She fluttered her heavily mascaraed eyelashes. “Finished gawking already?
“Kalli, I presume?”
“Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner.” She bent down and picked up his shirt from the floor. “Had a little accident, did we?”
“Serah dropped the pot.”
“That’s not like Serah, even when she’s having an episode.” She shook out the shirt and tossed it to Matthias. “There, all fixed.”
“What are you doing here?” he asked, throwing the now-dry shirt on.
“Lucy told me to stop by and check on you two.”
“Serah is in her sleeping quarters.”
Kalli arched a brow. “She’s not the one for midday naps either. What the hell is going on?”
Kalli yanked at the leather strap, freeing the pendant from its confines. She placed her arms on her waist.
The pendant! Matthias’s blood turned cold. He’d never forget it. He’d bought it from a peddler in the village where he lived. He was courting Josephine at the time. She had fallen in love with the pendant instantly. He only had a few coins in his pocket, but the peddler could see how much they fancied each other and gave them a deal.
It was simple, yet elegant. A ring of pewter engraved with ivy vines. He’d recognize it anywhere. And now this woman wore it.
Was she the one who had killed Josephine and their unborn child? He clenched his fists. He never knew which side had done it, but signs always pointed toward the Paladins. They were angry at him for not aligning himself with them—at least that’s what Balthazar had said when he first took him under his wing.
“Is something the matter?”
Matthias lunged at Kalli and grabbed the necklace. “Where did you get this?”
“It’s just a plain ol’ pendant. Hardly worth anything.”
It might not be worth much to her, but it meant the world to him and he wanted it back. “If it’s not worth anything, why wear it?”
Kalli plucked the pendant from his hands and looked down at the pendant. She traced the carvings with a gentle fingertip. “I like simple things, Ambrose. Is that a crime?”
“Could have fooled me.”
“A medieval pendant goes perfectly with my Goth attire.”
“Still, I’d like to know where you obtained it.”
“If I said Sotheby’s, would that help ease your tension?”
This wasn’t the time for sarcasm, not when his mission only held on by a single thread. The moment Serah notified Rafael and Lucy of his involvement in her kidnapping, he would certainly be sent back to limbo and lose any chance to redeem himself with the Paladin.
“Someone I knew had a pendant like that.”
“And someone I knew gave me this one.”
“Who?”
Kalli reached up and traced a fingertip across the ivy designs. Taking a deep breath, she took a seat at the stool next to the buffet. “Well, this wasn’t how I expected this to go.”
“Expected what to go?” Matthias crossed his arms. “Just tell me you killed her quickly and that she didn’t suffer.”
Kalli balked, pulling her hand away from the necklace, surprising Matthias. “Seriously, you think I killed her?”
“How else do you explain the necklace? Josephine wouldn’t just give her most treasured piece of jewelry away.” Matthias’s jaw twitched as he fought back the memories. “I saw our home. A Paladin had been there. I sensed it.”
Kalli motioned to the other barstool. “You need to sit down to hear this, Matthias.”
“I’ll stand. Did you end it quick or did you make her suffer?”
“Damn it all, Ambrose.” Kalli reached out and grabbed his hand. “It wasn’t a Paladin. It was that bitch Salome. She made it look like we killed her.”
Salome? The one who had made him this way? “No one is that good. Not even Salome.”
“Trust me, she is.” Kalli exhaled deeply. “If you don’t believe me, why don’t you just grab one of my memories? They never lie.”
“You know of my skill?”
“I’ve been tracking you for centuries. Kind of hard not to notice.” Kalli chuckled. “None of your victims ever remembered what hit them.”
“So tell me about Josephine. What about our child?”
Kalli bit her lip. “It’s gruesome. I don’t know how to say this.”
“You can just show me.”
Kalli nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Matthias took hold of Kalli’s shoulders and said in Latin, “You will allow me to journey into your oldest memories of the year 1228, to my village near Münster.”
