Parker caught her arms and jerked her toward him. “Fuck you, is that what you said? Because I could. Right here, in the middle of the street.” He caught her hand and pressed it to his arousal. “Because I can’t shut it off. Can’t stop wanting you, hungering for you. Loving you.”
She shook her head, closing her eyes. Raindrops splashed her cheeks, and the urge to catch them with his mouth nearly overtook him. Instead he forced himself to release her and take a step back.
It wasn’t enough. Wasn’t nearly enough.
“Give me your wallets.”
Parker glanced to his right at a burly guy dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and ripped jeans holding a knife. No fucking way. “You’re serious?”
Rae’s hand shot out, snapping the guy’s wrist and wrenching it around to his back before Parker was done being annoyed that the asshole had interrupted their conversation.
It wasn’t enough for Rae though. She shoved the guy against the wall at the mouth of an alley. With little effort, she managed to keep him from getting enough wiggle room to use his knife without even putting a scratch on the guy.
“Crazy bitch,” the guy snarled.
“Crazy is a bit much. Reckless maybe.” She shoved her hand into the guy’s pocket, checked his phone. “Parker, remember this number.”
She rattled off the number, and just for the hell of it, he recited it back, then leaned against the same wall, trying to pinpoint the odd feeling creeping over him.
Rae didn’t seem to notice. She jerked the guy around. “Knowing your phone number, it would be a piece of cake to find out where you live, and if you so much as contemplate pulling this shit around here or anywhere else, I’ll know.” Working a pressure point, she made him let go of the knife.
The prick was smart enough not to try to collect it when Rae stepped back to release him. He bolted without a backward glance.
She let out a breath, and picked up the knife.
Parker watched her look for some place to get rid of it, settling on a trashcan in the alley. More than once, his gaze was drawn back to the sidewalk, his mind replaying the encounter, specifically the part where Rae had so easily neutralized the threat.
That was why.
Why he couldn’t forget, couldn’t embrace blissful oblivion, and the longer he stood there, the more afraid he became that he’d been wrong. His knees wobbled, from either the alcohol or his current train of thought, but he went down on the sidewalk.
“Parker?” She crouched in front of him.
“You didn’t do it.”
Water trailed down between her brows. “Didn’t do what?”
“You didn’t kill my mother, Rae.”
“What are you talking about?”
Christ, he’d been such an idiot. If he’d just paid a little more attention sooner he might have recognized it.
He trapped her face in his hands. “You did not kill my mother, Rae.”
“The files—”
“Are wrong.” Had been wrong from the start. They’d both been so fucking wrong.
“You don’t know that.”
“Yeah I do. I spent years doubting that my mother was capable of killing my sister, and you know what, I turned out to be right.”
Sadness swirled in her eyes. “I know.”
“Then know that I’m right about you. Your senses and reflexes are too sharp, and you just disarmed that guy without even thinking about it. Do you really think you wouldn’t have been able to handle my mother?”
“Adrian said—” she began.
“He got it wrong. Maybe that shock fried his brain a little. I don’t know. But someone, somewhere got it wrong. There’s got to be another reason you don’t remember what happened. Your father put you through hell, and though he could have taken those memories from you, he didn’t. So why mess with this one? There’s something else going on, Rae. Maybe it wasn’t your memory he played with—maybe it was Adrian’s.”
Her forehead dropped to his shoulder. “You can’t know that.”
“I know you.” He lifted her chin up. “I know that no matter how much I wanted to say fuck-it-all, I couldn’t. This is why. You’re why.” He drew her down to meet his mouth, opening his lips over hers.
Rae wanted to believe him, wanted to cling to Parker until he believed it enough for the two of them. Maybe he already did, but if he was wrong…
Agony seared through her mind, and she cried out and fell back on the wet sidewalk, gripping her head.
“Love you. Never meant to hurt you. Wanted you safe.”
Dad?
“Rae? What’s happening?” Parker’s voice cut through the retreating pain, and he helped her sit up, steadying her when she tried to stand too quickly.
“He’s in trouble.”
“Who?”
“My father.” She shook her head, trying to think. “It was too intense. He has to be close.” She wasn’t sure what direction to head in, but was grateful that Parker wasn’t questioning her.
Closing her eyes, she tried to isolate something, anything she could use. Another wave exploded along her skull, and she gritted her teeth until it passed, leaning into Parker.
“Easy,” he murmured when she tried to move.
“He’s at my apartment…hurt.”
Carefully he helped her up, his grip unbreakable. She waited a moment, expecting another mental plea for help, and worried like hell when it didn’t come.
“We need to hurry.”
“You need to not face plant in the middle of the street.” He didn’t let go of her hand as she broke into a run.
Both of them were breathing hard as they hit her block, and she didn’t slow down until she reached the front of her building, and another wave of pain caused her to stumble.
“No more running,” Parker snapped, keeping her upright.
She fumbled for the doorknob but she couldn’t quite make her fingers close around it to twist.
“The Scion,” he began.
“Isn’t here.” She abandoned her reach for the door to massage her temples, needing the pain to stop.
