by Harley James
The room shattered in shards of ice that shot outward at velocities that could pierce concrete blocks. Shards the size of daggers stopped twelve inches from her face, then zoomed backward by the pull of Ari’s hands. He shook ice from his hair and rematerialized his sword as he advanced on Leviathan, glancing at Katherine once more.
“Get your head in the game, Kat! Lucifer has been the father of lies since time began. Lying and manipulating is all archdemons know. You’re smarter than this, come on!”
“So circumstances of birth and nurturing are one hundred percent unalterable?” she fired back.
“Of course not.” He kept his eyes on the archdemon, who’d now rematerialized to a more defensive spot near the exit to the pool terrace, looking around her like she was going to be ambushed. Katherine could only see her because the hallway walls were obliterated.
So tired of all this. But she needed to see to her people. “You must think so, though, if you’re so vehement about this. And if you believe that, what must you think of me?” After all, she’d had an alcoholic father who’d blamed her for her sister’s death.
The kicker was, it was true.
Her father had killed her mother because she couldn’t stop grieving for their lost child. Then he’d shot himself in remorse for murdering his wife.
All because she’d begged Mary to come into the water.
“She’s twisting this all around. Human beings and demons aren’t subject to the same rules. You’re not your father, Kat. You never were, and you never will be.”
“You don’t know that. We became Guardians in the first place because we were rotten examples of humanity. Perhaps I’m one meltdown away from…”
Becoming my father.
Ari’s lips were moving like he was yelling at her, but she couldn’t hear him all of a sudden. Her vision grew hazy. She slid slowly down the sanctorum door to her haunches. She blinked, feeling another increase in air pressure and the sounds of chanting before an air mass enveloped her. Leviathan’s face registered alarm as she spun in all directions looking for an invisible threat. Katherine’s heart pounded, attempting to rise to her feet.
Ari was chanting something she should recognize. It felt familiar, but she couldn’t place it. The air vibrated, and the walls that hadn’t been leveled shook. Then she heard the voices of several Unholy Inc partners—Nate, Spencer, Jinx, even Alexios—join in on the incantation.
“Kat, add your voice to ours.” Ari’s push into her mind was so potent her vision blacked out for a moment.
Ut fiat templum Dei vivi, et Spiritus Sanctus habitat in eo…
Katherine tried to form the powerful words the telepathically linked Guardians were using to cast out the darkest evil, but the phrases wouldn’t come. Her eyes locked with Leviathan’s. The archdemon’s gaze held sadness, the skin on her face like tissue over rock, the luminescence of her skin now a pasty gray. “I know it’s hard for you to trust one such as me. I’ll go now, but think about my words. We’re not so different. Together we can protect this island from the Rephaim. From the other archdemons, even. I swear it.”
Ari snarled the final words of the incantation, and the room detonated in a light so bright it whitewashed the blue-painted ceiling.
Before Katherine’s vision restored, she was hoisted into the strong arms she’d recognize anywhere. Leviathan’s abrupt departure was a relief, but also a little like…
Loss.
She couldn’t begin to understand why. What was the point of any of this struggle between good and evil? Why did she care? And why did she choose to come back to an eternity of this shit?
Talk about a lack of foresight.
Ari’s arms tightened as his steps slowed. She dashed at the infernal watering of her eyes. “Put me down, I’m not going to break.”
When he set her on her feet, her surroundings came back into focus. He’d brought her into the kitchen, facing the storage room door where he’d compelled Jade and Aqua’s core staff in order to keep them safe. As soon as he unwarded the door and dissipated the air pressure against it, Kat’s team stumbled into the kitchen, talking all at once.
“Shut up, all of you, I’ve had enough social interaction for one day,” she said, trying to find her reserve of anger to overcome this awful sense of vulnerability and hopelessness. Her team deserved better than this…from her and from life. Anger had been her go-to emotion for decades. Rage, don’t fail me now. “Where’s Makoa? If you’ve lost him, you’ll wish the Rephaim had gotten to you after all.”
