I squeezed his hand and the same energy his kind possessed shot through my skin at his touch. “How could I forget about one of my favorite angels?”
His eyes narrowed when he took in the tense atmosphere of the others in our group. “But I assume you didn’t call me here for a social reason.”
“We don’t need him,” Darius said in a gravelly voice.
“There’s no call to be rude,” Laith said, moving to my side. “But Ava, this is not his job. A pre-mortal angel is called to other important work.”
Aaron’s eyes narrowed. “What’s this about?”
After a brief explanation, Aaron combed his fingers through his hair. “They’re right, Ava. There’s not much I can do, except—”
“But you can at least keep an eye on them,” I interrupted, impatiently. “Let us know if they’re in danger. I’m not asking you to fight our battles.”
He rubbed the line of his jaw with his thumb. “Yes. I can keep an eye on them. I’ll let you know if they’re in trouble.”
“Thank you,” I said. Aaron nodded, and then he was gone.
Darius took me by the shoulder. His eyes delved into mine. “I said I didn’t need him.”
I brushed away his touch. “You left me no choice.” In a huff, I jumped into the back of the truck and closed the umbrella, allowing the drizzle of rain to wash away my frustration. I ignored Darius the rest of the way back, enraged that he would even dare think to leave me behind.
By the time we got to the compound, I had cooled off marginally, but not enough. Darius left to change while the rest of us went to the center of the pitch. The sanctuary’s moon, no longer hidden by clouds in our own little Eden, glowed so bright that it lit up the courtyard, giving the area an eerie look. I sat down on the steps, pulled off my boots, and threw them to the side in a heap.
Fiona sat next to me. “It was a smart idea to call your preemie. Darius is lucky to have you.”
I tugged my hair from its high ponytail, letting it fall around my shoulders. “Darius is an idiot.”
Fiona tsked. She combed through my long tresses and tucked a rogue strand of hair behind my ears. “Far from it, darling, and you know it. Darius is protecting you, so don’t be too discouraged. Cedric and Aaron will keep your future mate from harm.”
I did my best to ignore her comment about him being my future mate. “Would you truly be okay with this decision if you were me?”
“Ah, but you see, we are very different. Cedric and I are different. So different that at times it’s better for us to be apart so we can remember why we’re together. This won’t be the same for you.” She laid the flat of her palm over my chest. “Right now, your heart feels like it’s breaking in two. I can feel it as well. This is not a wound I can fix, but I can suggest a remedy to subdue the pain.”
She released her hand, and my heart felt even more empty. “Go, Ava. Give your temporary Guardian a proper farewell instead of pouting out here like a jaded girlfriend.”
I almost cried, irrationally so, when I thought of him leaving and never coming back. Fiona was right. I jumped from my seat on the stair and ran down the dimly lit hallways.
Darius was just shutting his door when I came to our rooms. Confusion and then concern darkened his expression, but before he could speak, I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him, muffling his surprise. A second later, he gathered me even closer, returning my enthusiasm in equal measure. I clung to him in desperation, frustrated at the space that still distanced us.
Too soon, someone cleared their throat behind us… then again. Darius pulled away, but his fiery gaze didn’t leave mine.
“We’re ready,” Cedric said with barely contained humor in his tone.
Darius nodded. He kissed my cheek, his breath warm against my skin. “I love you, you know?” But I could only nod. “I’ll be back, Ava. As soon as I can.”
I closed my eyes, fighting the tears that threatened as I gracefully slid from his arms. I adjusted my clothes and pinned Cedric with a bold stare. “Take care of him.”
Cedric studied my expression. “Of course.”
Hours later, I paced my room in my pajama shorts and tank top. Sleep had once again evaded me, and now the sun was just peeking over the horizon. We had moved the sanctuary to a private beach several hours’ drive away from where Darius’s mother was supposedly hiding. Darius and Cedric had left immediately after.
