by Harley James
Ari sat up, pulling Kat with him as Alexios and Raj approached, battered and bloody. They looked as battle-weary as he felt. “Thank you. I never could’ve managed Leviathan on my own,” he said.
Raj nodded, running a hand down his body, replacing his wet clothes with dry ones. “We got lucky. When she shows up again, we won’t have an ambush advantage. I will watch over the Chains of St. Peter until you return to Aqua.”
Alexios frowned at Kat, though she continued to stare at the sand. “Ari will fill you in on what we’ve learned. For now, take comfort in each other.” When his gaze returned to Ari, the Viking could see his concern. “I’ll see if Nate can spare Dorian to stand guard with Raj at the club. Make haste.”
The two Guardians vanished in a geyser of sand that would’ve rained down on Ari and Kat if not for Ari’s air manipulation. He lifted Kat to her feet. Her hands came around his midsection, sliding up his back, her palms cool and healing against his wounds.
“I don’t know if I’m right about the demon…or if I’m losing my mind. I don’t want to be like my father.”
She’d reopened the gate to their telepathy. Relief poured through him that she was communicating with him, and that she was having moments of clarity. He leaned back, his hands grasping her upper arms. “You are nothing like your father, elskan. You are under the influence of Nephilim toxin, that is all. You will overcome. And I’ll be by your side the whole way.”
Storming in and controlling the situation was how he’d always done things.
And how he’d always messed up with her.
Then, when he didn’t know how to fix things, he’d run, saying he had responsibilities to fulfill elsewhere.
It always left him empty.
No more.
He stared into her aqua-blue eyes. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded, thank the Gods. He exhaled heavily, the pressure in his chest easing.
“I do trust you. More than I trust myself at the moment. But I’m still angry. Angry about a lot of things.”
He kissed her forehead, then took her cold hands in his own. “I know. That’s fair. I’ve done many things I regret. I’m sorry for hurting you most of all. Before I was summoned to Inferno, I went to the ruins of my old village. There’s not much there along the coast anymore, except crumbling blocks of stone and the voices of ghosts. I had to go back to my beginning to leave something there.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “What are you trying to say?”
“I buried my shield next to the bones of my baby sister who died when she was six. My father gave me that shield on my tenth birthday. With it, he said, ‘A cowardly man thinks he will ever live, if warfare he avoids; but old age will give him no peace, though spears may spare him.’ All these centuries, I thought I knew what he meant—never stop exploring, fighting, conquering. That was the Viking way. The path to honor. Anyone could see that those who never went raiding would perhaps live longer, but they would be haunted by their cowardice.” He looked down at her hands resting in his own. “Now, I believe I’ve been thinking too narrowly.” He smiled as he brought his gaze back to hers. “I think my father was trying to tell me that everything precious is worth fighting for. The bigger the risk, the greater the reward. And so today I buried my shield to lay to rest my old ideas. I want a life with you, North. More than anything—no matter how long we have together. I love you.”
Her eyes darkened as he linked in with her emotion. Deep, beautiful, combative. There was also a touch of something dark he didn’t recognize. The toxin.
He picked Kat up and carried her toward her lanai, then upstairs into her modern kitchen. He set her on a stool, then turned to her fridge.
After a moment, her fingernails started drumming on the quartz countertop. “We just had a near-death experience with an archdemon, I told you I think I’m going crazy, then you bared your heart, confessing your love, and now you expect me to eat?”
When he turned back, she was wiping her eyes.
“Are you laughing or crying?”
She picked up a decorative orb and threw it at him.
He caught the blown-glass piece of art, then brought out all the ingredients for steak sandwiches. He was almost too amped to eat, but they had arduous hours ahead, for which they needed replenishment of all sorts. “What? You expected me to take you to bed right away? I know you can’t get enough of my body, but we actually have to eat sometimes.”
She leaned her elbows on the counter, rubbing circles on her temples with her fingers. “What was Alexios talking about? What news do you have?”
He set a sandwich in front of her. “Does your head hurt?”
He could tell she was deciding if she should tell him or not. That meant it did.
“It’s not bad. It’s just…static. Makes it hard to concentrate.”
Ari pressed his palms on the countertop to mitigate a rush of agitation. “Let me take you to bed for real now. Maybe that will help.”
She raised an eyebrow. “No.”
“Fine, then eat. We need to get back to Aqua as soon as possible to relieve Raj and Dorian.”
She took a bite, and then another. He finished his sandwich in half the time she did, then went behind her to rub her shoulders. “You remember Pepper Jackson, one of Spencer’s trusted humans at Inferno?” he asked.
“She’s a strong psychic who can remotely view things, or something on that order.”
“Yes. She can project herself anywhere in the world as long as she’s already been there or has the exact coordinates.”
“What about her?”
“Spencer tracked down one of Baal’s lairs and sent the coordinates to Pepper. She was then able to project herself to the archdemon’s location. She learned that the Nephilim are working with Baal to come after Leviathan after Inferno falls and they take Spencer’s relic.”
“Well, I suppose that’s somehow helpful for Spencer to know, but I don’t see how it helps us. Or how it means Leviathan is lying to me. I believe she was being honest with me about her feelings of abandonment. I mean…” She fiddled with a fork. “She knew what I was feeling because she’d felt it herself.”
