When you were going to do something shady, it was always a good idea to stay away from the places someone would be looking for you. So my hometown was out, but no one would be looking for me in Phoenix. The last place any Wildcat wanted to end up was in ASU territory. “We’re going to Tempe.”
“Hell yeah. Hot babes in the desert.”
That was Marcus. He kind of had a one-track mind. We rounded the corner into the next hallway, and he quickly opened a portal to our destination. Strictly speaking, we were on lockdown and not allowed to go anywhere unless it was on a mission. Today we were breaking the rules, but it had to be done.
Oh man, I could feel the chills going up my spine even as the dry desert heat washed over me. I was really going to do this. We stepped out onto Mill Avenue, ASU central. Just the thought of it made me sick. Marcus tapped me on the shoulder as some girls walked by. For him, this must have been more like heaven.
We watched the girls continue down the street, and then turned up the tree-lined street ourselves. We passed a crazy-looking place called the Mellow Mushroom. If a neon yellow mushroom eating a slice of pizza wasn’t enough to get you in the door, then the smells wafting out of the building sure were. The place smelled like baked love covered in cheese.
Damn, this entire street was lined with nothing but shops and restaurants. No wonder it was so packed. With my new metabolism, this was exactly the kind of place I needed to be. I could move down the street, eating my way into a food coma. Marcus thought I was here to buy some makeup gifts, though, so we needed to do some shopping first. I also had no idea when Stillman would contact me. Getting off campus had been the easy part. Now I had to wait.
I took out my phone and fired off a quick text to Stillman, letting him know where I was. Maybe this location would work. If not, I would have to find some way to have Marcus open a portal for me to wherever Stillman wanted me to meet him. That was going to be tricky, but I was pretty sure I could do it.
Slipping the phone back into my pocket, I turned to my best friend. “Let’s hit a few stores and then grab a bite at that pizza place.”
“I’m all about it, man.”
We spent the next few hours going in and out of shops along the strip. I found a few things for April and a few things for myself. If the day wasn’t going to end with me in Stillman’s clutches, I would have felt a lot better about it. We finished up our last few stops, and I took a moment to reattach Marcus’s jaw as he stared at a gaggle of college girls walking by, and then we headed for pizza.
When we walked into the shop, I got a text. One of my men will meet you there in ten minutes. My stomach rolled over, and I felt a small bout of panic wash over me. This was it, the point of no return. Once I made this choice, it could change everything. When Adam found out I was working with Stillman, he could brand me a traitor, and I might never be allowed back. If that happened, who knew how things would play out between me and April.
I ordered a slice of pizza and a side of pretzel bites. When we sat down, it was all I could do to try and act normal. Marcus didn’t seem to notice that anything was up. His eyes were focused on the people walking by the window as we ate. I managed to eat a few bites of my pizza, but my nerves were winning that battle.
A text scrolled across the edge of my phone. One of my men will be waiting for you by the bathroom.
Well, damn, Stillman was efficient if nothing else. I shouldered my backpack really quick, leaving behind the purchases I had made for April. Marcus barely looked away from the stream of people outside. “Bathroom,” I said as I walked by. His dreads bounced gently as he nodded and turned back toward his pizza.
Just as I was approaching the bathroom, a man came out and stopped in front of me. “So what’s the plan?” I asked. I was ready to get out of here before Marcus noticed something was up.
A wicked grin flashed across his face. He opened up his coat, revealing a gun. “You’re coming with us.”
I started to laugh. Bullets wouldn’t do much of anything against my shield. Then I felt something slam into the back of my head. The man reached out and caught me as I fell, and then everything went black.
WHEN I CAME TO, I was being dragged across the street toward a black SUV. What in the fuck was Stillman thinking? I called this meeting. I would have just followed these guys out of the restaurant, and then everything would have gone so much smoother. The man dragging me was about to get a real big surprise.
His buddy turned and ran for the car, opening the rear door and then hopping behind the wheel. I kept the dead weight thing going but started to mumble and reach up with my hands. As soon as he tried to bat my hand down, I clamped onto his wrist and pulled him forward. When my other hand closed over his arm, it was easy enough to snap his wrist.
The man fell away from me screaming, and his friend with the grin jumped out of the SUV and started shooting. My shield deflected all the bullets, but people around us started to notice what was going on. One man was screaming, and another was shooting at us as we lay on the ground. I was bleeding from a wound on the back of my head. I had to admit it wouldn’t have looked that good to anyone passing by. We didn’t have long before the police made an appearance, and that was the last thing I needed.
Marcus ran out of the pizza shop, and I felt his magic wash over me. He was pissed, and this wasn’t going to end well. The man with the gun turned to face Marcus, firing off several shots. Marcus stopped the bullets midflight and sent them right back at the man. His body shook as the four bullets entered him in rapid succession. He fell to the ground, and I could see where the bullets had ripped through his body and into the SUV behind him.
Idiot number two with the broken wrist wasn’t much smarter. He reached into his jacket for a gun. Before he could reach it, I hit him with a vicious uppercut. You could see the moment when the light went out of his eyes, and he fell to the ground in a heap. I turned back to look at Marcus and could tell that he wasn’t done yet. He wanted to hurt the man further. I stepped between them, getting him to focus on me.
