by Ivy Sinclair
I was more than a little grateful that I couldn't remember the swim. It took over a year after my accident before Benjamin had been able to coerce me to get back into the water. Although I had no recollection of actually being in the water during my accident, I still had nightmares about being adrift in the middle of a huge body of water all alone. I was sure some therapist would have a field day with that.
"Are you all right?" His voice had a harsh edge to it. He seemed to be barely keeping his emotions in check.
"How'd we get here? I think that I must have passed out," I said, putting a hand to my head, almost expecting to feel the sticky evidence that I had once again hit my head. A sharp crack of pain lit up the inside of my skull, and I sucked in a quick breath. It had been a long time since I had this kind of headache. I ran my fingertips through my hair across the rest of my skull, but I felt only the slight bump of the old ridge where my previous stitches once resided. There was no new wound to have caused the pain.
Riley was looking at me in a strange way that made me wonder if there was something else that I was missing. It occurred to me that he might be frustrated that he had to drag me to shore while getting away from the demons. It seemed that no matter what I tried to do, I put Riley in harm's way. Being around me was dangerous. I sat up straighter peering over Riley's shoulder at the water's edge.
"Do we need to move?" I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. "Are they still out there?"
A shadow passed over Riley's face then. He put his hand up to cover mine where it rested against my temple. "No. At least not at the moment." The response was curt. "Is there something wrong with your head?"
I winced even though his touch was gentle. "I think I might have hit it on the rocks getting to shore."
Riley shook his head. "I made sure that didn't happen."
That left only one explanation that made sense. "I used to get migraines a lot after the accident," I said. "I haven't had one for a long time though. I thought they were gone for good. If this pain is any indication, I'm about to get a whooper one though. It must be the stress of running for my life for the last two days. I'm sorry, Riley. I don’t think I’m going to be much use to you pretty soon, as if I've been any help at all."
"You said you knew of somewhere we can go." Riley stood up and offered me his hand. "It's going to be daylight soon. We'll be easier to find then, so we should find cover. Daylight won't slow Bruno down, and it's just a matter of time before he figures out a way to track us over here."
I'd forgotten that I told Riley that I knew a place to hide. At least my ability to help with that gave me a little comfort that I wasn't completely useless. I let him haul me to my feet. "Sure, it's this way." The small gesture of cocking my thumb behind me caused another throb of pain to cut through my head. I felt my knees start to buckle even as I moaned, and Riley swept me up into his arms before I could say anything else. I didn't have any protest left in me.
"Just tell me where to go," he whispered against the top of my head. "I've got you."
I felt small and vulnerable in his arms, but being pressed up against his chest was heavenly. I didn't even mind when my cheek rested against his damp shirt. Against my slightly feverish skin, it felt nice.
"Go straight inland about a quarter of a mile. There's a path. You can't miss it. The local kids used to come out here all the time for their parties before the police decided it was too dangerous. Hang a right, and it'll take us right to them."
"Them?"
I felt groggy, and the pounding inside my head was picking up its pace. I could barely think straight. "It's a network of caves that covers almost one whole side of the island. That's why no one's ever built anything on this side. It's too rocky and dangerous with the caves and the cliffs that run out to sea."
"But you know them?"
"Did I forget to mention that I liked spelunking as much as I like gravestone rubbings?" I murmured against his chest.
"You are the most unusual woman I have ever met."
"I'll take that as a compliment," I said. "And you're the most badass man I've ever met. The way you must have taken on those demons for us to get to shore. Amazing..."
I expected a chuckle or some kind of response, but a wave of pain drove all thoughts right out of my mind. My body went stiff and this time I didn't even try to fight the near shriek that escaped my lips as my body turned on itself.
Riley pulled me tighter to him. "Hang in there, sweetheart."
The affectionate term was lost on me. I didn't even try to hold on. The darkness of unconsciousness welcomed me with open arms.
CHAPTER NINE - RILEY
Paige's body felt almost weightless in my arms. I cradled her close to me as if she were the most precious cargo. My kit was slung across my back, and I cataloged again what might have survived the dip in the lake that I could still use inside it. Unfortunately, I lost the shotgun. I was sure that there was something in the kit that would help take away her pain, but I didn't dare risk stopping yet. I had to find a place for us to hide until I could process what had just happened and what it meant. I also needed to give Paige an opportunity to remember on her own what happened to the demons in the lake.
Once I realized that she blocked out what happened, I started to wonder if the amnesia that plagued her wasn't really amnesia at all, but some strange defense mechanism that hid the truth of her past from her consciousness. From the small bits that she said she remembered from the nightmares that plagued her, she had been the victim of an act of violence the night of the accident that stole her memories. That indicated that someone undesirable had her in his or her possession, and there was no way to tell how long they kept her.
My investigative mind was already rolling over everything I knew so far. They were puzzle pieces that needed to be put back together. I had a knack for seeing threads and themes in unrelated events. If I hadn't grown up to be a necromancer, I would have pursued a career in law enforcement. When I was a kid, I was addicted to every police procedural book that I could get my hands on. I even operated a lost and found for neighborhood pets at one point. My older sister was my sidekick, and she indulged every one of my whims. I fancied myself the third Hardy boy.
