Long seconds ticked by before he continued.
“We are brothers,” Death said. “Yet from the very beginning, his power exceeded mine. It never bothered me, though; we were family, after all, the only two of our kind, stronger when we acted as one entity. This world was something we dreamt up together, every creation was a triumph, but he was never satisfied. He wanted more, always something more. The shades were his clean-up crew, and I was slowly pushed into the background. I roamed the world we’d created looking for answers to his dissatisfaction until he summoned me back to his side. He’d made a breakthrough with a new creation. Something wondrous, he said, something he needed my help to perfect. Oh, to be wanted again. It felt like home.” Death chuckled but there was no warmth in the sound. “He wanted my help all right. He wanted my grace, and when I refused, he stole it from me. He took almost all of it, and he used it to breathe life into his creations. He created man’s soul, man’s humanity by using my essence. He almost killed me in the process, and fearing retribution, he banished me to a parallel realm, a pocket of existence where I could merely watch and wait and gather my strength.”
“Was that the place we pulled you from?” Bane asked.
“No. This first prison was an accursed barren land of eternal heat and dust. I survived, though. My grace rejuvenated, and I was able to break free and come looking for pieces of my essence. But by that time the few souls he had forged had procreated and become many, and my essence ... it was everywhere.” He sighed and turned to face us. “The place where you summoned me from was my new prison, a temporary holding cell and his final attempt to bind me. He made sure that I cannot remain in this world unless tethered to it, and the only way to break that curse is for me to gather my lost grace.”
“But not all human souls are made of your grace, are they?” Bane asked. “Some souls are merely recycled.”
“Yes. Even the souls belonging to me are recycled if I fail to get to them in time, but some souls do not belong to me, they evolved into being naturally over time.” He turned to face us and locked gazes with me. “You are the final piece of me.”
“Me?” My voice was a squeak.
His smile was lopsided. “If I collect your soul, I’m finally free.”
“But you didn’t ...”
“I couldn’t. Not after seeing the person you are. The empathy, the love, the compassion ...” His gaze bored into mine. “This is what we dreamed of when we created this world, but I have been locked away for so long that for a time I forgot.”
What could I say to that but, “Thank you.”
He inclined his head. “Look after yourself, Serenity, because I’m not completely selfless, and the next time you stand at death’s door, I won’t be able to resist pulling you through.”
“Noted.”
Death vanished with a smirk, probably off to lurk around the mansion and watch Marika and her Order doing Order things, which reminded me, they needed to be informed that I was okay, that the search for a solution could stop.
“I’ll speak to Marika,” Orin said, picking up on my thoughts. He left the lounge, closing the door firmly behind him.
Bane sat down heavily on the wingback. “You’re not dying.”
I couldn’t help the grin that painted my face. “I’m not dying.”
Ryker pulled me into a hug. “We should celebrate.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Rivers agreed.
Bane nodded slowly.
I looked to Drayton, and the goodbye was in his eyes.
I reached for his hand. “You can’t stay, can you?”
“No. I have to go now,” Drayton said softly.
It was pointless but the plea fell from my lips anyway. “Stay, please.”
“I can’t. I promised Xavier.” His expression was torn. “You’ll need him more than me over the next few days.” He stroked my cheek. “I’ll be back, though, once this is all over. I’ll stay for a while. I promise.”
I nodded mutely and cupped his hand against my face. “Thank you for helping.”
“I wouldn’t have known you were in danger if Xavier hadn’t told me. He practically shoved me to the surface. He was ... frantic.”
“He was?”
Drayton’s warm brown eyes held too much knowledge. “Yeah, he was.” He slid his hand from my grasp and sat back on the sofa. “See you soon, Serenity.” He tucked his chin in and when he raised it, his expression was changed—chiseled, with a brutal edge. Xavier.
“You’re all right?” He made a move toward me but caught himself just in time. “I’m glad you’re all right.” He frowned. “Although it is strange to feel this new power coursing through our body.”
