Chapter Three
“Are you ready? This didn’t go so well the last time we did it.” Zavier noted that Liss’s fists were clenched. She looked great, as usual, in jeans and a deep green sweater that highlighted cleavage he wouldn’t allow himself to glance at more than once. But her whole body was as stiff as a sarcophagus. Aside from the tendrils of her dark hair framing her face that lifted in the breeze from the falls.
Nephilim used waterfalls as portals—instantly transporting through one to come out any other in the world a moment later. It made living in the WatchTower behind Niagara Falls very useful.
And it terrified Liss every time she did it.
“I know I’m safe. I know you won’t drop me.” She rushed through the words in a monotone, as if they were a mantra she’d recited while dressing. “It just feels slightly, um, suicidal to step out into Niagara Falls.”
“Problem solved.” He lifted her into his arms. “You’re not stepping. I’m flying.” He flew through Niagara without giving her any extra time to worry about it.
An instant later, they popped through the other side. Zavier made sure to keep his wings invisible, since it was still daylight in London. It made for a slightly awkward landing—he stretched his legs into a wide hop so that any passing bystander would think he’d leapt across the small, decorative falls instead of out of them.
“That was better!” Liss bounced in his arms.
“Whoa. I’m balanced on a single rock here.” Zavier set her down but kept a hand out in case she needed to grab it for balance. They swiftly descended the tiers of rocks until they were on grass.
“Oi . That’s not safe up there. You’re not a goat, lad.” A park worker wearing an official vest with a patch of some sort of authority shook a fist while he dressed them down.
“Sorry. We’ll move along.” Being noticed was always a possibility when flying through a waterfall in daylight. But Zavier hadn’t been willing to wait until dark. Liss had been too sad last night. He needed to give her this…illusion of usefulness as soon as possible.
Liss cocked her head at the worker’s thick accent. “Ah, where are we?” she whispered.
“Kyoto Park in London.” He drew her onto a main path that took them on a bridge over the carp pond. “It was built forty years ago as a sign of friendship between Japan and England.”
With an elbow to the ribs, she said, “I suppose you were here for the opening?”
She loved to rib him about his “advanced age.” And Zavier rolled with it. Easy to see how the lengthened Nephilim lifespan would confound a human. Didn’t matter to him. He’d keep battling demons until one killed him. Could be tomorrow, could be in forty years. He’d try to save the world for as long as possible.
“We snuck in before, actually, to scope it out when there weren’t people around. London isn’t known for its waterfalls. There’s a bunch in the north, but wasting four hours in a car commuting from the nearest one sucks. This was the first convenient one.”
A smile lifted her deep purple lips as she turned her head to take in the peacock standing near a stone lantern. “It’s funny to think about an angelic being stuck in traffic.”
“Trust me, you wouldn’t think it was funny if you were stuck in the car with me.” It was right up there with being bitten by a Hell spider on his list of things he hated. And Hell spiders had venom that burned in your veins for seven days.
“I’ve known you for months now, Zavier. Your vast command of swear words and microscopically short fuse are not breaking news.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve never really seen me lose my temper until you’ve seen me stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel at rush hour heading into Manhattan.”
“Duly noted. Um, why didn’t you tell me we were going to London?” Her eyes were wide with glee.
Hell.
Zavier wasn’t used to explaining himself. Or his reasons.
Liss might’ve freaked out about going to another country and worried about not getting home with no passport if anything happened to him. She might’ve worried about the cost. Mostly, he’d done it to get exactly this reaction. The joy lighting up her face.
No way was he admitting that.
So he kept it simple. “Surprises can be good.”
“Indeed.” Her attempt to match him at being taciturn failed when she wrapped her hands around his arm and squeezed. “I’m really excited. Thank you.”
He whistled for a cab. In moments, they were inside and heading for their destination.
Liss sat on the edge of the seat, reaching up to touch the high ceiling of the cab, so unlike American taxis. “It looks just like in the movies. I could be Princess Catherine.”
The driver laughed. “She don’t ride in one of these, miss. But look out the right window. There’s Kensington Palace. That’s as close as you’ll get to the princess, I reckon.”
She lunged across the seat to plaster her face on the window. “Wow. This is incredible.”
Zavier wanted her to look at him with that intensity. Except that if she did, she’d see all the layers of his—literal—tortured darkness that would taint her. Would ruin her. He could never be the one to dim her incandescent brightness.
“I met King Charles once.”
The conversational gamble worked. Liss’s neck audibly cracked, she turned to him so quickly. “What? Why is this not the story you lead with every time you meet someone?”
He shrugged. “Just another mission for me.”
“Tell me,” she demanded, her fingers digging into his thigh.
Lowering his voice so the driver wouldn’t overhear, Zavier said, “We were hired to dispatch a kelpie . It’s a shape-shifting water horse that will eat anything that comes near. This one was in the River Dee, on the Balmoral estate.”
“How did you get through security?”
