by A and E Kirk
“You don’t get to suggest anything,” Logan snapped. “Since you were the one who made him crazy.”
“It was not I,” Cristiano said evenly. “He became incensed when he thought Aurora had been abused. My guess is that the incident triggered childhood memories of the unforgivable violence suffered upon his mother and sister by his father. His psychological profile indicates that the trauma left deep—”
“Shut up!” Logan let his arrow fly.
It hit the door a few inches from Cristiano’s head. Armani gave it a nonchalant glance as it dissipated in a glimmer of white, then he looked back at Logan and raised his eyebrows.
The little guy’s cheeks flared a furious red, practically causing a bonfire on his pale skin.
With another arrow already cocked at Cristiano, Logan’s voice turned low and vicious. “You’ve hurt him enough already, so if you say another word about Blake or his family, I swear I’ll shut you up for good.”
Holy crap. Logan sounded deadly serious.
Cristiano nodded with sympathy. “My apologies. I was only trying to stop your friend before the guards caused any injury.”
Logan glared. “So you say. I still want you to shut up.”
The bow and arrow disappeared, but Logan flicked a hand and a mini-tornado of air shot out and surrounded Cristiano.
“That should do it.” Logan nodded with satisfaction, then turned back to Blake on the gurney.
My mind churned to keep up, trying to come to terms with Logan’s legit impression of a fellow ready to commit coldblooded murder, not to mention Blake and his past. Cristiano had broken the rule. I wasn’t supposed to know, but now that I did, I felt sick.
Sweet, adorable Blake had an abusive father? Where was the creep? Where were Blake’s mom and sister? Did they get hurt? Were they still alive? No wonder Logan had said Blake liked people to be happy, he’d seen the worst that could happen when they weren’t.
My jumble of thoughts was interrupted when Ayden wrapped me in his arms.
“Well, you’re full of surprises,” he said against my neck. “Not necessarily good ones, but I’m just glad you’re okay. You are okay?” When I nodded, he kissed me softly on the lips, then he studied my appearance. “Interesting look. How did this all happen?”
“Eros.”
“Ah,” he said with annoyed understanding. “That explains the outfit. Kind of. But what exactly is going on?” His eyes flicked to Cristiano. “And why isn’t he wearing a shirt?”
“I think it better for me to explain,” Cristiano said, his voice sounding like it was in another room.
The Boys all froze.
Logan turned slowly and stared a long, wary look at Cristiano. “How are you doing that?”
“How’s he doing what?” I asked.
“Still talking,” Logan said, taking a tentative step forward. “I’m holding him in the vortex and depleting the oxygen. He should barely be conscious, let alone able to speak.”
“Perhaps you cannot hear me.” Cristiano’s voice still sounded far away.
He glanced this way and that as he ran the tips of his fingers through the tornado circling around him, creating tiny rivulets in the cyclone of air. Then, without any effort, he stepped out of the vortex.
“And he sure as hell shouldn’t be able to escape it,” Logan added quietly. He started to pull up another bow and arrow.
Matthias waved him off. “Logan, watch over Blake, but I agree he should sleep it off while we talk.”
“I’ll take the tracker off too,” Logan said.
“I would advise against that,” Cristiano warned.
Logan sneered. “We don’t care what you think.”
“He’s right, Logan, leave it alone,” Matthias said. “Any attempt at removal sets off an alarm and the guards will be paying us another visit pronto. We want some privacy.” He eyed Cristiano. “While we let him explain himself.”
“Let him explain?” Ayden said with aggravated amazement. “Why don’t we hear what Aurora has to say?” His hand squeezed mine. “Especially about why he isn’t wearing a shirt.”
“I’d prefer a debriefing by the professional,” Matthias said. “Rather than one of the idiot’s exhausting, million-words-in-one-breath babbling explanations.”
“Hey,” I said. “That is a rare talent.”
“Maybe your only talent.” Matthias folded his arms. “The moron can always contradict anything he says. Provided he hasn’t done some sort of mind-warp on her. Like that would be hard to do.”
