Chapter 2 - THE NIGHT SHE FOUND HIM
Three weeks earlier, Bella Mercer had been closing the diner when she found William Norman bleeding beside the dumpsters.
She recognized him from the news. People loved stories about his money and his empty mansions. Nobody mentioned how young he looked curled against a brick wall, one hand pressed to his ribs.
“Call a cab,” he rasped.
“I’m calling an ambulance.”
“No hospitals.”
He tried to stand and nearly fell. Bella caught him, swore under her breath, and took him into the diner. The wound beneath his shirt wasn’t deep, but black lines spread from it across his skin. While she cleaned it, he watched the dark front windows.
“Who did this?”
“Someone I’ve known too long.”
A woman’s laugh came from the kitchen.
Bella looked up. A tall woman in a black dress stood by the coffee machine. She hadn’t come through the door.
“You must be Bella,” the woman said.
William forced himself upright. “Stay away from her, Lilith.”
Lilith’s smile faded. “I’m trying to keep him alive. He took something from the vault tonight, and the Underworld sent a collector.”
Bella tightened her grip on the dish towel. “I understood maybe six words of that.”
From outside came three slow knocks on the locked front door. A man stood there, his face hidden by the diner’s reflected lights.
William pulled a silver key from his pocket. Strange letters ran down its handle.
“Back exit,” Lilith said.
Bella didn’t argue. She supported William through the kitchen while the knocks grew harder. At the alley door, he stopped.
“I can’t ask you to come with me.”
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“You didn’t.” Bella pushed the door open. “You can explain in the car.”
Behind them, the diner’s front glass shattered.
