by E. S. Moore
“And?” Jeremy’s face told me I’d have to give him more than that.
“Not here.” I stood, but couldn’t bring myself to leave. How did Sienna get here? What happened to her to cause her to fall unconscious like this? And most important, would Levi be coming after her?
It was the last thought that got me moving. I motioned for the two men to leave the room and followed them out. They stopped in the hall, each looking at me questioningly. I walked past them and downstairs, well away from where Sienna lay.
“I’d promised her I’d help her,” I said as soon as we were all in the dining room. I picked up my weapons and set them back onto the table. I noticed my hands were shaking as I did.
“When?” Jeremy asked. “Who is she?”
I ran my hands through my hair. I was still cold and wet and wanted a shower in the worst way, but it would have to wait. Sienna came first.
“Her name is Sienna,” I explained. “She used to live in a town called Delai. I think she’s been held there against her will.”
At mention of the town name, Ethan paled. He’d heard the name before, back when I’d run away from my life and only returned at the bidding of his demon. He didn’t know everything about the mystical town, but he knew enough to realize it wasn’t a good place.
“Do you have any idea what happened to her?” Jeremy asked, sounding agitated. “I never heard her coming. I was right here. I should have heard something, yet the next thing I know, she’s thumping on the door with a wild look in her eye.”
How in the hell was I going to explain Delai? The road could appear anywhere, or at least, that’s what Beligral had told me. I’d only ever seen it in one place. But if he was right, then Sienna very well could have walked straight from the town, directly to my front door. It was no wonder Jeremy hadn’t heard her coming if that was the case.
I sagged into a chair. “She must have escaped,” I said, not really sure I could bring myself to explain everything just yet. “She might have had to fight her way out.”
“I didn’t see any blood.”
“I noticed that too.” Did that mean Levi let her go? The stained knees told me that was unlikely.
“She smells . . . strange.” Jeremy frowned and glanced toward the stairs.
“What do you mean?”
Jeremy’s frown deepened as he continued to stare in the direction where the girl lay. “I don’t know. It’s like . . .” He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Werewolf noses were better than mine, but I still could smell better than a normal human. I’d never notice anything different about Sienna. Perhaps Jeremy was smelling Levi on her. Did angels have a different scent to them?
“Did she say anything before passing out?” I asked, shaking off the thought. I didn’t want to know what the demonic angel might have done to her in my absence.
“No. When I opened the door, she was pretty much already unconscious. I had to catch her on the way down. I checked the grounds as soon as I had her inside, but as far as I could tell, no one was out there.”
I nodded. It was unlikely Levi would be there himself, though I wouldn’t put it past him to send one of his mindless peons to do his bidding. Then again, could they even leave? I’d never seen it, though my experience with the place was limited.
“We’ll want to keep an eye out,” I said. “The person who held her captive is dangerous. He won’t come after her on his own, but he’ll surely send someone.”
“Is he a vampire?” Jeremy asked, standing up straighter. Apparently, the thought of fighting for the girl was somehow appealing to him.
“Worse.” I left it at that. I wasn’t about to try to explain angels to them right then. I barely understood it myself.
All the time we’d talked, Ethan had stood off to the side, staring blankly toward the stairs. As the seconds passed, his expression turned thoughtful, and then determined.
“I want to try something,” he said.
Before either Jeremy or I could react, he was heading up the stairs. We both followed him to my room. Ethan walked straight to Sienna and stood over her. He looked up at me and gave me a crooked smile.
“Maybe it’s like Sleeping Beauty,” he said just before leaning over and kissing Sienna square on the lips.
The kiss took longer than it probably should have. One of Ethan’s hands moved to gently touch Sienna’s cheek as he kissed her. After a few seemingly endless moments, he straightened.
Sienna didn’t so much as twitch.
“Don’t you think it would better to wait until the girl is awake before making out with her?” Jeremy asked, grinning.
Ethan reddened and he stepped away. “It was worth a try.”
Jeremy snorted, which only caused Ethan’s blush to deepen. His heart had been in the right place, but the execution could have been a little more delicate.
“Water?” I asked, moving to stand over the girl. “A wet cloth maybe?” I felt her forehead. She still wasn’t feverish, but maybe the moist cloth would help bring her back to herself.
Ethan turned away and hurried into my bathroom. Jeremy moved to stand next to me. He didn’t touch me, but stood close enough to lend his support.
“What did he do to you?” I whispered, stroking her hair. I felt like I was missing something. Why would she be unconscious after leaving Delai? Had something more happened to her? Was Levi’s pull so strong, she couldn’t survive without his influence?
The thought scared me. If my failure to return and save her was what was causing her comatose state, I’d never forgive myself. I should have done more. There had to be a way to get back to Delai without Levi knowing. If I were to go after him now, would she finally wake up?
I didn’t know and I wasn’t sure what to do either way. I couldn’t simply stroll into Levi’s house and confront him. For one, he’d crush me with a single thought. For another, it was highly unlikely I’d find a way to get back to the magical town without Levi’s consent. There was nothing I could do.
