The Protect Her Box Set: Parts 7-9

by Ivy Sinclair

  “Hey, I think you’re picking a fight with the wrong person,” I said. I knew that my wings had extended out behind me. My fists knotted into tight balls as the form in from of me turned around.

  “I heard that you grew wings. Interesting development,” Bruno said. His smile widened. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a chance to go toe to toe with an angel. It almost doesn’t seem fair though.”

  “I’m not planning to go easy on you,” I taunted.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Bruno said. “It’s almost not even fair for you. Newbie angel and all. If you think that your current form frightens me, I can assure you that it does not. Especially when I have this.” He held up the small item in his hand. It was the relic.

  I almost pounced on him, but I held back. I wasn’t sure what effect the relic would have on anything when it came to this fight, but I was ready for him. I had been ready for him when I was mortal, and I had almost won the first time. Proctor thought that he had the upper hand, and that was okay with me. I wasn’t sure how to flex my strength, but as long as I played it smart it would be fine.

  “By the way, in case you were wondering, I’ve made sure that we won’t be interrupted by your archangel buddies,” Proctor said. “I brought some friends of my own.”

  That’s when I heard the crash of wood and concrete coming from inside the bar. The smell of heavy, acrid smoke filled my nostrils.

  “That’s okay. They’re really not my buddies anyway.” The only one that I cared about was Klein, but the kid had a good head on his shoulders. He’d figure out a way to stay out of the crossfire.

  “Well, as long as we’re clear then,” Bruno said. “There was really only one reason that I was interested in keeping you alive, and I knew that if I was just patient enough, that you’d deliver on that as well.”

  “You wanted Viho,” I said. “Interesting how you knew he was alive when nobody else did.”

  Proctor’s smile widened. “I have sources everywhere. It wasn’t random that he disappeared all those years ago. It took me quite a long time to track you down. The Hopekee go to great lengths to ensure that no one realizes that necromancers all derive from the same bloodline. That’s why they are so rare. Only one or two every few generations. And those that are born, the Hopekee spread out to the wind. No accountability, those Hopekee. But you learn much just by sitting back and waiting.”

  I managed to keep the shock off my face. “I wouldn’t put patience on your list of strong suits right now.”

  Bruno moved to stand in the middle of the alleyway. “What can I say? Now that everything is finally coming together just the way that I planned, I’ve gotten a little bit excited. Two hundred years I’ve waited for all the right stars align. Eva’s vessel, a new Protector, and the relic. They were all intertwined.” Bruno ticked them off his fingers. “Don’t think that one or two of these things haven’t popped up before, by the way. But the timing was always off for some reason or anything. When I met our dear Paige, though, I knew that it was finally time.”

  “You leaked the picture,” Paige croaked. I could see that she was hurt, and I seethed inside. I couldn’t go to her until I took care of Proctor. “You leaked the picture and sent demons to the Calamata Island. You knew that Benjamin would hire Riley.”

  I spun that revelation around in my head, and I realized that she was right. “You set this all up. Why?”

  “I watched, I waited, and I learned,” Proctor said. “I have the relic, and I have the vessel. Now I’m going to torture your father to get him to spill the final piece, and I’ll have everything I need.”

  “Everything you need for what?” I spat out. “What is this grand plan that required two hundred years and the destruction of so many lives?”

  “I want Hell,” Proctor said. “Lucifer has gone soft, but if I have Eva’s power then I have everything I need to best him.”

  I started to laugh. I couldn’t help it. “Your grandiose plan is just simple mutiny? You are so small-minded it’s amazing.” Proctor’s eyes narrowed. He was pissed, and that was good. Because it was true. “You are going to pull all that power and for what? To take over a puny kingdom that means you’ll become the target for every other demon official who decides to get uppity? Besides, there’s no way in Hell, pardon the pun, that the archangels are going to let that happen.”

