by Liz Schulte
Holden exhaled a breath of smoke, but everything else settled in him. “Why don’t you test your light out on the one in there?”
Quintus nodded and entered Thomas’s cell. Holden came and sat next to me. “You know that vampire?”
I nodded. “If Sy or Paolo find out he’s here, they’ll kill him.”
Holden leaned his head left, then the right. A series of vertebrae in his neck cracked with a popping sound. “Of course they will. What did he do?”
“A few years back, Thomas came looking for me at the Office. I hadn’t been out of my homeland very long and didn’t know a lot about some of the other races, vampires especially. He said he needed my help and like a fool I agreed. He did nothing but lie to me the entire time. He was working for an organization called Neru. They were framing vampires for the disappearance of various people across the Abyss. Basically, they’d set up an exotic grocery store of sorts for rich vampires.”
“And that’s all?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
Holden ran a hand through his hair. “This is obviously personal to you. I don’t care if you slept with him. I just need to know you can separate your personal life from what’s happening here. If you kill him now, you could kill Maggie. She’s too new to lose the connection to her sire.”
Now it made sense why Holden hadn’t already offed him. “I had a chance to kill him once and I let him go. I was just shocked. I’m not the one you have to worry about. He was supposed to leave Chicago. I know Paolo is looking for him, probably all the vampires are, and if Sy finds out he’s here, he’ll turn him in. A lot of people died because of him.”
Holden nodded. “When we figure out how to free Maggie, you can do what you want to him. Turn him in, let him go, whatever. I don’t care.”
“Deal.” I crossed my legs.
Quintus came out of the cell. “He did okay with my light, but he thinks she’s too new and will react more violently.”
“He lies. It’s his thing,” I said.
Quintus shrugged. “Should we try it?”
Holden frowned. “Not right now. Maybe in a couple days. Let me know if you learn anything.” Holden let Quintus out and locked up behind him, then returned to the couch.
“What are we going to do with Tickle Me Emo?” I glanced at Phoenix who was sitting in the chair, carefully not leaning back, his eyes closed. Such a good little soldier.
Holden smiled ever so slightly.
“I figured I’d just hang here with you guys until this whole thing blows over,” Phoenix said. “Do you have a shirt I can wear?”
“You can have a cell here, but you’re not wearing my clothes,” Holden said. “If you betray us, the animaphagist becomes your room.”
I laughed and stood up. “Where do you live? I’ll get your stuff. I’m feeling cooped up anyway.”
Phoenix gave me his address.
“Take Baker,” Holden said.
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Find Phoenix an empty cell and take the shifter. You need back up. None of us should go out alone anymore.” Holden stalked over to Olivia’s war room.
I sighed loudly. So bossy. I opened a door to a cell one down from Thomas’s, two up from Maggie’s. “Home sweet home,” I told Phoenix. “If we keep collecting strays, we’re going to have to get a bigger commune.”
Phoenix lumbered to his feet and limped into the cell, falling face first onto the crusty twin bed. I shut the door and went down the hall. Baker stood just inside Maggie’s door, staring at the coffin. I couldn’t see his face, but something about the rigid way he held himself made me think it wasn’t a good time to interrupt. I backed away slowly and headed back down the hall.
“Don’t go alone, Femi,” Thomas called from the other side of his door. “The jinni is right.”
“What do you know about it?” I asked.
“Enough.”
I stared at the door separating us. I couldn’t trust anything he said and I knew it—but Thomas had tried to save me once before. I trailed my fingers down the cool metal surface and imagined him doing the same on the other side. Goosebumps rose along my spine.
“I’ve missed you,” he said softly.
I pulled my hand back and walked away.
I flipped the stone over in my fingers as I walked the perimeter of Olivia’s room. The small bone-like object was still warm and slick with blood, and something pulsed from it. An energy or presence that made the damn thing feel alive in my hand, as if at any moment it would burrow beneath my skin or try to escape. It bore a carved symbol unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It was different than the typical runes I came across—and judging by the tingling it caused in my hand, it packed a larger punch too, but the million dollar question was what did it do? With Juliet, the runes on her body allowed for demons to possess her vessel. Phoenix wasn’t possessed—or at least he didn’t seem to be. He was still helping and had no real personality changes. Either Phoenix had been lying when he said he didn’t know he had it or it had always been with him. There simply wasn’t a way someone could have surgically implanted it without his knowledge—unless maybe it wasn’t surgical?
A niggling feeling at the base of my skull kept my eyes darting back to the rune any time I tried to look away.
I slipped it into my pocket and forced my hand away from it. Focus. I scanned the walls, maps, and desks in Olivia’s room. She didn’t have a single chair or any other piece of comfort in the space, though she spent the majority of every day stewing over these walls. What was she looking for? Alongside her maps, scraps of paper bearing her handwriting filled the walls, but I couldn’t read them. She’d used a language I had never seen before—Angelic script—to prevent intruders (and probably the rest of us too) from gleaning her intentions or plans. The writing was curved and elegant—and a total fucking pointless mystery. How were we supposed to compete against an angel and Hell and everyone else who decided to suddenly have a problem with me?
