Intuition (The Path to Redemption Series Book 2)

by Kimbra Swain

  “How many deaths have you already had a part in Cyrus?” Gregory accused. “Andrew Gilbert. Jeremy Stafford. 4 canvas instructors. How many do I not know of? How many more?”

  “There are no more. His entire internal network was discovered by my team about an hour ago. Every single operative he has in the network has been eliminated,” I stated.

  “How many operatives, Abby?” Gregory asked.

  “Fourteen,” I replied.

  “Fourteen moles, plus the one here,” Gregory said pointing at Tillens body.

  “And one in Atlanta, Carboni. And Mr. Angelo Giordano,” I added waving to the cowering mob boss.

  “Giordano is not my responsibility,” Gregory said.

  “He is mine,” I stated, and he nodded.

  “Cyrus is,” Gregory returned his attentions to my uncle. “Did you act alone?”

  “Yes,” Cyrus replied. Milani stood quietly behind him. I thought about the chair of truth that once sat in Gregory’s office in Boulder. Tadeas’ fingers flexed as it went through my mind. He loved sitting in the chair. The chair went down with the facility in Boulder. Gregory would have to rely on his instincts. I sent a mental signal to the people in the rear SUV and received a confident reply.

  “Why is the TCA here?” Gregory turned to Milani.

  “I am working with Cyrus. The TCA believes that your network is failing. We believe its failure would create chaos across the world. We are here to help stabilize it. Regardless of whatever you think we are, Mr. Theodoard, we are here to save lives,” she spouted at him. Grandfather was not accustomed to being disrespected.

  He pointed a finger at her. “If you want to work with us, you talk to Miss Davenport. She rules the operations on the ground. You do not approach the Six.”

  “Cyrus approached me, and I answered his call,” she said simply. She condemned Cyrus to death. Gregory clinched his fist, and she dropped to her knees gasping for air. As the master of the world turning and the longest existing deity on earth, Hyperion could eliminate any being’s power. He had done it to me once as a lesson. One I learned, but the tables had turned. He wanted me to have my power to take his place, so I intended to press my luck.

  “Mr. Theodoard, I think killing a principal of the TCA would be a faulty move at this point,” I interjected. I did not need them breathing down my neck. If he killed her, they would swarm my operations. I’d be fighting them plus the GEA. And I wasn’t sure at this point if Cyrus was connected to the GEA or not. “Please.”

  He released her, and she snarled, “You will lose everything!” She snapped her fingers and disappeared. Grandfather turned his attention to Cyrus.

  The sky filled with ravens, cawing to each other in a loud, discordant song. I panicked inside. Tadeas gripped hard around my waist.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “The Morrigan,” I replied trembling harder.

  “Will you go to the Six and meet your fate?” Gregory asked Cyrus, ignoring the birds.

  The air thickened with power flowing around us. Cyrus had drawn in power to strike at Tadeas and me. I had power pulled and directed to the SUVs to protect them and us. Grandfather seethed power as he drew in to strike Cyrus down. Suddenly, I felt the cool of the spirit world, but it wasn’t Tadeas. A fold opened in the veil, and Meredith Spence stepped out, laughing with black hair flying around her face. Her power added to the soup on the tarmac, and the ravens called louder. Her eyes turned black. They stared into me, and suddenly I remembered those black eyes. Grandfather looked at her, then back to me.

  “Abby?” he questioned.

  “Morgan!” I spouted at her.

  “I’ve been called that,” she laughed.

  Confusion racked my brain, and Tadeas backed off with his thoughts. I was overwhelming him with the questions sputtering through my head.

  “No, you are Meredith, daughter of Lincoln,” I protested.

  “I am that, as well. Meredith, daughter of Lincoln, daughter of Morgan, heir to the power of The Morrigan,” she smiled, sauntering up to Cyrus who appraised her dark beauty and power. I trembled, but I knew I had a back-up plan.

  A stunning red-haired woman stepped out of the back SUV with my newest recruit, Nickolai Palladino. Nick offered a hand to the goddess, and she walked forward to join our discussion. Meredith snarled at her. The Giordano’s and Tony knelt to the ground.

