“You said there were five elements but only four gates. Who guards the others?”
“You remind me of the boys when they were children; always asking a million questions.” But she smiled endearingly. “The gates are positioned across the four corners of north and south America. Sylphs who live in the west control the air. The Salamanders are keepers of the south and wielders of fire and, lastly, you have gnomes in the east and they control the elements of earth. Together, the four corners dome over everything, creating the Aether in the center. ”
“What about the rest of the world?” Riley wondered. “Shouldn’t there be more gates, or keepers?”
“We don’t have jurisdiction on other countries.”
Riley exhaled, slumping back in her seat. “I should have brought a notepad. No way I’m going to remember all this.”
Kyaerin laughed. “Why don’t we order some food and talk about something else?”
Riley could so get behind that. All this talk about blood and Demons was beginning to make her stomach roil.
They ordered club sandwiches from the moony-eyed boy behind the counter. He threw in free sodas and bags of chips to go with the phone number he slipped Kyaerin on a folded napkin under her sandwich. Kyaerin smiled at him sweetly, but slipped the napkin into the garbage when he wasn’t looking.
“You’re like twice his age,” Riley said as they returned to their table.
Kyaerin laughed. “Sweetie, I’m thousands of times his age. When I was born, humans were just leaving their caves and creating mud huts.”
Riley wasn’t sure she even wanted to count that high. “You look like you’re twenty.”
Kyaerin’s grin was wry. “The curse of immortality.”
“Does it really suck being immortal?”
Kyaerin set her tray down and slipped into her chair. “No, I have my family and the man I love. Immortality is only bearable with them by my side.”
“Will you ever die?”
Kyaerin shrugged. “I suppose so, one day. All things, even the immortal, eventually die. Not naturally of course, but you never know what will happen tomorrow, especially being a gatekeeper and the mother of a clan of Casters. There are always those who wish us dead.”
Riley looked down at her lunch, her stomach too queasy to eat. “I’ll die. I’ll die before Octavian.”
“Immortality isn’t the number of years you’ve accumulated, but what you did in those years.”
She raised her eyes to the other woman’s face. “When I’m sixty, he’s still going to look twenty.”
“And when you are sixty, you will still not have reached a quarter of his actual age.”
She’s totally missing the point, Riley thought miserably. But then again, could she really expect Kyaerin to understand what it was like when her husband was immortal like her? She decided to drop it. It wasn’t as though there was anything anyone could do about it. The last thing she wanted was for Kyaerin to think she was a whiny child.
“So you promised to tell me where Octavian was born.”
Chapter 24
“How was lunch, ladies?” Liam glanced up when Kyaerin strolled into the diner, followed by Riley. He set the oddly shaped bottles he was holding down onto the bar and dusted his hands.
“Fantastic.” Kyaerin said, unwinding the silk scarf from around her slender neck. “New shipment?”
Liam glanced down at the crates at his feet, and sighed. “Early shipment. They weren’t supposed to arrive for another week.”
Kyaerin set her purse and scarf down on a nearby table before joining him behind the bar to survey the mess. “We’ll have to stock some of these in the storage room.”
“That’s what I was thinking, except.” He ruffled a hand through his hair. “A lot of these need cold storage.”
Kyaerin looked up at him. “Kitchen freezer?”
“Not enough room.”
Watching them, Riley unsnapped the buttons on her coat. She peeled off the gloves Octavian had given her on their adventure to their pond, as Riley had come to call it, and stuffed them into the pockets. She was in the process of pulling the jacket off when the kitchen door swung open and Gideon ambled out, lugging a wooden crate.
“You got another one, Dad,” he said, taking it over to the bar and setting it down.
Liam muttered something in a language Riley didn’t understand, but knew enough from the tone to assume it was a curse. “Darling, can you please check the shipping forms and make sure they haven’t made a mistake? I’m going to go see how many more’s left.”
Kyaerin nodded, stepping around him to take his place.
“Is there anything I can do?” Riley asked.
Liam faltered in mid pass and glanced at her. “I’m not sure yet. Why don’t you come into the back with me? The others are already there sorting out whatever has arrived.”
Riley followed him through the kitchen to the open storage room door. The forearm on her right arm began to itch something fierce the moment she stepped over the threshold, but she ignored it as she surveyed the teetering tower of boxes lining straight up to the ceiling. She had a feeling there was a bit more stock than they’d anticipated.
“Insane, isn’t it?” Gideon appeared next to her and slung an arm around her shoulders. He leaned into her side.
“Was this deliberate?” she asked.
“Nope. Someone, somewhere, has made a mistake.”
Riley peeked around all the boxes to the back and the open doorway spilling bright sunlight into the dank room. She could hear the Liam and another male voice arguing.
