I’m going on a real mission today, one I was invited to.
I thought we’d get a bunch of stares with us hunters all dressed in black body armor and Valor in her silver armor, but Valor opted out of her silver armor for this, making this the first time I’ve seen her wear normal human clothes. She looks just as stunning in them as she normally does. It’s impossible to hide her beauty—even when she’s wearing a puffy coat like the rest of us. Those coats help hide our hunter body armor, too. It probably wouldn’t matter what we’re wearing though, since Valor attracts the attention of anyone who walks by us.
Valor leads the way as we walk the snowy streets of Philadelphia. We arrive at an apartment complex that looks similar to the one Fiona and I used to live in. I guess we still technically do. We just don’t spend any time there now.
Seeing Valor in street clothes is weird enough, but seeing her use a cell phone to contact the angel watching the suspect is super weird. With how otherworldly she and the other angels are, seeing her use something like a cell phone feels really out of place. I’ve seen Rynne do it tons of times, but even after learning he’s an angel, I can’t help but think of him as human in a lot of ways. Maybe the fact that he was human once has something to do with it. All of the other angels have been angels since the day they came into existence.
“He’s in his apartment,” Valor announces as she hangs up the phone, and places it in her pocket.
“What’s the number?” Fiona asks.
“Second floor. Apartment six.”
“We’re just going to walk up to his door?” I ask.
Fiona pulls out his driver’s license. “We have to return his license. He’ll either invite us inside after that or we’ll force our way in. You know the rest.”
Rynne folds his arms. He doesn’t look like he’s entirely happy with this arrangement, but he doesn’t contend with Valor’s decision for him and her to be standbys in this. Fiona catches Valor’s eye. I think I can feel a bit of tension. I’m not sure why that would be. This all makes sense to me. Valor probably wants to see how we handle this. She’s going to be working with us from now on after all.
“Let’s go,” I say and take the first step toward Larry’s apartment.
Donovan, Fiona, and I are silent as we reach apartment number six. I knock on the door, and Fiona has Larry’s driver’s license in her hand. I hear footsteps on the other side of the door. Then a man opens it. He looks like the man on the driver’s license, and he looks exhausted, and has a receding hairline. Probably a result of one too many late nights.
“Can I help you?” he asks, rubbing the bags under his eyes.
“We found something that belongs to you,” Fiona replies, holding out the man’s driver’s license.
“Where did you find this?” He suddenly stops rubbing his eyes to take the card.
“If you wouldn’t mind letting us inside, we’d be happy to explain.”
I don’t know if the guy is half-asleep or what, but he lets us in without a fight or a question. I’m sure we look like an odd threesome. None of us look like we’re related, and I’m obviously much younger than Fiona and Donovan.
“We found your ID out near some private property,” Donovan explains.
“Private property?!” Larry exclaims.
I tune out the rest of the conversation because it’s pointless. Instead, I focus on what Fiona is doing. She has the aconite pill in her hand. She’s waiting for the opportunity to shove the thing in his mouth.
“Wait. Are you cops?” Larry demands. Then he looks at me and scowls. “I want you out of my apartment. Thanks for returning my ID or whatever, but this is all a big mistake.”
I’m tired of waiting. It’s now or never. I snatch the pill right out of Fiona’s hand and lunge at the guy. I make my move so sporadically, he startles back into a chair sitting in his living room. It catches him, so he doesn’t fall onto the ground. It makes it easy for me to walk right up to him and force the pill down his throat. He swallows in surprise, making this part of the mission a success.
“Damn!” Donovan exclaims. “That’s one way to get the job done.”
Fiona rushes over to me and grabs me by the shoulder, yanking me away from Larry. He immediately starts sweating and trembling. All the nerves I left behind start to catch up to me, and I realize I just poisoned a man without any hesitation.
“Where’s the activated charcoal?” I ask, worried. “Is he a werebeast or not?”
“In my hand, and we’ll know any second now,” Fiona replies.