  “Once I have Eva’s power, there won’t be anyone left who has the power to stop me,” Proctor said. I saw his shoulders tense. He was gearing up for something big, but that was okay. I was ready for him.

  “That’s where you are wrong,” I said. “As long as I’m living and breathing, there’s no way I’m going to let that happen. All of those big dreams are for nothing.”

  “You can’t stop me either,” Proctor said.

  “Try me,” I growled. And just as I hoped, Proctor threw a ball of energy directly at me. I moved to the side and let it dart past me, but then I reached out and grabbed it. I have no idea how or why that worked, but there was a part of me that seemed to know what to do. I turned it and tossed it back at him. He easily ducked it, but that was okay. I wasn’t looking to do any damage. Not quite yet.

  I felt my wings expand, and it was as if my body sizzled with electricity. But that wasn’t the way that I liked to fight. There was something uniquely satisfying about putting your hands on your opponent and literally kicking their ass. And I wasn’t about to deny myself of that in this situation.

  My wings took me through the space between us in an instant, and I wrapped my hands around Proctor’s throat even as I crashed into him because I realized too late that I overshot the distance. I felt a crackle of pain as he responded by smacking another ball of energy into my shoulder. Up this close, I smelled the stench of death that surely permeated every pore of his borrowed body.

  “I am going to kill you,” I hissed.

  “Never,” he said as he pushed back against me, but my grip around his throat held. I pulled back just long enough to shear my fist up the underside of his jaw and was delighted to see his body propel upward and back into the air. I leaped after him and grabbed purchase on the front of his shirt even as his body hurtled back to the ground.

  We landed hard, and I thought I heard the crack of bones break underneath me. Then another bolt of pain shot up through my torso. Proctor slammed the relic against my chest, and I let loose a howl, but I didn’t move. We stared into each other’s eyes, and I saw the first sign of fear creep into his expression. The effect of the energy being sent into my body was doing nothing but enhancing every bit of bloodlust that curled inside of my body.

  “Impossible,” Proctor choked. I saw a bubble of blood appear in the corner of his mouth.

  “You picked the wrong guy to fuck with,” I said through clenched teeth. The energy coursing through my body filled me to the brim, and it carried with it an intensity and longing for something more. I needed to end this once and for all. Proctor wasn’t going to hurt my family any more. He’d never touch Paige again. I’d make damn sure of it.

  “Joke’s on you, jackass. That magic may be cursed, but so am I.”

  With those words, I rammed my hand into his chest even as I called forward the words that I knew by heart. They had been tattooed onto my soul the day that I became a full-blown necromancer and knew that the dead would forever be my bitches.

  Proctor howled in pain, and I saw his eyes roll back into his head. His essence was what I was after. It tried to hide from me inside his vessel, but it was a fruitless endeavor. I had been plucking life forces from demon hosts for ten years. No one could hide from me.

  As I yanked my hand back out, I held up the black squishy mass that only had physical form because I had wanted it to be that way. I stared at it. Then I said the words in the language of my ancestors that I knew wouldn’t just banish it back to Hell. Bruno Proctor was done on this plane of existence and everywhere else.

  “May you never rest in peace, motherfucker.”

  There w
as a wail of pain in my mind, and then the black goo burst into a thousand pieces before sucking back in on itself and disappearing. I slowly stood up and felt my knees waver, but they held.

  The relic dropped onto the body of Proctor’s host, and I watched in a kind of twisted fascination as it burned a hole through the dead man’s corpse.

  “Riley?” I heard Paige’s shaky voice behind me. It brought me back to reality. I turned to face her. What I saw in her expression was something that I never expected to see when it came to me.

  Fear.

  CHAPTER EIGHT – PAIGE

  Bruno was dead. I had no doubts about that. I watched Riley tear out his soul and send it somewhere where Bruno would never be able to touch any of us again. That wasn’t the part that bothered me. It was hearing the gleefulness of the tone and texture of his words, and then the complete lack of hesitation when he killed Bruno’s human vessel.

