by C. M. Owens
“I know,” I say, swatting away the gazes like they’re tangible and suffocating.
“An anointed?” Thad asks as I grab the bottle of whiskey and a glass. My eyes study the glass for a second, and I put it back down. This is a straight-from-the-bottle kind of moment.
“I know,” I repeat, guzzling down a long sip.
“She’s apparently fresh, according to what she said. It makes sense how she got away from you that night now,” Ella states. “Magic doesn’t seem to affect her. It’s like she’s immune. But she can be transported, since you and Kya both did that with her. I’ve never heard of an anointed being completely immune before. That’s a little scary.”
“I know,” I say yet again.
“She’s fast. Really fast. I don’t even think she knows how fast she is,” Roslyn says. “I haven’t seen her run, but I know she escaped you and Slade. That’s a feat on its own. I’m not even that fast.”
“I know,” I groan a-fucking-gain.
“It’s not so absurd,” Kimber says, shrugging. “Forbidden love is a common twist of fate’s sick sense of humor. Even writers forge their own tales.”
“Let’s play name a forbidden love,” Thad prods, smirking over at me.
“Mark Antony and Cleopatra,” Gage says immediately.
“Guinevere and Lancelot,” Chaz supplies.
“Helen of Troy and Paris,” Roslyn says.
“She was totally a succubus,” Thad snorts. “True story.”
“Seriously?” Roslyn asks.
“Definitely,” Gage and Thad both say at the same time, smiling.
“And you know this how, exactly?” she asks, looking between the two of them.
Kimber narrows her eyes on Gage, who looks anywhere but at her as he wipes the hint of lingering smile off his face. Thad clears his throat and avoids the subject altogether.
“Tristan and Isolde. The actual couple. Not the movie rendition,” Thad goes on, garnering curious stares. “I’m old as fuck. Shut the hell up.”
“Romeo and Juliet,” Ella adds.
“Pocahontas and John Smith,” Karma sighs, dreamily propping her hands under her chin.
“Buffy and Angel,” Dice announces.
Everyone turns to groan at him, and he holds his hands up innocently.
“What? Mine is the most accurate here. Don’t hate on me just because you didn’t think of it first. Hashtag, jealous.”
Thad snickers, and I continue to drink. Heavily.
“The anointed do a thing where they fully resonate and receive all of their powers. Usually it’s after seeing one of our kind. But it sounds like she touched an Aquarius marking tonight and that made her powers explode into action. She already had speed and immunity, but tonight she also got strength,” Roslyn says.
She didn’t feel too strong when she was pinned under me.
But I know why…
Silently cursing, I scrub my face with my hands. My head needs to get away from there, even if it’s the only place I want to go.
“She said Slade caught up with her, so she’s not that fast,” Dice says. “Her jaw was bruised from a hit he managed to land at some point during her retreat.”
That makes every muscle in my body tense. I wish I could fucking rip Slade to pieces.
“But she survived a hit from Slade and managed to keep running until Zee found her.” Roslyn spins it, trying to make it sound good instead of shitty. “That’s badass.”
“So if she’s anointed, then she’s just mortal. She’s not human—but mortal like a human. I guess if Zee has the calling to sire her, then it’s possible for an anointed to become one of us. I thought I read they couldn’t be affected by bitten fey,” Thad says, flipping through a bunch of books. “Maybe it’s just the hex allowing it?” he continues, making it sound like a question.
I start to speak, to remind them they have to keep me from doing just that, when Karma is suddenly up and walking toward the door.
I didn’t even notice we had an audience standing in front of one of the windows.
“Slade send you to make more threats?” Karma asks her sister. “Or did you come to drop off another book we can’t read?”
Damn cryptic journal. It was just random numbers and hieroglyphics that didn’t mean anything.
“I don’t know how to write like you do,” Kya says flatly, even though I don’t miss her fleeting moment of embarrassment when she admits it.