Hilarious. “The estate is fifty thousand acres. There aren’t guards on patrol every fifty feet. I flew in through the Falls of Bruar and kept going. It was almost dawn. The king had gotten up early to fish, I guess. His hand was attached to the kelpie when I found them. It was about to drag him to the bottom of the river as a snack.”
Her hands flew to her mouth as she sucked in a long, slow breath. “You didn’t just meet him—you saved the king’s life?”
She was missing the point. “Liss, I’d save any human stuck to a kelpie .”
“This inherent modesty you all have about constantly saving lives is tiresome. What you do is heroic. You deserve to be recognized for it. Celebrated. Applauded.”
It was nice to hear, even if he didn’t believe it. Saving humans was his duty. It was what he’d literally been trained from the cradle to do. “I shot the kelpie with a silver bullet. It dissolved into a nasty mess almost like a jellyfish. The king freed himself. I made sure he got back on shore and flew off. Quick and easy.”
“You didn’t introduce yourself? Or explain what you are?”
“Hell, no. Better he think that he hallucinated the whole thing. No other witnesses. No proof, as the kelpie remains would’ve been carried away by the river current. He was just a guy standing by his fishing pole when I left.”
Her fingers curled back into his leg. “Zavier. That’s amazing. You should’ve gotten a knighthood. I’ll bet he still thinks about it every day.”
That was the worst case scenario. “Hope not. Best if he dismissed it as impossible and put the whole thing out of his mind.”
Liss leaned in closer. Close enough that he could smell the peony and jasmine of her perfume. Was the woman trying to drive him mad?
“Just for the record, I’m not going to let you brush this off.” Her voice grew even huskier. Like it probably sounded when she told a man exactly where she wanted to be touched. “I plan on revisiting this story often, to remind you of your awesomeness.” She straightened. “But for now, will you tell me where we’re going?”
“The Atlantis Bookshop. It’s an occult store. Lots of Wicca, tarot, astrology, and ancient cultures. They’re the best repository of esoteric knowledge in the English language.”
She rubbed her hands together with a gleeful grin. “Good thing Aradia gave me a speed potion.”
Damn troublemaking witch. They trusted her to be on the side of good. They did not trust her to always make good choices. “What’s that?”
“We’ll only be here a few hours, right? Eva gave me a list of topics to look for. But slogging through old books takes time. So Aradia hooked me up with a potion that increases my reading speed by two hundred percent.”
Zavier cut his gaze away to the greenery of Hyde Park. “Don’t use it.”
“I’m sorry—isn’t the fate of the world at stake right now?” Now her voice was coated with all the sweetness of a hot fudge sundae. “Or has that dire situation changed?”
Smart-ass. Which, admittedly, was one of the things he liked best about the woman. “Borrowed magic isn’t healthy. Not always safe, either.”
“The Titans are imprisoned in Tartarus. For now ,” she whispered furiously . “Shouldn’t I try to find a way that we can ensure the doors stay locked no matter what those rogue angels try and pull?”
How was it that this human with no special powers was willing to throw herself on a sword to save the world—when many of his fellow Nephilim were clearly looking the other way? Her bravery was remarkable.
Remarkably compelling.
Still, it wasn’t worth risking her safety. The only way to get Liss to listen would be to open the titanium vault door on his past and give her a grain of it as comparison. “It might not be enough. Ultimately. Being imprisoned makes you…desperate.”
Liss tried to hide her curiosity—not blinking, not moving. She did it about as well as a ravenous wolf hid his hunger over a steaming fresh carcass. “Oh…so…does this mean we’re allowed to talk about it? When you were held and tortured by a demon?”
“Do we have to?”
“I’m not discounting any of the horribleness. Or the sheer courage and strength it took you to not give up. It lasted three months, however. The Titans have been imprisoned for thousands of years. Don’t you think perhaps they’ve accepted it, by this point?”
“No. I don’t.”
Liss waited.
Zavier didn’t have anything else to add.
Because he was sure beyond any doubt that those immortal beings absolutely burned with the need to escape.
His own imprisonment had occurred fifty years ago. Yet thinking about it for more than a few minutes still made him break out in a cold sweat. The memories did not fade. He sure as hell didn’t want to taint Liss with them. Couldn’t let any more reveals of his painful history ruin the day. That’d have to be enough soul-baring for her.
And, yeah, he rolled down the window to let the damp air clear his head.
Distraction was in order. Zavier unzipped his backpack, pulled out another, and handed it over. “Here.”
“Why do you have two backpacks?”
“One’s for me. For the books we’ll bring back. The other’s for you.”
“Why do I need one?” She lifted it to test the weight, before unzipping and rifling through it.
“We’re staying. Overnight.”
The bag thudded—of course Maisy had included a change of shoes—to the floor of the cab. “Here? In London?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Maisy felt bad that you don’t go anywhere. Rhys flies her off to Mediterranean islands to warm up every time it snows.” Which was true. Zavier just left out how he’d angled the conversation so that Maisy came to that realization. “This combines research and stress relief.”
“I get to stay and see London?” Liss fluttered her hands just below her eyes. Did that mean she was excited, or that she was about to burst into tears?