***
The odor of brimstone clung to the air. Kalli Corapolous swiped a piece of auburn hair from her brow and raised her nose for a better scent. The Infernati were nearby. Scanning the horizon, she spotted a plume of smoke looming. The village, her mind screamed. It was one she’d passed through numerous times.
God’s teeth! Kalli shook her head and winced. It was times like this that she dreaded being a demon.
Even after eighteen hundred years.
The smoke appears fresh. I might still have time.
She raised her hands to the sky and allowed the freezing cold portal winds to pull her toward the village.
She flung ice and snow from her plain, brown kirtle and grabbed the silver dagger hidden in her skirts. The faint sound of a baby’s cry set her senses on edge.
“Too late, you Greek bitch.”
Kalli spun around. The woman threw her head back as deep rolls of laughter thundered from her mouth. A long swath of raven hair swirled around her. A gown of crimson damask clung to her ample bosom. She’d heard stories of this one.
“Salome, what did this village do to merit such destruction?”
“Nothing. I grew bored.”
“You are as cruel now as a demon as you were in your human life.”
Salome cackled, a sinister smirk curving her lips. “Some say crueler. Especially when someone crosses me.”
Kalli lunged for her, a growl ripping from her lips. She had to stop Salome.
“I said you were too late.” Salome snapped a finger. Tendrils of black-and-gray smoke swirled around her. When it had cleared, Salome was gone.
“What in the deities?” Kalli had never seen a Peragrans like that before. No mists, no snow, no ice or frost. Only that thick, dark smoke. Was it even a Peragrans at all?
Kalli searched the village. Thatched huts smoldered everywhere. The people huddled together, soot covering their faces. No one appeared to be injured. Not the Infernati way at all.
“What happened here?” Kalli asked, scanning the crowds.
“She’s a witch,” mumbled someone from the crowd. “Why else would the demons themselves come to take her away?”
Cursed humans and their backward ways. “Who?”
“Josephine.” A girl, no more than twelve, wiped soot from her cheek. She pointed down toward a blazing cottage.
“Aren’t you going to do something?”
One of the men shrugged, indifference clouding his face. “A right fitting end for a witch, I say.”
The scent of brimstone still lingered. Bloody hell. They’d been enraptured by the Infernati.
“Well, you all might see a witch, but I still see a person who needs help.” She grabbed her dagger and kept it poised in front of her.
“You’re a witch too! We should’ve known.” The crowd lunged for her. She slashed and stabbed. It was worse than enrapturement. They were animi mortui. Dead souls. Human bodies controlled by demons. It was fights like this that caused her to truly despise the Infernati.
Slicing her way through the crowd, she made her way toward the burning straw-and-mud hut. With a final thrust, she pushed her way inside. She threw her hands at the door, charming the house with protection. The remaining dead pounded and shouted as they tried to enter.
Flames licked and flicked her skin. There was only a brief moment of pain until the skin healed itself—a minor inconvenie
nce when saving a human life. The smoke billowed. Coughing and sputtering, she swiped the smoke from her face.
She sucked in a deep breath and exhaled toward the fire. The long blast of air extinguished the fire.
She pushed through the tight quarters, tripping over a broken table. “Is anyone here?”
A gurgling moan came from a pile of rubble in the back of the building. Kalli rushed forward and started digging through the ash and debris.
Then she saw the hand. A very feminine hand with blood trickling down its dainty fingers. Kalli reached out and took it in hers. She felt life, but it was fading fast. “Save yourself,” the woman’s garbled voice said.
If only she could. “No. I’d rather save you.” With a wild frenzy, she threw rocks, wood, and dirt from the pile. Then the woman’s face came in sight. A strand of blood-soaked flaxen hair hung across her brow. Her pale blue eyes pleaded.
Kalli’s stomach roiled. She might be a demon, but she still had a heart.
