Redemption: A Custos Novel

by Emjay Soren

  They both laughed and I was so thankful they'd followed me out of that room, that they fought over me and whatever justice they thought I deserved. For the first time in forever I wasn’t alone, and I would cherish that.

  Bastian left after a while longer of babying me. I adored him and appreciated his support. Even though he was angry, I believed he and Preacher would be ok. London stayed with me and told me about growing up in Texas, her big plans for the homeless shelter that coming weekend, and anything else she could to fill the empty space.

  “London?” I asked and she looked at me with sad eyes.

  “Yeah, Tavern.”

  “Was it really that bad? Bad enough to put me through this?”

  She bit her lip as her eyes filled with tears. “It’s probably the absolute worst tale I have ever heard, and I don’t know the half of it. I think about what I do know and I want to cry and hit something. I can’t tell you because it’s not my story to tell, but I will say that if you use your imagination to think up the worst thing possible, times it by a hundred and you still won’t be close.”

  I gasp. “Oh my god!”

  She nods. “That kind of bad leaves one hell of a mess in its wake.”

  I said nothing and the silence was a welcome distraction from my heartache.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Preacher

  Tonight was no different from any other night. I went out, sometimes alone, sometimes with Cash. I looked for Angelo and Darcallion every night, every night coming up empty. I was obsessed with killing him and crawling back to Tavern on my hands and knees, telling her all my secrets and explaining why I threw stones while running away. I had burned so many bridges with her that I didn’t think there could ever be another, but I needed to hope. I was very close to Nex territory, it wouldn’t take much to slip.

  “Cash…” I said, but my voice trailed off as the bifter in my hand finally delivered the high I was desperately seeking. I had a whiskey in one hand, a bifter in the other, and a whole lot of self hate to work through.

  Cue another shot of whiskey and stronger blunts.

  “Yeah, Preach.” He replied, every bit as disinterested as I was. He was rolling the rim of his empty shot glass on the table.

  “I wanted to talk to ya ‘bout somethin’.”

  That had him lookin’ at me. “What’s up?”

  “I need a favor.” I shift in the seat and look around before dropping my voice. “If I lose and they get me… promise me a few things?”

  He didn’t argue with me on the ‘if I lose’ part, because we both knew it was a chance we took every single night. “Promise me that you’ll take care of her.” I didn’t say her name because there were too many ears around. “That you’ll kill with my cross, and that you’ll punch Bastian hard when he falls in love and acts like a fuck.”

  He laughs and nods. There is no reason to make a big deal of my request. He has given me the same talk. He did however, catch that last part. “Love?”

  I nod and say nothing more, and he accepts that. Dudes are simple and to the point.

  “Wanna call Leushus and Bas and go kill some shit?” Cash asks and I shrug.

  “I’m a little tired, but I could kill.”

  He has his phone out texting the boys, and within a few seconds of being sent in walks Leushus, followed by Bastian thirteen minutes later. “Let’s go kill us some ugly boys.” Bastian says and claps me on the back with a smile. Our beef is over and the fight forgotten.

  *

  “Bastian?” Leushus asks turning to look at him, knowing something has him on edge. We had started walking the streets in Kent, a suburb that was known for our kind of action. We were coming up on a vacant field when Leushus picked up on Bastian’s thoughts.

  “Play cool, but we have four Nex hiding in the field, maybe further out but I picked up four different scents about a hundred yards back. Let's say we fuck these bitches up and then patrol old school.”

  Old school meaning beers and whiskey for them, and a fuck load of weed for me.

  Oh, and a bunch of killing.

  “You want to make yourself scarce and come back big ‘n’ bad?” Leushus asked, recognizing Bastian's need to turn and charge the Nex.

  “Nope, two more behind me, no time to change. Comin' on strong boys, time to ante up.”

  “Who’s packin?” Leushus asked when he realized Bastian would be fighting in human form.

  “The Co’s fully loaded.” Cash said, and headed to the back of my Bronco, opening the utility case I stored in the back slowly, not wanting to draw attention. I followed and took the glocks as Cash handed them to me. We all took the extra clips and Leushus checked his jacket to make sure his .45 was ready.

