“Alright, Father Creep. Go do your thing. But remember your vows.”
“Callie—”
“Bye!” I said, interrupting him. Then I hung up, chuckling to myself.
Well, carte blanche to do what I needed to do. That could be fun…
Chapter 38
I headed to Abundant Angel Catholic Church to gear up and clear my head. I had an idea, and coupled with Dear and Darling – if they came through on information – it might just give me enough knowledge to figure out how to lay a trap.
I was strong, capable, and dangerous in direct confrontations, but judging from my interactions with this demon, she was more of a thinker, a planner, a schemer. Sure, she would be strong as hell, but she valued strength behind her mind. Like me.
Which meant she likely had redundancies in place, so that even if I managed to beat her in a fight – if that was what she meant by meeting at midnight – that some hidden card would be ready to appear in the game, poisoning my victory, or perhaps preventing me from victory.
My first thought was hostages. That was the easiest way to get to anyone.
Luckily, the only ones close to me were either in Italy or guarded by a mob of shifter bears. My dad was still in Chicago with his mysterious lady friend.
Bottom line, my people were about as safe as they could get. Unless another bomber was lurking at the Vatican, or if one of the bears was planning on betraying me.
But I doubted the latter, because that would basically be a death warrant for any and all of them. It would start a civil war. I thought about that, hesitating as I entered the training room below the church.
Well, that would certainly be sneaky. Perhaps that was Amira’s plan. Get the bears to annihilate each other. With Claire in the middle, which would hurt me at the perfect time.
But I couldn’t really do anything about that, other than warn Claire. I shot her a text, not speaking outright, but telling her to be aware of conflict, my meeting with Amira, and to run at the first sign of trouble. I didn’t want to make her paranoid of her new friends, especially when she needed their help to not experience her first shift alone and afraid, potentially becoming a murderer if no one was there to restrain her. But she was in the big girls club now, and she needed to be a little cynical.
I reread my text, and nodded. It would have to do.
My phone rang as I was kneeling to begin meditating.
I answered it, recognizing Beckett’s burner phone number. “Hey—”
“An eye witness says they saw you at the murder,” he hissed urgently, interrupting me. “But another witness vouches you were at a social function at the church. Regardless, the police are en route to your apartment. They have a warrant to search your place. Is there anything you might want to hide?” he asked with a tight voice.
I thought about it, pushing down my outrage, and shook my head. “No. My place is clean. A lot of martial arts weapons, but that’s fine, right?”
He hesitated. “Could any of them match the wounds on the victims?”
I tensed, not even having considered it. “Well, I guess if they broke a handle of something and stabbed someone with it…”
“Well, have any of your weapons been broken or are suddenly missing?”
I broke out in a cold sweat at the ridiculousness of it. “I’ll have to check.”
“Now. Hurry.”
I dropped everything and made a Gateway right there, stepping into my apartment.
Fists immediately pounded on the door, startling me, and I heard the police outside calling for me to open the door.
I frantically darted into the guestroom, scanning my wall of weapons, and my heart froze. Some were missing. Well, pieces of some were missing. Wooden pieces.
More fists pounding on the door made me jump into action. I snatched up the broken weapons, gave the wall one last look, and darted into my room as I heard the door rattling, and a set of keys falling to the floor as I heard the landlord babbling on the other side, trying to find the right one. I snatched up the book Nate had given me, not wanting the police to find a book on magic, which would only add another link from me to the killings. I ran back to my Gateway and jumped through, releasing it behind me just as I heard the door lock click open.
I crashed to the floor with a grunt back in the training room, a pile of weapons surrounding me. I was panting heavily.
I immediately dialed Beckett on the number he had just called me from. “You were right. Someone tried to frame me. I could bet that if you checked some of these weapons, one or two of them would be a perfect match for a piece used in one or all of the murders. The two pieces would fit together perfectly.”
He sighed. “Shoes. You’re still wearing them, right?”
“As a matter of fact, they were destroyed. Gone.” I wanted to kill someone. Anyone. Trying to frame me for the murders when I was the only one fighting against them? But it only served to solidify my deep burning rage. Amira was going to pay for this. “Beckett, it is literally impossible that anyone saw me at the last crime scene. You’re the only one I saw.”
He let out a relieved sigh. “Thank God,” he said. “But that means someone is setting you up. Any idea who yet?”
“No, but if you’re free, I need a locksmith.”
Beckett was silent on the other end, and then let out an amused chuckle. “Oddly enough, my determinable future is free. They took me off the case. Incompetence was the underlying cause. The misplaced evidence, my ties to a suspect, and digging too deep.”
I growled. “You’re being set up, too.”
“Seems like it. That’s why I saw them coming for you. It made sense.” He sounded very calm, and I could tell he didn’t want to talk about it, focusing on the problem instead, as was his way.
“Thanks. For the support and the heads up,” I said gratefully.
He was silent on the other end. “Callie, I need to hear you say it. Not that I don’t trust you, but I just need to hear you say it.”