  I smelled the acrid smell of burning flesh even as I cautiously approached him. As he turned toward me, I saw how magnificent but terribly frightening he was at the same time. He had siphoned the power of the relic to gain the upper hand on Bruno. It was what I would have done if I had the same advantage, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it had unlocked something terrible inside of him that might not be able to be controlled.

  I thought one of his wings appeared singed. I could see blood on his face and covering his hands, but I didn’t think it was his based on what I had just observed. My breath caught in my throat as I saw his eyes flit up and down my still form.

  “Are you okay?” I heard his words then, but he didn’t approach me.

  I put my hand to my head. There was a hard knot there where Bruno struck me after dragging me into the alley. “I think so. A couple of bumps and bruises. Just another day at the office.” I tried to smile, but it fell away.

  “You don’t have to be afraid of me.” I wondered if he could read my mind.

  “I’m not afraid of you,” I said carefully.

  “You’re lying.”

  I took a step forward. He didn’t move. “I don’t want to be afraid of you.”

  “I did what I had to do,” he said.

  “You don’t have to justify yourself to me,” I said. My heart ached for him. His tone was starting to sound like Riley again. He was coming back to himself. “You’re right. You did what you had to do.” We could discuss the merits of what he could have done differently later. Right now, I just wanted to be sure that he wasn’t about to flip some kind of switch and disappear into the dark stranger that I thought he could be.

  “I did,” he nodded. He knelt down, and I saw him put his hand inside of the body at his feet. I had a front row to finally see what Riley had done. It was terrible, even though it might have been the right thing. He held up his hand then. I saw that the relic rested inside of it. “I’m not sure, but I think this helped me. Bruno tried to use it against me, but what happened was I was able to use it against him instead.”

  “It was part of the Protector once.” Viho appeared next to me. His voice was sad. “It recognized that part of you. It won’t harm you, but don’t think it will help you either. Not if you want to remain who you are. It’s cursed, and its power will seduce you if you let it in.”

  “It’s Eva’s life force. I don’t understand,” I said to him. “Why would it help Riley at all and not destroy him?”

  “It wants to live just like any other living thing,” Viho said. “It’s a matter of survival. Son, you should give that to Paige for safekeeping for now. She is the only one here that is qualified to handle it without going mad.”

  I saw Riley look at the pocket watch in his hand again, and something ugly flitted across his face. I stepped forward and held out my hand. I wasn’t sure that I wanted the relic either, but I trusted that Viho knew what he was talking about. I had the relic before Proctor took it away from me, and despite its awesome appetite for destruction, I hadn’t felt any menace from it.

  He looked at my hand, and then reluctantly set the relic into it. I heard a sigh of relief from behind me. Viho hadn’t been sure that Riley would hand it over. I didn’t know until that moment that he would either.

  I closed my fingers around it and then pushed it into the pocket of my jeans. I didn’t feel anything negative coming from it. It was as if it were content now having been part of the scene of blood and chaos in front of me. It made me ill.

  “Come inside, Riley. Let me help you get cleaned up,” I said gently. He looked so lost that my heart ached for him. I finally closed the remaining gap between us and put my hand on his shoulder. His wings furled behind him and were gone a moment later.

  “What’s the story inside?” His voice was rough and raspy as if he had been yelling for days.

  “The archangels made relatively short work of those that intruded in the bar,” Viho said. “I told them to stay put while I checked on the two of you.”

  “I’m surprised they listened,” Riley said.

  “It’s because they were willing to let us take the fall for whatever was happening out here,” I said. I waited for Viho to disagree with me, but he didn’t. “I don’t think we can trust them to have our backs, Riley. But we’ll use them just like we use everyone else.”

  Viho merely shrugged as he heard my words. “My best advice is never to trust anyone. You need them, and they need you, so for the moment I think your paths are well-aligned.”