  “Well screw this, let’s get some beer and chill.” I yelled from the back of the truck loud enough for the Nex to hear my voice. All my boys knew what I was up too. They come lookin’ for me, they'll get me. As we made our way toward the field Leushus spoke up.

  “I was really looking forward to a fight tonight, damn Nex pussies.” He stepped into the center of our crew.

  “Yeah, bunch of fuckin' cunts.” I said, and took my stance, falling in line behind Cash and Leushus.

  “Fuck em’ Let’s get lit.” Bastian said as he stepped in behind of all three of us. Without the Nex realizing, the four of us had set our line in a circle protecting every direction.

  Leushus spoke to us all with his mind, when he opened the path this way we all could follow his lead. When we have Leush in the field we don’t question his instinct or knowledge. He has thousands of years on all of us. It was a great secret weapon hearing him like this in battle, allowing us to speak to him and one another, linking us completely through his powerful mind. ‘Bastian we just passed one about fifteen yards behind you to the left. He’s marked you, so be prepared.’

  Oh yeah, he can read any Nex, too. He is our gun in a knife fight.

  ‘Got him!’ Bas replied with his thoughts.

  As we walked farther Leush picked up on three more Nex set to go after me and Cash. ‘ Preach you got two coming at you, the third is headed for Cash the minute they bring you down, so don’t let them.’

  ‘Fuckers want to play, I have no problem goin’ home naked tonight boys, I’ll change right here.’

  I couldn’t help but smile at Bastian’s candor. ‘You pickin’ up anymore there Leush?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah, the field is full boys, the other two that were behind us ran off, they were strictly look out.’

  ‘Well any day now they can make their mov…..’ I was cut off as a young Nex jumped behind me and charged. I spun around with my cross in hand and grabbed the Nex before he made contact and with a swift move I sent him right into the center of hell… the circle of me and my boys.

  Cash grabbed him by the back of the neck as I charged and placed one hell of a round kick to his face. Cash grabbed the Nex by one arm as Leushus grabbed the other. I walked up slowly, pulling my stake out from the back of my jeans. “Think we’re that stupid?” I ask, but didn’t wait for the reply as I stabbed my cross into his heart. With a silent explosion, the dust blew around where the Nex had been held. I spun around not caring where the dust settled.

  “Bastian, there’s one coming at eleven o’clock.” Leush said as he spun around, his glock in hand as the Nex charged. Bastian broke out of the circle to meet him half way. He brought the gun up and blasted two rounds into the Nex’s body. He had the Nex down, bleeding and paralyzed by the precise placement of the silver bullets. He picked him up by the throat and tossed him to Leushus. Leushus caught him with a kick to the chest, sending the Nex onto the sidewalk, his head over the curb. Leushus left him as another three Nex charged.

  “I thought you said there were only four?” I roared to Leush as another Nex fired a gun of his own into Leushus’ shoulder. He went down, the bullet obviously made of silver. After Cash getting shot with silver a few months back, we stopped playing fair.

  I grabbed Leush's .45, know
ing my cross wouldn’t accomplish a thing right now. I heard Leushus grunt, the silver burned like a bitch. I cocked the gun, and welcomed the familiar clicking of the chamber. I took aim at the Nex’s face, pumping five rounds in him at point blank range.

  Cash took another two out with a stake. He moved so fast, in quick fluid motion, that the Nex didn’t know what hit them until it was too late. Cash was skilled, and aged at four hundred years. The Nex were fucked.

  Bastian shot three to the ground before taking a bullet himself, causing him to faze on impact….the fight was over. Bastian tore off as the wolf emerged. Ten plus feet of raw fury as

  he dashed out into the field, attacking another three, ripping their throats open and stomping their bodies. His human body was long gone, and in it’s place was a white beast, hell bent and hungry.

  Cash and I followed Bastian as he dropped the Nex one by one, leaving them for us to finish off. We gladly staked the sick fucks like mad, one by one. This was the best way to burn off the anger of missing my Bird. I wasted no time staking two more in the chest, the dust flying up. Cash took one out in the same fashion. Leushus followed behind Bastian, cleaning up as Bastian left them begging for death in his wake.

