by Keri Arthur
Which made his desire to find and destroy the keys even more puzzling. Why would he care what would happen to this world if the keys were used? He wouldn’t. Which meant something else was going on. Something he wasn’t telling me.
Although I wasn’t surprised that he was keeping secrets. That seemed to be par for the course for everyone searching for these damn keys.
“I am sure that when the keys are destroyed, everything will remain as it currently is.”
“But aren’t the keys now tuned to the power of the gates?”
Or the portals, as the reapers preferred to call them. Apparently there was only one gate into heaven or hell, with each gate consisting of three interlocked portals. Each portal had to be locked behind a soul before the next one opened. It was a system that prevented those in hell from escaping—although it wasn’t infallible. Things still escaped when enough magic was used either in this world or the other.
“They are,” my father said. “Destroying them should sever the link, and the gates should remain intact.”
It was those shoulds that were worrying me. “You know,” I said slowly, “it seems that it would be a whole lot safer for everyone if these keys were to remain as they are—indefinitely hidden.”
Energy surged, making the hairs along my arms and the back of my neck rise. “Do you honestly think the Raziq will let matters lie?”
“Honestly? No. But they can’t kill me if they need me to find the keys.”
“Then what about your friends? Such a move could place them in peril.”
“Not if I let the Raziq grab me. Once they realize I can’t help them, I’m guessing they’ll forget me and start concentrating on you again.” After all, he might not know where the keys actually were, but he had some general knowledge of where they’d been sent, and he knew what they’d been disguised as.
Although admittedly, handing myself over to the Raziq wasn’t at the top of my list. I’d barely survived their interrogation the last time.
The threat in the air was growing stronger. My father’s energy was so sharp and strong that it hit with almost physical force. Part of me wanted to cower, but the more stubborn part refused to give in.
“You forget it is not just the Raziq who want the keys.”
“The reapers aren’t going to—”
“I am not talking about the reapers.” His cultured tones had become soft, deadly. “I am talking about me.”
The words were barely out of his nonexistent mouth when he hit me. Though he didn’t have a flesh form, and though he’d told me he couldn’t interact with things of this world, his energy wrapped around my body, thrusting me upward, squeezing so tightly it felt like every bone in my body would break. Then he flung me back to the floor, all but smothering me with the fierce, blanketing heat of his presence.
“How the hell did you—”
“You are my blood,” he cut in, his voice a mere whisper that reverberated through my entire being. “It is the reason you can find the keys, and it is the reason I can do to you what I cannot to others.”
Meaning he couldn’t do this to Ilianna and Tao. But even as relief surged, he added, “But do not think your friends are any safer. I have Razan to do my bidding.”
“If you touch them, you’ll get nothing from me.”
Amusement seemed to touch the fierce energy surrounding me. “Do you really think you have the strength and will to resist me? You might hold out for a little while, but in the end you will do what I want.”
Not if I’m dead, I thought. And therein lay the crux of the matter. I didn’t want to die. Not until I’d at least found Mom’s killers.
“You will find those keys for me,” he added.
“Go fuck—”
But I didn’t get the rest of the sentence out, because he flung me violently across the room. I hit the shower doors sideways, tearing them off their hinges, and we fell in a tangled heap of shattered glass, twisted metal, and bruised limbs.
“You will get those keys for me,” he said, “or what I do to you today I will have done to your friends tomorrow. Only my Razan will ensure they do not survive the experience.”
Bastard, I wanted to say, but the words stuck somewhere in my throat, caught up in the desperate struggle to breathe.
“The information you need to find the first key is in the Dušan’s book,” he continued as his essence continued to bear down on me. My lungs were beginning to burn and panic surged, making it even harder to breathe. “Only one of my blood can read it, and only from the gray fields while the book lies here. But it must be retrieved from the Raziq first. They have it concealed. And again, only one of my blood will be able to find or see it.”
“Why—” the words came out croaky, barely audible thanks to my lack of air. I licked my lips and tried again. “Why not simply tell me everything you know?”
“Because if I only feed you small pieces of the puzzle, you are still almost useless to the Raziq if they capture you.”
I guess that made sense, even if the rest of it didn’t.
“You still have the locker key,” he continued. “Go there today at one PM, and you will find further instructions.”
“Why not just give them to me now?”
“Because my Razan foolishly set the wards for a brief window, and I am out of time.” The smothering energy evaporated, and suddenly I could breathe again. “And the less I am close to you, the less likely the Raziq are to use you to come after me.”
Yeah, right. There was more to these fucking games of his than just a need to keep his distance.
“And what happens once I get the book?” I asked instead.
He didn’t answer immediately, and his retreating energy became more distant.
“I must go.”
“Wait!”
But he didn’t. I drew a shaky breath and slowly picked myself up from the shattered remains of the shower doors.
“Are you all right?”