Frustration ate at my insides. I wanted to climb the walls of my room. Instead I grabbed my shoes and took off into the fields. I ran to the end of the orchards and towards the sanctuary archway, then halted. Pure beauty radiated from the other side of the veil as I looked out into an oceanic scene. The sun crested the water. Not a soul had yet touched the wave-combed sand of the beach. I kicked off my shoes and stepped from the veil. A crisp breeze blew my hair into my face and sent a delicious shiver up my spine.
This was not England, but the weather was heavy with thick moisture. The sunlight shimmered upon the surf and reflected on the breaking waves. I turned a circle. A line of thick palm trees hid me from view. I pressed outward, searching for signs of others watching—for demonic or mortal souls alike, but felt totally alone.
Without an additional thought I ran the few yards, then dove. I broke through the surface and gasped as the frigid temperature of the water threatened to steal my breath, then dove again beneath a growing swell. Time and time again, I fought against the waves that crashed into my body, appreciating the natural strength and rhythm of the ocean’s power. When I finally resurfaced, pleasure pressed against me, but not only of my own. I jolted upward and frantically wiped the salty water from my face.
Violet sat in the sand with her legs outstretched. She leaned back upon her hands, a picture of ease—as if she’d been watching me the whole time.
“Violet?” I sputtered. “How—how did you get here?”
“I felt you go, but you weren’t with the others.”
I peered over my shoulder. My soul ached not to leave my newfound peace, but I had to. I didn’t belong in the outside world any longer. “You felt me leave?”
“You worried me. And someone else was forced to bring my breakfast. They didn’t bring me a book.”
Cold nipped at my skin through my wet clothes, but I pushed through the waves, ringing the water from my shirt.
“I’m sorry,” I said mindlessly.
“You’ve been doing that a lot lately.” A hint of irritation marred her usually sweet tone. “Do you not remember our bargain?”
I did, in fact, remember, but that was before the recent conversation with Hepzibah, Selina, and Silicas.
Have you asked her about the night of your mother’s death?
Already the level of betrayal had been great. First Nikolaos deceived and abandoned my mother. The doctor poisoned me as a babe, unintentionally making my mother sick. My father took me from the only family I had left and hid me. Charlotte switched places with a demon to kill me so she could become the Defender. Zane let in another.
The list seemed to grow, and I was unsure I wanted to know anymore.
“Will you please tell me what I did wrong?” Violet asked.
“What makes you think it has anything to do with you?” I asked, staring out into the waves. “I’ve been a little busy.”
“No one would understand that more than me, my little one, but that is not the reason you’ve been avoiding me.” Silence stretched out between us. “Rumor has it that you were visited by three coven witches.”
“Rumor has it, huh?”
“As well as had a discussion with our friends in the Demon’s Eye.”
I speared Violet with a look. “For someone who’s supposed to be in the compound prison, you sure do know a lot.”
She shrugged. “I pay attention.”
“No,” I said, digging a sea shell from the sand. “You like to leave your cell in the middle of the night and spy.”
Violet huffed, hiding a smile. “I noticed you haven’t sai
d anything to the others about that.”
“What am I supposed to say?”
“Then at least you still trust me.”
“Do I?” I released a heavy sigh. “Maybe you can tell me what happened on the night of my mother’s death. The demons within the Eye seem to think you had something to do with that.”
If she was shocked, she didn’t show it. She scanned the glowing horizon, light reflected in the dark pools of her eyes. “I’m not sure it’s the wisest thing to be out here for too long. While I do not sense any foul entities, Darius should have as much time as he needs to retrieve his mother.”
I shook my head, no longer surprised at her knowledge.
“Is there another traitor at the compound, Violet? Is Hector giving you all of this information?”
She stood and wiped the sand from her shorts. “Hector is no traitor. He is wonderful and has never given me information that would jeopardize my sweet girl.”
I bit down on my lip, not sure how to respond to her new way of thinking of me.
