Jed looked at her. “Mona.”
She sighed, and looked at Derek. “This pisses me off. Why do people keep trying to take her? Theresa will be so unhappy if I kill them.”
“Just a sip,” Paige said. “He’s already immortal. He’s just having trouble healing due to the nature of his injuries.”
“No.”
Derek eyed Paige. “Why do you want him healed? Isn’t he the enemy?”
“Well, yeah.”
“So, why do you want to save him?”
She looked at him. “I need his help if we have a chance of winning.”
Justine scowled. “Derek, let it go. We have to kill them.”
He held up his hand. “Hang on a sec, hon.” He turned to Paige again. “Why do you want to save him?”
She sat back and put her hands on her knees. “Because I’m not giving up. We have ten hours left to find an answer and I need Jed—”
Derek shook his head. “That’s not what I’m asking. Why not leave him there, and walk away? He won’t recover in ten hours to convert you, then the contract will be over and he’ll be free, even if his brother isn’t. Why would you even think about trying to save him right now?”
There was something in his eyes that made her sit back and look at him.
He raised one eyebrow.
She opened her mouth to reply, then shut it again, her heart tightening. Because I love him?
Derek moved the machine gun slightly, so he could look at Jed. “You going to convert her to save your brother, or are you going to let your brother die? Either way, you go free at midnight, so it’s no longer about you. Who do you love more?”
Jed opened his eyes to glare at Derek. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“No.” Derek set the machine gun over his shoulder and squatted next to Jed. “I’m just trying to understand the situation. What are you going to do if we save you?”
“We aren’t going to save him,” Justine said. “We can’t. The Council—”
“The Council is in disarray right now. They aren’t paying any attention to us,” Derek said softly. “This is our choice now.”
“But my Oath—”
He looked up at his wife. “You broke it for me.”
Her face softened, and she looked at Paige and Jed. “He’s already immortal, right?”
Paige nodded. “He just needs some healing.”
Justine looked at her husband again. He smiled at her, and she finally smiled back.
Then she tossed the gun on the kitchen table, stepped over Jed, and scooped up a ladle of punch from the crystal punch bowl that Mona was currently masquerading as. She hesitated, then walked over to Jed and kneeled down next to him. “You tell anyone we did this, and I’ll shoot you.”
“You got it.”
She eyed Paige.
“Ditto.”
Justine hesitated, then Derek put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. She glanced at him, then gritted her teeth and poured the punch into Jed’s mouth.
None of them spoke while Jed drank three times, then Justine sat back on her heels, looking drained. “I can’t believe I just did that. I’m getting soft.”
Derek put his arm around her and hugged her against his side. “You’re modernizing. It’s all good.”
Jed closed his eyes and let his head rest against Paige’s lap. She bit her lip and stroked his hair. “How soon will this work?”
“A few minutes.” Justine stood up as sparks began to burst off Jed’s skin. Blues, reds, gold sparkers. “Fireworks are a good sign, but I’m going in the other room. I need some space.”
Derek hopped up as she disappeared through the swinging door. “I need to check on her. You guys okay if I leave?”
Paige was suddenly envious of their relationship. “Derek? Can I ask you a personal question?”
He raised his brows. “What is it?”
“Would you give your life, your eternal soul, for Justine?”
He got a tender expression on his face and he nodded. “Yeah, I would. I almost did, in fact.”
“And what about her? Would she do it for you?”
“Absolutely.”
She sighed, and tightened her fingers in Jed’s hair. “That’s so romantic.”
He gave her a sympathetic smile. “It didn’t feel romantic at the time. It felt like hell.”
“It felt like love, though, huh?”
“Wouldn’t have done it otherwise.” He hesitated. “Good luck tonight. Hope it works out for you guys.” Then he turned and followed his wife out of the room.
Paige stared after him. How do you know when to do it? How do you know when it’s worth it?
Jed shifted, and she looked down at him.