My anger flickered to a white-hot heat for a moment, and I struggled to get a hold of myself. Was he really asking if I was involved? After everything? How dare he ask me to prove—
Then it hit me. Ah, double standards…
I had made him do the exact same thing in the parking garage. Needing to know that I could trust him. I cleared my throat, trying to hide my initial anger. “I swear I haven’t killed any of these people, and that I have not been a knowing accomplice in any of it. I would never do a thing like this. When a monster goes bad, my job is to hunt and kill them. Not torture them to death in a public place. Even if they were bad, and I wanted to, I would not do this. I swear.”
“Thanks, Callie. And I’m sorry for asking. I just… all of this is insane, and I’m still coming to grips with it. If magic is real, anything can be real. And I’m not going to lie, the evidence isn’t looking great. You’ve been seen near every location. Whether directly or indirectly. And they say the killer usually returns to the scene of the crime. This kind of bad luck screams guilt to cops.”
“Don’t sweat it. But I need you to be ready to meet me somewhere we won’t be seen together. Soon. I have a date at midnight.”
“I know. I was planning on playing third wheel. I have stakes in this, now,” he growled.
“No, that’s a terrible idea,” I argued. “No offense, but you’re way too green to go up against a demon, and she would only find a way to use you against me. She already told me so.”
“Callie, I’m going to be pretty blunt here. Is there anything I could do to stop Amira from simply kidnapping me and taking me to the meeting on her own?”
I opened my mouth to argue, and realized that the only argument would be if he stayed by my side. Which meant he would be there anyway. I sighed. “Shit. Get any kind of weapon you can think of. I’ll give you some stuff, too. But wear dark clothes. We have a stockpile here that will balance out whatever you bring.”
He grunted affirmatively. “I take it we won’t be driv
ing?”
“No,” I said, smiling.
“Okay, I’ll find a place with an alley or something for you to get to out of sight. We don’t want both of our cars conveniently found next to each other. Especially after the set-ups.”
I nodded. “Good thinking. Let me know. I’ll be ready.” He hung up, and I stared down at the weapons on the floor, kicking them with my feet. “You’re going to pay, bitch…”
Chapter 39
I had showered and changed, not wanting to look like Arthur. I sat on the floor of the training room, now, and I focused on absolutely everything – every single problem – allowing in my fears, my concerns, and spicing it all with an unhealthy dash of fury. I did this for a solid ten minutes, my eyes closed, and breathing steadily.
Then, as stressed out as I could possibly get, I discarded my feelings. My rage, primarily.
Next, was each obstacle and objective. Each priority. I had given them all a chance to voice their concerns in my head, had acknowledged them, and now it was time for them to leave.
I considered each person in my life, both old and new, imagining their faces for a moment, their motivations, their machinations, their desires and fears, and then I booted them from my headspace.
A few minutes later I was one with a single white feather in my mind, centered on a sea of black, at peace. Occasional thoughts, arguments, fears, and concerns tried to invade, but I dumped them into the feather, watching as it grew brighter, ruffling slightly in the unseen wind of my mind.
Confident I was as peaceful as I could get, I focused on the feather. I imagined it coated in silver, and felt an instant resistance. Trying to force a change into my habitual meditation totem was not simple. It was almost like starting from scratch, but I wanted to attach the silver color from the cracked door in my mind to something old, something me.
I hadn’t wanted to change everything and imagine a single drop of silver bloo—
As quickly as that, a quivering droplet of silver floated in the sea of blackness, even easier to maintain than the feather. But that wasn’t what I wanted. The silver was alien to me. It would take time to get used to it, and that was a distraction.
I felt sweat popping out on my forehead as I tried to merge the feather and the droplet of silver together, breathing faster as the two fought against each other.
But I was determined.
The feather was a symbol for me as a wizard. It had helped shape the woman I was.
The silver drop was new, and although I wanted to understand it, I didn’t want to blindly adopt it without fully considering what it was, what it entailed, and what it might make me become. That mysterious cracked door in my mind. After all, I was confident that the door was a result of the Angel’s blood, that single, silver drop that had merged with me. The blood from a literal Agent of Heaven. And although I believed in this stuff, I wasn’t a fan of blind faith. But knowing Angels existed kind of made it abundantly obvious. Irrefutable, even.
But my problem was that the beings supposedly created by God had become known to me.
But… not God. I had never seen, heard, nor spoken with Him.
I know that’s a pretty ignorant way to look at things, and that I was supposed to take it on faith, but I had a real problem with that. I just wasn’t wired that way. I was too curious. Too inquisitive. I was confident that at some point in my life I might find a healthy way to marry the two, but I wasn’t there yet.
So, I wasn’t about to adopt a standard that went against my core beliefs. Something that would leave doubt in my meditations, distracting me from my goals.
I forced the two totems together, closer, closer, closer, until a single push would make the two edges touch. But I simply had no more willpower. I was actually panting with exhaustion, even though my body was entirely still, sitting in the middle of an empty training room.
The feather quivered slightly in the unseen wind, and touched the silver droplet.
