by RS Black
He didn’t respond, just rolled his jaw from side to side.
“So why exactly are you telling me this, then?” I asked her, trying to get her gloating under control before Dean turned all Big Bad Wolf on me and blew the lid off this place.
“Well, duh.” She planted a hand on her hip. “It’s a game, Pandora. It’s always a game. Chess, I think he likes to call it.” She flicked her fingers at Dean. “Moves and countermoves. And here, my sweet little demon, is the countermove. You’re gonna learn the truth about genesis. About what you’re seeking. And me, I get one step closer to my endgame.”
I lifted a brow. “And that is what exactly?”
She laughed as if the question were too stupid to be bothered with. “The annihilation of this world, of course.”
War. Right.
I nodded. “So what is genesis?” Might as well learn what I could while the getting was good.
“You.” Her tone was so banal, her look so straight-faced, that I knew she wasn’t lying. “Once, you know, you ingest the souls of the keepers.” Wiggling her hand, she sighed. “It’s kind of confusing, so do try to keep up. But here are the facts, sugar pie. You are the beginning of the birth pains. The genesis.”
She gave me a this-is-so-totally-obvious-why-do-I-always-get-stuck-with-the-stupid-wenches kind of shrug.
“You’ve been prepped to fulfill your destiny by drinking your brew, which seriously, Dr. Carmichael had such a stroke of genius with that one,” she said fondly.
Me, I was just shocked to learn that Doctor Dick actually had a real name.
“But, it’s not all you need. Because just sucking in soul after soul makes you stronger, but really is pretty useless for much else.”
“So becoming possessed as I have been was just pointless?”
“No, that’s not—”
“Dean,” War growled, shushing him, “you had your turn and you were terribly stingy with the info, so let us girls have a little chat time, ’kay?”
Pinching her fingers together, as if miming for him to shut up, she turned her attention back to me. I expected Dean to scoff, to tell a hoe off, but he did neither of those things. Instead his body went rigid, and his eyes huge. As if by some freaky magic she’d actually managed to seal his lips shut.
I cocked my head. “Okay, you have my attention.”
“Oh, now I do. Good.” She’d lost some of her earlier sass. There was an implacable hardness to her features now that made my skin crawl.
I wasn’t too proud to admit that the Horseman scared the hell out of me.
“To answer your question, you needed those souls, though there’s no saying how many you actually needed to ingest; all we knew was you needed a lot of them. Because sucking them in made you strong enough to handle what’s to come.”
“And that is?”
“The keepers. Three of them.” She held up her fingers. “All unique, all deadly, and all holding one piece of the map. Bring them down, and you’ll know what to do next.”
I held up the disk Ansel had handed over to me. “So is he a keeper?”
“Nah.” She waved her hand. “He’s just human. But that will help you to find the first keeper.”
“So this is just one hell of a scavenger hunt?”
She laughed. “Literally, right. Which is ironic coming from me as I was never terribly fond of that word, because seriously, how often are you literally having a heart attack?” She rolled her eyes. “Except in this case, yes, it’s a hell of a scavenger hunt.”
For a moment her image wavered and I knew the face I saw was a mask just like Dean’s that hid the true nature of his skeletal condition. But unlike Dean, where the mask was way prettier than the reality, in Lilith’s case the opposite was true. I’d not gotten a good look, but what I’d seen had been stunning.
“So I’m the genesis?”
“Oh, you’re much more than that. Honey, you’re about to become the one and only Scarlet Woman. And when you do, I’ll kill anyone who gets in her way. That’s when I get activated. I’m just making sure it actually happens this time.” She glared at Dean.
Dean’s gaze snapped toward War’s and there was fury burning coal red through them. Lilith merely winked in return.
Then with a snap of her fingers she released him from whatever hold she’d had over him.
“It’ll take your good doctor a day or so to unearth the first location. Those things are hella encrypted.” She pointed at the metal disk in my hand. “But at least now you’re no longer a dog chasing its tail, eh, demon girl?”
