“So we can tell if there’s a demon lurking around?” There was some relief in that.
“Yes, but there are ways to mask it, too. And some aspects of the Hidden don’t give off a signature.”
“Yeah, that’s great.”
As he pulled onto another road, she said, “Yesterday you advised me to never kill out of high emotion. You described the feeling of someone’s blood gushing over your hand as something you knew firsthand.” She’d been holding a letter opener to his chest. It seemed surreal now, and so long ago. “You said we shouldn’t go there then. Can we go there now?”
He looked like he was going to say no, but he released a breath instead. “Being in the Guard is like being in the military. Sometimes it’s kill or be killed.”
“What kind of people did you have to kill?”
“Those who violated Rule Number One. Crescents who succumbed to the lure of their magick, which means they lose their conscience and start using their powers for bad. Demons. Dragons infected by Red Lust.”
“What’s that?”
“Remember when I told you about Breathing Dragon, how Dragons can take each other’s power? When I healed you, I Breathed out, sending my essence into you. If you kill a Dragon, you can Breathe in their essence and assimilate their power. You have to be very careful if you manage to kill an old soldier like me. Take more than you’re ready for, and Red Lust throws you in a bloodlust frenzy.”
“Oh, boy, that sounds like fun. Think I’ll pass on that whole Breathing thing.”
“No, take the power, if it comes to that. You need all you can get.” He drove slowly past the Yard, doing that magick-sensing thing probably.
She tried to see past the sentimental aspect of the Yard and focus on anything out of the ordinary with her sixth sense. It was her ordinary sense of sight that zeroed in on the gap in the front gate, right next to where she’d hung the CLOSED FOR A FAMILY EMERGENCY sign she’d made before they left. “Someone’s here.”
She could feel Cyn’s energy snap tight. Weird. He pulled way off to the side and killed the engine.
She whispered, “Demons don’t have to unlock gates, do they?”
He shook his head.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky enough to find the Deuce behind the demons.”
Cyn’s eyes flared with bloodlust as he searched the Yard beyond the fence. “I hope so.”
Anyone—or anything—could hide behind the thousands of items in the Yard. Her projects and investments and splurges, like the fifties toy car, could all be harboring some evil being. She and Cyn slid through the gap and walked side by side down the center of the Yard. Ruby found the old Dodge Dart and then the owner of said car, Nevin, who appeared to be painting his Cadillac Fleetwood table. She sighed in relief at the same time that Cyn muttered, “What the hell?”
“I know, it’s shocking to see Nevin working when he’s supposed to be taking time off.” Except Cyn hadn’t meant that kind of What the hell? because he didn’t know Nevin was a lackey.
Which meant he was referring to something else.
Nevin walked out of the booth several yards away, pulled down his respiratory mask, and called out, “You startled me.” He wore the same relieved smile she’d sported a moment before. “I came to pick up something and didn’t see anyone here. Figured it’d be okay if I worked on my Caddy table.” His smile drooped. “Why are you looking at me so strange?”
Not at him but at someone peering above a stack of flattened cars a short distance behind him. A stack more than ten feet tall. Ruby automatically clutched Cyn’s arm. “What is it?” she whispered. All she could see was the top of a head with wild brown hair and a hint of eyes.
Cyn was laughing, only it wasn’t an amused kind of laugh. It was one of those I can’t believe it kind of laughs, which she knew was not good. “A tulpa. I can smell it from here. Damn, I haven’t seen one of those in years. Get rid of the Mundane.”
“A…tulpa?” she spat out on a vehement whisper. “You didn’t tell me about tulpas!” She vaguely remembered Kade mentioning the word, and Cyn telling her “later.”
“It’s one of those things that doesn’t emit a magick signature because it’s not real.”
The ten-feet-plus-tall human-looking creature stepped out from behind the stack of cars. Two cats scattered, but the tulpa thankfully paid them no mind…because it was focused on her.
“It looks like a kid!” Ruby whispered. “A huge, demented girl with pigtails!” She forced a smile as Nevin approached, but her gaze was on the tulpa. “Nevin, you have to go now.”