Archangels Creed Series (Summon Kassern) #1

Excerpt #3 The Crucifix

Chapter Two

The low light at the rear of the bus made keeping an eye on all the other passengers nearly impossible, but Devyn gave it a good effort. Maybe the job would've been easier if her body didn't keep threatening to shake itself to bits. Every time the wracking tremors submitted a little to her control, someone would move in her peripheral vision, and start it all over again. If she wasn't careful, she'd spray an innocent person right in their goddamn eyes with the pepper spray she held in a death grip. She didn't care who saw it or what they thought, she just cared that people stayed the fuck away from her.

At some point, all the passengers wore the face of that son-of-a-bitch from the alley, at least in her imagination. The bus moaned through its familiar gear-down, hopping and skipping over a pattern of potholes, alerting Devyn to the stop she normally welcomed. For the first time ever, she almost wished the cross-town bus took longer. Once off, half a block separated her from the safety of her apartment. Of course, every inch would feel like a mile.

The need to run all the way to the six-story building that had seen better days in the 1970s nearly overwhelmed her. In that neighborhood, a running woman flipped the predator switch for some men, especially in the middle of the night. She'd already had her fill of being viewed as prey for one night. Pepper spray ready to blind the first threat, she forced herself to walk with confidence.

All the trying in the world didn't keep her from taking the last level of stairs leading to the fourth floor two at a time, though. Inside, with the door's locks securely engaged, her knees collapsed, dropping her to the floor in a quivering heap. Earth-shattering sobs wracked her body, echoing through the small, sparsely furnished apartment.

Three full sobs later, Devyn swallowed it. Cold. To give full vent to so much fear and horror would risk revisiting the nightmare that came so close to ending her life four years earlier. Forcing the emotions into a bag and tossing it, she dragged herself to her feet.

Deeper in the apartment, the shower shut off, signaling Devyn to head to the kitchenette. By the time her best friend/roommate, Karly, padded into the room wearing her rolled down boys' boxers and cut off wife beater, Devyn had the bread and packaged lunch meat on the spindly little table. Turning away, she poured the iced sweet tea into their mismatched glasses while Karly scavenged further in the nearly bare fridge.

Devyn sat in her usual chair, careful not to lean back and get dumped on her ass by the flimsy back rest. How long would it take Karly to notice something had happened? Probably not long. She'd been more attentive the past few months, since she got clean, as if aware the positions Devyn put herself into to keep a roof over their heads.

"How did the end of shift go?" Karly opened a crumpled white paper bag and sat, mindful of her chair's tendency to topple if a sitter put too much weight on the left.

"The usual, too many jerks wanting lap dances." Devyn pulled her hair free of the ponytail holder and let it fall free around her face. Maybe that would disguise any marks left from the encounter enough to get past her friend's sharp gaze. Devyn turned her attention on the white bag in Karly's lap. "What's that?"

Karly glanced up. "Mrs. Jordan stopped me on my way up. Her daughter brought her some pumpkin pie. And Mrs. Jordan hates pumpkin pie." She held her prize up with a triumphant grin. Karly set the tray on the table abruptly, her grin gone. "What the fuck happened to you?"

Shit. Of course she couldn't hide anything from Karly. She'd never tried, until recently. "Nothing. Just an asshole that got touchy-feely. Carlos bounced him, no problem." Devyn rushed to assemble a sandwich and take a bite so she could legitimately stop talking.

"Bullshit." Karly took Devyn's sandwich right out of her hand. "Don't try to lie to me, girl. I know you too well. Now what happened?"

Devyn hardened her mind and jaw with the sudden surge of emotions. Quick confession, no break downs. "Okay. So after the guy was bounced, he waited in the alley."

Karly went to the fridge, took out one of their ancient metal ice cube trays and hurried back. "How did you get away?" She pried cubes from between the separators. "And don't tell me Carlos got rid of him, 'cause we both know he's perfectly happy to toss someone out of the club, but Helena would have his hide if he left the premises. Even to rescue the headliner."

She couldn't argue with that. "Well, believe it or not, some guy out front, trying to save all the poor exploited whores, rescued me. He must have been on his way back to his Sunday School class, because he dragged the jerk off me, and knocked him out, or something."

Karly put the ice in a threadbare dishtowel and pressed it against the tender spot on Devyn's jaw. "Did the Good Samaritan give you that?" She nodded at Devyn's throat.

Conscious of a slightly unfamiliar sensation, Devyn lifted her right hand to her throat, as if by habit, only to jerk her head down in surprise. What the hell?

Warm metal met her fingertips. A smooth chain with broad, open links circled her neck, looping to just below the notch between her collar bones. Following the chain, her fingertips encountered a heavy pendant, a cross, dangling against her skin.

"Well? Where'd you get it?"

"Oh, I just found it." At least that much was true. She left out the part about finding it right that instant. Where had it come from?

The Sunday School teacher must have put it on her while she was so upset after the attack. Odd, though. She couldn't imagine allowing him, or anyone else, that close to her after such an attack. Vaguely she remembered swatting his hand away when he tried to help her stand.

She reached to unclasp the chain but her fingers refused to obey the order. Some part of her scarred mind insisted, Don't take it off. The warmth of the pendant penetrated her chest, loosening it. Devyn wanted to be afraid of the odd sensation, but her body clearly hungered for the soothing comfort. How could a piece of jewelry do that?