I frowned at an uncomfortable thought. “Ah… how does that body’s original owner feel about having you in his skull? The human original owner, I mean, not Valak.” Who was evidently dead and eaten.
“You mean the host? He’s long gone.” Paladin shrugged. “His name was William Doran. Valak killed him three years ago when he identified him as having enough talent to be a useable host. Burned his consciousness away.”
Yeah, frying a host was standard operating procedure for dark gods. I licked my lips. “But… what about us?” Was he going to come back to me?
The grin turned sensual. “We’ll be fine.”
Before I could tell him that wasn’t what I meant, Paladin turned his attention to Mark, who stood at Dave’s side, tense and ready to fight. “Come here, boy. Let’s put you back to rights. I’m sure Ulf wants to get out of this rock.” He held up the second gemstone, the one Valak had used to trap his friend.
Mark lost the sick, bewildered expression. “Oh, hell yeah. It feels really lonely in here without him.”
I knew exactly what he meant. I could swear my head had developed a distinct echo. I wondered when Paladin intended to come home.
Unless… Surely he didn’t intend to stay in that body? Was he leaving me? The thought triggered a wave of anxiety I tried to reason away. He wouldn’t do that. He loves me.
While Mark and Paladin discussed the spell he was about to cast, I turned to Dave. The boy looked hunched and pale, and I wondered uneasily what he’d gone through while Valak held him. “Hey, are you all right?”
“I am now.” He gave me a smile, but it looked strained. “Thanks for coming after me.”
I pulled him into a hug. “Me and every avatar and Demi warrior Zanos-James has. Your mother showed up at the Demifair and told us what happened. We all mobilized to search, including your mom. She’s half out of her mind, worrying about you.”
He frowned. “You wouldn’t happen to have a cell phone, would you? I really have to give her a call, and they took mine.”
I reached into my jeans pocket, only to find nothing more than a lint-covered mint. “One of these assholes has my iPhone.” I glanced over at Calliope, who sat with her tail curled around her toes. “Can you call Rizoel and let her know what’s going on?”
Calliope flicked one inky ear. “Already done. In fact, everybody’s on their way here now. Apparently Zanos-James sensed Paladin’s spell when he wiped out all these bastards. Zanos and his warriors will be here in about five minutes.”
“Good thing, too.” I looked around at the pile of bodies. “Making this many corpses disappear would challenge even Paladin.”
While we’d been talking, Paladin had started chanting his spell, one hand on Mark’s forehead, the other holding the gem. I felt magic rise in an ozone-scented wave of tingling warmth.
Light flared around Paladin’s hands. When it died a moment later, a rain of glittering dust fell -- the remains of the Ulf stone.
Mark staggered. Paladin grabbed his arm, steadying him on his feet.
“Elder gods bless you.” Ulf-Mark shook himself like a man settling a coat around his shoulders. “You really pulled my ass out of the fire this time.” He looked around at the corpses and shook his head in admiration. “And I must say, you outdid yourself. I do believe every one of those bastards is dead.”
“Every last one of them deserved it, too,” Paladin told him grimly. “The things this body remembers… Nasty. And if the Elder Gods bless anybody, it should be Summer. If it hadn’t been for her, we’d both be Valak’s entrée by now. She’s the real hero of this mess.”
“I just freed you,” I pointed out, uncomfortable. “You did all the rest.”
“Which wouldn’t have been possible without you.” Ulf-Mark grimaced. “All I seem to have managed to do is get myself captured. Your parents would be so proud of you, Summer. That was quick thinking.”
I felt my cheeks heat. “Thanks. That means a lot coming from you.”
He walked over and pulled me into a hug that felt so warm and familiar, I couldn’t help relaxing into his paternal strength. “We always thought you had a lot of potential even when you were a little girl. So bright -- and so feisty. You certainly proved us right today.”
“Thanks, Da… Ah, I mean, Ulf-Mark.” Cheeks heating, I pulled away.