Karma’s body stiffens when she hears the confession. Karma wasn’t in the rings as long as Kya. Sometimes we forget Kya was practically raised in there.
The silence gets awkward, and I think Karma is at a loss for what to do. Kya has made it clear she doesn’t care if Karma is her twin.
“Slade did send me, and he did want me to tell you how stupid you all are, but I’m just here to drop off a book at his request.” She holds it up, and she cuts her eyes toward Karma. “Don’t worry, sis. I didn’t write this one. It shouldn’t be so hard to decipher.”
Regret flashes over Karma’s eyes, but Kya doesn’t look like the kind to accept apologies or want pity.
I notice Chaz staying out of sight, and I wonder why. Leah stated Slade can do as Karma and Kya do, so what’s he worried about Kya seeing that Slade hasn’t already seen?
“What’s this about?” I ask, standing up and walking over to the door since no one else seems eager to.
She holds it out. “It’s on the Aquarius line.”
“Where the fuck did you find something like that?” Gage growls, coming over.
Kya cocks an eyebrow at him. “Some of the people who were locked up were much, much older than anyone in this room. They know where all the good stuff is.”
“We could be using those books to find out what the hell is going on—”
“You’ll be in our way. Just stick to your Mystery van and leave the heavy lifting for the big boys, sweetheart,” she chides, smirking at Gage even though he looks ready to throttle her.
She tosses the book down, and I lean past the perimeter to pick it up. Kya takes a large step away from me, as though she’s cautious and wary.
“Don’t sire her,” she tells me. “She’s not designed to be one of us, and she doesn’t think like one of them. The Aquarius is different, even though Slade doesn’t want to believe it. This is the only book I believe, since I got to know her a little.”
Apparently Leah overshared, since Kya knows what I want to do.
I shut the door behind me, blocking all the nosy fuckers out, and she follows me at a safe distance as I guide us toward Kane’s house.
“She wouldn’t be at risk if Slade didn’t have a target on her back. She could leave and be safe far away from me.”
She frowns as confusion mars her features. “He said you insisted on keeping her.”
“Only after he admitted he’d kill her the second he got a chance.”
“Slade is only after one thing. She’s nothing more than a distraction. The last thing he wants to do is kill an anointed. They feel the death of each other. It’s probably why she was drawn here to begin with, even though she didn’t know it. It’s subtle, from what I’ve read. But when one dies—like the one your changer killed—it does call for the others to seek revenge. Leah doesn’t want revenge. Hell, she doesn’t want anything but to be normal. She’s not bloodthirsty or cutthroat. Maybe you misunderstood Slade, because he sure as hell doesn’t want the anointed on our asses.”
“There was no misunderstanding. She’ll have to be shadowed by someone at all times because he made it clear he was after her.”
She looks even more confused, but she shakes it off. “Whatever. The point is she’d be safer. Slade won’t chase her. Get rid of her before you do something permanent.”
I tense, and she cocks her head to the side to study me. “Fuck,” she grumbles. “You’ve already had sex with her. Are you stupid?”
I nod, because I am.
Her lips twitch, but she rolls her eyes. “At least you own it
. Fucking someone you want to sire only makes it that much harder to ignore the calling. You know that, right?”
“I’m stupid. Not clueless. I’m aware of the rules. Doesn’t change the past, and things got out of hand last night. Somehow I felt her when she needed me.”
Her eyes widen, and a slow smile spreads for a second. Then it turns into an exasperated sigh.
“Maybe I was wrong then. Read the book. For the record, you’re seriously fucked.”
She disappears, and I open the book to see a scrap of paper tucked inside that’s written in someone else’s handwriting. It’s not her indecipherable nonsense.
I look up to see everyone running away from the window. See? Bunch of nosy fuckers.
They have the gumption to avoid eye contact while feigning innocence when I walk in. Dice is even whistling, like that somehow makes him the most innocent of all.
“Karma,” I grumble, annoyed with all of them. “Kya had someone write down what you need.”