“Who the fuck are these guys, Jackson?”
“It doesn’t matter. We have to get our stuff and bail. We can’t be here when the cops come.” A siren started up somewhere in the distance. Thank God it did, because it snapped Marcus back into action. He started running across the road. I gave the SUV one last look and then started to follow him.
The building in front of us blew up. That was the end of the Mellow Mushroom. Marcus flew backward and slammed into the bullet-riddled SUV. His shield had protected him, but he was still unconscious. His pulse was still strong. At least he was alive. If my mistake in trying to get Stillman’s help had cost him his life, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.
I bent over and was about to put Marcus onto my shoulders when a black car slid around the corner. It came to a screeching stop in front of me. The door was pushed open from the inside, and a man shouted out, “Leave him. We have to go now.”
It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, leaving my friend lying on the ground unconscious, but I needed to see this through. I just added another crime to the growing list that Stillman already had to answer for. If I made it back from hell, I swore to myself that he would pay. I grabbed my bag off the ground and jumped in the car. We were speeding away before my door even closed.
I looked at the driver, and he just gave me a smile and punched the gas down even further. For better or worse, I was on my way to meet the last person who could help me save my father. This had to work. I’d risked too much to get here, to fail now.
CHAPTER 5
STILLMAN
“So, you finally have him?” I had to ask because the level of incompetence my men had shown today was mindboggling. The boy wanted to come to me. Why would you try and kidnap him? Sometimes you just couldn’t find good help. The one person I would have normally sent couldn’t go on this particular mission. Jackson might have recognized him from the day his parents died. That meant I was stuck w
ith the dregs, and now it was going to cost me.
“I do.”
“Good. Give me an hour or two to get things ready and then bring him in.”
“You got it, boss.”
I still wasn’t sure how we ended up with such a clusterfuck on our hands. Blowing up a building in downtown Tempe wasn’t in the plan I laid out. The men who worked for me had to be better than that. Obviously the two I initially sent weren’t up to the task. The only good news was that I wouldn’t have to reprimand one of them. Jackson’s friend had taken care of that for me.
As if I needed this now. It was enough that I was risking Adam’s wrath to help this kid, but I owed him at least a small favor for what happened to his father. I would never be able to fix that mistake, but I wasn’t willing to risk what I was building for this kid either. Already this favor had cost me more than it should have. Bribes had to be paid out to keep what happened there quiet. It took a lot of money and more than a few wiped memories, but the men I sent in to fix it should have it under control.
The remaining man who screwed up so badly was waiting for me now. He might have failed at his job this afternoon, but now he had an important role to play. I pulled the book out that opened the secret panel in my study. The classic duplicity of the door still brought me great pleasure. Not many people had seen my inner sanctuary; at least not many who had made it back out again.
The man was where I had left him bound and gagged. When he saw me enter the room, he started to strain against his bonds, and I could hear him crying out. I didn’t need to be able to make out the noises to know exactly what he was saying. I didn’t do it, I’m sorry, or please, I won’t mess up again. All of it was pointless blather at this point. He had made a huge mistake, and that couldn’t be left unpunished. The other men who worked for me needed to know there were consequences for their actions. The worse the screw up, the worse the punishment.
When I smiled down at the man, he started to pull harder against the restraints. Apparently my smile wasn’t as comforting as it could have been. I started to strip away his clothes with precise cuts of the scissors. I stripped him like they would in the emergency room when you needed surgery. When he was naked and shivering with fear on the ground, I picked him up and moved him to the altar.
Frankly he wasn’t much of a sacrifice. He didn’t have the kind of courage needed to be special, and I doubted he was a virgin. Although he must have heard the stories, because he strained against his bonds until my eyes fell on him again. Moving forward, I made the last few adjustments to his position and then moved off to the side of the room.
There I began to strip away all of my own clothes. Once I was naked, I stepped into my containment circle and started the ritual. The words flowed seamlessly from my mouth and built in rhythm and power until the room started to glow with it. Only then did I cast out my magic to hit the lever by the altar.
The guillotine released and fell, taking the man’s head off in one clean strike. His blood flowed into the basin and started to fill in the symbols etched into the stone. I felt all of this more than I saw it. My mind was still wholly focused on the words. They tumbled through my mouth with the regularity that was only learned by familiarity. I had cast this ritual thousands of times over the years. It had become ingrained in my subconscious, almost a memory instead of conscious thought. The words continued until I reached the final line.
“I summon you to serve at my request. Come to me, Salina.”
The ground shook briefly, and then a portal ripped open across the room. My worker’s body was sucked through the portal, and a moment later, the creamy red flesh of a leg slipped through a portal. I didn’t know how else to describe her beautiful skin. She was pale red, and it was glorious. She teased me for a moment as her arm came through the opening next. Then her perfect body slipped into the room, and the portal behind her closed. It took me a moment to recover from seeing her perfect nude form. Then I rose to my feet and embraced her.
