Protect Her: Part 4 Read online

  “That was nothing more than a bit of safekeeping which I told you even then,” Bruno said. “I’m sure you can understand. I wasn’t the only demon official looking for you. At that time, we still had a week before the official summoning ceremony, and it was simply too risky for me to keep you anywhere else. I improvised.” He shrugged.

  “Improvised?” I seethed. “Your grunts beat me up and threw me in a box. I almost drowned.”

  “My associates have a tendency to be a bit aggressive in their work,” Proctor said. “You weren’t going to die. We had already established you have a healthy survival instinct. It might have felt that you were going to die, but you are the reincarnation of a Goddess. Yes, you were still in human form, but I cast a spell to make sure that you would have survived what was meant to be a brief containment. I am still curious how you got out of the box, but I can guess the answer now.”

  “I would have died,” I said. I clenched my fists at my side.

  “So it appears that you can access your powers in times of extreme survival. Life and death. The conduit to the Goddess’s power has always been there, but you can’t leverage it unless a certain set of criteria is met.” Bruno stood. He took a step toward me, and I stepped backward. “That’s how you survived that night. That’s how you took out my demons on the island. And that instinct seems to be able to apply to those you care about as well, which is why you were able to channel it to save your friends.”

  “I don’t know anything about that,” I said. My skin crawled as Bruno took another step toward me. I remembered the other offers he had made to me when he held me captive before. I had gladly made certain that he understood that the only acceptable option for me was death.

  “Oh, I can assure you that is the case. As I said, my friend helped me make sure that won’t happen again though. For now, you can consider yourself…neutered.” Bruno pointed at the back of the room. I saw a black-robed figure standing there deep in the shadows. It was a dark Wiccan. I wished that I had known I had access to any kind of magic three years ago. At that time, I could only sense magic in the world around me. That knowledge might have turned the tide for me then.

  “What do you want from me, Proctor?” I asked as I continued to scoot away from him. “The summoning spell was supposed to happen on my eighteenth birthday. Guess what? I’m twenty-two, and there’s obviously no Goddess in here. Guess you’ll have to go find yourself another reincarnated body for your little summoning spell.”

  Bruno smiled. “A younger body is ideal, but I’m sure the Goddess will still find yours acceptable.”

  A cold tendril of fear curled in my stomach. For three years, I had been able to live like a normal person. I had no memory then of my childhood within the commune, or finding out that one day, my soul would be pushed aside, and my body would be possessed by someone else. My parents hid so much from me. Then they died, and I had been forced to fend for myself. And before Bruno captured me the first time, I had been so close to finding the object that could save my soul.

  I wanted to kick myself. I had lived on Calamata Island for three years, probably within a mere few miles from the object that I sought, assuming it still existed. Benjamin’s edict of a demon free zone had kept me safe during that time, but then my past invaded again.

  “I won’t allow it,” I said. “I know a thing or two about that summoning spell too. I have to agree to her possession, and I won’t do it. I don’t agree. She can stay wherever it is that she’s been imprisoned and be damned for all I care.”

  “That’s what you said last time,” Bruno said. His grin widened. “But things are different now, aren’t they?”

  “What are you talking about? Nothing has changed,” I spat. “I’m not giving up my body or soul to some bloodthirsty deity who wants to walk this world again.”

  Bruno crossed his arms and let a fingertip tap against his lips. He was clearly enjoying his game of cat and mouse. “You were willing to die last time before giving yourself over. Surely you remember that?”

  “Nothing’s changed. I would still rather die,” I said, lifting my chin. I hoped that Bruno didn’t hear the tremble in my voice. The glimpse of a normal life had weakened my conviction on that point.

  “I can understand that I suppose. Your parents were dead. You found out that everything you had been told about your life was a lie. You had big scary monsters chasing you for several years. You didn’t have anyone to trust, or anyone to care about. Although, I would have thought being possessed by a Goddess would have felt like a great honor. Instead, you wanted to let it all go. That was then, though.”

