“No,” I said in a too meek voice. “Of course not,” I added, trying to compensate.
Lincoln jolted and backed away from me a few steps.
“It would be understandable if you were…I mean, you two were…close.”
“He was controlling my emotions,” I said quietly through gritted teeth.
Are we really having this conversation? Now?
He sighed. “Yeah, he has all the control. Even now. He can hurt you and it doesn’t matter how strong I am. I can’t…” He stopped himself, or maybe it was the break in his voice.
We both stood awkwardly for a moment until he shook his head, gave a kind of tormented half laugh, and scooped up one of the leftover glasses of water only to smash it on the ground.
“He’ll always be there! Phoenix is a part of you and I can never change that!” He fisted his hands and I could see he was trying to calm himself down.
I felt myself flinching with fear—not of him, but for him. My lower lip trembled and I tried to compose myself as I watched him fall apart in a particularly stoic manner.
“This doesn’t even sound like you. Can you hear yourself?” I asked.
It was like someone had been feeding him all these new thoughts, in addition to the ones already put there by Onyx. I was betting I knew who too. Magda worked every situation to her favor.
Lincoln looked at his watch and clicked his jaw to the side.
“I have to go, Vi. This is something I need to take care of and I can’t be late to meet with Magda.”
“So you’re meeting Magda,” I said as casually as I could.
“You read my phone,” he said, resigned, but I could still see the touch of anger.
“No,” I said nonchalantly. Actually, pathetically high-pitched. I scrunched up my face, not sure what to do with myself. I was a terrible liar.
He half smiled, returning to himself a bit. “Yes, I’m meeting Magda.”
I wasn’t getting anywhere arguing with him, so I took a calming breath, trying to lighten my mood too. “Nahilius?”
He nodded but didn’t want to say more. At least he was being honest about it.
“And you only want to go with Magda?”
“It would be best that way,” he said calmly, trying to keep the peace, but I could tell how anxious he was to leave.
I wanted to beg him to stay or at least take me with him. My stomach knotted, fighting with my mind, almost forcing me forward, pushing me toward him. But I didn’t move. I wanted him to trust me and confide in me the way he did with Magda.
I’d do anything for you.
Somehow, that very thought reminded me: I couldn’t ask anything of him. He wasn’t mine and I could never expect him to risk losing his strength, his powers as a Grigori, just so that he could be with me. It didn’t matter that I’d have done it for him in a heartbeat.
“I thought we were partners,” I said, trying to keep an even tone.
“We are. I just…I can’t fight at my best with you at the moment.” Lincoln ran a hand through his hair and looked toward the door again. An escape looked mighty appealing to me too after that comment.
“Right then,” I mumbled, burying my chin in my shoulder.
His expression broke and seemed to soften. “Please try and understand. It will all be over soon and then you’ll be…I know I’ve been distracted, but once this is over, I’ll be better for it, better for you…as your partner.”
I stared down at my feet and then headed over to start picking up the pieces of glass scattered across the floor. “Okay, Linc. I’ll stay out of it.”
“Thank you,” he said, surprised. He walked up to the door and put on his coat. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll clean up later.”
“Actually, I…I don’t need to be at Hades for a bit. I’m happy to stay and clean up—if you don’t mind?”
His shoulders dropped, relieved I’d made it so easy for him. “Sure. You know where the spare key is. Just lock up on your way out.” He grabbed a backpack and opened the door.
“Lincoln!” I called. “What about meeting Griffin and the rest of us at Hades?”
“We’ll meet up with you guys there if we can. If not, Magda will get the lowdown from Griffin.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
Is he really so obsessed he’s going to miss his chance to hunt Phoenix?
He smiled. “Don’t worry. Griffin won’t go after them tonight. He’ll want to do surveillance first,” he said, as if he’d read my mind.
His eyes fixed on mine for a moment before he closed the door. Beautiful green eyes—yet steely. I had not seen them like that before, all emotion under tight lock and key.
I was desperate to reach him, but he was farther away than ever.
I watched the front door for a long time after he had closed it behind him. How had things come to this? Lincoln was managing me. We’d had our fair share of arguments, so tension was not something we weren’t accustomed to, but this was different. He was just shutting down, locking me out. He was cold and distant, as if everything we had between us, our friendship alone, no longer registered. He was so desperate to get his revenge on Nahilius, nothing else mattered. I was starting to think that he was willing to pay just about any price to get it.
“Well, not me,” I said out loud.
I might have told Lincoln I would stay out of it, but lie detecting wasn’t one of his strengths. For all his imploring me to stand aside, it really came down to one question: If it were me, if the roles were reversed, would Lincoln let me go off on some renegade mission if he had a strong feeling I was headed for nothing but trouble and regret?
Not on your life!
And neither would I.
When things were at their worst, when I had needed someone to be there for me, it had always been Lincoln. Until recently, it didn’t matter what it was—training, protection, hell…even a balanced diet—he had been the person I’d talked to, who’d backed me up. He was everything to me.
