The Jewel of Darkness [Celestial Jewels 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by J. Annas Walker

  Leaning in close to her ear, he whispered the word. “Goddess.”

  Chapter 12

  “Don’t look so shocked,” Thane said with an almost cruel taunt. He moved to her other side. “No one but a goddess can tap into the universal power stores like that. Mommy dearest conjured you up like Jupiter did Minerva. Did that make Minerva any less of a goddess?”

  Sabrina opened her mouth to deny it, but the words refused to come. She looked up at the sun and thought of her great-uncle Apollo. Memories of the Castle of Night flashed through her mind. Diana, Goddess of the Moon, Queen of Witches, was her grandmother. She finally admitted to herself the possibility of it being true.

  “What does this mean?” she asked once she found her voice. She stared at the brightly lit city. The gleaming windows glittering in the golden light were both fascinating and frightening.

  “You can walk the two worlds. I can show you how, if you want, of course, but think about it. You have the potential to be your own person, beholden to no one. Create a kingdom. Rule. You never again have to wonder what you are,” he said, still behind her.

  She thought about it, wondering how Brandon and her father would react to the news. What would she say? “Oh, hi, honey, Dad. Great news! I’m going to go live in the underworld. Now, who’s with me?” Right. When hell froze over. Damn. According to Delilah, parts of it already had.

  “All you have to do is walk by my side,” Thane added almost like an afterthought.

  The word flew out of her mouth before she had time to register the thought. “No. I love Brandon and nothing in this world or below it would be enough to make me give him up.”

  Thane smirked. “I thought you might say that.” He snapped his fingers.

  The bright, sunny day changed to purple twilight. The city looked more like the familiar nighttime skyline she knew. Red and white dots zipped along the interstates. Sirens wailed in the distance. Wind from around the buildings carried scents of evening meals from the restaurants below.

  “What happened? Why did everything speed?” Sabrina felt dazed.

  “We were in a pocket of time. The power is there for the taking. All you have to do is ask, like before. You can hold onto a perfect moment or let it go. You can skip ahead and wait for what you want to come to you. Stand back, invisible to those around you, and watch as everything and everyone changes but you. There are no boundaries, no limits. Death cannot be stopped, diverted, or altered, but only for those trapped in the imperfection that is linear time. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of what it means to be a goddess,” he whispered in her ear while gently holding her shoulders.

  “Sabrina? Sabrina!” Brandon called from down the hall.

  Forgetting Thane stood on the balcony, she rushed to Brandon. Flinging herself in his arms, she broke out in tears. Sobs wracked her from head to foot.

  “Oh, Brandon! I killed six men! I’ve never done anything like that before in my life, and now six people are dead,” she wailed.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay. If they came during the day, they weren’t here for a social visit. You did the right thing,” he said, smoothing her hair and holding her. A few more sobs came before he spoke again. “Shhh. You’re not hurt, are you?”

  She sniffled, took a deep breath, and answered him. “I don’t know. I killed the last one and noticed the sun coming in through the opened door. Nothing happened. I went outside and stood in the sun, and Thane said I wasn’t a vampire.” She started, gave a shudder, and laid her head on his chest.

  “You were in the sun! What were you thinking?” Brandon started checking her over.

  “I told you. I didn’t get burned. Thane said I’m not a real vampire,” she repeated.

  “Thane? Thane Morse? Is he still here?” Brandon sounded confused.

  Sabrina glanced back at the balcony to check. She saw him standing there, leaning against the railing with his arms crossed. She noticed he wore a scowl as he watched their exchange.

  “Yes. He’s outside. Can’t you see him?”

  “I do now. Come on. Sit down before you fall down. I’m going to call your father, since our guest is early,” he said, guiding her to the sofa. “Don’t worry about the bodies. I’ll have someone clean this up.”

  He went back to the bedroom. The sound of rough fabric sliding over skin conjured an image of denim jeans being pulled up. He punched buttons on his cell phone, waited, and then spoke.