  My heart started to beat faster. It wasn’t hard to guess where Bruno was going with his little speech. I had a weakness. Two weaknesses, in fact, although they were important to me in different ways.

  “You can imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that you were acquainted with Riley Stone.” Proctor’s grin twisted into a hideous smile. “He’s been on my to do list for quite some time to revisit, but other things kept getting in the way. Now, you’ve presented me with the perfect opportunity to take care of two birds with one stone. And as far as your archangel boyfriend, he’s about to find out that the demons aren’t ready to concede to Heaven’s wishes anymore.”

  “Benjamin isn’t my boyfriend,” I said lamely.

  Bruno’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?” He disappeared and reappeared directly in front of me. Before I could pull away, he yanked down the collar of my shirt. I cried out as I felt a sharp burning sensation on my skin. I twisted and tried to push Bruno away from me, but he was far stronger than me. “This says differently.”

  I didn’t know how I had gotten the invisible badge of a single red rose inside a gold circle that now was visibly glowing on my collarbone over my heart, but I knew that it had everything to do with Benjamin. Riley had said that was the reason that he couldn’t make love to me; that it meant I belonged to Benjamin. One thing was certain though; I was damn tired of being claimed by men without my permission.

  I couldn’t make Bruno let me go, but he couldn’t make me grant the Goddess permission to my body. “That means nothing,” I hissed. “Neither one of them means anything to me.”

  Bruno threw back his head and laughed. “Excellent.” He waved at the Wiccan. “Then let’s get this brand off her pretty skin. We don’t need the angel barging in here unexpectedly. Then make sure that the Typhons bring me Mr. Stone. I think we need to test this little theory of our soon-to-be Goddess’s non-feelings for him.”

  The black-robed figure glided across the floor toward me. I knew there was only one way out that would ensure Riley’s safety. It was a simple truth that she had accepted three years ago.

  I would have to find a way to die.

  CHAPTER THREE - Riley

  Alice refused to answer any questions on the topic of the tattoo until the convent floors were clean. She insisted that I needed to be cleaned up as well. For the next hour, my thoughts tumbled over and over wondering what the hell was happening to me. Four days ago, I had been just a lowly necromancer doing a job and minding my own business. Saving Paige Matthews from the Typhon demon had turned all of that on its head. On one hand, I was ready to meet the challenge head on, and on the other, I wanted to pack it all in and go back home and forget it all happened.

  It was a battle that wasn’t unlike the one that had raged inside of me after I discovered my abilities. I spent a year under Alice’s tutelage, but our fundamental differences on what she said was right and what was not eventually drove me out on my own. I did some shitty stuff after that. I never thought it would follow me home until the night that it did. It was something I’d never be able to take back.

  Since then, my trade had gotten far darker. With no one left to care about, I had been willing to explore all of the things that Alice warned me about and things that she probably didn’t even know existed at all. All of that had been with one intention in mind. Eventually, I’d have the right bag of tricks to trac
k down Bruno Proctor and make him suffer the way that he made my family suffer.

  I had spent five years preparing for it, and I had come close to winning the fight in the church. I had been in Proctor’s head. I just needed time to process what I had seen there, but it wasn’t something that I was ready to do quite yet. Entering the demon official’s mind had been diving into a vat of blood and death. Sorting through the harrowing images that lived in that kind of mind required fortitude of will that I could only hope that I possessed. It made me all the more afraid for Paige. Every moment that she was in his hands was another moment that Proctor could do something to her that would break her forever.

  Scrubbing the floor of the hallway leading from the convent to the church just meant that I had more time to think. I didn’t want to think. I wanted to act. But I needed Alice to tell me what the tattoo on my back meant before I could do so. It was obvious to me from the expression on her face that she knew what it was and that it scared the shit out of her. That was what stopped me from demanding that she tell me right that minute. It seemed as if we both needed to hit the pause button and reassess where we were. I sensed that I had reached some point of no return. I couldn’t go back, even if I wanted to.

