“Who did you make a deal with for access to The Hell Realm?”
Xaephan worked a deal so The Prince of Hell no longer allowed them. They then had to deal with Xaephan directly, and their deal is that if they ever capture you, they must give you to him when they finish with you. They can do whatever they wish to you as long as they don’t turn you, and you still have all your limbs. A pause and then. Damn, that’s harsh. What have you done to make this demon want you so badly?
I’m too fucking intriguing.
“The other realm?” I asked Oscar. “Who let you in there?”
Fuck me. It’s Faerie, but they’re only allowed in Oceana, and on one small island. It’s enough, though. The moon acts basically the same there, though on a different schedule. They take humans with them and do their changing in Faerie. They made their deal with Manandán.
I went through what I knew of the old Celtic God, and told him, Mists. He’s given a few of them access to his mists, so they aren’t seen by the Concilio.
A likely hypothesis. Ask him where their other bases of operation are. Also, how they move around. Remind him of the silver — I wonder if he doesn’t have some kind of resistance. I sense pain, but not as much as I should. Oh, and mention Erebus/Moros, and see if he knows who else is giving orders.
“Who gives your orders?”
Interesting. He works closely with the mystery man on strategy. Same thing — he knows him but only knows his name and what he looks like when he’s in the man’s presence. He has little dealings with Moros. The Prince of Hell also helps with strategy, though it seems Xaephan argues strongly that Hell should be happy with the status quo, and should not help the Celrau.
I nudged the silver chain where it wrapped around Oscar’s ankles. “How’s the silver? You seem to be holding up better than your pal Aquila.”
He’s even older than me. When humans discovered silver was toxic to supernaturals, experiments were done on new vampires to try to build up a resistance. Common knowledge says all experiments failed and were stopped. Oscar’s Master kept going, and over hundreds of years of daily torture, Oscar eventually developed some resistance. Silver hurts him, but not as badly as the rest of us.
“Who takes over when you don’t return?”
Aquila’s protégé is Killian, and he’ll take over Oscar’s position as long as Aquila is alive. If Killian isn’t available, Rubeus is next in line. I have another ten names I’m sending to our researcher. We’ll get the data to your lion later.
Arguing that Nathan isn’t my lion just seems to somehow prove he is, so I didn’t take the bait. I kept my eyes focused on Oscar. “Where are your bases of operation?”
I have images on a map. Northern Canada, sticksville Russia, Kansas, and an island in the Caribbean. Those are training grounds. There are more. I’m sending details to my researcher. Again, we’ll get the information to the Amakhosi.
“How many Celrau are there?”
Damn. He’s singing in Polish. A fucking Polka. He must have either figured out someone is reading his thoughts or sensed me in his head.
“Can we wake Aquila back up, please?” I asked it out loud because I wanted to get Oscar’s attention, and it worked. His face showed sheer panic for a microsecond before he wiped it and I saw zero emotions.
Good job. Marcus said. He’s scared.
When Aquila was awake again — and glaring at me — I told him, “Your friend Oscar’s told me all kinds of interesting things. Tell me about Manandán.”
“I told her nothing.” English wasn’t Oscar’s first language and he struggled with it.
“Who?” Aquila asked.
Still singing in his head, but he flashed on an accurate image.
I formed a fancy, curved, graceful sword of light and watched the Celrau vampire’s gazes take it in. I could’ve done this with a light-stick, but the sword is scarier.
Before I started what had to be done, I remembered Kendra’s advice. “Put two images in your mind — your child beaten, drained, and dead on the left, alive and happy on the right. To start, the dead image is in technicolor while the live image is so faded you can barely see it. Every scream, every slice, every torment makes the dead child fade and the live child more visible. Keep doing it until the dead child is gone and you can only see your child alive.”
I need you to not be horrified, I told Cora.