  I decided to ignore him. I pulled Riley with me, and he followed. We walked out of the alley, and I was struck again by the dingy emptiness of this place. As we walked into the bar, my eyes immediately searched for Klein. I found him sitting on a stool at the bar with the bottle of tequila in his hand. It looked as if he had a black eye, but otherwise he appeared unscathed. He flipped a thumbs up sign when he saw us standing there.

  But then he took in the blood on Riley’s face, hands, and clothes, and he clamored to his feet. “Crap, are you guys okay?”

  “None the worse for wear,” I said. “I’d like to get both of us cleaned up. Where’s the bathroom?”

  “At the back,” Riley said. His voice was almost toneless, and I wondered if I was about to lose him again.

  “What happened?” Samuel stepped forward. He and the other two archangels didn’t look as if they had been in a fight at all.

  “Bruno’s dead,” I said.

  “And the relic?” The look of naked concern on his face almost made me laugh.

  “Safe enough for now,” Viho answered for me as he stepped around us into the room. “Let them settle, and then we can talk further about our next move.”

  I didn’t care if that next move involved the archangels or not. Right now, all I cared about was Riley. I pushed him toward the back of the bar and gave Klein a warning look.

  Keep an eye on them, I mouthed at him. His expression darkened, but he nodded. I could just imagine what he was saying in his head. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that I was asking him to keep an eye on a posse of archangels. He’d be okay.

  As soon as we were in the small bathroom, I breathed a sigh of relief. I locked the door behind us. Riley stood just a few feet inside, and it was as if he didn’t know what to do next. I went to the sink and turned on the hot water.

  I approached him again and saw his eyes focus on my face. “Hey, let’s get that blood off of you, okay?” When he didn’t reply, I reached over and took his hand in mine. It wasn’t the first time I had blood on my hands either. I pulled him forward and settled his hands underneath the warm water.

  Dispensing soap into my hands, I moved them over Riley’s gently cleaning away the blood and dirt that seemed almost as if they were part of his skin. Once I was satisfied that his hands were clean, I grabbed a paper towel and got it wet. Then I reached up and began to clean Riley’s face. He stared at himself in the mirror but didn’t look at me.

  “I am some kind of monster now,” he finally said. The words were murmured so I barely heard them.

&nbs
p; “You are not a monster,” I replied as if it was the silliest thing I had ever heard. “You are a warrior. And you are my protector even if it isn’t official in whatever way that it was between Eva and her Protector. You can’t shirk that responsibility, so hopefully you never try.”

  His hand whipped out and grabbed my wrist as I dabbed the corner of his eye, and he held it suspended in the air between us. Now he turned his gaze on me, and it felt as if it burned through to my soul.

  “What is it, Riley?” I said softly. I knew that despite the pressure he was applying to my wrist; he wasn’t going to hurt me. He was lost somewhere inside his head, and he needed me to find him. “What can I do to make it better?”

  He flattened my hand, and then put it against his chest over his heart. “Make me remember,” he whispered.

  I stood on my tiptoes and brought my lips to his. I brushed them over his mouth ever so softly, and I heard his low growl in return. “I am yours. That’s all you ever have to remember.”

  His arms circled my waist, and he drew me upward. I wrapped my arms around his neck and met his haggard kiss. His breath came in short gasps, and it was as if he couldn’t get any air. As his fingers dug into my hips, he pushed me backward against the wall. It was cool against my back, and I couldn’t help but notice the difference between that and the heat generated from the man who crushed me against him. It was as if he wanted to devour me.

  I opened my lips willing to him and moaned as his tongue moved into my mouth and explored every crevice. He wanted to possess me in every way, and I wasn’t going to stop him. I didn’t care where we were. I just knew that everything he needed, I wanted to give to him. He didn’t need to ask. I was open and willing, and I would never leave him. I didn’t think I had anything left in me that would ever want to try resisting him.