Furious Fire: Grimm's Circle, Book 8

by Shiloh Walker

  Then, as Thom had clung to me, my blood spilled out of me, tearing me out of his arms…again, not by my choice. Even this merry-go-round of endless lives wasn’t my choice. Sure, I’d wanted to come back to find him. Not die, over and over.

  This, though, this was my choice.

  As the demon went to lower the knife, I could feel his intention—one hand at my spine, ready to shove me away. I waited until the very last second, staring at Finn, realizing this might be the last time I saw him. At least for another few decades.

  If this was how it had to play out, then so be it.

  When the moment was right, I caught the demon’s wrist, hit the pressure point. It was a good thing their biology didn’t entirely change when the host inside them slowly ceased to exist, and a good thing that the body didn’t cease to be human.

  I was able to wrench the knife from his hand, and trip him, fling him to the ground. Leaping on him, I grabbed his hair and smashed his face into the rocky ground at the exact moment I plunged the knife into his back. He jerked though and I missed. Missed the heart and that was my one chance.

  Figures—

  He howled and flung me and even as fire erupted around us, a knife whipped across my throat.

  And then, just as he’d expected, the demon became a Roman candle.

  I stumbled, clutching at my throat.

  Blood bubbled.

  I swayed.

  But before I could go to my knees, strong, overheated arms caught me. “No, no, no,” a voice muttered against my temple. “You little fool!”

  It’s okay. I wanted to say that. But how could I?

  Dimly, I realized it was already getting darker.

  Death was coming quicker this time.

  Quicker than it ever had.

  “Don’t,” Finn whispered. “You can’t do this to me. Not again.”

  “Let me see her, Finn. Now—”

  Finn was about to fling Sina away, ready to kill her, but then he caught sight of the glow coming from her eyes.

  Power came off her in waves.

  Her hands caught Kalypso’s face.

  “Well, then, girl, you don’t lack for balls, do you?” Sina murmured. “Listen now, because there’s not much time…”

  Then she fell silent.

  Every hair on Finn’s body stood on edge.

  Was she—?

  The darkness was gone.

  Brilliant white light wrapped around me. A moment ago, I had felt like I was being ripped away from my body. But that had ceased.

  Now, I stood in a place of silence, of peace. Bathed in a cool, gentle light.

  And that woman stood in front of me.

  “What…” I stopped as my voice echoed around us, like we stood in some giant cavern. “What’s going on?”

  “Ever wondered why he’s still alive? I mean, it’s been…what? A hundred and fifty years? Give or take.” The woman cocked her head.

  “Who are you?”

  “My name is Sina. That’s not an important detail, though. Not right now. I can slow things down long enough for you to make a choice, but let’s not stray off topic. Have you ever wondered, Becky? Why is Thomas Finn still alive?”

  “My name is Kalypso,” I said, shaking my head. “Becky Thatcher couldn’t have survived what I’ve lived through. What we all lived through.”

  “Probably for the best,” Sina murmured. “After all, Finn is no longer the man he was. Don’t you want to know who that man is? How he came to be?”

  I waited.

  “Do you believe in angels?”

  “Ah….” I studied her. “Is this some sort of post-mortem joke?”

  “No. Not at all. You, of all people, should believe in oddities, after all. I mean, you’ve lived several times, and each time, you get stronger. You kill demons. If demons can exist, shouldn’t their counterparts? You can’t have one without the other.”

  “And that would be…”

  “Us.” She beamed. “Angels. We, specifically, are called the Grimm. Created a couple of millennia ago after a couple of breeds of demons found a way to break free of their prison.”

  “You want me to believe Finn is one of you? But he is—he was a man.”

  “All of us were,” she said gently. “Or women. We made a choice. Die, and go on to what comes after. Or stay…and change. Now you have that choice. You can die, and this time, if you choose to die, I think it’s final. You can rest. I can see that you’re tired and you won’t have to keep struggling.”

  “You can make that happen?” I whispered. Tears stung my eyes. Tired? Tired didn’t touch what I felt at times.

  “No, honey.” She paced in a slow circle, her head tipped back. “None of this happens because of me. But I do know that you’re being given that choice. I heard what you said, that final day. What he said…he begged you to come back, you said you’d do it, a thousand times. He’s prayed for just that, begged, pleaded, I think…then he just gave up hope. He stopped waiting. And now, you’re both here. Every moment of the past hundred and fifty years led to this moment. You can go on, and have that chance with Finn. Or let go. Rest.”

  It made no sense. My heart had stopped beating. Even though I’d left my body-and I knew I had, I’d all but felt it. But in that moment, it felt as though my heart, my soul, my everything began to pound, pulse, and dance. A chance with Finn…

  In the back of my mind, I heard words I’d whispered a lifetime ago.

  If it were possible, I’d come back a thousand times, sweetheart. Just to find you again.

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Excellent.” She gave me a blinding, smile. Then she winced. “I hate to tell you this, but you have to die first. For real.”

  I looked around. “What…but…I’m already dead.”

  “No.” She sighed. “You’re not.”