His eyes were open and alert, and they were bright violet. No blackness at all, as he looked at her.
“Feeling better?”
He reached up and twisted his fingers in her hair, tugging her down. “Yeah.” He pulled her until her lips touched his, and he kissed her. “Thanks for taking care of me.”
“Yeah, well, fat lot of good it’s doing for us, huh?”
He touched her mouth, tracing her frown with his fingers. “Since when are you the pessimist? You’re not giving up on me, are you?”
“Well, it does seem kind of dire . . .”
He sat up with a groan, and rolled to his knees, and grabbed her shoulders. “You’re the one who’s all bright and optimistic, who brings light into every dark spot she enters. Do not let this shit get you down! I need you to be who you are.” His fingers dug into her shoulders. “Do you hear me?” His eyes were bright violet, the brightest she’d ever seen. “I need you to be my anchor, Paige. I need you.” His hands slipped to the sides of her neck, to her cheeks. “God, I need you,” he whispered.
Her heart tightened at the intensity on his face. “You do, don’t you? You really need me?”
“Hell, yes.” He closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them again, a look on his face she couldn’t quite decipher. He grabbed the edge of the table and slowly pulled himself to his feet. “Grab Mona.”
“What? Why?”
“Since she heals metaphysical harm, then maybe she can heal what’s wrong with Rafi, at least enough for us to talk to him . . .” He paused. “Maybe she can heal you.”
“Me?” She caught her breath and looked at Mona, who flashed bright red and then changed into a sports water bottle with a Velcro carry-strap.
“Let’s go, before they come back.”
“Oh, Theresa is so going to kill me . . .” But she jumped up, grabbed Mona, and strapped her around her waist. “How will we find Rafi?”
Jed just took her hand. “He’ll find us. Just get us out of here before Derek and Justine return—”
He paused and frowned, and Paige looked over her shoulder in time to see Rafi stream under the door, like a black cloud. Already? The Men in White had hired a very competent and persistent assassin.
She scowled and turned to face him. “Take form, man. I’m tired of you skulking around behind your vapory mask.”
To her surprise, he did take human form . . . all except his eyes. So black.
“Drink this.” Jed tossed the water bottle at his brother. “Maybe it’ll help.”
Rafi took the water bottle between both hands, and ripped it into two pieces. The tearing plastic made a heartrending wail that made all three of them cover their ears as clear liquid poured all over the floor. Rafi dropped the two pieces as the door flew open and Justine came bounding through the door. “What did you do? What happened?”
Her gaze went to the floor, and she paled and fell to her knees. “Oh, no. Mona!” She grabbed the two parts of the plastic and scooped up what liquid she could, as fast she could. “Derek!”
Paige ran over to help, grabbing one half of the cup from Justine to scoop the liquid back up, then froze as her hand got covered in water. Holy shit. She looked at Justine. “Mona’s got a soul.”
Justine snapped her
gaze to her. “What?”
“She has a soul. She’s alive. I can feel it.”
Justine dropped her gaze to the puddle at their knees. “Oh, God, Mona,” she whispered. “I had no idea.”
Paige could feel Mona weakening. “She’s dying, though. I think Rafi—” She suddenly realized her hands were still in the puddle and she yanked them out with a gasp of horror, stumbling back. “I touched her. Oh, no! She’s dying. I can feel it. I’m killing her.”
“You can’t. She’s immortal.” Justine kept scooping, trying to round up as much liquid as possible. “I just need to get her back in her containers. Then she’ll be fine. Oh, please be fine, baby.”
“I can kill immortals.” Paige watched in horror as the puddle began to turn black. “I killed her.”
“Watch out for Rafi,” Jed warned, as his brother began to fade. “Rafi! The contract only goes until tonight. Then you’re free. Free!”
Something flickered in Rafi’s face, something human and alive, and Jed lunged for his brother, grabbing his shoulders. “You only have to survive until tonight. Then you’re free.”