She held out her hand. “A demon can leave your sanctuary, but I still need your blessing to enter.” I sighed and reached for her. She lifted my weight with ease, then pulled me closer, wrapping her arm around mine. “I have missed you, my Ava.”
We passed through the veil. Its protective shield dropped over us like a shroud, and Violet hummed a tune. “These orchards are so like that place we were stuck in for so long. Your mother loved these trees and would often rest beneath these boughs for hours. I feel it appropriate that the sanctuary would grow its own orchard to remember the place my Rachel died. A true gift.”
She examined a leaf and smiled, but that smile faded when a thought seemed to take hold. “Your mother was sick, you know. It became too dangerous for her to do her calling and be out of the sanctuary. With The Three unable to move the veil we were exposed. The others did what they could—”
“I’ve heard all of this, Violet,” I said, kicking at the dirt on the ground. “But what did you have to do with it?”
She shuddered. “For the longest time, I thought it was you that was causing her sickness. I was right, but I had no idea it was because of the doctor. Your mother had suffered so much. Nikolaos and his obsession and later betrayal. Rachel almost died when his essence was ripped from her, that bastard. Then the struggle of finding a new Guardian and mate, but Alexander quickly became a parasite at her side: pathetic, needy.”
“Violet.”
She stopped. “Yes, dear?”
“That was my father.”
She smiled warmly and placed a hand along my cheek. “I know, darling, but don’t worry. You didn’t inherit his weaknesses.”
I took her hand from my face. “That’s not…” I shook my head. “Never mind.”
Violet nodded. “The Demon’s Eye pestered her daily. Hepzibah wanted her to tell The Three about them, but Rachel was nervous they wouldn’t accept the truth, and with good reason.”
I waved a hand to stop her. “Wait a minute. Hepzibah was angry, furious, when I brought them to the last meeting with the coven witches.”
Violet laughed. “Well, of course she was. You didn’t ask her to come to the meeting. You ordered her to, and you did so without pomp and ceremony. She likes to make an entrance.”
I rolled my eyes. “I can see that.”
“Hepzibah’s extremely self-serving. She didn’t care that Rachel wasn’t in her right mind with how sick she was. I told her to go to hell.”
“You can talk to them?”
“Of course I can. That doesn’t mean they’ll listen. I needed to get Rachel out.”
“Out?”
“Away from the others, from your suffocating father, from the Demon’s Eye. I had someone nearby with a vehicle.
“You took her from the sanctuary?”
Violet pinned me with a sharp glare. “They were doing nothing for her—killing her through inactivity. I wouldn’t stand for it. She kept saying she heard this child call to her. I tricked your mother into believing the child was waiting on the outside. I tricked her into taking off the Demon’s Eye, certain that Hepzibah and her comrades would give her grief when she left the sanctuary to get the babe. It was all planned. I got her outside and hid her against a tree. I ran for the truck that had been left for our escape, but when I returned...”
I exhaled a deep breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “What happened?”
12
A Blessing Upon You
“Everything... and nothing.” Violet’s black eyes stared out into the orchards, and an eerie calm settled over her. “I missed it.”
She crouched down and stretched out a hand as if the scene she pictured in her mind were real. “A baby lay still in her arms. Charlotte. I couldn’t tell if it had survived, and I wouldn’t touch it to find out, but I could tell Rachel had tried to fight—to protect the babe. Her knife was still in her hand, her clothes covered in her blood. My love, my very reason for living… dead. I couldn’t—”
“Violet?” I took a step closer, but I was too afraid to wake her from whatever trance she was in.
“I—I can still see her eyes staring at me.” Her head twitched twice as if trying to force an unwanted image from her mind. “I had to get away. They had failed her. They all had failed my Rachel. I couldn’t stay.” Violet wrapped her hands around her knees and rocked back and forth to the rhythm of her misery.
My heart thudded within my chest, both angry and broken at the same time. I hesitantly placed my hand on her shoulder, not knowing how to comfort my mother’s demon.