I was damned if I was going to sit back and take this shit. The whole thing with Nahilius had given him twisted blood. Since Magda had come back from her vacation, Lincoln had changed. He was losing himself.
I needed caffeine. There was still an hour or so until I was supposed to meet up with the others at Hades. I made a latte, sat at the breakfast bar, and drank it slowly while I reevaluated everything that had happened over the last week. By the time I started on my third cup, I’d come up with a number of theories and only one thing I knew for sure—I needed help.
• • •
Steph arrived a half hour later.
“Hey,” she said, walking in and seeing that I was alone. She’d changed since the morning and looked great, her hair perfectly styled in the edgy, spritzy look she had mastered, and she was wearing skinny jeans and a green vintage top. Her best color. She’d obviously been planning something much more interesting than hanging out with me. I felt guilty, but I couldn’t do this without her.
“You look better,” she said, noticing I wasn’t limping. “What’s so urgent? Salvatore and I were at the mall. He needs new jeans.”
“Jeans can wait. I need your brains.”
“And you only just realized,” she said, smiling. “What’s up?”
I rolled my eyes and then explained everything that had happened, and how Lincoln had been acting so awfully since he started pursuing Nahilius.
She was surprised to hear that Nahilius had infiltrated his mother’s company, and I was glad that it stirred her interest, because the more intrigued she was, the more likely it was that my plan was going to work.
“So basically, this all goes back to Nahilius, to what happened to his mother,” I summarized.
“I hear you. Corporate evil. But what is it you want me to do?”
“Linc wants me out of this. He only trus
ts Magda, for some stupid reason, and I told him I wouldn’t get involved, but—”
“You plan on sticking your big nose in anyway?”
“Damn straight,” I said, collapsing into a chair. “If we can find Nahilius before they do, then I can help Linc finish this properly. I’m scared that if he finds Nahilius with Magda…he’ll do something he’ll regret.”
Steph went to the fridge and helped herself to a Coke. She took her time, considering everything I had told her. After she’d positioned herself across from me at the dining table and taken a sip of her drink, she looked up and squirmed.
“What?” I demanded, automatically defensive.
“No offense or anything, but what’s he going to regret? I mean, don’t you guys have a 007 license to kill exiles, anyway?”
“It’s not like that, Steph!” I snapped. “Sorry, it’s just…There’s a difference between getting into combat with an exile and giving them a choice, and hunting one down solely for vengeance, with only one plan. We’re supposed to give them a chance, Steph, and the way Lincoln was talking—”
“Got it. Where do I start?” Steph asked, all jokes halted. The knot in my stomach eased and I exhaled a few tight breaths before I filled her in on what I needed, which mostly involved gluing Steph to a computer and the library for the next couple of days.
“Done. I’ll let you know when I find something,” she said, while opening random kitchen cupboards, prying. “You realize he’s too clean for a guy?” she said, pointing to the spice rack.
I half smiled. “Thanks, Steph. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
“You’d be in need of a manicure and in a great big mess, is where you’d be.”
“If it’s any consolation, I think Salvatore is going to be pretty busy for a while now too,” I said.
“I figured. Anyway, being stuck with Zoe for a bit without me as a buffer will be good for him.”
“You mean, good for you.”
She shrugged and gave me her devious grin, which quickly fazed to somber. “You guys are hunting Phoenix, aren’t you?”
“I think that’s what Griffin will want. It won’t be tonight, though, according to Lincoln.”
“Well, you better get going. Sal was headed straight there when I left him.”
I checked my watch. Crap. It was getting late. I ran through the warehouse, turning off the lights.
“Thanks, Steph. I owe you big-time,” I said as we left Lincoln’s. “Call me if you find anything.”
“No guarantees. I’ve never tried to locate otherworldly creatures on the Internet before. It might not work.”
“I know,” I accepted with a sigh. “But I had to try.”
“Be careful out there, okay?” she said, giving me a serious-Steph look.
“I will.”
“Salvatore said he can sense lies around, he just can’t see where they’re coming from.”
Probably me.
“And can you make sure Zoe isn’t too much of a bitch to Salvatore?”
“Really?” I asked, raising one eyebrow at her.
Steph reevaluated. “No. Let her be a bitch,” she said, giving her best conspiratorial wink.
“That’s my girl,” I said, glad to see Steph hadn’t had a dramatic personality change like Lincoln.
Steph didn’t mind if Zoe and Salvatore became closer—she wanted it for him—but deep down, we felt the same way: girls don’t need to make any other girls close to their men. Come on.
All in all, I was pleased with myself. I was sick of just letting things happen and then dealing with the aftermath. I wanted to be a step ahead for a change, and I had a feeling having a semi-genius in my corner was about to be a big help. Plus, there was another upside. With Steph onboard, helping out, she was also away from the action and out of the firing line…For now.
• • •
During my brisk walk to Hades, my hand kept going to the pocket where I had slipped Lincoln’s spare key. For some reason, I knew having it with me was important. Something back at his place had made me stay behind so I could get that key. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but thinking about it as I walked, I couldn’t help but wonder if someone else was interfering.