“Please,” she gasped. “My baby.” She coughed, and blood trickled from her mouth. Kalli flung more debris from the woman’s body. What she saw chilled her to the bones.
“Your baby. It’s gone.”
A loud sob rent from her lips. “No!”
Kalli reached up and stroked the woman’s brow. The wounds were too severe. She couldn’t heal her. She shuddered. This wasn’t an extermination. This was a deliberate act of vengeance. They wanted this woman dead for some reason. “I’m sorry.”
“Husband. Please find him.” She reached for the blood-soaked necklace around her neck. “Tell him I love him.”
Kalli nodded. Reaching around the woman’s neck, she untied the leather string. “I will.”
The woman coughed as more blood dripped down her lips. She reached and grabbed Kalli’s hand. “Please make it stop.”
Kalli closed her eyes, fighting the tears that threatened to spill. She took the woman’s hand and traced her fingertips along the woman’s palm. She might not be able to save her, but she’d not let her suffer. Feeling the numbing energy flowing between them, she scooted next to the woman, still grasping her hand.
The woman breathed a deep sigh. “Thank you,” she whispered. With that, she took her last breath.
Chapter 29
Serah wiped her tears and sat up on the bed. Scrubbing fingers through her tousled curls, she took a deep breath. Matthias was the one who robbed her of her memories. She couldn’t change the past. It was what it was.
She looked across at the mirror and cringed. Mascara ran down her cheeks, her eyes red and swollen. She made Snooki’s mug shot look like a centerfold. And Daniel would be back anytime. Not that she cared. She wasn’t doing the show any more.
She didn’t care about the contract. She’d find a way out of it. She only cared about her dignity. And that only held on by a single thread, thanks to Matthias Ambrose.
“Asshole.”
Then again, maybe that’s what they wanted. For her to give up. Too bad Nonni wasn’t here. She always had a way to lift her spirits.
I did not raise you to give up, Nipotina. Serah sighed. No, she only ran away and hid their true nature. If that wasn’t giving up, she didn’t know what was.
“Why, Nonni?” She swiped her hand across her eyes to wipe away the mascara gone wild. “Why did you hide?”
Her necklace and watch warmed against her skin. She shook her head. Leave it to Nonni to communicate through jewelry. “Why?”
Because you needed to find yourself first. Now go into that kitchen and finish what you started.
With that, the necklace and watch cooled down. Nonni had left the building. Yep, vague as ever. But Nonni did have a point. She needed to step up and kick ass. She’d start with Matthias Ambrose first.
She patted her necklace. Thanks, Nonni. With that, she threw open the door and stormed out of the room. She needed to give him a piece of her mind.
She turned the corner to enter the kitchen.
“No!” she heard an anguished shout. The sound chilled her to the bone. She’d never heard a man sound so tormented in her life.
She froze. It was Matthias. He sat with head buried in his hands, his body wracking with sobs. Kalli sat next to him, her arm wrapped tight around his shoulders.
What on earth was going on? Was he that broken up about losing this mission?
He reached out and grabbed Kalli’s shoulders. “The babe! What happened to our babe?”
Serah gasped. It wasn’t the mission. It was a tragedy from his past. Matthias had been a father. He had a family. He had a wife. She shivered as prickles of guilt washed over her. She should be angry at him, but all she wanted to do was comfort him.
But Kalli was already there, offering him her shoulder. Serah sucked in a breath. What was Kalli doing here anyway?
Serah clenched her fists. What was coming over her?
Jealousy, that’s what.
Why in hell was she jealous? She should hate Matthias. He had kidnapped her, stolen her memories, and kept his dirty little secret. So what if he gave her the memories back. Too little, too late. She should hate him. But all she felt was pity.
“Salome took him. She sent him away. I tried to find him, but I never could. I assumed she killed him. That’s her usual modus operandi.”
“I had a son?” Matthias looked up at Kalli.
She reached for his hand. “Yes. I sensed a boy. Just know that I tried everything to find him.”