“I still hate you,” I said.
“Then we’re good.” The Aussie gestured for Cristiano to speak. “Come on mate, give it a go. Tell us why you’re our new best friend.”
“May I,” Cristiano said, indicating he’d like to enter the kitchen. “I have not eaten since breakfast, and it has been a vigorous day.”
“By all means,” Matthias said in an overly polite tone.
“You are too kind.” Cristiano started puttering around the kitchen like he owned the place. “I truly had high hopes for today. All appeared to be going smoothly at the high school. I was confident Aurora and I had established a level of trust. But, alas, the recently rescued bride of a demon god showed up masquerading as a teacher at our Physical Education lesson, and the day began to, shall we say, deviate from optimal.”
Funny how he could make a freaking disaster sound all kinds of pretty.
Cristiano continued with his flowery prose while fixing a delicious-looking deli sandwich and giving his rendition of the day’s events. Detailed and accurate. I let him speak, figuring I didn’t need to unwittingly spill any more information. I flopped on the couch, Ayden remained standing but kept a tight hold on my hand.
As the story progressed, Ayden’s body turned into a slab of granite, but when it got to the part about me getting attacked, interrogated, and stabbed, I think he stopped breathing altogether.
His hand gripped mine tighter, then he suddenly let go. “Sorry, is that the one?”
“No, it’s the other one.” I showed him. “All better.” Although I still felt a dull ache. Wonder how long it took for that to go away?
“Finally, on our way to the girl whose memory we need, we encountered our friend Blake.” Cristiano sliced the sandwich in two, placed one half on a plate and walked it toward me, but Tristan blocked his path. Cristiano told him, “I imagine she is as famished as I.” When Tristan shook his head, Cristiano frowned. “You think it to be poison? After all I have just told you?”
“You’re Sicarius,” Ayden said. “Anything is possible.”
“Fair enough.” Cristiano shrugged. “Which reminds me.” He fished the vial he’d used to inject me after I’d been stabbed out of his pants pocket and tossed it to Jayden. “Analyze the contents.”
“Why?” Jayden asked.
“To confirm it is not truth serum and further demonstrate my honest intentions.” Cristiano returned to the kitchen and began eating the sandwich, speaking between mouthfuls. “Yes, I am Sicarius. So the fact that she is still alive should be the only evidence you need that I have not been trying to dispatch her.”
“If he wanted me dead, I’d be dead,” I muttered. Ayden gave me a look. I shrugged. “He mentioned it earlier.”
“To further quell your fears, you must first understand, I have never tried to kill her," Cristiano said. "At the country club, outside the boathouse, I was attempting to stop her from running into an ambush. The demon was lying in wait in one of the sailboats after he had sent the young boy to lure her down the dock. Unexpectedly, she fought against me and in the ensuing struggle, the knife cut her accidentally. After I followed her onto the dock, I was shooting at the demon attacking her, not at Aurora. The same is true for when—”
“She was with Eros,” Ayden finished. “You thought a demon god was taking her against her will.”
Cristiano pointed the sandwich in his hand toward Ayden. “Exactly. How was I to know they were friends?”
“What
about hitting me with the van?” I said.
“Not my fault.” Cristiano wagged a finger. “You came out of nowhere and ran in front of me.”
“That I can believe,” Ayden said under his breath.
“Seriously?” I punched his arm.
Matthias said thoughtfully, “Protection? Yeah. That makes a lot more sense.”
“I would have to acquiesce,” Jayden nodded. “Unless he is the most inept Sicarius assassin in the world.”
“Which as I’ve seen in his files, is definitely not the case,” Tristan said.
“Thank you.” Cristiano wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood. “Now, my friends, since I have proven I am not a danger, Aurora and I must depart.”
Matthias held up a hand. “Whoa there, mate.”
“Not a chance,” Ayden said. “She’ll stay with us. You still haven’t explained why you’re here in the first place, or why you’re supposedly helping. You could be doing all of this just to get us to trust you and let you have her.”
Cristiano gave him a steady look. “I have already had her. Many times.”
