“I will,” I said, rubbing the doll’s back, “but first, how were you able to just come in? I thought you’d need a warrant or something.”
“Not when you have the permission of the owner,” he said, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket. “This guy’s apparently a client of yours?”
I looked over to see Shawn Foster walking forward. After a stunned moment, I rushed toward him. His face was swollen and his lip split open, but he looked good considering what he’d just been through.
“Shawn, how are you here? I thought an ambulance took you to the hospital?”
“I came back. I’m so sorry, Charley.” He glanced around in shock. “If I’d had any idea they would do this…”
“Shawn, this is not your fault.”
“No, I should have warned you. I’m no longer involved in my parents’ delusions, but I have people inside who keep me informed. I knew they were stockpiling guns. I just had no idea.”
“I’m the one who’s sorry. I can’t believe the Fosters, the people who raised you, would do such a horrible thing to you.”
“Yeah, that’s why they’re called fanatics.”
“But how are you up and walking and talking and —”
“Well,” he said, suddenly uncomfortable, “I heal pretty fast.”
“Of course. You’re Nephilim.”
“How did you —”
“Actually, it was Reyes.”
The two of them shook hands. Shawn seemed a little star struck. I could hardly blame him.
“You gave permission for the authorities to come in?” I asked him.
“I did. Weeks ago. The FBI has been investigating the Diviners for years and, technically, it’s all mine. The land. The buildings. Everything.” He turned bitter. “Dear old Dad didn’t want anything in his name, so he put it all in mine years ago.”
Sounded like him.
“Do you have access to the paperwork?” I asked, praying there’d be something about the fake adoption agency the Fosters had set up.
“Every forged document.”
With that paperwork, we had a chance of getting the charges against Veronica Isom dropped.
“What about your par… the Fosters. Any idea where they went?”
He shook his head. “I do know they were building something in the main barn.”
“Building something?”
“I don’t know what. My contacts weren’t in the inner circle, but they did say the guys were spending a lot of time in there.”
“Thanks. I’ll check it out.”
I strolled that way, trying to steer clear of the emergency crew as Uncle Bob spoke with Shawn. I hadn’t noticed any new construction in the barn, but I’d been pretty out of it.
“Want me to take her?” Reyes asked, scanning the yard for any sign of danger.
“I’m good.” I hugged her to me, seemingly unable to put her down. I buried my face in her curls and breathed in her scent before asking, “Do you feel them?”
“The Fosters? No. But there’s a lot of emotion here to sort through.”
“True.”
However, the moment we walked into the barn, we felt them. They were hiding like little rats, and I realized the bales of hay in the corner were covering something up. The Diviners had built a hidden room.
We eased closer. Reyes, who still didn’t want to shift, to heal himself instantaneously, put a finger over his mouth, motioned me to stay back, and stepped toward the wall of hay. He went around what we could see but found no door.
I gestured to him that I would go around back. He lowered his head and gave me a warning scowl.
“What?” I mouthed. Fine. I stayed put for Dawn’s sake.
She stirred, and I bounced her as Reyes pushed, testing the hay in this place or that. When nothing worked, I checked the dirt floor. Maybe there was an underground access point. But before I got too far, we heard a click.
Reyes had pushed on the side and found a panel of some kind. I stepped over to him as he pulled. A door gave way to total darkness, but they were inside. I could feel them. I patted my jeans for the flashlight Garrett had given me, found it, then jumped when a gunshot splintered the air.
Without thought, I shifted and slowed time at once. The gun had not been aimed at me. Nor at Reyes. The bullet traveling at what seemed like light speed headed straight toward the back of Dawn’s head.
I clutched her to me and closed my eyes, only I’d shifted so I could still see. Could still watch as the bullet entered her skull, traveled through it, continued through my neck, and stopped only when Reyes closed his hand around it.
Anger ignited inside me like the splitting of an atom that set off a nuclear bomb. I turned on them. The evil beings who hurt. Who took advantage of and destroyed. Who murdered in His name. If that wasn’t taking God’s name in vain, I didn’t know what was.
I had no control over the rage that boiled inside me, the power that burst out of me in one blinding flash. So hot it scorched my skin and singed my hair. So cold it froze the air around us.
Reyes stepped between me and the Fosters. Wrapped his arms around both Dawn and me. Soothed my soul with his warm breath fanning across my ear. He cupped my chin and his fingers brushed my cheek.
Then I realized it wasn’t his fingers, but the feathers of his massive, black wings. He was blocking the scene before me. The scene I’d caused. But I was too busy being fascinated with the musical sound I heard when his wings brushed me. A tinkling melody, like ice defrosting under the heat of the sun. And I realized it was ice. His wings were brushing across the ice on my arm. On my face. And then, just as quickly as it had appeared, it evaporated. His heat had melted it.