Free jinn 02 - inferno by Liz Schulte Page B

think she needs me around. She’s suspicious of Baker, Femi, and me so she’s keeping an eye on us. That’s where you come in.”
    “You want me to spy on her.”
    “I don’t care if you spy on her. I want you to figure out what she has planned.”
    He folded his hands behind his back. “How?”
    “I don’t know, but I’ll try to keep her distracted.”
    He nodded. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to ask for my help.”
    Christ. Here came the heart to heart.
    He smiled gently at me. “I’ll find a way.”
    I waited and he didn’t continue. “Good.” I started to walk away but I had a nagging urge to say something else. I turned around. “She’s not herself right now. Just keep that in mind.”
    He looked at me for a moment. “You think she might kill me.”
    I licked my lips. “I think if she thought you were a threat, she wouldn’t hesitate.”
    He nodded again and this time I did leave.
     

 
     
    Femi strutted into the living room, the clean kid trailing behind her, still clutching the dirty doll to her chest and probably ruining her new clothes, but at least she looked more human. I reached into the bag at my feet and pulled out a new doll.
    “Wanna trade?” I asked.
    She held on to her doll tighter and wouldn’t look at me.
    “I already tried to get it away from her. She’s not letting go without a fight.” Femi glanced back at the kid. “How old do you think she is?”
    I studied her malnourished body. I had no idea. She was tiny and her face didn’t hold the baby fat someone her size would normally have. The demons must have had her for a really long time. She wasn’t going to talk to me though. Out of all of us, she only seemed to like Holden, the one person who wasn’t here. I cleared my throat. “I’ll get Holden.”
    If she understood me, she made no indication. I stepped outside and shifted into Holden then waited a few minutes before I came back inside, imitating his confident I’m about to kill you walk.
    The kid looked at me. Her face went from happy to scared as hell in about three milliseconds. Maybe I put too much “I’m about to kill you” in my gait. I stopped and spoke in Holden’s voice. “Come here, kid.”
    The girl turned and fled to the back of the warehouse.
    Femi shrugged. “Guess you’re not her favorite anymore, Chuckles. Where’s Baker?”
    “He is Baker,” Olivia’s voice said from the doorway on the opposite side of the room. We both looked at her and I shifted back to myself. “The human can tell the difference.”
    Femi bristled. “There’s no way. I couldn’t tell and all my senses are heightened. He even smelled like Holden. How could she know?”
    “She’s lived surrounded by darkness and evil. It’s what she knows. It’s what she trusts. She senses it in Holden and recognizes it. Baker can imitate a lot of things, but not that.”
    “In my experience, good and evil aren’t black and white,” I told her. “They’re choices. Holden hasn’t chosen to be evil in quite some time.”
    “But he still has it in him. How long do you think he can go until he gives into it? Before he starts feeding it again?”
    I smiled. “One thing Olivia always understood about the boss is he doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do. He will only give into to evil again if he loses hope.”
    “Then you admit that he committed evil deeds out of desire, because he wanted to, not because he was forced to.” She stared at me for a moment, then turned away and went back into her room.
    “Nice chat,” I called after the only person who could squash Holden’s hope like a bug.
    Femi squinted into the dark shadows at the back of the building. If she had a tail it probably would have twitched. “Do you believe it?” she asked. “Can the kid really tell who you are even when you shift? She’s just a human.”
    “Don’t underestimate humans. They’re very good at surviving and this kid has survived in a situation that woulda turned vampire