“You’ve done enough, War. You need to leave. Now,” Dean growled.
“No,” she snapped. “I haven’t done enough. Not nearly. Not until I bring this whole damn world down around my feet. Don’t forget there are sides and I have mine too, Death.”
“Where are the others?” He glanced over her shoulder a quick second.
She shrugged. “Who the hell knows where the twinnies are? Am I my brother’s keeper?” Her full lips tipped into a lecherous smirk.
“You won’t win.”
“Always so sure of yourself, aren’t you? But you feel it this time, Dean? You can lie to her, even to yourself, but not to me.”
His back molars clenched so hard I could hear them grinding.
“The precarious thread of this hangs on a razor’s edge.” War stepped into him, running her hand up his chest.
He snatched her wrist in a tight grip, glaring down at her, his breathing hard but even.
Yanking away from him, she rubbed the red welt that now marked her flesh and snarled, “I’ve as much right to play this game as you do. Don’t forget that. I’ll be seeing you around, Death. If you were smart, you’d come with me.”
She shrugged when all she was met with was stony silence. “Fine. Whatever.”
“What about Ansel?” I asked, because I seemed to be the only one mindful of the traitor barely hanging on to consciousness beside us.
“What about him?” She rolled her eyes. “Send him back to his people. They’ll kill him. Or just give it about an hour. That wound’s gonna take him one way or another. And no, there’s no cure. Dead man walking.” The moment she said it, her eyes began to sparkle again and the look she turned on me made a black chill rush down my spine. “But if you really want to show him some mercy, you could always do it yourself. In fact, why don’t we do that?”
I didn’t even have time to flinch before her knuckles brushed against my cheek. The touch was soft and gentle, but something dark and terrible had just awakened inside me. A demon I still could not fully control—Wrath.
I turned terrified eyes up at her, feeling any remnant of humanity slowly bleed out of me, replaced by a fury of justice. I had to right this terrible wrong. Had to level the scales once more.
“Pandora?”
I heard Dean, but it was like trying to listen to him through five feet of water, distorted and wrong.
There was no time to warn Dean, or Ansel, or any of the other patrons in the bar. Humanity leeched out of me and from one blink to the next I became a monster.
Chapter 5
Dean
By the time I realized what Lilith had done to Pandora it was already too late. She moved like the lethal killer she truly was, plowing through the mortals as a child would kick down an anthill. It was nothing to her.
She was shoving her fists through their chests, ripping out their hearts, bathing in their blood, so fast that she was simply a blur of darkness. Bodies dropped like flies around me, activating my own curse.
Forcing me to harvest one soul after another, making me unable to stop until I’d reaped the final body.
“Fuck!” I roared at Lilith who was cackling in the corner, now transformed into the being of the blazing beauty she truly was. “You did this!”
I pointed a bony finger at her.
Pandora was down on her knees, coughing and hacking, coming slowly out of the poisonous grip War had leveled on her.
“Y
es, well, one of my finer moments, I can assure you.” War walked slowly toward me, kneeling when she reached my side. “And you know you can’t stop this. You can live with her, you can train her, hell, Death, you could even fuck her if you want, but it changes nothing. Her story must be played out and both sides get their chance. This is a game, after all.”
Breathing heavy, I wanted to slap her so hard. Wanted to beat the ever-loving shit out of her. Lilith was a lioness on the prowl and Pandora was her prey.
“You and me,” she crooned, gripping my chin, “we were good once. Amazing. We lived in a perpetual haze of blood and glory.”
“Yeah, and your fucking need for more and more is what landed us here.”
She sighed as a distant memory burned through her eyes. “Forever at odds now. Always at war.” Her smile was bittersweet. “You can’t protect her from her destiny, Dean. And besides, we both know how you like to play your game. You’ll betray her over and over and over. Does she know that, huh? Does she know how dirty you play? At least I’m honest.”