  She heard him give her father a quick rundown and hang up. He called down for a cleanup crew and then asked for security. His shouting told her something was not right.

  “What do you mean no one’s down there? Where is Camilla?” There was a break in the conversation. “Double the guards at all the exit points. Don’t rely on magic to do the job. That only works on supernaturals. This is a human problem.” He ended the call and threw the phone on the bed.

  Sabrina heard him pad down the hall, still in his bare feet.

  He wore his favorite pair of jeans but left the plain, white, cotton tee he had slept in. His hair managed to look sexy in a ran-my-fingers-through-it sort of way. He stopped by the bar and poured three whiskeys.

  “Mr. Morse, if you would be so kind as to join us in the living room,” Brandon said cordially.

  Thane entered the room and plopped himself into Hadrian’s favorite overstuffed chair sideways. He dangled one foot over the arm. The other stayed on the floor.

  “You act like someone I met once. It didn’t end well for him,” Sabrina said cautiously.

  “I know. Aradia sucked the life right out of the fool. Lucifer always was too greedy for his own good,” Thane said with an air of disinterest.

  Brandon returned. He put a glass of amber liquid in her hand. He offered a whiskey to Thane.

  Thane eyed the glass, shrugged, and then said, “What the hell. It’s not like I’m going to get drunk.” He accepted it. Raising it like a toast, he winked at Sabrina and threw back the contents like a seasoned pro. The glass clanked hard as he slammed it upside down on the table.

  Hadrian entered without knocking. The spit-and-polished appearance he prided himself on suffered, making it obvious he threw on the first thing he came to without waiting for his valet. He gave an appraising eye to the man sitting in his chair and took the overstuffed chair opposite Thane. He waited until Brandon sat down beside Sabrina to start.

  “To what do we owe the pleasure of having Death on our doorstep?” His tone was light. Tension played around his eyes and mouth. The light, happy tone held an edge of stress.

  “Ooh, to the point. Good. I’m here because my scythe has gone missing. I have a really good idea who has it, and while I could go chasing him all over the universe to get it back, I’m going to wait right here for him,” Thane announced.

  “Why here?” Hadrian asked.

  “Because, Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, I can. See your lovely daughter there? She broke the rules just by being born. Because of her, a celestial being is dead. Then, she crossed over to the netherworld and came back in an effort to become a vampire. That raised quite a few eyebrows. After that, she called upon the universal power stores and blended demonic magic with celestial. Another big no-no,” Thane said, sitting up correctly and mimicking Hadrian’s serious manner.

  “Why would the thief come here?” Brandon put his arm around Sabrina, pulling her in protectively and nearly spilling her drink.

  “Oh, I didn’t tell you the best part. There’s a bounty on her head. The first person to bring her down to the underworld gets a sizeable reward. The catch, however, is that my scythe is one of the only ways most creatures can come to the surface. Stealing it allows the bearer free access to the earthly plane. She can’t go anywhere it can’t follow, short of leaving the planet. Whoever has it will be coming for her. All I need to do is to wait where she is,” Thane explained. He seemed rather pleased with himself for knowing more than them.

  “Night and stars above. It wasn’t you in my bedroom at all,”
Sabrina said with dismay. She knew there had been an element to the scent the other encounters with Thane did not possess, the scent of clove. That also meant Thane had nothing to do with the attack in the parking garage.

  “I think we need to have a little bull session,” Thane said with a gleam in his eye. “It seems I’m further out of the loop than I thought.”

  Sabrina gripped the whiskey glass tight and debated drinking it. Liquor and she never got along, but since her transformation, she had not tried it. Hoping for a little Dutch courage, she gulped the amber fire. Her throat and stomach burned. A moment later her breathing stopped. When she caught her breath, she coughed hard.

  The words started spilling out like water over a weir. She told Thane about the dreams and of Delilah’s help to buy time. She confessed to wishing she could have been more like Eleanor and calling up the powers by accident, not knowing it was possible. Every detail of the stranger in her bed flowed. She did not even pause when Brandon squeezed her too hard at the part where she thought the other man was him. She managed to conceal most of the more intimate moments between them, but how she wanted Brandon to worship her during sex came out, as well. She rattled off the details of their mall encounter and the parking lot incident.

