by Misty Evans
Cole didn’t need any prompting. He jumped in the driver’s seat and gunned the engines. We took off and as I looked back, Dru watched with his sexy, sad eyes and his face set in grim lines.
Chapter Eleven
“How do you kill her?” Cole said as we took the Dan Ryan heading north.
“I don’t know.” Three words I hated when strung together. They made me feel like there was a solution, but I couldn’t find it.
“You killed her before.”
“She was a physical being then. Not a ghost.”
Traffic was moderate, most of the morning commuters already at work. As always, Cole drove way above the speed limit and gave me whiplash as he jerked my car in, out and around other vehicles. “Must be your worst nightmare, huh? To have her come back to haunt you?”
My worst nightmare involved all the ghosts of the humans I’d tortured and killed coming back to haunt me, but having Maria running around in any form was a close second. My mind turned over thought after thought, playing through my memories, looking for an easy solution. Any solution.
I came up blank.
And that, I realized, was actually my worst nightmare. My deepest fear. Not that the ghosts of my past would materialize, but that I wouldn’t know what to do with them if they did.
Cole glanced at me, worry over my silence knitting his brow. “You and Neve will think of something to send her back where she came from.”
“Neve’s human. I can’t involve her in this. Maria, or whatever this thing is, gets one whiff of a human trying to take her down and Neve’s life will be forfeit.”
“I’ll protect you, Kali. Neve, too, if necessary.”
I fiddled with the edge of my cape. “You’re already protecting me from Toel and the Noctifectors. You’re good, Cole, but you’re not Superman.”
“Superman’s a joke. I’m Batman.”
“Okay, how are you going to protect me from a ghost, Batman?”
He took the off ramp to my house. “I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. I screwed up letting you meander away from me at the schizo circus. Won’t happen again.”
My house is inside an old, abandoned Gothic church way off the beaten path. Behind the behemoth castle-like structure, an ancient graveyard is hidden by overgrown trees, shrubs and some of my protective magic. The graveyard contains a portal between worlds, and as Cole and I walked to my back door, my mind churned once more. I’d used the portal to send the queen of hell packing. Maybe I could use it to send this queen on her way as well.
With Cole covering my six, I laid a hand on the stone wall of the church. Familiar magic buzzed against my skin. JR had installed a hefty security system, but I’d also embedded protection magic deep in the walls, floors, windows and foundation after my latest run-ins with Lilith, Toel and assorted other bad supernaturals. A girl couldn’t be too safe.
Which was why I lived at the Institute these days. Damon had insisted and I’d rebelled against the idea until I’d taken a minute to actually think through the logic. Not only was the Institute one of the safest locations in Chicago to hang out, it was also full of Bridge employees. If a dangerous entity did somehow break through the high-tech and magical fortress of security systems, a small army of equally dangerous supernaturals like Cole had my back.
But the Institute wasn’t home. Feeling the waves of cool earth magic flowing into my hand and welcoming me home, I breathed a slight sigh of relief. The tension in my shoulders ebbed. The church was potentially less safe, but it was mine. I belonged here.
I held my hand on the stone a moment longer, absorbing the feeling of rightness. Just before I was going to drop my hand, a different magic tickled it.
“Everything okay?” Cole asked, his back to mine as he kept his gun up and his gaze scanning the area.
I hesitated a second too long for his liking. He swung around, gun aimed at the door. “Kali, what is it?”
The new magic tickled me again, winding its way around my fingers, caressing my hand. There was a bit of vibration in it, as if it wanted to hold onto me, and at the same time, divide itself and run amok along the rest of the stones, dive into the ground, fly up to the sky.
Drawing my hand away, I smiled to myself and put a restraining hand on Cole’s gun. “It’s Rad.”
“What’s he doing here?”
I unlocked the door and we went in. “Rad?” My voice echoed through the entryway. I opened my senses…and felt nothing. His lingering stormy ocean smell was present, but he was gone.
