Chapter 22
Rachel
W e drove through the city for over thirty minutes before we arrived at the bar, and thankfully. The place was busy enough that we could enter without being noticed. The wine bar wasn’t a place my mother knew I frequented. We’d be safe for now.
Tony went to the bar to order some bottles of much-needed wine, while Lucy found us a table near the back. She quickly sat between Jase and me and crossed her arms, her face promising violence if he did anything funny. I kept my right hand concealed from Jase’s sight and even rotated the obsidian to the inside of my finger. Tony joined us and set down four glasses and two bottles—one white and one red.
After pouring our wine, I took a deep gulp before looking at one of the banes of my existence. “Alright. Start talking.”
Jase raised an eyebrow before taking a sip of his wine. He chose the Merlot, like me.
“First things first. Rachel … when you moved into the mansion, Andrei drugged you and implanted a tracker in your arm.”
“Wait … what?!”
“Jase! Way to rip the Band-Aid off, Jesus Christ,” Lucy snapped. “We agreed on the plane to wait until we were heading south.”
Panic suddenly gripped me. “Where is it in my arm?”
Jase reached out and placed his hand on my bicep. “Here, but we can’t take it out until we’re away from the public. If we ditched it at the villa, that’s the first place Andrei would go. It’s made where the moment the temperature changes, it’ll let him know it’s offline.”
I bounced my eyes between all three of them. “So he could know where I am right now?”
Jase nodded. “Last I heard, Andrei was at the mansion taking care of a mishap from the club. That was four hours after we caught a flight, so we had at least a head start, though we did have longer layovers than I had hoped. I reached out to a contact named Emily once we landed on a burner phone, but I haven’t called her since then. I didn’t want to take any chances. So, the moment we get going, we need to get off the main road and dig it out.”
Dig it out? God.
Sudden nausea pulled in my gut, and anger strangled me. That’s it. That’s how Andrei knew where to find me out here.
“More shitty news,” Jase started again, and I looked over to meet his eyes. “Andrei’s been meeting with the Black Onyx Coven to use their resources not only to re-take you and Valentina but also to use your blood to open a portal to the Upper World.”
I choked on my wine. “Open a portal to the Upper World?”
Suddenly, the tracker seemed minuscule.
Jase nodded. “Yeah. A warrior angel named Ezrylos holds a weapon powerful enough to slay the Devil himself. An angel created the spell to hide Ezylos, so only angel blood can reopen the gate to bring him back.” He paused, his eyes softening. “That would be you.”
My brows shot up. “Me?” I whispered, glancing around to make sure no one overheard. “I’m half-human, half-vampire.”
Jase leaned forward, his green eyes fixed on mine, as if searching for something. “Don’t forget, your mother was turned by a creature born of both demon and angel. She was also a witch. That makes you a being of all three realms: angel, demon … and human. You carry the blood of Heaven, Earth, and Hell.”
I slumped back in my chair, horror souring the wine in my stomach. I knew what Kylan was and how his powers and blood transferred to my mother, but I had never thought about it like that.
I looked over at Tony. “Say something,” I asked. “Do you believe this shit?”
“Fuck. I don’t believe anything anymore, but that’s what he explained on the flight here. We might need to trust our gut with this one,” he said, taking a big gulp of wine himself as if he, too, wanted to drown out the reality of what was happening. “Not only that, but some of my contacts in other covens reached out. They told me that Black Onyx was recruiting hundreds of witches from other regions, especially those who went rogue, to join their ranks. Their goal is to ensure they have a loyal coven ready at their disposal. With Valentina back, they’re scared.”
Nerves gripped my stomach. This keeps getting worse and worse.
“My mother has a gem she intends to use against them. Apparently, this was a two-hundred-year war that got put on hold when they placed Valentina under that sealing spell. The clan at the villa is gathering an army as we speak. I was supposed to leave tonight to help recruit other clans and allies,” I said. “They’re planning to launch an attack on the Lemurian Quartz and Black Onyx, with innocent humans right in the middle of it all.” The idea of it made my stomach plummet into an ice bath. “The gem she has will tear down all magic.…”
Lucy’s eyes went wide. “Jesus Christ, we’re kind of fucked.”
Jase reached out toward me, but I moved my hand away, wondering why the fuck he was trying to touch me. Once he realized his mistake, he pulled back. “Andrei, Meredith, Jackson, and I attended a meeting with the Black Onyx. They’re a lovely group of cultish psychopaths, by the way,” he said sarcastically.
A small smile reached my lips, but I held it back.
“During this meeting, Andrei negotiated with Gerald to track down the angel. Once he finds you, he’ll wear the ring to access his magic, but he needs your blood to activate the pentagram and summon the angel. The angel’s blood is what makes the spell work. Once the angel appears, he’ll be holding a sword—his blade is covered in runes that enhance its power. He’ll order the angel to kill Lucifer because if the Devil dies, he won’t be able to claim our souls anymore. We’ll be free from him. But there’s more.…”
Jase’s voice shifted, and my stomach dropped.
“What else?” I asked, panic creeping up. Lucy squeezed my hand, grounding me, but I kept my eyes on Jase.
“He …” Jase’s jaw tightened, his hands twitching, almost like he wanted to punch something. “Andrei made a deal with Gerald to put you back under Andrei’s control. If he returns with the sword and the ring, they’ll give him the authority to take you—to lock you away in his lair … and keep you there. Forever.”
All the air in my lungs froze, and the room spun. Andrei left a clear warning the last time he invaded my thoughts, but locking me away as a prisoner? That fucker knew better than to try.
The threat of that cage was real.
However, I thought about one thing. Given Andrei’s level of obsession with me since that night in the alley, it was very likely that he would do anything to keep me within his grasp. Yet why did he let me go when he tracked me to South Station?