And then there was the second part to that thought: light or dark?
“A resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.”
Thomas Hardy
The meeting at Hades went pretty much as expected. We all sat around a big table at the back of the restaurant section. Nyla and Rudyard ordered lots of food that none of us, except Spence and Salvatore, wanted, but it kept Dapper’s agitation at bay. He wasn’t as grumpy as usual. He was definitely softening some, though it was on a knife-edge.
Griffin had brought half a dozen local Grigori along with him. I’d been getting to know everyone gradually over the past month. He had people working in all precincts of the city. Mostly they were self-sufficient, weeding out individual exiles and following up on intel and leads that he had filtered. Griffin acted as the central hub. Some Grigori got tidbits of information from exiles they returned that could uncover another group. They would pass this intel back to Griffin, who would then allocate the nearest Grigori to the task.
So far, Lincoln and I hadn’t been given a territory. Partly because we’d been too busy with chasing up the Scriptures, partly because I think Griffin likes working closely with Lincoln, and partly because, probably, Griffin didn’t trust me on my follow-through yet.
And he was right.
Until I could prove I wasn’t a liability—in other words, until I could draw my dagger and use it without compunction—I wasn’t ready. Griffin teamed everyone up, pairs with pairs. Nyla and Rudyard headed out with Samuel and Kaitlin. They were going after more intel on the Scriptures. If we could find the location of the mysterious Scriptures, we would find Phoenix. I got the feeling it was messy work from what Griffin said—or didn’t. They were going after a small pack of exiles in Samuel and Kaitlin’s precinct, a mix of light and dark who they believed were under Phoenix’s command.
It was now the consensus that Phoenix had taken over where Joel and Onyx had left off, which meant volatile groups of mixed exiles, light and dark, were now most likely under his charge, thanks to the help of two particularly vicious exiles, Gressil and Olivier. What he’d had to do to win that control was something none of us wanted to brainstorm.
Zoe and Salvatore were sent out with two Grigori I’d never met before, Archer and Beth. But while we were waiting for Griffin to get started, they made small talk with me. I tried to nod politely after I told them I was an artist and they responded by telling me about the time they had met Michelangelo. They were in Florence and apparently he’d just been commissioned to start work on a new statue that was later named David. Michelangelo sculpted David at the beginning of the sixteenth century!
Suddenly, I was very nervous. I mean, how do you talk to people who have been around for more than five hundred years? The weirdest thing, of course, was that they didn’t even look close to thirty.
Zoe, unfazed, leapt right into conversation with them. She didn’t seem to struggle to find something to talk about, and from the looks of Archer and Beth, they were not surprised by anything she said. I guess when you never really age, you just learn to move with the times.
Griffin arranged for them to go to the farmhouse and scout around as much as they could without getting within sensing range of the airport, which wouldn’t be easy. He didn’t want to tip off Phoenix that we knew where he was. Griffin was planning on gathering more reserves before anything like that happened.
He’d heard from Magda, and it seemed clear from Griffin’s subsequent abruptness, that both Magda and Lincoln were MIA for the night. When I came to think of it, Magda had been around even less than Lincoln.
Finally, Spence and I were put on a different kind of recon. Because the airport was currently out-of-bounds, Griffin wanted us to go to an aircraft factory. He was hoping that I might be able to sense something there that might help identify a pattern that could help locate Phoenix. We knew from my reaction at the airport there was a good chance he might be hiding on a plane of some description and I agreed it was worth a shot. Spence, on the other hand, was piqued.
“Great. So while everyone else is off doing real recon, we’re going to see if we can sense a plane. Excellent,” he grumbled.
As far as I was concerned, it worked out perfectly. We hadn’t been paired up with anyone else and now the only person I had to deal with was Spence, which was manageable for what I had in mind.
When we all started heading out, Griffin gave me a look that told me he knew I was up to something, but he either decided I was entitled to a few secrets or just didn’t want to know, because after a few appeasing words to Dapper, he left.
“So, I guess you and I have the night off?” Spence said, still sounding sour as he watched the last of the Grigori filter out the main door of Hades.
“Not exactly,” I said, shooting him a guilty look.
Spence’s face lit up and he gave me a toothy grin. “Never a dull moment with you, Eden. I don’t know how I ever survived without you in my life.”
I couldn’t hide the look of alarm.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said, grinning as if he could see right through me. “It’s the fight action I’m interested in right now. I thought we got that straight.”
“Sorry…I just…”
“Don’t want to give me the wrong idea. Forget it, Eden. I know where we stand and just so you know, I’m a one-woman kind of guy and I like it the same way in return. As much as I would be in it to win it with you, I’m really not interested in getting in line.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s just drop it,” I said, cringing.
Spence smiled. He won this round, but I still wasn’t fully convinced. I knew from experience, getting caught up in Phoenix’s emotional thrall could be incredibly confusing.
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