Our? That was going to take some getting used to.
“Maybe we should hold off on celebrations,” Rivers said. “You should get some rest. You’ll need it now that the power is diluted.”
He was right, for the first time in what felt like forever I actually yearned for my bed. But there was so much still to be done.
Biting back a yawn, I shook my head. “No. The flock will be here soon, and we need to contact the Lupin and get them to come over. We need to plan our attack on Asher. We need to pinpoint his location and come up with a strategy to distract him enough to give Ambrosius the opening he needs.”
“If Adamah lets us,” Bane muttered.
“Then we take him down too,” Rivers said.
“No!” Bane and I said in unison.
Rivers arched a brow.
I waved a hand at Bane, indicating he should do the recap honors. The thought of doing all the talking made my jaw ache. While Bane filled the others in about Adamah and his true purpose, I snuggled into Ryker, allowing his heat to lull me into a state somewhere between waking and slumber. The voices began to melt away.
Bane cupped my shoulder. “Go to your room and take a nap. I’ll wake you when the flock and the Lupin arrive.”
A power nap was just the ticket. Extricating myself from Ryker, I climbed off the sofa just as Death materialized before me with a pop.
“What is it?”
“The Respite cemetery is under attack,” he said evenly.
Sleep took a hike.
Bane stiffened. “How do you know that?”
Death rolled his eyes. “Seriously? This is the dead we’re talking about. It’s what I do. Doris called out to me. One of her sentries saw them.”
“Doris has sentries?” Rivers pondered.
Death sighed. “She deployed them once the humans moved onto her land. Doris takes the sanctity of her land seriously, and now that the humans are in residence, she feels responsible for them, and so she had a perimeter set up.”
Just as well she did.
“Shades can’t get in,” Ryker pointed out. “And you cleared out the lost souls, so who’s attacking? The Sanguinata?”
“No,” Death said. “She said she didn’t recognize the invaders, but they are most definitely neph and they’re moving fast. They’re already a mile away from Respite.”
“Nephs? What nephs?” Ryker pressed.
Rivers responded, his face a stony mask. “I wager we’re dealing with our missing neph prisoners. Asher took them for a reason, and this must be it. I was hoping he’d simply use them as hosts for his shades, but he probably realized their worth and recruited them as is.”
Bane cursed under his breath.
“We need to capture one,” Xavier said. “Asher will have moved operations once the resistance escaped. I know the underground network pretty well and my plan was to send in scouts, but this way we can pinpoint exactly where Asher is by breaking one of the nephs he’s sent to do his dirty work and making him talk.”
“I’d be happy to,” Rivers said.
It was obvious he was referring to letting the Mind Reaper out. I shot him a warning glance but he kept his gaze fixed on Xavier, steadfastly ignoring me. Damn him and his stubborn streak. Damn him and his need to do harm.
Sod it. I’d deal with him and h
is happy, dismembering hands later. “What are we dealing with exactly?”
This time, Rivers did look at me. “Ten super-criminal nephs with psychopathic tendencies, and two of them are able to manipulate your thoughts and actions.”
Great! I glanced about. “Then what the fuck are we doing standing here and gabbing? We need to go. Right now.”
For a moment, I thought Bane would argue. That he’d push for my being left behind, but he pressed his lips together and headed for the door.
“I’ll round up the Black Wings,” he said over his shoulder.
“You can’t help,” Rivers pointed out. “You can’t be seen actively protecting humans.”
Bane stopped, hand on the door handle, shoulders bunched in tension. “Fucking hell.”
“Fucking hell indeed,” a familiar voice drawled from behind us.
I whipped round to find Michael and several other White Wings standing by the hearth. Where the heck had they come from? From the look on Ryker’s face he was wondering the exact same thing. Lilith, who’d been so silent I’d almost forgotten she was in the room, let out a soft gasp and then did her best to blend into the drapes, making herself as small as possible, but Michael’s eyes found her, and his brows shot up. The succubus stepped forward and inclined her head, her dark hair sliding forward across her pale cheeks. There was history here, a story, my gut warned, but my curiosity would have to wait for a little longer.
