Locked in Silence: Grimm's Circle, Book 5

by Shiloh Walker

  “Because we spoke to her. Try screaming at me. Nobody will hear.” He waited, a brow cocked, a challenging grin on his face.

  She hunched her shoulders, glancing around. Shit, she was in the middle of O’Charley’s with a lunatic.

  He started singing.

  Loudly. He had a great voice, she noticed—she didn’t know jack about singing voices, but he sounded like he belonged on a stage somewhere, and that deep, mellow voice carried. Although she wasn’t quite sure that “Henry the Eighth I Am” was going to win him any record deals.

  Blushing hotly, she shot a look around. “Would you…”

  But nobody was looking.

  Not a soul.

  He stopped singing. “They can’t hear me, Vanya.”

  “Ahh…” She licked her lips. Feeling very much like an idiot, she screamed. It was a weak, chirping little sound, but definitely loud enough that somebody, like the people behind them should have heard. Nobody so much as peeked at her. “Okay. This is weird.”

  Shifting her gaze to him, she asked, “What in the hell are you?”

  He smiled. “I’m a guardian angel.”

  Vanya laughed.

  He sat there like he’d expected just that response, his silver eyes vacant, that polite smile remaining firmly in place. Something about the way he sat there, so unaffected, killed her amusement very, very fast.

  “You really want me to believe that.”

  “It’s the truth,” he said, lifting a shoulder in a lazy shrug.

  “A guardian angel.”

  “Yes.”

  “Bullshit.”

  He leaned forward and now the look in his eyes wasn’t vacant and he was no longer smiling. He wasn’t angry, she didn’t think, but the look on his face was…intense.

  “You believe in demons, Vanya. And don’t bother answering that—I already know the answer. I sense it, I feel it. You’re psychic and your shields are excellent, especially considering how young you are and the fact that you’re untrained. How can you believe in demons…but not angels?”

  Staring into his eyes, she decided that was a very, very good question.

  She licked her lips, uncertain how to answer. Looking away from that intense gaze, she found herself staring at the little girl at the table across from theirs.

  A pretty little fairy, she thought absently.

  The girl smiled and waved, showing her a gap-toothed grin. Automatically, she dipped her head, hiding the scars on her face, not smiling back.

  “You can smile at her, you know…children don’t care about scars the way adults do. Your scars don’t bother her. She just wants a smile. She’s not afraid of you.”

  “Like I care,” Vanya muttered. But, despite herself, she found herself trying to smile. “I don’t ever know her.”

  The little girl’s smiled widened and she went back to scribbling on the coloring book in front of her, babbling to her mother.

  “If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be so worried about scaring her,” Will said quietly.

  Shame and sadness wrenched her heart and she looked back at him.

  He stared at her, his eyes locked on hers. Looking at her, not the scars.

  They were ugly—three raised, ridged marks running down from her temple, down along her cheek—scars her sister had given her. Right before Vanya had killed her.

  In the days following, an infection had settled in, almost killing her. Vanya had been living on the street and it wasn’t until she’d collapsed that she’d gotten medical attention. Of course, she’d also almost ended up in foster care, would have, if she hadn’t read the nurse’s mind and run away only an hour or so before she would have been put into the care of the state.

  “I don’t like having people read my mind,” she said, bolstering her shields as she studied his face.

  “I’m not reading your mind. I just…know you. I’ve been watching you for a while. Keeping an eye on you, making sure you weren’t in over your head.”

  She curled her lip at him. “I can take care of myself.”

  “Of that, I have no doubt. Which is why I’m here. About that deal…”

  Now…

  He’d laid out the deal that night.

  She’d accepted, still half-thinking he was out of his mind.

  Even though, somewhere inside, she knew he wasn’t.

  Will was about as sane as they came.

  And tonight, she realized, it was time for her to make good on that deal he’d offered.

  She hadn’t thought she’d be so afraid.

  Her hands were sweating.

  The death she tasted in the air—it was hers.

  And they were close.

  Succubae, incubae—more of them. Man, she hated their kind. They so loved this sort of place. Hot and ripe for the picking. Full of the young, the restless and the horny.

  After that first initial rush, her heart rate settled down to something resembling normal and she leaned closer to the mirror, under the guise of examining her makeup.

  The girls were still jabbering. Still giggling about dresses—somebody else’s now. Feeling sort of disconnected, Vanya realized they had noticed her. Habit, forged in a lifetime where she’d been happier to fade into the background, had her wanting to hunch her shoulders and mumble an apology, disappear. Instinct dictated she stay where she was.

  Pride did the same thing.

  Pride also had her lifting her chin and meeting the gazes of the girls in the mirror.

  That was when they saw the scars.

  Eyes widened.

  Mouths dropped.

  Over the past few years, Vanya had learned never to let anybody see a reaction off her, not through a blush, a nervous smile or laughter. One girl—the girl with the transparent dress—met Vanya’s gaze then shifted her stare to the scars.

  With a snicker, she jabbed her friend with an elbow and said in a pseudo-whisper, “Geez, hasn’t she ever heard of plastic surgery?”