  “Leushus, we got this.” Cash yelled out, staking another from the left. “We don’t need that silver paralyzing more than just your arm.”

  He laughs, the sound dark as fuck. “Boys, that shit only burns for second.” He got real close in a Nex’s face. His voice is distorted, and I can’t help but pull back and watch our pissed off fallen angel. “I’ll bleed silver long before you can kill me with it.” His fangs bared he slices the Nex's throat and drops him. “Preacher, take out the trash.”

  Fucking. Bad. Ass.

  From the corner of my eye I see another Nex stand and aim right at Leushus’s head. I flash my body to Leushus’s side as the gun goes off, the bullet lodging in my leg. Leushus skimmed through the field on his belly towards the Nex who shot me, his gun in hand, ready to take the bastard down. Bastian heard the gun fire, and charged towards Leushus, scared he was injured.

  Fire burned through my leg as it stiffened, and I know the silver is making its way up my leg. Let it burn and numb me, I don’t care. I rip my shirt and make a tourniquet to stop the flow of silver through my system. I have maybe an hour before I hit critical, and I ain't leaving without death on my hands. I secure the knot and flash to Leush, who is cleaning house on a whole new nest of the filthy fucks.

  I was close enough to hear the movement of the Nex who shot me. I was lying the same way as Leushus, facing the opposite direction. I flew to my feet, landing with my legs on either side of the Nex’s body. I brought the gun muzzle to his head and fired the remaining six shots into the back of his head.

  Leushus rolled the Nex over, his face now gone; I knew the fucker was dead. Even immortals needed a brain, and I just shot his to smithereens. He drug the body back to the sidewalk where three more injured Nex lay.

  Leushus lined their bodies up against the curb as Cash and Bastian walk up.

  “Who had you fuckers following us? Who ordered this hit and why?” Leushus roared at the three Nex.

  “Fuck you.” One of them said, spitting his own blood at Leush.

  I didn’t have the patience tonight, and talk time was over. I aimed the gun at the Nex.

  “Fuck him? Fuck you mother fucker.” I said before grabbing my cross and dusting him. I stepped before the next one in line.

  “Now, I’m gonna ask this time. Who ordered this fucking ambush? How did you know we were here!” I knew why, they were followers, tagging us and calling for back-up, but I wanted them to come clean, to betray the Cado and Angello. I was staring into the black, soulless eyes of another nameless Nex. When he didn’t answer I grabbed Leush’s gun and pistol whipped him across the face, knocking him to the side.

  “Preach!” Leushus spoke before I completely lost it. “What are you doing man? This is some dark and violent shit, even for us. We know why they did this shit. Just stake them and let’s head out.”

  I couldn’t think. I wanted them to suffer, to make them cry and beg for their lives. I knew I was getting close to the dark side, but I couldn’t stop.

  “Tell me!” I roared, kicking the Nex in the ribs. I towered over his crippled body and spoke gently this time, “Tell me.” I knelt down and brought my face into his. “Tell me and I’ll take your sins, a service I don’t fuckin’ offer you cunts anymore. Choose to decline my lapse in judgment, and I swear I will torture you for as long as I live.”

  The Nex must have caught on to what I was capable of, because he started talking.

  “We were sent by Darcallion, supposed to get the addicted girl if she was with you. That’s why we didn’t attack till that fucking dog charged us!” He spat the words and pointed his mangled arm at Bastian.

  “That fuckin’ dog is hungry and you bleedin’ fucks are his kind of cuisine, so I’d watch the tone fucker!” I spat right back.

  Little fucker must’a thought I was bluffin’, because he rolled his eyes and laughed.

  So I laughed too. It was a little darker than they expected. I was scaring the hell out of all of them, including my boys. “You dumb sons’a bitches. Tavern’s not here because we barely know the girl. Get her clean and keep her safe, that’s all we do. She's one in a million since we took Bliss outa’ your hands. You boys got killed for nothing….he got you killed for nothing. How’s that make you feel?” I asked, and got closer to his face.