Bane took his time facing the White Wings. “Haven’t you heard of knocking?”
Michael smiled thinly. “We can discuss etiquette later. Right now, we need to stop these neph from descending on Respite and picking up fresh humans for Asher to use.”
Bane’s brows shot up. “Are you modifying the covenant?”
Michael shrugged. “The Powers are gone. The connection to our home is broken. We will do what we need to in order to survive this. So, yes, fuck the covenant.”
Bane’s smile was wicked and filled with the promise of pain. “In that case, like Harker said—what the fuck are we waiting for?”
Chapter 16
Bane and the winged had gone ahead to intercept the nephs and hold them off. The aim was to make sure they never reached Respite at all. I’d asked Ava to sit this one out because we needed someone at the mansion holding down the fort. The thought that this was some kind of diversion had crossed my mind, and so we’d split our forces, leaving behind enough manpower to defend our stronghold. Xavier and Orin had stayed behind too, albeit reluctantly.
Marika had insisted on coming with a few of her Order members, and there was no denying that arcane magic may come in handy in this situation. As Rivers drove crazy fast toward Respite, my mind ran through all the possible scenarios; it mapped out the terrain, looking for any way the neph could mount a sneak attack on the cemetery. Had Doris’s sentries missed anything?
Ryker gripped my thigh. “Stop it. You’ll just give yourself a headache. We won’t know until we get there.”
Shit? How could he have known what I was thinking? Was it the connection Death had made between us all with the runes? Yeah, not so sure I liked that ... But my overactive brain was already moving on to the next problem on my ever-growing mental list.
The plan to capture one of these criminal nephs was a solid one, but it would immediately put us on a clock, because as soon as Asher discovered we’d nabbed one of his men, he’d take action to protect himself against an attack. We just had to hope we could extract the information fast enough to pin Asher in.
We careened onto the slip road that led to the hill, and the night was suddenly filled with chaos. Figures zipped between the trees up ahead; they crisscrossed the road, attempting to avoid attack from above. The winged were doing their thing.
Rivers swerved and brought the van to a sharp halt by the side of the road. The Protectorate in the back fell forward in a heap, but then the doors were being flung open and they were rushing out to do some damage at ground level.
Ryker jumped out and I followed. Thank goodness for great night vision, because with the canopy of trees encroaching on the slip road, the moon’s silver fingers barely brushed the ground. Illumination was sparse, and I had to check myself several times to avoid braining an ally. Despite the winged intervention, the threat was moving toward Respite fast. We’d be there in minutes at this rate.
Shit. The plan wasn’t working. How were we failing to stop ten nephs when our forces were so large? The answer hit me from the side a moment later as claws dug into my arm and teeth gnashed inches from my face. Fucking rippers! They’d brought scourge along as backup. A blast of white light tore the ripper’s face off and then Marika was hauling me up off of the ground.
“They’ve reached the cemetery gates!” someone shouted.
We broke into a sprint, with Marika clearing a path with her super cool power blasts. Scourge went flying out of the way, and then Ryker was by my side, his sword clinging to his back as he used his body as a shield against anything that would attack us from the side. The winged were already up ahead at the gates, and a shimmer of souls lined the ground directly beyond the wrought iron railings while fireflies wreathed the top of the gates in an angry horde. The White Wings landed outside the entrance, wings spread wide in defense, just as the scourge attacked, urged by the mammoth nephs who had not long ago been MPD prisoners.
The next few moments were a blur of attack, defend, and attack. Ryker remained close, acting like my shadow as we fought the large, almost feral nephs. These guys had been in slumber for decades, and they were pissed. You’d think they’d be weak from hunger, limbs atrophied from lack of movement, but no, whatever runes Rivers had used had preserved them in peak condition. Only ten against at least thirty, but shit did they put up a fight. MPD went flying, and to my left a couple turned on each other. Fuck! Rivers had said a few of these criminals could manipulate thoughts.
