Azi agreed, but thankfully stood down. It shook my head. “There’s no problem. Let’s just clear this shit up so we can get back to it.”
…
Frank Spencer wasn’t a fan of mine. The Harlow police chief sat on the other side of his desk, drumming his fingers against the side of his coffee cup, the sound of it echoing inside my head and giving me a migraine.
He’d been watching me for a few minutes, silently, furiously glaring. I disliked the man, even felt threatened by him as a teenager, so naturally Azi was on the defensive.
“Hate to burst your bubble, Spencer, but I wouldn’t get your celebratory lotion ready just yet. You know damn well I didn’t kidnap Sam.” The impression of me was spot-on. Then again, I’d never had any doubt. Azi had been my constant shadow since the moment I entered this world. It was the only one who knew me better than Sam. “You’ve got jack shit on me.”
“I agree. There’s no way she’d tell me you forced her to leave Kelly’s with you—even if there was a fraction of truth in it—but you did steal a car.” His grin went from ear to ear, and the itch to wipe it from his face nearly compelled Azi from the chair. Spencer leaned in and planted both elbows on the desk in front of him. He was looking a little haggard lately. Life on the force was getting to him. It was a shame that in my current situation I didn’t have the ability to gloat. “Grand theft auto, motherfucker. I got you.”
It was the opportunity he’d been waiting for since the moment I landed across from him at the age of fourteen. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t be too concerned. Eventually Sam would get Kelly to drop the charges. But with Azi behind the wheel? The demon wouldn’t sit by and wait patiently while I cooled my heels in a small town jail cell waiting for this to get resolved. Plus, we had the carnivi to worry about. They didn’t have the ability to reason. They were given a task by their master and followed it through to the end —no matter what. If they caught wind of us here, a lot of good people—and Spencer—would be killed.
We need to get out of here. Don’t do anything stupid.
The demon matched Spencer’s movements, leaning forward. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
He’s a friend of Sam’s. Don’t even fucking think about it.
“I’m not going to harm him,” the demon said out loud.
The police chief narrowed his eyes. “Who aren’t you going to harm?”
The demon didn’t answer.
Fucking brilliant. Talking to yourself isn’t going to make him think you’re solid.
Spencer stood. He made his way around the desk without taking his eyes from me. If he had any idea what was crawling around in my skin, he would have run for the hills. Instead, he was grinning like an asshole. “You’re all wrong, Flynn. I’ve been telling people for years.”
Azi shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a special kind of sunshine.”
The wrinkles on his forehead became more pronounced as his grin widened. “Not for long, punk. When I’m done—”
There was a soft knock on the door, and a moment later, a small-framed blonde poked her head into the room. “Sir?”
Spencer didn’t turn around. “In the middle of something, Sarah.”
“That’s why I’m here, Chief.” She hesitated, shuffling from foot to foot. Her colors swirled. The haze around her shoulders shifted from concern to fear. “The charges against Mr. Flynn have been dropped.”
Score another one for me, shithead!
“The charges—” The color drained from Spencer’s face, and his right hand, still clutching the corner of the desk, twitched several times before clamping down on the wood hard enough to turn his knuckles white. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. He straightened, adjusted his shirt, and yanked open the door. “This isn’t over, Flynn.”
Azi stood. The demon made a show of smoothing out my shirt and picking a speck of lint from the sleeve before slowly sauntering from the room.
Yeah. Its impression was spot on.
Chapter Four
Sam
Azi hadn’t said anything since we’d gotten back into Kelly’s truck. It didn’t ask how I’d managed to dig us out of our little predicament, or how I’d convinced Kelly to let us keep the truck. The demon had slipped behind the wheel, and we were currently cruising up the Taconic State Parkway. Normally the silence didn’t bother me. The less the demon opened Jax’s mouth, the easier it was for me to pretend things were okay. But about an hour in, I started getting antsy.
“So Heckle mentioned a tracker? What was he talking about?”
Azi took an exit and turned the truck onto a narrow country road. “The Tracker is akin to what humans would consider a bounty hunter. It seeks out items of power and the things associated with them.”