Ethan returned with a damp washcloth. I took it from him and lay it across Sienna’s forehead. She groaned and turned her head.
“Sienna?” I asked, almost frantic. Was she waking up?
She settled in, still oblivious to the world around her. At least she’d shown some reaction to the washcloth, telling me she’d eventually come out of her current state. Or at least, I hoped she would.
“There has to be something wrong,” I said, pulling down the covers again. My eyes scoured over her, looking for blood or a bruise I might have missed. I was looking so frantically, I barely registered the fact she was shivering.
“What do you think those are?” Jeremy asked.
“What?”
He leaned forward and traced a finger along the crook of her elbow.
I leaned in closer and frowned. The marks there were faint, as if they’d long ago healed. They were tiny little circles, almost like the marks a needle would make.
All the blood seemed to drain from my body. Had Levi been controlling her by shooting her up with something? If Sienna was addicted to a drug of some sort, it could easily explain why we couldn’t wake her. Was she suffering from withdrawal? Was keeping her here slowly killing her?
“She’s cold.” Ethan’s voice bit through my thoughts. I looked up at him, hardly comprehending his words. “Cover her up,” he said. “She’s shivering.”
Sense returned. With one last look at the faint scars, I pulled the covers up to her chin. Something in her face seemed to relax.
“We really should leave her be,” Jeremy said. “She won’t wake up any faster with us hovering over her like this.”
Jeremy led the way out of the room. Neither Ethan nor I really wanted to go, but the werewolf was right. Standing around watching her wasn’t helping anything. We really needed to start formulating a plan. For what? I had no idea. I just knew I had to do something.
“Did you find anything?” Jeremy said as soon as we were back downstairs. He led us into
the living room where he sat down on the couch.
“Other than the marks?” I shook my head. “No.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
I gave him a confused look before it dawned on me. He wasn’t talking about Sienna; he was talking about the Den.
“No one was there,” I said, not wanting to get into my encounter with the weres and the girls. He would want to know why I’d let them go. Chances were good the wolves would end up doing the same damn thing later. I couldn’t really explain it to myself, outside my fear that Jonathan would find out and be angry if I’d killed them.
Jeremy studied me a moment before looking away. I caught something in his eye that told me he knew more than he was letting on.
“What?” I asked, moving to stand in front of the couch. I glanced over to Ethan who’d taken up a post at the foot of the stairs. He appeared more worried about the girl than I did, which made little sense. He’d never met her before.
“Nothing,” Jeremy said, not meeting my eye.
“You know something.”
“About?”
“You tell me?”
Jeremy shifted uncomfortably on the couch. “It’s nothing,” he said.
“Enlighten me anyway.”
Jeremy sighed and closed his eyes. He remained like that for a good long minute before he looked at me.
“He would never go back to the Den.”
I frowned. “And why do you say that?”
Jeremy shrugged one shoulder. “I just know.”
I forced myself to stop grinding my teeth. If I kept it up, I was going to have a killer headache, and right then, I so didn’t need that.
“Fine,” I said, turning from him. “Whatever.”
“Kat . . .” Jeremy heaved a frustrated sigh. “I . . .” He trailed off again.
I turned to face him. “You know something, don’t you?”
He hesitated and nodded.
“About Jonathan?”
Another nod.
My heart started pounding. The rage I so often suppressed tried to force its way forward, but I swallowed it back. “Do you know where he is?”
“I promised not to tell.” Jeremy’s eyes dropped to his lap.
“Promised who?” I already knew the answer.
“The Denmaster.” It was as if he couldn’t say Jonathan’s name.
I stared at him for a very long time. Jeremy refused to look up at me and for good reason. He knew what he’d see. I was disappointed. Angry. Why couldn’t he have told me this before I’d gone tromping all over the goddamn city looking for a man who quite clearly didn’t want to be found?
But a promise was a promise. Why get mad at Jeremy for doing what he was told to do? It wasn’t like this was something he wanted. I could tell by the way he refused to look at me that lying to me hadn’t been his choice.
“Okay,” I said, the anger slowly fading. “Now I know.”
Jeremy glanced up at me. “You’re not mad?”
“I’m fucking pissed,” I said. “But not at you.”
“I shouldn’t have kept it from you.”
“He’s your Denmaster. You do what he says.”
Jeremy gave a bitter laugh. “Not anymore. He has no ties to the Cult.” He licked his lips. “And after tonight, with the girl, I can’t bring myself to lie to you anymore.” Finally, he looked up and met my eyes fully. “You mean too much to me for that.”
Any lasting bitterness I might have felt about him keeping things from me vanished like smoke. This was big. Far bigger than anything he’d ever said or done before. In essence, he was telling me I was more important than the man who’d saved him from dying all those months ago.
My knees went weak and I sat heavily on the couch. It was too much. Sienna’s return, Jonathan not wanting me to find him, and Jeremy’s admission had me feeling like the world was playing with me. Why throw everything at me at once? Again.
“Do you think she’ll wake up?” Ethan asked from across the room. He never once took his eyes off the stairs, as if he expected Sienna to come waltzing down them at any moment. I don’t even think he’d heard the conversation taking place only a few feet away.