  When she recounted the story of waking up to six intruders, Hadrian started cursing under his breath. Sparing no facet, she told about the lioness inside her wanting to hunt and kill them. A shadow of the burning thirst flashed through her throat as she told them about draining the last man. Luckily, the sensation passed when she moved on to the part about the sunlight.

  Both Hadrian and Brandon sat tensed as she described the feeling of golden warmth on her face, the daytime scents, and Thane’s revelations. She shook her head, not wanting to believe him.

  “But I’m not. I can’t be. I refuse to be anything that takes me away from you,” she said, looking up at Brandon’s face. She gave a hard hiccup. A light-headed spin made her fall off-balance. She felt sick and capped a hand over her mouth.

  “Good grief. She’s plastered,” Thane observed. “Handy to know, if you ever need information. One shot and she’s a goner!”

  The pendant flared to life. Rainbows and shadows danced around her. “You will not talk about me like I’m not here,” she said angrily with a little slur. “I never asked to be this way. Who are you to come in here trying to make a damn mess? I love him. In the dark, when I died, I followed his voice to come back. So, there. I didn’t show up on the other side for a visit. I wanted to be what he is, and I don’t give a damn about your stupid scythe!” She mumbled something about his being a pain in the ass and then passed out cold.

  * * * *

  Brandon allowed her to drape over his arms as he carried Sabrina to their bed. With her tucked in, he stayed long enough to ensure her comfort and returned to the living room. He picked up her glass and sniffed.

  The edge of the glass smelled faintly of a chemical. He handed it to Hadrian. “Tell me if that is what I think it is.”

  “Scopolamine. Check the rest of the glasses. She’s been drugged,” Hadrian confirmed.

  Thane gave a sour expression. “Well, I owe you an apology, Mr. Thorpe. Here I thought you were just a purveyor of cheap, low-quality booze.”

  After going through all the glasses by the bar, almost all had been tainted with the drug. Brandon rounded up the lot and threw them in the recycling bin. Dumping the whiskey down the sink, he threw out the bottle as an extra precaution. He returned to the sofa and gave Thane a cold, hard stare.

  “Don’t look at me. I don’t need truth serum to get information. Besides, you two,” he said pointing his finger between them, “have been very naughty. Before you say it, the dead club manager behind the demoness’s SUV was not my doing. I sent the oath breaker’s body to follow the soul. Orcus has more fun when he can have both together. Someone must have snatched it and delivered it to the parking lot.”

  “Well, somebody did,” Brandon complained.

  “I can tell you this. Whoever your human contact is has to be working with a demon. No one but a demon can get down to the ninth level to steal a body. The thief may or may not be working with them. The giveaway hint was the aroma of clove she described. Only one person has the ability to shape-shift into another’s form. He wanted her to think it was you to get her trust. He used my scent to attempt to cover his tracks, but the clove is something he’s stuck with forever,” Thane said. He kept a stern expression.

  “Who?” Hadrian and Brandon asked at the same time.

  A ring of smoke and flame appeared on the balcony. Delilah stepped out, holding a much smaller, male demon by the scruff of the neck. She wore her dominatrix outfit again.

  “Nice to see I didn’t totally miss the party. Boys, I’d like you to meet Edgar. You have something you want to say. Don’t you, Edgar?” She gave him a hard shove, sending him skittering into the room.

  His tattered gray suit smelled of soot and singed hair. Deep gashes and dark-green blood spatter covered his back. He whimpered and curled into a ball where he laid.

  Delilah walked over to him, propping her foot on top of his body and digging in her high-heel. She ignored his protests and leaned over to place her elbow on her bent knee. She looked like a hunter posing with a big kill.

  “Edgar here was the one who took the body. Didn’t you Edgar? Want to tell them why or shall I?” She ground the heel of her boot deeper into his side.