“You planning to kill everyone, or are you just gonna eat us and spit us out?” Jade grabbed Katherine into a fierce hug, whispering into her ear, “Thank God, you’re okay. I thought you were done for.”
Me, too, she thought.
“If she ate you, her stomach acid would kill you, so you’re fucked either way,” Stark said.
“If Kat assassinated everyone who annoyed her, it wouldn’t be homicide, it’d be the Apocalypse,” Ari drawled. Everyone snickered, but only she saw the worry in his eyes.
Drawing back from Jade, Katherine smothered the urge to lay down and never get up. “Strange how humor darkens in correlation to vile circumstances. I’m not always a bitch, you know. Sometimes I’m asleep. Now, is Makoa here or not?”
“Relax, boss, he lit out when that gray-skinned monster blew open the doors, but Leviathan brought him back and trussed him up on the stage, neat as a bow,” Stark said, grimacing when Jade smacked the back of his head.
“You idiot, all you needed to say is ‘he’s here.’”
“Nani and Maddox designed a new Trap on the stage and weighed Makoa down with iron chains, so he’s not going anywhere,” Ari said behind her. She felt him move closer and lay his hand at the small of her back. She allowed herself a moment to absorb his warmth and solace because she wasn’t sure what to do next. Siolazar was on the prowl, half of her club lay in ruins, and Leviathan was…what exactly?
A tormented, but neutral soul? An unexpected ally? Pure evil?
Not knowing if you could trust someone was quite possibly the most unsettling feeling of all.
But Ari was trying to keep everyone—including her—calm. Makoa was on the premises and the Holy Chains were still safeguarded, so she supposed she should be grateful.
Turning back to Ari, she saw dark shadows under his eyes and a drawn pallor to his face before he quickly put up another smile. That white-light exorcism bomb he’d orchestrated with the telepathic help of the other Guardians had obviously fatigued him.
She frowned, clasping her fists at the sudden tightness in her chest. Not good. Especially when she was in no shape to protect him. “We need to make fresh salt lines across all the windows and doors. After that, Maddox, see if you can get some contractors in here to clean up this disaster. Stark and Konani, make sure our weapons—especially the Molotov cocktails—are topped off and ready. Jade, call the other members of the team to make sure they made it home okay, and then put your feelers out there to see if we can locate Father Angus.”
They were going to need him as desperately as she needed sleep.
Please let me regenerate this time.
Normally, if she brought Ari with her, it’d go a long way to healing them both. Even more so if they made love. But she couldn’t expose him to the burden of her dread, thoughts of Siolazar and Leviathan chasing away any hope of rest. And what if whatever she had—this darkness inside—was somehow contagious? He’d already felt slivers of her experience.
No, she wouldn’t expose him. So she’d try to lay down and quiet her mind…alone.
Yeah, right. She’d never be able to fall asleep, wondering when the demons would come again. Would it be hours? Days?
The only certainty was that they would come.
As her team dispersed to fulfill their duties, the hair on her arms and the back of her neck suddenly stood on end. She spun to face the wall of small, square windows above the kitchen prep counter. Her heart pounded inexplicably as she stared out into the dark Hawa
iian night that shared no secrets.
Seconds later, the Waikiki Beach sirens began to wail.
Chapter 14
Ari stood on the stage where Makoa had curled into a mumbling ball in the middle of the Devil’s Trap, weighed down by more than a hundred pounds of chains. At the bar to his left, Kat was talking to Stark, looking deceptively strong. But it was a facade. He’d bet his prized shield that Leviathan was the one behind this current citywide emergency, not the Rephaim, like Kat believed. There probably wasn’t even an emergency. It was likely another stunt meant to further unravel Kat’s nerves.
Why couldn’t Kat see through Leviathan’s lies? Her ploy seemed so obvious. Yet the archdemon had some kind of hold on her, fabricating a shared life experience based on Kat’s grim childhood.