“I hardly think you can compare your situation with that of the Devil’s daughter.”
“But how do you know? Demons have souls, too, which means they can feel everything we do.”
“Their souls are black, North. They may be able to feel emotion, but they have no remorse. They’re not sorry, and they feel no guilt for their wrongdoing. That’s why they’re in Hell. I don’t get why you’re so conflicted about this. It’s not complicated.”
“But she didn’t make the choice to go to Hell. She was born there. There’s no free will in that.”
“Maybe not, but now that she’s been unleashed, she has the power to make good choices, but she’s not making them.”
Katherine threw up her hands. “I disagree! The only things I’ve seen her do are positive actions. She saved us from Siolazar, cast out a demon from a possessed man in the club, and several times now has turned the other cheek when we’ve been the aggressors.”
Ari took a slow breath. He wasn’t sure how exactly the toxin was affecting her judgment, so he wanted to proceed carefully. “All Guardians know the Nephilim and the Rephaim don’t like each other, but they stay out of each other’s way because their method of terrorizing humans differs. They have no reason to go to war with each other when there are so many humans ripe for the picking. So think about it. Why would the Nephilim help Baal take down the Rephaim, who are in league with Leviathan?”
She shrugged. “Maybe the Rephaim pissed the Nephilim off after all these years? I don’t know, though, it seems unlikely since the Nephilim are so solitary.”
She had it, but just wasn’t seeing it. “The Rephaim are using Nephilim blood to poison Healer Guardians, right? To do that, they have to kill Nephilim. That doesn’t exactly sit well with the Nephilim.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t mean Leviathan is involved. Thi
s could just be some civil war between the fallen angels.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t add up. The Rephaim have nothing to gain by starting a war with the Nephilim. They also have nothing to gain by courting your attention because then you’re up in their business. They’d rather fuck with as many people as they can while you’re busy with demons in your club. Think about it, North. This is going down on your island; therefore, the end game of the Nephilim toxin is your defeat. The Rephaim wouldn’t just decide to do this on their own. So why would they want to take you down? Or more specifically, who’s higher up on the demon food chain ordering them to take you down, and why is that so important?”
Finally, understanding dawned on her face. “To take my relic.”
He nodded slowly as she walked to the wall of windows overlooking the crystalline waters of the Pacific. Her deep sadness hung in the air between them. She’d really wanted to believe Leviathan had benevolent motives. Her desire to believe that the demon was a misunderstood creation reflected her own need to be represented that way.
He moved to stand behind her, loathe to disappoint her further. She sighed and turned to look up at him. “That could have been Leviathan’s original plan, but I really feel like I was reaching her. Helping her see she could choose to walk a different path.”
She was more of an optimist than she ever wanted anyone to know. He loved that about her, even more so because she tried to hide it. “It’s the toxin, clouding your judgment.”
He took her shoulders, holding her when she tried to wrest from his grasp. “No, don’t get mad. Listen. If Leviathan could somehow miraculously rise above her evil nature, she wouldn’t continue trying to poison us. And even if this was a rare war between two groups of fallen angels, the archdemons wouldn’t get involved. Pepper heard Archdemon Baal and Maeprix, one of the older Nephilim, talk about skewering Leviathan for ordering the Rephaim to brutalize the Nephilim.”
Ari hesitated momentarily, letting go of her shoulders. “And Baal wants Leviathan taken out of the equation because she stole something he’d recently ‘acquired.’”
“Are you serious? A relic?” Kat sank down onto the edge of the windowsill.
Ari ran a hand through his hair, not wanting to expose her to this ugliness. Especially after that shit she’d relived on the beach.
“There’s more. I can feel it in you. Just spit it out, Grimm.”
“You remember meeting the Guardian Hector Alvarez?”
She held her breath, nodding slowly.
“A few weeks ago, Baal found Hector’s compound, caught him by surprise, and tore him apart. Then he took possession of his relic.” Ari started pacing, rage resurging at the loss of one of their own.
“Oh God, the Rod of Moses.”
Ari nodded and forced himself to stand still. “You know how things have been quiet around here? You thought Leviathan wasn’t like the other archdemons terrorizing your partners’ nightclubs, but in fact she was plying you with lies while she orchestrated a coup of a different kind.” He paused and let her fill in the blanks.
Her face paled. “Leviathan took the Rod of Moses from Baal.”
Chapter 24
Total nightmare.
Katherine gritted her teeth and took down her disheveled hair to repin it into a severe bun. If Leviathan was honestly trying to walk a different path than her evil family, she wouldn’t need to collect holy items. Katherine had believed the demon was minding her own business and staying out of trouble, when in fact, she’d been marshaling the Rephaim army to do her dirty work and poison Healer Guardians with Nephilim blood.
As the offspring of the Dark One, her powers were already more fearsome than either the Rephaim or the Nephilim. But now she had the Rod of Moses. No wonder she controlled Siolazar so effortlessly. And no wonder her entire horde could walk about in broad daylight with such ease.