  Keeping my thoughts quiet, I made sure that every drop of my blood was scrubbed off the floor. It was a task that I didn’t necessarily want, but it was important. I knew that having even a drop of someone’s blood meant that you could gain a modicum of control over them. If Alice was right, and there were demons lurking about, they could find it and use it against me. She had known that I wouldn’t trust anyone else with the task, not when there was so much to lose on the line.

  Forty-five minutes later, certain that I had cleaned away every drop of my blood that had been spilled. Before retreating to the small bathroom in the basement of the convent, I burned the bloodstained rags that I used to clean the floor along with the cloth that Alice used to clean my wounds.

  I hadn’t seen another nun since shortly after Paige and I had arrived at the convent. I assumed that was because Alice had convinced the Mother Superior that it was safer if the nuns all took a mini-vacation. The church had been breached by pure evil. Alice would need to find a way to rebuild the barrier spell that was supposed to protect them from all of that. Still, on the off chance that any one of the convent’s residents was still home, I discreetly kept my bathing activities out of sight.

  After taking a long, hot shower and dressing in clean clothes, I found that my head was finally clear. I could think again, which no doubt had been Alice’s intention all along. She had often told me that my biggest obstacle in any challenge was going to be myself. Particularly when I was younger, I was prone to rash decisions and failed to take into account any long-term strategy. I had gotten better throughout the years, but now that someone I cared about was involved again, I found that I had reverted back to my old self. That wouldn’t do.

  As I made my way back to the kitchen, I smelled the calming aroma of Alice’s famous Dragon Jasmine tea. I was now ready to begin. I just needed to be told the direction to go, and I was confident that Alice would at least tell me that, even if she didn’t condone what I might do to get there.

  I was surprised to find that Alice was not alone when I entered the kitchen. A woman who appeared to have twenty years on Alice sat at the table sipping from a teacup. Even hunched over, I could see that she was diminutive, but as she sat up straight at my entrance, I found that her bright green eyes pierced through me. My feet stopped their forward motion.

  “I didn’t realize that your social circle included demons these days, Alice,” I said, feeling the muscles of my shoulders tighten.

  Alice was at the stove picking up the teapot. She made her way to the table and poured the hot liquid into a cup at the empty place at the table. “This is Abigail Pearson, Riley. I’ve known her for many years.”

  “And she’s a demon,” I pressed.

  “I like how you’ve decided to speak about me as if I’m not here,” Abigail said. Her voice was slightly high-pitched and sharp. “I don’t know about this, Alice. I don’t think I care for this boy’s tone.”

  “Riley, sit,” Alice’s tone told me that she wasn’t asking. “Before you go out and bungle this situation anymore, you need to listen and learn. This situation is far more serious than I realized. What you are caught up in requires a certain finesse to extract yourself from. It touches on too many things that I cannot help you with, so I’ve asked Abigail for assistance. Given your proclivity of working for demons, I wouldn’t think you’d be so opposed to having a simple cup of tea with one.”

  “Just because I work for them doesn’t mean that I trust them,” I said, not taking my eyes off the small woman.

  “That feeling is mutual,” Abigail said. “You have quite the reputation. The Necromancer who will make sure that if you’re a demon, and you get conjured up in one of his summonings, you don’t get to come back to life. Ever.”

  “My motto is that the last thing the world needs is another demon,” I said calmly. I wasn’t going to feel guilty for what I did. After watching what Proctor did to my family, my eyes were opened to the depths of cruelty that demons were more than willing to stoop to. They didn’t have a conscience or moral compass. They were evil. I exploited that evil for profit even while I scrubbed it away from the world. I liked to think of myself as a darker version of Robin Hood.

  “Perhaps we should take a timeout on this topic,” Alice said, gesturing for both of us to be quiet.