He jumped down from the stage and crossed the dance floor toward what was left of the hallway. He retrieved his sword from the rubble instead of materializing it in order to conserve strength. That nuclear-style Guardian light bomb he’d detonated with Kat’s partners’ help had emptied his tank more than he’d expected. He reached into the ether to thank the Unholy Inc team.
“No worries, mate. How’s Kat?” Nate asked.
“You in over your head, Viking?” This from Jinx.
“Things are little rough at the moment, but it’s nothing we can’t handle,” he pushed back, hoping they didn’t pick up on the sirens still roaring in the background. They didn’t need to know the details—they had their own problems to deal with. Kat would agree. She was so proud, always unwilling to ask for help. Always wanting to do everything on her own. He loved and deplored that about her.
And if he stood here one minute more, ruminating like some jackass, he’d run his sword through himself.
A hand on his arm stopped him before he lurched out the front door to figure out why the sirens were sounding.
“You leave her now, and I don’t care how much you outweigh me, I’m gonna kick your ass.”
He turned to face Jade. “Leviathan’s got to be the reason for Kat’s failure to thrive around me. I need to put this threat behind us.”
“Are you nuts? You can’t take on an archdemon by yourself. Why don’t you call on some of the other Guardian free agents?”
“I already have. But most of them are assisting in areas more vulnerable than Waikiki. Since the Seam opened, Leviathan is the only one of Satan’s five offspring and their attending legions who hasn’t laid siege to a Guardian stronghold yet. Other free-agent Guardians will be here as soon as they can.”
“What about Nate and Jessie? They got rid of Asmodeus.”
“Yes, but they’ve still got their hands full with the fallout. Asmodeus is back in Hell, but now they’re dealing with his demon horde.”
“Well, okay, but leaving Kat when she needed you is why she lost trust in you three years ago. I thought you finally realized that.”
He shoved a hand through his hair. “When I brought you here, I thought she’d see it as an act of commitment.”
“Leaving as an act of commitment? Come on, Grimm,” she scolded, eyebrows pulled low. “Her past wired her brain to believe that everyone always leaves. She didn’t ask you to find me, but you seem to think that because you did, she should automatically forgive you and get over her fear of abandonment. Well, think again.” Jade poked him in the chest. “Why couldn’t you stay in the first place? Were you afraid of Kat’s grief…and maybe your own?”
Ridiculous. And these fucking sirens were driving him batty. He raised a hand to create a sound barrier around him and Jade. “Vikings have no fear.”
She folded her arms in front of her chest. “Are you really that stupid? There is no shame in feeling afraid. It’s what you do with that fear. You’re afraid of being stuck, and instead of dealing with it, you’re being a heavy-handed douche.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You don’t know what it’s like to stay in one spot. More specifically, you don’t know how to find happiness staying in one spot. Even though you and Kat were together for many years, you guys hardly ever stayed in one place longer than a few months. You know Kat doesn’t prefer that kind of lifestyle, yet she did it for you. Now, if you love her as much as I think you do, you’ll figure out how to accommodate her needs as well.” She looked up and acknowledged Maddox from across the room, adding as she walked away, “Just because you don’t know ‘the how’ of something doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Ari watched Jade depart without really seeing her. She made it sound so easy, but he was coming to realize his and Kat’s situation was anything but simple. He was a man of action. He didn’t know what to do while standing still.
The sirens stopped suddenly. The silence was almost more worrisome than the blaring. He glanced over to the DJ stage where Kat was reaching out to touch Makoa’s arm. “Kat, no! I’ll do the exorc—”
Ari streamed toward her as fast as he could, catching her before she crumpled to the floor. “Christ. Enough, you hear me? Enough,” he whispered as she turned her face into his chest. He gritted his teeth at the sign of her yielding in front of her staff, then he faced her team. “Reinforce all the exits, especially the terrace doors, with salt, holy water, and chrism oil. Use all we have if you need to. Get a few trusted priests to exorcise Makoa and help us ready more holy armaments. I’ll wipe minds if needed afterward. Unless you find yourselves in an unavoidable emergency, leave us alone. We’ll be back down…when we’re down.”
It would have to be enough.
