“I try not to be, um, holier than thou,” I reply. Which is true.
Phoenix seems to consider his answer, and my stomach gets more tangled up in knots with every second that ticks by. Was it a mistake to rope Beckett into helping me? And to get the others involved too? I know I need to redeem them, but surely I could’ve found some other way to do it that didn’t involve me owing them a bunch of favors. Upstairs will probably be pretty upset if they find out about this. I don’t even know what I’m going to say to Anderson when he comes to check in on me. I can’t lie to him, but I can’t tell him about this either. He’d probably blow a gasket.
Should I have just told Anderson about the portal opening up and let the higher-up angels deal with it?
No. No, I have to deal with this, if only to prove to Anderson and the rest of the board that I didn’t cause the sinkhole. And surely owing the sins a few favors isn’t as bad as letting a portal to Below go unchecked in a major metropolis.
Phoenix squints at me, his tongue darting out to lick his lips. There’s something simultaneously lazy and sensual about the gesture—as if he could do so much with that tongue without even trying.
“Here’s what I don’t understand, sugar. Why are you so gung-ho about closing this portal? Last I checked, humans weren’t so high up on the list of heavenly concerns. So why do you care if a bunch of them die? You’re more about winning the war than caring about the little people, am I right?”
He is right, and it rankles at me. Phoenix might be annoying and self-centered, but he’s not dumb. None of the sins that I’ve met so far are. My people don’t really care about humans on a… a micro level, I guess you could say. We’re all about the big picture, which is winning the war against Downstairs. If that means sometimes humans have to pay a price, well then, it’s all in service to the greater good, isn’t it? You can’t worry constantly about the lives of the few when you’re concerned with the greater fate of the universe.
Except, I do worry. I do care.
I know it would probably get me a sigh and a lecture from Anderson or any of the others, but I care about the one life. I care about humans. They’re so strange and wonderful. So fascinating. I can’t just sit idly by and let humans get hurt.
“You’ll get a favor from me too,” I promise Phoenix, choosing not to answer his other questions. “If you agree to help us with this portal, I’ll owe you a favor. Same as your brother. It’ll be fair.”
The languid sin stares at me for a moment, and the silence stretches on for so long I start to wonder if he’s totally spaced out on us and is just thinking about a video game cheat code or the latest episode of Schitt’s Creek or something.
But then a pleased smile stretches across his face. “All right then, angel. You’ve got a deal.”
We shake on it. His grip is surprisingly firm, and up close, his eyes look bluer than I expected. If nothing else, I suppose he is good looking, just like all of the sins. He might not ever leave his house, but he’s probably not hurting for company when he wants it.
Ugh. Come on, Trin. I pull away and tamp down that thought.
The sins are supposed to be attractive. It’s what makes them so seductive and persuasive, what tempts people down paths they shouldn’t take. It’s one thing for humans to fall for their powers, but I can’t allow myself to be distracted or thrown off my game.
Any more than I already have been.
“Right.” Beckett jerks his chin toward the front door, as curt and commanding as ever. “Let’s get a move on then.”
Phoenix, in true Sloth fashion, groans.
Chapter Thirteen
Trinity
Now that we’ve got Phoenix on board, we head back to New York City.
On the way back, Remington keeps up a bit of chatter to start out with, obviously trying to broker some kind of goodwill between Phoenix and Beckett. But our new addition just takes this as an opportunity to pontificate about Fortnite and other video games, and Beckett threatens to pull the car over and kick Phoenix out so many times that Phoenix asks him tauntingly if he swapped sins with Ford.
“Who’s Ford?” I ask as we approach the city and the traffic starts to become thick.
Beckett’s hands tighten around the steering wheel.
“Wrath,” Remington explains from the back seat. “That’s who we’re going to get next, isn’t it?”
“Sure.” Beckett doesn’t sound pleased. I’ve heard his voice sound clipped before, but this is a whole other level. “We can do that.”
Phoenix scoffs. “Oh, this is gonna be a real blast. This is gonna be great. Should I get popcorn?”
“No.”
I’m starting to get the impression that although they were all created at the same time, Beckett is the oldest sibling in every way that matters. Including being a control freak.
Traffic is thick, but we finally reach our destination in an area called Washington Heights, where Beckett’s fancy car stands out like a sore thumb. We park along the street, and I worry that someone might steal it.
Beckett sees my troubled expression as we climb out and he shrugs. His lips twitch, the first time I’ve seen him come close to smiling all day. “If someone gets greedy and takes it, I get to feed off their sin. And I can always buy a new one.”
That’s true, he can. And someone acting out of greed gives him that surge of power he lives for, so I guess it’s a win-win situation for him.
Beckett leads us down an alley and through the back door with roughly painted lettering that reads Tony’s Barber Shop - Employees Only. But if there actually is a barber shop at the front, we never see it.
Instead, we slip through a dimly lit back room and through another door, then head down a dingy staircase. I feel Remington wrap his hand around my wrist as we walk. “It’s best if you stay close to us,” he murmurs from behind me, his mouth at my ear.
“Why?” I ask, trying not to think about how warm and safe he sounds, how I want to lean back against him.
“You’ll see.”
Before I can ask for more information than that, we reach the bottom of the stairs. Beckett opens a heavy-looking metal door, and a blast of heat and noise hits me like a wave. I feel almost blown back, stumbling a little as we emerge into a huge underground room, much bigger than I expected.
All around us, people are screaming, some cheering, some booing, others just yelling advice or obscenities.
At first, they all look human, but then I start to notice things like how one group of people, men and women both, are all beefy and hairy with sharpened teeth and yellow eyes, and I realize they’re werewolves. An extremely pale woman with all-black eyes and a face that looks almost too pretty, like wax, glances at me as we pass by.
A vampire, I realize. She’s a vampire.
As if she’s heard my thoughts, she smiles hungrily at me, and a pair of wicked fangs like a pit viper’s gleam from underneath her too-red lips.
Yikes.
This is definitely a supernatural gathering place. But what are they gathering for? Why are they all cheering?
People glare at us as we shove our way through the jostling crowd, and the three men tighten into a formation around me. Remington puts his arm around my shoulders, and Phoenix takes up guard on my left, while Beckett leads us.