  “I don’t think I have any interest in what you have to say anymore, Alice,” Abigail said, downing her cup of tea. “I appreciate getting a sip of that tasty concoction, but I find the company lacking.”

  Alice slid a small book onto the table. I knew it. It was her journal where she kept all of her notes about her supernatural interactions and knowledge. Alice flipped open to a page, and I caught a glance of a familiar image on the page. “Are you sure about that?”

  Abigail looked at the image on the page, and then her face paled. “What do you know of that, Alice? That’s far beyond your normal inquiries.”

  “I know that demons are tight-lipped about the things that scare the bejesus out of them. I also know that they will go to great lengths to make sure that no one else outside of the demon realm possesses any knowledge of those things. When I first became aware of my own abilities, a demon that seemed unlike the rest took pity on me and offered to share some of those secrets so that I could use them if necessary to secure my own safety in a time of trouble.”

  “He shouldn’t have done that,” Abigail said. “It is forbidden to discuss, even amongst ourselves.”

  Now I was intrigued. It had been quite awhile since I watched Alice work, and I had forgotten how good she was at ferreting out information from reluctant sources. My own skills in that regard had grown exponentially under her tutelage.

  “Nonetheless, late one night when he was drunk, he muttered something about an ancient curse and a symbol. Before he passed out, he drew it in the ashes of the fireplace for me. It disappeared with a quick breath, but I burned it into my memory.”

  “You’ve always been far too inquisitive for your own good,” Abigail said. “But still, this isn’t something you want to get involved in, Alice.”

  “You’re right,” Alice said, sitting straight up in her chair. Then she refilled Abigail’s teacup. “I dug around enough to know that this wasn’t anything that I ever wanted any part of. Yet I find myself in a position of knowing more than I want to, and not knowing who to trust with it.”

  Abigail took a long sip of her tea. Then her bright eyes settled again on me. “I can only assume that the reason you would risk bringing up this topic with me, when we both know I should kill you for it, is because it has something to do with your surrogate son.”

  I shot to my feet reaching across the table for the demon’s throat when I felt Alice’s hand on my shoulder. “Riley, if you are unable to control your temper,
I will ask you to leave the room.”

  The words and tone made me feel like I was nineteen years old all over again and failing in my studies. Alice was the only person I allowed to speak to me that way, and she used it to her full advantage. I was furious that the demon had the audacity to threaten Alice’s life in front of me. Clearly I had more work to do in establishing my reputation in the demon community. I might not be able to touch the demon officials, but I had no qualms about chasing down the lower level demons.

  Never taking my eyes off of Abigail, I let my butt sink back down into my chair. But I didn’t release my posture of readiness. If the demon moved one finger in Alice’s direction, I’d break her neck.

  Abigail laughed. It was an ugly sound. “It’s good to know that at least someone has that boy on a leash.”

  “It’s a wonder you get any demon to speak to you at all.” Alice looked at me pointedly, and I pulled my fists underneath the table so that neither one of them could see how I clenched and unclenched them. There was nothing I could do about my jaw though. For now, I’d keep my mouth shut. I also wasn’t going to share that most of the time, I was using other methods far beyond niceties to get the demons I conjured up to tell me what I wanted to know.

  Once Alice seemed certain that I was going to keep my mouth shut, she turned back to Abigail. “I have no choice in the matter. I need to broker an agreement for your assistance that goes beyond your debt to me, and I recognize that you put yourself at great risk by doing so. This will wipe that debt away, and I will be in yours. Speak your terms.”

  I gaped at my mentor in stunned disbelief. One thing that she had always told me was that you never allowed anyone, angel, human, or demon, to set the terms of a negotiation.

  Abigail sat back from the table. “This becomes more intriguing by the moment, Alice. I need to know more about this assistance.”

  “No.” Alice shook her head. “I can’t allow you to back out, Abigail. Speak your terms.”