With a snort, she took a step back, transforming back into a two-bit hooker. Squaring her shoulders, she studied the bar. “Wow, what a mess. Have fun cleaning this up.” Then with a laugh and a finger wave, she vanished.
~*~
I’d had to knock Pandora out, literally, to get her to stop a full-on nuclear panic attack. When War had brushed her fingers across Pandora’s cheek, she’d activated Wrath, a demon hell-bent on war and revenge.
Pandora had merely to look at a human to see their sin and judge them worthy of death. Thankfully, War had only flipped the switch temporarily. With a little rest and sleep, Pandora would wake up with the reality of this night being little more than a foggy memory.
One thing had become clear to me tonight, though: her tether to her humanity waned daily. It was a miracle that she was even who she still was with the amount of souls she now possessed beating inside her.
Slamming the doctor’s door open, I glared at the intern giving him a debriefing of the night’s escapades. “Out!” I roared, pointing at the door.
The little peon almost pissed himself running out.
Dick—as Pandora had dubbed him and as I now also thought of him—lifted an inquiring brow.
“Dean, as always, your timing is most impeccable. How can I help you?” He steepled his fingers on his stomach and leaned back in his seat.
“When did you get in bed with War?”
“Ah, yes.” He took off his glasses and rubbed his nose slowly before answering. “Well, the moment the Triad realized someone”—he gave me a hard glare—“was actively attempting to prevent the weapon from acquiring the map.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that.” Leaning against the now closed door, I flicked at my thumbnail.
“Never doubted that.” Dick gave me a smile that let me know he’d been onto me.
As if I gave a fuck.
“You know the rules. And the way this game is played,” I snapped.
“Oh, yes, I know the rules.” He rubbed his thumbs together. “I know them well. Which is why you’re here”—he shrugged—“which is why when you do what you do I look the other way. That doesn’t mean we’ll stop.”
I grinned. “You don’t stand a chance in hell.”
Snorting, Dick leaned forward. “Does she know?”
“Know what?”
“You come in here like the white knight, but we both know you don’t give two shits about the weapon. This is about the game, always about the game.”
I clenched my jaw. “You’re not going to do a damn thing to her family, you hear me? No more threats. None.”
“And why should I listen to you?”
“Because tonight she almost lost her shit. She snapped. Killed every last damn mortal in that bar in under five seconds.”
He shrugged. “And that means what to me? Means she’s growing stronger. Becoming the creature she needs to be.”
I scoffed. “You’re such an idiot. You want Sin, then you have to control the body that will house her. Which means, Pandora has to remain sane until the final reaping.”
His smile was slow and stretched like the Cheshire cat’s across his face. “It must be hard playing so many roles. But who are you really, Dean? Or do you even know?”
I held up a finger. “Family’s off the table, you got that? Now you scamper along like a good little bitch back to your bosses and let them know that.”
“Yeah, we got it. Don’t worry. There are always other ways to control her.”
I studied the lone piece of life sitting in this cold, sterile office. A blazing jewel of an orchid sitting in a pot on Dick’s desk. The man was pure evil and yet he cared enough about the life of a plant that he took the time to baby it daily.
Humans confounded me. Monsters were so much simpler.
“I’m calling an audible. I’m bringing her crew in on this. Pandora has to cling to her humanity; that means being reminded of it.”
His smile never wavered. “Fine. I will be sure to make the Triad aware of the, um”—he flicked his wrist—“change in plans. You should know, War has proven herself to be most effective.”
“I’ve gone toe to toe with that bitch since the dawn of time. Guess who’s always come out ahead?”
“Sure.” He nodded. “But you can’t fight destiny. And someday, she will win.”
I thinned my lips, clenching my fists by my sides. “That time’s not now. And, Dick, mind your manners. Don’t forget you’ve leashed a beast with the very thinnest of rope.”
I eyed the necklace.
He clutched her mark in his fist. “Get the hell out of my office.”
Tossing the disk at him, I turned on my heel. “Figure out where our first keeper’s at, Doc. And take your time.”