A little disappointed, I nevertheless rallied. “I’m calling Hone. He can give us some extra protection while we’re here.”
“We don’t need him.”
“Yes, we do because you’re taking a nice little nap while I make phone calls and do some research on ghosts.” I took off my cape, grabbed my cellphone from one of the pockets and hung it up before I headed toward my office to check the security monitors and get some work done.
As I passed my sunken living room, though, I stopped short. Cole, right behind me, did the same. He whistled low under his breath as we both surveyed the damage. “Guitar Boy is definitely one big freakin’ Chaos demon.”
Rad had pushed the furniture to the edges of the room and set up a mini recording studio in the center. A keyboard sat in front of the fireplace, a sound system to its left and a computer to its right. An assortment of acoustical and electrical guitars lay on the couch and chairs. Chords snaked all over the floor, various speakers were stacked on top of each other.
Take-out boxes, plates, cups and condiment packages littered the area. Heaps of manila colored papers covered the coffee table. Loose papers were also piled on every other viable surface. Dozens of them, strewn on the floor, across the speakers and furniture, caught in guitar strings.
Bending down, I picked up one of the papers. Musical notes and words ran across both sides in reckless abandon. I picked up another and saw the same thing. “They’re songs.” As I scanned the living room again, an odd sinking sensation filled my chest. “There must be hundreds of them.”
“What’s he writing them here for? They kick him out of his fancy suite at the Blackstone?”
Cole was missing the point. “This isn’t normal.”
“Living like a pig? He’s part Chaos demon. That’s totally normal.”
A trail of Rad’s clothes led from the living room to the stairs. Following the black T-shirt and ripped jeans breadcrumbs, I climbed the steps to my loft and stepped over more scattered sheets of music on the way to my bedroom. Cole followed.
When Damon had forced me to move into the Institute, he’d had my bedroom furniture moved to the apartment across from his inside the Institute. Guess he figured I’d feel more at home if I had my own stuff. While I appreciated the sentiment and sleeping in my own bed, I had missed this room most of all. Two floor-to-ceiling windows gave the room light. One was clear, the other a stained-glass illustration of Christ’s temptation. I’d missed my bathroom and the enormous walk-in closet filled with clothes and shoes I had collected over the years.
Now the hardwood floor echoed my footsteps back to me as I stepped inside. A couple of blankets lay on the floor where my bed had been. Another guitar and more food boxes sat beside it.
And once again, dozens of sheets of music dotted the floor, blankets and the two lonely pieces of furniture Damon’s movers had left behind.
A dozen pencils, some sharpened to nubs, others broken, were strewn around the room. Some next to the blankets, others looked to have been thrown at the walls before breaking and falling to the floor.
A single sheet and pencil lay on the pillow. The title of the song was Unquenchable Need. I read the first set of lyrics, written in Rad’s familiar flowing script.
There is no hope
Only thirst
It’s never enough
Only driving desire
For more of her, more of her
She’s never enough
But she’s all I need.
Randomly, I picked up other songs from around the room. Their subjects concerned curses, star-crossed lovers going down in flames, soul mates carving out each other’s hearts. One talked about the gates of heaven being forever closed to the singer and his lover holding the only key. Another about the singer refusing to bow to love and the forces tearing him inside out. Yet another about sending his enemies to blood-soaked graves.
Just the usual rock songs.
Not.
Well, maybe they were. Most of the songs I listened to had similar angst-riddled verses and the Chaos Demons had won Grammies as well as MTV Moonmen for Rad’s gritty lyrics. But just like the sensation I’d had when watching Maria’s ghost light up, something about this was off.
“This is beyond chaos.” I turned a circle, thought about Rad and Arman’s blood lust. The sinking sensation ratcheted up a notch. I handed the music to Cole, let him read a few lines. “This is mania. There’s something in my blood driving him crazy.”
