Chapter 12 Dante
Dante
If anyone in GoCon doubted me before, they would have to believe me now. It's a horrible thought to think, but I am a bit surprised it took the Seraph this long to lash out at anyone besides Melody and me.
The Furcas, though? If I recall, their business dealings were primarily in farmland and beef cattle. Sure, they made some enemies in the farming community, and if you got them drunk enough, they'd tell you all about it. But this? Jonas?
"That's not all," Roman sighs. "I don't have footage, not yet, but The Naberius's kennels were vandalized and his prize stud was slaughtered."
"Kennels? Stud? The Seraph is killing dogs?" Melody gasps and wrings the hem of her dress.
"It's a message. No one is safe; nowhere is safe." Roman rubs his temples. "This means we're not just dealing with Ella. The Beacon of Europe is involved. I wouldn't be surprised if the other Beacons are planning attacks as well."
"My god." Melody looks a bit panicked. "Are we… safe here?"
"Yes," Roman assures her confidently. "The Eligos has been in constant contact with me since we arrived. She has another bunker—I'm not supposed to say where—that she is headed to with her top people."
"Good. Good." I rake my hand down my face, calming myself with the scratch of my stubble. I can't believe that a mere ten minutes ago, maybe fifteen, I was buried in my wife for the second time since I got her back.
Since I got her back. The guilt creeps back in, slithering in my organs, taking hold in the anxiety I try desperately to quell. I couldn't keep her safe before, but I'll throw myself in front of Ella's gun if she tries any fuckery. I'll strangle her myself. I'll die before I see Melody hurt again.
"What does this mean for our plans?" Melody whispers to Roman.
"What plans?" I snap to attention. Roman's brow creases, and his jaw clenches while Melody looks oddly guilty. "What fucking plans?"
"I—you were asleep!" Melody flaps her hands.
"You were asleep, and I could hear Roman and Melnyk, and we talked about how I could take down Ella, and we got to a really good place, I thought?
And you were so supportive yesterday—or maybe a few days ago, shit, time moves weirdly out here—and I shot the cans of beans, I just…
I need to take her out, Dante. I need this. "
Fuck. Fuck! I can't do this—she can't do this.
Yes, of course she's capable, but fear settles into my bones and digs into my heart with its icy claws.
No. No, there's no way. I can't let her.
I won't let her. I don't care if I have to beg for her forgiveness for the rest of my life.
And it's my own fault for waffling back and forth like this.
"No," I grunt. "No. Didn't you hear anything? Didn't you hear what Roman just said? This is bigger than us, Melody. This is bigger than you. This is an all-out war. I absolutely will not allow you to put yourself in harm's way."
"She isn't bigger than me," my wife growls. Fury contorts her beautiful features, and the cold fear gnaws deeper into my bones. "I don't give a single fuck who she is. I don't care that she's the Beacon. Don't you get it? I don't care!"
"I can't lose you." Tears prickle at my eyelashes. "Melody, my love, I cannot lose you. I lost you once, I barely survived it—you barely survived it. I won't survive it again."
My wife, my beautiful wife, the love of my godforsaken life, crumbles.
She throws her arms around me and lets the tears loose.
Roman silently takes his leave, as he should.
My wife's body quakes under the pressure of her grief, her anguish, her despair.
I can't hold it back. I can't hold myself to this impossible standard of emotionless stoicism.
I can't just show my feelings through sex.
I can't.
I can't lose her.
I can't pretend everything is okay just because we're together again.
"I'm sorry," she sobs into my shoulder. "I'm sorry. I need this, Dante. I need this for our son. I need this for our future. I need this for my past."
Something deep within me cracks. Tears trail hot paths down my cheeks.
Half-cocked plans race through my mind—something, anything to keep her safe.
Anything to keep her from going and finding trouble.
I'll build her a house with my own hands in the most remote corner of the world, where no one can find us.
I'll line the perimeter with land mines.
I'll make a deal with whatever devil might exist.
Anything at all. But I know my wife. And I know that once she has her mind set on something, no force on earth can stop her.
"What happens if it doesn't work?" I whisper into her hair. "What if I do lose you?"
"You won't," she says as she pulls back and looks into my eyes with a hardened stare. "You fucking won't."
"How do you expect me to take that chance, love?" My heart quickens in my chest. "You're one woman. She's the Beacon."
"Honestly, Dante? I either do this with your blessing or without it." She draws herself up to her full, five-foot-six height. "Are you gonna forbid Roman from helping me? What about Melnyk? Nihil?"
God dammit. God fucking dammit. With every fiber of my being, I don't want her to go.
After Melody stormed off to bed, Roman kept me in the cabin's living room. He keeps opening his mouth like he's going to say something, but neither of us has spoken a word. Anything he says would bounce around in the hollow core of my body, wrecking my mind, shattering my very sense of self.
Maybe I'm not much of a man after all. A year ago, I was so fully focused on ascending to the Dantalion.