I yanked the door open, snarling at a shifter who glanced my way as I headed toward Pandora’s room. She was going to hate what I was about to do, but thanks to War, the choice was now out of my hands.
Chapter 6
Asher
I came to consciousness just as the sun was rising. The sleep had helped my wing to heal, but it was still tender when I finally shot off into the sky.
It took me an hour to make my way back to the camp and by the time I did I wanted to collapse again from the pain of it, because each beat of my wings had ripped the wound open again and again. Bubba greeted me immediately, jogging up to me with wide, frantic eyes. “Where have you been? I got back here—” Stopping midsentence, he took in my obviously pinched features and shook his head. “What the hell happened?”
Vyxen had now crept up behind Bubba, along with Cash. Everyone else was still asleep in their trailers.
No one knew of our recon mission last night; it’d been a last-ditch and very last-minute thing. Basically a Hail Mary with no hope of actually succeeding.
Vyxen nodded to her trailer before glancing over her shoulder.
“Let’s take this inside. I’ve got some coffee made.”
The carnival was quiet in the still, early morning, all the lights off, and the only sound we heard was the occasional motor of a passing car or truck on the freeway a couple hundred yards back. Tucked deep into the heart of the Ozark Mountains, we weren’t in exactly the most populated of areas, but there was still a constant sense of someone guarding our every word and thought now.
I’d been inside Vyxen’s trailer a few times in the past few months. It’d not been much of a surprise for me to find her home was full of nothing but stolen goods—priceless antiques and works of art, movie props, jewels, high-end fashion and furniture. All of it stolen. The inside of her trailer had the dimensions of a mansion. Anything Vyxen wanted, Vyxen took.
We sat down at the lavish twenty-seater dining room table, Bubba at the head, Cash beside him on one side and Vyxen on the other, with me bringing up the rear.
Vyxen pointed to her coffeepot, but no one made any moves to get up and pour themselves a cup.
Bubba tapped his
fingers on the table, his burning red eyes studious, his countenance droll. “What the hell happened, man? I go back and I feel your darkness, but I can’t see you; I scream your name, you can’t hear me. I thought for sure the Triad had your ass.”
I snorted, leaning back in my seat, thinking about Pandora. About how much I wished she was here with us now, helping us to lead this charge. Closing my eyes for a moment, I bottled up the emotions that’d begun to leak out just from seeing her again.
But it was a lot like shoving plugs into a hole-riddled paddleboat: it worked, but for how much longer?
Close to a minute passed before I looked back at them. Bands of jade swirled through Vyxen’s eyes as she softly said, “You saw her, didn’t you?”
Cash and Bubba sat forward, both their eyes wide and their noses up in the air, immediately scenting me.
“Was it Ya?” Vyx asked. “Is that why you’re clawed?”
I touched the shredded scraps of my shirt. “It was Pandora.”
A tiny pulse in Vyxen’s throat fluttered. Bubba shifted in his seat and Cash had gone completely immobile. Spine rigid, shoulders tense and straight. All of them hanging on to my every word.
Pandora would have laughed and then been shocked to see it. If she only knew, only realized what a gaping hole she’d left behind. I don’t think my little demon had ever truly realized just how needed she’d been.
“Yes, but her evil is close to the surface.” Bubba sighed, rubbing his jaw. “Most of you weren’t around when Pandora wasn’t Pandora, but Ya-El. I didn’t know her as well as Luc did, but Ya is...wrong.” He shook his head. “If I know Dora at all, the only way she’ll make it through this is to kill off any bit of Pandora inside her.”
I grunted as I shifted in my seat, gripping my left shoulder, which still bore a deep claw wound. I wasn’t healing as quickly as I usually did. Pandora’s touch was ten times more deadly than it should have been.
“Yeah, well, that’s not an option I’m okay with. I’m going to save her—”
Vyxen grabbed my hand, cutting me off. At this point I was the only one who still believed saving her was even an option. “Tell us what you learned last night.”