Cole shifted his weight, eyed the lyrics to Unquenchable Need in his hand. “More like something not in your blood that he needs. He’s starving.”
I lifted my gaze to his. “Nudra’s blood.”
He gave a quick downward tilt of his chin. “My guess too.”
Fucking Nudra. Even in death, he was making my life hell.
If Rad was coming unglued, Arman had to be too. And according to Dru, there was only one way to save us all.
I shook my head, let out a frustrated chuckle. “What the hell am I going to do, Cole?”
Never one to bullshit me with meaningless reassurances, my bodyguard shrugged and said the words I hated. “I don’t know.”
Chapter Twelve
Jesus stared down at me as I phoned Dru. What would Jesus do ran through my head.
Apparently, Rad wasn’t the only one losing it.
Dru answered on the first ring. “I’ve been waiting for your call. Where do you want me to meet you? Or would you prefer we do the blood exchange here?”
“Whoa, vamp Master. Back up the Undead cart a minute.” While I was considering his proposal with more seriousness, I wasn’t ready to join the ranks of true bloodsuckers just yet. I hit the speaker phone button so Cole could hear our discussion. “I need some information.”
Dru’s voice sounded polite and patient but a touch irritated at my reluctance. “I’m at your service, Queen.”
Hell save me, I hated that moniker more and more. Whether he’d used it to remind me of my station among the Undead or simply in reply to my reference to his Master status, I couldn’t be sure. Didn’t matter. Dru’s agenda aside, hidden or not, he was my friend and one who could help me figure out my options. “If I die, will the bond to my blood slaves break like it does with your people? Or will my slaves die too?”
The restrained patience cracked. “You’d rather die than drink my blood and save yourself?”
“I’m a fucking demon, Dru. Quite honestly, up to the time I met you and Maddy, which was barely six weeks ago, I hated the Undead. Every one of them. Forgive me if I’m reluctant to jump on the let’s-drink-blood-together-like-one-big-happy-vamp-family bandwagon.”
There was a strained and unfriendly silence from the other end. I rolled my eyes up in my head to the brink of giving myself a concussion and forced my voice not to convey my frustration. “I’m exploring options. That’s all. I can’t make an informed choice until I know all the consequences to becoming your blood slave.”
“You won’t be a blood slave to me in the usual sense of the term. We would still be equals, as we are now. My blood would simply be a…supplement…to your current diet.”
Cole quirked one eyebrow. He wasn’t buying it.
I was. Maybe because Rad’s life was now on the line along with mine. Maybe because after two-hundred-eighty-three years of going through the motions, I wasn’t afraid of dying, but I’d only just started living again with Rad back in my life.
I tamped down the emotions that idea raised and firmed my resolve. “Your word, Master Dru. I want your word that you won’t use me the way you use your other slaves. That I make the calls in our relationship, no matter what desires you have or political stakes our sharing blood might create.”
Another long pause greeted me. A suspiciously long pause.
Did Dru have a hidden agenda like Cole believed or was he simply pissed that I dared to demand he swear fidelity to me?
Cole made an I told you so face, the silence seeming to confirm Dru’s agenda was less about us being friends and more about us becoming lovers. I faced Jesus and let the silence hang between me and the vamp Master. It was his move, whatever that move was.
“I’ll consider your request,” he said and hung up.
For a second I stared at the square cellphone, the dial tone mocking me. Then I blustered. “He hung up on me.”
“I heard.” Cole smirked. “He’s a spoiled vamp who’s full of himself and his power. You didn’t really think he’d give you equal footing on his turf, did you?”
Yeah, I kinda did. In the short time we’d known each other, Dru and I had built a solid friendship. Or so I thought. Shows you what I knew about friendship. Which is probably why I don’t have many friends.