  “Holy shit, Robbi, you didn’t just say that!” One of the girls, her face stricken, looked at Vanya with wide eyes. “Girl, I am so sorry. She’s drunk and she doesn’t always think good when she’s drunk. I’m sorry.”

  Turning around, Vanya lifted a brow. “Why? You didn’t say it.” Then she looked at Robbi, studied her face and wondered if this foolish kid would live through the night, if Vanya would have to be the one to kill her.

  It bothered her. Life was precious—Vanya had seen too much death

  But whether it bothered her or not, Vanya wouldn’t let it stop her. If the girl let one of those things inside her, though, Vanya would kill her. Robbi wasn’t strong enough to fight it, and Vanya would be damned if she let the little bimbo infect anybody.

  She wasn’t precognitive, although she did have a knack for knowing when somebody was about to die. No, she was just psychic, but she understood the laws of karma.

  Somehow, she had a feeling this chick here had caught the sights of a succubae.

  The door opened not even a heartbeat later.

  As the punch of sex, slick power and sweet perfume flooded the air, Vanya reached up and absently touched the silver chain. It held the silver cross that had belonged to Irina.

  Okay, big sis…I get a feeling this is it.

  The succubae slid Vanya a look, and sure enough, she caught a glimpse of something not quite human peering out from behind those mortal eyes. A typical, well-adjusted human would look at her and want to get the hell away.

  Vanya wasn’t surprised when several of the girls standing next to Robbi sidled away, putting some distance between themselves and the demon-possessed mortal.

  “Score one for me,” Vanya whispered.

  Of course, Robbi looked at the succubae with a cocked brow, a cocked hip and a cocky smile.

  Vanya sighed and glanced at the others.

  “You all might want to leave,” she said. Then she shifted her gaze to Robbi and smirked. “And you should go home and change—the dress doesn’t make you look any sl
uttier than getting fucked on the hood of some guy’s Smart Car, but, sweetie, that color doesn’t look good on you anyway.”

  Robbi went red then white, but Vanya didn’t spare her another five seconds.

  Looking past her, she stared at the succubae and debated her choices. If she really, really wanted to minimize human contact, she needed the succubae out of here.

  And maybe she could let Robbi live another day or two—who knows, the idiot could always grow a brain cell or two.

  With an internal sigh, she made a choice and sauntered toward the succubae.

  She knew how to appeal to this kind of demon.

  After all, she’d been killing them on the sly for years.

  But always one-on-one, which required luring them away from the rest.

  And there was more than one demon in this club…Vanya could feel them.

  With a silent prayer, she made her choice.

  She’d been told a few years ago, when the time was right, she wouldn’t be alone.

  Didn’t seem like there would be a better time than now.

  Oddly enough, she felt pretty damn alone.

  Chapter Two

  Then…in years past…

  The boy laughed.

  Sitting in the sunshine, he’d discovered something amazing.

  He could make the sun hide.

  It was amazing. It was wonderful. If he wished, the darkness could hide him as well, and when he let the darkness fade, coming back to the sun’s bright light was wonderful.

  He wanted to show his mother, his father.

  They would be so amazed by what he could do.

  So amazed…

  With a smile, he went to search for them.

  It was not long before his smiles and laughter turned to tears and screams.

  It took much longer, though, for the screams to be silenced. It took days, or was it weeks…months? Perhaps years?

  Once the screams went silent though…they were silent…forever.

  Now…

  “Where are you going?” Sina asked, watching as Silence packed his things—his weapons. Most of them were axes…he’d always liked his axes.

  He answered with a half shrug. Sina knew better than to be bothered by the lack of a better answer. He would know where he was going—Will told him more than he usually told others. Many people did. It was a gift, she supposed, although Silence probably didn’t view it as such.

  She supposed some people thought it easier to tell their secrets to a man who had no voice. He wouldn’t be able to tell those secrets, as least not with his voice. Not that Silence was the kind to share secrets, even if he could speak.

  It wasn’t just that, though.

  Silence had few friends, but there was something about him that compelled others to confide in him, that compelled trust.

  Perhaps they looked at him and saw the echoes of the horrors he’d known.

  Perhaps they looked at him and knew there was nothing they could say that would shock, horrify or surprise him.

  Sina knew that to be true. Nothing horrified him. Nothing shocked him. Nothing surprised him.

  Except that was getting ready to change… Silence was in for a surprise, the shock of his life. It wouldn’t horrify him, but he wasn’t going to welcome this.

  Sighing, she rolled onto her belly and stared out the window. As far as the eye could see, there were mountains. Tucked away high in the Rockies, her little cabin was unknown to most people. Silence knew, Will, a few select others. But that was all.

  And Silence was the only one she’d welcomed into this bed as a lover.

  It hurt her heart to realize that last night had been the end for them.

  Part of her wondered if it would make it easier for him if she said something…warned him.

  But Silence wouldn’t be looking for this.

  It was why they had gotten along so well. Neither of them wanted anything more.

  Silence needed a woman’s warm body, took comfort in Sina’s presence when the days stretched on endlessly. But he had no desire for love or anything deeper.