“What’s the deal?” Karma asks, clearing her throat. I swear she’s flushed.
“Damned souls.”
Everyone gets quizzical expressions upon hearing that.
“What?”
“Damned souls. It’s what you need to survive. The more irredeemable, the better. Essentially we need to take you for a walk on death row. You find the souls you can harvest discreetly and take them into you. They stop existing, they can’t go to hell, and you get stronger while no new demons get created. Sounds like a great plan to me. Not sure why Kya was worried about saying it aloud in front of us. The process is written down here if you need instructions.”
She jerks the paper out of my hand and reads over it, like I’m somehow seeing things wrong.
“So I just find a rotten soul of a human? That’s it? There are tons of pedophiles I’ll happily get rid of. I can see their souls and if they deserve it.”
She sounds giddy as she rushes over to her laptop.
“Kya thinks we’re self-righteous do-gooders,” Ella says, frowning. “That’s sort of what I got from Leah, even though she didn’t speak about her directly. I think she worries we’d kill her just for taking damned souls of humans.”
Karma doesn’t even bother looking up.
“What’s a mystery van?” Gage asks randomly, seeming genuinely perplexed.
“She calls us the Scooby gang,” I remind him. Leah let that slip.
“The what?”
“It was her favorite cartoon before they took her,” Karma says distractedly. “You coming with me?” she asks Dice.
“On a killing spree?” He grins as she closes the laptop. Something prints off to the side, and she picks it up.
“Pedophiles and rapists are my first targets. I’m about to power up so I can be of some use. We’ll be back.”
She grabs Dice’s hand, and they disappear from sight. Kya doesn’t know us as well as she thinks she does. We’re not PC humanitarians. Some lives don’t deserve saving.
“What’s the book about?” Chaz asks, coming closer.
I don’t answer, because he sits down and starts reading with me.
“Looks like we need coffee,” Gage says.
“And pie,” I add.
“We’ll go grab supplies while you read over that. I need some air,” Ella says while walking out with Kimber.
Gage is quickly behind them, wrapping his arm around Kimber’s shoulders. Thad and Roslyn head upstairs.
“Back in a bit,” Thad says with a wink.
“Hope those reinforcement spells work. I hate it when they wreck the house,” Chaz grumbles.
“Why’d you hide from Kya?” I ask him quietly. “Slade can see through you too, if what Leah heard was right.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lies.
“It’s just us. Leah is fast asleep.”
After he glances over his shoulder, he looks back at me. “Leah said Slade can do what Karma and Kya can, but he can’t. He has the same power as Ella, Kane, and Alyssa. They can see through to a person’s core. He’s just learned to look at what a person really is by honing those same abilities. But he has to look. Karma and Kya just see. ‘The eyes are windows to the soul’ and all that jazz. Kya is several times stronger than Karma, and Karma saw a part of me.”
“Part of you?” I ask, confused.
“Yeah, Zee. I’m even more of a freak than you. Get over it,” he says dryly. “Slade isn’t looking at me. He thinks I’m a duster and has no reason to strain himself to see differently. It’s better that way. In case you haven’t noticed, he doesn’t like anyone he perceives as a threat anywhere close to Ella. Dude is fucking psycho around her.”
“I actually didn’t notice that. I just thought he was psycho in general.”
He snorts derisively. “Maybe he is. I just notice the way he freaks out about her safety. Maybe I’m wrong. It might have something to do with the fact she reminds him of someone or something. He sure as hell doesn’t act like he wants to fuck her. In fact, he acts like he’s scared to touch her. I don’t know what his deal is, but the more attention he pays her and everyone else, the less he notices me.”
“Why would he care what you are?”
“Because half of me would be perceived as a threat. If not all of me. Hell, Karma only saw the best side and still freaked out. I’m hoping she doesn’t get strong enough to see the rest.”
“Half? Mixed breeds couldn’t happen until purgatory was opened.”
