Read Kassern (Archangels Creed) for Free Online Page A

get her stash. "I need to get some things first." Devyn started through the door, but he caught her arm.
    "They could still be here." The incredulous note in his voice said intelligent people didn't just walk into an apartment that might still hold burglars/vandals.
    "No, they're gone. The whore downstairs was to let him know the message was delivered."
    Troy frowned but didn't try to stop her again.
    Devyn walked slowly into the apartment, taking in the destruction, one piece at a time. Contents of the fridge strewn everywhere...their few dishes reduced to shards on the floor. Karly ' s old mattress and springs, torn apart.
    Devyn didn't notice the tears rolling down her cheeks until Troy offered her a handful of toilet paper h e ' d gotten from the roll on the holder still attached to a chunk of wall. She absently wiped the tears and blew her nose. Something on the plaster above where the couch should have been caught her eye, and she blinked, looking more carefully.
    Words, or what passed for them, were scrawled there in some material she didn't want to look at too closely. U aint gone nowere bitch.
    Devyn turned to Karly. "Grab what you have to have. We can't come back here. Bastard'll end up killing us both." When Karly nodded and headed toward the tiny bedroom, Devyn turned to Troy. "Look, you don't have to wait for us. You don't want to be here if Jake shows up. He's a mean motherfucker. And he's never alone." She crossed to the kitchenette and reached into the back of the top shelf of the single cabinet, already emptied of its contents. Damn it, she wasn't tall enough without something to stand on, and their chairs lay in pieces on the floor. She glanced around.
    "I ' m not leaving." Troy approached her, stepping around the mess. " Let me help. "
    The beg ging in his deep tone nearly reduced her to tears. Fuck, she didn ' t need to break down here—now. Especially in front of him. "Think you can reach the very back of the top shelf?"
    Troy crossed to the cabinet and easily touched the back of the top shelf. After following a series of instructions to get her stash, he handed her a little rusty square candy tin. Fingers trembling, Devyn pried the squashed-in lid off, then sagged against the counter. They hadn ' t found her measly hundred bucks – all she and Karly had to start a new life. Devyn clutched the childhood tin to her chest . T he four delicious chocolates it held for her tenth birthday and the loving father who ' d given it to her were suddenly a bitter re minder of life ' s cruelty .
    Devyn threw the tin that held all her broken dreams onto the floor with the rest of her pathetic life, shoving the money in her back pocket. "I'm going to grab a couple things before we go." She cleared the emotion from her throat, and headed to check on Karly. Her best friend had been too quiet for too long – not a good sign, considering the kind of stress the girl was under and the shit in her head.
    In the little bedroom, Karly sat on the floor, legs sprawled in front of her, staring at something that lay between her knees.
    Devyn moved in for a better look then froze. Fuck! She'd thought she go t rid of all that shit! A worn old leather belt , a spoon with the handle bent to an odd angle , and a plastic syringe, stained dark from the residue of whatever poison it had last delivered, all lay neatly side by side in front of Karly.
    She looked up at Devyn, pale blue eyes turned into bottomless pits of misery.
    "I'm sorry, baby. I thought I got rid of it all while you were in Detox." The seven days Karly spent in the County Hospital's Substance Abuse unit had been rough. Devyn had torn their apartment to shreds to find every single rig, every tooter, every cigarette lighter. After trashing all that, she went through again, searching for everything that could be converted easily to drug paraphernalia. Eliminating all the risks was impossible, but God she ' d damn well tried.
    Karly just sat, staring at the rig, her entire