The words emerged from the silence even as the heat of Azriel’s presence washed over me. Reapers, like the Aedh, were creatures of light and shadows, with an energy so fierce their mere presence burned the very air around them. And while they weren’t true flesh-and-blood beings, they could attain that form if they wished.
Which is how I’d come about. My father had spent one night in flesh form with my mother and, in the process, created me—a half-breed mix of werewolf and Aedh who was lucky enough to mostly get the best bits of both and few of the downsides.
“Do I look all right?” I said, trying to extract myself from the remains of the shower door.
Azriel appeared in front of me, taking my arm and holding me steady as my foot caught on an edge and I stumbled. His fingers were warm against my skin—warm and disturbing.
While reapers were basically shapeshifters, able to take on any form that would comfort the dying on their final journey, they did possess one “true” shape. And while the combination of my Aedh blood and my psychic skills usually allowed me to see whatever form they used to claim their soul, for some weird reason I saw Azriel’s real form rather than whatever shape he decided to take on. And that shape was compellingly attractive.
His face was chiseled, almost classical in its beauty, and yet possessing a hard edge that spoke of a man who’d won more than his fair share of battles. He was shirtless, his skin a warm, suntanned brown, and his abs well defined. The leather strap that held his sword in place seemed to emphasize the width of his shoulders, and faded jeans clung to his legs, accentuating their lean strength. A stylized black tatt that resembled the left half of a wing swept around his ribs from underneath his arm, the tips brushing across the left side of his neck.
Only it wasn’t a tatt. It was a Dušan—a darker, more stylized brother to the one that had crawled onto my left arm and now resided within my flesh. They were designed to protect us when we walked the gray fields. We’d been sent them by person or persons unknown, although Azriel suspected it was probably my father’s do
ing. He was one of the few left in this world—or the next—who had the power to make them.
Azriel’s gaze met mine, his blue eyes—one as vivid and bright as a sapphire, the other almost navy, and as dark as a storm-driven sea—giving little away.
“I have seen you in worse condition,” he commented. His voice was mellow and rich, and on any other man it would have been sexy. But this wasn’t a man. He merely held that form. And if I reminded myself of that enough, then maybe that tiny, insane part of me that was attracted to this reaper would move on. “What happened?”
“My fucking father.” I pulled my arm from his grip and tried to ignore the warmth lingering on my skin as I thrust a hand through my sweaty hair. “And his spell prevented you from answering my call, didn’t it?”
He nodded, and I leaned a shoulder against the nearest wall. My legs were as shaky as hell, and my stomach was still doing unsteady flip-flops.
“What did your father want?”
“Aside from beating me up and threatening to kill my friends, you mean? He wants me to find the keys, and he got rather irked when I suggested that the damn things would probably be better where they are.”
He frowned. “Why would you want to leave them as they are?”
“Because if no one can find them, then they can’t endanger the fabric of my world.”
“But that is foolishness. If they are out there, they will eventually be found. The Raziq will never give up looking.”
“And my father won’t let me give it up, either.” I sighed again and walked unsteadily across the room to scoop up the scattered jewelry and photo disks. “He’s directed me back to the locker at the railway station. Apparently, he’s had further instructions left there.”
“If he was here, why did he not simply tell you?”
“He claimed he was out of time,” I said irritably.
“But who knows? It’s not like anyone is actually confiding in me.”
Azriel studied me for a moment, expression neutral even if a faint hint of annoyance flickered through the heated energy of his presence. “I tell you what I can.”
“No, you tell me what you think I need to know. There is a difference.”
He didn’t dispute it. No surprise there, given it was the truth.
“The last time you followed your father’s instructions, you ended up being captured by the Raziq.”
“My father won’t be anywhere near me this time, so he claims it shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, if the Raziq wanted me, they could have come after me anytime they wished.”
“I doubt it. The wards that Ilianna has set around your apartment are as strong as those at the Brindle. They would make it difficult for the Raziq to enter.”
The Brindle was the witch depository, and few outside the covens even knew of its existence. “We were told that the magic surrounding the Brindle wouldn’t keep the Aedh out, so it’s unlikely to keep them out of our apartment.”
“Granted, but they also now know that I guard you, and they could not be certain whether there would be one or more Mijai waiting for them if they did attempt it. The Raziq are single-minded when it comes to their goals, but they are not stupid.”
“So why haven’t they snatched me outside the apartment? And why don’t the wards make it difficult for you?”
“I am attuned to your Chi, so any magic that allows you to pass should also allow me.”
“And yet the wards my father set up did stop you?”
“Because those particular wards were designed to reject energy forms. Human wards are not, so even the strongest will not prevent the Raziq—or a reaper—from getting through.”
“If the Raziq did come after me a second time,” I asked, suddenly curious, “would you actually stop them?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you think I wouldn’t?”
