by Liz Schulte
The next instant, rain poured down around me once again and Death was gone.
“She’s fine,” Femi shouted from the door, still holding her arm to her chest. “She’s playing with the silver-haired fox. Who is he?”
“I have no idea,” I said, jogging her way with ease. If they weren’t after the girl, then why send wendigos after us at all? “Keep him busy. I’m going to get Holden.”
These were the same type of creatures I killed in Arizona. Mindless, crazed remnants of souls turned evil, but definitely not born that way. Their expressions were vacant, and they had one sole thought and motivation: attack and destroy. Their numbers were so thick on the roof there hadn’t been time to think, only kill. The simplicity of this task compared to everything else was relaxing. This I could control. This I knew how to handle.
I felt the moment things changed, but I couldn’t explain how or what made the difference. One second I was fighting, rage blazing inside of me as it had been for months, and the next my anger was gone. It left me depleted and exhausted. I continued to fight, however, because so long as there was a threat, I would always kill. I’d never stop. It was as base in me as breathing.
Light exploded over the roof and building. When it receded all that was left of Hell’s attack was a mountain of ash. She stood to my right, looking very much as she had before the angel took over, strong, powerful, and at peace, but very much alive. My Olivia was finally back.
“You shouldn’t waste your energy,” I said, almost missing the constant attacks as my mind went back to all the things I couldn’t control, like that wound killing her a little every day.
She ran her thumb over her bottom lip and surveyed her work. “I made the deal with Death.”
A sinking feeling started in my chest and plummeted to my guts. This was really the end. I always knew it would come. “Does that mean you’re leaving?”
“Not yet. I can finish this.”
The rained splattered on the flat gravel roof and sizzled against the flames surrounding me. Steam rose around us.
“Hey.” Olivia reached through the flames and pressed her hand to my heart. “This was what you wanted. And you were right. It’s for the best.”
I looked at her, then to where her hand touched me. Starting from that point, the fire extinguished little by little until there was none left, leaving only her light to ease my darkness within me. What would I become without her? “So you are…better?”
She nodded but waited as I looked for myself. The skin on her chest was smooth and perfect, with no hint of the black lines or the pulsing wound. I flattened my hand over her heart. I was willing to bet the moment my anger died was the moment she healed. We had always been connected, but our bond had grown more than I ever could have imagined. I couldn’t even distinguish my emotions from hers anymore. She was a part of me. Without her I’d be empty.
“You aren’t ever going to be without me, Holden. Even if I can’t be by your side, I will always be with you, watching over you. In here”—she pressed her fingers to my chest—“and in here.” She moved those same fingers to my temple. “They can’t keep us apart.”
I nodded because regardless of practicality, this was something we both needed to believe right now.
“Who’s the gray headed man?”
I scowled. “Is he still here?”
“Apparently he’s playing with Charlie.”
“Shit.” I liked it better when I had no family. “We should go down.”
“Who is he?”
“If we can believe a damn thing he says, he’s my biological father.”
Her brows knitted together. “Is that even possible?”
“I guess. I don’t know or care. Let’s just get rid of him.”
She hesitated but agreed all the same. “If that’s what you want.” She looked over the edge of the roof. “One of us should help Corbin with Maggie.”
“What’s wrong with Maggie?”
She flashed me a smile—not her old fading vague one, but a bright vibrant beam that warmed the air between us. “I figured out her food source.”
I joined her at the edge. The much older vampire struggled to hold her and bring her back inside, while she continuously broke free only to be recaptured by him. “What is that?”
“Darkness.” She watched them for a moment. “The blacker the aura the better.”
“Can she see auras?”
“No, I don’t think so. Right now she could probably feed on jinn, but wouldn’t find it as satisfying as say a demon. The more evil the person is, the better she will feel. However, if the jinn are like you, they’ll find a balance that is more neutral than dark.”
“Why? Maggie isn’t exceptionally good.”
Olivia pursed her lips. “Maybe the angel did it on purpose. I don’t know. Her aura burns too bright. She doesn’t seem to have a way to keep herself in check, so she needs to feed on those with dark auras.”
I scratched my eyebrow. While the angel had done less useful things than that, it would have been nice to give Maggie something more than suspicion to base her feeding on. I transported to Corbin and found Olivia had beat me there. Pleasure over not being hobbled by her wound anymore radiated from her. Maggie slipped from his grasp again, but only made it a few feet before he caught her and dragged her back.
“You have to rest now,” he growled. He glanced back at us. “No, no, by all means, just stand there and watch.”
I walked up and looked Maggie over. Her lips were tight, eyes black, and face red as she struggled. Hitting her three times, she finally went limp in his arms. I carried her into the warehouse and deposited her in her cell, stalling before coming back to deal with my alleged father.
“How long will she be like this?” I asked Corbin.
“If she’s like a regular vampire, a couple days, maybe a few weeks.”