There was a moment of silence, then the air heated around Ayden as the space between him and Cristiano suddenly overflowed with tension.
“I had her yesterday,” Cristiano said, his deep voice rumbling low. “All day, all night. Then I had her this entire morning.” After a beat, Cristiano smiled at Ayden. “I even had you.”
Ayden startled. “Excuse me?”
“Last night,” Cristiano said. “Who do you think got you out of Gossamer Falls and back here before you were discovered missing? And I made it look like you were a hero. So you see, I have had you both and treated you well.”
“You drugged me?” Ayden said. “But you can’t fly. Can you?”
“No,” Cristiano admitted. “So technically Horus saved you. But it was my idea and a dual effort. I am glad to see you found another shirt.”
“At least one of us did,” Ayden grumbled.
“How did the demon they found next to Ayden get burned to a crisp?” Logan asked.
Cristiano lifted a shoulder. “It is not Horus’s first. He is highly skilled in that type of endeavor.”
Tristan muttered, “Ew.”
I had to agree.
“Where is the rest of your team?” Matthias said.
Cristiano made a vague gesture. “Elsewhere. I anticipated this situation being delicate. Horus is the only one I could trust to accompany me until I knew more. The others are not as sensitive as I am.”
“It still doesn’t explain why you’re here in Gossamer Falls,” I said. “Why you stalked me. Why you acted like you knew me in Paris.”
Cristiano looked at his watch and sighed. “I will give you what we have time for.” When he spoke, the words were clipped and businesslike. “There was an asset I was assigned to protect. I failed. I watched her die. You share an uncanny resemblance with her.”
“And her name was Fiamma?” I said.
“A nickname, but, yes. When I saw you in Paris, well, even the entire team thought that by some miracle she was still alive. I tracked your holocom signal to the United States, but did not know where to start looking until the Hex Boys' mission reports mentioned Artemis in the skirmish with Aphrodite and Eros.”
Skirmish? How about epic battle. Sheesh. These boys needed to put some more meat in their reports.
“And you’d seen me with Artemis.” Right before we’d teleported out of Paris.
“Yes,” Cristiano said. “Perhaps we had been duped. The demon gods love to play tricks. I had to find out. The link to the Hex Boys seemed thin, but it was a place to start. I arrived and saw you, but once I studied you, your background, it became clear you were not the girl I thought you to be.”
“But you stuck around anyway,” Matthias said.
“How could I not?” Cristiano said. “It was thoroughly intriguing. She is not a hunter, appears to have no connection to the Mandatum, yet demons are after her, and the Hex Boys have assigned themselves as her personal body guards. When you were away at Novo, I thought it best to take over for you. Having her assigned as my liaison at school seemed an excellent way to keep her close and protect her. I did not anticipate that she would make it so difficult.”
Matthias grunted. “You don’t know the half of it.”
What a charmer.
“This could still be some ploy,” Ayden said. “For him to take her.”
Cristiano threw a hand in the air. “For what purpose? She has nothing I want!”
“Thanks a lot,” I said.
“Really?” A small laugh escaped Cristiano’s lips. “Now you are concerned about currying my favor?”
“Curry your favor?” I said. “Please, your English is better than mine.”
“No, he’s right.” Ayden patted my shoulder. “You have nothing he wants.”
“But what is it you think others want?” Cristiano pulled out Heather’s file. “And what does it have to do with this girl and my mother? Who, for the record, I do not believe is part of any murder plot, but we can discuss that later. Now, I need to know what you are hiding. What is the big secret? Tell me so we can determine how I can help.”
The following silence was heavy. A dead weight.
The Hex Boys kept their mouths shut. Protecting me. Endangering themselves.
Cristiano shook his head, disappointed. “I have answered all your questions, yet you do not answer mine. I could have the whole of the Mandatum on you by now. In protecting her, you have broken numerous protocols and laws. The totality of your actions would be deemed deceptive at best, traitorous at worst. In effect, the consequences would be dire.” He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed in the silence.
Labeled traitors? Now that was ironic. And nuts.