“Only one night. Maisy’s covering your brunch shift at the restaurant tomorrow, so you won’t lose any pay.” Because he knew that’d be a big concern for her. Responsibility ran deep in both of their humans.
“You’re…okay babysitting me that long?” Her tone carried all the caution of a person walking across a room strewn with Legos. Zavier had made the mistake of doing that once. It was up there as more painful than walking over hot coals.
How had Liss come to the decision that she was a pain in the ass for him?
For a human, she was…interesting. For a woman, she was stunningly beautiful.
Zavier had been snarling at the world nonstop since Rhys and Gideon freed him from the demon’s dungeon. It didn’t matter at Metafora, because he limited face time with employees as much as possible. It didn’t matter on missions. Rhys and Gideon understood that he was deeply messed up.
But now that three women had… infiltrated their tight circle, maybe it was time to moderate the anger that burned in him 24/7. Save it, channel it for the demons he killed.
Not be such a morose jackass that Liss thought he didn’t like her.
He twisted on the seat to fully face her. “Don’t talk that bullshit to me again. You’re not a burden. It’s no skin off my nose to skip going out on a mission or two.”
Too late, it hit Zavier that he’d yelled at her, rather than comforted her.
He was shit at this feeling stuff.
Luckily, Liss had a thick skin. Or, just maybe, she understood him. Because all she did was give a brisk nod. “Do I need to be circumspect in how I ask for help finding titles?”
“Nah. The women who run it head up a coven. They’re used to us. More importantly, they’re on our side. Plus…well, you’ll see when we get inside.”
The car glided to a stop in front of a bright blue door. Window boxes were full of purple and green cabbages. The window display had a varied selection of occult books and tarot decks, all lying on jewel-toned velvet bags.
Liss snapped a photo of the sign, with its sketch of Zeus smashing three thunderbolts into an island. “Is the name meaningful? Do they really believe in Atlantis?”
“Don’t you?” It was an odd question from a woman whose culture adulated Santa Claus and the Spanish explorer who enslaved natives.
“It’s just a legend.” She made a dismissive wave with her hand as they went inside.
Humans—even big-hearted ones like Liss—could be remarkably shortsighted. “You mean like the Titans? And mermaids? And Nephilim ?”
“You really think an entire island disappeared? Without any evidence of an asteroid hitting, or volcanic activity, or the fact that civilization at that time had only advanced to spears as weapons and thus couldn’t dematerialize an entire city?”
“Yeah.”
Liss paused to look at the Cabinet of Curios. As usual, it had a crap ton of tourist stuff, as well as an athame that looked to be centuries old and a crystal ball that crackled with so much energy that it raised the hair on his arms.
“Why do you believe it existed?”
Why not? There were plenty of mentions of it from different sources. Plus, its disappearance was too enormous to be fake. But this wasn’t the time to tell Liss that she’d barely scratched the surface of the oddities of the angelic and demonic worlds.
“‘There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ Hamlet .”
She whirled around so fast that her pack knocked over a stack of books. Only Zavier’s warrior-honed reflexes allowed him to catch them. “You’re quoting Shakespeare.”
“No matter the situation, there’s a Shakespeare quote that fits.” Plus, when your lifespan was at least twice that of a human, it gave you some time to fill.
Liss poked his shoulder. “Being stuck in the Holland Tunnel.”
Almost too easy. Although he did appreciate her circling back to their earlier conversation. “‘I am to wait, though waiting so be Hell.’ One of the sonnets.”
It took her wandering all the way to the back staircase before she came up with another challenge. “The world probably being about to end.”
“‘Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.’ Julius Caesar .”
Liss threw up her hands. “You win. My nomadic education clearly didn’t cover enough of the Bard. Guess I have to officially believe in an ancient, lost mystical island now.”
“Don’t try to program it into your GPS or anything.”
“Did you just make a joke? Ooh, London Zavier is really letting loose.”
“Hang on.” He reached under the curved wooden edge of the bookcase. A faint tingle pricked at his fingers. The stairs in front of them…divided. The original set still went down to the basement where they had shelves of magical implements and conducted meetings for covens, shamans, and the Order of the Golden Dawn.
The second set of stairs that shimmered into view were brick. Somewhat crumbly and very old brick. “Can you see those?” he asked Liss. Paranormal energy triggered the reveal, so he wasn’t sure if her fully human energy would render it invisible.
“See what?”
“Never mind.” She should be able to see at the bottom. Zavier picked her up in his arms and ascended the stairs.
It was obvious the moment the spell cleared and Liss could see their surroundings. She let out a muted shriek. Clenched her fingers into the back of his neck. “This doesn’t look like the rest of the bookstore.”
“Nope.” They were in a turret. An old school turret that would fit right in on Windsor Castle. The twenty-foot walls were covered with books and cabinets of herbs and crystals and potions. The floor was divided into a section filled with worktables, while the other half held desks with reading lamps. “I don’t actually know where we are—but I guarantee we’ve left London.”