Something else we didn’t have time for. Femi was talking to Olivia and Quintus, shooting glances at…whatever his name was, while Corbin kept himself separated from the group and went to lean against the door.
“I’m going to give you three minutes to either make me want you to stay or to clear out. After that, Liv is going to take Charlie out of this room and we’re going to have a problem,” I said patiently and calmly.
“Is getting to know my son, not reason enough?”
I pointed at the girl. “Go over there.” I motioned toward Olivia.
She meandered to Liv’s side, clutching her doll tightly, close to tears. Her fear ticked in the corner of my eye, but I ignored it. I looked back at him. “Try again.”
He sat back and crossed his legs. “I came to help with Olivia’s situation, but she chose the other path.”
“What situation is that?”
“The one where she was dying. I simply came to offer her a choice other than embracing Death. I did it for you.”
What is he talking about, Liv? I asked her silently, not wanting him to see any doubt between us.
“Wait. Did he just say you made the deal? What the fuck? I thought we were waiting,” Femi exploded throwing her arms up in the air, but wincing at the movement.
I was in the process of making the deal with Death and he interrupted.
What did he say?
That he had some cup that could heal me. Death said it couldn’t and wasn’t willing to wait any longer. I was too weak to even move. We needed the deal. He’s letting me stay until we defeat Mammon.
“Then why are you still here?”
“Well, Olivia may have turned me down, but she wasn’t the only one I had an offer for.”
I waited a couple beats, but he didn’t continue. “Tick, tock.”
“I can’t say anymore while there are others in the room.”
“Take Charlie to the kitchen.” Olivia handed the girl to Femi and nodded to Quintus and Corbin. The men headed away, but Femi didn’t budge.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Femi said indignantly. “You made a deal. Let’s talk about t
hat.”
Olivia took Femi’s hand, but she pulled away. “No. I don’t want to be placated. I want you here. I want you to stay. Can you give me that?”
“Femi…”
“Fine. Then give me Baker back.”
The two women stared at each other: Femi, letting anger consume her fear and hurt, Olivia with pure empathy. Finally, Femi shook her head and took Charlie’s hand. “Whatever.” She stormed off with the kid in tow.
Olivia sat beside me. She pushed down her concern for Femi and directed her attention to the man on the couch. “What is your name?” she asked.
“I hope I didn’t make any problems for you,” he said, though there wasn’t an ounce of sorry to him. “But I did say I wanted to talk to Holden alone.”
She smiled. “Well, you aren’t going to get that. As long as I’m here, you’ll talk to both of us. Your name?” Her voice was chipper but edged with determination. Olivia was definitely back.
He laughed. “I give up.” He held up his hands. “Call me Rhys. It’s a shame you didn’t take my deal. I could have healed you.”
“We both know the cup couldn’t heal me.”
“Did I say we would use the cup? I don’t recall saying that. I simply pointed out I had it before Death rudely sent me away.”
Olivia’s jaw tightened and she sat up straighter. “My mistake.”
Whatever deal he was torturing Olivia with was moot. She’d accepted the more trustworthy of the two. Rhys wanted something from us or he wouldn’t be here now. “Well, since I’m not dying and Olivia is healed, I really don’t think you have anything I want. Get out.”
“Everyone always wants something. It’s just a matter of knowing what strings to pull.” He studied his fingernails. “As a reaper, Olivia will be in a difficult position. She will have to be a true neutral. Meaning, she won’t be allowed to tip the scales in one direction or the other. Death holds too much power to take a side if the fragile balance of the Abyss is to be maintained.”
“Make your point,” Olivia said.
“Patience, my dear.” He looked back to me. “That means she cannot be with you. That’s why Death wouldn’t make the deal she asked for. If only I had realized what was happening sooner. I could have helped.”
Olivia chewed on the corner of her lip and glared at him. “How?” she asked.
“I didn’t realize my son was in love with an angel. I thought you were merely a guardian and therefore supremely less interesting. By the time we figured out what you were, they had already killed the angel, so once again…” He shrugged.
“She wasn’t useful to you, which still doesn’t explain why you are here or what you want.”
“Yes, her importance to us drained away with her power, but you’ve become infinitely more interesting with those marvelous flames in your eyes.”
Olivia took my hand, and the irritation of Rhys’s presence muted.
“It will be a shame to split the two of you.” He smiled like a snake to a mouse. “And that brings us to why I am here. I can make it so the two of you can be together for as long as you choose.”
My gut immediately said no. I didn’t even want to hear his offer. Whatever he’d say, however tempting it sounded, it would be too good to be actually true. He was, after all, my father. I had to have gotten my deviousness from somewhere. “We’re not interested.”
“How?” Olivia asked at the same time.
“It appears the lady is.” He leaned forward. “It’s simple really. All Holden has to do is join the council.”
Shit. Not this again. “I’ve already said no.”
“Ah, but situation has changed. Consider this your second chance to make the right choice. I won’t insult either of us by suggesting that you would perhaps like to know about where you came from, details I believe that only I can provide.”