All of that changed though on my eighteenth birthday. Reality hit me over the head and took all those dreams away. Keeping the PI license was the closest thing I'd ever get now to help people find the truth of circumstances they didn't understand in their lives. It was uncanny how often my investigations led me right back to an angel or demon.
The way that Paige dispatched all of those demons so handily spoke of a skill that had been used before, perhaps many times. I was starting to get an inkling of why Paige might be a person of interest, not only to the demons, but to the angels as well. Someone who could massacre a slew of demons with nothing but her thoughts? That kind of someone could be a game changer for either side.
It was a topic that was rarely discussed outside of trusted circles for fear of backlash. For hundreds of years, angels and demons had shared the top rung of the supernatural food chain in the Underworld. It came about after a kind of uneasy peace was brokered between them after too many skirmishes ended with the bloodshed and death of a host of creatures on both sides. Once humans entered the fray, the world was turned upside down. Humans outnumbered creatures, and in the weakened state that the creatures were in, they hadn’t stood a chance.
Battered and beaten down, they bonded together to extinguish their presence from the eyes of the human world. Using the magic from another uneasy alliance with the Wiccan, they made it so that they could hide in plain sight. They set up rules of engagement with the human world, and only a privileged few in the highest positions of human power still knew that our world existed. Eventually, the rest of the humans forgot about all of us.
Whispers remained though. It was common knowledge that angels and demons detested each other. The thing that kept the peace was the idea that they needed each other in order to co-exist with the hum
ans. If war broke out again, they ran the risk of human intervention. Although it seemed implausible that either side would fear a human, everyone understood that the seemingly weaker race in all actuality possessed the power to destroy everything.
For someone like me, it left me in a very uneasy position. I was human, but I possessed supernatural abilities. I straddled both worlds but was part of none. To angels and demons, I represented the race that had hogtied them to life in the shadows. To humans, I didn't even exist. It was that way by design. Bringing another human into this world meant they were exposed to creatures of nightmares. Individually though, humans were weak, and the creatures took full advantage of that fact to exert their will over them at every opportunity.
That was another reason I'd never trust an angel. They were do-gooders only because they knew that the one they answered to favored humans over them. Somehow, throughout history, harm always seemed to befall humans who were under an angel's protection. I thought about all of the human hosts who became victims of Bruno's demon possession that night. There were far too many to have been willing hosts, and Benjamin was the archangel responsible not only for Calamata Island, but for the surrounding territory.
Would he mourn the loss of human life that happened on his watch? Somehow, I suspected he wouldn't care in the slightest.
That thought brought me around to Benjamin's intentions once again. It was simply impossible that the archangel didn't either know exactly who Paige was or had a strong suspicion. I found myself wishing for the supernatural talent of being able to sense a person's power through their aura. The archangel would have had that ability, and it seemed highly likely that Paige gave off something that indicated who, or more accurately what, she was. Benjamin knew far more than he let on.
I glanced down at Paige’s face. I was glad that she slipped into unconsciousness. The pain seemed to be too much for her to bear. It had to be a side effect of whatever she did to kill the demons. The closing of her mind once again to her abilities caused a physical ripple effect. I only hoped for her sake that it receded quickly. I didn't like seeing her in pain.
It was a survival instinct that drew out her ability. But whatever safeguard was keeping her memories away from her was still firmly intact. It was impossible to guess if it was her own doing or someone else's. In order to help her, I needed a level of expertise and knowledge that I simply didn't possess. But I knew someone who did.
Just as Paige said, I found the worn path a quarter of a mile from the lake. The light was just starting to open up across the sky. Although I was human, long ago I started to favor the night. In a way, it came with the territory. Demons moved around at night, when they were less likely to be discovered. As most of my work involved them, I found that I had adjusted to that rhythm as well.
The adrenaline of the fight was also starting to wear off, and I had to admit that I was starting to get tired. Paige and I both needed to rest. When I spied the first crags of the rocky hills in front of me, I felt a profound sense of relief. We were in the middle of nowhere, but as long as I had time, I could come up with a plan. A plan that would keep me and the woman in my arms safe.
Paige murmured and twisted closer to me as if she was trying to absorb my warmth. She buried her nose in my chest and sighed. I paused and looked down at her in wonder.
Who was she?
The emotions she set alight inside of me were unexpected and surprisingly, not unwelcome. Whoever she was, Paige was special. Just like me. The fact that she had some kind of ability said she belonged in this darker world too. I wasn't dragging her into it. She was already here, but that didn't mean that she had the security of a place and position. She needed someone to guide her and protect her.
With every fiber of my being, I believed that person was me. It didn't make sense, and I didn't understand why I had been chosen. But nonetheless, I had no intention of ever letting her out of my sight again.
