, I excused myself, saying I needed a few minutes to myself.

In reality, I had a long distance call to make, and I didn’t want to be disturbed. I hadn’t forgotten the bombshell Nate dropped right before he left.

I wrapped my hand around the crystal hanging from my neck and concentrated. I didn’t know what I was doing, but when had that ever stopped me?

“Naya. Can you hear me?” I sat for several minutes, repeating the sentence over and over like a mantra. After another minute, I was about to give up. But the stone started to heat up in my hand.
Please don’t let it be my imagination.

“Naya. It’s Kyle. Please answer me.”

I jumped at the voice that responded. It came from inside my head, like I was hearing it through a headset.

“Naya?”

“Yes Kyle, it’s me.”

“It worked!”

“I’m surprised you could initiate contact as well. Has Dalton recovered?”

“Yes, he’s fine now. Thank you for helping us.” I hesitated for a moment, deciding what to say. The straight approach was the best. “I have to ask you something. Why did you lie to me?”

“I don’t understand.”

“When I told you about the white eyes. You said you didn’t know what it meant. I spoke to a realm demon today, and he told me the white, glowing eyes are the mark of the patrol.”

She sighed, and the sound whooshed in my ears. “Please let me explain. When you told me about it and the multiple powers, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe someone from the patrol could be involved in this. I had just met you, and I’ve worked with the patrol my entire life. You could have been mistaken.”

“So the patrol demons have multiple powers?”

“Yes. They inherit them from their parents, who come from different clans.”

“So you lied to cover it up?”

“No! I wanted to do my own investigation first.”

“Have you found anything yet?”

“Not much. Guards come and go for days at a time. This is not abnormal when on patrol. I have to be careful. I don’t want to attract suspicion. If it is one of the guards, he could run.”

“The one we’re looking for is probably still on earth. I can tell you what his human side looks like if it would help.”

“No, it won’t, Kyle. I’ve never seen the human side of any of the portal guards.”

“He goes by the name Saul.”

“That name is not familiar to me.”

“Well, crap.”

Naya chuckled. “You get right to the heart of things, don’t you, Kyle.”

“In my opinion, there’s no point in wasting time.”

“The guard have fought this battle for so long. Why would someone betray that oath?”

“I think you may have answered your own question. The demon patrol has sacrificed their lives to live in a limbo world, fighting demons, and never getting to see the very place they’re protecting. Maybe someone decided they’d had enough.”

“Maybe.”

“Let me ask you this, Naya. Why do you think I didn’t get sick in the realm?”

She paused for a moment. “I think you know the answer, but want me to confirm it. There is demon inside you.”

“And you couldn’t have shared that with me at the time?”

“Kyle, I do apologize, but you have to look at it from my perspective. You and Dalton appear in the realm and tell me you’re chasing demons, and I can see you’re part demon yourself…which you don’t seem to know, or aren’t telling me the truth about. You then tell me this demon on earth has glowing white eyes. I wanted to believe you, but I had to confirm it myself first.”

“Fair enough. I understand being cautious. I didn’t lie to you, though. I didn’t know about my demon side then. It appears I may be quite unique in that regard.”

“You are unique, Kyle. I’ve never heard of a human and realm demon producing offspring before.”

“Yeah, it’s a big news flash on earth, too. Most of the supernaturals here can’t sense my demon side. Can you tell what type of demon I am?”

“I can’t tell for sure.”

“Are all the demons in the realm dangerous?”

“The ones I encounter, yes.”

“How many have you encountered?”

“Our patrol keeps track of close to fifteen hundred or so demons.”

“I met a realm demon today who said there are ten thousand demons in the realm.”

Naya gasped. “That can’t be possible.”

“Why?”

“Because we have scouts whose job it is to take a census on the numbers in the realm.”

“That might be the first group you should look at. If they’re lying about the numbers, you have to wonder why. I also know that many of the demons who’ve come to earth are living law-abiding lives.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I’m sorry, Naya. I can imagine how hard this is for you to hear.”

“What do these crossover demons hope to accomplish?”

“They want to permanently open a portal so the entire demon population can migrate to earth on a massive scale.”

“Even if what you say is true, Kyle, and many of these demons simply want to live on earth in peace, they can’t all go there at once. It would create pandemonium.”

“I agree. We’d have war on our hands.”

* * *

I’d relayed my conversation with Naya to the team, and now I was ready to go home. The day had sucked rocks—boulders, actually—and I was exhausted. If we were lucky, Nate would call us tomorrow, and then we could bag these demons and close out the case. Jean Luc and Misha volunteered to set up the hotel room with various cameras pointed at the street to track the demon comings and goings in front of Sylvia’s motel.

I rinsed out my coffee mug in the kitchenette sink and was about to announce I was heading home when the office door opened, and Doc came in carrying her medical bag.