“You caught him? That’s why the case was dropped?” Why would Asher think he was guilty, then? This doesn’t make sense.
He sighs softly. “No, Eden. It’s not.”
This is his secret, I realize. What he’s about to tell me is something no-one knows. Something no-one can ever know. No-one but me.
“I found his next victim before he killed her. The girl was tied up in one of the abandoned houses in the town between Rapture and Haleton. I cut her free but she didn’t want to go to the cops. I got a sample of the semen and I ran it through the database. It was fucking risky, Eden. A nurse at the hospital is a friend I could count on so she didn’t ask questions, but there were other factors, so many ways it could have gone wrong. I was going to be watching my back for weeks over this, but I couldn’t let it go. I had this gut fucking instinct, but I had to be sure. The DNA matched.”
I get the shivers just listening to the emotion in his tone. The bitter elation that he was right, the hint of hesitation as he goes on. It’s about to get darker. His fingers on my hip begin to stroke my skin nervously.
“I kept an eye on the abandoned house, waited for him. He showed after a day. I don’t know where he’d been. I only know he was angry when he returned to find his victim gone.” He pauses and I lock eyes on his in the dark. My vision has adjusted, I can make out his features. His gaze is on me, and it doesn’t move as he goes on, “I killed him, Eden. For what he did to those women. I could have handed him over to the police. I could have ended the investigation into me. I didn’t want to. He was a goddamned fucking monster and I wanted to end him.”
I feel my Goddess light sink in to his skin as I stroke his trembling arm. His heart is hammering. He’s afraid of how I’m going to react to the news that he took a life. He feels he did what he had to do, but he’s not sure I’ll feel the same way.
“Eli, you didn’t kill him in cold blood. You were angry at what he did.”
“I’m a killer, Eden. I got rid of the evidence. I wasn’t convicted for the murder he tried to set me up for, but that doesn’t matter. People thought I was a killer. They were right after I did that. I crossed a line, and there’s no turning back.”
“It doesn’t change how I feel about you.” I lean in and kiss his lips gently.
“I’m not a good man, Eden.” He still feels anxious, something’s still playing on his mind. He’s poured out the worst of it, but there’s still something bothering him.
“You are. The world isn’t black and white, Eli. A good man doesn’t have to be a saint. He only needs to stay true to his heart.”
“I knew the moment I saw you, that you’d be this incredible.” He strokes my hair back from my face. “No-one can deny that you’re gorgeous, but there’s so much more. You’re a goddess made flesh.”
I feel my skin flush and I’m glad it’s too dark to see it. “You can trust me, Eli. I’ll keep your secret. It’s safe with me. You are.”
“I knew you were different, Eden. I haven’t even been attracted to another woman since it happened. You’re the first.” And I want you to be the last.
I gasp at the part I just read in his thoughts. I might not know how I did it, but I’m thankful it happened. I don’t know what to say. It’s a start and it’s a good one, but we’re still not all the way there. He’s holding something back.
Not just him. I swallow as I realise it’s me too. I’m a Goddess and that’s a huge part of this. He needs to know if he’s going to be a part of it.
I don’t know if I can tell him, I don’t know what the consequences might be. I need to speak to Lawson about it. He’ll know. I’m sure of it.
“I just want to hold you tonight,” he tells me. “I want to fall asleep this close to you.”
I never want to let you go.
“Don’t let go.”
Chapter Eighteen
Asher
It took a while to get to sleep last night, but being in Eden’s house with Nick doesn’t seem as weird as being there alone. I picked my own bedroom though. I’m not sure I could share a bed with him and Eden again. Though he did drop some hints about it last night over take-out from Antonio’s, I laughed them off. He didn’t seem offended. I’m not sure there’s anything he’d really take offense at.
I get up in the morning and I don’t leave until I’m sure the security guards are aware of exactly who they can and cannot let near the house. Mrs Milner is on the shit-list. Not that she’d find it too difficult to talk her way around humans, I suppose. It’s probably useless, but I have to try.