  “Now, now, Meredith, you are only an heir, until you take The Morrigan’s power, you will do as I say,” Titania, the Queen of the Fae purred.

  “This doesn’t concern you,” Cyrus spouted.

  “Indeed, it does. You are in my city conducting operations against the Agency. It was long ago when Abigail and I forged an alliance. I honor that oath standing with her today. Great Lord Hyperion, I am pleased to be in your presence,” she said turning her attention to Grandfather.

  “The pleasure is mine, honored Queen,” he nodded, and they both bowed to each other out of respect.

  “Holy shit!” Tadaes said, and Grandfather and Titania both chuckled.

  “Tadeas Nahuel Duarte, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. I have heard of your bravery. We thank you for protecting, Aoibheann, our favorite daughter,” Titania said.

  “You are welcome, your majesty,” he choked out. I forced my thoughts to him, quickly apologizing for never getting to the story of why the ravens haunted me. I never had the chance to tell him about my experiences with The Morrigan. I never told him my name was Aoibheann amongst the Fae.

  He returned with the steadiness that I loved so much about him. He informed me that he knew there were many other stories that we haven’t shared, and that it did not change his resolve. With the last clear thought, he made me blush in the middle of a gigantic power struggle.

  Grandfather and Titania stood amazed at us. “The bond is far stronger than I imagined,” Titania said.

  “It seems stronger now than when I saw them yesterday, and a different color too,” he said.

  “Shut the fuck up!” Meredith yelled. Titania snapped her finger, and Meredith hit her knees and gasped for air.

  “You will speak when spoken to when in my presence, do you understand?” Titania scolded. Meredith nodded as her face turned purple. Titania released the hold, and Meredith gasped.

  Not missing a beat, Titania said, “I had no idea two beings could be so connected. It’s wondrous.”

  “Okay, you are both making me nervous, and I am way past my comfort zone, so let’s move along with what happens to those two,” I asked, pointing to Cyrus and Meredith.

  “Different color?” Tadeas asked.

  I looked through the spectrum for only a moment because power flooding the air around us overwhelmed my vision. The bond that once held us in hues of red and purple, now sparkled in a bright gold. I forced the vision of its brilliance to him, and he replied in more questions than I could answer. Shaking them off, we turned our attention back to the beings before us.

  “I cannot kill her until she takes the inheritance. She has not fully accepted her mother’s legacy. Once she takes it, I can squash her,” Titania leered at her.

  “You should have told me,” I said to Titania.

  “He asked me not to speak of it, and for his loyalty and devotion to you, I obliged him. If it is any comfort to you, I believe he always wanted to tell you, but you distanced yourself from him in those later days,” she replied.

  She was right. After Los Angeles, I returned to field work with Lincoln to help control the shadow again after my encounter with the shaman. However, things were never the same. It was a tumultuous relationship with neither of us ever connecting on the same level as we had before he left me for the woman I now knew was Morgan, the name that Scáthach asked us to call her many years ago when Lincoln and I participated in the harvest games in the Underworld.

  “Cyrus must appear before The Six,” Gregory said trying to push us past the old memories.

  “I refuse. Kill me now,” Cyrus spouted. Gregory lifted his ha
nd to squeeze the life out of him.

  “No! I don’t want his power,” I breathed.

  Gregory spun around to me and growled. The ground shook, and Tadeas stepped between us. So noble. So foolish.

  “Get out of the way,” Gregory said.

  “No, you will not touch her. You made a deal,” Tadeas said.

  “No, I made a deal not to touch you,” he said.

  “Exactly, you will have to go through me,” Tadeas replied.

  Titania smiled proudly at him. “Hyperion, I suggest we take these two to our holding cells within the city.”

  “Very well,” he said. She motioned to the front SUV and four Fae guards exited the vehicle. As they approached Cyrus and Meredith, the smell of sulfur overwhelmed us. A thick, yellow fog enveloped the tarmac. Titania pulled wind to blow it away. Standing between us and them, a dark-skinned man in a black suit with a black tie stared at us.

  “What the hell?” Tadeas said.