To my relief, Larry’s body starts changing, shifting into something fierce and covered in fur. My mind is drawing a blank. Now is the time to kill him.
Kill him.
Fiona steps forward and jams a silver knife into the beast’s heart.
“That should do it,” she mutters.
“Glad we caught him like this instead of when he was completely shifted,” Donovan comments. “Flamethrowers are a pain, but they’re pretty much the only way to fight a shifted werebeast. Damn things are strong.”
“Indeed,” Fiona agrees.
She pulls out the silver knife and wipes it on the man’s shirt, cleaning off the blood. Stabbing him in the heart mid-shift with a silver knife did the job. He’s no longer moving. He’s stuck between human and beast.
I feel sick.
“Are we going to do anything about the body?” Donovan asks.
“I don’t think it matters. Looks like he shifted far enough that his body will just melt away.”
I turn away from the black sludge oozing out of every orifice in the man’s face. I hold my hand over my heart to feel my diamonds. The sick feeling subsides, but I don’t plan on looking back at the carnage.
“You acted quickly and without hesitation,” Fiona tells me as she puts a hand on my shoulder. “Good job.”
I didn’t finish the job, but I did do something I’m not sure I could have done in the past. Maybe I’m not a lost cause. Maybe I really can fulfill this destiny of mine.
I DON’T LIKE THAT Tasia is in there with the hunters doing this kind of work. I know this is what she’s been training for. I know this is part of what she’s foretold to do. However, a part of me always hoped that she’d be able to stay far away from all of this. I hoped she’d be able to stay innocent. I hoped she wouldn’t have to fight.
She’s already seen three natural demons besides Arsen. So I don’t know what I think I’m protecting her from anymore. She knows everything. I only wish she didn’t have to get her hands dirty. I know demons have no place in this world. Still, that doesn’t mean that killing them doesn’t put a weight on the one doing it.
We dispel darkness just to attain some darkness of our own. That’s often what it feels like.
“Shall we get closer?” the confidant asks, apparently unsatisfied with our view of the window a floor above us from where we stand at the back of the apartments.
She doesn’t wait for me to reply. She walks up to the apartment complex, and I follow behind her in silence. She leads right up to the apartment that the hunters disappeared into. She opens the door without a problem because it’s already unlocked. She only opens it an inch, but it’s enough for us to peek inside without anybody noticing us. They’re all within clear view since they haven’t moved very far into the all but officially confirmed werebeast’s home.
Whatever happened, it seems Larry isn’t too pleased about his guests. He’s telling them to leave. I expect Blade to jump into action. She has an aconite pill in her hand. Then Tasia moves. She confiscates the aconite pill and charges at the man in the same moment. No one was expecting it. I wasn’t expecting it. The man falls over onto a chair, and Tasia shoves the pill into his mouth. He swallows hard, like he didn’t even intend to. That’s when Tasia hesitates.
Blade rushes in and yanks Tasia back. They wait and watch the man in the chair. As he starts to shift and it’s clear he’s a werebeast, Blade expertly sticks a silver knife in his chest. Killing h
im instantly.
The confidant gently closes the apartment door. She takes my hand and guides me down the stairs. We get away unseen, but if she hadn’t acted when she did, we would have been seen by a human we pass while walking down the stairs. The confidant takes me to the parking lot. She doesn’t let go of my hand until she stops at the opposite end of the parking lot.
“She is quite brave, isn’t she?” Confidant Valor comments
“Tasia?” I ask.
She watches me with interest. “Yes, Tasia.”
“She is brave,” I say. “But I’ve never seen her do anything like that. I’ve seen her shoot a demon before with a silver bullet. She did what she had to do and she performed excellently, but there was anguish in that action, even though she was facing a demon. The act of violence alone affected her then, but she charged and fed this guy poison without any hesitation at all, and it wasn’t even guaranteed he had any demon blood inside of him.”
Though the confidant won’t say it, I’m pretty sure she knew all along that that man was a werebeast. This was all a test. I wonder if Tasia proved herself.