Violet shuddered at my touch. “I am the real reason she died.” She gripped at the fabric at her chest. “I killed her. Brought her out here and into the very hands of the Annihilator.”
“Did you—did you see her? The Annihilator?” I asked.
“Of course not. That beast is a slippery evil. She wouldn’t dare to face me alone. I’d tear her skin from her bones.” She shot up from the ground, so quickly that I took several steps away. She eyed my reaction with heightened curiosity. “So now you know the whole truth. Will you shun me as you should?”
I deposited Violet back in her cell. My clothes, halfway dried, hung oddly on my chilled skin. Fatigue now drained me of almost all energy as I trudged toward my home and my awaiting bed. No, I wouldn’t shun Violet. She had only tried to protect my mother—again proving she cared for my mother more than I thought possible of a demon—but did that mean I could trust her? I still wasn’t sure.
Fiona met me outside the complex. She scanned my appearance, one brow raised high. “I was hoping you’d meet with me before dinner. I have something I want to go over, but it can wait until you… change.”
I smothered a groan and lumbered inside. A short time later, I stood outside the infirmary with Fiona and her witch protégée, Gayle.
Fiona smiled warmly at me. “I don’t think the two of you have been properly introduced.” She guided me with a gentle hand upon my back.
I fought the instinct to skirt away from her touch like a petulant child.
“Ava, this is Gayle, Manchester’s coven leader and president to the European district.”
“For now,” she said with a slight bow. “Elections are in a few weeks and I’m barely in the running. Roslyn dominates the board. Your introductions are unnecessary, Defender. We know so much about you already.” She extended a hand. The same faceted blue-speckled stone adorned her wrist in the center of its sterling silver cuff bracelet.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it,” she said, pulling back her hand. She tucked the jewel beneath her long-sleeved shirt and out of sight.
“What is it?” I asked.
A strange shadow crossed over her features. “It’s Lapis Lazuli.”
Fiona cleared her throat. “Gayle’s coven believes that certain stones have special powers.”
Gayle’s calm demeanor snapped. “You know very well that they do.” Her face turned red. She licked her lips and swallowed har
d. “Forgive me, Mother.” Fiona’s brows raised but she only looked away. Gayle touched the stone. “Lapis Lazuli is known for its protective powers. I use it in hopes of preserving my coven. My sisters.”
The muscles between my brows pulled together. “From what?”
“You think you’re the only one that fights against darkness?”
“Gayle was also a close friend of your mother,” Fiona said in a clear effort to change the subject.
My brows shot up. “Really?”
“For many years.” Gayle’s chocolate brown eyes considered me. “She was an amazing woman. I wished she would have joined our ranks. Perhaps you will one day.”
“Your other friend won’t be joining us, will she?” I asked. I didn’t think I could handle another round with Jonathan’s lovely bride.
Gayle waved a dismissive hand. “Roslyn is busy with her campaign, but I assume you mean Bailey. She has… disappeared.”
“Should we be worried? Do you need me to—”
She shook her head. “It’s not unusual for a witch or warlock to disappear for a time. We have no reason to think foul-play, but we’ll keep you apprised of her situation when we’re made aware.”
Fiona unlocked the door to Dr. Maynes’s old room, opening it wide for us to pass. The smell of disinfectant and other cleaning agents filled my senses. I fought the desire to turn around and leave. The last time I had been in the doctor’s examining room, he had stabbed my leg to prove I was immortal. Jitters creeped up my spine and neck.
The office was still immaculately clean. The room was bright and open and decorated precisely as he had left it.
“This chamber should be blessed before you pass it along to another member,” Gayle said as she scanned the bedroom and office.
Fiona stood in the corner near the door, her arms crossed over her chest. Irritation dulled her light brown eyes.
Gayle held up her hands in surrender. “I mean no disrespect, but your grandson’s room is an energy vat of anger, depression, and regret. You will need it removed to stop transferal.”
Personal Warriors: Book 3 in the Personal Demons series Page 12