  “Hell, indeed,” his smoky voice rattled at our ears. Even Grandfather winced.

  I forced my thoughts to Tadeas again, and the reply came back less confident, but it was our only hope.

  He walked toward us, each step leaving a soot mark on the tarmac as his feet burned the concrete. His red eyes bore into me. “Abigail, where is your father?” he asked laughing.

  “Be gone,” I said to him.

  “No, I think I’ve come to visit you at the perfect time,” he responded. “Look at all the power here. I could just drink it up, but many years ago, I was offered a prize that I never received. I am here to claim you, my dear.”

  Tadeas flinched, and I begged him not to converse or provoke the demon.

  “I am not yours to be claimed,” I replied.

  “Indeed, you are. In this very city, you were sacrificed for me. Then once again in Los Angeles, they poured blood to strengthen me, but you slipped through my grasp. The dark spot on your soul was put there by me. You are mine,” he hissed.

  “Speak your name,” I commanded stepping out from behind Tadeas. He held tightly to my hand, trembling.

  “I shall not, for you will use it to destroy me,” he responded.

  “I thought it would be nice to know your name so I could boast about it afterward,” I said.

  He snickered. “How cute. You don’t have that kind of power, my love. Oh, it will be so good to take you,” he said, reaching down to rub along his inner thigh.

  “Ew, stop. That’s gross!” I said. “Grandfather, go ahead.”

  Hyperion reached out and choked the life out of Cyrus. His divine power welled up around him as a humid cloud. His lifeless body hit the tarmac, and the cloud slammed into me like a magical power tsunami. My senses momentarily overwhelmed by the power while I reached deep within me and held out my hand. A large salt crystal formed as a representation of Ler’s Divine Inheritance. Grandfather smiled proudly as I stood watching the demon. Titania looked horrified. He was satisfied with himself. I’d commanded him to take Cyrus’ life knowing the empty seat with the Six would fall to me.

  Titania looked horrified as I held the crystal in my hand. She knew I had no desire to join Grandfather’s established council. In those few moments, I realized that the potential weak point in the entire Agency was the Six figure heads who intended to bicker and kill their way to the top. It was time to stop the madness.

  “Fools, that will not stop me,” the demon laughed.

  Looking to the queen of the Fae for permission, her horror turned to recognition, and she nodded. I turned, handing the crystal to Tadeas.

  “No!” Grandfather yelled.

  I felt his confidence waiver, but he reached out and took it from me. The power rushed from me to him, and he shook as it consumed him.

  “Whoa, that was weird,” he grinned at me. “Are you ready?”

  I nodded, he tore open the veil to the spirit world, and I called with a loud voice, “Vengence mea, et ego retribuam!” Now through my divinely enhanced conduit, I felt the sword and called it to my hand.

  A purple light flashed in the east, and the hilt of Vindicta hit my hand. The white dress swirled around me as I stood face to face with the demon, whose eyes smoldered at the sight of the sword. Tadeas let go of my hand, slumping to the ground. The veil closed, and Titania went over to him as I stepped toward the demon.

  “No! The way was destroyed!” the demon protested.

  The sword glow with intensity, and I narrowed my gaze. “What is your name?”

  He flinched, and I stepped forward again. “What is your name? As the bearer of Vindicta, the sword of the most high God, I command you to speak your name!”

  “Moloch, and you are mine. The children were sacrificed to me,” he replied, and his suit burned away revealing blackened skin like cooled lava with cracks of smoldering heat. His body smoked and reeked of sulfur.

  “Why are you here?” I asked and stepped forward again. I heard Angelo Giordano whimper.

  “I am here for you,” he said.

  “Who brought you here?” I asked. He flicked his eyes to Giordano. “Tadeas.”

  Tadeas, who had steadied himself and stood while I interrogated the demon, put a bullet in Giordano’s brain. Vito flinched, covering his head with his hands.

  As we rode on the plane, Tadeas pointed to an email that popped up on my screen. “What’s that?”