And I felt a tingling sensation shoot from my toes to my head, almost making me gasp in surprise. The feather was instantly coated in chrome, spinning slowly in the field of black, and the silver droplet was no more.
I simply remained that way for ten minutes, acknowledging and accepting the transformation.
The strange power I had felt hadn’t been all that strange, really. Just different. I pondered that, wanting answers. But questions weren’t welcome right now. This stage was for introspection. Mostly idle, but sometimes I could directly focus on topics when in this state. Trying to do this typically snapped me out of focus, forcing me to start all over again, so I considered this abstractly, merely whispering a thought, and letting my subconscious mind run with it.
Almost like… working out. I could do a pull up and position my hands so that my biceps were targeted as I lifted my chin above the bar. Or, I could rotate my hands so that my triceps carried the majority of the weight. Either way, I was doing a pullup. I was just doing it differently. Same result, different path.
I considered the feather directly, studying it, thinking. Yes. This made sense to me.
The feather continued to spin, and I slowly opened my eyes, a smile on my face.
I stared at the space ahead of me, and imagined a small Gateway. I considered it as a wizard, as Nate had shown me. I studied each aspect of the process in making a Gateway. And then, I took a figurative step back, and considered how else I might make a Gateway, using my new muscles. Like I had done in Beckett’s car.
The thought process slowly began to make sense to me, not just the action.
When I made a Gateway, I always focused on where I wanted to be, or where I wanted to get away from.
But…
What if I focused on where I needed to be…
A crackling ring of white and silver sparks erupted before me, startling me with its intensity. I stared at it, considering. But all I could see was a silvery reflection of myself, as if I had just made a mirror. Just like in Beckett’s car. I frowned at it. But my reflection smiled back.
Which sent my hair to standing on end. Was it a reflection or not? Why had it smiled when I frowned? And why couldn’t I see a destination like I was used to seeing.
I slowly extended my hand, watching as my reflection did the same.
Our hands touched across an icy plane of smooth power, and I shivered at the touch. But push as I might, my hand didn’t pierce the surface.
“What’s the point of a Gateway that doesn’t go anywhere?” I mumbled to myself.
“This Gateway has taken you to what you needed,” my reflection replied, grinning at me. I stumbled back, almost shouting out in alarm. My reflection giggled. “You are afraid,” she said.
“Um, yeah. My reflection is talking to me. Or I’m talking to myself.”
She shrugged. “You asked to see where you needed to go. Here I am.” She smiled at me again. She was much prettier than me, even though she was supposed to be a reflection. “This really is how you look, you know…” the reflection chided.
I shivered, but finally scooted closer, wondering if Roland would need to lock me up after this. “What do you mean this is where I needed to go?” I asked.
She studied me thoughtfully, almost sadly. “You are afraid of yourself. Of what you may find out about yourself. It’s why you’ve always been so aware of others. How they think. How they act. Why they do.”
I blinked. “Why they do?”
She nodded. “Why they do what they do. It’s why you are really quite exceptional at reading people. Most times, anyway.” I nodded awkwardly. What was this? Was this a higher form of meditation or something?
“No, silly. It’s you seeing. It’s what one with our blood does. Sees. Witnesses. Whatever you feel comfortable calling it.” She leaned closer. “We don’t have much time, but you need to know this.”
I nodded dumbly, simply accepting that I was crazy, and that I might just be crazy enough to teach myself something. “Okay.”
“He loves you. All of y
ou. No matter what you choose.”
I stared openly. “He?” I finally asked. She nodded. That was the extent of her answer. “Okay. What do you mean, no matter what I choose?”
Her face looked troubled for a moment, but she still managed to make it look cute. I knew for a fact that I didn’t look cute when I was troubled, so she was a big fat liar. “We can’t really go into that without you making a choice, but you can reach me anytime. Just know that you are not obligated to do anything. To be anything. Although there are pros and cons to either choice.” She grinned. “But your parents love you, too. No matter what path you choose. Just because you might be uncomfortable with their story, does not mean you have to follow their path. They chose as they did based on the consequences of their previous choices. As do we all. You do not need to fill their shoes, or live up to their expectations. You are you. I am I. The only one who is more than that is He,” she said meaningfully. “The Alpha and the Omega.”
My head was whirling. “Wait, you’re not speaking very clearly.”
“The Lord works in mysterious ways, right?”
“God is aware that I’m down here making a mess of things?” I asked, suddenly terrified. Both at the idea of God being very literal and the fact that he was watching my reality show on the God Network.
“He is aware of all His creations, no matter how small or how large.”
This really wasn’t going how I had expected.
My reflection grew very serious, almost sporting a disappointed look. “This is hard enough without you challenging your subconscious. I know you. I am you. I know your trepidations on religion. Just know that you have free will for a reason, and that it is a gift freely given. Of course, what you do with it is entirely up to you, and there are consequences. But there is not only one path to God. There are infinite paths. Even some that are not detailed in the Bible or spoken by the church.”
I stared at her, hard. “You mean… good people that don’t necessarily subscribe to God. Different religions.”
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