“You’re sure?”
“No.” The splitting pain in her head made it impossible to be sure about anything.
Parker cursed and propped her up against the wall, fishing through her pockets until he found her keys. He shoved the door open and looped an arm around her waist. Her head had cleared before they reached the stairs, but she didn’t let go of Parker, wasn’t sure she’d be able to make herself let go of him ever again.
“I smell smoke.” Down the hall from her apartment, Rae heard movement inside. Her door looked like it had been kicked open, hanging from the jamb by one corner. “Someone’s on the fire escape. They’re running.”
Inside, she saw the flames first, licking up the corner of the wall by the open window leading onto the fire escape. The clawing streaks of orange highlighted the demon symbols covering the walls.
“Son of a bitch.”
Chapter Nineteen
The flames caught the curtains, lighting up the room and releasing a wave of searing heat.Movement caught her eye, and she skidded across the floor. “Dad!”
Her feet slipped on something slick, and she went down on her knees, next to him. Oh God. Blood. It was everywhere.
“We can’t stay here, Rae.”
The fire spread to the opposite wall, but she didn’t pay any attention to anything but her father. She carefully touched his face, her insides seizing up at the sight of the wounds. There wasn’t an inch of untouched skin, symbols carved almost to the bone in some places.
“Dad?” Her voice shook. “Dad?”
Parker crouched next to him, coughing from the thickening smoke. “We need to get him outside.”
“Too late.” Her father opened his eyes, his gaze finding hers. “You look so much like your mother.” His voice was rough, pained. “I promised her that no matter what, I’d protect you and I let her down. I let the both of you down.”
“Try not
to talk, we’re going to get you out of here.” She pointed to the blanket on the chair behind Parker. “Grab that.”
Parker lunged for it, snagging the blanket before it went up in flames with the rest of that side of the room.
Her eyes stung, and she coughed into her arm.
Parker spread the blanket on the floor next to her dad.
Her father shook his head and coughed, his spasms so hard blood trickled down his chin. “I only wanted to keep you safe, you know that, don’t you?” His fingers curled around her wrist. “I’m sorry, Rae. So sorry, sweetheart, for letting you down.” He coughed harder and harder, then went so still.
“Dad?”
“I never got the chance to make things right. Love you…”
She shook her head, hearing the weakness even though he was only speaking in her head. “Hang on. Please.”
His hand fell to the floor and he stared at the ceiling, his gaze unfocused.
“Dad?” She shook his shoulder, desperate to get a response. “Daddy?”
Parker coughed, pulling her away from him. “He’s gone, Rae.”
He couldn’t be. Not like this. There were things to talk about, things they still needed to say. Things she still needed to say, damn it.
Flames shot across the ceiling, the explosion of heat sending them both to the floor. She could barely see through the dense smoke, could barely breathe.
They reached the door and she froze. “Nico!”
Parker shoved her into the hall, and she landed on all fours. “I’ll get him!”
“Wait.” She whirled to stop him, but he was already gone. “Parker!” His name turned into a cough that rattled up through her lungs and made her vision dim at the edges.
She dug her fingers into the worn carpet until the worst of it past. Smoke billowed out into the hall, curling across the ceiling. Hearing sirens in the distance, she made it to her feet, both the smoke and the earlier head pain making it hard to keep the ground from shifting under her.
“Parker!” Where the hell was he?
An arm snapped around her waist, and she resisted until she felt the brush of fur against her side. Nico.
Outside, she sucked in cool wet air, collapsing on the sidewalk next to Parker.
Tears tracked down her cheeks that had nothing to do with the smoke. “If you ever do something that fucking stupid again…” She didn’t finish the rest, burying her face against his neck and trying to breathe without coughing.
Nico squirmed between them, and she ran her hand over his head.
“I thought you hated my cat?”
“Yeah, but you’re pretty attached to him. Besides, you’ve got me curious about the tuna juice.”
An unexpected smile, probably a result of the adrenaline rush, tugged at her mouth, but she coughed right through it. Neither of them moved until fire trucks arrived and a few people approached them to ask if they were okay, if anyone else might be inside.
Having already spotted Mrs. Farnsworth across the street, along with the couple who rented the apartment next to hers, Rae shook her head.
Slipping his hand through hers, Parker led her further away, still keeping a firm grip on Nico. The rain had thankfully kept the fire from blazing too out of control, and she knew that even if it hadn’t been deliberately set, they still would have been too late to save her father.
A little numb, she pulled Nico from Parker’s arms and rubbed her face against his fur, hoping it would soothe the both of them. The rain didn’t seem to be bothering him nearly as much as the flashing lights and chaos around her building.
“Do you think it was Amara?”
Rae looked up at him. “A Scion trying to bring across another master demon?”
“Yeah, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either.”
“I’m going to have to make some kind of statement. Maybe you should take Nico back to the field office.”
“We’ll wait for you.”
“Parker, Nico’s going to have a seizure if he’s out in this for much longer. Start back with him.” She held up a hand when he looked ready to insist on staying. “I won’t be long, but I do need to call Adrian in case he needs to run interference on this with local law officials.” Like anyone who wondered about the body in her apartment.