  I clicked it and it simply said, “Naag, use at your discretion. -JS”

  Opening the attached file, it had two sub folders. I opened the one entitled Documents. It was page after page of records that Giordano, Skerritt and the darkest members of his organization were running a child trafficking operation to Europe, Asia and the Middle East. My mentor, Jasper Samara and his group of assistants discovered the information while digging into the GEA.

  “Madre de Dios,” Tadeas said and crossed himself.

  I clicked the folder that said Pictures. The first one popped up, and I immediately closed it. The image of a bound, malnourished child seared into my brain. “Son of bitch will die today,” I said.

  “Yes, he will,” Tadeas assured me.

  None of the records implicated Vito. The last of the documents was from Jasper himself. “From what we have found, Vito is innocent in this business. It is my advice that you retain him to create stability in New York and in the Western Hemisphere. I will continue my efforts digging into the GEA. Until we meet again, Jasper.”

  I called Ashley immediately and forwarded all the information. Lukas and Ashley coordinated strategic searches of the buildings listed in the documents. Our operatives that were based in the New York, New Jersey area swept through Giordano’s operation as we stood on a tarmac on Long Island. The Agency took over the sites with extreme prejudice towards the adults who guarded the children, while local authorities moved in to comfort and aid the children who were held captive. In all, we recovered 67 underfed and terrified children from the ages of 3 to 16.

  “Palladino, take Vito to the SUV. Tony, go with him,” I commanded. He grabbed him up, dragged him to the front SUV, and pushed him inside. He closed the door, standing just outside of it. Tony walked over to the SUV and got in the front passenger seat.

  The demon seethed at me, keeping his eyes on the sword. “Hyperion, the car, if you would,” I requested. His hand flinched, and the car with the remainder of Giordano’s men exploded. Titania held her hands up to shield us from exploding debris.

  I turned my eyes to Meredith, “This is your last chance. For his sake, I release you.”

  “Abigail, no!” Gregory yelled.

  She nodded. The ravens swooped down and spun around her cowering body. She faded away in darkness and feathers.

  “She must die!” Gregory yelled at me.

  “You are no longer needed, Grandfather,” I said keeping my eyes on Moloch.

  He stepped back several paces, and before he vanished said, “We will speak when this is done.”

  I looked at Titania, who did not want to leave me facing the demo
n. Palladino approached her, whispering in her ear. He escorted her to the rear SUV, where they both entered the vehicle.

  “Well, aren’t you impressive,” Moloch complimented me. “What about your pet god?”

  Tadeas growled, and I grinned. “He goes where I go. He stays where I stay. If you want me, come and get me.” I taunted him. “Et erit lux.”

  The sword vibrated while a vibrant purple white light surrounded me. “No, I will deal with you alone, daughter of my brother Gabriel. Lower your weapon, and I will let him live.”

  “I do not deal with demons,” I replied.

  He lunged forward at me as his form grew. Flames burst out of the crags in his skin and molten stone dripped to the concrete. I held the sword up just as he got within sword’s length. Sidestepping him, I spun to bring down the sword across his right wrist. The hand dropped to the ground and turned to obsidian. He bellowed fire toward Tadeas who shifted to a jaguar, bounding away from him. He dripped with water and shook it off as he clawed himself to a stop. While I was temporarily distracted by the wet cat, Moloch spun around to me. Gathering my senses, I rushed forward toward him with solid footing, brought the sword high above my head to slam down on him, and he winked out of sight with a cloud of yellow sulfurous smoke. I coughed, waving the smoke from my face.

  I felt the solid arms of Tadeas wrap around me. He was soaked head to toe. “You are getting me wet,” I said before realizing the innuendo. His thoughts rolled over me, and I gasped. He laughed at me.

  “Don’t do that while I’m holding an angelic sword! It’s sacrilegious or something!” I protested.

  “He gave me to you,” he said.

  “Yes, he did,” I replied.

  Somewhere in the fight with the flashing purple sword, I connected the dots between my subconscious wearing purple and the purples strands that bonded Tadeas and me. He felt my thoughts while we entertained the demon. Gabriel bonded us. It was obvious in hindsight.

  “How did you know you could reach the sword that way?”

  “I didn’t know. I hoped,” I said.

  “Damn, Abby. That’s a hell of gamble,” he said.