“That’s very interesting,” the confidant comments.
“Is what Cassius did to her white diamond powerful enough to get rid of her inhibitions?” I ask.
Confidant Valor watches the apartment complex. “You’re asking the wrong angel.”
I follow her gaze to see Tasia, Blade, and Donovan finished with their job and coming out to meet us. I thought Tasia would appear more upset after what she just went through. However, that isn’t the case at all. She greets me with a smile. I smile back hesitantly.
“Not sure if you really saw anything, but you should have,” she says as she grabs my hands. “I almost feel like a real hunter!”
“You are a real hunter,” Blade says. “Just because you didn’t finish the guy off doesn’t mean you’re not a hunter. That’s why we have teams. We pick up each other’s slack.”
“Do you feel okay?” I can’t help but ask.
“I was feeling a little sick,” Tasia admits. “But he was a werebeast. We did what we had to do.”
“That’s right,” I say, but my words feel hollow.
“Whatever Cassius did to my diamond is really helping with my anxiety.”
Tasia, Blade, and Donovan fill the confidant and I in on what happened as we make our way back to the base. Valor doesn’t say anything about the two of us having seen a good portion of what happened, so I keep my mouth shut as well.
Once we’ve returned to the base and enter the lobby, we find the oracle standing there with Divya. Divya looks a bit nervous, standing with him, but she probably felt she needed to accompany him rather than leave him to his own devices.
“Cassius!” Tasia exclaims. She runs away from the rest of us to greet the oracle. She doesn’t show any reservations. And the oracle greets her with a smile.
Maybe I shouldn’t think this, but I find it strange, seeing her act so friendly with him. I wonder if it’s because of the fact that he’s the oracle doesn’t hold the same weight with her as it does with me. It’s not as if the oracle has ever been unfriendly with me. He’s even saved my life. Still, I can’t see myself acting the same way she does around him.
“Are you going to take me back to Ilenima?” Tasia asks. “By the way you were talking, I thought I’d be back here for a while before I saw you again.”
“We’re likely to be doing a lot of back and forth. I hope that’s okay,” the oracle informs. “I hear you were out on a hunt. How did it go?”
“It went great. Better than I could’ve hoped.” Tasia pulls out her diamonds. “Whatever you did to my white diamond really helped. I’ve never felt so calm before. Usually anxiety is threatening to eat me alive.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” the oracle says
Divya takes this opportunity to excuse herself and meets up with Blade. They stay close by, within range of what’s going on, but they busy themselves with a conversation of their own. Blade sends Donovan off, and I follow behind the confidant as she advances on Tasia and the oracle.
I hold back near Tasia, and the confidant walks right up to the oracle. She takes advantage of a break in Oracle Cassius and Tasia’s interaction to kiss him. I’m not exactly surprised by the greeting, though there hasn’t been much of it going on, since every angel here has constantly been on duty, but I can see the surprise on Tasia’s face. Even though I’ve told her about greeting kisses, I’m fairly certain she hasn’t seen any at the base.
“A greeting kiss?” Tasia asks.
I’m about to tell her that it must be, though the timing was odd, when the confidant speaks up. “Yes, but Cassius is also my mate.”
I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. I thought something like this would be common knowledge for all angels. Then again, picking a mate is a very private affair. Even in the case of the oracle and the confidant. But angels can’t be considered mates until they have conceived. I raise my eyebrows in surprise at this revelation.
“Congratulations,” I say with a bow. “I had no idea.”
“Thank you, Rynne,” the confidant says. “But there’s no reason to feel bad. Most angels don’t know yet, but every angel here knows. However, if your senses were sharper, you probably would have suspected something.”
I feel embarrassed at her suggestion. It’s the human in me, because it doesn’t surprise me that other angels would know just by being near the confidant that she’s pregnant.
“Will it be announced?” I ask. In any other case it wouldn’t be, but I assume since this is the oracle and the confidant we’re talking about, an exception will be made.