My phone buzzed. “What?” I answered.
“Ah … hi,” the half-elf witch Selene stuttered.
I rolled my eyes. Most of what she said to me sounded like blah, blah, blah. I pushed her along until she got to the crux of her problem.
“If I turn evil, will you kill me?”
“Today?” I actually liked the witch, at least more than I did most people, so I was a bit reluctant . Had Olivia been herself it would’ve been a no-go. But Liv wasn’t herself. And we were being overrun with evil and trouble from all sides. Selene was a sensible sort and wouldn’t ask such a thing if it wasn’t critically important. I wasn’t going to turn away the opportunity to, for once, get ahead of a problem before it became impossible to fix in favor of sentimentality.
“No,” Selene said. “I’m trying to get things lined up, just in case.”
“Fine. If you come to the dark side and stay for cookies, have someone call me or Olivia. One of us will kill you. Happy?” Between the kid, Phoenix and this rune, angel Olivia hiding her plans from us, and Maggie turning into a vampire, killing someone might be cathartic. And it wasn’t like it was wrong if she asked me to do it, right? It was probably one of those greater good situations. I was also 99 percent sure the angel would be on board with this, no fuss no muss.
She squeaked and started jabbering again, but I hung up. Cheney would have to deal with his wife. I had my own woman causing problems.
I closed my eyes for a moment. The image of Olivia smiling and scrunching her nose at me filled my mind, easing some of the tension from my shoulders. We would find a way to get her back. We just … well, we would. We had to.
That decided and re-affirmed, I considered the wall of Angelic notes once more, and something in the pretty writing struck me. I pulled the rune from my pocket, spit on the front of it, then used my thumb to rub away as much of the blood as I could. When the symbol was clearer, I slapped it against the wall next to the other writing. Very similar.
When the demons imbedded Juliet wit
h runes, they were on the outside of her skin, not beneath it. In fact, the only person I’d ever seen do something to someone beneath their skin without slicing them open was the angel when she prevented Maggie from ever being possessed again. She could’ve done it when she freed Phoenix. No one would’ve noticed.
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. It was a lot more plausible than someone else having done it years ago, but never using it for anything. If one takes the trouble to implant a rune, chances are they have a plan for it in the immediate future.
Scratching my jaw—I needed to shave—with one hand, I traced the outline of the symbol with the other. I only knew two people who could translate this. Olivia or Uriel. If I asked Olivia she’d know we were on to whatever game she was playing. If I asked Uriel he’d know she freed Phoenix…then again, maybe he already knew. After all, he’d known when she freed me. But if that was the case, why hadn’t the angels made a move to take her down? I ran my thumb over the symbol again. Maybe it hid her actions from Heaven. Perhaps this was her countermeasure. Surely as a former angel she’d know they’d take exception to what she was doing. Had we just jeopardized her life by removing the rune from Phoenix?
Shit.
I pulled out my phone, thumb hovering over her number. The rune could have nothing to do with that or everything to do with it. It took a split second to make my decision. I pressed send. Any tactical advantage I might gain from her not knowing was not worth Olivia’s life—or the angel’s.
“Yes,” she answered.
“I need to talk to you.” The other end was silent for several seconds. “It’s important.”
“About what?” I could practically hear her eyes narrowing.
“Did you put a rune stone in Phoenix?”
Silence again, but this time I waited her out. “How do you know about that?”
“We took it out.”
The phone clicked off. I left her area and went back to the living room. Moments later she slammed the front door behind her. “Why did you remove the stone?”
I crossed my arms. “Why did you put it in him?”
She glared at me. “I will not justify my actions to a jinni.”
Irritation and a damn near irresistible urge to shake her started in my stomach and clenched in my fingers. What did she want from me? I was trying. At every turn the angel reminded me of how I wasn’t good enough. No matter what I did I would still be a jinni.
A slow smile melted over my face as I finally gave into my rage. I was done trying. If she wanted a jinni, I could give her the jinni. I released the charm I’d constantly fought to hold in, since I stopped being an active jinni. Every day I kept that side of myself under control so I could be the person they all wanted me to be. Being honorable and empathetic was exhausting, especially when a much easier way was always within my grasp. I approached her, letting go of everything. “You throw what I am back at me a lot, but the truth of the matter is”—I reached out to run the back of my hand over her cheek and she flinched away—“your feeble attempts to create walls and space between us aren’t working, are they? She’s still in there, still responds to my touch, still wants me like I want her, and you can’t stop it. Is this the best you can do, angel?”
Her eyes flashed. “Your powers of influence do not work on me. I cannot be tempted by your pretty face or seduced into violence by your silver tongue.”
“You’ve never complained about my tongue before.” My eyes traced the familiar bow of her lips and remembered what it was like to kiss them. The gentle curve of her mouth that fit perfectly with mine, the soft satin of her skin, and the light that always sparked between us rushing over my flesh, burning away the years of mistakes. Her breath caught and her eyes dilated slightly. Definitely not as immune as she would like to believe. “But we both know I don’t need my charms. Not with you. There’s something much deeper and more basic between us.” My fingers hovered just over her heartbeat, just where I imagined Olivia and I were linked. “It only takes a touch to reveal it. And you can’t stop it. Wouldn’t this all be so much easier and more enjoyable if we compromised?”