I can do it for you. I’ve been trained. I can handle it. I’m afraid it’ll break something in you, and they only need to know it’ll happen if they mess with Lauren. It doesn’t have to be from your hand. It’ll be enough for me to do it. Most of the supernatural world sees us as a set.
I love you for offering, but I have to do it.
Okay. I love you too. Watching you do this won’t disgust me. I’ll still hold you tonight, if you need it. There’ll be a time and place for tears later. You’re strong. Feel your strength and so will everyone else.
It was the same basic advice we’d given Lauren, but it was good advice. I drew energy in from the Earth, the trees, the sky, and the frigid air. I dug for confidence and stood tall, my curved sword glowing, an extension of my arm.
Nathan stepped from the trees into the clearing, visibly unhappy. He wore jeans with no shoes or shirt, and lion eyes glared at me from his human face. I met his gaze without flinching and hoped he saw my need to do this alone, without anyone around to bolster me.
I dropped my gaze and met Aquila’s. “Tell me about Killian.”
I counted to five in my head and pressed my sword to the tip of his hiking boot. I smelled burning leather and rubber, and then the rancid odor of burning flesh. Vampires smell even worse than humans when they burn. I removed his big toe and lifted the sword.
“You promised true death!” he spoke through gritted teeth, determined not to scream.
“On the condition you answered my questions. Tell me about Killian.”
I have his image. I sent it to one of my people who can paint.
Marco was certainly handy to have around.
I realized I hadn’t asked Oscar an important question, and I stepped to him. “How do you contact the man who’s shrouded his identity?”
He password protects a word document, zips it with a different password, and uploads it to a Dropbox folder. It was a fleeting thought, and I didn’t get the passwords or the Dropbox login. He receives messages the same way.
None of the Celrau had a cellphone on them, so we couldn’t get anything that way. I’d moved the sword excruciatingly slow to remove Aquila’s big toe, but I quickly sliced half of Oscar’s foot off with no warning.
At his bloodcurdling scream, I imagined Lauren’s chances at life improving.
He didn’t scream long, but his pain was clearly written on his face.
“I’ll need the Dropbox login and passwords for the word doc and zip files.”
“Go to bloody Hell!”
“Been there, done that, burned the clothes I was wearing because there was no way to get the sulfur smell out. Passwords and login?”
When he didn’t answer, I cut straight down through the stump of his foot, so the two halves fell to the side, still attached to the ankle. Another blood-curdling scream meant more of a chance my daughter was left alone.
“If you’d left my daughter out of it, I’d be willing to take what we have and just kill you. You knew I’d do whatever it took to keep her safe, did you really not understand the whatever-it-fucking-takes part?”
“Fuck you!”
I sliced the lower part of his leg and ankle in two, a long cut from mid-calf down. Very little blood came out, and the parts I cut withered and curled, like the petals of a flower without water. I couldn’t go higher because of the chains, so I stepped to his side and held the tip of the sword a few inches above his cock.
“If your pants and underwear are poly, they’ll melt onto what’s left of your cock when I cut through. Technically, they’ll melt onto both fragments, but you’re only going to care about the
portion still attached. Dropbox login and passwords.”
He rambled off a string of numbers and letters, paused, rambled off another grouping, paused, did it again, paused, did it again. I’d seen a local lion with a video camera earlier, and I noted another writing things down as they happened. I assumed Marco had someone recording what he heard as well.
“How many Celrau are there?”
“We’re approaching five thousand.”
“Cipka!” Aquila didn’t sound pleased.
I looked to Marco, who telepathed, He called him a pussy in Polish.
My ankle had been itching for a half hour, and I desperately needed to scratch it, but I ignored it. It wasn’t until I saw Nathan scratch his remaining demon mark that I realized Xaephan was demanding we bring him here.
I stopped and considered. Would the demon help or hinder?
I met Nathan’s gaze. “Advice?”
“Later. Continue.”
I nodded and focused on Aquila. “The pussies in my life are bad-asses. Tell me about Killian.”