“To be honest, I have no idea what you’ll do in any situation.” Especially given how many times in the past he’d stated that he would not interfere in the daily events of my life. And in fact, he hadn’t—not when I’d been attacked by humans who could somehow attain half-animal form, and not when the Raziq had captured me. Although he had, at least, saved me and Tao—one of my best friends—from the hellhounds.
But once again he changed the subject. “You are fortunate the Aedh can only form a permanent telepathic connection through sex. Otherwise, your trip to the railway station would now be compromised.”
Did that mean that Lucian—the fallen Aedh who’d become my lover—had formed a telepathic connection with me? Or was that one of the skills that had been stripped from him when they’d ripped the wings from his flesh? I didn’t know, but I suspected it might be wise to find out—even if I was positive Lucian was on no one’s side but his own. Still, given what the priests had done to him, I had no doubt he’d kill them given the slightest opportunity. His punishment might have happened many centuries ago, but the anger still burned in him.
I frowned at Azriel. “The priests rifled through my thoughts when they held me captive, and they certainly didn’t do that via sex.”
He nodded. “Aedh—like reapers—can read thoughts when in the same room as a person, but unlike human telepaths we are incapable of doing so from any great distance.”
Thank God for small mercies. Although I did wish my rebellious hormones would remember more often that, when I was in his presence, he knew exactly what I was thinking. “Then you’d better be vigilant. If the Raziq get their hands on me, any information we get from the locker will be theirs.”
Because I certainly wouldn’t be able to resist them. I might be psychic, but my skills were on a more ethereal level. And as I’d already discovered, me fighting the Raziq was like a leaf fighting a gale.
“When it comes to you, I have learned to be very vigilant.”
“And just what is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing more than it says.” But a glint in his eyes belied his words.
Despite the fact that reapers were generally about as emotional as a plank of wood, this one definitely had a sense of humor—even if it was a very odd one.
I headed back into Mom’s room. The main safe was in the study, just across from my old bedroom. As in all the other rooms, the furnishings here were minimal. A desk, a couple of chairs, and the colorful painting that hid the wall safe. But sunlight streamed in through the double windows, lending the space a warmth that many of the others lacked.
Azriel followed me in, a powerful presence who was quickly becoming a permanent—if often distant—fixture in my life.
“I’m not believing a word of that statement, Azriel.”
“Allowing you to fall into Raziq hands again would not be the wisest move. Not when they already have the book.” His soft voice held little inflection, but I still had the odd feeling that he was amused. “And especially when they are the very people we are trying to stop.”
“You could stop them by just killing them.”
“I cannot do that unless they actually succeed in this plan, simply because there is nothing concrete connecting them to the portal’s unauthorized opening.”
“You may not have proof, but you know they’ve made keys and you know my father was involved. I thought that would have been enough, given that life as we know it hangs in the balance.”
He shook his head. “It is not within the rules.”
“Whose rules?”
“The rules we must live by.”
I glanced over my shoulder. “And who made the rules?”
He shrugged—a small movement that was oddly elegant. “I do not know and I do not care. I just obey.”
“Because a world without rules is a world in chaos.”
“And that chaos is called earth,” he commented.
I swung around in surprise. “Did you just try to be funny?”
“Reapers are many things, but we are never funny.”
But that twinkle was stronger in his eyes, and I felt an answering smile tugging at my lips. �
�You lie, reaper.”
“I never lie.”
“You might not tell outright lies,” I said, walking around the desk to the wall safe, “but you certainly don’t always tell the absolute truth.”
“No, I just don’t always say everything I know. There is a difference.”
I snorted softly. “Only by a matter of degrees, Azriel, and you know it.”
“In my world, degrees can mean the difference between life and death.”
That was true in mine, too, but I resisted the comment and instead pressed my palm against the reader, then let it scan my retinas. When the scans had registered and the first lock released, I spun numbers on the old-fashioned dial and unlocked the safe. Inside was a stack of papers—nothing vital, I guessed, because Mike already had all the necessary legal stuff for Mom’s companies, insurance, and whatnot.
I left the door open and turned off the alarm. The new owners could reset it when the place finally sold. After gathering everything together, I turned around and faced Azriel, only he was no longer paying any attention to me. His head was cocked to one side, as if he was listening to something. And Valdis—the sword strapped to his back, which held a life force of her own—was beginning to flicker with blue fire.
Tension slammed into me and my pulse ratcheted up. Valdis only ever reacted to two things—evil and danger.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t my father; I would have felt his return. I licked suddenly dry lips and breathed deep, trying to keep the fear at bay as I listened. I couldn’t hear anything—couldn’t smell anything—and as a half-wolf, I would have. But there were things in both this world and the others that had neither scent nor smell nor form, and it wasn’t out of the question for one of those things to be hunting me. The Aedh could traverse the gray fields—the unseen lands that divide this world from the next—as easily as the reapers, and those who’d trained as priests could also control the magic of the gates. The Raziq were rogue priests. It wouldn’t be beyond them to free something from the dark path and fling it after me.