Ryker was already running toward the couple who’d been mind manipulated. Confident that he’d sort them out, I focused on the fight, looking for a break where my skills would be of use, and there it was, two MPD on one monolith neph, his teeth bared as he grappled with them both, gaining the upper hand easily. He hauled them both up by their necks, where they dangled like useless twigs a foot off the ground.
I made a move toward the cluster, but a hand clamped itself on the back of my neck and yanked me back. My vision bled from moonlight to crimson, and a voice echoed in my head.
“Your allies are your enemies. Kill them all.”
For a moment, his words made complete sense; they struck a chord of conviction in my chest, and my hands tightened on the hilts of my daggers, ready to do some damage.
Not true. Not true. My daimon’s words were like a slap, knocking me back into the driver’s seat of my consciousness. The crimson haze receded, and my mind was once again my own. Adjusting my grip on the dagger, I slammed it backward into my assailant’s thigh. His scream was epic as he released me to tend to his wound, and a laugh exploded from my lips. Damn, he sounded like a girl.
His green eyes narrowed with the promise of pain. “How the fuck did you do that?”
I raised the dagger. “Happy to demonstrate on your other thigh.”
He growled and made a run at me, but I was ready, sliding out of the way and slashing with my blades, opening up a crimson line across his abdomen.
Alive, we need him alive.
Yeah, but that didn’t mean I had to play nice.
“Harker!” Bane landed between me and the neph, kicking up dust and slamming me with a gust of air that had me stumbling backward. His wings tucked in and then he charged the neph. They collided with equal force, neither willing to give an inch, but the stalemate was broken a moment later when Michael landed at the neph’s back, his white wings glinting where the silvery rays of the moon caught them. He grabbed the neph around the neck with a bicep and the neph dropped back against him, his eyes fluttering closed.
Bane stepped away with a satisfied smirk playing on h
is face. Around us, the battle had wound down. Two nephs lay dead on the ground. The rest were gone, but we had a live one, and we needed to work fast if we were going to get the answers we needed.
***
The carpet in the lounge should have been threadbare with the amount of pacing it had been subjected to, and I was adding to it, hands on hips, chest churning with conflict. Bane, Ryker, Orin, Xavier, and Cassie kept me company because Rivers was with the neph we’d caught. Rivers was going to become the Mind Reaper to get us what we wanted, and there was nothing I could do about it because we needed this information. I’d known this would happen, known it but pushed it to the back of my mind because it went against everything I’d promised myself. I’d told Rivers that I accepted him, Mind Reaper and all, so this was the time to show him I’d meant what I’d said, but standing back and letting him succumb to that dark part of him was harder than expected, especially when his discomfort was communicating itself to me through our new bond. He was disgusted, compelled, and filled with sorrow, but all that was overshadowed by a twisted sense of glee that could only be the Mind Reaper. A shudder rippled over me. I was connected to the Mind Reaper too ...
“Okay, I can’t do this.” I headed for the door.
“Harker....” Bane’s tone had me halting with my hand on the doorknob.
“Urgh. Bane ...”
“You know how this works.”
I stepped away from the door and plonked my butt on the nearest sofa. “How much longer?”
“How long is a piece of string?” Cassie asked.
She wasn’t being difficult, her tone was tired, exhausted, but the urge to snap at her had me biting the insides of my cheeks.
The doorbell chose that moment to chime, and Orin left the lounge to answer it. He returned a moment later with Gregory in tow. Okay, good. The Lupin were here. We finally had the manpower required to mount an attack. All we needed now was a location to hit, and that was exactly what Rivers was getting for us. Worth it, it would be worth it.
Gregory’s gaze fell on me. “Serenity, are you okay?”
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