I get to work and find Sasha chatting to Ronnie at the front desk. Great. As if this week without Eden could get any worse. I pull on a fake smile for my nosy sister as I approach.
“Asher, there you are,” she says with an equally insincere lip twitch.
“Just talking about me, were you?”
“Don’t be such an egomaniac.”
Ronnie snorts and adjusts her glasses. “Yeah, Asher. As if you’re all we could possibly have to talk about.”
Okay, now I’m officially suspicious. I narrow my eyes at them both. “What’s going on?”
Ronnie takes off with a cart full of returned books. “Work to do!”
I turn my attention on Sasha. “Well?”
“Oh, never mind that. We were catching up. Girl talk.”
Hmm. Okay then. “So you were here to talk to Ronnie?”
She smiles. “Not exactly.”
Family. They’re infuriating. None so much as my close-lipped sister. I’m waiting for her to make more out of that photo she showed me the other night. There are some things I could tell her that would make her wish she’d never meddled. She might just regret it if she pushes me too far.
“Are you going to get on with it, or do I have to...”
“I heard Eden went back to L.A.”
How did she...? Think, Asher. Some photographer probably already got a picture of Eden. Likely at the airport. Those places seem rife with them. Could have been anywhere though. It has already been a day.
“So?” I ask when Sasha doesn’t immediately make her point clear.
“So how come she went back so soon? And why is she with Eli?” She presses her lips together and gives me a suspicious glare.
“That would be none of your business.” Push me, Sash. Just try it.
“None of my business?” Her eyes widen. “Asher, what has she done to you? First you’re okay with her having another boyfriend, and then...”
I’ve heard enough already. “I’m more than okay with it, Sasha.” I make sure I lower my voice in that sultry way she hates. If I ever need to creep her out, that’s how I do it.
She frowns and then her face flushes so red I can see the colour starkly even under the three layers of foundation she’s got on. “What?”
“My sex life is none of your business.” I give her a tight smile.
“Um, what?” The stunned expression she’s wearing should be comical, but I’m fed up looking at her already.
“Don’t you have stuff to be dealing with in your marriage?” I don’t bother telling her she has a job to get to since her hours at the estate agents are unpredictable at the best of times.
“My marriage is perfectly fine, thank you very much.”
“Yes, it is, thanks to Eden. So you can quit being bitchy about her life choices and see her as the friend she is. She didn’t need to go all the way to Haleton with you that day, Sasha. She didn’t need to help you with that. If she hadn’t, where would you be right now?” Besides irritating the crap out of me, I mean.
“I’m... I’m sorry.” She blows out a breath, nods. “I mean it. I am. You’re so totally right. I’ll cook you dinner tonight, come over after work.”
Oh Shit. Backfire alert. “You don’t have to...”
“It’s an apology, Asher. You need to let me do this.”
Hell and damn. “I’ll be there just after eight.” I have an evil thought and smile as she starts to leave. “Cool
if I bring a guest?”
She frowns slightly before nodding. “Of course.”
“We’ll see you at eight.”
Nick is going to love this, and even better, Sasha’s never going to invite me round for dinner again.
Chapter Nineteen
Eden
I search out Skyler as soon as I wake up. She isn’t chained up anymore. I get up quickly and dress, managing not to make a sound. Eli is out cold and I want to speak to Lawson. The room Sky’s in now is too distinct not to be recognisable. Maybe we can find her today.
I dash around, trying to find Lawson’s room when I realise suddenly there’s noise in the kitchen. I walk out and find him there, pacing with his phone in his hand. He looks up and smiles.
“You’re awake.”
I nod. “Skyler’s been moved. I need to describe the room to you.”
He’s instantly alert, sets the phone down on the kitchen counter and comes to sit next to me as I take a seat at the table. I close my eyes and begin. “It has red walls. Gold pillars in the corners of the room.”