She stepped back. “Do not push me, jinni. She cannot protect you forever. Someday she will falter and you will learn the price of your insolence.”
I continued my advance on the angel. “Insolence? No, love.” I winked. “Besides, it’s not just Liv who has a thing for me.”
The angel snorted.
I smiled again and ran my tongue over my lower lip. “If it were only her protecting me, you would’ve left as soon as you took over.” I raised an eyebrow and leaned close, pressing her back against the wall. “You want me and need me in your own way, too. The question is why?”
Her jaw set to a stubborn angle. “I would just as soon turn you to dust. You do not matter to me. Do not make the mistake of overvaluing your importance. You can be replaced.”
“So do it. Why keep me?” I searched her eyes. The angel was hard to read.
“Because you will never do anything to harm your Olivia. That is why you told me about the rune, is it not?”
I nodded.
Her lips pulled back in a sneer. “And that is why I keep you. It has nothing to do with a misguided notion that you could change. Your emotional attachment is more reliable than anything else in this world. No matter what I do, you will always be on my side. You may know what your touch does, but I know so long as I keep her, you are my most loyal servant. You will never betray me.”
“What was the rune for?” I didn’t relinquish any space, keeping her trapped between arms. Unless she chose to touch me, which would bring Olivia to the forefront and shove the angel to the back, there was nothing the angel could do about my close proximity.
She stared forward.
I leaned in, my nose nearly touching her face. “We’ve always had better results together.”
This time she smiled, but it wasn’t happy or sweet like Olivia’s smile. “Oh, we will be working together for a very long time, you will see. I will give the orders and you will obey, jinni. The concept should be simple enough that even you can understand.”
“And you will see,” I murmured, my cheek mere millimeters from hers, “that doesn’t work for me.” Olivia’s light grew around us, but she didn’t budge from her spot. She couldn’t run this time, which made me smile. “Where are you going, angel?”
“What have you done?”
“Security measures. Wouldn’t want any random angels just showing up, especially if they are here for you. And as I understand it, you aren’t making them very happy right now.”
I kissed her, knowing it would be Olivia who felt it, then stepped back. For the first time in a while, I had the upper hand.
It took the angel a moment to recover. She eyed me warily. “Why would any other angels come here? They have shunned me. Your measures are unnecessary”
I stared at her. She truly didn’t know. “You’re breaking the rules and eventually Heaven will come after you. As you said, I only want to protect you.”
She frowned and jerked her head to the side. “Her.”
“What was that?”
“You do not care about protecting me. You only protect her.”
“No,” I said, finally understanding. I raised my eyebrows just a little to give me an earnest, serious look. “I protect you both.”
Not waiting for her reply, I walked away. I’d lied to her, of course. Olivia would have known the difference, but I was hoping the angel wouldn’t. I had been reading people’s emotions for years, but I never tried to read the angel’s. She was lonely and scared. When I stopped holding back, I could all but smell it on her. Heaven left her, Hell was after her, and her only friends wanted her to be someone else.
I headed down the hall to check on the kid. She was curled in a tight fetal position, still deeply asleep.
“Out like a light, ain’t she?” Baker said, slipping out of Maggie’s cell.
The kid’s eyelashes fluttered agains
t her cheeks. She didn’t look relaxed, even at rest. “She’s had it rough.”
He nodded and stood next to me. “What are we going to do with her?”
“No idea.” We had to keep her; there really wasn’t any other choice. Maggie had been our best option for a babysitter, but now that she was a vampire, it was risky. “How’s Maggie doing?”
Baker shrugged but his face was tight and anything but nonchalant. “How vampire transformations always are. Ugly.”
“Is there anything we can do to stop it?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve given her some herbs to slow it down and ease some of the pain, but she was too far gone by the time I got there to stop it.”
“How the fuck did this happen, Baker? Do you really believe it’s a coincidence that this happens now, in the midst of everything else?”
He sighed. “It could be. She wanted to be a part of what we’re doing. She told me that multiple times, but I always said no. Said she should forget about this world and be happy. I thought…” He sighed. “I thought it wasn’t too late for her to have normal.”
“Yeah, worked like a charm.”
He threw his arms up. “I get it. I messed up. But it isn’t like you were helping out. If I remember correctly your brilliant method of protecting Olivia was to kill her.” He stalked off down the hall, and the warehouse door slammed behind him.
My own anger churned and heated. We were all falling apart and I couldn’t find it within myself to care. Letting go of the walls that gave me control was easy; putting them back was much harder. And did I really want them back? Everything was simpler, clearer, when I only had my own interests to consider. I could walk away from all of this. I would never win the war, but I wouldn’t have to fight it either. All I had to do was stay one step ahead of Hell and that would much easier without these people holding me back. I didn’t need allies. I didn’t need friends. I’d lived a long time without either, and I was even stronger now than I was then.