“He will eat you for dinner.”
“And then Xaephan will wipe all of you out for going back on a deal.”
Shock and surprise registered a microsecond and were quickly replaced by a scowl.
“The Demon told you?”
“Tell me about Killian.”
I only gave him three seconds before I sliced the big toe off his other foot. I partially cut through the toe beside it, but it was still mostly attached. Oops.
“Here’s my game plan,” I told Aquila. “It’ll take me at least fifty cuts to rid you of arms and legs, and then I can take the silver chains off then and strip you of your clothes so I can really have some fun. My friend Kendra gave me torture pointers. Do you want to suffer the same fate as the man who took Eric? Toes and fingers in your asshole? Cock and balls? Tongue? Whatever else I fancy? I look forward to cutting your chest apart and holding your heart in my hand while you wish I’d just rip it out. But I won’t.” A ten second pause while I held his gaze. “Tell me about Killian.”
Fifteen minutes and a dozen more slices off of him later, he spilled and told me everything. His protégé draws bears to him, and lives with the bears he’s claimed instead of living with other Celrau. He’s a master of the mists and can go unseen as easily as Manandán himself.
I also learned Manandán makes some of their gateways for them, along with the unnamed Demon. I questioned him for two hours and only needed to make a dozen more cuts to urge him along.
When I was certain we had everything I could get from him, I held the evil vampire’s gaze while I jammed the stake Nathan provided into Aquila’s heart. I watched the life leave his face. His body.
And then I beheaded him — just to be sure. I didn’t merely cut his head off — I melted everything around his brainstem and then levitated the body into the fireplace. I’d make sure the head was destroyed and burned somewhere far, far away. I was never going to have to deal with the bastard again.
I’d put a wall up around my emotions when I started, and then fortified it with every cut. By the time I killed Aquila, I was cold. Dead inside. No feelings. I should’ve felt joy — and then guilt for feeling the joy. Or perhaps sadness that someone had pushed me to having to do this. But I felt nothing. Ice cold, inside and out. It’s possible my heart was colder than my feet and hands, which had gone past painful towards numb, and might be close to frostbite despite the blazing fireplace fifteen yards away.
I looked to Oscar and then up to Nathan. “I assume we have a way to hold him long term?”
“We do.”
“Can you make it happen?”
A nod. Nathan was royally pissed about something. I couldn’t deal with it right then, but I had no doubt I’d hear about it later.
“No!” Oscar fought the chains again. “You gave Aquila a true death!”
“I struck a deal with him. Information for his death. I struck no such deal with you.”
“What can I give you!?”
“You’ll give us what we need without the deal. I want to give another vampire a chance to dig through your head and see if we can figure out who the final conspirator is.” And I had no doubt Abbott could rip into his brain the same way Gavin had torn into mine. Abbott is eons stronger than Marco. If the memory were hidden in a walled off portion of Oscar’s brain, Abbott would find it.
I looked to the Celrau who’d pissed himself. “Where do you live?”
“France.”
“You came through the portal and it’s gone. Do you have a way to get back?”
He shook his head.
“I’ll get him to the rot in Brooklyn,” said Marco.
Oscar’s face sobered even more. “You’re letting him go so he can tell of what he saw and heard. So he can disgrace me and Aquila.”
“I am.”
“You’re human.” His expression and tone clearly told me he saw me as less than a bug. There was no way I’d done this. It had to be a mistake.
I felt as if I’d lost most of my humanity on this night, but that didn’t make me any less human. Or, perhaps it did. Maybe I was becoming a monster out of necessity.
“You’re going to kill a human a month to keep me alive?” Oscar asked. A taunt. A challenge.
“Yeah, but only the bad humans.”
27
An hour later, Nathan ordered me to take us to a snow-covered mountaintop in the middle of nowhere, preferably somewhere in the sunlight.