Katherine moved to the sofa and sank down into the soft cushions. Everything seemed hopeless. Like all their efforts were merely delaying the inevitable. She leaned forward, rested her elbows on her knees, and put her head in her hands. Think, Katherine. Think.
A fresh wave of static ran through her mind.
Ari’s big booted feet came into her line of sight.
“Get up.”
His voice held an undercurrent of steel. Katherine blinked at the jute rug, ignoring his boots.
“I said, get up.”
Katherine dropped her hands with a loud sigh. “What do you want me to do? I’m trying to think of something, but really, do we have a chance? If Leviathan has a relic, how can we possibly defeat her?”
Ari pulled her up, frowning fiercely. “So you want to just give up now? Come on, North, give me some of that fire that makes me want to simultaneously tie you to a bed and pitch you into the deepest part of the ocean.”
“I hate this. I didn’t sign up for this.”
“Yes, you did. Every one of us Guardians would have been sent to Hell, but when given the choice, we picked this existence. You picked this. Now Guardian-up, water woman.”
He turned away and stormed to the door. He opened it and walked out without even looking back. He never did that.
She didn’t like it.
She followed him down to the beach, her skin sparking, her body electrified by the friction between them and her proximity to the water’s edge. He used his powers to strip away his boots, socks, and shirt. All that remained on his body was a pair of rolled-up white linen pants that he’d materialized to replace his jeans. They hung low on his hips, revealing the deep V of his obliques and the golden hairs trailing from his belly into the waistband of his pants.
Thank goodness he hadn’t shave that off.
His shoulders and back muscles shifted as he proceeded to enter the ocean, the water pulling at his shins, then his knees.
She grew more light-headed the further out he went. She spread her stance for balance and cupped her hands around her mouth. “W-what are you doing?” Please come back. “Leviathan could be out here.” Probably was. Watching. Waiting. Biding her time to use the Rod of Moses to unleash a new holocaust.
And right now her Viking was up to his shaved, but still gorgeous, golden chest in ocean scariness. “Ari, please come out!”
He turned to face her and held out a hand.
Yeah, right. He had to be joking. No way in hell was she stepping foot in the water.
He knew that.
And that actually made her mad. Why would he do that to her? To make her feel even more like a coward?
She took a step back when the intense look on his face indicated he wasn’t messing with her. Acid washed up her esophagus.
“Come. It’s time to overcome your fear, North. I will die protecting you and the relic, but if something happens to me, you need to know how to control all aspects of your element as well as your fear. It’s the only way to best Leviathan.”
No.
No!
Can’t.
Her hands grew cold, then warm, then started to shake. The shakiness spread to her thighs. Going to throw up.
Ari materialized by her side. She could feel the warmth of his body radiating toward her even though she knew the water was cold. He’d always been warm blooded. She loved that about him. Remembered all the times he’d shared his warmth with her. All the times he never minded her cold feet on his legs in bed.
She blinked up at him, lost in the past. Uncertain of why he was here now, and where they would go from here if they somehow managed to make it out of this alive. I want him. Wanted him even if it was in slivers of time. He would go, but he’d always come back.
And it would be enough.
“Don’t make me do this,” she whispered. “If you love me, you won’t make me do this.”
He began pulling the pins from her hair, dropping them into the sand. The wind whipped her hair into her eyes, and, heavens, it felt scary and exhilarating.
“I am making you do this because I love you.”
&nbs
p; He slid a warm palm into her hair, grasping her by the hip with his other hand, and brought her into the shelter of his body. His lips settled on hers, confident and soothing, arousing and calming all at once. His tongue rolled against hers, a slow dance mimicking their bodies last night as they’d slid against one another. Her hands climbed up his back, marveling anew at the warmth and velvet power of the muscles beneath his skin. The bulge in his pants pressed insistently against her pelvis. She moaned when his lips trailed hotly downward to press open-mouthed kisses where her shoulder met her neck.
He lifted one of her legs, pulling her hips tightly against his erection as he rocked into her softness. His blue eyes burned into hers when she lifted her lids. She brushed his blond hair out of his eyes. “Let’s go back inside,” she managed.
“You think to distract me from what needs to be done, but don’t forget how on-task I can be when your safety is at sake.”
She shook her head, feeling desperation rise up. “Ari, I—put me down.”
“If you run, I will catch you.”
She knew he would. “F-fine.” Bastard.
When he set her feet on the sand, goose bumps broke out across her arms. Her mind spun with possibilities on how to avoid the unthinkable. Aquaphobia. She hadn’t been in the ocean—or any collective body of water, including a bath tub—since she was eleven years old.
That was in 1863.
Sweat rolled between her breasts, and sharp pains shot through her chest.
“I’d like to relieve Raj and Dorian before dark. Let’s go, North. Dragging your feet like this gives your fear more teeth.”
There was so much truth to that. Okay, okay.
Okay.
But then again, no.
“Can you carry me?” she squeaked, mortified at how weak she sounded.
The first smile since they’d come outside spread across his rugged face. “That would be cheating. You need to walk into the water of your own volition. But I’ll hold your hand.” He brushed another quick kiss against her mouth, then rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip before threading his fingers through hers. “I won’t let go.”