“What’s Sky wearing?”
“Something white.” I can only see her legs stretched out on front of her. She’s looking around. Her body feels strange. She’s not chained up because they gave her something. She’s drugged, limp from it. “She’s been drugged.”
“Shit. It’s starting.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“Maybe. Are there weird melted looking pictures on the walls?”
“No. I don’t see any, at least. The walls are just painted red.”
“Damn. Describe the rest of the room.”
I launch into a full description of everything I can see. He listens and sighs every now and then. Asks questions and I can tell the answers aren’t helping.
“Think, goddamn it.” He sounds miserable.
I open my eyes. “You really have no idea?”
He shakes his head. “Some of it sounds familiar, but honestly, I checked out a bunch of places last night. None of the old ones are still being used. It has to be a new place. And that could mean anything.”
I don’t know where we go from here. It feels so fucking useless. “There has to be something we can do. Could I communicate with Sky somehow? I mean, I can visit her, right? So why can’t I...”
“You can only see as if from her eyes. You’re not inside her head. You’re sort of inside her heart. There’s no way to communicate with her.” He frowns. “I think we need to go backwards, find the Gods and see if she’s close by. If it’s close to starting, we should find her.”
Chills rush over me. “What do we do if we run into them?”
I’d never even met Diana. She hadn’t wanted to meet me. Maybe that’s a good sign.
Lawson shakes his head. “These guys don’t run from us. They’re not afraid of us. The enemy you had in Rapture was hurting when she attacked you. She knew if you got close you’d see how desperate she was to be loved. Things worked out for you when she brought your bodyguard back from the dead and fell for him. This is nothing like that.”
“Then what is it like?” I need to know. If we’re going to be going up against them. I’ll need to know what I can do if I have to defend myself.
“They destroy our kind too easily. I saw it happen, over and over. I was lucky I hadn’t awakened yet, I had no idea what it was I was seeing until after that happened. After I was out. We need to stay away from them. Once we know where they are we’ll have a limited time to get in and get Sky out of there. We need to be quick and we need to avoid them.” He glances behind me. “We should do this now, before your lover wakes up.”
We’re leaving Eli behind? He’s not going to be happy about that. I nod anyway. I won’t risk his life and I know that’s what he’d be doing if he came with us.
“This is going to get risky, Eden. The moment we’re seeing through their eyes, the clock is ticking down. We need to watch and run the second we know where they are. If they sense something, they’ll know we’re coming.”
“What happens then?”
“If you get cornered, act like you’re afraid. But use your light the second you get the chance. It’s not much, but if you can make them feel something, even just for a moment, you’ll have the chance to run. Use it and don’t look back.”
I take it all in, nod and he takes my hand. Light swells between us. The room becomes too bright to look at. I close my eyes and darkness doesn’t come. I see something else instead. The lobby of a hotel. A reception desk. Lawson tugs at my fingers but I refuse to open my eyes. The guy whose head I’m inside gets into an elevator. I watch him hit the button for the tenth floor.
My heart starts to race. Or is it his? I don’t know. I can’t tell. The doors open and he gets out and walks down the hall. I feel Lawson tugging at my hand but I ignore him. The guy takes out a keycard and approaches a door. I lock the number down before I open my eyes.
Lawson hauls me towards the front door.
“We have a room number,” I tell him. “Were you seeing what I was?”
He shakes his head. “There are three of them. I concentrated on one, and you got the other.”
“What about the third?”
“We can’t get into his head, he’s too aware for that. He’d notice.”
We get out of the house and into Lawson’s car. He starts and takes off before I have my seatbelt on. He’s fast, and I’m a little afraid we might not even make it to the hotel. I’m more afraid of what might happen once we get there.
Oh my God. What am I doing? Skyler needs you, Eden. Oh right, yeah. My best friend needs me and I’m about to walk through hell to drag her out. Here’s hoping it’s easier than it sounds.