I grabbed Aquila’s head, holding it by the hair, and took us through the nothingness to a mountain in western China. We looked out on other mountains for miles and miles. I knew there were villages in the valley below us, but we couldn’t see them.
I settled Aquila’s head on the edge of the cliff and aimed energy into it. Just before I felt it was about to explode, I nudged it off the edge of the cliff. It was forty yards below us when it exploded, and Nathan and I remained clean.
I looked to my pissed off kitty cat. “Do you want to call him, or shall I?”
“I will.”
I sat on a boulder and watched. The cold seeped into my ass and I knew I should stand back up, but I was beyond exhausted — physically, mentally, emotionally. Torturing the vampires had taken more out of me than I’d realized.
Three minutes later, Xaephan appeared between us and I felt the necklace come to life between my breasts. Mordecai had gifted me a super-thin chain he assured me was strong enough to hold the coin without breaking. The chain usually remained long, so the coin stayed hidden, but I felt it drawing up. There was no way for it to be seen though — I was wearing entirely too many clothes, including a turtleneck.
Xaephan turned to me. “You shouldn’t have, Chère.”
“Pretty sure I should’ve.”
“I won’t be able to manage Killian as I could Aquila.”
“You won’t have to once I kill him, too.”
Xaephan’s head swiveled to meet Nathan’s gaze. “Is she okay?”
“No. I wouldn’t piss her off right now. Or, on second thought, maybe you should try it. See what happens.”
Xaephan looked at me until I was ready to punch him. Finally, he spoke so low I could barely hear. “You’ve never tortured before. You’ll always remember it — the sounds, the smells, the adrenaline. You’re forever changed, Chère.”
I nodded. “I am, but it had to be done.” The coin settled back between my breasts. I had the feeling it was satisfied about something.
“I’ll remove a full favor if you turn Oscar over to me.”
“No.”
“I’ll leave you with only a half-favor, meaning I can’t ask for anything else from you, because we both know you need me to own you in a small way in order to keep you safe.”
“No.”
“I’ll leave you with a half-favor and wipe the slate clean with your lion.”
I looked to Nathan. “I can’t answer for you.”
“We’ll keep him for one full moon,” N
athan told the demon, “and you can have him the day before the next.”
“No deal,” said Xaephan. “I need to leave with him immediately.”
What did Oscar know that Xaephan was so desperate for us not to find out?
“No deal,” said Nathan.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“Chère.” Xaephan’s single word spoke volumes, but I shook my head.
“No. Don’t even start. Nathan’s terms are the only ones you’ll get.”
“You break my heart.”
“I think I might like to hold yours in my hand.”
“As you did Gavin’s?”
“You aren’t supposed to know about that. No one is.” Not even Nathan.
“You’re riding the high from the torture. You’ll be back to yourself in a few days. You’re made of strong stuff, Chère. You’ll be fine. Let your wolf help soothe you.” He looked to Nathan. “Take care of her, cat. You’ll regret allowing her to kill Aquila. I can’t give her the protections I once could.”
Xaephan disappeared, and I sat quietly while Nathan did what was necessary to be sure everything was closed and sealed.
“Okay. He’s gone.”
I was freezing, and I reached for Nathan’s arm to take us back, but he stepped out of reach.
“I’m disappointed. You should’ve let me or Marco handle the torture.”
I shook my head. “My daughter; my hand doing the torture.”
“There was no emotion on your face. You didn’t feel at all bad about having to do it.”
“And?”
He crossed his arms. Arrogant, pissed off cat. “You don’t deny it?”
I crossed mine, pulled in even more strength, and met his gaze. “I did what I had to.”
“Okay. You aren’t who I thought…” He stepped near, but his face looked as if he had to hold his breath to do so, as if the stink of my cruelty might slide off me and stick to him. I grabbed his arm, went into the nothingness, and came back out where we’d left.
I need the hotel, I told Cora. Do you need to be here, or can we take the shortcut and leave now?
Edge of Humanity (Only Human Book 5) Page 21