I glanced at my hand, at the spot where the knife had stabbed through. My chest hollowed out. Ice water filled the void, making it hard to breath. I flexed my hand and stared at it. And suddenly the blade was there again, buried in my flesh. I felt a spasm of pain. I yelped and jumped off the couch.
“Aurora?” Ayden was in front of me, shaking my shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
I focused on him then looked at my hand again. There was no knife. No pain either. “Nothing.” I dropped back onto the couch. “I’m fine.”
“Not exactly,” Cristiano said, his voice hard as steel. “But she will be. She saw the knife once again stabbed in her hand. Residual trauma. A sort of flashback. Phantom pain.”
Trauma. You could say that.
Ayden kissed my palm, then stroked my cheek. “I’ll demand a quick trip home and take you with me.”
“They will not agree,” Cristiano said. “You are in no position to make demands.”
Ayden’s jaw clenched. “Then I’ll go anyway.”
“And risk your entire team? And her?” Cristiano lifted his chin toward me. “They will ask questions. Especially since she is supposed to be with me.”
Ayden shot Cristiano a glare. “Well, she isn’t with you. Look, I got out of here before, I can do it again.”
“Yes, but the last time you were not wearing a tracker, which will change shortly.” Cristiano shook his head. “You are letting emotions override good judgement, and that could endanger us all.”
“At least I have emotions,” Ayden growled. “I’m not another Sicarius psycho killing everything he's told to like some mindless robot.”
Matthias stepped between Ayden and Cristiano. A gutsy move since Ayden seemed to be ready to shoot fire at Armani. “That’s enough,” Matthias said, then turned to Cristiano. “Can you get us released?”
Cristiano made a frustrated gesture. “I am not even supposed to be here.”
“I wish you weren’t,” Ayden muttered under his breath.
Cristiano ignored him and continued. “And if I make myself known in such a way, my team will be apprised of my whereabouts and interject themselves into the situation. I can assure you, their arrival would be a most undesirable cir
cumstance for all of us.”
Tristan said, “I’m thinking he’s right on that one.”
Me too.
“And,” Cristiano said in a tired voice, “I thought the priority was rescuing this girl to help Aurora’s situation. Whatever that may be. Frankly, I am the only one in a position to make that happen.”
“Doesn’t mean we can trust you with Aurora,” Ayden said, his voice low and cold.
Matthias shrugged. “Hey, with all that’s happened, he gets props for not killing her yet.”
“Oh, that’s helpful!” Ayden yelled.
Tristan glanced nervously at the door and hissed, “Quiet down.”
But they didn’t. The arguing continued, getting louder.
I had to admit, I was seriously tempted to ditch this place pronto, but that would be weak and whiny and make this whole trip—and trauma—a waste of time. Not to mention leave Heather at the mercy of some nasty folk.
I started fiddling with the umbra stone which felt warm between my fingers. I needed to get a clue. Get a grip. Get a handle on reality and deal with it. I was alive, and I had things to do. People were counting on me. I was counting on me. Where was that indomitable Lahey spirit?
Starving, apparently.
“Stop!” I stood and tossed my hands in the air. “Just stop!”
I strode to the kitchen and snatched Cristiano’s plate out from under him. He raised his brows, but said nothing. After I wolfed down the remnants of his sandwich—delicious—I stalked around to open the fridge. Cristiano moved quickly out of my way. I found a pear and ate that too, then shoved a handful of pastrami into my mouth, and chugged milk straight from the carton.
Like the true rebel I was. Or wished I was.
“What?” I said when I caught them all looking at me.
“You okay?” Tristan asked.
“I’d be better with…” I opened the freezer. “Bingo.” I pulled out a pint of ice cream and chowed down on that too. “How are you? How’s your dad?”
“Everything’s fine,” Tristan said. “They think I cleverly stumbled onto the demons, then the rest of the guys stumbled onto me, and we all battled our way out to uncover the diabolical scheme of a Novo demon takeover. We’re heroes. Or at least we were until the whole Blake and Ayden fiascos.”