“Jed?” Rafi took solid form again, his eyes still black, but there were flecks of brown in them. The strain it was taking to surface, to find himself, was evident, in the tension of his body, in the anguished lines around his mouth. “It’s too late. I made a deal.”
Jed tightened his grip on his brother. “No. It’s not too late. Come back to me, Rafi. Now.”
Rafi shook his head. “No. I can’t—”
“Drink from Mona. She might heal you,” Jed said, the pain in his voice so brittle that Paige’s heart almost snapped. “Bring you back from whatever the Council did to you.”
A flare of hope showed on Rafi’s face, and they both looked down at Mona.
Paige realized the water was getting blacker in the white cup Justine held, and she pressed her hands to her chest. “She’s dying. Mona’s dying. I killed her.”
Derek slammed the door open, carrying his machine gun. He aimed it at Rafi. “Who are you?”
Justine held up Mona. “Paige said she has a soul, but now . . . she may be dying.” She looked around the room, her face a combination of pain and defiance. “Mona is more than a drink of immortality. In order to give her life, she was created by taking life from the three worlds around her: the Afterlife, the mortal world and the Otherworld. She holds the final piece to life in her. All life.”
Paige felt her mouth drop open. “So, if she dies, the world dies?”
Justine met her gaze. “Yes.”
Her knees started to tremble. “Oh, hell.”
Derek cursed and raised the gun to aim it at Rafi. “You killed her?”
“No.” Paige stepped forward. “I did.” She blinked hard. “It was me.”
“You didn’t kill her.” Jed was suddenly beside her. “You didn’t kill her. Look at her.”
They all leaned forward to look, and Paige realized the water was less black than it had been. Still gray, but definitely improving. Mona was healing herself. “Oh, thank God.”
Justine breathed a deep sigh of relief, then glared around the room. “None of you are welcome here again. Derek, do something with them.” Then she turned and walked out of the room, cradling the two parts of the water bottle against her chest.
Derek leveled the gun at them. “Out. All of you. Now.”
“No.” Jed shoved his brother behind him and marched up to Derek. “Rafi needs to drink from Mona. Now.”
Paige realized from the look on Derek’s face that he was ready to shoot all of them, right there. She set her hands on Jed’s arm. “Jed. Your priority is Rafi’s soul. His sanity can wait.”
Jed hesitated and then nodded. “Take us to the west towers of hell.” He reached out and grabbed Rafi’s arm. “All of us.”
“The west towers? Why?”
“That’s where the third gate is.”
“The third gate? But I thought you didn’t know—”
“It’s there. I’m certain.” Rafi began to fade into shadow form. “Do it now, Paige. I can’t hold him for much longer.”
Derek raised his gun. “Now.”
So she took them to the only part of hell that was forbidden even to Rivkas. And when they got there, she found out why.
Thirty-one
Jed couldn’t believe it when he saw the black towers rising above their heads. Eleven of them, black as night, with fire stacks on the top of each one. It was exactly what he’d envisioned when he’d told Paige to take them here. Inhuman screams were screeching through the black night, and his skin crawled at the sounds. Black shapes darted over their heads, a high-pitched shriek emanating from them as they streaked past, leaving behind the foul stench of sulfur and rot. And death.
The ground was mushy, bubbling with acid geysers, and he could see gaunt faces of people just below the surface. All of them screaming, clawing at the ground, trying to get free. He looked around, suddenly realizing Rafi hadn’t made the trip with them. Dammit. Where the hell was he?
Paige was staring up at the towers, her mouth open. “This is it.”
“‘It’ what?”
“The bowels of hell. Where no one goes. Ever.” She pulled her shirt up over her nose, and glanced down at the ground, then paled. “I recognize them. That woman there . . .” She walked over and squatted, laying her palm in a pool of bubbling acid, hand-to-hand with a woman trapped beneath the pool. “She used to be Satan’s head researcher.” The woman screamed, a soundless noise that made Jed’s hackles rise.