I’d had a lot of bad days in three hundred years. This one was creeping its way into the top one hundred. I blew out a depressed sigh and headed back downstairs. The kitchen was as messy as the rest of the spaces Rad had been occupying, so I skirted the worst piles to get to the pantry. Inside, I pulled out a stylish, flat bottle of Woodford whiskey. I set up two glasses on top of some empty pizza boxes on the kitchen counter and poured three fingers of the beautiful liquid in each. Cole and I clinked the glasses together and drank the shots straight down.
I carried the bottle to my office, checked the security system and sat back in my chair. The to-do list in my head was growing and busy work would give my brain time to stew on my situation with Maria’s ghost and my predicament with Nudra’s blood. In between shots of whiskey, I called Hone and hired him for a day’s worth of protection services, texted Rad and told him to get his rocker butt to the church and then I phoned Di.
Maddy and JR worked nights like me and slept during the day. Di, being a goddess, didn’t need sleep. She liked a big bed and expensive satin sheets, but those were props for her endless string of boyfriends.
She didn’t need to eat either, but she loved carbs as much as I did. Only on her, they looked infinitely sexier. “Kali,” she answered her phone. Slurping noises interrupted before she continued. “Cole said you passed out at the hospital. Are you okay?”
“Fine. What are you eating?”
“Wesley made me a fruit smoothie. It’s healthy and surprisingly good.”
“Wesley? Have I met him?”
“Thank goodness, no. I don’t need you scaring another one off.”
True, I didn’t take to many of Di’s boyfriends. Her blaming me for their hasty departures, though, was stretching the truth. At the first sign any of them wanted to hang around for more than a week or two, she’d turn up the super diva personality, and bingo, another boy would bite the Aphrodite dust. The goddess of love was an expert in sabotaging her own love life.
“What’s your worst nightmare, Di?”
“My worst nightmare?” She slurped more smoothie. “Hmm. I supposed it’s to love someone and not have them love me back. Most people fear that, you know. Love drives everything else. All our emotions. Our self-confidence, our destiny, our successes and failures.”
Don’t get Di started on the virtues of love. “That’s really your deepest fear? Not being loved?”
Cole muscled my leather lounge chair into the office, made himself comfortable and put his eagle-eyed bodyguard stare on me. I gave him five minutes, tops, before he fell asleep.
“Why? What’s yours? I assume there’s a good reason we’re playing this game.”
At least Di’s reason explained why she never let any man get close to her. If she let them
in and she fell for them, they had the power to break her heart. “You don’t worry about any of the guys you’ve dumped coming back for revenge?”
“Did that jerk Danny hire you to take revenge on me?”
Danny? I couldn’t remember a Danny in the lineup. “No, I’m just curious if you ever worry about the past coming back to bite you in the ass.”
“Nope. The past is the past. Love is all about the future.”
Right. But I wasn’t dealing with love. I watched Cole’s eyelids dip to half-mast. “Any change in Maddy’s outlook?”
Di made a belligerent noise in the back of her throat. “Thought you were going to talk to her.”
An image of Maddy with her heart in her eyes asking me about redemption flashed in my mind. I’d never seen her so scared. “I will talk to her, I promise.”
The image continued to plague me. Her voice rang in my ears. Do I still have a soul? Am I going to hell when I die?
Guess I knew her deepest fear.
Di was still talking, but I’d missed what she’d said. Something about JR. “What?”
“JR. Instead of going home this morning, he was heading to the box store to buy more tech stuff. He’s already got the whole control room filled with boxes. Laptops, gaming systems, those tablet thingies he’s been trying to get me to use. He’s maxed out the company credit card, Kali. You need to talk to him too.”
Merde. Had everyone around me gone flat-ass crazy? I frowned at Cole, whose head was now tipped back, eyes closed. The Unquenchable Need sheet sat on the desk in front of me. Fear, obsession, pride. My friends weren’t crazy, just giving into their vices.
I sat up straight. Di seemed immune, but as a goddess, she was immune to almost everything. “How did your meeting with the Stewarts go?”