“She will,” I said with far more certainty than I felt. Who knew what was keeping her from waking, whether it was Levi or sheer exhaustion.
“When?” he asked. I was shocked to see his eyes were moist with tears.
“Soon,” I said. “We only have to wait.”
And that’s exactly what we did.
3
The next hour crawled by. All three of us alternated going up and checking on Sienna and then sitting on our asses in the living room. There was little talking. I think we all expected something to happen, though we weren’t exactly sure what it might be.
My thoughts kept waffling between the girl upstairs and Jonathan. Why hadn’t he contacted me yet? Would she ever wake up? Did he tell Jeremy not to tell me where he was because he blamed me for what happened at the Den all those months ago?
“Be right back.” Ethan rose and took his turn to peek in on Sienna. Oddly, he seemed the most affected by her arrival.
“This will work out,” Jeremy said. It was the first thing he’d said since he told me about his promise to Jonathan.
“You can’t know that.” I was in no mood to be mollified.
“They always do.” He picked up the remote for the TV, looked at it, and set it back down without turning it on. “I have faith.”
“Good for you.” I wish I did.
Seconds ticked by. I shifted so I could watch the stairs. I knew what I’d see when Ethan returned. He’d look disappointed, maybe a little scared. And then we would wait some more until one of us couldn’t take the silence any longer.
Jeremy stood a second before I heard Ethan’s hurried footsteps. I was on my feet even before he got to the top of the stairs.
“Kat, you better come up here. She’s waking up.”
Jeremy started forward at the same time I did. I stopped him with a hand to his chest.
“Get the weapons downstairs,” I told him. My stuff was still sitting on the table. I didn’t want Sienna to see them. “Let me talk to her alone for a few minutes.”
Jeremy looked like he wanted to argue, but moved to do as I said without complaint.
I took the stairs by twos and caught Ethan before he returned to the room. He seemed jittery, bouncing from one foot to the next. He incessantly ran his fingers through his hair and straightened his shirt.
“Wait out here,” I told him. “She might freak out if she wakes up with strangers around her.”
Ethan frowned, but stepped aside.
I entered the room slowly, wishing I was wearing something other than my leather. I slid off my coat and dumped it on the chair by the door. It would have to do.
“Sienna,” I said, approaching the bed. The damp washcloth had been removed earlier. I wasn’t sure if Ethan had done it or if it had been Jeremy. “Sienna, can you hear me?”
She groaned and turned her head. Her eyes opened in slits before she raised her hands to her face, covering them.
“Dream?” The word came out as barely a whisper, but it was definitely a positive sign.
“No, this isn’t a dream.” I knelt by her side of the bed.
Sienna rubbed at her eyes, winced, and then sat up. She blinked at me, forehead creased, as if she wasn’t quite sure she should believe what she was seeing.
“Is it really you?”
I nodded.
There was a moment when she just stared at me, mouth moving as if she wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words. And then she threw herself into my arms, sobbing.
I didn’t know what to do. I held her there, gently shushing her, wishing I knew what to say. I was just now getting used to the idea of people caring about me. How were you supposed to act when they were crying and you didn’t know why?
“I knew I’d find you,” she sobbed into my shoulder. “I just knew it.”
“I’m here,” I said lamely. “You have nothing to be frightened of now.”
I glanced toward the open door. Ethan was lingering just within sight. He looked away as soon as he saw me looking.
Sienna sniffed and leaned back. She wiped at her nose and her eyes and a smile spread across her face. “I can’t believe it,” she said. “I thought . . . I don’t know what I thought.”
“It’s okay.”
“This isn’t a trick, is it?”
That brought a smile to my face. “No, Sienna, it isn’t.”
She glanced around the room, smiled, and then hugged me again. This time, there were no tears.
When she let me go, she swung her legs over the side of the bed. She appeared to be moving okay, telling me there wasn’t much in the way of damage. I half expected her to be partially paralyzed or internally bruised or something, but apparently, the only damage she sustained coming here was the damage to the knees of her jeans.
“Think you can walk?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Sienna stood. She swayed at first, but quickly caught her balance. With a smile, she nodded for me to lead the way.
“There are others here,” I said as I led her from the bedroom, hand on her arm just in case she fell. “We’ll get you something to eat and then we can make full introductions.”
“Okay.”
Ethan was gone when we stepped out into the hall. I figured he’d heard us talking and was already in the process of putting on some coffee or making a sandwich. I hoped Jeremy had taken care of any weapons that might be lying around.
I wanted to prepare Sienna for Ethan and Jeremy, but what was I supposed to say? I was living with a guy who summoned a demon for a living and another who was a one-armed werewolf. How could you explain that without making her freak out? It was better if she saw it for herself.
Like expected, Ethan was banging away in the kitchen. Jeremy stood just inside the living room, smiling. He looked tense, but was trying his best to look casual for our guest. It was more than I would have been able to do.
I led Sienna to the couch, figuring it would be far more comfortable than the dining room chairs. I didn’t know why she’d passed out. If it happened again, I’d much rather have her sitting somewhere where she couldn’t fall and hurt herself.