“How do you guys get shipments if this place is so top secret?” Riley wondered.
“All shipments get sent to a warehouse run and operated by members of the Caster society. It is then packed up and sent off to us.”
“That’s a lot of work.”
He shrugged. “That’s business.”
“Gideon!” Liam poked his head around the boxes. “Find Octavian.”
“I swear he thinks I’m a bloodhound or something,” Gideon muttered, unlatching his arm from around Riley.
Biting back her chuckle, Riley watched as he shuffled out of the room. A moment later, his place was replaced by Magnus.
“Did a shipment truck throw up in our stock room?” he muttered.
“Magnus, come give us a hand!” Liam called, having spotted his son.
Reggie ducked around his father with a box in his arms. He dropped it unceremoniously on top of a growing pile.
“I’m telling you there’s been a mistake.” Liam was shouting.
“And I’m telling you there wasn’t,” the guy snapped back. “Everything is right here in the order form.”
Together, the two squeezed their way through the narrow opening between the boxes towards Riley. She ducked out of the way as they marched past.
“Riley, can you go ask Dad if he wants us to bring the drinks to the front or leave them here?” Reggie said, panting.
Riley spun on her heels and bolted from the room. She found Liam, Kyaerin and the delivery guy, a short, round man with way too much hair coming out of his nostrils, standing at the bar, looking down at the cases.
“Why the hell would I order thirty six cases of Virgin Blood?” Liam was arguing.
“Hey, I don’t judge,” the man replied.
“Where are your order forms?” Kyaerin interjected before Liam could open his mouth. “I’d like to see them.”
“Lady, I can tell you right now, I brought the exact number—”
“Please,” Kyaerin said curtly, leaving no room for argument.
The man threw up his ham-sized hands and trudged back towards the kitchen, muttering something about wasting his time.
“Who is that guy?” Liam exclaimed. “Do you know him?”
Kyaerin shook her head. “He must be new.”
“He’s an idiot.” Liam forced his long fingers back through his hair. “I know I looked over the order forms myself, twice. I made sure�
�”
Kyaerin touched his arm lightly. “It’s all right, Liam. We’ll fix it.”
“If all else fails,” Riley chimed in. “There’s a little troll of a man that comes in here and that’s all he orders. I bet he’d happily buy several dozen cases.”
“Yung,” Liam and Kyaerin said in unison.
“Trolls love the taste of blood, but more if it’s… pure,” Kyaerin said with a slight tilt in her lips.
Riley recoiled. “It’s real… no, don’t tell me. I will never be able to serve him if I know the truth.” Shaking her head in disgust, she focused on the reason she was there. “Reggie wants to know if you want the rest of the drinks to be brought in here or left in the stock room.”
Liam moaned, scrubbing a hand over his face as though trying to remove a stubborn stain.
Kyaerin patted his arm lightly. “Tell them to put all the drinks to one side. We’ll deal with it later.”
Riley turned on her heels and hurried to let Reggie and the others know.
“We can’t unload the rest!” Gideon’s voice carried like a whip through the stock room. “There isn’t any room.”
“That isn’t my problem,” the delivery guy barked. “I got other orders that need delivering.”
“And I got a boot—”
“Gideon.” Magnus put a hand on his twin’s arm. “Let’s get the stuff out of the truck. We’ll deal with the rest afterwards.”
Gideon bared his teeth, but didn’t push the matter, which made the delivery guy smirk arrogantly.
“Prick,” Gideon muttered, marching up the metal ramp to finish unloading.
Satisfied that he’d won, the delivery guy ambled his way back towards the stock room, clipboard in hand. Riley scurried back, trying to make way for him to pass, but the area was too narrow, too cramped and she was forced to wedge herself between two stacks. It would have gone without a hitch if the man didn’t have feet the size of shovels or that Riley couldn’t tuck hers far back enough and the toes wound up sticking out a bit too far. She hoped he’d just step over them and keep walking. Instead, he walked straight into her sneakers, staggering as his feet caught and he careened forward, just barely catching himself on a row of boxes.
Riley quickly darted out of the cramped spot, trampling on his bent legs as she tried to free herself. “I’m so sorry! Are you all right?”
For a man of his size, he was instantly on his feet and rounding on her, a bull having spotted a red flag. “You did that deliberately.”
Riley gasped. “I didn’t. I promise. It—” She jerked back three steps when he started for her.
“What the hell is wrong with you people?” he snarled into her face. “My paperwork is in order.” He shoved his clipboard forward, nearly smacking her in the nose, and it would have if the back of her legs hadn’t taken that moment to catch on a box.
She went down with the sound of shattering glass as the box split open, raining bottles. They hit the ground a split second before Riley, shattering and cushioning her fall with a thick, crimson puddle and glass. Her cry of pain as shards of glass cut into her hands stopped the man in his tracks, but it also brought Magnus, Gideon and Reggie to her side in an instant.