Feeling that kind of outpouring of affection and possession required a physical sign of my commitment to her. It practically demanded it. Paige might not know it yet, but she would soon. I would show her, but I wouldn't do it in the same way Benjamin had, by trying to take her loyalty and demand that she return those feelings. I could only hope that, in my case, she would want to.
Gently, I lowered my lips to place a small kiss on the top of her head. It was barely a gesture at all, and definitely not the grand gesture that she deserved from someone who was going to keep her safe. But for now, it would do. Especially as I still had an archangel to deal with who had claimed her for his own. That was one thing I planned to attend to immediately. If Paige hadn't granted him that permission, and every indication seemed to say that she did not, I wasn't going to let that violation of her will continue.
The sun just topped the trees when I found myself standing in front of a large cavernous entrance that led into an unknown darkness. I felt a slight chill in the air and remembered the legend of Calamata Island. Was it possible that there was a hole somewhere that led straight to the gate of Hell? If so, this would be the place for it to exist.
Paige's body stiffened once again, and a quick thrash told me that the pain had not receded yet. I needed to get her inside so that I could find something to mix up and take that pain away. Her knowledge of the caves was a big part of the next step of the plan, the goal of which remained the same. Get both of us off the island in one piece.
The journey so far though had yielded at least one piece of information, and that was the direction on where to go next once we got off the island. It was the place I had been resisting as I went over my considerations earlier. But with Benjamin's mark on Paige's body, her protective amnesia, and the evidence of her supernatural power all to investigate, I was left with only one choice.
It was the Sisters of St. Joseph or bust.
I had to duck to enter the closest entrance just off to the side of the main cavern. Just in case Bruno did track us to the caves, I didn't want to be found in the most obvious place. I went as far into the darkness as I could without losing the natural light outside. Then I gently lowered Paige to the floor. I took off my jacket and used it as a pillow to prop up her head.
Luckily, the top compartment of my kit was where I stored my flashlights. I always kept at least two in there along with fresh batteries. Sometimes my interrogations took place in some pretty dark places, and I never knew how long it would take to break my detainee. The shortest had been minutes, and the longest was almost two days. It was after that one that I started carrying enough batteries to last for a week.
Paige stirred, and just as I flipped on one of the flashlights, she opened her eyes. I was alarmed to see that they were bloodshot. She looked as if she had battled through some kind of hell.
"Riley?" Her voice was raspy, and I cursed that I didn't have any water to give her.
I slid closer to her and ran a hand over her blond hair. "Hey, there. You were out of it. How do you feel?"
"Like I've been run over by a truck." Then she gave me a wan smile. "But I think you look worse."
I ran a hand through my hair and chuckled. Although I barely noticed the smarting sensation of pain on my cheek, I knew I'd have a bruise from where the demon landed the one good kick when it jumped into the canoe. "You should see the other guy." Her smile faltered, and I realized the callousness of what I had just said. "That didn't come out right."
"It's okay," she said. "I understand why you did it."
I had been afraid she would look at me differently, knowing that there was a much darker side of me than she had seen so far. But as I searched her face, I didn't see any fear there at all. She should be running away from me screaming, but she wasn't.
Her eyes closed with a grimace. "I wish this migraine would go away."
"Let me see what I can do about that," I said, grateful to be changing the subject. I pulled my kit closer to me and unzipped the lower portion. Then I flipped the lid open so that everything was there for display. I heard
the rustle of Paige's movements as she sat up, and then felt her closeness as she moved to my shoulder.
"What is all of that?" There was a note of wonder in her voice.
I felt slightly self-conscious. The herbs and poultices were innocuous enough, but the triad of silver blades, the hooked silver wires, and the short cord of rope made it look like a serial killer's bag of goodies. But being a necromancer was who I was, and I wasn't going to hide that from her any longer. I needed her to trust me, and that meant I had to let her into my world, if even just a little bit.
"It's my kit," I said slowly. "When I am asked to question a dead person or creature of interest, there are certain rituals and items that assist with those activities."
"Benjamin said that you torture and kill the people you question," Paige said in a low voice. As she dropped her head, her hair hid her face from me.
This had been what I had been afraid of. She might have been able to logic away the kill that she witnessed earlier, but that was because it was self-defense. What I did as part of my job was a completely different animal. It had led to the loss of every person I cared about in my life up until this point. I wondered if I was going to lose Paige now.
"First things first," I said, deciding I needed more time to figure out how to answer her unspoken question. I pulled out one of the small bottles on the side of the kit and inspected it. "Good news is it looks like this survived the swim in the lake."
"What is it?" Paige's eyes rose to mine again. Her look was weary, and I couldn't blame her. Instead of remembering what a monster I was, I hoped that she was thinking about the herb that I used to treat her Tiphon demon bite. It seemed like that was ages ago.
"A mixture of several very rare herbs that I guarantee you have never heard of which are ten times more effective than the average aspirin," I said lightly. "It should knock that migraine out cold." Although I was pretty sure that what ailed her wasn't a migraine, but I hoped that the same treatment would apply to take away the physical pain of whatever was actively shutting down the memories in her mind.