Tony’s warm arm slipped around me and pulled me close, easing the panic that choked my breath. Lucy squeezed my hand gently.
“We wouldn’t have come if this literally wasn’t life or death,” Lucy said. “But Andrei’s been acting strangely over the last month and kept trying to get me to behave more like a … vampire. He wanted me to join his clan because he knew I had access to you and thought he could use me to get to you.” Lucy ground her teeth, fangs threatening to slide free. Tony placed his free hand over hers and rubbed his thumb over her skin as if trying to soothe her. “I refuse to be a tool in that fucker’s game, and you know I’d never do anything to put you in danger.”
I squeezed Lucy’s hand. “That’s because you’re nothing like them, and no one, especially Andrei, can ever change that. Just you coming here proves that your heart is still there. You’re still you. ”
I looked over at Jase again, who was watching Tony slide closer to me. Jase had the strangest expression. It was like he was jealous of Tony’s closeness to me, his eyes momentarily locking onto where Tony rested his hand on me. The mask of indifference slid over his features, and he took another drink of his wine.
“Okay,” I said, turning to him, but a thought dawned on me. “Wait, does Andrei know you’re in Venice?” I asked carefully.
Jase’s wicked smile grew as he raised his glass to his lips again. “Probably. Although, I think my brother might be a bit preoccupied. I may or may not have allowed a little local pack of wolves to take over his club.” He bit his bottom lip again. “And they may or may not have blown it up and killed Meredith.”
“You what?!” I shouted, drawing several eyes to our table. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
Jase leaned back, raising a brow as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I called in a favor with the Bayou Perot wolves and had the Black Diamond Club blown to dust and rubble.” His tone was light, almost bored, like he hadn’t just poked a beast that could wipe us all out. “Bought me enough time to snag two items from his safe, recruit these guys, and get the hell out of New Orleans.”
My mouth fell open, and words utterly failed me. Instead, I reached for the second open bottle on the table and poured another full glass of wine. I should have felt angry that Jase destroyed Andrei’s livelihood and murdered one of his friends, likely sparking a war with the werewolves. But something else was bothering me about the whole situation, leaving me with more questions.
“You spent four years stalking my every move so you could manipulate me into releasing my mother from her tomb, including turning Lucy into a vampire.” Lucy raised her middle finger at Jase. “Then, after you slit my throat, you and Andrei tried to kill Valentina with the ring’s power. What exactly changed to where you would not only betray your brother, but also bring my two friends to Venice and warn me about the coven’s plans? What the hell is your goal with all this? You have nothing to gain.” I moved my hand up and showed him the ring again. “You haven’t once tried to take this from me since you saw me on the sidewalk, yet you spent two hundred years waiting for it to resurface.”
Jase ran his fingers through his messy hair, and his eyes turned again to look into mine. Immediately, my body relaxed, and a calming sensation flooded my body, as if I were floating in a warm pool of water.
I mentally shook the feeling away and kept staring at him. “Well?” I asked, tapping my fingernail against the glass. “I’m waiting for an explanation.”
Jase took another drink before his green eyes met mine over the rim.
“Let’s just say my motivations have changed.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right, now you don’t want to save your soul from good ol’ Lucifer fucking with it for eternity?”
Jase smiled, and instead of pouring himself a glass of wine, he took the bottle and chugged the remaining bit down. After the last drop, he placed the bottle back on the table. “Andrei isn’t who I thought he was. Turns out, he’s even more insufferable. As much as I tried to entertain the fantasy of starting over with him, I’ve realized something—I’m better off without a family. Always have been and always will be. Let him stew in his mess; he deserves it. I can’t overlook the trail of sins he’s left behind—or the fact that he expects me to jump into the madness that is his deranged little clan.”
My eyes widened. “You’re fighting already?” I mocked. “That isn’t my problem.”
Jase narrowed his eyes. “ He’s made it your problem now. I need to get to this angel first before he does, or it isn’t just everyone around him who will suffer. You’ll be the first to beg on your knees to your favorite coven to be free from Andrei’s tight leash. His attempt to kill the Devil will only spark a war between the realms. I don’t want to kill Lucifer. If I can destroy the pentagram so Andrei can’t summon the angel, then Andrei has nothing . It’s a win-win between us. We work together, and then when all this is over, we can go our separate ways and pretend we never even met.”
I pinched my brows together. “What do you need me to do, exactly?”
“Just a tiny drop of your blood, straight from the vein so I can activate the pentagram. And it’s gotta be fresh.”
Why does he always need my blood to unlock things?
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bronze key with a strange symbol at its center. “This key will allow us to get inside a cave where the spell takes place. The Book of Shadows in my bag will walk us through what we have to do. If you help me destroy the pentagram circle used to summon the angel, I’ll make sure Andrei never touches you again. You can keep the damn ring for all I care. I just don’t want Andrei to have it. His hunger for power and prestige will only worsen, and no one wants that.”
I heard every word Jase said, but my attention was fixed on the key. I couldn’t look away. It seemed simple, but it wasn’t. The energy radiating from it hit my skin like an electric charge. I hadn’t felt that kind of power before—it was ancient, warm, and alive.
Tony’s voice broke through, pulling me from my trance. “The cave he’s talking about is in Greece. So, we need to drive as far south as possible and then take a ferry to Athens. It’s too risky to fly since Black Onyx has allies that could report our whereabouts. It’s easier for Rachel to use her compulsion ability on individual law enforcement and ferry officials over an entire airport security.”
I blinked, my gaze going right back to the key. It took me only a few seconds to make my decision. “Alright, fine. I’ll help you,” I said, looking up to meet Jase’s intense eyes. “But after this, you and I are done. For good.”