  Sina’s heart belonged to somebody else.

  Yes, they were a good match, neither of them able to promise anything but the pleasure they shared in bed. And friendship.

  That friendship was a deep one, strong and true, forged over years…centuries. And she knew him well. Knew the set of his shoulders was tense, knew that his reticence was unusual…even for him.

  Sliding from the bed, she walked to him and slipped her arms around his waist.

  “You’re not happy.”

  Big, scarred hands covered hers and squeezed gently. He tried to nudge her away, but she wasn’t in the mood to be nudged, budged or distracted. Working her way between the bed and him, she caught his face in her hands and made him look at her.

  He had the features of an angel—too perfect, far too perfect. His ice-blue eyes met hers as he caught her hands in his. Gently, he squeezed them then let go, signing to her in a language that only existed for some of the Grimm.

  It had been one they had created so they could speak with Silence, this man who was trapped in a silence of his own, his voice gone.

  Locked in silence—not a way to spend eternity.

  Am I ever happy, my lady?

  “This is different,” she said, shaking her head.

  He sighed, his ice-blue gaze staring off into the distance. His hands moved and Sina watched.

  Yes. Something feels—

  He paused, shook his head. Then resumed, his big, scarred hands so fluid, so graceful. Something is different. There is change coming. A darkness looming.

  She wondered at the darkness, although she suspected that was just the change he sensed, and his own misgivings. Once he made it through this, if he could simply accept it, his days wouldn’t be taking a turn for the darker, but for the brighter…the better. Lucky bastard.

  Her heart ached for her friend as his eyes returned to hers and she saw the fear in his gaze. He’d never admit it, that fear. But she saw it, felt it even as it swelled inside him.

  Silence had never handled change all that well…and with the touch of precognition that he had, it was enough for some part of him to realize this change was big. It would make it harder, make him dread it all the more.

  Reaching up, she touched his cheek.

  “Everything changes. We’ve lived long enough to know that, lover.”

  With a soundless laugh, he shook his head. Yes. Everything changes. And nothing changes. That much I know. But this—something feels different. I do not want to go on this mission, Sina. In my soul, I feel that everything is about to change.

  “Would that truly be a bad thing?”

  He stiffened and pulled away, going to stare out the window. He braced his hands on the sill, bowed his head. With his broad back rigid, he stood there.

  She could feel the turmoil inside him, although she didn’t allow herself to pry. She didn’t need to, truly. As long as she had known him, she suspected she knew what he was thinking.

  Slowly, he turned, facing her. His eyes stared into hers, and she saw the torment of centuries of memories burning in his eyes. Any time my life has taken a drastic change, Sina, has it brought me pleasure? Or more pain?

  Sina didn’t answer.

  They both knew the answer.

  In his mortal life, the first major change in his life had come when he had been a child, and he’d developed those unusual…gifts. Or curses.

  He had been brutalized, beaten, tortured by people who thought his unusual abilities marked him as some spawn of Satan. The injuries brought upon him were so grievous they rendered him mute, locked him in silence for eternity.

  He would have been put to death, but a so-called man of God had taken him, said he’d try to save the boy’s soul. What happened for the next few years were things that Silence had never told anybody.

  Sina knew, though, and she knew enough to tell her that unless that so-called man of God had come to see
the error of his ways before his untimely death, his sorry ass was burning in hell.

  She’d seen the memories locked in the back of Silence’s mind, nightmares he never shared. Years of torture, humiliation and horror that ended when he snapped and killed his abuser—another change, one that led to years where he lived alone, hardly more than an animal, unable to speak, hardly seen by people, tormented by his memories, terrified by the gift that had led to all his problems.

  Then a chance at happiness, what he’d hoped was friendship, only to be betrayed and imprisoned yet again. A decade, he’d spent locked away, and it was there that Will came to him.

  Even the change from mortal to Grimm hadn’t been easy—many of the others shied away from the big, strange, silent man…he’d spent too much time on his own in life and rarely interacted with others. Rarely cared enough to try.

  And it showed.

  No, Silence had every reason to not welcome change.

  She understood.

  But there was no way she could soothe him. Not now.

  If he had any idea what was coming for him, he’d fight it. Perhaps even run from it.

  Then…

  It was cold.

  It was hungry.

  The scent of food was the only reason it left the warmth of its cave. The smell of meat cooking tickled something in its mind, something that almost made it smile. It saw somebody in its head, a memory forgotten until that moment. Mother…it had called her Mother. It saw her bent over the fire, stirring something that smelled like cooking meat.

  Thinking of Mother made its chest hurt.

  It hadn’t thought of her in so long. Creeping through the forest, it wondered if it could find her.

  Dirty hair, so long it almost touched its waist, hung in its face. It did not understand why, but when it passed the water, it stopped and cupped some in its hand, splashed it on its face. Cold…so cold…

  It didn’t matter, though, because Mother liked it clean.

  So it did it again and again then twisted, dipped its head in the water. Mother didn’t like it when it got dirty. It…

  It frowned and peered into the water, waited for the surface to calm. It…

  Not it.