“Yes, an announcement will be made,” Oracle Cassius reveals.
“What are you guys talking about?” Tasia asks, confusion written on her brow.
“Tasia,” the oracle addresses, “You’ve met Valor, my confidant. She is the angel that helps watch after Ilenima, working by my side. She is also my mate.”
“Mate?” she asks before he can explain all the way.
“His wife,” I clarify.
“Oh, that makes sense,” Tasia replies.
“What do you mean by that?” the confidant asks with a smile.
“You look perfect together,” Tasia says with a nod of her head.
The confidant laughs as she delicately places a hand on the oracle’s arm. “There you have it Cassius,” she says. “We look perfect together.” Then she brings her lips to his ear. “Sometimes we even work well together.”
The oracle doesn’t respond. He stands still and calm like a perfect sculpture.
“Is it safe for you to be here, Confidant?” I ask. “I know you’re powerful, but if you’re pregnant, shouldn’t somebody else be in charge? I mean no disrespect.”
“Pregnant?!” Tasia exclaims.
The confidant laughs again, a mellifluous sound. “It’s fine for me to be here. I’m the one Cassius counts on. I am his confidant after all.”
“You are my most trusted, Valor,” the oracle agrees. “However, you aren’t the one who has to be here. You wanted to be here. In fact, I’d feel more comfortable if you went back to Ilenima.”
“If you’re so worried, you can always send me back,” she says, a challenge in her voice.
I’m not sure what I’m seeing between them. I wouldn’t call it a power struggle, but it definitely seems like a battle of the wills. The way they’re looking into each other’s eyes, it’s almost like a silent war to see who will cave in first.
“Even if I asked you to stay in Ilenima, even if I begged, you wouldn’t do it,” Oracle Cassius says in a low voice.
Confidant Valor smiles. “You know me well.”
The oracle gently wraps his arm around her waist, bringing her a little closer to him. “You’re only supposed to be here as a mediator. I ask you to keep that in mind.”
“Of course,” the confidant replies. “I won’t be doing anything reckless.”
“Why did you attack
Arsen like that then?” Tasia blurts, her voice quivering. “And then he hit you with his tail, right in your stomach as far as I could tell, and you flew back into a wall!”
“What?” the oracle asks flatly as he looks at the confidant.
“It’s a minor detail,” she informs. She pats the oracle’s chest heartily. “My body is strong. Everything’s fine.”
“Valor, if you—”
“I said I’m fine, Cassius. You came for Tasia, right? You shouldn’t waste any more time.”
“Very well,” the oracle replies, bringing his arm back to his side and putting some distance between him and the confidant. “Are you ready to go, Tasia?”
“S-sure,” she replies.
Tasia follows behind the oracle but she looks back at me and the confidant to wave. The oracle, however, doesn’t look back. I glance at the confidant to see her staring at him with an intense gaze. Her deep blue eyes are glimmering with… something.
“You have a question,” she says without taking her eyes off of the oracle.
“Not one I should ask,” I reply.
“You wonder if Cassius and I even love each other,” she says, ignoring my statement. “We don’t.”
“What?” I ask, taken aback.
“We don’t love each other the same way you and Tasia love each other,” she clarifies. “That’s all.”
I can tell that’s all she’s going to say on the matter because she leaves me standing alone, but I have to admit, I’m feeling confused. How can they be mates and have what I want with Tasia, but not love each other the same way I love her?
“YOU’RE STALLING,” Imae says scathingly.
I shifted back to my logician, but I’d much rather be in the skin of my beast; it’s much better suited to this chilly weather. At least the angel brought my clothes along. I thought if I let my logician take over so I could speak to her again, she wouldn’t be so damn annoying. I couldn’t take her complaining for a moment longer. We waited here all night since we got here, the entire day yesterday, and last night as well. It’s early morning now, and we could be stuck waiting for who knows how much longer. This is certainly a trial of patience.
The Pull of Destiny (Undying Love, Book 2) Page 12