“You son of a bitch!” Gideon was over Riley’s prone body in an instant to stand toe to toe with the delivery guy. He gave the man a hard shove in the chest that had him staggering back a step. “That’s my sister you put your filthy hands on.”
“I didn’t touch her!” the man protested, no longer looking pissed but petrified.
She was so stunned by Gideon’s words that she momentarily forgot about the bits of glass embedded into her flesh as she stared at his back.
“Riley?” Magnus crouched down at her side, taking her injured hands in his. “Are you all right?”
“I’m okay,” she said, crimson droplets raining off her hands and clothes. It was as though she’d taken a dunk in a vat of blood.
“What’s going on in here?”
It was as though the air had been vacuumed from the room. Every ounce of it vanished, leaving behind a thick tension so thick, it seemed to still time as all eyes turned from Riley to the hulk of a man filling the doorway. Eyes the color of chipped ice swept from the quivering delivery man to Riley still sprawled in the pool of broken glass and red liquid. The look that filled them could only be described as murderous, pure, unadulterated rage so black it was like falling into the pit of space as he took her in. Muscles quivered as hands balled into fists and nostrils flared. Those eyes swung to the man now pale enough to pass out.
“You dare?” Each word hissed out through clenched teeth.
“I didn’t touch her!” the man interrupted her.
With Magnus’ help, Riley climbed awkwardly to her feet. “It wasn’t his fault.” She quickly moved forward and positioned herself between Octavian and his prey. “I tripped.”
Octavian was still breathing hard. His opaque gaze remained firmly fixated on the man. “Leave. Now.” He spoke calmly, but each word vibrated with barely suppressed fury.
The man didn’t need telling twice. He darted past Gideon, Magnus and Reggie to his truck. The ramp thundered as it was rolled back into place under the vehicle. The door closed with a resounding bang that echoed like a gunshot through the meadow. In two minutes flat, he was rumbling out of sight.
“Riley.” Moving as though there wasn’t a maze of boxes hindering him, Octavian was in front of her in the blink of an eye. His hands came up, coming close to touching her face, but moving down to grip her shoulders instead.
“I’m okay,” she promised. “I just got some glass in my hands.” She raised her cupped hands to show him. “The rest is that stuff.” She jerked a chin towards the crate. “It’s not real blood is it?” She raised her hands to smell, but the coppery tang of her own blood masked most of the sweet, floral scent.
“Where is he going?” Kyaerin charged into the room, Liam a step behind her. “Why is he leaving? I wanted to see the… oh my God, Riley!”
“I’m okay!” she said for what felt like the hundredth time. “It’s not all mine.”
Still clutching her chest, eyes wide with horror, Kyaerin exhaled. “Oh, thank goodness!”
“I’m sorry about the bottles, I’ll—”
Liam put up his hand, stopping her. “Don’t worry about that. It’s not like we’re about to run out anytime soon. As long as you’re all right.”
Riley smiled at him appreciatively.
“We need to clean you up,” Octavian murmured, gaze fixed on the small puddle of blood collecting in her palms. He brought his hands down to circle her wrists over the cuffs of her jacket. “Does it hurt?”
It was on the tip of her lips to tell him no, that it was mostly irritating when the world gave a violent shudder and a pain so blinding she nearly screamed slammed steel fists square into her chest like a hammer and she was catapulted backwards into darkness.
She gasped and the air she inhaled burned down her throat like hot, gritty ashes. The world around her sweltered, stewing in its own heat and stench of burnt flesh as it rose off the sand in waves, burning the soles of her feet through her sneakers. Her hair blew around her face as she whipped around, searching the endless miles of emptiness.
“Octavian?” she called. Her voice was snatched up by the oppressive winds and pitched back into her face. She choked as it crammed down her throat, a fist-sized ball of sand and grit. “Where are you?” she croaked as she attempted to shield her eyes from the bitter sting of debris.
“This way…”
Riley spun towards Octavian’s voice. Her heart leapt in her chest. “Octavian?” She ran towards the sound. “Where are you?”
“This way…”
The dry path crunched beneath her feet. Sweat pooled along the column of her spine, drenching her shirt and making the fabric cling to her damp skin. She ignored it. She needed to find Octavian.
“Where are you?” she shouted, searching the darkness for signs of him.
/> “This way…”
“Where?”
Endless night pursued her through the maze of vast nothingness. The sound of her own labored breathing and the crack of her heart in her chest sound tracked the moment as she raced to find her mate. It felt like hours of her running, seemingly getting nowhere even as her feet pumped. Then, just when she was beginning to feel like she would run forever, she found him.
Octavian's Undoing (Sons of Judgment) Page 28