He left Kat’s team and streamed to her private quarters upstairs. He had to figure out why she was so sick. He entered her office and went straight through to her shuttered, shadowy bedroom with its soothing wood and ivory linen textures. With her still silent in his arms, he sealed the doorway, the vents, and all the windows with wards. Whomever had set off the alarms—Leviathan, her hordes, Siolazar—they’d all have to wait.
The island needed its Guardians whole.
He sat her at the end of the bed and began removing the pins from her hair. Her eyes soon drifted shut, her pulse settling into a rhythm that matched his own. With all the pins removed, her hair fell down around her shoulders. He ran his hands through it, the fragrance of it reminding him of happier times. “Remember when I told you that every time you feel the wind in your hair it meant I was thinking of you?”
She nodded, her eyes opening. “I’m in over my head right now, so I’m grateful for your help. But you need to know that I can’t do this with you, Ari.”
“This?”
She looked down at her hands. “The bonding. I’m attracted to you. I can’t hide that, but…the rest isn’t there.”
His chest tightened, but he sat down beside her anyway. She was lying. Again. He wasn’t wrong about their connection. What they had went beyond attraction and lust. But right now, he didn’t have the energy to convince her to drop the walls. She stiffened when his hand went to her hair. “It’s longer now,” he said quietly.
When she swiveled to face him, her gaze was tired. “Who knows what new madness is unleashed on the city, and you want to talk about my hair?” She tried to stand up.
He pulled her back onto the mattress and rolled on top of her, using his knees to nudge her legs apart, wishing she was wearing a dress instead of these tailored dress slacks she’d changed into after the white-light bomb. “I don’t want to talk at all.” His lips found her neck, her quick intake of breath the perfect encouragement.
“Take me home.”
Yes. He’d been waiting to hear those words from her lips for three years and eighty-five days. Ari leaned up and away, pulling her with him so he could dispatch with her flimsy blouse. He tossed it across the room, stripped off his own shirt, and then pulled her against him to feel her skin on his.
He groaned satisfaction. You feel so good, elskan.
She began pushing away from him.
He leaned back, keeping his hands on her upper arms. Everything in him stilled
when he noticed tears forming in her eyes. “Did I miss something here?”
“I want to go home-home. As in, not here. And I don’t feel…I don’t want to take the time to drive there.”
Meaning, she wasn’t strong enough to stream there.
He had them to her house across the island in seconds. His vigor was steadily returning simply by being with her. After a quick check of the grounds to ensure no demons lurked in the area, he carried her to her bedroom.
Her quarters here were vastly different than the ones at Aqua. Both were comfortable and polished, but this bedroom was done in shades of gray and white. More streamlined and modern. Glamour and glass. Mirror and shine. Each bedroom reflected a different side of Kat. Her choice to be here told him much about her current mood. She needed the facade of strength to bolster her until she’d rediscovered her center.
He came up behind her at the dresser, watched her remove her diamond earrings, grateful that she no longer seemed ready to weep. He brushed his fingertips across the nape of her neck, then leaned down to breathe in her ear. “Tell me what I can do for you, my...” Love. “…lady.” He forced a smile into his voice.
Her hand paused on the velvet nesting box for her earrings, her lips quirking infinitesimally. “You may remove my necklace.” She tilted her head slightly forward. Delicate goose bumps ran the length of her arms.
“I am ever at your service.” His fingers lightly traced the line of her shoulder as he released the clasp. The gold slid down between the lacy cups of her bra before she caught the precious metal in one fist. He eased forward, pressing her into the dresser, his eyes tracking up every delicious inch of her exposed skin until they met hers in the mirror. His erection burned against the denim of his jeans. Her fingers flexed on top of the dresser. His palms came to rest on the hips of her gray slacks, not that she was going anywhere, but because if he didn’t put his hands somewhere semi-safe, he’d move way too fast.
“And now?” His voice was gruff, his throat dry. His hand cupped her chin. “No, don’t look away. Look me in the eyes when you tell me what you want, Katherine.”