Her lips pulled into a smile against my neck. She was happy to see me. My heart did a little pitter patter as she stroked her finger against the back of my hand. She broke our embrace and smiled at me. I would have given up the entire world to keep her here forever. It was something that I couldn’t accomplish, so instead I chose to relish our time together.
When her eyes met mine, I knew she was happy to see me. The look in them also told me that she required something from me. I knew the game we played, how we danced around the rules that bound us to each other. I would do whatever she asked as long as it was in my power.
“I’m afraid that I can’t stay long.” She sighed, walking across the chamber toward the lavish four-poster bed in the corner.
“Words I never like to hear.”
“Business before pleasure,” she purred, patting the bed next to her. “I have something that I need you to do for me.”
I tried to control my eagerness as I walked toward the bed, but it was readily apparent if you were looking for it. She always had this effect on me. It was as if she was my drug of choice and I was hopelessly addicted. “Tell me what it is, my—” She placed a finger on my lips before I could say the word. Her flat black eyes looked back at me as she savored the words I longed to say. They say demons can’t feel, but I knew that it was a lie. I could see the feeling sparkling in the blackness of her eyes.
“The boy who is coming here has a request. You will honor it. Summon me, and I will take him where he wishes to go. I also require one more thing from you. I will need your servant Antovious.”
So this meeting was about the boy. How was it after so many years of being trapped in hell, John and his family line still found a way to vex me? She turned my head away from those thoughts and kissed me. It was deep and full of longing. My head spun for a moment. All I wanted was to be inside of her. But why did she need Antovious?
She smiled, turning my thoughts away from her request and back toward her body. “As I said, I don’t have much time. Would you like to waste what little remains thinking or screwing?”
“I will do everything you requested.” As soon as the words left my mouth, her lips found mine, and she ran her fingers through my hair. Her fingers burned slightly where she touched me, and the pain turned into pleasure as she trailed her hands lower. She took me into her hand, and I let out a gasp. Salina always had that kind of effect on me.
She fell into my arms, and the world seemed to slow for a moment. When I entered her, it was painful and pleasurable all at once. The sensations she brought out of my body broke me time and again. We moved together as one until she cried out in ecstasy. As we disentangled, she gave me a sad smile. I held her hand as she faded slowly away.
One of these days I would find a way to release her, or to make her mine. Until then, our time together would always be limited.
WHEN JACKSON ENTERED THE ROOM, I was seated at my desk. I didn’t bother to get up. He had made it clear that we weren’t friends, and he was coming to me for help. So I sat there and watched him until he finally slumped into a seat. I wasn’t going to break the ice. This was his show. He would either tell me what he wanted, or he wouldn’t.
“What the fuck was that, Stillman? Two of your guys show up and try and kidnap me, and then they blew up a fucking pizza shop.”
Ah, how it felt to be young. Letting your emotions run roughshod over your sensibilities. How I missed that sometimes. Swinging my feet off of the desk, I leaned back into my chair, never taking my eyes off the smoldering look that he had in his. “The men responsible for that have been punished.”
“I can’t believe I trusted you even for a second. My best friend was lying there in the street when I left.”
“One of my agents made sure that he made it to a hospital. The rest of the mess has been taken care of. At a great expense, I might add.”
“I could give two shits about the expense. It was your men who did it. Fuck if I know why. I would have just walked out to the car with them. Instead, one of them
hit me over the head from behind.”
No wonder the whole thing went to shit. I still had no idea why one of them tried to blow up the building. The entire mess didn’t make any sense, but I wasn’t about to explain myself to this kid no matter who his father was. “As I said, they’ve been punished. Now I think it’s time you told me why you’re here.”
He sat there trying to kill me with his eyes. I might have found it slightly intimidating if he wasn’t so young. He reminded me a lot of his father. His father John, was a fierce warrior, and I had fought by his side more than once. Having his son here now was interesting to say the least. Salina told me that I had to help him, so I would. Now I just had to wait until he told me just what I’d be helping him with.
Finally he looked down to the ground. He was trying to decide what to say or maybe how much to tell me. It was interesting to watch the emotions play across his face. Whatever he was going to tell me was going to be of great importance to him, of that I had no doubt. He looked up and met my eyes again. Then he said the words I had been waiting to hear.
“I need to get into hell.”
So that is why Salina told me to summon her when the boy was ready. She still didn’t tell me why she needed Antovious. All she said was that she would come to collect him after she had the boy. As much as I didn’t want to lose one of my favorite tools, in giving him to Salina, he would still serve a purpose. Even if I had balked, eventually she would get what she wanted. We both knew when it came down to it that I would never deny her anything.
“Jackson, as much as I want to help you, this seems like a mistake.” I couldn’t let him know that I had every intention of handing him over to my demon.
“I know the risks. That is why I’m here alone.”
“At least tell me why?”
When he looked at me, his eyes burned with fire. It was the same kind of anger and stubbornness that I had seen in his father’s gaze throughout the years. “My reasons are my own.”
The Rising Darkness (Ascendancy Legacy 5) Page 4