  Finn clutched at her, desperately, dying a little inside as Sina kept her hands on Kalypso’s face.

  How had it taken him so long to see?

  Why hadn’t he made Will send her away?

  If he lost her again…

  Absently, he fingered the Colt he wore strapped to his thigh. Could it kill him, he wondered. He wasn’t sure, but if it wouldn’t do the job, he could find another one. A Desert Eagle would do it. He was positive. He’d…

  A hand covered his.

  “Stop it, kid,” Sina said wearily.

  He looked up.

  She smiled, a tired one.

  Then she looked down, staring at Kalypso’s bloody throat, her pale face. She was no longer breathing and her body was still. So deathly still. “I can’t do this,” he said, his voice raw. “I can’t…”

  Sina closed her hand into a tight fist.

  He shuddered, as an image formed in his mind. The river. He’d take her to that spot where they’d made love the first time. He owned that piece of land. He didn’t go back there, hadn’t in years, but he’d bought it decades ago. He’d bury her. Then…

  Silver light spilled out from Sina’s closed fist.

  “You better hope she doesn’t ever learn of what you were thinking there, boy. She’ll thrash you good and sound.” Then, slowly, Sina’s fist uncurled.

  For a long, stupefied moment, he just stared at what she held in her palm. He knew what it was. He wore one around his own neck, as did every Grimm who ever walked.

  “How did you do that? Only Will can call another back,” he said, his voice almost soundless.

  “Does it matter?”

  Kalypso’s body arched and a sudden, shocked intake of breath rattled out of her.

  Finn grabbed her, staring at her.

  Her eyes flew open, glowing, like lit from within.

  Her hand came up. The slick red still coated her throat. But the flesh behind it was smooth, and unmarred.

/>   Death.

  Yeah.

  She’d smelled it all right.

  Mandy climbed out of the car and followed the stink of it, no longer needing to rely on that low-level tug in her heart that drew her like a moth to a flame.

  She had only been running for a few minutes when she came across the first demon and without pause, she lifted her crossbow. She’d decided that was her tool of the trade, although she knew how to use any number of weapons.

  The demon saw her and increased its speed, not recognizing her as anything but human. Another trick she was rather proud of—the stronger she became, the easier it was to hide what she was. The perfect chameleon. She made really good bait when they were out trolling for demons. Not that Will ever let her play all that much.

  Just before the thing would have pounced, she went to her knees and it went flying over her. She aimed, let the bolt fly and smiled as it caught the demon in the throat. She rolled and twisted, coming to her feet as it shuddered and fought with the bolt in its neck.

  She sauntered over and bent down. The silver medallion on her neck swung free and she smiled as the demon’s eyes widened.

  “You should look before you leap,” she chided.

  “You…all…will die. Thousands…wai…” the words were garbled. Then, without finishing, its eyes rolled back and the head went slack.

  Well, hell. That sounded ominous.

  Blowing out a breath, she tucked her necklace back inside her shirt and resumed the breakneck sprint.

  A minute after she’d begun to run, the rumbling began to rock the earth.

  Will searched for Finn.

  He needed the man higher, and ready.

  In his mind’s eye, he already saw what was to play out.

  The second wave would be just as bloody, just as brutal.

  “There will be a third wave. A fourth wave. Each will get successively worse until that portal is closed.”

  Ice crept through his veins at the sound of that voice. He’d been alone, isolated, as he almost always was.

  But now… He closed his eyes for a moment, bracing himself. He hadn’t heard that voice in two thousand years, but he had never forgotten it.

  Slowly, he turned and met a gaze that gleamed like fired bronze.

  He held it only for a moment before he went to his knees and focused on the ground before him. Quietly, he said, “I have tried to close it. I cannot.”

  “It takes more than sheer, brute power to do it.” There was a considering pause and then the man came closer. But he was no mortal man. Nor had he ever been. Unlike the rest of them.

  Squeezing his eyes closed, he fought to ignore the rush of emotions that struggled to break through barriers he’d erected, then perfected over centuries. Fear. Resignation. Acceptance. Nothing he felt showed in his voice, but what did it matter? He could hide nothing from this one. “What will it take? I would spare my soldiers, the mortals they fight to protect.”

  “Would you? In your mortal life, you never fought to protect anything—you had only an interest in sparing yourself. You never cared for anything, did you?”

  Hands clenched into fists, Will waited a long moment and then softly said, “I cared. Just about the wrong things.”

  “And now?”

  The voice prodded him and he lifted his head, stared into those molten eyes. “I would not see them suffer.”

  “Hmmm.”

  As Will watched, the other turned and stared out over the bloodied and broken who waited below.

  And then, with a speed that left Will’s mind struggling to process it, they were no longer on the top of the hill where Will had been regrouping and planning.

  They stood at the edge where the gate to the demon’s world had opened.

  “You can still win. The barrier between this world and theirs needn’t fall,” the being murmured as every single soul there gaped at him. “Find the weak spots on the other side. Each one feeds into this. If they are destroyed, broken from the outside in, it will collapse this.”

  “How am I to do that?”