  “Not for nothing…..” The Nex started laughing. "Emigen was for nothing. The whore junkie will be a reckoning.”

  Leushus staked him before he could say anymore, before I could unleash the fury inside that came from his admission.

  I walked over to the first Nex who shot me, and with all my force I slammed my foot down on his neck, the curb crushed his skull before I rolled him over and staked him too.

  Fuck me, I was right. Tavern was a pawn. It was me they wanted.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Tavern

  I paced back and forth at the foot of my bed. He had been gone for what felt like hours. I didn’t know why I wasted my time on him. He had made it so abundantly clear for the last three weeks that things would never progress between us, that we were done. We had fun and that was that. But the drug still coursed through my veins. Unlike normal humans, I would feel the effects of his essence long after he was gone, because like the drug I still fought, I craved him just as much. I cradled my stomach at the thought of never seeing Preacher again. Thinking of all those cheesy romances I read in my teens, the hero always saying goodbye, but knowing the woman of his dreams would be alive and safe made him sleep at night. I disagreed. It was hell being the one left behind.

  My thoughts of loss were interrupted when Preacher rapped gently on the door. “Tavern?” He asked, but made no attempt to enter without an invite. It had everything to do with manners and nothing to do with being a vampire.

  “Yeah…” I sighed, knowing that his nightly visit would be no different than every other night the last few weeks. He would check the room, the windows and make sure all was safe, before leaving me cold and alone for a restless sleep.

  Preacher entered the room and did his usual look-see before turning, pausing and looking at me. That was new as far as the nightly ritual went. He said nothing, but stood there in his remarkable beauty and looked at me, intense eyes, solid ice blue locked on all of me. “What’s going on Tavern?” He asked, and tilted his chin in question.

  Huh?

  “Meaning?”

  “I am standing in a room with some thick emotion: sadness, loss, anger, and now…tension.” He ran both hands through his hair combing it with his fingers before cupping his neck and asking again, this time more forcefully. “What’s going on Tavern? And don’t lie, because I’ll smell it.”

  Was I honestly supposed to bare my soul to him right here on the spot, because his freaky sense for emotions told him what was up? Like he d
idn’t know? I was so tired of the games with him that I couldn't have cared less to get into it with him now. “Respect me enough to figure it out on your own Preacher!” I snapped, and stormed from the room leaving him just as confused as he made me.

  But he wasn’t confused. He knew good and well what I was feeling and the cause, and like a stupid prideful man, he followed me, demanding answers. Well, I wasn’t going to be blamed for what happened next if he was dumb enough to follow me.

  He caught me and gripped his hand around my arm. “Not that fast, Bird, let's go.”

  “Just let me go, Preacher. This is bullshit. You know God damn well why I’m mad.” My voice was rising, and I knew even without yelling that the others sitting at the table in the kitchen below heard every word, but were too kind to say anything.

  He pulled me to a stop in front of his room and opened the door, ushering me in before I started screaming in the hall. He knew Cash, Leush and Bas heard it all, hell London probably did too, but there was no point in giving them the show for free. He hadn’t had me in that room since the night he left me hanging on a prayer inside of it. I was on sensory overload being here now. It only intensified my pain, incensing me further.

  After closing the door he turned to me, clearly ignoring the fact that I was now standing before his bed, the same bed he had taken me in time and time again. “What the bloody hell has gotten into you?”

  I was both shocked and annoyed at his ignorance, but I answered. “Are you seriously asking me that? Do you honestly not have a clue what I’m bothered by? I thought vamps were all knowing.”

  “I can sense your feelings, but they could be based on a million different things.” He stepped forward invading my space. “Stop the shit dammit! What’s up?”

  His ‘up’ came out like ‘oop’ and I almost lost my nerve. “Mac,” I paused using his real name hoping to drive the point home. “I just can’t take the guessing game, and the waiting game and the entirety of 'does he' or 'doesn’t he'. I can’t do this! Want me or don’t want me, but figure it out.”