And what do I have to show for it? A traumatized wife, a miscarried fetus, a second-in-command who doesn't respect me, and all of us locked in a doomsday bunker in West Virginia.
I'm hemorrhaging money, and running through every single favor I worked tirelessly to get in the first place.
And my wife wants to throw it all away—maybe—to take her shot at Ella. And goddamn it, I just might let her.
"So, now you don't want her to go," Roman finally says.
"I really, really don't." I sigh and rub the sore knot of muscle tightening in my neck. "How did she convince you?"
He huffs out a low chuckle. "She's very persuasive. She didn't so much convince me as ask me what I would suggest and basically agreed to everything I said."
What.
"So, you planned it? You convinced her?" Heat rises in my chest, and my fear morphs into rage. "You need to talk, and you need to talk right the fuck now, Ro. What exactly did you plan with her?"
"Hey, whoa!" He throws his hands up in a defensive pose.
"I was just throwing out ideas—goddamn, sir, she manipulated me.
She already had Melnyk on her side, I wasn't trying to—fuck.
I don't want a mutiny. Honestly, sir, I want this shit to fucking end.
I want to go home. I want you both to go home. I want this to be over."
"Me, too. More than fucking anything, Ro."
"So, where do we go from here, sir?" He looks up at me with exhausted eyes. Fuck, how could I not see how tired he is? How tired we all are?
"I guess… we let her go. We point the furious rage that is my wife at Ella and hope to God she doesn't miss.
" Every word breaks my heart a little bit more, but I can't put this off.
She's made it abundantly clear that I can't stop her.
No matter how I feel about it, no matter how badly I don't want her to go, she's going to do it.
With me or without me.
"I think you're making the right choice, sir. The sooner Ella's dead, the sooner this is all over. Who knows? Maybe Helena will be ready to come home, too." Roman smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes.
"Maybe so. But tell me this, Ro. If we do this…
how are we going to keep Melody safe? With the full-scale offense from the Seraph, we can't call on backup.
I mean, we can, but there's no guarantee.
I know we have forty, maybe fifty people on our payroll.
But the Seraph is an unknown: how many bodies does Ella have? "
"More than that." The smile is gone, and he sets his jaw in grim resignation. "I don't know the full count. But from what I can tell based on The Eligos's surveillance? A fucking hell of a lot more."
"Then I repeat myself: what are we going to do to keep Melody safe?"
"Arm her to the goddamn teeth. Cover every square inch of her in body armor. Give her flashbangs and Molotov cocktails if we have to."
The mattress dips, and I'm roused from my sleep.
My hand flies over to Melody's side of the bed—empty.
Still warm, though. I wait and listen for the telltale sounds of a late-night trip to the bathroom, but they don't come.
All I can hear is a light shuffling. The steel hinges of our bedroom door creak open, and I'm wide fucking awake.
"Wife?" I call out, blinking into the pitch dark.
"Go back to sleep," her soothing voice whispers. "Everything is fine."
It kills me to say this, but I don't trust her words. I snuggle back into the sheets and lie in wait, perfectly awake. A few moments later, her footsteps resume, and muffled voices echo down the hall. It sounds almost like she's… arguing with Roman?
"This again?" I grunt as I stomp out of bed.
"—don't understand! Why can't I just talk to her?" Melody hisses from the living area.
"She needs time to heal!" Roman snipes back. "You killed a man in front of her. She had to watch him rot. She needs time to heal, time away from you!"
Helena. Come to think of it, I haven't spoken with her personally, myself.
Guilt heats my neck and slithers in my bones.
I should have done more. I couldn't keep my wife out of jail, out of prison, and I couldn't keep our baby safe.
What business do I have with Helena? I'm the asshole who got her kidnapped.
I'm the asshole who can't keep anyone safe, no matter how hard I try.
"Time away from me? I did what I had to do to get us out!" Melody roars. It sounds like she's thrown something against the wall, and I cringe as I hear glass shattering. Hopping out of bed, I scurry up the stairs to intervene.
"You're fucking hysterical. Go back to bed." Roman dismisses her with a wave of his hand.
"Roman, I swear to god, if you disrespect me one more time—" Melody snarls, but he cuts her off.
"You'll what? Yell for your husband? Scream in my face? Stab me?" He laughs. "Good fucking luck. I know your style, girl. I know you get sloppy when you're mad. Or don't you remember?"
"Dante." Melody looks over to me with a deadly glare. "How attached are you to this one?"
Oh, fuck. Oh, this is bad. "Quite, my love. Quite attached."
"Run back to your husband, little girl." Roman smirks. "Don't worry. Once Ella's dead, you and I will have it out once and for all."
"Watch your fucking back, Roman." Melody points a shaking finger.
I run a hand down my face and let out an exasperated sigh. I'm gonna lose Roman, I'm sure of it. But for her? Anything.