  Low mutters rose around him. From the corner of his eye, he could see the others staring at him, then the tall man before him—one who stood like a warrior, a judge, an executioner. He was, in fact, all three. And Will knelt before him, still.

  “I sense thirty.”

  Will looked up at that, slowly, dread curling inside him.

  A faint smile curved the being’s lips as he lifted a brow.

  Will looked down once more.

  “Send thirty of your strongest. I’ll gift them with the ability to break the gates and once that is done—”

  Will surged upright. “No.”

  The ground beside them began to churn.

  “Will,” Sina said, her voice harsh with warning.

  He ignored her.

  “If it can be done as easy as that, just from the inside out,” Will said, holding the other’s eyes without flinching. He understood now. The veil between this world and that had been weakened by a single act. His act. Done so long ago. So it was an act from him that would close it. “Send me. Gift me that ability and I’ll break it.”

  “You cannot do it all on your own.” Those golden eyes were amused. Mocking. “Thirty of your men shall go, and you shall remain and direct the warriors who survive.”

  “No!” Will backed up, his arms spread, as though that alone would protect his soldiers from the one in front of him. Vaguely, he was aware that Finn was approaching, carrying a woman in his arms. And she…something that might have been relief washed through him, because he recognized the power growing inside, even though she had fallen into the sleep so common to the new ones.

  At least he’d succeeded there. He had to protect that. Had to protect all of them.

  Interest gleamed in the other’s eyes and he slid his gaze to Finn.

  “That one. He’s young, but the fire will even things out.” Then he looked at Sina. “Her, as well. I’ll find the rest.”

  “No,” Will snarled again and he gave up trying to keep his body between them. It would do no good. He needed more than that, and he knew it. Striding toward the other, he blocked his Grimm from the being’s view, met his gaze levelly, although the power in that gaze made everything in him ache. “I am their leader. If anybody must pay this price, then it is must be me.”

  Then, with a bitter smile, he added, “Perhaps you think thirty is the right number, but you and I both know that only one will suffice. If I am the one.”

  That golden head inclined. “Indeed.”

  The ground began to shudder.

  Voices rose.

  “Will, you can’t possibly hope to handle this on your own,” Sina said, grabbing him. The air ripped beside her. She ignored it as her husband turned and slashed the head off the demon that tried to squeeze through.

  “I must.” Will lowered his head and brushed a kiss across her brow. “It was always to be this way.” He tapped the medallion resting on her breast. “It is why you are suddenly capable of so much more. If you let yourself, you’ll realize the truth of it. Lead them well.”

  “No!” She caught his arm and turned to glare at the other one. “I don’t know who the f—”

  “Child. He must make the choice. As you all made your own.” The gleaming one from behind them flicked a hand at Sina and her mouth continued to move, but no sound came out.

  A dark shadow bulleted out of the bodies surrounding them and Will closed his eyes as he recognized the woman who caught him around the waist. He didn’t bother asking how she’d found them, but he cursed silently, nonetheless. As she pressed her body to his, he felt his heart start to crack into a thousand jagged bits.

  “No.” Mandy clutched him to her. “You aren’t doing this. Not alone. I’ll go with you.”

  “You can’t.” He press
ed his face to her hair, hoped the gate would hold just a few more seconds…he needed them, those few seconds he’d never allowed himself. “It was always meant to be this way. Only I can go.”

  Only I will suffice.

  Not because he was the only one strong enough. It had nothing to do with strength. But because it was high time he paid the price.

  “No!” Mandy slammed a fist against his chest.

  He took the pain and then cupped her face in his hands.

  “You son of a bitch,” she whispered, grabbing his hair and pulling him down to her. “You can’t do this to me. Don’t you know what you’re doing?”

  He studied her face and he reached up, ran the back of his knuckles down her cheek, and then, for once, let himself touch her mouth. “Yes. Because I’m doing it to me as well. But you must understand. This, you, me…it could have never happened. Happiness was something I was never meant to have. And you would have made me happy.”

  He stole a bit of it, though, then and there, pressing his mouth to hers. “If I could have let myself, I would have loved you.”

  Then, as the ground rumbled once more, he eased her back and looked up. Luc stood by Sina’s side. She’d stopped struggling to speak, and he realized she’d figured it out. She alone knew his darkest secrets and she alone had begun to realize. Not just what was going on, but why. “Sina, please.”

  “Luc.” She was able to speak now and her voice was broken, ragged.

  Luc soundlessly caught Mandy and pulled her back.

  “Don’t,” Mandy pleaded. “Don’t do this, Will. I love you.”

  He closed his eyes. It was a blade, slicing raw across his bleeding heart. “I know. I never should have let that happen. You deserved far more.” Then he looked up, stared at the sea of shocked faces. Some of them looked from him, to the man next to him in outright hostility. Others were still confused. “Sina will guide you—follow her.”

  The earth ripped apart in the very moment.

  And he plunged into the heart of darkness even as he felt Mandy reaching out for him.

  Luc jerked her back.

  “No!” she screamed.

  “He can—”

  “I’m not standing here while he—”

  “Qué carajo clase de—”