“Unless you were one type of fey,” he says with a shrug. “I have a very rare bloodline. One that shouldn’t even exist.”
When he grows quiet, I nudge him with my shoulder. “I don’t give a fuck what you are. I’m not old enough to have a biased opinion.”
He looks like he’s relieved, and he opens his mouth to speak, when Leah emerges from the bedroom looking like sleep and sex.
Fuck me.
Chaz smirks when he sees me looking at her, and he stands to give her his spot. I scowl at him as Leah takes a seat beside me and picks up the book I was about to read. After Chaz finally revealed his damn secret.
Now the mystery is even more annoying than it was before, because I was seconds away from learning the truth.
“This is what I’m supposed to be?” she asks quietly, skimming the pages.
“Yeah. The Aquarius bloodline.”
“You know it makes her a target,” Chaz says.
Actually, I hadn’t thought of that. Motherfucker.
“What?” she asks idly, still flipping the pages.
“The ones we’re trying to take down want blood from all the firsts. That includes the first anointed. If you’re in their bloodline, you can be turned into whatever it is they’re trying to recreate.”
“But you don’t know what that is.”
Her eyes lift up, searching our expressions, and she goes back to what she’s reading when we don’t answer.
“It says we were pure.” She leans into me like it’s a natural reaction. “The other lines were tainted because of diluted views and impure bias. The Aquarius was the only true line chosen by the lokies to balance out the power they’d created. One species was designed to destroy humans. One was designed to protect them.”
She pauses and looks up at me. “What’s a Lokie?”
“Something you don’t have to worry about,” I tell her before resting my chin on her head.
She leans into me more, getting too comfortable and feeling too good against me.
“That’s not true,” Chaz says idly. “Karma claims to have seen one in the rings. He was a punisher, even though he was also a captive. But there aren’t enough of them to really worry about if she’s right.”
Deciding to ignore his input and not scare her, I move on to the previous topic.
“The other lines were naturally selected as evolution went on. Unlike the Aquarius, they need the kill of fey to survive. They slowly lose their sanity if they don’t kill. Eventually, even with the kills, madn
ess usually follows and a blind lust for blood becomes their only focus.”
She looks up at me again. “Guess it’s good I’m not the other kind. Even though I’m pretty sure I went crazy the day I started believing all this is real.”
Chaz smothers a laugh while reclining back in his seat.
“So basically you were all a bunch of mindless killing machines at one point, and now evolution has slowly turned the others of… my kind… into the same thing. Monsters versus monsters.”
Chaz nods. “We’re still monsters. We’re just civilized monsters now. For the most part.”
He smirks at me, waggling his eyebrows. Yeah, I know I’ve been acting savage lately. I don’t need him rubbing my face in it.
“It’s possible, however, that your kind would have eventually evolved, if they’d been given the chance. Just as we have. But the power was locked in purgatory, so now it’s starting all over again. They’ve been producing a new generation of anointed killers for twenty years, and we didn’t even know it. There’s no telling how many are out there or are coming.”
“You can’t just lock it back in purgatory? I could be normal again?” she asks hopefully.
“No,” Chaz says before I get the chance to think about it. It’d solve everything. She’d be free of me, of Slade… of this world.
I was ripped away from the luxury of the simple human world long ago without permission. Now I’m trying my damnedest not to do it to her, because she doesn’t have to be in it, even if she is a part of it.
“Why?”
“Because that was old magic. Spells of that magnitude need a lot of nature. The world is too polluted now to have the necessary pure minerals needed to power the spells. Believe me, we’ve looked into it.”
She sighs harshly before edging even closer to me, practically inching into my lap. Her eyes move back to the book, and Chaz starts to get up.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I whisper, keeping it low enough to escape her ears.
He smirks at me, but he keeps his ass planted in the chair like a good fake duster.
“You smell good,” she mumbles, now halfway in my lap.
Damn it. It’s like neither of us can keep our distance, and fate really does keep slamming us together.