“What did she do to get trapped in there?”
“She murdered Satan’s wife.”
Jed blinked. “Satan had a wife?”
“A long time ago. He totally lost his mind for like five millenniums after she was murdered.” Paige stood up, and wiped her hand on her jeans. “He created this place just for his wife’s murderer. And others like her.” She shivered. “Satan never comes here, and he’s forbidden anyone else to. I think it freaks out even him.”
“I can see why.” He nudged the ground with his toe, feeling sick at the sight of all the tortured faces. “Can we get them out?”
“Oh, no.” Paige shook her head quickly. “You don’t want to do that. These people are really bad. Like, true, true evil. To release them would be to destroy the world.”
“Kind of like your wraith?”
Paige frowned at him. “Was that a nice thing to say? I’m vulnerable right now.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I was just assimilating.” He took her hand and studied the towers. He could feel a humming coming from the second tower, calling for him. He pointed to it. “There. The gateway’s in there.”
“So . . . what now? Do we go through it? Rita said we’d know what to do when we got here.”
“Hell if I know. Let’s go check it out.”
Paige led the way, climbing over the rocks that blocked the entrance to the tower.
Jed’s hands burned from the hot rock, but not enough to stop either of them. Paige flared up a fireball for a torch, so they could see where they were going. It took almost an hour, but they finally made it to the bottom of a curving staircase that disappeared into the black void above their heads.
“Up there?”
Jed could still feel a vibration coming from above. “Yeah. I think.”
“Let’s go.”
They started to climb, and the vibration became stronger, until suddenly Jed stopped, placing his hand on Paige’s arm. “Wait.”
“What?”
“We’ve got a problem.”
“We’ve got many problems. Do we have a new one?”
“Hang here for a sec.” He moved past her and took a few more steps, and then he stopped and placed his hands on the stone wall. It was cold under his touch.
“Is this it?” Paige came to stand next to him and pressed her palm against the rock.
Jed immediately felt something simmer inside him, something dark. “Step back
.” The voice that came out of him was deep and hollow, unlike any sound he’d ever made.
Paige immediately dropped her hands and moved away from the wall.
But still, the vibration inside him continued, building strength, building darkness. He turned to face Paige, leaning his back against the cold stone. “You need to go back to the bottom of the stairs. Now.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide. “You’re one seriously scary-looking dude right now. Your eyes are black, your hair’s standing out on end, and you’ve got this total murderous look on your face.”
“You’re a threat to the gate,” he ground out. “Get. Back.”
“Your shadow warrior’s going to kill me because I’m trying to go through the gate? I didn’t think of that.” She started backing down the stairs. “No problem. I’ll just wait downstairs while you think on it, okay?”
Jed watched her go, fighting against every instinct in his body to go shadow and destroy her instantly. It wasn’t until she disappeared from sight, until he could no longer hear her footsteps on the stone, that he felt the humming subside ever so slightly.
Then he turned and looked at the stone again. Studied it for a long minute. Then he laid his palms on the wall again, moved them around, sliding them over the rough stone until he knew they were in the right place.
Then he pressed them against the stone.
And it worked.
The gate opened.
Paige hopped over the last black boulder and landed on the acid pool ground, then lifted her foot when she realized that Satan’s ex–head researcher was under her feet again.
She frowned and squatted so she could look at the woman. Her eyes were wide, and she was screaming, but her mouth was moving as if she were screaming specific words, instead of just random expressions of intolerable pain and misery. Paige frowned. “What are you saying?”
She leaned closer, and put her ear against the ground to see if she could hear, but there was no sound. But she felt better just being that close to her . . . not just better . . . complete.
Which immediately made her sit back up.
Then she saw another face had joined Satan’s ex- researcher. This one was a man with red hair and two empty sockets where his eyes should have been.
Sex & The Immortal Bad Boy Page 23