The warehouse’s huge loading door opened, the rusted metal shrieking loud enough to make me jump. I suspected I’d probably be jumping at loud noises for a while.
Jennifer Stone was the first one through, running for her boy with a happy shriek. It was only then I really felt the relief, so intense my knees went weak.
We’d done it.
Chapter Twelve
“Dave!” Jennifer Stone cried as she raced ahead of the others. “Dave, Elder gods, are you all right?”
The boy instantly straightened and forced a smile as he ran to his mother, jumping over the bodies in his path without giving them so much as a glance. She plowed into him, and they wrapped their arms around each other. “Mom! God, I’m so glad to see you!”
Tears rolled down Jennifer’s cheeks, but she didn’t even seem aware of them as she clutched her son. “Oh, gods, I was afraid the next time I looked in your eyes, I’d see a stranger looking back! Are you sure you’re all right?” She pulled back to give him an urgent, devouring gaze. “Did they hurt you?”
Dave hugged her close, and I suddenly realized he was already a couple of inches taller than his mother. He was going to be a big man when he grew into that gangling Demi body. “I’m fine, Mom. Paladin and Summer saved me.”
The woman lifted her head to look at me, though she didn’t loosen her relieved, joyous clutch. Tears still rolled, but her smile was radiant. “Thank you! Thank you both so much! I will never be able to repay what you’ve done for us.”
I grinned at her in relief. “So does this mean you won’t run from me the next time I see you in the parking lot?”
She huffed. “Hey, blame Paladin. He warned me not to tell you anything about being Demi. I was so damned scared I’d let the cat out of the bag…”
“And she was, too.” Dave confirmed. “She kept telling me he was going to kill us every time I bought a set of Magic cards from you.”
I blinked. “You do realize he’d never have touched a hair on your heads, right?”
She gave me a look. “Frankly, I didn’t want to take the chance.”
I guess she had a point.
Zanos-James had strolled in, Rizoel perched on his forearm and assorted avatars and Demi warriors at his heels. He gave all of us a long, considering look across the ring of bodies, then gazed around at the carnage. “Damn, you were pissed.” He turned to Paladin. “Who are you wearing, by the way? I feel you in there, but I don’t recognize the face.”
Paladin gave him a faintly carnivorous smile. “Valak, actually.”
“Serves the fucker right.” Then he frowned, looking puzzled. “New body? Because I’ve seen his previous one.”
“This is his previous one. I redecorated.” A muscle in his jaw flexed. “I didn’t want to wear the bastard’s face.”
“Well, I can understand that. What happened?”
Paladin filled him in, sketching the events with an almost military brevity that still managed to communicate all the facts with the emotion stripped cleanly away.
While we’d been talking, Detective Terry Baylor had been strolling along the ring of bodies, examining faces, stopping occasionally to turn a body over. Finally she rejoined the happy knot of avatars and Demis around us. “The police chief owes you a medal. I recognize suspects in half a dozen murders and armed robberies in this bunch.”
“You’re actually understating it.” Paladin looked grim as an undertaker. “They murdered at least two dozen homeless people, on top of the ones you know about. Valak had his thugs robbing convenience stores, committing burglaries, and selling drugs to make the money he claimed as tribute.”
“The question now is, what the hel
l are we going to do with all these bodies?” Zanos-James contemplated then, his upper lip curled.
“I could call it in,” Baylor suggested. “Say I got a tip, came and found them like this.”
“No, that would look too damn weird.” Zanos-James shook his head. “There’s more than a hundred bodies here. It would cause a media shit storm and raise too many questions. And I don’t particularly want the feds looking into it either.”
“We could dress it up, conjure some bullet wounds and make it look like a gang war gone bad. Maybe they shot each other,” Ulf-Mark suggested.
“Again, it would end up on the national news. I just don’t want to get that kind of attention on the town. Let’s make the bodies vanish. Better a bunch of missing person cases than a mass murder.”
“You know, all these asshats did have families,” Baylor pointed out. “Their relatives deserve some kind of closure.”