Matthias nodded. “I know.”
Serah had to get out of there. This wasn’t her business, and, as secretive as Matthias had been about his past, he wouldn’t want her there anyhow.
She turned to leave, bumping one of her hanging pots, the clamor echoing through the room. Great. No way was she getting out of this one.
Kalli looked up and Matthias turned to meet Serah’s gaze, his onyx gaze still clouded with sorrow.
Matthias drew his lips straight, his jaw ticking. “Serah.”
“I was going to start supper, but I can do it later.” She’d never felt so out of place, to say nothing of feeling like an outsider in her own kitchen. Serah inched backward out of the room.
Kalli scratched her forehead, her eyebrows scrunched. “What the hell happened to you? You look like a raccoon.”
“Nothing. I fell asleep in the back room and forgot I had makeup on.”
Kalli arched an eyebrow. “Since when does sleep make your eyes all puffy like that?”
Kalli was always too smart for her own good. Even though Kalli said she couldn’t read her mind, Serah often wondered. “I had that dream again.”
“The fire?”
Matthias spun around, his gaze alert. “What fire?”
“It’s a dream. I’m with Nonni in a closet. There’s a fire and then I wake up.”
Kalli let out a sharp breath. “Still, I don’t like it.” She leaned over to Matthias. “Everything okay here?”
“Yes, but there are complications with my assignment.”
Kalli narrowed her gaze. “What sort of complications? I thought we got that issue resolved?”
“Another complication, I’m afraid.”
Serah slunk backwards out of the room. Maybe she judged Matthias too soon. Maybe he really was trying to redeem himself.
“I know Serah can be stubborn at times and a bit thickheaded, but she’s a good person and is in terrible need of protection.”
“I don’t deny she needs protection, but there are certain circumstances that prevent me from doing my job.”
What was he trying to do? Set himself up for failure? After what she just witnessed, that was the last thing he needed right now. He needed something to keep him occupied. Something to ease his pain. She’d at least give him that.
“What sort of circumstances?” Kalli massaged the back of her neck. “Because the Fore-Demons are not ones who reassign missions that easily. Just ask Rafe.”
Serah finally found her voice. “Matthias and I had a little disagreeme
nt earlier. It’s nothing that a little compromise can’t fix.”
Kalli waggled her brows. “Oh, really?”
Serah rolled her eyes. “Not that sort of compromise. Jeez.”
“Oh, darn. Well, my job here is done. Lucy wanted me to check on you. Despite the mascara, things look fine.” She brushed her fingertips over Serah’s face. “There, all fixed.”
Kalli reached back and loosened the leather thong that hung around her neck. She placed the pewter pendant that dangled from it on the counter and slid it toward Matthias. “Something tells me you need this more than I do.”
“Thank you, Kalli.”
“You’re very welcome. I’m relieved actually. I was afraid I’d given Josephine an empty promise. I don’t like breaking promises.”
Kalli swiped a red dreadlock from her cheek and stood. She held out her hand. “I’m glad we’re on the same side now. I always admired your abilities.”
Matthias’s lips curved into a wan smile. He took Kalli’s hand in his and clasped it in a sturdy grip. He shook his head and stood, crushing Kalli to him in a tight hug. “Thank you. Thank you for easing her pain.”
Serah’s breath hitched and her heart clenched. Seeing him embrace Kalli sent her skin crawling. She shivered. Matthias was not her ideal man, but something about him called to her. And now he was attracted to Kalli. Then again, Serah had told him he made her sick earlier and that she never wanted to see him again. What did she expect?
Why the hell did she have to like him so much? After all, he was the one who almost had her killed.
Almost. Didn’t he try to save you in the end?
Ugh! It was crazy what he did to her—what he still did. She shouldn’t like him. He’d been a demon for hire and had obviously done terrible things in his past. Kidnapping her couldn’t have been his worst crime. Why the hell did she care so much about him?
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