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ChapterOne
THANE
Every day, he checked his online credit card statements. Thane could see the charges made in Des Moines, Iowa, but he hadn't heard a thing from her. Then again, that was what they'd agreed to.
Still, he knew she was alive, and that was something. The charges also told a story. She'd bought a phone that first day - which made it suck a little more that she hadn't contacted him yet. Now, she was paying a deposit to a leasing agent.
Granted, he knew they had to wait a few days so it wouldn't look suspicious, but it had been three. Three very long days where he watched her carefully spending money without a word. When one of the credit cards got too close to the limit, he paid it off, yet she still hadn't said a thing. Dahlia was gone. Valerie was spending money like a completely different woman.
He couldn't help but wonder if that meant she'd already forgotten him. How many men had she seduced in those three days? How many women? The list was probably a long one, making it even easier to forget about him, but she'd taken his last name. That had to mean something, didn't it? Even in the midst of her grief, she'd pickedhisname.
Although her grief might be why she wasn't calling. Thane knew she'd loved Mei. True love, the kind that had lasted multiple lifetimes without falling apart. What Dahlia and Mei had together was the stuff dreams were made of, so it would hurt even more to lose it. He just hoped she hadn't started blaming him. Mostly because he was already blaming himself.
He'd just put his phone back into his pocket when one of the new hunters walked into the room. "You look like someone ran over your dog, Thane," he joked.
Thane grunted. "In case you missed it, we lost most of the team. Combined, there aren't enough of us left to make a whole shift, so yeah, I'm a little bothered by that."
"Sorry," the guy mumbled. "I didn't mean it like that."
"Lighten up, Thane," Dale said. "We got one and the other has been weakened. We'll get her."
Thane just scrubbed at his face. "Yeah. I'm just worried that it won't be so easy. Every time someone says we're close, people start dying."
Dale just pointed at the door. "Go for a fucking walk, man. I can't deal with this morbid shit today. Take Brice with you."
"Me?" Brice asked. "I didn't do shit."
"Kinda my point," Dale said. "Both of you are moping around, and it's not helping anything. Have a bromance moment or something."
"Fine," Brice grumbled, shoving to his feet.
Thane just sighed. "Yeah, we'll get out of your hair."
Brice reached the door a step before him, and both men turned the same way. Without needing to talk about it, the pair headed outside to the parking lot behind the church. Brice pushed out a heavy breath, but Thane kept walking. Maybe Dale had something with his idea, because once he got moving, it made a little of that tension go away.
"Lucas is going to live," Brice said as he jogged two steps to catch up.
"Well, there's that," Thane muttered, not sure if he was happy or not.
Because Lucas was a hunter. Dahlia was what they were supposed to hunt. Thane had betrayed the faith, and if anyone found out, these men would put a stake in him as fast as they would a demon.
"Thane?" Brice asked after a few minutes. "Remember what we didn't talk about after that fight?"
His feet stalled out. After Dahlia had slaughtered most of the hunters from their church, he and Brice had been left trying to understand why they were alive. Thane had known, but Brice? He'd been half in shock. The guy had also realized that Dahlia was not at all what the Cardinal was calling her.
She wasn't really a demon. She was a valkyrie. The problem was that valkyries didn't fit with the line of bullshit their leadership was spewing. It meant someone was wrong, and all signs pointed to them, the Church of the Holy Inquisition. In other words, Thane and Brice weren't the heroes here. They were the henchmen, stuck in a cult that would kill them for realizing it.
"Your head was rattled from the beating," Thane reminded him.
"Very," Brice agreed. "It's just that it's still rattled, and you're the one person I know won't turn me in for this." He made a face, pulled in a breath, and shifted awkwardly. "Why can't they call her back?"
"It takes a certain amount of time to reset?" Thane offered.
"Bullshit," Brice said. "She splattered outside that hotel, and they made you call her back a few days later. Three days ago, she chewed her arms off. They should be able to call her today, right? I mean, why would it work once and not the next time?"
"Shit," Thane breathed, because he had a point. "So, it should be today?"
"Yeah, but from the sounds of the priests, they've been trying. Look, my older brother's in Louisiana. Transferred a few years ago. Dale's is dead. You're the only one with a link to a priest here, and I was wondering if you think Laird would tell you anything."