“Most of these bastards victimized their families before they got around to anybody else,” Paladin said. “I suspect they’ll all be secretly relieved not to have to worry about these shits beating the hell out of them and stealing everything they have left.”
“All right then, we’ll dispose of the bodies the way we usually do,” Zanos-James said, hands on hips as he contemplated the corpses. “There’s so damn many of them, we’re going to have to divvy them up or drain ourselves. Ulf-Mark, you…”
“I’ll take care of them,” Paladin interrupted. “I need to burn off some magic.” He rolled his broad shoulders, his tatts flaring bright blue and violet.
Zanos-James studied him, one dark brow rising in question. “What, all of them? That’s a hell of a big burn.”
He shrugged. “I absorbed a hell of a lot of magic from Valak and his nasty little congregation.”
“Yeah, I noticed that,” Zanos-James said dryly.
“You are glowing a bit.” Grinning, Ulf-Mark held up a hand as if shading his eyes.
“Smart ass. Move back a few feet, guys. Give me room to work.”
“A few feet?” one Demi muttered. “I’d be more comfortable out in the parking lot. Better chance of being out of the blast zone.”
Paladin snorted in amusement.
“Wait,” I said. “one of these assholes has my cell phone and car keys.”
Ulf-Mark grimaced. “Mine too.”
Paladin gestured. Light flared, and Dave, Ulf-Mark and I found ourselves holding whatever our attackers had filched.
Then the whole Demi crowd got out of Paladin’s way, stepping over the bodies. I tried not to look into any of the slack, staring faces. Never mind that they would’ve killed me and my friends.
It was chilling to realize Paladin had killed over a hundred men in less than a second -- a stark reminder he really was a god. The same man who made love to me so tenderly was also capable of a mass execution. I shuddered.
When he judged we’d moved back enough, Paladin lifted his right hand. The sigil in the middle of his palm began to glow, first dark blue, then whiter, brighter and brighter still, until energy lashed out like a lightning bolt.
I’d seen my mother do something similar after the deaths of my father and brother twelve years ago. That had been amazing enough, but what Paladin did now was even more awe-inspiring as his power rolled over the ring of bodies.
Blue sparks danced over the corpses in a light show that reminded me of Fourth of July fireworks. It was pretty as long as you ignored what he was actually doing -- disposing of those he’d killed.
His handsome profile was limned in light, his jaw set hard. I knew that expressionless mask meant that he felt the weight of those deaths, even though he’d had absolutely no choice.
Paladin might be god of justice, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed killing. He did it because it was the only way to prevent the suffering of innocent people like Dave and his mother.
Those bastards had killed and tormented their last victims. The world was a safer place without them. But there was still a price to pay. A weight of responsibility.
I remembered the night he killed Gerald Moss, that first serial killer he’d taken when all this began. Back then I’d thought I was simply writing about the adventures of a fictional detective, but I’d still experienced the sickening weight of Moss’s crimes.
Paladin had been haunted by the thug’s crimes, and so had I.
Now he’d taken the equivalent of a hundred Gerald Mosses, drinking in all their sins. Not to mention Valak’s memories, which must’ve been like bathing in four thousand years’ worth mental sewage. God knew what foul crimes that bastard had committed.
God -- and Paladin.
I remembered his trip to see Iva-Diane earlier tonight to cleanse those magical stones. Without you, I’d go eeeeeviiiiiiiil.
Could even Diane cleanse this much evil? Eris probably could -- that was one of the advantages of inhabiting a sword. She could tolerate a quantity of evil magic that would burn out a living host like a penny in an electrical outlet.
Too bad Eris hated his fucking guts.
When the last of the bodies disappeared, Zanos-James said dryly, “Yep, you were definitely pissed off.”
“He was going to wear Summer like a meat suit,” Paladin growled, such rage in his voice that several people sidled away from him. He gestured at the vanished thugs. “And those fuckers abetted his crimes. You’re damned right I was pissed. Every last one of them needed killing, and I was more than happy to do the job.”
At that, several of the Demis gave him wary looks and sidled a little further away.