Sensing where her train of thought had landed, Parker squeezed her hand, and she forced herself to nod. “I’ll think about losing him later. Right now, I just can’t.” She headed toward the crowd. “I’ll be quick.”
“All right, but I may leave him out in the rain if he even thinks of taking a bite out of me on the walk back.”
Rae ended up taking a little longer than she anticipated, but she managed to leave a message for Adrian and get a hold of Braxton, giving him the CliffsNotes version, while waiting to give her statement.
Last on her list was making sure Mrs. Farnsworth knew how to get a hold of her, and then she was on her way, more drained than she could remember feeling in a long time.
Her phone rang and she winced at the low battery warning that flashed before she answered Adrian’s call.
“I’ll catch another flight home in a day or two,” he said, when she filled him about her father.
“That’s crazy. Any complications will get ironed out faster if you’re looking after them from your end.”
Adrian sighed, sounding uncertain if he should leave her. “Whatever comes to light about your father after this, Rae, just know that he was a good man once, before the obsession took over and the end justified the means.”
“I know.”
It was the man he’d been in the last ten years she needed to piece together more though. But she wasn’t going there tonight and thankfully Adrian didn’t try to keep her on the phone any longer.
Less than two blocks from the field office, she stopped, sensing the Scion long before she showed herself. Rae slipped her kukri from her harness, knowing full well it wasn’t any better than going into battle with a water pistol.
“I have no interest in killing you, human. Your father cared a great deal for you, even when you turned your back on him.” The voice came from the alley next to her, near the loading bay doors for a textile store.
“What does a demon know about family bonds?”
Ignoring the question, Amara posed her own. “He did you a favor, didn’t he? Are you not one of the best at what you do?”
A Scion and a Destroyer talking shop? That so wasn’t going to happen.
“Did you have anything to do with his death?” Not that she expected to get an honest answer.
“Hardly.”
She tracked the Scion’s progress to the mouth of the alley. “Yet you didn’t stop it.”
The Scion wisely kept her distance. “I had no idea your father was planning on speaking with you tonight. I arrived too late to prevent his death. I may not be capable of truly caring for your father, but I will miss his…company.”
Yeah right. “Then who killed him?”
“You tell me.”
“Stop! No more fucking games.”
The Scion held up her hands. “No games. Tell me, do you still believe you killed Parker’s mother?”
“You say it like that and my father’s death are connected.”
“Aren’t they?” The Scion eased back into the shadows as if she knew tonight’s events guaranteed Rae was too wrecked to attack and have a prayer of vanquishing her.
“I won’t let you kill him, you know. Won’t let you sacrifice Linc to bring down the wall separating our worlds.”
“Perhaps you take more after your father than either of you realized. He had every intention of finding the gatekeeper before me and saving the day too.” If the Scion had been truly human, Rae might have imagined she heard admiration in the demon’s voice.
Sensing she was alone a moment later, Rae dug her phone out of her pocket. The low battery sign flashed again. Shit. She let herself into the main level of the field office, the elevator ride up excruciatingly long.
God, she was tired. Her injuries might heal quickly, but exhaustion wasn’t covered.
Before she even reached Parker’s quarters she knew only Nico was inside. Was he even in the building? Turning around, she backtracked to her office, and using a landline, dialed Parker’s cell. “Where are you?”
“I wanted to wait for you, but I knew I didn’t have much time left to catch Adrian.”
“I already told him about the fire.”
“That’s not what I wanted to talk to him about.” He sighed. “I need to know if he thinks Hurst could have played with his memories like I think he did.”
“I’m on my way over then.”
Adrian’s hotel was only another half a dozen blocks in the opposite direction, though given how beat she was, it could have been a hundred by the time she was back on the street. At least it had stopped raining.
She rubbed at her tired shoulder muscles, replaying the Scion’s cryptic clues and feeling stupid for getting caught up in the master demon’s mind games. And that’s all they were. All…
…the end justified the means…
Hadn’t that been what Burke had said too? Experiments that Adrian hadn’t actually been a part of, and yet he’d used the exact same phrase?
She whipped out her phone, needing to talk to Parker. The display screen flickered as her cell phone died in her hand.
Fuck!
Parker thought about waiting for Rae before he talked to Adrian, but the sooner he discovered if there was a chance Hurst had played with their boss’s memories, the sooner he and Rae could get back on track. Finally.
Scanning the numbers on the hotel doors and trying to remember which one was Adrian’s, he nearly plowed right over a blonde in a skimpy black dress.
“Sorry,” he murmured.
Her tight smile widened, and he picked up the pace before she turned around and tried to talk to him. A few more doors down, he stopped and knocked.
“Parker?” Adrian frowned, lowering the towel in his hand as he held the door open. “Is everything okay? Is Rae okay? I was just talking to her—”
“Rae’s fine. Considering,” he added. “There was something I wanted to talk to you about actually.”
Dark Obsession Page 25