Chapter Twenty
Logan
Diana has fallen into a cycle; sleep, sex, a little food to fuel the fire, more sex, more sleep. She doesn’t talk beyond issuing commands that tax my body and deplete my energy. She’s obsessed with her plan, but it’s more than that. She hasn’t said one word against her mother.
I know it couldn’t have been easy to grow up with that kind of parent, but she doesn’t seem capable of talking about it. She’s avoiding it, and that puts a serious stumbling block across my back-up plan to take the Goddess on and find a real way to win.
I get up when light starts to shine through the gap in the curtains. Diana’s hand grabs at me reflexively and then lets go. She doesn’t wake up. She’s out of it, exhausted. I won’t lie, I am too, but I need to eat something. I need to pull myself together and get a plan into place for dealing with this fucked up problem.
Diana might be right that her mother would leave us alone if we were having a child, or she might be burying her head in the sand. The way she’s been acting lately, I’m more convinced it’s the latter.
I go into the kitchen and start looking around. There’s a whole lot of stuff that looks decidedly inedible. I wouldn’t expect her to keep bags of jerky around, but the bland whole foods crap I come across is worse than nothing. I find porridge oats in one of her cupboards, decide that’s the best of a bad situation, and start making some.
My though processes seem sharper once I’ve eaten. I know there must be a good way to take down a Goddess of Destruction. A less suicidal way than coming at her with a weapon. She’d only take it from me, or force me to turn it on myself. It’s a fool’s move. I need something better. Something she won’t see coming.
I know what I have to do. Eden is a Goddess. She has power, I’ve felt it. She’s the only one who can help me bring down Diana’s bitch of a mother. I have to go talk to her.
I go shower and dress, realizing again I need the bag I left at her place anyway. Diana’s still sleeping when I leave. I don’t know if she’ll forgive me if I do this, but I don’t see what choice I have. If I’m dead, she has no-one who gives a shit about her. I’m surprised her mother hasn’t just killed me already. It would have been the smart choice. It would have forced Diana back into the life she left behind f
or me.
My thoughts churn. I don’t know what she’s up to, but there’s more to this than I can see and I need someone to talk to. Someone who can help. I just hope Eden’s willing to see me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Eden
The drive to the hotel leaves me breathless and a little bruised. Lawson drove like a man possessed. He had the engine running before I closed my door. I bumped my arm and the seatbelt snapped out of my grasp. It hurt a little, but I wasn’t going to complain. Though I might have started if I’d realised Lawson was going to drive like a maniac.
“Surprised we didn’t get pulled over,” I mutter as I get out.
He’s already rushing into the building, though he slows on entry as if realizing running through a hotel lobby might catch the attention of security. I catch up and he turns to me. There’s a hint of fear in his eyes. He opens the door and motions for me to go first.
I don’t know what the plan is. We didn’t do much talking on the short but heart-stopping drive over. So I go along with what he seems to want.
“We won’t get away with sneaking around,” he tells me quietly. “I’ll go book a room. You stand by the elevators and wait for me. Hopefully this part won’t take long.”
I hadn’t expected that. I’m not sure what I thought we’d do once we got here, but pretending to get a room didn’t enter into it. It’s almost as if I was forgetting who I was. Kind of reminded me of the first few months of sudden fame. Those days had been crazy. Felt like such a long time ago now.
I avoid the gaze of a guy in a business suit who steps out of the elevator and walks off after doing a double-take. I’m just glad he didn’t take his phone out for a picture. I turn to glance at the desk. Lawson is handing over a credit card. The room number is burned into my brain. My heart is starting to pound. I still feel like I haven’t caught my breath, but now I know it’s nerves. I was never prone to full-out panic attacks, but I could get a little bit like this when I was over-stressed. It would pass. Once we had Skyler and got the hell out of town with her.
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