Ulf-Mark pointed at him. “God of justice. Judging asshats is part of the job description.”
“Suddenly I feel a need to pay all my speeding tickets,” one of the warriors said. There was a wave of nervous laughter.
“And I feel the need for a beer,” Ulf-Mark said, thumping Paladin on the shoulder.
“Sounds like a plan.” Zanos-James clapped his hands and gave his people a grin. “Good work tonight, boys and girls.”
“Yeah, I appreciate your willingness to ride to the rescue.” Paladin smiled, though it looked a little forced.
“Not that you needed the help,” Opal said, jerking a thumb at the now empty warehouse.
Jennifer looked at Paladin with naked gratitude. “Thank you so much for saving my child.” Her voice shook a little as she wrapped her arm around Dave’s shoulder.
The boy smiled a little wanly, and my heart ached for him. “Yeah, thanks.”
“That child is going to need some therapy,” Calliope murmured as she stroked around my ankles.
I bent and picked her up, the better to talk more privately. “But it’s not like Dave can just go to a therapist. How the hell would he talk about any of this without revealing too much?”
“There’s a goddess of mental healing he could go to in Charlotte,” Calliope said thoughtfully. “I’ll give Reyna-Joey’s number to Jennifer, suggest she give her a call. Reyna’s pretty good with this kind of thing.”
While we’d been talking, the avatars and Demis all started for the warehouse exit, laughing and exchanging cheerful insults. The humor sounded a little strained, as if they were working a little bit too hard at it. The rest of us trailed after them.
Tonight had shaken up even the most powerful avatars. They might be no stranger to magical war, but this had been something else again.
I was acutely aware of Paladin walking beside me. This time he was actually there, not just an illusion he’d created in my mind. The thought made me oddly nervous, in part because I had no idea where we stood. Was he coming back to me? And if not, what did that mean for our relationship?
Did we even have one? Or was that an illusion too?
As we left the warehouse, Ulf-Mark asked, “Want me to give you three a ride home?”
That’s right, we’d come in his black moving violation. I slanted him a look. “Thanks. I’m not exactly in the mood for that long a walk.”
“You’re not the only one. I’m
fried.” He rubbed the back of his neck as if it ached.
In deference to Paladin’s long legs, I took the back seat with Calliope in my lap. Ulf-Mark started the car and pulled out.
It was well after midnight and traffic was light, particularly in this part of town. We all sat there in battered silence, too exhausted for casual chat.
I stared at Paladin’s profile as he sat in the front seat. For a man who’d just defeated his worst enemy, he looked sick, almost defeated. Ulf-Mark asked the question I didn’t quite have the guts for. “So when are you going to fry that piece of meat you’re in and go back to Summer?”
“I’m not.” Paladin’s tone was completely flat, inviting no argument.
I stared at him in shock, feeling my heart sink. I knew that tone. He meant it. What had I done?
“Why the hell not?” Ulf-Mark sounded pissed. “I know Summer’s not the problem. She did a good job tonight. If not for her giving you the chance to escape…”
Paladin managed a tight, unconvincing smile. “Summer is definitely not the issue. You’re right -- she pulled a complete disaster right out of the fire after we got ourselves captured. She’s smart, talented, and didn’t panic even in the face of a very ugly situation.”
“But if you refuse to go back to her, the Demimonde is going to think it’s because of her.” Rising, Calliope balanced on my thighs, ears flattened and tail lashing. “Particularly given that the body you’re occupying is so much less talented than she is. If you don’t go back to her, people are going to think it’s because there’s something seriously wrong with her. You know how the gossip mill works. It would be the social kiss of death.”
Judging from the fuming glare Ulf-Mark sent Paladin, he agreed with the cat. “You can’t do that to her, pal. She deserves better.”
Normally, that would be my cue to wade in and stand up for myself. Unfortunately, I felt so sick and bewildered I couldn’t seem to get my thoughts together enough to marshal an argument.
Paladin (Graven Gods Book 1) Page 18