ventilator,â the demon said. âI understand this Clint Hicks surrounds himself with shifters, and when Gary came to me to track him personally, I found he had measures in place to keep Hellspawn out of the area.â
âThis hound,â I said, feeling sickness that wasnât caused by Lilith grip my guts. âWas his name Wilson?â
âHow the fuck do I know what his name was?â Lilith snapped. âFor all I know, Gary calls you Sparky, Rover, and Spot. The countermeasures wonât keep me out for long, but breaking them is more effort than Iâm going to put into one damned soul who thinks heâs smart, so go and fetch him.â
There was that word again. Fetch. But since it was coming out of the mouth of a thousand-Âyear-Âold demon, I pretended it didnât bother me.
I just nodded. Lilith opened the bathroom door and walked out, turning back only once.
âAva, if you screw this up, do yourself a favor and walk into traffic before I find you. Because if I do, the Pit is going to be a vacation compared to what I have planned.â
She left, and I was still curled up in the corner of the bathroom when Leo came back.
I managed to tell him the deal, in a fairly coherent manner, while he got me off the floor and carried me to the bed. I wasnât in the place to argue about that.
âLilith?â he said as he uncapped a plastic bottle of gas station vodka and poured it over the cut on my arm. âShit. Sheâs Garyâs head office?â
âApparently,â I said. âGary never talked about her except to threaten us with being her purse dogs if we got out of line.â
âWell, Lilith is a big fucking deal,â Leo said. He got a needle and dental floss and positioned my arm flat. âThis is going to hurt.â
âWhat else is new?â I said.
Leo threaded the needle and started sewing, tattooed fingers moving without any hesitation. âYou should probably do what she says,â he said. âI donât think we have a lot of choice.â
âThe fuck is this âweâ?â I said. âYou can do whatever you want. You donât have a shark-Âtoothed bitch from Hell breathing down your neck.â
âTrue,â Leo said. âBut one of the most powerful vory v zakone slash necromancers west of the Mississippi knows Iâm gunning for him, so Iâm thinking heading to some country thatâs inhospitable to both gangsters and deadheads might not be a bad idea.â
âWhatâs the deal with you and your dad anyway?â I said, gritting my teeth. I wasnât really interested in Leoâs sad life story, but it was better than sitting in silence watching a needle slice in and out of my skin.
âWarlocks are supposed to pass on their skills to their legitimate kids,â Leo said, eyes never moving from his work. âIâm not, but none of my fuckup half Âsiblings got the blood. He wasnât happy about that, but he couldnât kill me, so he devoted himself to keeping me under his boot. Eventually weâll probably kill each other, but until then, I decided I was through being tied to his whipping post.â
He bit through the floss and poured more vodka over my arm. âAll done.â
I examined the tight stitches. My arm already looked less like a flank steak. âYouâre pretty good at that.â
Leo tossed the needle and the bloody pillowcase Iâd lain on into the trash. âMy wife was a nurse.â
The past tense was enough to keep my mouth shut. If Leo wanted to talk about his dead wife, heâd be talking.
âIn the morning weâll find a new set of wheels and go see what this Clint Hicks guy did to put a burr up Lilithâs ass,â Leo said. âIn the meantime, Iâm starving.â
âIâll go get us some grease passing for food if I can find a shirt,â I said. Leoâs lips parted in a small