  “Alrighty then. I’ll do it. Edgar here took a large sum of money from a well-connected politician here in Atlanta to frame your wife. After she was in police custody, he was going to have her meet with an untimely accident, but I warded my car. Edgar and his buddies couldn’t get the body inside. So, the bumbling boobs left it in the lot behind it, hoping to get the same outcome,” Delilah said with a great deal of venom in her voice.

  “Besides the human, who else is he working with?” Thane stood up so quickly, he looked like a blur to Brandon.

  “Well, Edgar? Are you going to answer the man?” Delilah asked, giving him a kick to his middle.

  Edgar shook his head. “No. I can’t! He’ll kill me!” He covered his face with his scaly, sea-foam green hands.

  Thane jerked him off the floor by the throat and held him high in the air so that Edgar’s toes scraped. “You know, that’s too bad Edgar. You’re already a dead man. I was giving you a choice. Do you want a slow, lingering, painful demise, or swift mercy?”

  “M-m,” Edgar gasped. “Mer-cy.”

  “Who are you working for?” Thane bellowed.

  “Ch-Charon.”

  Chapter 13

  “Come again?” Thane shook the demon. A hard line creased his forehead. His eye narrowed to slits as his lips thinned. He dropped the smaller man, who landed on the floor coughing and rubbing his throat.

  “Charon,” Edgar croaked. He tried to get to his feet, but Delilah kicked him again, causing him to drop to his knees. He stayed put this time.

  “The ferryman? As they say these days, WTF?”

  No answer came. Edgar continued to struggle for breath. He tugged at his collar, but the result remained the same. He wheezed.

  “And why would you want to go and do a thing like that for, hmm?” Delilah grabbed a fistful of his coarse, brown hair. She pulled his head back hard. His dark-green mouth gaped open to reveal some of his sharp teeth had been filed flat. A few were down to nubs.

  Brandon cringed. He felt sure a qualified dentist had not been involved. Given Delilah’s burning cinnamon aroma, he knew she exuded anger and likely did the work herself.

  “He said he would pay off the rest my debts, if I would get him to the surface. Said if I made sure to cause a distraction to keep the half-bred alone, I’d get a bonus. Since Owens wanted her, too, I figured I’d play both sides,” Edgar confessed. His shoulders shook with each breath.

  “Do you know why Charon wants her?” Brandon asked. A mixture of concern and anger made him want to hit the demon himself. Given his age an
d position, the other three people in the room outranked him by a large margin.

  “No. I never asked. He just said he needed her,” Edgar answered.

  “And that boys and girls explains the clove,” Delilah said to no one in particular. She placed both hands on her hips and nudged the demon again with the toe of her boot. “Trash.”

  Hadrian chimed in with his own questions. “What human are you working for? When did you make your arrangement?

  Edgar did not bother looking up, choosing to keep his gaze on the floor in front of him. “John Owens and Maddox McGuire. A year ago I was run in for illegal gambling. I got caught cheating. Someone called the cops when it got physical. Using magic was out of the question. I already owed Orcus a fortune. I offered to cut a deal with McGuire in exchange for my freedom, five years of service for a clean slate and a 10% cut of their take. Those evidence rooms get really full of crap. I fence it for them,” he admitted.

  “Owens,” Hadrian said with disgust. He gave Thane a knowing nod and walked away.

  Thane squatted down beside the man, crooked his finger under the demon’s chin, and lifted the green face to meet his yellow-green, cat-like eyes. The gesture was gentle, almost like a lover coaxing his shy mate. He blew into the man’s face, slowly, exhausting a lung’s worth of air.

  For a moment, Brandon watched, wondering if anything was supposed to happen. The next minute his answer came.

  Edgar’s eyes rolled up and his eyelids fluttered. He took in a sharp gasp. He fell onto his side. Red lines began forming on his skin. The scales started flaking as the lines opened. It appeared as if a fire burning under his skin shone through the forming cracks. In no time, a pile of ashes in the shape of the demon were all that remained. A vaporous form hovered inches over the dead demon.