“What council?” she asked.
“The same one Baker chose to die to avoid,” I said.
She leaned back and she nodded very slowly, her face neutral.
Making deals with people I didn’t trust never worked for me in the past, but her soft hand in mine made even bad decisions seem good. “I’ll think about it.”
His eyebrows rose. “Not the answer I expected, but I’ll await your call.” With that he vanished, pissing me off that there were still things we hadn’t warded against.
“What the hell is he?” I grumbled.
“A traveler,” Liv said. “At least that’s what Death called him.”
I leaned my head back on the chair. “Why do they want me? Why now?” I should have killed him decades ago.
“How long have you known your father was alive?”
“There have been indications through the years. I never saw him, but it was mentioned to me a few times. The first was by the demon who recruited me, but at the time I cared more about revenge than a man who abandoned us all those years ago. Then every twenty or so years, the idea would pop back up. Someone would mention him in passing. Finally, I was bored and angry enough that destroying the last living link to my past was tempting. So I tried to find him, but…” I shook my head. “I lost interest.”
“Why?”
As a jinni I had made a life out of finding even the most impossible of items for my clients, so this one still burned. “I actually couldn’t find him. The search for him consumed me. He was always just out of reach and every time I missed him, my anger grew and I became more desperate—undoubtedly why the demons taunted me with his existence. They wanted me to fail or they were testing me. He was ghost. Regardless, it was a dark time until I met Sybil.”
Olivia’s lips pressed together and her hand twitched in mine.
“Do you not want to know?” I asked.
“No, I do.”
I took a deep breath. “She made life fun again. She was impetuous and daring. We pushed the envelope in every direction and drank in the power that was ours for the taking. We had a good run.”
“Why did it end?”
I looked back into those blue-green eyes that changed my life forever. “Everything ends.”
Olivia sighed. “I wish Baker was here.”
So did I. We were quiet for a while, though I could feel something bothering her.
“Who do you think sent the wendigos?” she asked, but it wasn’t the question that was really bothering her.
I left it alone. She would tell me when she was ready. We had enough damn honesty for the day. “Mammon?”
She shook her head. “Why would he send something we could beat, unless he was after something else? At first I thought they might be a distraction to get to Charlie, but the only person inside was Rhys and Charlie was unharmed.”
I had been so distracted that I’d missed it completely. My phone buzzed. Phoenix was looking for me. “That’s a good point.” I stood up. “I have to go back to Xavier’s and finish cleaning up.”
“What happened there?” she asked.
“A massacre. Mammon sent a message. When you asked for help, I expected this to be another one, but I don’t know if those creatures could have done what I saw at the club.”
She nodded. “Someone else sent them. I’ll look into it.”
I nodded. “Don’t do anything until I get back…and you might want to talk to Femi.” That should keep her busy.
I was nearly to the door when I had a new thought, a better thought. “Actually, Liv, I could use your help. Will you come with me to the club?”
****
Olivia and I walked into Xavier’s together. I didn’t have to burn down my business if she could simply incinerate the remains with her light. She stopped the moment she crossed the threshold, sucking in a deep breath.
She blinked several times. “I’m going to be sick.” She spun around, went back outside, and doubled over.
Phoenix came out of the room with all the bodies. “Three things,” he said.
“Just a second, Olivia isn’t feeling well.” I was immediately worried that whatever Death
did to her, it hadn’t worked, but she waved my concern away.
“It isn’t that,” she said, wiping her mouth as she straightened back up. “It’s the sulfur and”—she shook her head, nose wrinkling—“the rot in the air.”
I honestly hadn’t noticed. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She took a deep breath and stepped back inside. “I’m fine.”
Phoenix smiled at her. “You’re looking much better.”
“I’m feeling much better, thank you.”
Phoenix stood there grinning at her like a fucking idiot.
“Three things?” I said snapping my fingers in front of him.
“Right. First, the bodies are prepped and ready to be burned. Second, Sybil’s in your office. And third, news about this is already spreading.”
“Fuck. How?”
“I don’t know. Demons?”
“And the jinn?”
“Probably not on our side for long. They want to be free, but they don’t want to die even more.”
The jinn leaving wouldn’t just weaken our position it would annihilate it. If they went back to Hell’s control, Hell would once again have an army to use against us, and we only had Olivia until Mammon was gone. After that, we were on our own.
“Phoenix and I will take care of the bodies, Holden see what Sybil wants, and then we will discuss the jinn,” Olivia said.
Phoenix snorted and handed me a mirror. “I don’t think this is about what Sybil wants.”
Olivia paused and I could have hit him. “What do you mean?”
“With how long it took me to find her, I’d say she has been doing everything in her power to avoid Holden. But after the attack on you, who could blame her? She had to know what would happen.”
“The attack on me? You mean she was the one—” Olivia’s shoulder’s straightened. “I’ve changed my mind. I’ll talk to her. The two of you do whatever you want.”
I caught her arm. “I’ll handle it, Liv.”